Thread: Tea

I ran out of plain black tea a while ago and I popped by the store today to pick up a packet of looseleaf fairtrade earl grey and green tea with sharp lemon sidekick.

Still tuning into those.

I went for a trip to China town in Bangkok on Monday looking for some tea. The selection of teas there is mind boggling. Countless shops each selling five to fifteen different varieties of Chinese teas. This is one of the teas I bought that day. It is an Oolong tea, very dark and with a smokey flavor. I'm thinking a little of this mixed in with some English breakfast tea would make a nice flavour.
Anyway, I have no idea what the packaging says. But the tea tastes delicious.

Considering you are in thailand are you sure thats not weed? Sure looks like it. Have you tried to smoke it? By the way my Chinese ain't that great but it's alright and I cant seem to find oolong tea there 〔烏龍〕I'm gonna post some tea i've been drinking. today I was at the national palace museum (Taipei) and I had some Tie Guanyin. My favourite though at the moment is Baihao Oolong. I will post a photo and a story soon.

Ok so this tea originated in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) when allegedly the cultivator was distraught because his tea (after only his first harvest) had been attacked by pests. His plantation had been infested and tea leaves had bite marks all over them. After going to the market however (and I assume letting customers test his tea) it was so popular that he ended up pricing it at 13 times higher than normal rates as it was such a big hit. Today, good Baihao Oolong is graded by it's bite marks. Here are some photos (I think it's pretty hard to find the bite marks on mine but this is the story nonetheless). It is also one of the tea's given to British diplomats before the Opium Wars (early 19th century).

It's super fragrant and although sweet, not overpoweringly sweet but subtle. great flavour that is unlike any oolong I have tried.

If you are lucky and can find it try Mousu green tea from
limited parts of Yunnan and Sichuan province. It might
be described as a gunpowder style tea, the small balls
are rolled by hand with a small touch of sweet anise as
glue. Some green tea can have a bitter touch but the
small touch of anise makes it vanish. It is very subtle
and I could not put a name to it until I was told.
It was a gift and I do not believe it is available in
any common tea shop outside of China.

The other half of the gift package was some Pu-erh tea
that had been re-gifted to this same friend by a monk.
It looked like camel poo and was the source
of much laughter. It was well aged and profits from a quick
splash-rinse of hot water prior to brewing. It makes a very rich
almost red tea that cuts the heavy feeling of a greasy meal
like duck or dim-sum.

Nuff of this -- my coffee is ready