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thoroughburro
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Jan 16, 2021 9:34 am
Location: Kentucky, USA

Thu Feb 04, 2021 12:27 pm

pedant wrote:
Thu Feb 04, 2021 12:10 pm
rubber notes in sheng, hm. not sure i've heard it described like that before.
I imagine my tasting notes will be idiosyncratic until I pick up more of the common vocabulary. The tea I most strongly enjoyed what I'm describing as latex in was this. I'd love to find something similar at a bit lower price.
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Balthazar
Posts: 706
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2018 7:04 am
Location: Oslo, Norway

Thu Feb 04, 2021 1:52 pm

I've identified similar notes in some sheng, but it's usually been in cakes that has undergone at least a few years of dryish storage.

In any case, welcome!
pedant wrote:
Thu Feb 04, 2021 12:10 pm
some people "visit the zoo" first and sample widely and then eventually start hyper focusing on specific styles one at a time.
That's a great metaphor that I'm gonna borrow :).
oolong4me
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Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Feb 05, 2021 11:33 am

Fri Feb 05, 2021 12:26 pm

Hi everybody!

I've been really into tea for about 5 years now, self-studying and drinking all kinds of specialty teas from China, Taiwan, Japan, India, Vietnam, Thailand... I'm seriously into Taiwanese oolongs and Wuyi cliff teas but really love all types of quality tea.

I'm very much a global nomad and have lived most of my adult life abroad, including 8 years in East Asia.

The highlight of my tea resume? My Tea Sommelier certification from ITMA in 2019.

My proudest accomplishment during 2020? Making kombucha at home - I've become really good! :)

My tea goals for 2021? Learning more and reading through back issues of Global Tea Hut magazine, connecting with likeminded people and researching my next steps... I want to go back to Asia, possibly India, and maybe actually study tea to eventually make it into a career?

Look forward to connecting with tea lovers all over!
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Frisbeehead
Posts: 20
Joined: Mon Oct 02, 2017 7:09 pm
Location: Ohio, USA
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Fri Feb 05, 2021 1:13 pm

Hey everyone, it's been a while! The past year or so has been unpredictable and has come with a lot of changes, so I have been quite busy. That being said, I've found myself starting to browse the forum here more and more recently, and I basically want to say hello and that I will be popping in and out for discussion. I'm living in Germany at the moment, though I'll be returning to the USA soon for a while, so I will finally have access to all of my tea and teaware again.

Anyway, just wanted to pop in and say hello to old comrades, and look forward with catching up with you all. How's everyone been doing?

Right now I am just drinking some decent Nepal oolong I picked up from a local chain tea vendor, Tee Gschwendner (can never get the spelling correct...). It's not bad. I'm missing my old collection right now though.

-FH
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Victoria
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Location: Santa Monica, CA
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Fri Feb 05, 2021 2:15 pm

Welcome to TeaForum everyone. Nice to see you back @Frisbeehead 🍃
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pedant
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Location: Chicago
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Fri Feb 05, 2021 5:50 pm

@Frisbeehead!! welcome back, man. good to see you. let's catch up!
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pedant
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Fri Feb 05, 2021 5:51 pm

welcome, @oolong4me. :mrgreen:
Andrew S
Posts: 704
Joined: Sat Jan 30, 2021 8:53 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia

Mon Feb 08, 2021 12:27 am

Hello,

Long-time stalker, first-time member.

How long have you been drinking tea?
I’ve been drinking tea obsessively since a short trip to Hong Kong and Taiwan in about 2008 sparked my interest.
Unfortunately, that spark only ignited a fire in me after I came back home, and I had to ferret about through the internet to try to find shops and any information that I could.

What kind of tea do you drink?
These days, I only drink old teas (pu er, liu an, liu bao, old wu long) and roasted teas (yan cha), except when I’m too busy to make tea properly.
I was much more experimentative in my early days before I fell into this routine. Like many new tea drinkers, I had high hopes of storing away cakes of pu er which would blossom (both figuratively and with a bit of healthy white mould) into fully-mature treasures. However, I quickly realised that it was futile (and presumptuous of me) to try to emulate proper traditional storage. More importantly, it took me even less time to realise that young and dryly-stored raw pu er is poisonous to my constitution…

How do you prepare your tea?
At home, I always prepare it in the gong fu style with a few well-used yi xing teapots. I almost completely fill the pot with yan cha, and I use just a little bit more restraint with my other teas.
At work, I’ll put cheap white tea or green tea leaves into a large glass or mug and brew it throughout the day in the so-called grandpa style.

What tea knowledge are you interested in exploring right now?
Having been satisfied with the same yi xing teapots for about a decade, I’d like to learn about the world of vintage and antique pots. I think that tea drinkers are lucky in that they can enjoy historical works of art by using them daily, instead of just displaying them on shelves.
Ideally, I’d also like to learn more about aged tea and traditional storage, and the history of liu an and liu bao teas, but a large part of the world of aged tea is likely to be more expensive to explore than dabbling in old pots, and it is rare to find any vendors or drinkers outside of Asia who enjoy traditionally-stored tea.

What factors lead you to delve into the world of tea, and what is keeping you there?
I was led into the world of tea after being treated to a very nice pot of old pu er by someone in Hong Kong. The memory of that tea lasted longer than the memory of the rather nice Bordeaux that accompanied it. Unfortunately, I lacked the foresight and the foolhardiness to turn all of my disposable income into old pu er back then, and I’ve have been chasing the dragon ever since.
I have kept drinking tea because of the calming feeling and contemplative mood that it can provide, and which no other food or beverage can offer.

What is your location?
Sydney, Australia.
Not exactly a paradise for tea drinkers, despite the (relative) proximity to Asia and the large number of tea drinkers who must have come here over the decades from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other places…
polezaivsani
Posts: 191
Joined: Sun Oct 06, 2019 4:43 pm
Location: Kaliningrad, RU

Mon Feb 08, 2021 1:55 am

Welcome to the lair of liu an smugglers imperviously disguised as an all around tea forum,@Andrew S! Love the way they got you hooked up on tea, like most things tea, can be as simple as effective and beautiful all the while.
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Pants404
Posts: 77
Joined: Mon Dec 11, 2017 8:16 pm
Location: Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Mon Feb 08, 2021 2:14 am

Welcome @Andrew S.
Being from Adelaide it's exciting to see more Australians on here. There are a few members here that could help you find some very nice early teawares and I look forward to seeing more of them in the country.
There is the odd local vendor of young teas but the lack of tea culture here is a bit frustrating.
Enjoy, Corey.
Andrew S
Posts: 704
Joined: Sat Jan 30, 2021 8:53 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia

Mon Feb 08, 2021 3:23 am

Thank you @polezaivsani and @Pants404

The concept of "liu an smugglers" deserves to be turned into a movie.

And I look forward to acquiring enough tea wares in the future to fill up Australia, but my wallet has just run away out of fear for its safety.
thea_philosophia
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Jan 28, 2021 5:11 pm

Thu Feb 11, 2021 9:24 pm

I just read the introduction message stating I was required to post here before elsewhere, so here goes.

"How long have you been drinking tea?"

Around 3 years.

"What kind of tea do you drink?"

I'm very eclectic, but mostly puerh.

"How do you prepare your tea?"

Gongfucha

"What tea knowledge are you interested in exploring right now?"

Vintage and antique yixing.
Tykal
Posts: 11
Joined: Sat Jan 30, 2021 5:28 pm
Location: USA, Northeast

Sat Feb 13, 2021 4:09 pm

Hi folks, new to Teaforum, but been pretty active on Reddit and CommuniTea lately. I've been drinking tea seriously for about 11 years now, but a decade of that was devoted entirely to yellow teas. The last year has been a shitshow healthwise and I've basically been living a country music song: contracted three diseases, had an emergency procedure on my back, cut off the tips of two fingers, developed a condition that grows sand-like particles under my eyelids, had surgery on my bile duct, have to have surgery on my gallbladder soon, may also lose a testicle, lost our beloved cat, and my beloved service dog was in the ER. As if the pandemic wasn't enough! And as if being disabled and having ten herniated discs and two ruined rotator cuffs wasn't enough before that. But I'm glad to just be here with my wife and pup and truckin' through.

So, I decided to engage in a little self-care through tea. I'm trying to create for myself a crash-course in tea, and have spent the last few months diving heavily into sheng, shou, whites, blacks, oolongs, and Marukyu-Koyamaen matcha. Am still sampling widely to orient myself, and have ordered across the spectrum from Mei Leaf, Verdant, White 2 Tea, Farmer Leaf, Craftedleaf, Crimson Lotus, Bitterleaf, Liquid Proust, Teaspring, Teavivre, Taobao, Teaurchin, Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company, The Chinese Tea Shop, T-Shop NY, The Jade Leaf, West China Tea, Tealife.hk, YQH, Sazen and Wistaria. And I've started swapping and participating in group buys. Obviously there's some mistakes in those and some gold. Still need to place TWL and King Tea Mall orders, and probably some Bana. I am not wealthy by any means, but need something to take my mind off my body falling apart, so willing to accrue some debt to kick-start a nourishing hobby.

At this point in my taste journey, I'm moving past young shengs toward mid-aged stuff, loving thermos shou and lao cha tou, and I'm digging both young and aged whites (10-20 years), finding some delectable sweet blacks, and still trying to wrap my head around oolongs, with the higher-oxidized, medium roasted varieties or dancongs appealing the most, so far. And finding new and insanely delicious yellows (imo). I'm also a writer (poet / essayist) and becoming highly interested in tea culture as practiced by enthusiasts, and the seemingly elusive concept/experience of qi.

I'm looking to make connections, broaden my community, find tea-swapping buddies, ideally find a mentor or two, and overall to dive deeper into the wonderful world of tea, which mostly consists of me and my leaves, and nummies for my old service dog, who knows all-too-well which of the dishes on the table holds the true gold. I'm also interested in learning about how to avoid some of the health pitfalls of tea, since I have a shaky constitution, iffy stomach and don't need more of those kinds of woes. Lastly, I'm interested in exploring the health benefits, one unexpected attribute of which has been the deep relaxation induced by certain experiences of qi—as someone with chronic pain and severe muscle contractions, I've had a few sessions where my body finally felt peaceful, something I haven't felt since the early 2000s.

Anyways, more than you wanted to know for sure, but I'm grateful to be here, and hope to find friends and guidance, and to reciprocate gestures of kindness and understanding, as I dwell among you. Please feel free to reach out if you'd like to join or help me on this journey.

(Edit: I seem to be in love with naka but am having a devil of a time finding much of it. If you have any and are willing to share/trade/sell, please let me know!)
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pedant
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Sat Feb 13, 2021 5:54 pm

@thea_philosophia and @Tykal, welcome to the forum. thanks for joining us. :)
Tykal wrote:
Sat Feb 13, 2021 4:09 pm
The last year has been a shitshow healthwise and I've basically been living a country music song...
wow!
Tykal wrote:
Sat Feb 13, 2021 4:09 pm
I'm trying to create for myself a crash-course in tea, and have spent the last few months diving heavily into sheng, shou, whites, blacks, oolongs, and Marukyu-Koyamaen matcha. Am still sampling widely to orient myself, and have ordered across the spectrum from Mei Leaf, Verdant, White 2 Tea, Farmer Leaf, Craftedleaf, Crimson Lotus, Bitterleaf, Liquid Proust, Teaspring, Teavivre, Taobao, Teaurchin, Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company, The Chinese Tea Shop, T-Shop NY, The Jade Leaf, West China Tea, Tealife.hk, YQH, Sazen and Wistaria. And I've started swapping and participating in group buys. Obviously there's some mistakes in those and some gold. Still need to place TWL and King Tea Mall orders, and probably some Bana.
wow again!
that's a pretty good way to do it. you sampled from a lot of good places.

if you're ever up to writing an "ode" to yellow tea, i'd love reading that. or maybe just sharing a good source or two.
Tykal
Posts: 11
Joined: Sat Jan 30, 2021 5:28 pm
Location: USA, Northeast

Sat Feb 13, 2021 10:26 pm

pedant wrote:
Sat Feb 13, 2021 5:54 pm
if you're ever up to writing an "ode" to yellow tea, i'd love reading that. or maybe just sharing a good source or two.
Thank you! I will likely do that. I'll provide a post on sources in a tea forum (where should I post on yellows?), and here's a poem I wrote inspired by Snow Dragon, a form of meng ding huang ya.

http://rickyray.co/wp-content/uploads/2 ... fBlood.jpg
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