Guide to Buying Tea in Taipei — My BF is GF | taiwan tea shop
Goherefirst.Iconsiderthemtobeveryhonest,andgenuinelyinterestedineducatingpeopleinthedifferencebetweendifferenttypesofOolongteas,fromthelight,emeraldflavoured包種/Baozhong/Pouchongteatothenutty,highlyroasted鐵觀音/Tieguanyin/TiKuanYin.MostoftheirstaffthatIhaveencounteredspeakEnglishquitewell,andtheyarehappytoletyoutasteseveraldifferentteas.Everyteatheysellisofferedinvariousgrades,colourcodedfromredatthelowendtogoldatthehighend.Dontfeellikeyouhavetospringforthehighergradesthough-chancesareify...
Go here first. I consider them to be very honest, and genuinely interested in educating people in the difference between different types of Oolong teas, from the light, emerald flavoured 包種/Baozhong/ Pouchong tea to the nutty, highly roasted 鐵觀音/ Tieguanyin / Ti Kuan Yin. Most of their staff that I have encountered speak English quite well, and they are happy to let you taste several different teas.
Every tea they sell is offered in various grades, colour coded from red at the low end to gold at the high end. Dont feel like you have to spring for the higher grades though - chances are if youre reading this guide, you dont need to spend that kind of money on tea! When Jannell and I went to Wangs Tea recently, we asked them to give us a blind taste test of yellow and blue. Their blue grade tea is twice the price of the yellow (and gold is twice the price of blue). While we could identify that the blue tasted a bit smoother and the yellow was a bit more tannic, ...