Teadrunk Forum

Lu Shan Yun Wu! Love it.  Also love this video of one of my favorite connoisseurs James Norwood Pratt where he talks about Lu Shan and its magical character.

http://video.google.com/videosearch?cli … mp;tab=wv#

As this is my first message on this forum, I though it would be appropriate to introduce my self briefly. I'm a technology student from Finland. Tea has been my favoride drink since as long as I can remember, but I have started to learn about the higher arts of tea brewing only recently. In Finland, coffee is much more widely consumed product than tea, but there are still some small groups of tea enthusiasts. There are also a few tea shops that sell quality loose leaf tea, but there are still some quality teas that I find hard to come by.

I have tried to find a good place to buy Lu Shan Yun Wu and original West Lake Lung Ching teas. If some one could recomend a good online shop where one could buy either one or both of these teas, I'd be most greatfull. From the articles that I've read, I gather that not everything that is sold as West Lake is really the original product. Imperial Tea Court sells some sort of Lung Ching. Has any one tasted it? Is it genuine West Lake tea?

I am getting intorduced to the wonders of Chinese Green Teas. I have tried the green tea from Fujian Anxi Eight horses tea company but cannont tell the name as it is in chinese and then I have had tea with only one name in english "Tongzhou". With this limited information, can someone help me find these teas in USA or elsewhere, where I can mail order. thanks,   dds

brandon wrote:

TeaSpring sells both of the teas you mentioned, and I am pleased with the quality of their Chinese greens. I buy in the spring, but it manages to stay fairly appealing throughout the year with the air squeezed out.

Lu shan Yun wu is out of stock. On the authenticity of West Lake area Long Jing, I gather there is a broad area of tea production with certain regions designated as "protected." I could swear I have seen a government seal affixed, but I dont see it on TeaSpring's packaging. Being China, the sticker isn't a rock solid guarantee of anything - but it tastes pretty good to me.

According to some Hangzhou tea farmers, seals are given to Hangzhou farmers based on how many hectares of tea field each family has, and one seal with pin number and water marks is given to estimated production of each 250g process tea. After I heard this, I recalled a few years ago, when I bought cans of 250g long jing, the cans did bear the standard seals whose numbers can be looked up online. But at other times when I bought small packs, there weren't standard seals coming with them. Currently when buying from Hangzhou farmers, they would provide the sticker seal for about each 250g of tea. If they don't offer, the buyers can always demand it. In regions out of Hangzhou, there is no such policy out of Hangzhou.