Hello,

This is my first post, I have been lurking for the last year or so, but
the recent messages about monkeys picking tea has prompted me to write.

I used to live in Chicago and still visit there often. On my last trip,
I found a tea store in Lincoln Park area (not exactly sure of the
neighborhood )called My Place For Tea on Sheffield. I bought a nice
Oolong, bag labeled as "Monkey-Picked Oolong"
http://www.myplacefortea.com/oolongteas.htm @ about $16 / 50 gms. I am
not sure what particular type of Oolong it was.

I have about 1 teaspoon of TieGuanYin Gold left, but I don't like it as
much as the "Monkey Picked Oolong" from Chicago. I taste more
bitterness or acid flavors, maybe it is the age. The Chicago Oolong has
more subtle flavors and they seem to change as the temperature of the
tea changes.
http://www.generationtea.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=250

de-generation tea is not a nice vendor, how you describe their oolong
sounds like a crappy cheap one.

monkey picked oolong in my experience is something like flowery/
pungent/orchid + nutty/buttery + very low green astringency

an alternative that tastes similar(imho) is high mountain (gao shan)
oolong

it all depends how you like the flavor balance - flowery/ nutty/ green

(i've had too much green oolongs, haven't tried any in a while).

Teavana has a "Monkey Picked Oolong"

also, do you have any suggestions of tea places to visit in Chicago,
I currently live there. Whereabouts on Sheffield is the store you got
your oolong. I sometimes buy things online but am pretty impulsive, so
if i need some new tea I usually don't like to wait for an order to
ship.

On Feb 2, 5:47 pm, Maxwell gmail.com> wrote:

While in Chicago - Tea Gschwendner - Good German vendor (2 locations)
Best shop IMHO - I Dream of Tea in Evanston
Shen

On Feb 2, 10:35 pm, Shen gmail.com> wrote:

Thank you very much. Will check them out. I have gone to Tea
Gschwender before, i fact went there today to get a new tea pot as I
dropped mine and it shattered, however i found out abruptly that they
closed their store on Halstead, which was the one I always went to.
Will check out I Dream of Tea for sure, thank you dearly.

Maxwell,

My Place For Tea is at 3120 N. Sheffield, parking may be difficult,
depending on the time of day. It is just south of Belmont, on the west
side of the street. The person there that I have talked to is named
Enrico. There is also a good Thai restaurant around the corner from the
store.

There is a place in Evanston (1011 Davis St.)called Dream About Tea. I
normally stay in Evanston when I visit Chicago, so I am familiar with
it. I suppose I am going to start visiting more stores, sampling the
tea before I invest in buying.

Enjoy,

Alton

Shen,

Thanks for the tip about I Dream Of Tea. I always stay in Evanston when
I visit Chicago, just had gotten in the habit of ordering from the
internet, but I will visit there the next time I go.

Approximately how long can you keep an Oolong or a Jasmine before you
start to notice a change in taste?

What do you think about the freshness of buying tea from an internet
site like Upton or Adagio or Teaspring compared with buying at a store
like "I Dream Of Tea" or "Tea Gschwender"?

Thanks,

Alton

On Feb 3, 5:42 am, "Alton B. Wilson" cinci.rr.com> wrote:

I'd say Monkey Picked Oolong does not mean anything in particular
other than it is usually some sort of rolled oolong. The "Monkey
Picked" stuff I have ranged from very flowery, light, perhaps even
flavoured oolongs to very heavily roasted ones. The name doesn't mean
a thing, as it is not the name of a varietal but rather just a trade
name. Since there's no convention as to what should be a Monkey
Picked oolong, people just name whatever they feel like with that
name.

I think somewhere along the way this was used to denote a rare oolong
tea, but these days, some truly horrendous teas are also called this.
Monkey Picked from one store is guaranteed to be completely different
from the next, unless they happen to get it from the same wholesaler,
which in the case of US vendors, is possible.

MarshalN
http://www.xanga.com/MarshalN