Mei leaf
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- Posts: 5
- Joined: Thu Oct 01, 2020 3:19 am
- Location: Amsterdam
Thanks! sounds great,
but i seem to read so much about 'adequately priced' etc etc
this is ofcourse important
but what I'm interested in, is someone knowledgeable who has compared the teas from the vendors such as mei leaf vs yunnan sourcing, and so on.
at the end, for me its about finding the best teas. not about money (I know i'm lucky in that sense, but still, for others it would also be interesting knowledge, and then anyone can decide how much they want to spend). I just believe you can't see 'x is best, if you havent tried y'.
this seems rare
anyone?
otherwise I should probably do it myself haha.
cheers
but i seem to read so much about 'adequately priced' etc etc
this is ofcourse important
but what I'm interested in, is someone knowledgeable who has compared the teas from the vendors such as mei leaf vs yunnan sourcing, and so on.
at the end, for me its about finding the best teas. not about money (I know i'm lucky in that sense, but still, for others it would also be interesting knowledge, and then anyone can decide how much they want to spend). I just believe you can't see 'x is best, if you havent tried y'.
this seems rare
anyone?
otherwise I should probably do it myself haha.
cheers
- TeaTotaling
- Posts: 519
- Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2020 3:08 pm
- Location: Ohio
@tendingtropic I have ordered from both. In my personal experience, ML trumps YS.tendingtropic wrote: ↑Thu Oct 01, 2020 4:20 pmThanks! sounds great,
but i seem to read so much about 'adequately priced' etc etc
this is ofcourse important
but what I'm interested in, is someone knowledgeable who has compared the teas from the vendors such as mei leaf vs yunnan sourcing, and so on.
at the end, for me its about finding the best teas. not about money (I know i'm lucky in that sense, but still, for others it would also be interesting knowledge, and then anyone can decide how much they want to spend). I just believe you can't see 'x is best, if you havent tried y'.
this seems rare
anyone?
otherwise I should probably do it myself haha.
cheers
Don offers a more curated selection, whereas Scott has quite a vast selection. @Balthazar's analysis was spot on concerning YS.
I have no plans to order from either again, but if I had to choose, based on past experience, I would choose ML.
To follow up on Amsterdam. In amsterdam I've had good teas at teas delight in Kinkerstraat. Bought a really nice dancong there last year, which I just drank my last of a couple of weeks back... Been meaning to reach out tothem to see if they could send me some more. They also sell some nice modern cz pots. Picked up mine therecbrace wrote: ↑Thu Oct 01, 2020 12:38 pm@tendingtropic Welcome! I'm a newcomer here too. I learned lots from the Mei Leaf YouTube channel at one point, but I've yet to sample any of their teas, so I cannot comment on that. For awhile I subscribed to their email newsletter, but unsubscribed because the hard-sell rubbed me the wrong way.
I see you live in Amsterdam too. You might be interested to know that the prominent Russian tea importer and tea salon operator Moychay is planning to open a branch in Amsterdam, on the Rozengracht. Apparently they have only recently signed the lease so they probably won't be opening their doors until the beginning of next year. They already have an Instagram account though
It will be interesting to see in due time what their offerings will be. As you can see from their main website, they have a lot of puerhs and other high-end teas.
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- Posts: 5
- Joined: Thu Oct 01, 2020 3:19 am
- Location: Amsterdam
cool thanks! maybe more to Amsterdam than I thought!
YS is a safe bet for pu'er and Yunnan black teas. Can't really go wrong there, and the overall value is good. Green and oolong can be a bit of a gamble, however.tendingtropic wrote: ↑Thu Oct 01, 2020 1:52 pmThanks everyone, I already feel welcome.
Like I said, I'm drinking too much tea at the moment haha, so tasting a lot and gaining insight fast.
I will check out those other european sites, and definitely keep an eye on the new amsterdam place when it will open, thank you!
i just checked the yunnan sourcing site and youtube, i'm not so impressed by the youtube videos; but is the general opinion really that their tea is better? or is that just a patriot US thing?
also, whats all this between gaiwan vs clay, does it really make that much of a difference (i'm still on the gaiwan train for now)
Don't worry about clay for now.
You mentioned me, I'd definitely recommend this guys Maofeng seeing as you say you're a fan of greens. They were recommended to me by someone else on the forum and the Vendor posts here, definitely try the sampler pack.
https://sweetestdew.com/collections/all
What specific favourites from ML did you have? Maybe I can offer specific suggestions for you to compare with elsewhere. In my experience there is no one specific vendor that offers the best product. Yunann Sourcing beats any of the options in regards to encyclopaedic offerings of Chinese tea but there are a million duds and mediocre teas in between. But its a good place to explore and cheap enough to make that easy. For puerh its likely the best overall place to look but again can be difficult without having a rough idea of what you like and are looking for. YS also has a lot of great ultra cheap blacks that are cheap enough to share with guests or to use as casual daily drinkers.
I'd recommend Taiwan Sourcing as well as one of the premier vendors I've tried from. Quite expensive but the range is very impressive, definitely better than what ML offers for Taiwan teas. Wu Yi origin for Yancha is another great option.
As harsh as it sounds, a lot of the opinions on this thread are downright idiotic, derived from a false sense of superiority by people who have never tried the tea or quite frankly made up. There was one poster who called the teas he bought tasteless, I mean lmfao it says a hell of a lot more about his (lack of) ability to taste and him having an 80 year olds palate than it does about ML teas.
ML isn't the be all and end all and you'll find better teas in a wide range of places. No one needs to buy ML in that there are plenty of other good options, often for a lot cheaper but overall ML is a good basic place to try a broad range of examples.
Even if someone had tried a number of teas from Mei Leaf a number of years back, or from another vendor then, it wouldn't work well to compare it to teas they've just bought. If someone is new to tea their input will also be less valuable, because their experience in evaluating against a broad baseline will be limited. See where this is headed?tendingtropic wrote: ↑Thu Oct 01, 2020 4:20 pm
but what I'm interested in, is someone knowledgeable who has compared the teas from the vendors such as mei leaf vs yunnan sourcing, and so on.
at the end, for me its about finding the best teas. not about money (I know i'm lucky in that sense, but still, for others it would also be interesting knowledge, and then anyone can decide how much they want to spend). I just believe you can't see 'x is best, if you havent tried y'.
this seems rare
anyone?...
It's asking for something that wouldn't make sense for someone to have tried a lot of teas from both Mei Leaf and Yunnan Sourcing over the last two years, for example, and for their tea drinking habit to extend back to years prior to that. If Mei Leaf is an overpriced source, as the general consensus claims, then why would they keep buying from them?
I've tried a half dozen versions of tea from Mei Leaf, but that was years ago, back when they were right at the stage of transitioning from being China Life. The first two reviews from this search is from that time period, in 2016:
http://teaintheancientworld.blogspot.co ... china+life
Maybe Mei Leaf buys much better tea now, and sources in a way that lets them offer much better value. Changes like that happen. I would expect the hearsay that continues to match patterns from back then to hold true, that the teas are fine, but not necessarily good in relation to the descriptions or pricing.
But you can buy a bunch and decide that for yourself. It's tough to use a company / source like Yunnan Sourcing as a benchmark because they sell a couple of thousand versions of teas. But buying what looks comparable and is well regarded in reviews or online discussion would be good enough.
One thing to keep in mind is that the value concern applies across all levels. If you can afford to buy Mei Leaf's tea versions selling for 50-75 cents a gram, for versions equivalent to those selling for 25-50 cents a gram elsewhere, then you could still be buying much better tea for that higher cost range elsewhere. Vendors like Wuyi Origin don't sell "cheap tea," but it's probably a lot better than anything in Mei Leaf's line. But then you can check on that too.
For what it's worth, in past years they've offered both free shipping and discounts for Black Friday. I suspect they'll probably do the same this year. So, if you're willing to wait another month and a half, you might be able to save a fair bit of dosh.
Thanks for the tip. I can definitely wait.
- TeaTotaling
- Posts: 519
- Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2020 3:08 pm
- Location: Ohio
wow, ML's web store is pretty crazy. it's like... gamified.
Free shipping! What a novel idea, why didn't other tea vendors think of that?