A most excellent write-up, Dustin. I'm quite sure this'll be frequently referenced not only by myself but many others as well.
-Daniel
Dustin
· 4 years ago
Thanks for the info Ken, but I really think think you might want to look further than a Japanese person and a Japanese tea merchant if you really want an UNBIASED opinion about which nation produces more great teas.
There are about 50 great green teas in the world and if you asked an unbiased person they would tell you Japan makes four of them at most:Sencha, Hoji-cha and perhaps Uji and/or Gyokuro. And some of these are arguably Oolong (the type of tea Japan is REALLY famous for).
If you aren't sure what the difference is here's how to tell: If the tea is brown in color and tastes more smoky than grassy then its more like an oolong regardless of what someone calls it. Sencha is an example of a tea that is definitely NOT an oolong as it has a wonderful crisp grassy taste.
The great Chinese teas? These I name off the top of my head. They represent at most 1/4 of the really great teas: Monkey Picked, Pu-erh, Jasmine, Gunpowder, Dragon Well, Snow Dragon, Mao Feng, Fur Peak, Green Spring Snail, Melon Slice, Rain Flower, Lapsang Souchong and Iron Goddess.
As for the best, I've drunk about 300 different teas and if I made a list of my 10 personal favorites, the only Japanese tea that would make the list is Sencha and I'd rank it lower on the list.
One of reasons for your misconception might be that you can only generally get Japanese teas from dealers that care about Tea. But you can probably walk into any supermarket and find crappy Jasmine tea in a bag.
Go to leaves.com and buy three nice teas. Try Jasmine, Dragon Well and maybe a Monkey Picked or Mao Feng. Judge for yourself and enjoy.
Marisol
· 4 years ago
Kudos to Dustin! As a "tea snob" of sorts, I find this so informative. :o) My biggest pet peeve is when people sweeten all of their teas with gobs and gobs of sugar, etc. Ugh, that ticks me off. Sadly, I have yet to find an awesome tea shop locally in Denver. I know she's out there, I just need to search harder.
All Comments
-Daniel
There are about 50 great green teas in the world and if you asked an unbiased person they would tell you Japan makes four of them at most:Sencha, Hoji-cha and perhaps Uji and/or Gyokuro. And some of these are arguably Oolong (the type of tea Japan is REALLY famous for).
If you aren't sure what the difference is here's how to tell: If the tea is brown in color and tastes more smoky than grassy then its more like an oolong regardless of what someone calls it. Sencha is an example of a tea that is definitely NOT an oolong as it has a wonderful crisp grassy taste.
The great Chinese teas? These I name off the top of my head. They represent at most 1/4 of the really great teas: Monkey Picked, Pu-erh, Jasmine, Gunpowder, Dragon Well, Snow Dragon, Mao Feng, Fur Peak, Green Spring Snail, Melon Slice, Rain Flower, Lapsang Souchong and Iron Goddess.
As for the best, I've drunk about 300 different teas and if I made a list of my 10 personal favorites, the only Japanese tea that would make the list is Sencha and I'd rank it lower on the list.
One of reasons for your misconception might be that you can only generally get Japanese teas from dealers that care about Tea. But you can probably walk into any supermarket and find crappy Jasmine tea in a bag.
Go to leaves.com and buy three nice teas. Try Jasmine, Dragon Well and maybe a Monkey Picked or Mao Feng. Judge for yourself and enjoy.