Well, I managed to make it out alive, and with some crazy experiences,
and hopefully great tea.

First off, I wanted to extend a big thank you to DogMa, Michael Plant,
and the rest of the guys who were hanging out at The Tea Gallery for
the invite... however, regretfully, by the time we made our initial
trip into Chinatown on Thurs. it was getting late and on top of that we
never found it. NYC is big, and can be damn confusing. Also, in my
infinite wisdom I forgot my cellphone charger, and having a bleeding
edge new cell phone means no buying a new one - even in Chinatown - so
I couldn't even call to figure out where the hell it was or if I was
close.

On to the tea. Ten Ren was pretty cool, I thought that they were waaaay
overpriced and the staff was not very knowledgable or helpful. It was
very slow and they could easily see I was spending some dough... yet,
still no mentionable service. And after dropping far too much money on
far to little tea, they still charged me $1 for a small cup of plum
iced tea to head out with. Overall, I'd say a big thumbs down from me.
I bought: Spring 2006 Lung Ching, upper grade Jasmine Green, Ti Kuan
Yin, some lower end Pu-Erh Tuo Cha, some ginseng black tea, and the
plum iced tea.

Kam Man. A Chinese grocery on steroids. I really liked this place. This
is more like what I am used to in PGH but on a bigger scale. The
selection was limited but they had some unique stuff and the prices
were right where they should be. I bought: 1lb. of a Jasmine Oolong
that was phenomenally good and $4/lb.! Some green jasmine mini-tuocha,
A Yunnan Pu-Erh, Kelly bought some rose tea, a handful of artistic
Lychee shaped jasmine green tea, dried hawthorne berries, and some
Kings Tea. I also bought a very nice Gaiwan here for under $4. Thumbs
up from me, I'd like to spend a lot more time in this store... but the
actual tea was somewhat limited.

Teany. Moby, the musician, owns this little out-of-the-way tea/vegan
shop. I have been a Moby fan for some time and while my interest in his
work has waned I did want to check out his tea shop. I have the Teany
book written by Moby and his ex-GF and it is a funny book filled with
Moby's energy and sense of humor. Also, the DVD titled "Play" is a must
watch for some laughs... however, Teany not so much. The staff was
useless. They were slow, slightly off-putting attitudes, and a touch of
specialness I think. Plus the place is rediculous expensive for
nothing. They have no idea about tea or much else, I was reduced to
ordering by a number since the woman stated they didn't have Pi Lo
Chun, but they did when I said #29. Ugh. Tepid water topped off my $6
miniature pot of tea. Their tea prices are actually funnier than the
Moby DVD, $16 for less than a teaspoon of 5 different common teas in
little containers bundled together. What a joke.

I had a few bubble teas, I actually liked the milk tea taste, but not
the bubbles so much. There was a bakery that had iced tea and iced
green tea with a fruit jelly in it that looked great though.

Sadly, this was about it for teas... I couldn't find any other tea
shops. I tried like crazy, but no luck. I never found The Tea Gallery,
even after a second attempt, and missed out on Takashima (sp?) which
was on 5th ave. I believe, due to time.

I did find a great little store though called: Jade Garden Arts &
Crafts Co. on Mulberry st. An absolute delight! Great people, great
wares, and a wonderful selection of all kinds of pottery including some
amazing Yixing teapots and mugs. Bonsai Pots, Orchid pots, Chinese
brush painting supplies... and more. all tucked away from the busy
streets. A+

I also really liked Pearl Paint, an art supply shop along Canal st.
that was like 5 stories of supplies. They seemed a bit overpriced and
nothing overwhelmingly unique, but they did have some cool stuff and it
was a nice stop.

The Empire State building failed to really impress me with the view,
Times Square was OK but not that amazing, the Statue of Liberty was
pretty neat to see in person but there isn't a whole lot going on there
to get into it. Central Park was very nice, and I liked it a lot, it
was one of the highlights. I finally got the hang of the subways the
day I was leaving, and I probably walked 50-60 miles in 4 days,
honestly. Rockefeler sq. was small, but there was a really cool
Japanese book store that also sold Yokan which goes great with green
tea... which was much better than the Carribean/*** parade that was
happening there... not my cup of tea.

As I go through the teas, I'll be sure to mention any outstanding
ones.. but as it stands I really didn't end up with any real amazing
finds beyond the Spring '06 Lung Ching from Ten Ren which seemed very
high-quality. The Jasmine Oolong from Kam Man is GREAT, I'm drinking it
now... happily back in good old Pittsburgh. Not even being biased, but
I would believe you could find just about everything in NYC in PGH more
condensed and easily accessible. The Strip District here rivals
chinatown/little Italy, and most of the rest can be found here too...
with the addition of trees and open spaces and at a much lower cost. I
really thought I was not going to want to leave and it would make me
want to live there.. and it would be cool for maybe a year, but that
would be tops for me.

- Dominic
Drinking: Jasmine Oolong