Black Tea Vendor Topic

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Victoria
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Fri Feb 16, 2018 1:13 pm

Recommend black (red) tea vendors and share your experiences, good or bad.
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Killy
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Thu Feb 22, 2018 6:53 am

Hi! Despite of that I'm quite newbie with hongcha, I love it the zhengshan xiaozhong (lapsang souchong) from white2tea. I took advantage of the fact that I was buying some puerh and try with my first no smoked lapsang.

I don't know if could be a good recommend for somebody, but I found it tasteful, balanced and enduring. A perfect every day-hongcha.

Some another place to buy it and compare?
wildisthewind
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Fri Mar 09, 2018 10:31 pm

Killy wrote:
Thu Feb 22, 2018 6:53 am
Hi! Despite of that I'm quite newbie with hongcha, I love it the zhengshan xiaozhong (lapsang souchong) from white2tea. I took advantage of the fact that I was buying some puerh and try with my first no smoked lapsang.

I don't know if could be a good recommend for somebody, but I found it tasteful, balanced and enduring. A perfect every day-hongcha.

Some another place to buy it and compare?
The oft-recommended WuYi Origins (Cindy Chen) has several grades of zhengshan xiaozhong. They're pretty solid, and have good provenance.
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aet
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Sun Mar 11, 2018 4:11 am

Killy wrote:
Thu Feb 22, 2018 6:53 am
Hi! Despite of that I'm quite newbie with hongcha, I love it the zhengshan xiaozhong (lapsang souchong) from white2tea. I took advantage of the fact that I was buying some puerh and try with my first no smoked lapsang.

I don't know if could be a good recommend for somebody, but I found it tasteful, balanced and enduring. A perfect every day-hongcha.

Some another place to buy it and compare?
google Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong buy directly from China or something like that.

I personally don't like too smoked one. There are many types on CN market available. Try different search engines aswell, like yahoo .
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pedant
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Sun Mar 11, 2018 4:38 am

Killy wrote:
Thu Feb 22, 2018 6:53 am
...zhengshan xiaozhong (lapsang souchong)...another place to buy it and compare?
i second wildisthewind's recommendation. i haven't tried that one specifically from her, but her black teas in general are solid.

hojo also has a decent one
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Tillerman
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Sun Mar 11, 2018 8:38 am

pedant wrote:
Sun Mar 11, 2018 4:38 am
Killy wrote:
Thu Feb 22, 2018 6:53 am
...zhengshan xiaozhong (lapsang souchong)...another place to buy it and compare?
i second wildisthewind's recommendation. i haven't tried that one specifically from her, but her black teas in general are solid.

hojo also has a decent one
Well - I'll "third" the Cindy Chen suggestion. Her's is the "new" style of non-smoked ZHXZ. Finding GOOD examples of the "old" smoked style is VERY difficult, and very expensive (you're looking at close to $US30/oz.), as so few now produce it (you can find lots with cheap liquid smoke added to poor quality tea.) For the smoked style, try Zhen Tea, an online vendor out of Ottawa, Canada (www.zhentea.ca.) They are very good, ship quickly and are priced in CAD.
Last edited by Victoria on Sun Apr 14, 2019 9:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Mod edit: cleaned up hyperlink
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Tillerman
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Sun Mar 11, 2018 8:39 am

pedant wrote:
Sun Mar 11, 2018 4:38 am
Killy wrote:
Thu Feb 22, 2018 6:53 am
...zhengshan xiaozhong (lapsang souchong)...another place to buy it and compare?
i second wildisthewind's recommendation. i haven't tried that one specifically from her, but her black teas in general are solid.

hojo also has a decent one
Well - I'll "third" the Cindy Chen suggestion. Her's is the "new" style of non-smoked ZHXZ. Finding GOOD examples of the "old" smoked style is VERY difficult, and very expensive (you're looking at close to $US30/oz.), as so few now produce it (you can find lots with cheap liquid smoke added to poor quality tea.) For the smoked style, try Zhen Tea, an online dealer out of Ottawa, Canada (www.zhentea.ca) They are very good, ship quickly and are priced in CAD.
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Killy
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Mon Mar 12, 2018 6:13 pm

pedant wrote:
Sun Mar 11, 2018 4:38 am
Killy wrote:
Thu Feb 22, 2018 6:53 am
...zhengshan xiaozhong (lapsang souchong)...another place to buy it and compare?
i second wildisthewind's recommendation. i haven't tried that one specifically from her, but her black teas in general are solid.

hojo also has a decent one
Thank you wildisthewind and pedant, I definetly will try the Wuyi Origin's hongcha offer :D
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Killy
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Mon Mar 12, 2018 6:18 pm

Tillerman wrote:
Sun Mar 11, 2018 8:39 am
pedant wrote:
Sun Mar 11, 2018 4:38 am
Killy wrote:
Thu Feb 22, 2018 6:53 am
...zhengshan xiaozhong (lapsang souchong)...another place to buy it and compare?
i second wildisthewind's recommendation. i haven't tried that one specifically from her, but her black teas in general are solid.

hojo also has a decent one
Well - I'll "third" the Cindy Chen suggestion. Her's is the "new" style of non-smoked ZHXZ. Finding GOOD examples of the "old" smoked style is VERY difficult, and very expensive (you're looking at close to $US30/oz.), as so few now produce it (you can find lots with cheap liquid smoke added to poor quality tea.) For the smoked style, try Zhen Tea, an online dealer out of Ottawa, Canada (www.zhentea.ca) They are very good, ship quickly and are priced in CAD.
I've heard always that smoked one were poor quality teas (the couple of times that i've tasted it were really low quality tea), so interesting to know that there ara good ones avalaible to adquire. I will try the Zhen Tea to learn how it taste. Thank you for your advice, Tillerman!
wildisthewind
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Tue Mar 13, 2018 11:40 pm

Tillerman wrote:
Sun Mar 11, 2018 8:38 am
pedant wrote:
Sun Mar 11, 2018 4:38 am
Killy wrote:
Thu Feb 22, 2018 6:53 am
...zhengshan xiaozhong (lapsang souchong)...another place to buy it and compare?
i second wildisthewind's recommendation. i haven't tried that one specifically from her, but her black teas in general are solid.

hojo also has a decent one
Well - I'll "third" the Cindy Chen suggestion. Her's is the "new" style of non-smoked ZHXZ. Finding GOOD examples of the "old" smoked style is VERY difficult, and very expensive (you're looking at close to $US30/oz.), as so few now produce it (you can find lots with cheap liquid smoke added to poor quality tea.) For the smoked style, try Zhen Tea, an online vendor out of Ottawa, Canada (www.zhentea.ca.) They are very good, ship quickly and are priced in CAD.
Good call with Zhen Tea, I love them.

I'm pretty sure it's possible to get the authentic (pine-smoke-dried) type a number of places, as opposed to the type that's smoked after processing elsewhere, or doctored with liquid smoke. I've seen it at Postcard Tea, Jing Tea Shop, TeaTrekker, Tea Habitat, and Song Tea. I know that the last time I emailed Cindy Chen she said that she does have some she could make available, but that it's not on her website as it doesn't sell as well.

I currently have the version from Old Ways Tea, and while it's not from the tongmu protected area, it's smoke-dried, pretty good, and quite cheap.
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mbanu
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Fri Aug 02, 2019 10:35 am

Mark T. Wendell isn't bad; I would argue that their Taiwanese Hu-kwa smoked souchong is the best example of that style made today. Also some very nice blends; either their blender is very old, or they have successfully passed along solid blending skills to the next generation, which is harder to find now -- usually anyone with real talent in blending gets snapped up by the big packers, and the smaller shops are left to puzzle it out on their own. They aren't really hip to other types of tea, although they do offer them.

Even though they aren't quite the same since the management change, Upton Tea is still a decent place to pick up Assams. Their blends are hit-or-miss; some show real skill (Mincing Lane is a clever one), while others have taken on bad habits, like mixing grades of tea while blending -- I wonder if maybe they have a senior and a junior blender that they work with. They used to be more solid on Chinese blacks, but I guess their China guy must have retired. Even the samples have proper metal-lined packaging, and they are nice enough to print the packing date on the packaging, in case you forget when you ordered the tea. :)

Not a black tea specialist, but I trust Seven Cups with Chinese teas; they do everything by the book without even a little hustling, which seems rare with Chinese teas. They have a few black teas this season and all are decent.

Can anyone recommend a Ceylon tea specialist?
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Dresden
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Fri Aug 02, 2019 7:56 pm

mbanu wrote:
Fri Aug 02, 2019 10:35 am
Can anyone recommend a Ceylon tea specialist?
I wouldn't say they are a specialist but I have had good results with the Ceylon from TeaTrekker. My favorites tend to come from either the Kenilworth Garden in the Kandy region or Lover’s Leap Estate in Nuwara Eliya.

I have thought about trying out https://theceylontea.com/ but have not been able to find any info on them
dude
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Thu Feb 27, 2020 7:11 am

Looking for affordable loose leaf black tea by the kg.
I've been producing kombucha professionally with an excellent and very affordable Ceylon black tea I find here in Europe for $6/kg.

Now, some of my customers want an organic version of my products, so I'm looking for an organic equivalent of this tea, but I hardly find anything below $50/kg, which I find ridiculous. I don't mind paying 3-4 times more for an organic version, but 8 times more doesn't make sense.

Any recommendation for a seller able to deliver a couple of kg of loose leaf black tea (ideally from Ceylon) to Europe for about $20/kg?

Thanks
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Victoria
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Thu Feb 27, 2020 12:52 pm

dude wrote:
Thu Feb 27, 2020 7:11 am
Looking for affordable loose leaf black tea by the kg.
I've been producing kombucha professionally with an excellent and very affordable Ceylon black tea I find here in Europe for $6/kg.

Now, some of my customers want an organic version of my products, so I'm looking for an organic equivalent of this tea, but I hardly find anything below $50/kg, which I find ridiculous. I don't mind paying 3-4 times more for an organic version, but 8 times more doesn't make sense.

Any recommendation for a seller able to deliver a couple of kg of loose leaf black tea (ideally from Ceylon) to Europe for about $20/kg?

Thanks
To get the best bulk wholesale pricing you’d need to order directly from Sri Lanka or India. Here in Los Angeles ITI (International Tea Importers) has organic wholesale Sri Lankan, Indian, Nepal, China, Japan ... their lowest bulk organic Ceylon looks to be 13$ usd per pound. Most of our members are paying considerable more per pound, but we’re aficionados sipping this elixir directly.
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Zac
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Sat Jul 25, 2020 3:47 am

I hope this is the right place to post this. This is in response to a PM by @polezaivsani as I can't seem to reply to PMs just yet.

I mentioned I like keemun and though I don't have a massive experience of it, I've tried several vendors for both normal and Maofeng versions. The far best I've tried and I'll swear on is the keemun sold by red blossom tea company in SF.

I don't live there but I managed to travel there and had a decent conversation with the owner. She told me that she thought the Maofeng appellation was a money grabbing label and hers was superior though it was "ordinary" keemun. And by God, it's still the best I've ever tried! Malty, rich, thick mouthfeel with a slightly smoked taste in the palette. I only regret I bought so little as it's very cheap compared to other teas I drink but it brings be great pleasure each time.
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