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Nice to chat again @Bok, after a long hiatus!

Yes, I @LeoFox, I stand by the first comment but I have no evidence to counter the claim @Bok made.

Nice reposte LeoFox . :lol: I'm agnostic on Bok 's claim about all teas being bug bitten in early days. However, it is A) virtually certain that there was nothing that we would recognize as OB prior to 1933/34. B) that the Hojo story is complete BS, and C) if the tea is good it's only old pedants li...

Hello All, I am very pleased to let you all know that the bulk of Tillerman's 2020 winter teas has arrived. The 2020 winter harvest was a difficult one as there was too much rain. The excess rain does not affect the leaf much but the absence of sun has noted adverse affects on the ability to do prop...

mbanu , @ Bok - fascinating thread here. My own research strongly suggests that "Formosa oolong" and what we now know as "Oriental Beauty", are not the same tea at all. The latter came to be only around 1934/35 and wasn't called "Oriental Beauty" until the early 1980s. For a good description of ear...

Hello Victoria , yes, the gaoshan , some of the Dong Ding, and the Muzha TGY should be available next week (USPS willing). Laoshi's tea will be available after Christmas. I've noticed that the leaf size on the gaoshan teas is a little smaller this harvest season but the flavor is particularly nice. ...

Generally, I mean fewer, but more memorable, sessions. If a tea is satisfying, that is all that is needed. But, to play on a riff from the wine business: Life is too short to drink bad tea. Not all great tea is expensive and not all expensive tea is great. The price quality ratio is very important b...

I agree with @Bok; knowing which tea is involved would be a big help. As to "dark" Taiwanese oolongs in general, I tend to steep these somewhat longer than the "greener" ones.

For what is is worth, I have found that I'm always farther ahead to buy better tea even if the quantity needs to be reduced to fit my budget. Certainly there are teas I cannot afford no matter the quantity but in general I prefer less tea of a higher quality than more tea of a more common quality. Y...

@debunix, yes, Andy's teas were packaged very shortly after roasting was completed.

As to Laoshi's tea, there is none of the winter harvest left but the spring harvest should soon be here. Spring 2020 was a very strong year for Taiwan teas.

Good day tea lovers, Tillerman's selection of Spring 2020 tea is starting to appear on the website ( https://tillermantea.net/shop ) There are four new teas there now and more arriving on Monday. All these teas are selected from the production of friends with whom I have been dealing since 2001. Rem...

Hi John_B , thanks for your comments. There is no necessary order to the five elements that I mentioned; that is just the order which I use in evaluating the teas I drink. I do think it is a good sequential order but it needn't be cast in stone. As to your suggestions on the age of the bushes/trees,...

This month the Ultracrepidarian tackles tasting teas structurally. https://tillermantea.net/2020/06/structural/

A vendor's perspective: Bok is correct when he says that O2 absorbents are not (or very rarely) used with roasted or highly oxidized teas. On the other hand, my low oxidized, low roasted tea almost always arrives with absorbents. As these tend to be placed at the bottom of the packages, I don't remo...

Just finished a wonderful virtual tasting with 8 others. We all had the same set of tea and brewed them in our own homes. As with the tasting we did with TeaForum, we explored the differences that elevation and roast make on the flavor and complexity of the of the teas. All teas were from the winter...