Hello,

I was wondering if a TV channel has ever produced a serie of coverage/
reportage (I don't know the exta term in english) about the tea and the
different ones in China, India, Japan, etc.

I am always disapointed to sea these 1 hour covering speaking about tea
without entering into the details and saying a lot of bullsh*t about our
beverage.

Sebastien.

Me again...

On Tue, 11 Jan 2011 23:35:08 +0000, Sébastien MEDARD wrote:

> I was wondering if a TV channel has ever produced a serie of coverage/
> reportage (I don't know the exta term in english)

TV Documentary should be better...

Sebastien.

Ive come across some good tea video on the Internet. Your best bet is
probably YouTube. Basically somebody in a tea shoppe talking about
the teas they sell. I consider all the BS kind of romantic myself. I
dont mind the trappings every time I walk into a tea shoppe. It pays
the bills.

Jim

PS I think the last discussion we had on this subject was David Lee
Hoffman All In This Tea. You can say whatever you want about
TEAVANA. Their consumer model seems to be holding up even though over
Christmas I felt that something has changed for the better.

On Jan 11, 4:35 pm, Sébastien MEDARD > wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I was wondering if a TV channel has ever produced a serie of coverage/
> reportage (I don't know the exta term in english) about the tea and the
> different ones in China, India, Japan, etc.
>
> I am always disapointed to sea these 1 hour covering speaking about tea
> without entering into the details and saying a lot of bullsh*t about our
> beverage.
>
> Sebastien.

Hello,

> PS I think the last discussion we had on this subject was David Lee
> Hoffman All In This Tea.

Thank you for the advice.

I have just got it and watched it. It is not bad at all. That's the first
time I heard that somebody makes a difference between oxydation and
fermentation. It was a woman in front a teaboat speaking about puerh.
Most of the time, I can say, everytime I heard about fermentation which
is not the way tea leaves chemicals change into flavor...

We had one documentary on a tv channel in France about tea for every body
(we could say for dummies) which was about 3 major companies that sell
tea... OWith one of them we have our local "David Lee Hoffman". His name
is François Xavier Delmas but he is more like a good prototype of what we
call "bobos" (bourgeois bohemian). So the French TV documentary was not
very interesting about the way tea is done.

The "All In This Tea" is way from what I expect about a documentary, but
it gives some interesting images about how the tea is processed for
example.

If you get some interesting video on youtube that I should watch, please,
send me urls.

I am mainly interested in oolong (wulong) teas, but I am open to green
and puerh teas (recent discoveries, just a newbie about this kind of tea).

Thanks,

Sebastien.

Hi Sébastien,

> They get some interesting Darjeeling teas:
> - Singbulli DJ 17 "Flower"
> - Thurbo DJ2

When they are in the « Thés rares et éphémères » category, they usually
are better than the other teas they sell.

However, as I am not a big fan of Darjeeling, I cannot tell you whether
these ones are interesting. First flush Puttabong was the last one I
tried (from another shop).



> Their Rou Gui Xiang Dan Cong not bad at all too.

Once you have tried Imen's Dan Cong (teahabitat) or Akira Hojo's Phoenix
teas, other Dan Cong teas look pretty bad.



>> Did you try those sold by Stéphane ?
>
> I am a fan of them. He is my personnal official dealer for taiwanese
> tea

Yep, they are great. Sometimes better than the ones sold by La Maison
des Trois Thés.
(His Yi Wu sheng cha 2003 is also worthwhile.)

--
Julien ÉLIE

« L'informatique, c'est l'art de passer 15 jours Ã* essayer de gagner
quelques millisecondes€¦ »

Hello,


On Sun, 23 Jan 2011 18:57:26 +0100, Julien ÉLIE wrote:

>> Their Rou Gui Xiang Dan Cong not bad at all too.
>
> Once you have tried Imen's Dan Cong (teahabitat) or Akira Hojo's Phoenix
> teas, other Dan Cong teas look pretty bad.

I will try a look at Teahabitat and Akira Hojo's Phoenix. It seems that
teahabitat web site is down at this time.

>>> Did you try those sold by Stéphane ?
>>
>> I am a fan of them. He is my personnal official dealer for taiwanese
>> tea
>
> Yep, they are great. Sometimes better than the ones sold by La Maison
> des Trois Thés.

I did not have the pleasure to go to the Maison des Trois Thés. This
famous parisian place is too far away from home, as I live in Marseille.
But, if I go to Paris, I will not miss this shop.

> (His Yi Wu sheng cha 2003 is also worthwhile.)

He sent to me a sample of this tea. I am afraid I need a lot more practice
about raw pu-erhs... Definitively a newbie in this kind of tea.

The one that I missed was the oriental beauty of last summer... I will
try not to forget next one...

Sebastien.

Me again...

On Sun, 23 Jan 2011 16:15:21 +0100, Julien ÉLIE wrote:

> Did you watch « La route du thé » (reportage dans le JT de France 2, en
> mai 2010)? It is in five parts:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKuEwcjdGsk
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-JirXgovIo
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adD3gZQWrvo
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXrFsasupnw
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Bbj46aU3Ko

Again, it is a documentary on a women who opened few stores in the city of
Lyon (for example) and then go in China to buy some tea...

I bought one Da Hong Pao and one Mi Lan Xian (if I remember well) that
were quite honest.

But you don't learn a lot of things...

As Tea is the first drink in the world, it is quite strange not being
able to find decent documentary on it, don't you think so?

Sebastien.

Hi Sébastien,

>> Yep, they are great. Sometimes better than the ones sold by La Maison
>> des Trois Thés.
>
> I did not have the pleasure to go to the Maison des Trois Thés. This
> famous parisian place is too far away from home, as I live in Marseille.
> But, if I go to Paris, I will not miss this shop.

The shop is worth seeing. More than a thousand teas. Not all are still
available for purchase, though.
(You can also order by phone.)


>> (His Yi Wu sheng cha 2003 is also worthwhile.)
>
> He sent to me a sample of this tea. I am afraid I need a lot more practice
> about raw pu-erhs... Definitively a newbie in this kind of tea.

Take your time, and enjoy the teas you prefer.


> The one that I missed was the oriental beauty of last summer... I will
> try not to forget next one...

I tasted both 2009 and 2010 Bai Hao. The 2009 was definitely better.
Sure I will also order his 2011 Bai Hao. I appreciate it.

--
Julien ÉLIE

« Prouidentia, dum ortum ante obitum ponit, sapienter fecit, sin autem
quid uitae sit notum ? » (Alphonse Allais)

Sebastien and Julien,

I enjoyed your posts to each other. Sebastien use tea as a Google
search term then click on the Videos option. Julien éphémères and the
English equivalent ephemeral is a term I use to describe White teas.
Do either of you know about the Vanilla tasting teas from former
French protectorate Madagascar. I understand it to be a natural taste
and not some addition of a tisane. Any tea you can think of is
available. It is how much trouble to get some. I always recommend
Java tea from Indonesia. The emerging hand made teas from India,
Africa are worth noting. I recently mentioned Old Lady from Georgia
(former Russian Republic) I think in a class by itself. I have since
discovered my local tea shoppe tasted Old Man. I said you cant have
one without the other. The only other teas I think come in pairs are
the raw and ripe Puers from the same factory same year.

Jim

Hi Jim,

> Julien éphémères and the English equivalent ephemeral is a term I use
> to describe White teas.

Why do you use this term for white teas?
Some white teas, of really good quality, can be kept for a few months.


> Do either of you know about the Vanilla tasting teas from former
> French protectorate Madagascar.

Do you speak about roobois? or something else?


> I have since discovered my local tea shoppe tasted Old Man.

Is it as good as the Old Lady? Or a totally different taste?

--
Julien ÉLIE

« Prouidentia, dum ortum ante obitum ponit, sapienter fecit, sin autem
quid uitae sit notum ? » (Alphonse Allais)

It would be interesting to see what Palais des Thés considers
éphémères. Supposedly there is a tea from Madagascar with a natural
vanilla taste. I liken it to the Milky taste tea from Taiwan. Just
recently I mentioned to my local tea shoppe there is more to tea than
taste. They should have included the Old Man with the Old Lady.
Pairings of tea are few and far between. In this case it could be
slight processing difference or different time of the same season. I
learned to go with what I find on the local tea shelves. But in this
case I made my preference known just because I was so impressed with
the Old Lady.

Jim

On Jan 24, 3:22 pm, Julien ÉLIE >
wrote:
> Hi Jim,
>
> > Julien éphémères and the English equivalent ephemeral is a term I use
> > to describe White teas.
>
> Why do you use this term for white teas?
> Some white teas, of really good quality, can be kept for a few months.
>
> > Do either of you know about the Vanilla tasting teas from former
> > French protectorate Madagascar.
>
> Do you speak about roobois? or something else?
>
> > I have since discovered my local tea shoppe tasted Old Man.
>
> Is it as good as the Old Lady? Or a totally different taste?
>
> --
> Julien ÉLIE
>
> « Prouidentia, dum ortum ante obitum ponit, sapienter fecit, sin autem
> quid uitae sit notum ? » (Alphonse Allais)

Hello,

On Tue, 25 Jan 2011 05:26:50 -0800, Space Cowboy wrote:

> It would be interesting to see what Palais des Thés considers éphémères.

They consider "éphémères" teas which are not part of their regular
lineup. Every teas that get a millesime (month/year) for example. I think
they cannot get the same quality year after year for this kind of tea.

So, they consider "éphémères" tea that you are not sure to be able to find
in their shops next year.

> Supposedly there is a tea from Madagascar with a natural vanilla taste.
> I liken it to the Milky taste tea from Taiwan.

I don't know about your Madagascar tea as I am not very fond of black
teas. If you tell me about natural vanilla tea and speak about the same
tea coming from Madagascar, I can have a doubt on the "natural" quality.
But it can be a good tea.

> I learned to go with
> what I find on the local tea shelves. But in this case I made my
> preference known just because I was so impressed with the Old Lady.

Well, the problem with dealers in France (but I think it's the same in
other countries) is that they need minimal quantities to be able to sell
tea and need to find producers who can give them the same quality year
after year (they also need certificates....).

Foreign dealers, I mean thrusty ones, can spend a lot of time getting,
let's say, 5 kilos of a very good tea which no French tea shop (or too
few) is able to find or sell... And it is most of the time cheaper, or
the same price, or not too expensive comparing to the French dealers (for
a better quality). Foreign dealers get usually light trading structures
(most of them are alone, don't get any commercial space except a web
site...).

Sebastien.