Dominic T. > wrote:
>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.

Did you try the Oriental Beauty? You gotta try it. It's worth the trip,
and I don't think the other teas are. Their ginseng blacks smell like latex
to me, too.

>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.

These guys have a lot of stuff in tins, and it's always different on each
trip, and a lot of it is stale. If you find something you like, you can
never get it there again. Still, the first time I ever tried panyong congou
was a tin that I got there, and it was a wonderful introduction to the stuff.

>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.

Tepid water is my #1 complaint about tea in the US, with coffee contamination
being #2, I'd never heard of Teany before, but I have had similar
experiences in too many places.

>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.

You can get the stuff without the bubbles, if you want. I find the stuff
really nasty and the bubbles don't help it. I think if I could get some
that wasn't so sweet it might help.

>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.

I remember Pittsburgh when I was a little kid and all the streetlights
came on around noon... my grandfather ran a pizzaria and an Italian cheese
factory there. It's a totally different town than it was back then.
And all of my relatives are out of work and still complaining about the
steel mills having closed and all these yuppies having moved in.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."