>> Congrats on your nuptials.
>> Include me as a very, very satisfied customer of Teaspring. Â They are my
>> main tea source now, and when I am in the Chicago area I found a nice
>> tea shop in Evanston; but Teaspring is the best mail order shop for me.
>
> Oh, I mainly was referring to the Shui Xian. I have had a number of
> specimens that were so amazing it is almost hard to put in words (but
> I'll try ;) To start I always kind of enjoyed oolongs, never the green
> flowery ones, until an acquaintance shared two Shui Xians with me that
> simply blew me away. The greatest was from Singapore and was so
> heavily roasted and re-roasted that it was brittle and almost like
> charcoal... which doesn't sound nice but I assure you it was ethereal.
> I'm not a fan of smoky/roasted teas like a Lapsang so the best I can
> say is that it was very reminiscent of raisins, a touch chocolaty, and
> maybe even a bit of flavor similar to the scent of a good quality
> tobacco (not smoke but the tobacco itself). The other was a high-fired
> version I believe came from The Tea Gallery in NYC. They were my true
> introduction to Shui Xian even though I had tried low-mid quality ones
> before that weren't even remotely memorable. I was hooked, and Kelly
> even more. It instantly rocketed to the top of our lists.
>
> I have since had the pleasure of trying a few that were hand crafted
> in what I consider an artisan manner, by a man who personally fires,
> stores, and re-fires his tea to perfection. I've also ordered some
> from a few other boutique vendors that has that higher fired, brittle,
> texture which just outclasses even the Teaspring offering... but are
> way too expensive to drink daily even if I had the money to throw at
> it. I have ordered more than I required from Teaspring though, and I'm
> looking forward to re-firing some myself to try to achieve similar
> results. I'll surely post my results and trials.
>
> As for BLC it is less about artisans and more about differences. Since
> I came from a Japanese green background it was a hard sell to retrain
> myself to Chinese greens, but I'm glad I did. As much as I hate to say
> it, I think the tide turned at Teany in NYC. The water was the wrong
> temp, the BLC was good quality, and even still it managed to capture
> my attention and caused me to start sampling and learning. I have to
> admit that I've only sampled maybe 12 different BLCs as I get pulled
> back to the same 2 all the time, Teasprings is one of them. I've yet
> to really dig in and sample a ton just because I'm stupidly happy with
> what I have.
>
> I added their Huo Shan Huang Ya (yellow tea) to my order to try theirs
> as well, as it is a favorite.
>
> (sorry for the abnormally long followup to an already long post, I
> just realized how much I typed in response)
> -
Dominichttp://teasphere.wordpress.com- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
