Tea

Any recommendations for a newbie to start off with 😁?

You can buy it here:

T2 Tea - Melbourne Breakfast

So growing up we’ve always had pueer at dim sum. However my parents always brought their own. When I moved out, I went to David’s tea or something like that. And bought some pueer for myself. Brought back to my parents and asked them what was wrong with it hahah. Turns out I’ve been drinking 20+ year old tea. Didn’t realize I was a tea snob

I am in Canada and buy them here: https://shop.chayi.ca/

Owners are awesome at making recommendations based on what you like.

I don't know, I usually get 4-5 steeps out of them. Though they do end up closer to a nuttier oolong by the end, they taste distinctly dan cong for the first three.

Ippodo is my current personal favorite. Prior to bringing it back straight from Japan, I just purchased it off Amazon. Ippodo also has their own website. They can be a bit expensive but I like ummon-no-mukashi ($51 for 40g on Amazon) for drinking it plain (usucha, unsweetened) and then for matcha lattes I like ikuyo (I'll typically get the 100g bag just because I drink a ton of it, also around $50).

Edit: add link

Yeah, the Ito En Golden Oolong. I just love the full-bodied flavor without as much of the traditional bitterness of a normal green tea.

Indeed it is! I think with Harney & Sons, unfortunately, for me they're either completely hit or completely miss. But they have some real gems hidden in there, Black Needle being one of them 🥰

My other recs from H&S are the Japanese Whiskey (I loooove barrel-aged & smokey teas), and the dark horse, East Frisian.

Now, with the East Frisian, I honestly couldn't recommend it on its own, but I found it works SO well as a sort of "salt" to bring out the flavor of the "steak" of your preferred black tea 🤤☕