Nantou roasted Taiwanese oolong from the TShop in NYC

I'm finally trying a TShop Nantou roasted Taiwanese oolong, a tea I bought in NYC at the start of the year, only a week into the year (more on them here).  It's odd to get that far behind in trying teas, between tasting samples and all that illness, and continuing to buy other teas.  I bought 150 grams of another light oolong I'm only now getting low on, a Lin Hua Tai Shan Lin Xi version reviewed here (with more shop details here), which I'll taste along with this tea.  I have one more Lin Mao Sen shop oolong version yet to try (from a shop next door to them, with a long back-story about that), and also a black tea from them, both of which I guess I'm aging a little before getting to.

Lin Hua Tai Shan Lin Xi oolong

This is a completely different tea than the Lin Hua Tai tea, darker roasted, and from Nantuo county--where the mountain of Dong Ding is located--instead of that Shan Lin Xi (which per inconsistent transliteration convention in Taiwan goes by other variations of that location name).  Part of the idea is to compare similarities and differences, and also to help pin down quality level.  I keep saying that teas need to be similar for comparison tasting to work--sort of the opposite of this case--but that's also a function of how familiar they are.


It would still work to try two completely different Wuyi Yancha at the same time, for example, unless the style of both was unfamiliar, then that would just be too confusing.  It wouldn't be as informative as if they were quite similar but clarifying some attributes can still work through comparison, for example a difference in body / feel might stand out better than when trying a single tea.  That's more the point here, not to zero in on just how good a tea of this type is--a moderately roasted oolong--through comparison with another like it, but to help clarify background character differences, and maybe even to highlight style differences more through contrast.  Or it could just be a bad idea.

typical tea cultivars used per Taiwan region table (from TeaDB site)

These may be from the same cultivar / plant type, per this Tea DB site reference.  Chin-shin is now typically referred to more often as Qing Xin, which is just a transliteration style update, mentioned here, with more background in the gold standard of all references, a Wikipedia article.


That part about Chin shin / Qing Xin being Ruan Zhi may or may not ring a bell (covered here).  It ties back to an issue with almost all the Thai tea industry getting their tea names mixed up since they call a #17 hybrid Ruan Zhi, which doesn't match, since that's a landrace.  Or maybe it's technically not that, since it's foreign origin is known.  I'd be clearer on the use of those terms if I were a botanist, the main point being it's not one of their hybrids.

more on non-hybrid tea types from Taiwan, with another table on the TRES / TTES types there (source)

Review

The tea is good (I'm skipping the appearance and dry smell parts; that's all what you'd expect).  It has that richness of more roasted but still light oolong.  Judging just how good the tea is will be no easy task, since I've tried different Taiwanese oolongs but trying lots regularly is the right background for doing that.  Just listing flavor aspects will be tricky enough.


Early on it shows light floral aspects, that light malted milk ball / light caramel sweetness, and a general smoothness and richness.  I think it could be a little thicker but the complexity and cleanness is quite good.  It's not a heavily roasted tea by any means but to me it strikes a great balance for that.

The Lin Hua Tai tea is much more floral and fragrant, and a little brighter, in a different range.  Mentioning flower names would be helpful here, it just wouldn't mean much to anyone that doesn't remember lots of floral scents, as I don't.  The aspects drift to a light green wood taste, which integrates well with the floral tone.  Both are just getting started so I'll keep going.

On the next infusion the TShop tea moves into a cocoa aspect a little; it's even richer.  I think it won't show it's full potential until the next round though, with the leaves still unfurling.  The floral aspect doesn't go anywhere but the balance works even better.  There isn't much mineral structure compared to the other tea but some undertones give it fullness.  It's too early to call related to this tea but the roast effect seems great, with the only limitation that it gives up some fullness of feel and flavor intensity, just not flavor range.  Put another way it seems thinner.  Any tea could be different in lots of ways, and the flavors could be more positive and complex, but they're quite good as they are.

The Lin Hua Tai tea is more intense, more floral, and fuller, with a longer aftertaste duration.  It's limitation doesn't relate to complexity or cleanness,  both are fine, but to that more vegetal nature not being a preference of mine.  I mean that in the sense of a light wood tone, nothing like vegetables, and it's definitely not grassy.  I would expect some of the differences to relate to regional characteristics, along with processing differences and the rest.  But then that's back to where lots of exposure would allow for saying more.

Lin Hua Tai Shan Lin Xi left, TShop Natou oolong right

I think if I were tasting either alone the flavor aspect list would be longer.  It's odd I've not experienced that before, or noticed it, that I tend to review teas a bit differently in comparison, or at least might.  Aspects other than flavor stand out a lot more so it's natural to focus more on them.

I was right that the TShop tea had a little more to give; the flavors richness and balance is very nice now.  Let's put that as a list:  light cocoa, floral now in a subdued underlying underlying presentation, light caramel sweetness.  The fullness of flavor really could be described as a few more things; it leans toward spice, includes an aspect like roasted chestnut, and fruit in the range of sweet cooked pumpkin and sun dried tomato (or maybe sweet potato; that's in the same range, and I am talking about a secondary aspect).  For all that the general character is still thinner than the other tea, less aromatic, less full feel, with less aftertaste.  This wasn't their higher end tea and those limitations are probably why.  But the flavor is great, per matching my preferences.

The other Lin Hua Tai tea hasn't changed much.  It's full in flavor and complex enough that I might not be recognizing two or three floral aspects, all mixed into an integrated range.  There are a few characteristic features of good Taiwanese oolongs, some of which aren't easy to describe.  Strong mineral undertone, floral nature, fullness in different ways, those aren't so hard to place.  This has a brightness and roundness to it that's harder to pin down, something there should be a Chinese concept for.  It's aromatic, so related to that, but I mean the range that's expressed in, the specific type of fragrance.  It's perfume-like, as if that helps.  That one aspect probably resembles an herb I'm not familiar with.

The next infusion is more of the same.  I'd expect these teas to produce a couple more similar infusions then begin a decline or transition that would take a long time to lead to them being brewed out.  I might mention that I really like both these teas; I'm not sure that preference take always comes across clearly.  It's hard to imagine anyone not appreciating these aspects ranges, or finding them boring, but preferences do vary, and any experience might get old under the right conditions.

These teas are a good example of why I'm often saying that Thai teas just aren't there related to this quality level.  I may have tried slightly better versions from Taiwan, although at some point that gets to be about type preference as much as quality.  But I've never tried a similar tea from Thailand (or Vietnam, or Myanmar) made in a similar style on this level.  Chinese teas span a broader quality range than I'll ever get around to experiencing, on the highest side, but Taiwanese teas tend to have really pleasant and unique character, and any above average versions are very nice.

Shan Lin Xi left, Nantou oolong right

On physical shops versus online sources, and tea value

TShop, like a studio cafe

I bought these teas from two completely different types of sources, opposites almost, so it's not really fair to compare them in terms of value, related to comparing price per gram.  I will anyway.

First I might mention that different types of vendors play different roles.  A tea cafe or local brick and mortar shop is an important resource, a place to try cups of tea, to enjoy the setting, or to at least try teas along with a person that can give advice about what you might like, or discuss background.  Obviously their overhead is higher than an online-only business, so shops are at a disadvantage related to selling for the lowest rates.  Tasting teas before you buy more in bulk is a different kind of savings, though; it doesn't help getting a great deal on a tea you don't like.

Wholesale oriented shops close to where producers are located, or buying from actual producers, are totally different things.  Of course value can be better, or in some cases selection could also be better, but that's inconsistent, it depends on the sources.  Some online vendors really are selling hard to find higher quality teas, and some are just saying that, and they're all over the map related to mark-up and value.  Onto more about these cases.

If I'm remembering right I bought this Lin Hua Tai tea for around the same price as the TShop tea, meaning I bought 150 grams of one tea for perhaps just a little more than 50 grams of a comparable quality version.  The TShop version might not be quite as nice in terms of grade, although the style suited my preference more, and the demand and typical price for that style range might be higher if enough others see that the same way.

Lin Hua Tai in Taipei; a different kind of tea shop

Again that's a totally unfair comparison, rating a wholesale-oriented shop in Taipei against a retail cafe theme shop in New York City, half a world away  TShop isn't even tucked away in a side alley in Chinatown, but rather a bit North of there, where I'd expect rental to be much higher.  I'd recommend visiting the TShop as a cafe experience, even though I'm not comfortable with spending $20 on a pot of tea too frequently, and as I recall their more interesting versions were more like $25-30.  But then different people have different expectations, and budgets.

It was odd visiting the TShop and hearing loose tea prices, and not really being able to explain why I'd just traveled from the far side of the world but couldn't conceive of spending $70 on 50 grams of tea (and I didn't; this version was $20 or 30, not one of their higher end offerings).  I can't really explain my expectations related to buying tea or my finances, although at some point I probably will get around to saying more about that here.  Part of the reluctance that day was because I was going to be in Taipei in a couple of days, probably a good place to be looking for Taiwanese oolongs, which is mostly what they carried.

And I did visit Taipei, outlined in this post, which is as much about travel there as details about what I found.  I'd highly recommend visiting Lin Hua Tai there, and also talk about some other interesting options in that write-up.

There's only one more loose end to cover; in that first post mentioning the TShop I said an online contact recommended the shop, but I didn't say who it was.  She is one of my favorite tea bloggers, Natasha, the creator of the Snooty Tea Blog and video series, here, or with lots more on Youtube.  She stopped writing and making videos about tea, on to other things now.  The life-cycle of blogging is another interesting theme to me, why people take it up and leave it behind, but even though she's not still posting them her videos are great.

Tea shopping in New York City

Sounds cool, doesn't it, venturing out into the snowy cold of a New York City winter evening, stopping by cozy shops packed full of jars and tins, with herbal remedies mixed with teas from different origins.  Or maybe instead visiting a Chinese market basement crammed with all sorts of teaware and tea, or stopping by a trendy cafe-themed shop in a hipper part of Manhattan.  I did all that, barely over a week ago now.  I got turned around in the subway, getting off at a different stop than I expected, smelled weed while walking the streets, walked by homeless guys sharing bottles, and even had a kind offer for a warm break and a massage from a cheerful and pretty Asian woman (which I turned down).  I always disliked NYC on previous visits but this time I started to get it.

I'll stick more to shops, to what I ran across, which is by no means a good guide to what tea is available in New York City.  I read background on other interesting places but had very little time to work with, so I visited wherever I happened to make it to.  Finding options there wouldn't be difficult, but finding the type of place you really want to visit with the tea you'd love to try is another story.

the munchkins at ground zero, the World Trade Center memorial

Google turns up pages summarizing options, like this list of the ten best NYC tea shops or cafes (their take, at at least), or Foursquare's version, or a list of nine places here, or eight more here.  Of course all of those overlap, with some unique suggestions in each.  Asking a local enthusiast should be good strategy, and I did that, or checking things like Tea Chat threads, although that one is a bit dated.  On to the shops I did make it to then.

Shops I visited

Ten Ren:  a Taiwanese tea chain shop, the first place I visited (which I also saw in Taipei the next week, a different story).  They tended to sell teas labeled as general types like "black tea;" a bit off-putting.  I didn't stick around or buy tea, although of course that doesn't really imply that the tea wasn't good.

Chung Chou shop, Chinese herbs and tea shop

Chung Chou City shop, in Chinatown, Manhattan (website and Yelp page).  This is the kind of shop you might drift into walking around, as I did, a Chinese medicine shop with some jars of tea in one section.  It's also the kind of place you might be inclined to walk right back out of, but curiosity had me testing out a couple of plain looking black teas, not a huge risk for teas costing around $60 a pound.  I tried one; it was about as good as the price indicated, decent for inexpensive tea, perhaps a bit awful for someone accustomed to better.  Of course it's still the next level up from almost any tea sold in tea bags, so better than 99% of all teas Brits or Americans drink, and a good value for what it is.

Manhattan Chinatown, with the WTC in the background

Sun's Organic Garden (on Facebook):  the first store that showed up on those list references, and also in the Tea Chat discussion.  Per a Trip Advisor rating it's #474 of 576 Coffee & Tea in New York City, but I'm pretty sure it should be at the front end of that list, even with some pros and cons.  The owner carried one each of about 50 or 60 tea types I've tried (or was that 100, hard to keep track), and a good number I've not tried.  A couple of the teas included enough detail on the label I could tell exactly what they were, from which producer, and those were pretty decent teas, but most were just a general reference to a type.

If the owner's judgement in teas is good--who I won't be referring to by name, since I don't know it--then the lack of information is no problem; if not then shopping there might not be worthwhile.  Some of the pricing seemed just a little low--which she explained related to them not being organic--but most was right on what a fair price would probably be, for a decent but not exceptionally high quality level of the types.

I'd really have to try the teas to be better informed related to final outcome, but based on trying one of four so far that's promising (which I'll review following).  That tea was pretty good, a Kenyan black tea, basic but nice.  The owner probably wouldn't want her shop judged by one of the least expensive and atypical teas in it, since there was a general focus on Chinese and Taiwanese teas, with Japanese and Indian offerings, and a mix of others.  I also bought a Russian black tea (which I've not tried yet--interesting, but no baseline to work with), and gambled on a couple of pu'ers, a five year old sheng, sold as broken up, and a tuocha of cooked / shou pu'er.  The shop carried a lot of herbs too, with the owner offering some limited advice for use.  It was nice eavesdropping and hearing her cut off explanations and suggestions where drawing on medical input instead would make sense, not overselling based on guesswork and ancient Chinese wisdom, which would be an easy habit to drift into.

On the whole I liked it; to me it was well worth a look.  I got a good vibe off the owner, who seemed a little unconventional in a way that I could relate to, even though she was really too busy to talk just then.  Teas were stored well enough, in small jars, so not completely isolating air contact, but not those crazy-sized large jars in some shops that would be sure to ruin the teas.  She wasn't open to offering smells of the teas, or ok with people opening the jars, which really does make perfect sense.  It was busy when I visited, around 5 PM, and it would be better to stop by earlier in the afternoon to get more time to chat.  I'd probably be taking some herbal treatments for mind-fog, bad memory, and early onset of arthritis if I had stopped earlier, but as things stand I'll just tough those out.

New Kan Man Chinese grocery shop

New Kam Man Chinese market tea shop (website):  on first glance a tea lover might think that they'd died and went to tea heaven, with a large basement shop space crowded with teaware, vast rows of boxed teas, and lots of jars.  Looking closer it's lots of what someone who has moved past commercial teas no longer drinks:  boxed loose teas, some tea bag teas, and large-jar stored inexpensive loose teas.  It was still worth a look, and another gamble.  This time I bought a spare gaiwan ($8, not bad, in a print I like), and a lapsang souchong and peony, which looked a bit rough but might have taken aging well.

new gaiwan test run

I've tried the peony; it's drinkable, but it didn't age so well, so not exactly interesting.  The lapsang souchong stunk up my luggage, quickly separated from all other teas, even after being wrapped in 4 or 5 plastic bags to limit the smoke fumes coming off it.  I'm putting off trying it but it'll probably go in the bin.  If the taste isn't too toxic it might work as a meat rub, but I'm doubting it's actually from pine smoke, just as likely chemical.  If I'd not just bought black tea before then and two pu'er in the last shop it would've seemed natural to try those out, or if I liked jasmine pearl teas those might hold up ok to storage.


And really, who would be familiar with commercial boxed loose teas to know what's ok in those?  It's better to move past them onto more interesting teas and better sourcing, but it's a normal rookie tea drinker mistake to get stuck in that mode.  It took me a couple of years to learn to look at teas in grocery stores but generally never buy them.  I still buy an unusual looking commercial tea I expect I'm probably not going to like from time to time and I'm usually not pleasantly surprised, and then I'm challenged by what to do with it.  Mediocre tea is ok for making blends, and a little smoke in tea works better for making masala chai than it sounds it would.

T Shop, more a small version of a cafe really

T Shop (website)  an online friend in NYC--or is that contact?  I don't really know her but she's definitely cool, so it's a shame to not drop a name here--recommended this place, the last I tried to find that day, so I pressed on through a minor blizzard to make it to this last stop.  It's always funny when you ask people for directions and they point the wrong way, as someone did in a local shop a few blocks away.  It was that kind of outing at that point, really intense, snowing hard, but really I was just crossing a short enough distance headed straight North.  Then when I finally made it there it was really a cafe, although they did sell the teas loose, with only two-word descriptions to go by.  I kept looking at those few words as if they'd somehow say more to me.

Tea pricing was on the opposite side of the ruined large-jar teas I'd been browsing, some upwards of a dollar a gram.  Most was from Taiwan, and I was going to Taiwan in two more days, so paying over $50 for 50 grams of tea just before dropping in on that country would seem absurd.  I was kind of stumped.

I bought a Nantou high-mountain oolong, likely not a tea type that would be a favorite, typical relatively lightly oxidized and roasted oolong, but it didn't cost an arm and a leg.  It was $20 for 50 grams; normal, perhaps a bit high to some, or perhaps on the inexpensive side for where I was standing.  I suppose this is a good place to mention that I'm a bit spoiled by vendors sending me free tea samples (thanks for that!), and shopping for tea on-site in different countries, and by internet options, and by buying tea directly from producers.  Not everyone spends every day talking about tea to people in different countries online so I guess most wouldn't have a queue of teas they want to buy from sources in Asian countries in the back of their mind.  There's something about a tea being right in front of you, about smelling it or even trying it first, but I tend to avoid the upscale cafes that sell unique teas for high market value here in Bangkok, even if that's the only price range that really unique teas are ever typically sold at.


Really people were supposed to be there to buy a $10 or 20 pot of tea, it seemed, to enjoy the space and the unusual quality level of the tea (presumably), and discuss tea a bit, however that would go.  All that probably would have been nice.  As it was that blizzard had my name on it; I was supposed to fight it to get back to a hotel and check in with my family, which I did.  It was only then that NYC finally clicked for me; things just felt right on that walk.  I walked past people that looked trendy and interesting, but still low-key and casual, of course dressed warmly, and past novel shops and bars.  This wasn't my world but it had a nice feel to it.

not quite as polished as Singapore or Taipei's subways

I don't love cities, even though I'm often in different ones (in DC just prior--that felt different), but the diversity there is interesting.  Even people seeming a bit somber seemed genuine--or even crazy, late at night down in the subways.  Thais smile when they're happy, or just to be polite, or when they're slightly upset, but those neutral scowls were the real thing, along with the less common smiles.  Seeing a homeless guy wearing make-up like the Joker's was a good example of that extra level of local color.  I'd have taken his picture if there wasn't a remote chance he might have killed us.



So that was what I experienced.  I'll add a review of that Kenyan tea at the end here, to shed some light on how random tea purchasing might go.  The Chang Chou nameless black tea wasn't so far off, just not as good, and I've not yet tried the rest.  First I'll mention a few places that I didn't make it to for completeness, without as much to say about those.

Shops I didn't visit, but would have

Te Company (website):  someone mentioned in a Facebook comment that this was the right place to buy Taiwanese oolong, not so much a selling point given the context (visiting there two days later, on the way back home), but it sounded great.  Check out this edited tea description, for a tea selling for nearly the same as the oolong I'd mentioned buying, just slightly less:


Royal Courtesan oolong is a relatively recent varietal. It was the silver lining of the devastating earthquake of 1999 in Nantou county. After the earthquake, many tea gardens were abandoned temporarily... Unattended, these tea gardens were attacked by Jacobiasca formosana, the same tiny tea plant insect that provided muscat sweetness for Oriental Beauty. When the farmers returned to their gardens they were disappointed with the harvest, though curious enough to still use that year's harvest to make Frozen Summit. The result turned out extraordinary.


Oxidation level at 40%, a taste description as "rose, artichokes, caramelized sugar, muscat grape;"  sounds great.  Next time.


Tea Drunk (website):  this place also appeared in those best-of lists, some of them, and might be familiar from one of the best known tea bloggers managing there previously (Nicole of Tea for Me Please).  It seems as well to leave off guessing about tea offerings quality or value, but I'm sure it's worth checking out, although at an online glance maybe not as worthwhile to a value-oriented consumer.  I can appreciate a range of different quality and price level types of teas but my own tea budget is limited; I've got kids, and we spend too much on travel.

Bellocq shop interior (credit their site)

Bellocq Tea Atelier (website):  I didn't clarify that, but I was talking about tea shops in Manhattan in those other cases, where I was visiting, and this is in Brooklyn instead.  I didn't go so far into reading up on this place but even at a glance the decor theme stands out, I guess something like rustic industrial.  It reminds me of a place here in Bangkok (Luka cafe), and of a place I mentioned in an article on tea culture in Mexico (part one is here on TChing; part two isn't up yet).  The selection looks good, and a lot of the teas seem back under $20 per 2 oz / 50 grams, versus double or triple that place I'd just mentioned prior (but then tea grade / quality variation is a real thing; I'm not saying it's not).


I probably missed a lot more than that, but these stood out.

Sun Organic "Kenyan black tea" review

I was almost put off by the low cost pricing of a few interesting looking teas but after thinking it through there would be little to lose. The tea isn't organic, the owner's explanation of the moderate pricing, but another few 50 gram lots teas produced with chemical assistance won't tip the balance of my general health by much.  On to review.

The tea is nice, of course in the conventional black tea range, not far from Assam or Ceylon.  It's not CTC ground-up tea, it's real orthodox tea. The next issue would be which Assam or Ceylon it's similar to, which I'll only clarify by describing the tea, a bit non-specific.

The astringency is fine, with a little edge and dryness but not too much bite. I brewed the tea in a large gaiwan I just bought, Gongfu-style modified towards western brewing, instead of more typically going in the other hybrid-style direction. Tapering off temperature or brewed strength would moderate astringency further, or switching back to more conventional Western proportion and timing, but it's fine as it is.

There's a nice fruitiness to the tea, a citrus on the top end and a raisin / date tone under that, with a middle range a bit towards dark cherry. Those tastes and that astringency dryness work well together.  Of course it's a bit earthy as well, or maybe that background effect is better described as light mineral, in addition to the one flavor typically described as malt.  Malt really seems to relate to a range of flavors, or maybe two connected ranges, with a version as in mineral intensive black tea, not like the malted milk ball malt in soft Chinese black teas.

If anything that dryness is a bit much, otherwise it would all balance very well. I'm not paranoid about it but that dryness in the explicit non-organic context could start one wondering, but I think it's just the tea, a natural astringency.  I also tried the tea with sugar and half and half (after tasting it plain) and of course that astringency dropped out.  The fruit worked really well with the black maltiness, almost easier to pick out  But the effect also moved towards those milk teas people drink, towards more neutral, just a relatively genuine version, with freshly made decent black tea.

It seemed no accident that the general effect was so positive, as balanced as it was, and that the flavors were that clean, even if taken alone the characteristics weren't so unique.  I didn't buy anything that was really supposed to be a great tea at that shop but I'd expect the others will also be quite nice, and perhaps also novel.  Shou pu'er in particular varies from complex, earthy, unique and interesting to earthy more in the range of peat / dirt, or even fishy, so it'll be interesting to see how that goes.

sporting a travel beard for that gritty, urban look

I didn't mind so much missing so many options; coming from Asia it's hard to adapt to the pricing that comes with teas being even rarer on the other side of the world, where that rarity and shipping costs and higher overheads can really add to the cost.

I didn't have more than the same type of short visit to work with in Taiwan, on a short stop-over on the way home, but that is closer to the source.  It was my first visit to that major tea producing country, and the next story to tell.

Editing addition:

I've heard of another place I missed since that I keep looking up for suggestions in groups, which I'll add here to simplify that review process later.  LC Trading, more or less on the West side of the Manhattan Chinatown near Soho, sounds interesting in online discussion.  It's located on 123 Elizabeth Street, here.  For other references there are pictures at what looks to be an automatically generated Facebook page here, and a video of a tasting session here.