Premium Taiwanese Assam and its upgrade version, Mi Xian Black, Taiwanese Wild Mountain Black, Foxy Roxy Banana Walnut Treat from Butiki Teas.
Yunnan White Jasmine, Yu lu yan cha, Laoshan Black from Verdant Teas.
Specific teas: Bigelow’s Constant Comment, Verdant’s Laoshan Black Chocolate Genmaicha, any chocolate-minty blend from Della Terra, Sakura Sencha from Den’s Tea, and Yanabah Navajo tea.
Non-specific (varieties that are must haves from any company): an African black tea, kukicha, sencha, rooibos, a dark oolong, chamomile, mint.
Bigelow Mint Medley, Nina’s Paris Eve and Tigre Blanc, Tazo Awake, an assam, usually several brands of Earl Grey, a green oolong, a lemon based herbal, and ingredients such as ginger root, cinnamon sticks, star anise, and rose buds to blend with other teas.
Laoshan Black Chocolate Genmaicha OR Laoshan Black (Verdant)
Black Dragon Pearls (Teavivre)
Peppermint (anywhere – Davids, usually)
Teavivre’s Organic Keemun; Verdant’s Laoshan Black; Butiki’s Taiwanese Wild Mountain Black and Peppermint Patty; Mandala’s Wild Monk Puerh if you’re looking for a couple specifics.
Other than that, at least a couple assams; some taiwanese blacks from Taiwan tea Crafts; a couple puerhs; some flavoured matcha and a few assorted herbals….any french teas i can get my hands on haha
i’m not really a veteran by any means, and i’m also too mercurial in my tastes and still in the “gotta taste everything” phase, but these questions are irresistible to me!
for me it’s mostly about essential categories things fall into, and how i don’t mind running out of one specific tea i’ve loved if it falls in a category for a certain time of day’s need for me where i have other options i love too. having at least one thing that fits in that category at all times is the essential part. if that makes any sense.
right now:
-first-thing-in-the-morning or whenever i need a caf-pick-me-up tea (harney and sons queen catherine and scottish morn, butiki the black lotus, mandala morning sun, andrews and dunham double knit blend)
-at least one from a set of favorites of verdant’s blacks, they come and go with the seasons and i like missing and getting excited all over again for them…golden fleece, zhu rong, laoshan black. as long as at least one of them’s in my cupboard in ample amounts i’m happy!
-i’m gonna cheat and say “some earls i like” because there’s a lot of them and i cycle through based on mood, but having an earl i like on hand at all times is a must
-a coconut oolong i like (zen tea, golden moon, american tea room)
-a milk oolong i like (teavivre’s is my favorite for the price so far)
-a floral, green oolong (i like verdant’s). barring that, a tea that’s very freshly floral smelling (butiki champagne and rose cream, american tea room victoria, any of the good fauchons i’ve tried fit the bill too)
-at least one of the fruity flavored non-black-teas i’ve fallen in love with…they’re not identical but interchangeable for me because they cause the same mood in me, just cheer no matter the weather (joy’s teaspoon mahalo, den’s tea pineapple sencha, butiki flowery pineapple oolong, butiki with open eyes, american tea room nirvana, 52teas strawberry pie honeybush). they’re like sunlamp SAD therapy in a cup to me.
-a nice satisfying rich straight green (verdant laoshan bilochun or autumn harvest laoshan green, tao tea leaf’s hou kui, harney and sons tencha or gyokuro)
-a decent genmaicha (i started with den’s tea’s organic one and liked it enough i haven’t tried other companies’)
-a decent hojicha (ditto but with golden moon’s)
-any one from the stable of “tisanes with no caffeine i look forward to as a treat before bed” (butiki mango lassi and peppermint patty, fusion teas chocolate cake honeybush, harney and sons soba buckwheat, aforementioned 52teas strawberry pie honeybush, persimmon tree mint chocolate chip rooibos, della terra lemon chiffon, townshend’s dark forest chai, steven smith bon bon, american tea room choco-late)
and for to-go sachets, harney and sons tower of london.
Premium Taiwanese Assam – Butiki
2003 Reserve Four Season Oolong – Butiki
Flowery Pinaple Oolong – Butiki
Taiwanese Wild Mountain Black- Butiki
Foxy Roxy Banana Walnut Treat – Butiki (my own personal blend!)
Da Yu Ling High Mountain Olong -Tealux
Wenshan Bao Zhong Reserve – Tealux
Jun Shan Yin Zhen Yellow Tea – Tealux
Bailin Gongfu Black – Teavivre
Silver Jasmine Green Tea (Mo Li Yin Hao) – Teavivre
Anxi Monkey King (Ma Liu Mie) Tie Guan Yin Oolong – Teavivre (Brand new staple!)
Laoshan Black – Verdant
There’s are some more unlisted, but these are my basics!
I drink pu-erh all day every day. I’m a collector, so don’t have a usual “go-to” pu-erh. We keep a good green tea on hand, but never seem to get around to it. Aside from my pu-erh habit, oolongs reign supreme in our house. We keep a Blue People, Keemun, High Mountain, and usually a Champagne Oolong. We also keep a jasmine white tea on-hand, which we’ve been using more lately. And finally, we keep some chrysanthemum around to help lighten a tea from time to time.
Nothing else ever seems to get used before it goes bad.
I just started getting into tea and so far the oolongs I have tried I have really liked. I am intrigued by a champagne oolong, who is the vendor you get yours from?
I think we get ours from Vital Tea Leaf in Seattle. That’s the shop that got me into tea years ago, so we try to honor our roots by picking up a few things there when we’re in Seattle. That’s one of them.
It’s a bit on the pricey side, but the production method is very unusual. (If you’re squeamish, you might not want to look it up.) The flavour is also unique. It has the fruity/honey taste you might expect from the name, kept in check by a vague bitter(ish) sometimes vaguely nutty? undertone. The interplay is really nice.
Just made a pot, since you got me thinking about it. Best sipped slowly, and for me, only in small quantities. Pairs nicely with light meals.
I like to have at least one of each of the following:
- a maté for the morning (from Teavana or Republic of Tea)
- chocolate black (Ladurée has a nice one I’m sadly almost through)
- a lapsang souchong or smoky Russian variation thereof
- a pu-erh (Art of Tea’s Aztec Spice right now)
- something with veggies (I like all of Numi’s Savory line)
- some kind of chai (Tea Chai Te’s Gingerbread Chai is a favorite but Twinings’ bagged selection is nice too)
- a green oolong (Lupicia’s Ripe Mango right now)
- a dark oolong (Verdant’s Wuyi Mountain Big Red Robe)
- nutty herbal for nighttime (DT Forever Nuts or one from Teavana)
- something spicy (Grey Dog Chili Mint)
- a dessert white (Butiki Cantaloupe & Cream)
- a dessert green (Butiki Pistachio Ice Cream)
- a rooibos
So basically one of everything, haha.
Teavivre, Butiki, and Verdant are beyond solid. They are the main retailers I order from.
My staple supplier currently is Verdant, I have only had 1 or 2 teas of all I have tried from them (quite a few) that I didn’t particularly care for, but the rest have been stellar!
Butiki (amazingly natural-tasting flavored teas and tisanes, plus some unusual and special teas from all over the world), Verdant (I like their greener oolongs and straight Chinese black teas and green teas, yum), and Harney and Sons (vast source for excellently blended British legacy-style brisk tea) are currently my staple suppliers. I may not adore every single little thing I’ve tried from any of them, but that’s only because I’ve tried so much including stuff that isn’t really my thing generally. And all three have given me some of the best tea experiences I’ve ever had, many times over. Their wealth of knowledge/expertise/experience and customer service are awesome bonuses too.
I also like Lupicia, Golden Moon, and Mandala a lot. And it was a one time only chance for me, but every tin of Fauchon’s perfumed tea blends I snapped up when they were available on some website a couple months back I’ve become obsessed with, wish I could get more.
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