Hi all,

I posted a very long time ago about buying tea straight from India,
but I don't think I ever followed up with what I ultimately found out.
I thought I would do that, in case the info is useful to anyone, and
also pick the group's brain for some more information. Note: I am
*not* affiliated with any of these vendors.

So, I was looking for high quality Darjeeling tea. I was pretty
unhappy with the stuff that Upton sells - overpriced and dubious
freshness. I ended up ordering from teaemporium.net. I had a great
experience overall, and am planning to order my Darjeelings from them
from now on. These commments are from three or four separate ordering
experiences.

- They have a decent selection of teas. They seem to do a good job
picking the teas out. The descriptions on the site are pretty
hyperbolic. If you strip out the hype, though, the flavor descriptions
tend to be in the ballpark, certainly reasonable given person-to-
person variation in taste.

- I have been a disappointed with their green Darjeeling, this could
be a failing of the style though.

- Their white tea. One of their white teas was and still is the best
tea I have ever tasted (close run by one of their 2nd flushes).
Another batch was excellent but not so amazing. The variability is a
bit disconcerting - even if excellent to superlative isn't bad - since
the white tea is REALLY expensive! $30/100g

- This brings me to the price and quality of the bread and butter,
ordinary black first, second and autumn flush. I've been really happy
with all three, and I think the prices are pretty fair (based on my
limited knowledge). For about $7/100g they sell standard, solid teas
that I find better than any other source's so far. Their more
expensive teas are usually worth it, with more complexity and stronger
flavors. Their minimum order is about $50 so I usually end up with a
mix of prices. I also like Rajiv's comments as he tastes the teas and
picks the batches. There's definitely an element of salesmanship
there, but I like to hear a few facts about how the process works.

- The people (I've dealt with Rajiv, I'm not sure if there are more
people involved) have been great and very helpful. Shipping was fast
and hassle-free.


Now, given this success with ordering teas from Darjeeling, I thought
of ordering my other teas from India. Perhaps I could find that
mythical perfect Assam! Based on a few comments on the group, and a
little correspondence with Rajiv, I decided to try a bunch of samples
from Lochan tea. I was a bit wary, since the price seemed a little low
- $25 for 10oz of tea (about $9/100g; not really really low, but not
the price of the premium Darjeelings). I think in retrospect that the
price was not a good indicator, so I shouldn't have been surprised by
it - Assams and Nilgiris are probably cheaper than Darjeelings.
Nevertheless, my fears were somewhat justified. All the tea I got was
very solid, but I didn't get anything spectacular, and I think the
quality was definitely lower than the TeaEmporium tea quality.

- The Lochans were great and super helpful. They let me change their
sampler package willy nilly and didn't get frustrated by my constant
dithering.

- The tea was good. It was better than most of the stuff from Upton -
in general I think you have to double the price to get a similar
quality tea from Upton, and that's IF you get a reasonably fresh
batch. If I was looking for everyday value tea, I would probably order
from them.

- Shipping was fast and painless.

This leaves me still searching for a high-end Assams, Nilgiris, and
(hopefully) Ceylons. So I would be grateful if anyone can help me:

- Does anyone know sites or companies that sell high-end Assams,
Nilgiris or Ceylons direct from the producing region? The TeaEmporium
experience makes me suspect that I might have more luck buying closer
to the region than from an all-India retailer.

- I've looked at Assam Tea Company. Has anyone had any experience with
them?

Thanks a lot!

Omkar