Green Tea Forum

kylezo · Posted: Jul 25, 2008 5:05 am Post subject: Tea recommendation, please!

Hi all, I am looking for some general recommendations for tea.

I got started drinking 'real' tea when I got a Peet's sampler set from family for Christmas. In particular, I was quite stricken by the Ti Quan Yin included in the sample selection. In fact, that is where I found my particular taste for tea: smokey, nutty, robust, in your face flavor. Did I mention nutty?

So I went about purchasing many different oolongs. Then I recieved a sample of some green tea that was extremely good and thought 'Maybe green tea is what I'm really after?' (You can see where this is heading)...now my cabinet is full of about 10 different kinds of green/oolong tea and I am still sifting through the acquisitions I have made. To this day, I don't feel I've really found what I am looking for, although some teas, both oolongs and green, have come close.

I went to the Samovar Tea Lounge in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago (AWESOME place, by the way) and asked for a serving of thier Hiki Sencha, as in the tasting notes, I read my key words amongst some others: smokey, nutty. It was extraordinarily good so I bought a quarter pound. I am not brewing it as well as they did but I am learning. (A question about this actually: lots of crumbled, broken leaves in here - did I get taken or is this pretty common?)

Anyways, sorry about the long windedness, but my request is, can anyone recommend some tea that fits the profile I am describing? Super nutty, robust, smokey flavor that you can chew. General types are fine, but if there is a specific batch you know about, I welcome that too.

Thanks everyone!

Kyle