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Oolong Vendor Topic
Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 12:52 am
by steanze
Recommend oolong vendors and share your experiences, good or bad.
Re: Oolongs vendor topic
Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 2:21 pm
by Brent D
I will be more than happy to make the first suggestion with Mr. Chen.
He is a celebrated old style roaster, and has excellent products. He has his own offerings and usually has several things available from his friends. Patience is a virtue as English is not the primary language. Contact here. Just send a message asking for the current price list.
https://www.facebook.com/%E8%96%AA%E8%A ... 529387740/
Re: Oolongs vendor topic
Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 10:25 pm
by Victoria
I second an endorsement for Hau Ying Chen's amazing roasted oolongs and other offerings. Kyarazen hooked us up with Hau Ying, a farmer with a century old farm in Lugu Township last year.
I order from him on facebook via his company page;
薪誠坊 Shin Cheng Fang/百年茶園/凍頂烏龍專賣店
https://www.facebook.com/%E8%96%AA%E8%A ... 529387740/
His new website:
http://2088taiwan.com
He's also on Instagram under his name
https://instagram.com/huayin_chen?igshid=1lr5h746bu2e0
Email:
yuio2112@gmail.com
& kyarazen wrote about HY Chen here
http://www.kyarazen.com/traditional-don ... xperiment/
Guess what, one of our headers is a picture of his 100 year farm early one morning.
Re: Oolongs vendor topic
Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 11:40 pm
by CWarren
A third cheer for Hauying Chen and his incredible tea!
Re: Oolongs vendor topic
Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 6:23 pm
by Victoria
Got my fix on Route 66 (it ends in Santa Monica
). Newly arrived HY Chen shipment;
Charcoal Heavy & Medium Roasted 100 year garden, Roasted High Mountain, Lishan/Fushoushan for a friend,
and gifts of 100 year garden fall, Charcoal Medium Roast June White
- L1000530_1sm1.jpg (479.69 KiB) Viewed 24274 times
+ a Delicious gift made by Ms Chen, Tea Cookies, butter and chocolate. They are perfectly made, melt in your mouth, mmmm. Thank You.
- L1000531_sm.jpg (454.66 KiB) Viewed 24274 times
Re: Oolongs vendor topic
Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 11:24 pm
by CWarren
Victoria wrote: ↑Thu Oct 12, 2017 6:23 pm
Got my fix on Route 66 (it ends in Santa Monica
). Newly arrived HY Chen shipment;
Charcoal Heavy & Medium Roasted 100 year garden, Roasted High Mountain, Lishan/Fushoushan for a friend,
and gifts of 100 year garden fall, Charcoal Medium Roast June White
L1000530_1sm1.jpg
+ a Delicious gift made by Ms Chen, Tea Cookies, butter and chocolate. They are perfectly made, melt in your mouth, mmmm. Thank You.
L1000531_sm.jpg
Great tea haul and those cookies look delicious. I’ve seen the batches of her cookies on FB and they always look awesome.
Re: Oolongs vendor topic
Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2017 3:14 am
by Bok
Wanted to add The Jade Leaf from Taiwan. The owner, Emilio is an US expat now making a living in Taiwan. Apart from some tea he sources, he is an avid potter. Mostly Taiwanese oolongs and a few Taiwan stored Puerhs. I have had his “old man Dongding” and a few other samples. Good stuff, not the usual standard DD. Charcoal roasted not electric.
For comparisons sake, different to HY Chen‘s but not necessarily worse, more of a classic profile I would say, whereas HY Chens are clearly recognisable to be different than what is usually on offer in that category in Taiwan. Call it his style.
Re: Oolongs vendor topic
Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2017 3:18 am
by Bok
While I am on it, if you ever come to Taiwan and are tempted to buy one of Chacha teas (
https://www.chachathe.com/eng/)pretty tea packagings – don‘t.
They are pretty because that is where they spent their money on, not on the tea. The pastries they sell alongside are straight terrible.
The teas are not bad, but not for that price.
Same thing happens a lot in Taiwan, especially Taipei. So as a principle (and that even though I, as a designer appreciate a good look), I do never touch any teas in pretty boxes/shops. Good tea in Taiwan is rarely sold in nice packaging, mostly in run-off-the-mill packs, bought straight from the supplier’s catalogue. I had one of those in my hands once and almost all the designs I had seen were in there!
Another large chain to avoid is
http://www.tenren.com/, very bad tea. Okish if you indulge in a little sinful bubble tea, but never for loose leaf! They often have a bubble tea shop attached to their teashops. If you know that 70% percent of Tea sold in Taiwan is imported then you can guess where most of their tea will possibly come from…
Re: Oolongs vendor topic
Posted: Sat Nov 04, 2017 12:52 pm
by wildisthewind
Bok wrote: ↑Fri Oct 27, 2017 3:18 am
While I am on it, if you ever come to Taiwan and are tempted to buy one of Chacha teas (
https://www.chachathe.com/eng/)pretty tea packagings – don‘t.
They are pretty because that is where they spent their money on, not on the tea. The pastries they sell alongside are straight terrible.
The teas are not bad, but not for that price.
Same thing happens a lot in Taiwan, especially Taipei. So as a principle (and that even though I, as a designer appreciate a good look), I do never touch any teas in pretty boxes/shops. Good tea in Taiwan is rarely sold in nice packaging, mostly in run-off-the-mill packs, bought straight from the supplier’s catalogue. I had one of those in my hands once and almost all the designs I had seen were in there!
Another large chain to avoid is
http://www.tenren.com/, very bad tea. Okish if you indulge in a little sinful bubble tea, but never for loose leaf! They often have a bubble tea shop attached to their teashops. If you know that 70% percent of Tea sold in Taiwan is imported then you can guess where most of their tea will possibly come from…
There's a Ten Ren in NYC Chinatown, I saw it recommended once on a TC thread. I didn't even have to taste anything to know to leave - they had "dark oolong" and "light oolong". No info on cultivar, country, anything. Presumably they were balled Vietnamese oolongs, but I wasn't going to stick around to find out.
Re: Oolongs vendor topic
Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2017 8:21 am
by Bok
wildisthewind wrote: ↑Sat Nov 04, 2017 12:52 pm
There's a Ten Ren in NYC Chinatown, I saw it recommended once on a TC thread. I didn't even have to taste anything to know to leave - they had "dark oolong" and "light oolong". No info on cultivar, country, anything.
To be fair, this kind of very vague and general description is the norm in Taiwan if you go into a shop. No one talks about cultivars or specific place of origin. Even more confusing they use terms in a different way than what Westerners might be used to.
For example, Oolong is used for roasted, mostly heavily oolongs. Greener or lighter version they call Qing cha, translation can mean green or blue tea, which is where the french name for oolongs comes from
the bleu. Gaoshan is used for actually lower elevation non-descript gaoshan oolongs, the better qualities are named with their mountains Alishan, Shanlinxi and Lishan. The yo have only the peaks left, Dayuling and to a much lesser extent Fushou shan.
Most people do not seem to care about cultivars or fancy background stories about farmers and such, you buy according to your taste profile and price.
Re: Oolongs vendor topic
Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2017 7:31 pm
by entropyembrace
Another great source for Taiwan oolongs is
https://www.taiwanteacrafts.com/
They're run by a tea producing family and have a wide selection of teas and a decent selection of teaware too. I've been especially happy with their roasted oolongs all of which have a nice smooth mouthfeel and none of the issues with overly harsh flavours that lesser roasted teas have.
Re: Oolongs vendor topic
Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2018 6:37 pm
by Ragamuffin
A few months back I placed an order with
https://www.wuyiorigin.com/ and while I would not a consider myself to be a connoisseur of fine Yancha, I found their teas to be excellent, the best I've had and outperformed more expensive teas.
Re: Oolongs vendor topic
Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2018 3:19 am
by S_B
While I too love Chen's teas, I must say that Floating Leaves Tea sources a mean Dong Ding. I haven't tried FLT's Greener Oolongs outside of tasting, so I can't speak to them, but I think FLT DD deserves a shout out here~
Re: Oolongs vendor topic
Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2018 12:00 pm
by Victoria
Floating Leaves has excellent LiShan, Bai Hao Oolong, & ShanLinXi.
Die Kunst Des Tees
Die Kunst Des Tees, owned by Kwon Ying von Beuningen out of Eschborn, Germany, has very very good Taiwan oolongs. Her roasted ooolongs are impressive made by a master roaster; Tian Xian Hong Oolong, Mi Xiang Oolong , & Li Hua Niang.
Re: Oolongs vendor topic
Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2018 9:51 pm
by Chadrinkincat
Victoria wrote: ↑Thu Jan 25, 2018 12:00 pm
Floating Leaves has excellent LiShan, Bai Hao Oolong, & ShanLinXi.
Die Kunst Des Tees
http://www.diekunstdestees.de/en_GB, owned by Kwon Ying von Beuningen out of Eschborn, Germany, has very very good Taiwan oolongs. Her roasted ooolongs are impressive made a master roaster; Tian Xian Hong Oolong, Mi Xiang Oolong , & Li Hua Niang.
Slightly off topic but I'd suggest not buying aged puerh from Die Kunst Des Tees. A few years ago i bought this 90's 7542 from them which turned out to be a mid-2000s HK stored cake.
http://www.diekunstdestees.de/epages/63 ... ts/CN-PE03