Online Tea Vendors dispatching from within the EU (European Union)

[Victoria]

Reposting from Green Tea Vendor Topic

As for Japanese tea, in general, I can recommend Sunday Natural - only available in French and German, but maybe useful to French and German speaking forum fellows:
www.sunday.de
www.sunday.fr

What I like is the tea quality, the sortiment, as well as the information about the cultivar, origin, farming grounds and methods.
I can also highly recommend their Green Roiboos and Sideritis.
What I did not like is their "Sunrouge Red Blueberry Leaf" which is a mixture with blueberry leaves; way too sour for my taste!
They also sell other teas and also teaware, which I cannot recommend since I did not try it out.

[Ginpachi]

Thank you @Victoria!

[lUKAV28]

Yeah, I frequently buy tea from sunday.de. Over years they quite extended the selections of offered teas and from different regions. I tasted some really interesting Japanese black tea, earl gray white tea and a fair portion of senchas and gyokuros. Fast delivery too within Europe.

My first pots where purchased there too. They sell some pieces also found on artistic nippon. I can recommend shoryu kyusu, really really nice just slightly to big for single brew. I also purchased Tachi Masaki Banko pots there.

[Bok]

As I was just mentioning a tea from my friend's shop in Germany and they just started to launch an online shop, might as well post it here:
Anmo Art Cha, operating out of Düsseldorf. At some point I might do a review of their teas, as I have sampled most of their range.

https://anmo-art-cha.com/

There is a bit of everything in terms of tea, but their focus is on Pu-Erh and Japanese teas.

It is a kind of quirky shop as both founders are artists, reflected in an eclectic selection of tea and tea ware.

[Mark-S]

@Victoria

I've got a question about the seller you recommend me in the Yixing thread. @Bok once said that Yancha would be very expensive, and I was surprised to find Wuyi Da Hong Pao on the sellers website for only $28.95/100g. Isn't that way too cheap? What do you think about it?

http://www.diekunstdestees.de/epages/63 ... s/CN-DHP01

[Victoria]

Victoria

I've got a question about the seller you recommend me in the Yixing thread. Bok once said that Yancha would be very expensive, and I was surprised to find Wuyi Da Hong Pao on the sellers website for only $28.95/100g. Isn't that way too cheap? What do you think about it?

http://www.diekunstdestees.de/epages/63 ... s/CN-DHP01

I’ve only ordered her Taiwan teas, which I’ve really enjoyed, and am not a Da Hong Pao expert. Looking at Wuyi Origin pricing it’s in a similar price range (.36 gram), her’s is probably cheaper because it’s coming from ‘ Wuyi Mountains Region’ so not a specific famous area, just the region (.27 gram).

[Mark-S]

@Victoria

Thanks for the explanation. Then it seems to be okay. I just don't want to buy something from a vendor who sells questionable tea.

[wave_code]

I don't really drink oolong, so while I haven't had that particular tea I have gotten tea from dKdT before - good communication and fast shipping. there seems to be a lot of transparency about what the teas are and where they are coming from and the selection is quite specialised so its a safe bet you are getting what it says it is.

[Mark-S]

I don't really drink oolong, so while I haven't had that particular tea I have gotten tea from dKdT before - good communication and fast shipping. there seems to be a lot of transparency about what the teas are and where they are coming from and the selection is quite specialised so its a safe bet you are getting what it says it is.

Thanks Transparency is very important to me. For this reason, I've bought my tea from puretea.de and not from a local tea vendor. But it cannot hurt to try a different seller now and then. So I decided to give dKdT a try when I need to buy new tea.

[Victoria]

I don't really drink oolong, so while I haven't had that particular tea I have gotten tea from dKdT before - good communication and fast shipping. there seems to be a lot of transparency about what the teas are and where they are coming from and the selection is quite specialised so its a safe bet you are getting what it says it is.

Thanks Transparency is very important to me. That's because I've bought my tea from puretea.de and not from a local tea vendor. But it cannot hurt to try a different seller now and then. So I decided to give dKdT a try when I need to buy new tea.

Oolong I have ordered and really enjoyed so far from Die Kunst Des Tees;

• Tian Xiang Hong Oolong 2015, 2017 (* AAA good *)

• Mi Xiang Oolong

• Li Hua Niang (Winter) 2016

Also, Kwon Ying von Beuningen has been doing a bunch of creative/poetic YouTube videos https://www.youtube.com/user/dieKunstdesTees

[Mark-S]

@Victoria

I bought 55g Tian Xiang Hong Oolong 2017 today, so I can see what others consider to be very good oolong tea. Thanks for the advice I am curious if it also suits my taste.

[Mark-S]

Victoria

I bought 55g Tian Xiang Hong Oolong 2017 today, so I can see what others consider to be very good oolong tea. Thanks for the advice I am curious if it also suits my taste.

A quick update on this vendor/tea:

The shipping was very fast and the tea came in a nice container with instructions how to brew it. I am no expert but the tea seems to be of high quality.

The tea was described as "sweet and absolutely fruity character which remind us of the exotic fruit". The tea is sweet and fruity. However, it has a very strong smell/taste of tobacco. I am a non-smoker so maybe this impression is different from yours. I had other heavily fermented teas before, but they did not smell/taste like this. The taste is not bad, but I don't like the smell.

I don't know if it's relevant to someone but I used two methods to prepare this tea: 1) In a high quality porcelain teapot (250ml) with 5g and 30 to 45s (for the first infusion) 2) In a 40ml F1 Yixing ZiNi teapot coated with HongNi inside/outside with about 2g and 45s (for the first infusion). I prefer the Yixing teapot.

After multiple infusions the tea gets very smooth/sweet and looses almost all of its tobacco aroma. This is the moment when I begin to like the tea. Maybe I'll try another tea of this seller some day.

[Victoria]

@Mark-S to compare with your tasting notes, I just revisited my batch of 2017 Die Kunst Des Tees Tian Xiang Hong oolong from Nantou. The aromatics and liquor are really excellent in my opinion, rich, complex and layered. I’m not getting tobacco notes, rather a nicely transformed roasted oolong that is smoother than when I first received it a few years ago. Back then, when I shared it with our LA Tea Society, everyone commented on rich caramel chocolate aromatics, those have evolved now and are smoother, more rounded with some spice notes coming through too. Individual preferences will vary, although there was a consensus among oolong drinking LA members that this was a very good oolong. Empty cup aroma is rich and intoxicating. 7grams/100ml/208f (98c)/70sec. in an F1 Xi Shi Green Label Zisha pot.

[Mark-S]

@Victoria

Thanks for your reply. I don't think it's a "bad oolong". It seems to be of high quality and it tastes good but I prefer other teas. My Yixing teapot eliminates some of the tobacco taste, but it's still there and I am very sensitive about it. For this reason, I'll stay with my other oolongs for now. What I've noticed is that you use much more leaves than I do combined with a fairly long steeping time. I have to give this a try. It's possible that my taste isn't as distinct as yours. I once tried pu-erh tea that others described with many nice words... for me it just tasted like dirt.

[wmayhem]

Hi.

I live in Portugal and have been ordering diverse types of tea from Mei Leaf, which is UK-based.

With Brexit, import fees and taxes make Mei Leaf unaffordable (adding 50% additional cost).

Any recommendations for high-quality EU-based online tea stores would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.