Ive never seen PanYang in my stores. Even the Chinese characters 坦洋
were hard to trace down. Ive seen the other grades Golden Needle,
Golden Monkey, Golden Crab online. Anytime you see the word Golden in
a tea it is going to be good stuff. Tea memories always tells me of
how much we have changed. These days I am drinking blacks again after
ignoring for years.

Jim


On Jul 25, 8:38 am, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:
> I got a box from Upton's with some disappointment and some delight both.
>
> First of all, I am constantly looking for the same panyong congou experience
> that I had years ago with a cheap one from Kam Man in NYC. Nothing I have
> tried since (and certainly none of the other junk I got from Kam Man) has been
> right. I tried Upton's ZP20 "Panyang Congou Select" and it wasn't right.
> Others might find it fine but I have this idea stuck in my head about what I
> want.
>
> In the past I have also liked the low grade Vietnam black tea from Upton's,
> and so I decided to upgrade slightly this time and try the TV35 "Shan Tuyet"
> which is supposed to be a higher grade tea from the same area. It's just too
> thin for me; there's no body to it. It's not bad, it's just farther away from
> what I want.
>
> But then....ZK99 "Keemun Mao Feng." Wow. This is really, really good... it's
> got some body to it, some light flowery notes, some dark woody notes... this
> is really an amazing tea. I wish I had bought more of this.
>
> The folks at Upton's also say they should be getting some darker and more
> fermented Darjeeling's some time in September.
> --scott
>
> --
> "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."