Teadonism

This isn’t a vendor review proper, just a few notes on the latest round of tea catalogs that has graced my threshold. 

I requested a few this year that I’d never gotten before, just out of curiosity.  I think I asked for Upton, Harney & Sons, Mark T. Wendell, Stash, Republic of Tea, Peet’s…I think that’s it.  The only one that hasn’t come yet is Stash, but I’ve gotten their catalogue before and I’ve never ordered any tea from them, just the occasional gifty-type-thing.

Peet’s…you can pretty much forget about the catalogue.  It looks like they might have one or two worthwhile teas, despite being more a coffee company, but you’re better off ordering at their website.  The “catalogue” is glossy and easy to navigate, but it’s also only about five pages long…more of an advertising mailer than a catalogue.  I’ve never ordered anything from Peet’s, only just heard of ‘em.  I’d probably pick to get my tea from someplace that specialized in tea, but, like I said, they seem to have a few interesting offerings.

Mark T. Wendell’s I’ve also never ordered from, and probably won’t.  They have a nice, modest, easily navigated catalogue, but I get a weird vibe from them.  They seem to focus mostly on teabags and producing consistent-but-possibly-mediocre teas and tea blends…they also do a lot of “importing” and reselling of packaged brands (loose and bagged) from different areas of the world.  I’m sure this was useful ten years ago if you wanted PG Tips in America or Typhoo or some Chinese tea bags, but the advent of the internet and larger “Ethnic” sections in most grocery stores makes this seem like a waste of effort and catalogue space on the part of Wendell’s.

Harney & Son’s…I’ve had their tea now and again when I’m shopping at Barnes & Noble, as that’s what their little cafe serves.  It isn’t bad; I’d compare it to Numi or Republic of Tea in quality and presentation.  I’m sure a lot of Harney fans will take that as an insult, but their company strikes me as concerned mostly with wide-appeal, consistent-but-not-thrilling blends, fancy packaging, “theme” teas, *lots* of flavoured teas, etc.  None of that is really my favourite.  The catalogue is very glossy and impressive, but a little busy and hard to navigate, for me, anyway.  Too much flash all around.  Stick with the website if you’re after one of their more “normal” teas or a favourite blend.

Upton’s catalogue is, as always, a huge favourite.  They always have interesting, long, in-depth articles on the history or influence of tea, which is a great treat.  The selection is, of course, enormous, and you will know *everything* you wanted to know about the age and provenance of most of their teas.  Their “blurbs” on the tea are occasionally helpful, but they do tend to run together after the hundredth one or so…still, good guidelines.  The best thing about the catalogue is the *super clear* organization and the absolute no-nonsense style of it.  No colour, no graphics, small black and white pictures of teaware where needed, just lists of tea laid out by colour, region, and “body/boldness.”  Yay!  I *hate* Upton’s website, although that’s where I go to do the actual ordering…it’s just not instinctive for me to navigate, for some reason, but I love the catalogue.  Use it for fun browsing and the website for up-to-date information on selections and ordering.  You can also read their quarterly articles on the website–well worth it.  The current one is on the early economics of tea as it related to Tibetan/Chinese horse trading…very cool!

Republic of Tea’s catalogue was surprisingly nice…I wouldn’t order their tea, as a rule, but it isn’t bad for bags (and the occasional loose).  It’s pricey, though, I think…you’re paying a lot for packaging, artwork, etc.  Lovely catalogue, but what was really nice was all of their teaware.  While the markups on, say, Bodum products, was a little ridiculous, their own line of pots and cups and accessories is shockingly well-priced, for the most part, and quite pretty.  There’s a tea tray and a few pots I have my eye on in there–I’ll post if I wind up ordering them.  Tea-wise, they do a ton of “themed” stuff, including a Jerry Garcia teas line (WTF?!?!?) and a “Sip For the Cure” Breast-cancer research line, which is all…pink, in one way or another.

They sent along a sample bag of their “Pink Grapefruit Grean Tea” from the “Sip For the Cure” line with my catalogue–brief review as follows.  Anyway, request some of these catalogues–they’re fun “fluff” reading, and they might even send you a bit of tea!

PINK GRAPEFRUIT ROUND GREEN TEA BAGS from The Republic of Tea:

This is *not* a tea I would *ever* pick for myself.  It’s flavoured, themed, and pink.  That’s *three* things going against it.  Still, I’ll try to keep an open mind.  Dry, the bag smells vaguely citrus and vaguely green tea.  And vaguely pink, but that might be psychosomatic.  Steeped the bag in green-tea-temperature water in a cup for about a minute.

This stuff purports to contain “green tea,” (Does it make anyone else mildly nervous when something says it contains “green tea”?  What *kind* of green tea?), “natural grapefruit flavors,” (Hopefully of grapefruit origin…) and “pink peony petals.”  (Alliteration having to do with a pink flower…DANGER, DANGER!)

The tea in the cup smells a little green-tea-ish and a little citrusy-astringent.  The tea in the cup tastes…like medium quality generic “green tea” with, maybe, a hint of mild lemony-grapefruityness…but only a hint.  I’d characterize this tea as “warm, inoffensive, and marginally even pleasant,” but that’s about it.  It’s classic flavoured tea-bag tea, to my palate–slighly bland, slightly exotically-scented, warm, wet, and…yup, that’s it.

I wouldn’t recommend this tea, and I’d probably pick something else (even a straight green) if I had to get at tea bag at a coffeehouse.  You could serve this to a non-tea-drinker, though, and they wouldn’t dislike it, hot or iced, I’m sure.

Vendor: Dream About Tea  

Right now I am drinking a gorgeous Dragonwell tea at room temperature.  Starting last night, I used about three grams of tea to make a bit more than a liter of delicious, delicate green tea.  When the infusions started getting thin, I left it overnight in another liter of room-temperature water and am still enjoying it today.  Completely devoid of bitterness, full of character, and with a lovely green, vegetative, creamy/buttery taste with a hint of wood…I’m going to treasure the ounce I bought until I can return for more.

I am delighted to say that I got to choose this tea myself from the most amazing teashop I’ve ever had the priviledge to visit.  This tea, along with about a zillion other fresh, gorgeous, well-labeled teas of clear provenance…along with an incredible assortment of teaware…can be found at “Dream About Tea” on Davis Street in Evanston, Illinois.  While not exactly “right next door” for me, it’s awfully darn close when it comes to tea and teawares of this quality, and I will definitely be a repeat visitor.

When we looked into the window of the store, I was already floored.  There were cakes upon cakes of puerh, many still wrapped in their bamboo sets, along with *countless* beautiful, tiny Yixing teapots, delicate gaiwans, cup sets, tea trays…on and on and on.

We entered and were greeted right away by the proprietors.  When the woman behind the counter saw how thrilled I was about everything, she immediately asked if I was the person from Wisconsin she had e-mail corresponded with the day before–and I was!  It was super to be remembered and greeted so intuitively, and I had her full attention and help during my entire visit.

There were *at least* a hundred and fifty different, unique, handmade Yixing teapots to look at and choose from.  I was *beyond* excited.  My every question was answered–they showed me beautiful shu and sheng puerh, gave suggestions for which pot would go best with which kind of tea, showed me their new stock, etc.

I’ll level with you–I wanted *everything*.  I fell madly in love with no less than five different teapots and with almost *all* of the puerh, but budget forces choices, and I absolutely couldn’t say no to one of the lovely bamboo tea trays.  (They had a great selection of these as well–at least *seven* different models of varying sizes, types of decoration, and prices…more than I’ve ever seen in one place before, just like the teapots.)

I wound up getting a tiny Yixing teapot that I’m planning to use for young sheng, a white porcelain gaiwan to replace the evil, clumsy one I’m using at work, a pretty reserve pitcher and one of those cunning fine-mesh funnel-filters, the ounce of Dragonwell tea, and the bamboo tea tray.  I’ll certainly be posting pictures of all of this soon–you won’t *believe* how gorgeous it all is.

Other things I wanted–more tea!  They have *so* many jars of tea on their counter, and when it matters, they can tell you the region, year, etc. of the teas.  Their knowledge and ability to recommend teas is super.  I also wanted more teapots!  These were all just amazing.  The quality of the one I chose is great, and it was a low-end teapot, $40, cheaper than my more disappointing Ten Ren teapot–it has a perfect pour, the cover fits superbly, etc.  The majority of the teapots they had were handmade and unique–the exception to this is their *very own line* of Yixing pots in various types of the appropriate clay.  These they contract with a shop in China to mold for them, and are just darling, in a very practical shape with a detailed dragon relief in the bottom of the pot.  The result is inexpensive, well-made Yixing pots of various types of clay with predictable results and a handsome design.  I will *definitely* be picking up at least one of these proprietary pots for some type of oolong in the future.  Aside from those, though, the range of Yixing pots was jaw-dropping.  All sizes, all clay types, all price ranges, all styles (from simple and graceful brewing pots to incredibly detailed and sculpted “whimsy” pots)…

I clearly just can’t say enough about this teashop, my visit, the owners…wow!  I absolutely cannot wait to visit again, and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this place to anyone.

We were there for about an hour, but I could’ve been there all day.  Pete and his stepmother kept themselves busy at the counter with two green teas.  One, their house tea and about $70 a pound, was a more-than-serviceable everyday green that they (or so they say) contract with an entire plantation to corner the supply of.  The other was a Dragontop and one of their highest-end teas, at $200/lb, and was absolutely amazing.  It was green, deep, buttery, infinitely smooth, and just phenomenal to drink.  We compared the two under both favourable and less-than-favourable conditions and went through lots and lots of hot water with the samples we’d purchased.  I ended up hoarding the Dragontop, but we were able to squeeze even a bit more out of the teas when we got back to the house, using my new gaiwan. 

Why hadn’t I heard about this place before?  Why aren’t its praises sung to the rafters when someone asks for tea recommendations in the Chicago area?  I can only thank my luck that a random Google search turned this place up before our Chicago visit, and I can only assume that word of this place just hasn’t gotten out yet.  I can’t imagine that it has been deliberately overlooked for complaints of quality of lack of knowledge–again, I just couldn’t have been more pleased. They had *everything* one could possibly desire when beginning one’s journey with Eastern teas, and plenty of stuff for even experts, I would hazard.

In short: if you live anywhere *near* the Chicago area, drop whatever you’re doing right now and head to Dream About Tea.  It is an amazing place run by incredibly helpful, kind people, and you will be *floored* by the selection of teaware and tea. 

Go now! Their website is also amazing, with mail-order functionality, lots of great details, contact info, etc.  Also not that they are offering *Tea Classes* coming up soon, where they’ll cover various types of teas and brewing methods.  I would give my eyeteeth to attend these classes; I’m sure they’ll be great–definitely worth a look! http://www.dreamabouttea.com/comersus6f/store/index.asp

Vendor: Jing Tea Shop 

This was hugely exciting for me!  My first shipment from China, my first puerh that I chose on my own to have for myself, my first good gaiwan, yay!

Here’s the box that was so immensely satisfying to get:

And here’s everything all arrayed prettily:

This is what I ordered:

– 1 X Hei You Gaiwan
– 1 X 2003 Raw Puerh Beeng Tasting Series
– 1 X 1999 CNNP Red Label - sample
– 1 X Lao Tong Zhi 04
– 2 X Xia Guan Te Ji Tuo Cha
– 1 X 2001 Meng Hai Tea Factory Raw Wild  Yi Wu Sample

– 1 X Feng Huang Jia Ji Tuo Cha 04
– 1 X Fu Hai Puerh 7536 sample

There were also four wonderful samples included!  What a great treat–I don’t have written down with me here (at work) what they were, but rest assured that these and all of the above will be reviewed shortly.  I was especially pleased to get the bonus samples since some of the samples I *ordered* come from cakes that, since my initial order, are no longer available.  I hope I can fall in love with one or two that I can still get my hands on!

 Even if I can’t, though, I have no worries–I know that the people at Jing Teashop will be able to steer me in the right direction.  This was my first time ordering with them, but I’d heard nothing but good things, and I had a great experience!  They checked to make sure my shipment had arrived and that I was happy, answered all my emails, and urged me to ask any questions I might have about tea, tea culture, etc.  I would highly recommend them–excellent service, fast shipping, great packing, and super goods!

And, finally, a rather pretty shot of me *not* burning my hands as I use this gorgeous gaiwan: