Recommended Aged/Bug Bitten Oolong Sources

Semi-oxidized tea
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Nova02
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2021 9:47 pm
Location: Virginia, USA

Sat Aug 14, 2021 7:54 pm

Hello! I am currently looking to purchase some bug bitten and aged oolongs, as I have yet to try them. However, I have no idea of where I might go to find decent selections of either, and am unsure of whether some online shops are regarded as better than others regarding the quality of the product. Does anybody have any suggestions and/or recommendations of where I might go to find both of these oolong types? Thanks to anyone who answers! :D
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teanik
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Location: Canada West Coast

Sat Aug 14, 2021 8:53 pm

Last edited by teanik on Sat Aug 14, 2021 10:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ethan Kurland
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Sat Aug 14, 2021 10:01 pm

Nova02 wrote:
Sat Aug 14, 2021 7:54 pm
... Does anybody have any suggestions and/or recommendations of where I might go to find both of these oolong types? ....
You might want to look at the section for vendors. Some of them sell aged teas (including myself) & bug-bitten tea.
As to best, there is the subjectivity situation which could lead to reading threads about aged tea or oriental beauty etc. which might help your decisions or create confusion.
Good luck.
Andrew S
Posts: 704
Joined: Sat Jan 30, 2021 8:53 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia

Sat Aug 14, 2021 10:29 pm

@Nova02: you probably know this already, but keep in mind that 'aged oolongs' can mean different things to different people.

Some might have been re-roasted over many years and even decades, whereas others may have been kept for shorter periods without re-roasting, perhaps even in their original packaging, and there will be obvious differences between aged dong ding, aged baozhong, aged yancha, etc. One vendor might carry good examples of one style, but have no idea about another. And just the word 'aged' itself can mean different things to different people. A yancha might be aged for a few years to lose the roughness of its roast, or it could be aged for decades to develop into something quite different.

I have enjoyed the occasional aged yancha from Essence of Tea, though I think that they only stock them on the rare occasion that they find a good one (and my memory of a 1970s baozhong that they stocked many years ago is that it remains one of my favourite teas that I've tried so far). I would be trying some aged Taiwanese teas from several other online vendors right now, were it not for the fact that I can't access my parcels for a little while...

I can't comment specifically about bug-bitten tea, since I haven't had any for a long time, but for what little it might be worth, I have had some pleasant high mountain tea from Stephane of Teamasters over the years, though I have little knowledge of that style (and just bear in mind that his prices for some of his aged teas can be... rather high, to say the very least).

Andrew
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