Alex wrote:
> Michael where did you get this stuff? It sounds good. I am not much
> of a wuyi drinker either but I love that gravel taste.
>
> Karsten I find that tea keeps for a really long time in those
> vacuum-sealed bags. Two weeks ago I was digging around in my tea
> closet and found one that claimed to contain Si Ji Chun (Taiwanese
> oolong). The bag was in complex characters too - clearly Taiwanese.
> Now the last time I went to Taiwan was two summers ago, but that was
> for work and I didn't do any tea shopping, and furthermore I have no
> memory of owning this stuff, so I must have bought it the last time I
> *lived* in Taiwan, which was in the summer of 2000! I opened it and
> it's amazing - honestly, it's better than most of the stuff I have now,
> that I spend zillions of dollars on getting from internet vendors.
> Incredible focused flavors. And, at the time I didn't know jack about
> tea, I just bought what I liked. So I'm also wondering what's going on
> with storage and why this particular tea really seemed to thrive in the
> six years it spent in a dark, airless environment.

Since we are a good bit OT already, I always wonder this myself. I have
found a cheap black/white tea blend twice when I moved and each time I
pulled it out and brewed a cup and it is just as intense and sweet and
great as the day I received it as a gift more than 5 years ago! It was
stored in a foil pouch that I always ket tightly rolled and expelled of
air and sealed with ordinary scotch tape. No nitrogen, no seal-a-meal,
nuttin. But then I have had other teas that are just plain stale after
a year of being forgotten and in the back of a cupboard. It's a mystery
to me, but at least I'm not alone... I almost feel "dirty" when I pull
one of these opened containers from the depths of hell and prepare to
brew it. Sometimes for good reason, others I'm pleasantly surprised.

- Dominic