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It is reasonable to have a business agenda there as the setup was basically totally funded by them. However, while it is okay to avoid issues that may not be advantageous to their business, it is another thing to propagate wrong concepts of things. Coming from a people whose history has been seriously manipulated and re-appropriated by Western powers, I am particularly strong view about institutions misrepresenting things. I see deliberate misrepresentations worse than the absence of representation. If I sound too aggressive, please bear with me.
Paris: Le Palais des Thés, Dammann Freres & Maison des Trois Thés
In France, I think Dammann Freres has a stronger collection of traditional quality tea as a larger business, and so is le Palais des Thés. And if you’d like a bit of adventure, a small shop in Paris which I have not been, but was introduced by a reader — Maison des Trois Thés seem to carry a fresh and boutique collection.Outside of France, the Swiss and the English are also quite good in trying to provide quality traditional ranges comparable or better than Mariage. Though few businesses have grown as profitable as Mariage Freres to be able to host a small museum.Bai Hao oolong is more like a black tea than oolongs. I think the best way to enjoy it is to infuse it like a black tea, i.e. longer infusion time. For a ratio of 90 ml to 2.5 g, I think I’d infuse it at least for 3 minutes. If you trust the hygiene of your source, do not blanch the tealeaves, but instead preheat your pot real well.
This is a great question. That’s one reason why I have created Tea Guardian: to tell people what is genuine and quality in tea. I think the tea review articles abt White Peonies and Silver Needles, and the chapter on White Teas have quite explicitly explained this very considerate question of yours for the general consumers.
However, I am thankful of you for this opportunity to further clarify. To answer the question very briefly, here are a few points as a quick guide:- Silver Needle is a leaf shoot tea. There are no open leaves attached to the silvery shoots.
- The leaf shoots should be around 2 cm long, silvery in shades of very light warm grays, no greenish tints.
- Smell of hay and hints of flower rather than grassy or herbaceous.
- Liquor should be a light canary yellow rather than lime yellow.
- White Peony is a leaf shoot with one or two second leaves, all attached during production, but some leaves maybe separated during handling and transportation.
- The leaf shoots of White Peony should be judged the same as real Silver Needles as above.
- The leaves should have a clearly oxidized appearance, although there may be some green left in the leaves. (this point as edited by “pancake”)
- The liquor should be canary yellow rather than lime yellow and the taste fuller than Silver Needles.
Please do take time to read the linked articles in teaguardian.com for better understanding. The pictures there are important clues.
They have a much greater agenda in creating their own version of tea tradition than trying to understand what tea had been. The way they flavour and scent teas to extremes is unbearable to me as a tea drinker.
Price ranges can be even greater than that and the quality differs so dramatically that what is supposed to be a tea with only leaf shoots can turn into a low grade White Peony. Some people even use African semi-oxidized teas with bits of leaf shoots for the label of white tea. I am amazed at the flexibility of moral level of the merchants and the vulnerability of the consumers.
So did you just walked up as a tourist without prior appointment and they received you like that? I had some very good experience with Turks too but for an institute to be open as such to everyone is amazing. It would be nice if you could post some photos or video of the experience. The readers would be keen to share this.
This is interesting. I have read so much about the tea production history there and have not had the opportunity to understand it physically. Have not seen it in any of the trade shows I went. Thank you for sharing the contact.
That’s right. He shows a true passion and great efforts in pursuing deep understanding of tea. Respectful person. It’s great to know more trade people who are really passionate as such. Will be nice to know him in person.
It sounds like your friend bought the original 30 lbs from a wholesale market. The price was in fact a wholesale/farm price for one of the domestic quality grades in the Mainland 2 years ago. Your friend would have to be somewhere in one of the three major wholesale markets in the south in order to get that price. I don’t believe you can buy at any price lower than that, more so today, when everything has just become more expensive. Not even for the lowest grade.
As for radiation from the nuclear incident in eastern Japan last year, it hardly affected any China soil at all. China is quite a sea away from Japan. The production bases of most tea are in the south, southeast and southwest so they are even further away from the unlucky location. In fact the Japanese has been importing more tea and other farm products from China since.There is much controversy over the product and there are cases of intoxication. The name itself is a big gimmick and a mistake. I advise not drinking it at all. I personally think it is a scam by a packing company wanting to make a fat profit from the tea trend. The thing tastes terrible anyway. You can check Wikipedia about it but also google “Kombucha scam” or “intoxication”. The giant company has tried to wash down entries with a lot of positive entries, have patience to go down the google list.
