TeaForum.org

Hi all,

I'm Jay Khilnani, aka TeaLife.HK. I carry a variety of teas that get my seal of approval, primarily oolongs and pu erh, as well as carefully selected teaware! Please check out the site and feel free to contact me if you have any questions!

Just started my first tea blog at http://www.droolong.com ! Only one post so far, but lots to come!

Always check new zini for odors...the new stuff is sometimes simply a blend of god knows what and has an unpleasant chemical odor. The clay looks too purple to be the real thing and I won't touch the stuff. I have two of those pots I bought as samples for potentially stocking on the site and I won't...

Stephen, that pot is definitely not 70s or 80s...looks 2010s to me! I believe there was no private production until the 90s and that is definitely not an F1 pot.

I posted this on steepster, but I want to post it here too since the user base doesn't overlap much: I’ve been testing shous with a newly bought (modern) zini pot, comparing it to my current (modern) aged duan ni pot that I’ve had devoted to shou for half a year. Here’s my analysis: The zini is goo...

The vendors I'd be most interested in trying dancong from would be BitterLeaf and Hojo...and perhaps TeaHabitat for comparison. I'd get samples from all three to compare! I've found the quality of dancong I get down here in Hong Kong is usually superior to what I get on the Mainland, but it certainl...

They are Wudongtea on Instagram. Quite a few nice looking offerings on their site. Hi do you like china oolong tea ? i have tried samples from this vendor and was not impressed... my favorite dancong vendors are hojo and teahabitat I have seen many good reviews of their tea on both Reddit and Insta...

Dan Cong has so many layers, I think it deserves its own section. Who's your favorite vendor? Ive been impressed with Tea Habitat, but bang for the buck I give to Yunnan Sourcing so far. Do you get what you pay for with Hojo? Can’t speak from personal experience but have heard great things from tea...

Bok, A few years ago, there was an issue here when imported supermarket-type tea was tested and found to exceed pesticide limits. The Hong Kong government's Centre for Food Safety released this: http://www.cfs.gov.hk/english/multimedia/multimedia_pub/multimedia_pub_fsf_107_01.html With apples, you h...

I rinse everything but sencha--pu erh always gets two rinses. That helps open up bits of cake and also removes dust/fertilizer and pesticide residues/some mycotoxins. I've noticed dealers in both HK and Kunming rinse pu erh twice. With tieguanyin/Wuyicha it's traditional to rinse to wake things up, ...

^That is heavy brewing. In light of that, the following will make me seem even more of a wuss. Two days ago, I tried VC-parameters for the last of my sample of HY Chen Heavy roast, so brewed 10 grams using 180ml and steep times of 60s+. She did warn that she liked it pretty strong, and did suggest ...

I have an ultrasonic cleaner specifically for teapots. I used it to clean a Chaozhou pot that had been painted black, inside and out! I have no idea why. Lots of alcohol and ultrasonic cleaning removed almost all of the paint, but I am still not planning on using the pot. I got a full refund for it ...

I intended to use 16g of TGY for 100ml! :o I backed down to 10g and my results were dismal. No wonder I can't drink more than one tea a day :lol: I'll have to try this tea again with my usual parameters! Perhaps there is a way to adjust your tastebuds to weaker tea. It seems you use too many tea le...

Trying out a HK high roast tieguanyin from a vendor who supplies me; the family never told me about this higher grade stuff! Seems good, but I messed up the brewing by weighing the tea I intended to use first. I was curious to see how much tea I used in a 100ml pot; it turns out I intended to use 16...

Really depends on condition of clay, if it has a moldy smell, a lot of buildup and or black mold, or is pretty clean and just needs to be reset and christened. If the pot looks pretty good just soaking it for a day in water, and then pouring boiling water inside and outside might be good enough. Im...