Here’s my favorite tea…
I’ve been exploring the world of tea for about 5 years and have tried just over 200 teas of nearly all tea types. There is one tea that I’ve consistently gone back to since I have discovered it. It is a sheng puer from Yunnan Sourcing. I have an interesting relationship with this tea. I have never thought of this tea as wildly complex or as an experience. Instead, it has balance with just the right amount of intrigue to work as a daily drinker. I’m always happy to drink this tea.
2020 Wu Liang Mountain (the pic of this post)
Tasting notes: Thick texture; mineral, wood, and sweet body; citrus and herb high notes; a bitter-to-sweet aftertaste transformation.
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Japanese green: Gyokuro Gancho Chinese green: Long Jing XI Hu and Taiping Hou Kui Flavoured loose leaf: Harney and Sons Paris, Earl Grey Bagged Flavoured tea: Twinnings Lady Grey, Yorkshire Tea Malty Biscuit Bagged black: Yorkshire gold, Pg tips,
Gyokuro, Xi Hu Long Jing, & Taiping Hou Kui - I see you like fresh vegetal notes. These can be pricey. 🥲
Harney and Sons Paris - I haven’t tried too many flavored teas, but this sounds like an interesting blend of flavors!
I am in Canada and buy them here: https://shop.chayi.ca/
Owners are awesome at making recommendations based on what you like.
This post makes me realize I’m just a tea newbie. I basically drink either English Breakfast tea or Jasmine with a dash or sugar and milk.
Don’t feel bad. If you enjoy your tea, then it’s a good tea!
Unsmoked lapsang souchong. The smoked variety is tea that tastes like liquid smoke, which is great, but if you drink it unsmoked, it’s like a smooth, malty cocoa.
I too enjoy the unsmoked ones. I don’t tolerate the smoke very well.
Any dan cong oolong, really. I also love Yunnan blacks, and a good keemun is something special. It’s been awhile since I’ve had a truly good keemun, though, I’m afraid it might be a casualty of climate change at this point.
Pueer aged is my go to
Expensive tastes 😋😅
So growing up we’ve always had pueer at dim sum. However my parents always brought their own. When I moved out, I went to David’s tea or something like that. And bought some pueer for myself. Brought back to my parents and asked them what was wrong with it hahah. Turns out I’ve been drinking 20+ year old tea. Didn’t realize I was a tea snob
Hunan Black Needle has been an absolute favorite of mine! Expensive enough to be a birthday gift every time, but so worth it.
Is this from Harney & Sons? Chinese golden black tea is always a tasty and fulfilling choice!
Indeed it is! I think with Harney & Sons, unfortunately, for me they’re either completely hit or completely miss. But they have some real gems hidden in there, Black Needle being one of them 🥰
My other recs from H&S are the Japanese Whiskey (I loooove barrel-aged & smokey teas), and the dark horse, East Frisian.
Now, with the East Frisian, I honestly couldn’t recommend it on its own, but I found it works SO well as a sort of “salt” to bring out the flavor of the “steak” of your preferred black tea 🤤☕
Thanks for the recs!
Interesting, so you add a little east Frisian to other blacks? I’ve had that feeling with some teas before. Blending on your own can be be fun.
Either jasmine green or black with cardamom.
One light and one with bite. 😋
Not sure if this counts but matcha is my absolute favorite tea. My partner recently visited Japan and brought back multiple seasonal/Japan exclusives and I could multiple cups every day.
Been meaning to start trying some looseleaf teas though is yunnan sourcing a good place to just try out random quality teas?
Do you have a source/website of matcha that you would recommend? I have only tried matcha a couple times, of varying quality.
Yunnan Sourcing has low-to-mid price options and seems to have a reliable enough quality. They do have many types and styles available as samples, so I would recommend them for random sampling.
Ippodo is my current personal favorite. Prior to bringing it back straight from Japan, I just purchased it off Amazon. Ippodo also has their own website. They can be a bit expensive but I like ummon-no-mukashi ($51 for 40g on Amazon) for drinking it plain (usucha, unsweetened) and then for matcha lattes I like ikuyo (I’ll typically get the 100g bag just because I drink a ton of it, also around $50).
Edit: add link
