Tea Shopping in Xi'an, Tea Shopping in Chengdu (so far)

[bearsbearsbears]

So...a little message from the beyond. I know that marshaln has been giving you guys our updates from Beijing, but I thought I'd let you know how my tea adventures have been going since then. Before I get into where I went in Xi'an and Chengdu, some observations

Comments

[phyll_sheng]

Oh, by the way, while you are in Sichuan, have you tasted any local tea flavors like the Mengding yellow tea or the Emei Shan Bamboo Tea that we like from WHF :) ?

You probably did but excluded them in your account since this is a a pu'er board. If you didn't, well, I hope you will. There is more to life than just pu'er, you know :)

[davelcorp]

There is more to life than just pu'er, you know :)

Ok, now I'm offended!

[hobbesoxon]

Phyll,

Have you come across a good Internet vendor for Zhuyeqing yet? My Chengdu stash is getting a bit on the low side!

Toodlepip,

Hobbes

[phyll_sheng]

Hobbes,

I know that Teaspring.com carries a grade of 2006 Ming Qian Zhu Ye Qing, though I've never tried this tea from them. Daniel Ong is the proprietor, and he's been most helpful and responsive in my previous dealings with him (I read the accusation on RFTD, but it was unfounded). He lives in the US (California?), but his tea ships from Guangzhou.

I don't know of any other online vendor without doing some googling or browsing around. Perhaps others here can recommend, too.

Best,

Phyll

[hobbesoxon]

Alrighty, thanks Phyll. :)

[sspeakfreely]

Hobbes,

I just babelcarped Zhuyeqing. "Blue-green Bamboo leaf" Hmmmm. In SF, in return for the simple fact that I knew the difference between black, oolong, and green teas, the vendor took a shine to me and gifted me with about 1/2 oz. of something she called "Bamboo leaf tea" that she was selling for a whopping $400./lb. It is a subtle green tea, pale and mildly fragrant, almost like a white tea, with long, delicate leaves that indeed are shaped like bamboo leaves. I've been trying to figure out what this stuff is...perhaps I should post a photo?

In case you haven't noticed, the puerh samples you sent me figure prominently on top of my "home" stash in Davelcorp's thread about tea storage.

[hobbesoxon]

Ah, I haven't revisited that thread for a week or so, thank you for reminding me! I like the photos!

Did you have a crack at the 3 pu'er samples from Jing? Tasty stuff. :)

Do please post some pictures of the tea. Here's some of my current zhuyeqing for comparison:

[sspeakfreely]

Ok, at long last, I can post the photos of my "bamboo leaf tea" from VitaliTea in SF.

Dry leaf (this is the whole quantity of my sample, not what I brewed)

[hobbesoxon]

Carla,

Thanks for posting - fascinating. I had no idea that it could look so much like actual bamboo. I can't remember if I sent you some of my Zhuyeqing in that last batch; if I did, how do they compare?

$400 per lb is definitely not so subtle! That's a pretty hefty price by any stretch. For example, M. Erler's most expensive 2006 wulong, the Dayuling 2200m, comes out at $210 per lb. That's a [i]seriously[/i] delightful tea. To charge roughly double that amount, a tea has to be either:

i. seriously darned good
ii. a rip-off

...and the ZYQ isn't even a wulong, it's a green! Certainly a high price. :)

Thanks again for the notes!

Look, it's a wulong board after all...

(muhaha.)

Toodlepip,

Hobbes

[hobbesoxon]

Note to self: codes in square brackets do [nothing] and make me look like a [melonhead].

[sspeakfreely]

Hobbes,

Oh, wow, I didn't mean to imply that I thought the bamboo leaf tea was an Oolong, but now that I read my post again, I can see how you might infer that.

I seriously suspect ii., and I'm glad it was a gift and not a purchase. I would have to have a good idea about what I was buying to pay that much.

No, I don't want to subvert Bx3's Puerh interest and talk about greens or Oolongs in any great depth here. I've been keeping my Oolong notes to myself for now. All I was trying to say is, geez, I'm finding Oolongs generally more palatable, and every bit as interesting and subtle as Puerhs. But I've not had a truly great aged sheng yet, so I really don't know. I also have not yet sampled shou.

[hobbesoxon]

Same here on the wulong notes! I'm a bit of a tea tourist, I think, and just seem to graze around my tea collection at random. While I'm writing this, I'm hearing the lyric "everybody hates a tourist" from Pulp's "Common People". :)

I'm planning to send you a bunch of new samples soon; do please let me send you some of the nice new shupu that I've recently received from Scott at Yunnan Sourcing. I've got an older shu that you might like to try, as well. Did I send you some of that 1999 Yangkang sheng? If not, I'll pop that in. I'll pick a few random wulongs to keep with your current line of drinking, too.

Toodlepip,

Hobbes

[sspeakfreely]

Hobbes,

I'm psyched to try anything you can send me. Thank you for the kind offer. If you want, I'll send you the rest of my bamboo! Seriously, though, I'll ping you off-forum with a list of what I've got enough of to share. The only sheng you've sent me so far (which is at home waiting to be tasted) is the 2006 Haiwan Youshoushan; I'd love to sample the 99 Yangkang.

[marshaln]

Whatever this is, this is not from the camellia sinensis plant. It's not tea -- it's an herbal tea.

And if they're selling it at $400/lb, it's a ripoff, to say the least.

[sspeakfreely]

I think you must be right. This plant is a monocot, with leaf veins running parallel, whereas camellia sinensis is a dicot, with reticulated leaf veins. It probably IS bamboo, but I distinctly remember the gal in the tea shop saying "look like bamboo, but not really". Well, anyone living near SF can go check it out for themselves; the store is called VitaliTea at 1044 Grant Ave.

omg

[bearsbearsbears]

i have that tea and it sells for nothing here in China. it's actual bamboo leaf, not camellia sinensis, and it's flavored like glutinous rice. it should taste like rice. I think I last saw it for 14 kuai ($1.60) per liang (50g).