"Mike Petro" > wrote in message
...
> Hi Blues,
>
> Welcome to the club. I personally started out drinking black puerhs
> and then grew into the green puerh which is now my favorite. Blacks
> are more mellow, yet they can be brewed up strong, and they are
> virtually impossible to oversteep. Greens can be astringent,
> particularly if steeped too long. Greens also have the most potential
> for that hauntingly sweet and elusive aftertaste. Play around with
> temperatures on the greens, I usually start around 170F, but use a
> full boil for the blacks.
>
> By the Way, there is no shame in obtaining your puerh wherever you may
> find it. If Chinatown doesn't work for you try your local neighborhood
> Chinese Restaurant. They will probably be drinking oolong themselves
> but I have had some success with taking a wrapper from a puerh cake to
> them and asking them to get some for me. Several of them have obliged
> me over the years. I personally buy mine online nowadays for a lot of
> reasons and I find no shame in it. For me the road to success was to
> strike a personal relationship with a couple of knowledgeable vendors.
> Go with whatever works for you and don't worry about the naysayers.
>
>
> Mike
>
Thanks for the advice on water temp. I'll give it a try. I'm not too
concerned with where my tea comes from, for the most part. That was just an
attempt at humor in light of some of the recent posts.8^) I enjoy going to
the Asian shops and searching for tea, I just don't get much time to do it.
I really have yet to find anything that made me say wow, certainly some
drinkable teas though. By the same token, I'm sure I've barely made a dent
in searching out the available shops. I enjoy the convenience of the net
and like to be able to purchase small samples before committing to a larger
quantity. I have a couple hundred grams of Sencha's that I don't like, but
I feel weird about throwing out. I think for me hitting the shops has as
much to do with the thrill of the chase as it does finding a good cup of
tea.

Blues