Sun Moon Lake Red Jade T-18 Black Tea
There's a lot of bitter, overly malty Ruby 18 out there. The best one I've found is A Different Eighteen from Song Tea. However, at over $1/g, it's not cheap.
If you don't mind buying outside North America, What-Cha has a much more affordable line of black tea from Taiwan. Their Red Jade is pretty good, some years better than others, with a lot of sassafras and menthol. Their Shan Cha is also very good if you like fruity hongcha. They're around $15 for 50 g.
If you don't mind buying outside North America, What-Cha has a much more affordable line of black tea from Taiwan. Their Red Jade is pretty good, some years better than others, with a lot of sassafras and menthol. Their Shan Cha is also very good if you like fruity hongcha. They're around $15 for 50 g.
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Ethan Kurland
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+1 to Gaoshan's observation.
I enjoyed 2 purchases of Ruby 18 over the years & been somewhat disappointed to outrageously disappointed w/ purchases of Ruby 18 about 6 times. Fortunately, I found better black teas that are not such a gamble to buy.
I no longer remember what good Ruby 18 tasted like, yet I am confident recommending other black teas from Taiwan (I enjoy 3 of them, drinking at least 1 of them daily). I also agree w/ Gaoshan's advice that there are less expensive, more reliable Chinese black teas. (I drink Wuyi Origin's Lapsang Souchong.)
There may be something unique about good Ruby 18 for you. If so, please let us know what it is. Maybe we forgot something that we should be remembering.
Same here. More likely to be dissapointed than satisfied with Ruby Black teas... There is a lot of scam going on with this famous tea, some farms at the lake do sell imported Sri Lanka black as Ruby. Finding a palatable one that is not gag inducing or stomach destoying is tough.
I haven't had any other black tea that has the menthol notes of a good Ruby 18. The one from Song was also very fruity (stewed cherries, citrus, maybe other fruits that I can't remember), chocolatey, and not as tannic as other 18s. However, as Ethan says, buying this tea is a gamble that you're more likely to lose than win. I'd definitely recommend buying samples. Vendors that are good overall may not have great Ruby 18.
If you don't care about the menthol, I'd recommend looking for high mountain hongcha from Lishan or other similar places. A less expensive alternative would be Mi Xiang or Honey Black, which is usually inoffensive though they all start tasting very similar after a while. Shan Cha is also usually a good bet.
@Bok, some bad Ruby 18s do taste like Sri Lankan tea sprayed with peppermint oil! I've never seen a Sri Lankan tea with such long leaves, though. Maybe they save it for counterfeit Ruby 18!
If you don't care about the menthol, I'd recommend looking for high mountain hongcha from Lishan or other similar places. A less expensive alternative would be Mi Xiang or Honey Black, which is usually inoffensive though they all start tasting very similar after a while. Shan Cha is also usually a good bet.
@Bok, some bad Ruby 18s do taste like Sri Lankan tea sprayed with peppermint oil! I've never seen a Sri Lankan tea with such long leaves, though. Maybe they save it for counterfeit Ruby 18!
Shan cha can be tricky as it is (if true to the word) wild tea. So difficult to control or predict the outcome. Which is why it is usually only processed either as white or black tea(hongcha).
Sri Lanka also very good and nice tea. I think I mentioned this ancdote before of the buyer for a teabrand who kept coming to Sun Moon Lake for tea for years until a guy next door asked him why he still came, tea is from Vietnam! That guy then went to look elsewhere and found very good Assams in Sri Lanka. Now has a shop with tea exclusively from there. Quite successful at that to.
I haven't had a lot of exposure to Shan Cha since it's less commonly available. The three or so versions I've tried have all been good and one was great. Just goes to show how personal experience affects recommendations.
Yeah, I think you may have mentioned that guy before. My experiences with Sri Lankan tea haven't been as positive, though I recently bought a higher-quality Sri Lankan Golden Tips from What-Cha that might change my mind. I was turned off by the first few teas I tried from that region and haven't explored much since then.Bok wrote: ↑Wed Feb 28, 2024 10:57 pmSri Lanka also very good and nice tea. I think I mentioned this ancdote before of the buyer for a teabrand who kept coming to Sun Moon Lake for tea for years until a guy next door asked him why he still came, tea is from Vietnam! That guy then went to look elsewhere and found very good Assams in Sri Lanka. Now has a shop with tea exclusively from there. Quite successful at that to.
Thanks a lot, guys, for being generous with your time and counsel. I haven't bought much tea from overseas in the last 3 years. Escalating price of both tea and shipping, and me working less. Last month I made my first tea order (T-18) from Taiwan in about 3 years, and what used to be free postage, if you bought over a certain amount, came to $28 US. I still have a lot of tea around the house from previous years, so I won't have to start restocking any time soon. But I do miss the T-18, and I was hoping I might save on the whopping postage if I could find it closer to home. And since you guys were pointing out other black tea recommendations, I'll just toss in that another favorite black tea of mine is Cindy Chen's Jin Jun Mei. Thanks again!
I empathize with you on shipping! It's gotten ridiculously expensive lately. It basically forces you to make larger orders to justify the cost, which is a hard sell for vendors you've never tried before. At around $9 CAD, What-Cha isn't too bad, especially if you buy a lot of tea. I bought 400+ g of tea on Black Friday with a 10% discount and some store credit and paid about $120 CAD. (I also picked some of Alistair's fancier offerings, so you could probably get the dollars per gram even lower.)teanik wrote: ↑Thu Feb 29, 2024 10:35 amThanks a lot, guys, for being generous with your time and counsel. I haven't bought much tea from overseas in the last 3 years. Escalating price of both tea and shipping, and me working less. Last month I made my first tea order (T-18) from Taiwan in about 3 years, and what used to be free postage, if you bought over a certain amount, came to $28 US. I still have a lot of tea around the house from previous years, so I won't have to start restocking any time soon. But I do miss the T-18, and I was hoping I might save on the whopping postage if I could find it closer to home. And since you guys were pointing out other black tea recommendations, I'll just toss in that another favorite black tea of mine is Cindy Chen's Jin Jun Mei. Thanks again!
If you're near Vancouver, it might be worthwhile going to tea houses in person so you can sample before you buy. I don't really have any recommendations since I've never tried any West Coast vendors. Cha Yi in Quebec sells good-quality gaoshan, though he doesn't have a vacuum sealer so you need to drink it fresh. His Mi Xiang Hongcha and Taitung Red Oolong are also nice.
You're probably aware that Cindy occasionally offers free shipping, sometimes for all orders and other times for orders over a certain amount. I also like her Jin Jun Mei, though I like her lapsangs even more.
Actually, Gaoshan, today, 5 quid is about $8.50. And that's a far cry from the $38 CAD I paid to ship 250 grams of tea from Taiwan last month! Thank you very much for your What-Cha suggestion, Gaoshan. Good prices for tea as well as shipping. I'll be checking out their T-18 fairly soon. And while I'm at it I'll pick out a couple of others, like the Sri Lankan Golden Tips you mentioned.
No, I'm not near Vancouver. I'm on the west coast of Vancouver Island. It's online tea shopping for me.
I actually haven't tried that Golden Tips tea yet, so I can't comment on the quality. However, Alistair tends to pick hongcha that's low on bitterness and good value for money. He has a nice unsmoked lapsang, and all three of his Yuchi Taiwanese hongs are good (though some years are better than others, of course). His Guizhou Cat Cave is a citrusy tea without a lot of malt; it was a bit tannic for me, but at US$8 for 50 g, it's a great value. He also does 25 g samples so you can see if any of the lower-priced teas would work for you as daily drinkers.teanik wrote: ↑Thu Feb 29, 2024 1:00 pmActually, Gaoshan, today, 5 quid is about $8.50. And that's a far cry from the $38 CAD I paid to ship 250 grams of tea from Taiwan last month! Thank you very much for your What-Cha suggestion, Gaoshan. Good prices for tea as well as shipping. I'll be checking out their T-18 fairly soon. And while I'm at it I'll pick out a couple of others, like the Sri Lankan Golden Tips you mentioned.
No, I'm not near Vancouver. I'm on the west coast of Vancouver Island. It's online tea shopping for me.
I'm sure both Vancouver Island and Santa Monica are nicer than Toronto right now!
Hey, GaoShan...
...What-Cha worked out nicely. Very fair shipping prices and, as you pointed out, some fine Ceylon teas. Thank you for that.