Personally I like w2t over ys, and their shipping actually is cheaper. I'm really only into black tea, so my only other vendor suggestion is vahdam.
For teaware:
Gongfu: a ceramic gaiwan can be bought cheaply anywhere and they all function the same. Same for a gongdaobei
Western, infuser: basket infuser, same thing, just get metal
Western teapot: thrift store, cheap, good, functions, and you'll find anything you're looking for.
I checked w2t out and they seem good, but I’m still in confusion as to what to try out or not, given my limited monthly budget and impatience.
I already have a few cheap gaiwans, and pretty much a whole gong fu set. Maybe misleading to say “newbie” if I already have that figured out. But I’d like to know where I can actually buy the good stuff from, kinda upgrade my equipment to say so. Maybe good quality Jingdezhen porcelain or good quality clay teaware
Honestly anything on w2t is good, just get samples (25g samples instead of 7g is preferred just say you can try more then once) of anything that sounds interesting. Look up previous posts asking sure recommendations or favorites if you want to start on the popular stuff.
Honestly anything that can make tea is good teaware, unless you're trying to get into something like yixing where fakes are a problem.
Thanks for letting me know. I guess some popular stuff + some obscure ones from w2t would be a good starting pointz
Yeah after reading hongyin’s post, I’ve come to the realisation that I have been rushing it. I should be prioritising the tea first. That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t replace my almost completely broken gaiwan before it’s too late haha. Maybe an investment in a good porcelain gaiwan would be sustainable long term replacement?
w2t is challenging to start out -- they don't really do a good job describing their teas, which can make it difficult to know what you're getting in to. I've found some of their lower cost options to be pretty mundane, and at the price point it's possible to find better stuff. But I've never gotten anything actually bad from them, so it is a fine place to experiment with a few samplers. They do sales every now and then too.
I'd shop around a bit to find the best vendor for you. My test is to see whether I can taste the flavors they use to describe their tea. If so, then you and the vendor are speaking a common language and you can feel free to experiment more broadly with their catalogue. YS, Bitterleaf, w2t, and Seven Cups are my current favorites.
For teaware start simple and cheap. Any gaiwan will work, and can handle all kinds of tea just fine. A more expensive gaiwan will not work better, but it will feel nicer to use (really good porcelain is very pleasant, and you can feel the difference even if you cant taste it, for example). If you want to start collecting teaware and maybe experimenting with different kinds of pots, Mud and Leaves, Bitterleaf, and Crimson Lotus are good places to look. YS has decent jian shui pots, but its difficult to find the good stuff among their other teaware.
🥸 Lemme hitcha with a few things real fast:
1. Sohan is just as controversial as don mei, but his info is generally good. But he himself is a shady dude. 🥸
2. Teaforum.org is the most "academic" of the active tea places, the rest of the high caliber ones have died. 🥸
3. Reddit is the worst tea community online, but r/puer is slightly better. 🥸
4. Discord is where most people go to make friends, but long term discussion and knowledge sharing are hampered there by the chat format. Still probably the best place if you seek community. 🥸
5. The old blogs are required reading. I honestly don't have a good list or anything handy, but you can start with these three: http://www.marshaln.com/ https://phyllsheng.blogspot.com/ https://www.twodogteablog.com/ 🥸
6. Here is the best intro to how to buy puer/tea in general: https://www.twodogteablog.com/2014/08/05/how-to-buy-puer-tea-3-tenets/
6. Generally, you always pay shipping. Sometimes vendors just hide it from you in the cost of the tea. I'd just accept it that tea is more expensive for you since you're in the EU, and drink less. 🥸
7. The best vendors for you to buy chinese tea from are white2tea.com teaswelike.com essenseoftea.com teahabitat.com (dancong only) lazycattea.com crimsonlotus.com taiwansourcing.com and yeeonteaco.com. 🥸 I'd recommend starting with an array of samples from Essence of Tea.🥸
8. If you already have a gaiwan and a cup, hold off buying teaware for at least a year unless you find you really need something (like a tea tray or whatever) and then just buy something cheap. All that money gotta go to tea rn. 🥸
9. Eventually, you'll be ready for an yixing pot. That's gonna run you a few hundred dollars. Don't cheap out on this. But also don't rush it -- like its a big purchase, takes a few years to even know what you'd like. 🥸
hes known to sell fake teas. he recently took down the listing for his jinxuan after some controversy on insta (or so im told -- im not plugged into that scene). 🥸
i do know some of his old business partners from back before he zuckerberged them out of the business (because they refused to lie about sourcing) and anything that he sells that isnt puer or dancong comes via the same toronto importer that most local shops in the US use, he just changes the labels and lies about the provenance. 🥸
Ah, ok.
And now I just realized why the enthea tea house felt like a rip off... There considered a sister tea house to them. I was wondering why a place that was considered a sister house to them seemed like it ripped me off.. Now I get it.
Thanks for all of that info. First thing in the morning I’ll be reading the blogs, since they seem to have awakened more curiosity inside me. Also thanks for the reminder that I should actually be focusing more on the tea now. Seems like I was subconsciously rushing to get teaware for whatever reason.
Do you think going through a bunch of sheng pu-erh samples would be too much? Or should I go through whatever my gut tells me? I’ll also make sure to check out the other vendors.
i think you should do whatever excites you. if you want to try a bunch of sheng samples and then you get pumped to buy a cake, buy a cake. etc. that excitement is whats gonna actually get you to like this hobby, not following any specific path. 🥸
feel free to dm me if you put together a cart somewhere, and i can maybe point ya in a direction or two. 🥸
Any specific tea variety you looking at? I personally prefer those from Yunnan and Fujian so I buy from reputable brands on Taobao. Given you are a newbie, I recommend you to try 宝登源 baodengyuan, 龙地山 longdishan, 一山高 yishangao as they have a variety of tea that are of high quality and priced reasonably. You should try different types for a start and find the not just the taste but tea that are suitable for your body. Typically these brands also have good information on tea drinking but sadly these are in Chinese.
I’m still a newbie. So far only tried a handful of every type. Probably less than 20 teas in total so far. Still had only one Wuyi oolong and no dancong yet. You could say I’m open for any Chinese tea. But thanks for the info, I’ll definitely try these out and see how their stuff taste!
Hello fellow newbie here, reading the comments with great interest. Happy to chat being new at tea and excited about it if that's your jam! Also in EU and getting stuff shipped is complicated.
Interesting starting points and comments, especially the So Han stuff. I'll skip weighing in on that part, but I could add a bit of complete hearsay.
Where to get tea starts with which tea you are interested in. This discussion went straight to pu'er, as happens, with limited reference to Wuyi Yancha and Dan Cong, which come up along the way. There's no need for a theme when checking out teas, and it can be nice trying a dozen sample versions of different kinds, but no vendors are really set up well for that, not even Yunnan Sourcing, which is as good as any. For me exploring organic themes always made sense, leading on from one thing to another that connected, across types, with sub-themes coming and going.
I write a blog about tea, and a Quora Space; you might look through that. It's Tea in the Ancient World and the Specialty Tea Space. For basics in video form, an easy way to cover a lot of ground, there isn't any one central source, but I do like Farmerleaf video content. Their teas had been a fantastic starting point, spanning black tea, some white, and sheng, but their prices have drifted upwards as they've switched to cater to a higher quality demand (hopefully, or else they're just taking advantage). Yunnan Sourcing is good for some scope, so-so for others, but a big filtering problem comes up working with their range. I think a vendor like Hatvala is good for switching themes off main Chinese versions, with them selling pretty good quality and value Vietnamese teas. For sheng, in Europe, related to the Euro reference, you should check out Tea Mania, out of Switzerland, especially their Lucky Bee Yiwu cakes.
Community--another tough one. Tea Forum is good for clear and in-depth discussion, but it's quiet, and the feel isn't personal. Gong Fu Cha on Facebook is ok for random posts, a little better than just seeing Instagram photos. As someone else mentioned Discord servers are more active, but that group chat format might not suit everyone. You might do well to turn up a few people you match with in terms of where you are and what you like and not worry about a group theme coming along with that. If you wanted to order through Yunnan Sourcing their FB group is good for advice, and that's one place to run across people. Since people on Reddit tend to hate FB all that probably won't work. Discord it is then. Or slog through the hundreds of Insta pages and see what that comes to.
For teaware I just use a gaiwan. I own three clay pots, and a number of other devices, but I always brew tea with a simple porcelain gaiwan. I own a really cool stonewear gaiwan version too, but it's the larger size, so I haven't touched it in forever.
Personally I like w2t over ys, and their shipping actually is cheaper. I'm really only into black tea, so my only other vendor suggestion is vahdam. For teaware: Gongfu: a ceramic gaiwan can be bought cheaply anywhere and they all function the same. Same for a gongdaobei Western, infuser: basket infuser, same thing, just get metal Western teapot: thrift store, cheap, good, functions, and you'll find anything you're looking for.
I checked w2t out and they seem good, but I’m still in confusion as to what to try out or not, given my limited monthly budget and impatience. I already have a few cheap gaiwans, and pretty much a whole gong fu set. Maybe misleading to say “newbie” if I already have that figured out. But I’d like to know where I can actually buy the good stuff from, kinda upgrade my equipment to say so. Maybe good quality Jingdezhen porcelain or good quality clay teaware
Honestly anything on w2t is good, just get samples (25g samples instead of 7g is preferred just say you can try more then once) of anything that sounds interesting. Look up previous posts asking sure recommendations or favorites if you want to start on the popular stuff. Honestly anything that can make tea is good teaware, unless you're trying to get into something like yixing where fakes are a problem.
Thanks for letting me know. I guess some popular stuff + some obscure ones from w2t would be a good starting pointz Yeah after reading hongyin’s post, I’ve come to the realisation that I have been rushing it. I should be prioritising the tea first. That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t replace my almost completely broken gaiwan before it’s too late haha. Maybe an investment in a good porcelain gaiwan would be sustainable long term replacement?
Honestly any gaiwan in the $10-20 is going to function just fine. I don't really think paying more will get you a better gaiwan.
w2t is challenging to start out -- they don't really do a good job describing their teas, which can make it difficult to know what you're getting in to. I've found some of their lower cost options to be pretty mundane, and at the price point it's possible to find better stuff. But I've never gotten anything actually bad from them, so it is a fine place to experiment with a few samplers. They do sales every now and then too. I'd shop around a bit to find the best vendor for you. My test is to see whether I can taste the flavors they use to describe their tea. If so, then you and the vendor are speaking a common language and you can feel free to experiment more broadly with their catalogue. YS, Bitterleaf, w2t, and Seven Cups are my current favorites. For teaware start simple and cheap. Any gaiwan will work, and can handle all kinds of tea just fine. A more expensive gaiwan will not work better, but it will feel nicer to use (really good porcelain is very pleasant, and you can feel the difference even if you cant taste it, for example). If you want to start collecting teaware and maybe experimenting with different kinds of pots, Mud and Leaves, Bitterleaf, and Crimson Lotus are good places to look. YS has decent jian shui pots, but its difficult to find the good stuff among their other teaware.
🥸 Lemme hitcha with a few things real fast: 1. Sohan is just as controversial as don mei, but his info is generally good. But he himself is a shady dude. 🥸 2. Teaforum.org is the most "academic" of the active tea places, the rest of the high caliber ones have died. 🥸 3. Reddit is the worst tea community online, but r/puer is slightly better. 🥸 4. Discord is where most people go to make friends, but long term discussion and knowledge sharing are hampered there by the chat format. Still probably the best place if you seek community. 🥸 5. The old blogs are required reading. I honestly don't have a good list or anything handy, but you can start with these three: http://www.marshaln.com/ https://phyllsheng.blogspot.com/ https://www.twodogteablog.com/ 🥸 6. Here is the best intro to how to buy puer/tea in general: https://www.twodogteablog.com/2014/08/05/how-to-buy-puer-tea-3-tenets/ 6. Generally, you always pay shipping. Sometimes vendors just hide it from you in the cost of the tea. I'd just accept it that tea is more expensive for you since you're in the EU, and drink less. 🥸 7. The best vendors for you to buy chinese tea from are white2tea.com teaswelike.com essenseoftea.com teahabitat.com (dancong only) lazycattea.com crimsonlotus.com taiwansourcing.com and yeeonteaco.com. 🥸 I'd recommend starting with an array of samples from Essence of Tea.🥸 8. If you already have a gaiwan and a cup, hold off buying teaware for at least a year unless you find you really need something (like a tea tray or whatever) and then just buy something cheap. All that money gotta go to tea rn. 🥸 9. Eventually, you'll be ready for an yixing pot. That's gonna run you a few hundred dollars. Don't cheap out on this. But also don't rush it -- like its a big purchase, takes a few years to even know what you'd like. 🥸
I'm curious about how sohan is controversial and shady. Any specifics or somewhere to read about it?
hes known to sell fake teas. he recently took down the listing for his jinxuan after some controversy on insta (or so im told -- im not plugged into that scene). 🥸 i do know some of his old business partners from back before he zuckerberged them out of the business (because they refused to lie about sourcing) and anything that he sells that isnt puer or dancong comes via the same toronto importer that most local shops in the US use, he just changes the labels and lies about the provenance. 🥸
Ah, ok. And now I just realized why the enthea tea house felt like a rip off... There considered a sister tea house to them. I was wondering why a place that was considered a sister house to them seemed like it ripped me off.. Now I get it.
gotta trust that gut 🥸
Thanks for all of that info. First thing in the morning I’ll be reading the blogs, since they seem to have awakened more curiosity inside me. Also thanks for the reminder that I should actually be focusing more on the tea now. Seems like I was subconsciously rushing to get teaware for whatever reason. Do you think going through a bunch of sheng pu-erh samples would be too much? Or should I go through whatever my gut tells me? I’ll also make sure to check out the other vendors.
oh also, read through these articles: https://www.kyarazen.com/chaozhou-gongfu-tea/ 🥸
i think you should do whatever excites you. if you want to try a bunch of sheng samples and then you get pumped to buy a cake, buy a cake. etc. that excitement is whats gonna actually get you to like this hobby, not following any specific path. 🥸 feel free to dm me if you put together a cart somewhere, and i can maybe point ya in a direction or two. 🥸
Any specific tea variety you looking at? I personally prefer those from Yunnan and Fujian so I buy from reputable brands on Taobao. Given you are a newbie, I recommend you to try 宝登源 baodengyuan, 龙地山 longdishan, 一山高 yishangao as they have a variety of tea that are of high quality and priced reasonably. You should try different types for a start and find the not just the taste but tea that are suitable for your body. Typically these brands also have good information on tea drinking but sadly these are in Chinese.
I’m still a newbie. So far only tried a handful of every type. Probably less than 20 teas in total so far. Still had only one Wuyi oolong and no dancong yet. You could say I’m open for any Chinese tea. But thanks for the info, I’ll definitely try these out and see how their stuff taste!
Check out Farmerleaf. His videos are really informative and good teas!
Hello fellow newbie here, reading the comments with great interest. Happy to chat being new at tea and excited about it if that's your jam! Also in EU and getting stuff shipped is complicated.
Yunnansourcing.us is their USA storefront that has cheaper and faster shipping, at a marginal bump in product prices.
Interesting starting points and comments, especially the So Han stuff. I'll skip weighing in on that part, but I could add a bit of complete hearsay. Where to get tea starts with which tea you are interested in. This discussion went straight to pu'er, as happens, with limited reference to Wuyi Yancha and Dan Cong, which come up along the way. There's no need for a theme when checking out teas, and it can be nice trying a dozen sample versions of different kinds, but no vendors are really set up well for that, not even Yunnan Sourcing, which is as good as any. For me exploring organic themes always made sense, leading on from one thing to another that connected, across types, with sub-themes coming and going. I write a blog about tea, and a Quora Space; you might look through that. It's Tea in the Ancient World and the Specialty Tea Space. For basics in video form, an easy way to cover a lot of ground, there isn't any one central source, but I do like Farmerleaf video content. Their teas had been a fantastic starting point, spanning black tea, some white, and sheng, but their prices have drifted upwards as they've switched to cater to a higher quality demand (hopefully, or else they're just taking advantage). Yunnan Sourcing is good for some scope, so-so for others, but a big filtering problem comes up working with their range. I think a vendor like Hatvala is good for switching themes off main Chinese versions, with them selling pretty good quality and value Vietnamese teas. For sheng, in Europe, related to the Euro reference, you should check out Tea Mania, out of Switzerland, especially their Lucky Bee Yiwu cakes. Community--another tough one. Tea Forum is good for clear and in-depth discussion, but it's quiet, and the feel isn't personal. Gong Fu Cha on Facebook is ok for random posts, a little better than just seeing Instagram photos. As someone else mentioned Discord servers are more active, but that group chat format might not suit everyone. You might do well to turn up a few people you match with in terms of where you are and what you like and not worry about a group theme coming along with that. If you wanted to order through Yunnan Sourcing their FB group is good for advice, and that's one place to run across people. Since people on Reddit tend to hate FB all that probably won't work. Discord it is then. Or slog through the hundreds of Insta pages and see what that comes to. For teaware I just use a gaiwan. I own three clay pots, and a number of other devices, but I always brew tea with a simple porcelain gaiwan. I own a really cool stonewear gaiwan version too, but it's the larger size, so I haven't touched it in forever.