I had a brief email discussion with Phil Parda of Zhong Guo Cha, the
tea vendor mentioned here a few weeks back, and received a very
impressive package the other day in the mail. I have yet to go through
all of the samples, but I can most certainly say that they are
impressive and from what I have tasted so far definately legit. Each
tea has easily been above what I was expecting. I find the pricing to
be pretty fair even though it is for 50g, and some are outright
bargains.

A little background: I had looked into this vendor when someone posted
about the company, I then researched the company background as well as
the owner. I then had requested a sample from the website, in the
meantime though I spoke with the owner and offered to fairly evaluate
his product. Since so many vendors rarely do this but promise the
world, and since there are a lot of unscrupulous vendors and spammers,
I wanted to at least offer an olive branch to a reputable vendor and
give them a fair shake. They did not post here or spam, I contacted
them. I am not advertising for them, just providing an honest appraisal
to a stand up vendor, and I am including their numbering scheme since
they have multiple grades of each in some teas. The numbering is a bit
cumbersome though and tough to work with since there is no real
breakdown of what they mean anywhere that I saw.

A quick rundown of the tea so far:

W-13-1-1 Silver Needles (Bai Hao Yin Zhen) - Excellent. Quality, taste,
and price. This is about half the price of similar tea from other
vendors and at or above their quality. A+ This was light and flavorful
with nice sweetness, no bitterness and subtle vegetal notes. I'd place
it between the flavor of a high quality white and a high quality pi lo
chun.

G-1-3-3 Dragon Well - Very good. Better than the Spring 2006 Dragonwell
from Ten Ren and at a third of the price. Dragonwell is not a
particular favorite of mine, but this was everything you would want in
a quality (smooth, chestnutty, delicate) Dragonwell at a very good
price.

G-4-1-1 Que She (Bird's Tongue) - Wow. This was a standout for me.
It is not a budget tea at ~$22 for 50g, and it was highly rated on
their site so I was expecting to be a little let down from the lofty
expectations... I was wrong. This quickly (to my dismay) is on my top
green list. The intial nose of it was a bit strong and vegetal (which
is a good thing to me) but then the first sip betrayed that and offered
a very delicate and smooth green with a understated vegetal taste. I
was a bit bummed at first since I was hoping for a strong vegetal
green, but that went away pretty quick when the flavor was great in
it's own right. This will be a nice treat every now and then for me.

G-4-8-3 Bi Luo Chun - OK for the money. ($8.50 for 50g ) Having just
finished some Pi Lo Chun from Adagio that I received as a gift this was
on par and just a touch over their price. Not the best value, but a
very good Pi Lo Chun that at least met my expectations. To be fair they
do offer a higher grade, and I may try some of that next time.

O-9-6-2 Iron Buddha (Tie Guan Yin) Oolong - Damn fine. The other tea
from Adagio I had just finished up was some TGY and this beat it hands
down. Not only that but at $2 less. It absolutely blew away the TGY I
bought at Ten Ren too. Even though I'm not an oolong person, and I am
mainly comparing to those other two, this was a nice surprise.

I still have a number of teas to sample (oolongs, pu-erh, and a few
others), and I hate to give all glowing reviews without some negatives
to balance it out... but it is actually pretty tough to do. The Pi Lo
Chun and Dragonwell were still top-notch and they were the only two I
could even try to knock a bit... but even then the prices are pretty
damn good for the quality so even that is tough. ZGC certainly is
catering to a bit higher quality tea at a bit higher prices, but even
as frugal as I am I could easily see each one so far being worth every
penny... and again in fairness compared to many vendors the prices are
dead even or a bit below. The only real negative things I can say is
that the shipping is a bit expensive if you are ordering small amounts
(and again the counterpoint is that the shipping was lightening fast
and extremely well packaged), the numbering system is a bit of a kludge
to work with and cumbersome, the breakdown of price per cup (based on
6-8oz. in my math) of tea doesn't compute with my figures on the
website, and the site itself could use some work and cohesiveness with
a few outdated prices and inconsistencies I found while browsing.

Overall, this site will see more business from me in the future, I'm a
tough nut to crack and they managed to slip in and crush my hard shell.
For all the bashing I do (generally well warranted) this is the first
time I've felt compelled to give some props. The owner knows his stuff,
gives talks and demonstrations, has an actual brick and mortar store in
CT, and while health benefits are talked about they are not overblown
or overhyped. I'm most definately impressed so far and I will update
this thread when I finish the rest of the teas. They're well worth a
try in my book, and the time it took for me to write all this.

- Dominic
Drinking: Ten Ren Jasmine Green (2nd. grade)

i was going to ask if the iron buddha has any strong flowery/perfume
taste... but i see the website is in chinese (ZhongGuoCha.com) ... :P
so they ship from china? that sounds like hassle for some small
quantities for me ... bugger...

-- SN -------------------------
tgfop.wordpress.com

Dominic T. wrote:
>
> G-1-3-3 Dragon Well - Very good. Better than the Spring 2006 Dragonwell
> from Ten Ren and at a third of the price. Dragonwell is not a
> particular favorite of mine, but this was everything you would want in
> a quality (smooth, chestnutty, delicate) Dragonwell at a very good
> price.
>
> O-9-6-2 Iron Buddha (Tie Guan Yin) Oolong - Damn fine. The other tea
> from Adagio I had just finished up was some TGY and this beat it hands
> down. Not only that but at $2 less. It absolutely blew away the TGY I
> bought at Ten Ren too. Even though I'm not an oolong person, and I am
> mainly comparing to those other two, this was a nice surprise.

oops, ok, youre talking about secure.worldsourceintl.com
(i'll try to get a free sample again, last time the form didnt work)

SN wrote:
> i was going to ask if the iron buddha has any strong flowery/perfume
> taste... but i see the website is in chinese (ZhongGuoCha.com) ... :P
> so they ship from china? that sounds like hassle for some small
> quantities for me ... bugger...
>
> -- SN -------------------------
> tgfop.wordpress.com
>
> Dominic T. wrote:
> >
> > G-1-3-3 Dragon Well - Very good. Better than the Spring 2006 Dragonwell
> > from Ten Ren and at a third of the price. Dragonwell is not a
> > particular favorite of mine, but this was everything you would want in
> > a quality (smooth, chestnutty, delicate) Dragonwell at a very good
> > price.
> >
> > O-9-6-2 Iron Buddha (Tie Guan Yin) Oolong - Damn fine. The other tea
> > from Adagio I had just finished up was some TGY and this beat it hands
> > down. Not only that but at $2 less. It absolutely blew away the TGY I
> > bought at Ten Ren too. Even though I'm not an oolong person, and I am
> > mainly comparing to those other two, this was a nice surprise.