On Tuesday, March 24, 2015 at 9:29:29 AM UTC-4, Scott Dorsey wrote:
> mandy george > wrote:
> >Just returning to the group after a few years absence -- left when it got t=
> >aken over by some real vicious jerks.
>
> When was this?
>
> >Looking for advice on finding jasmine greens... How do you rate the various=
> > grades. I don't want to pay Mao Feng prices too often but some of the mid-=
> >range ones are iffy on leaf quality. I don't have much idea what to look fo=
> >r. The bigger leaf ones seem stemmy and uneven.
>
> The yellow box jasmine is sort of the baseline.... it is consistent and
> although it's not really very good, it's a standard point that everybody
> can use as a reference.
>
> The cheapest jasmine Upton's has is their TP70 which is actually very
> inexpensive and a couple steps up from the yellow box. It's a nice large
> leaf with visible jasmine flowers in it and doesn't seem to have any
> artificial jasmine added. It's got some stems in there but it tastes good.
>
> Many of the cheapies have so much artificial jasmine in there that they
> smell like pancake makeup, and you can start with the best possible base
> tea and ruin it by doing this sort of thing.
>
> Probably the best jasmine I ever had came from Imperial Tea Court, it
> consisted of little pearls with jasmine flower fragments throughout it.
> It would take several steeps successfully.
> --scott
>
>
> --
> "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Thanks so much...

Teh two jasmine greens I now have are the Upton (I really do find they are about as reliable and discerning in their offers as any of the online providers) and a pretty good tea from Wegmans. They both have that nice light hint of the jasmine and not the Earl Grey style of hit you in the taste buds. I'm still a little disappointed in them though and in general I find jasmine pearls a better overall choice. Julien's jasmine puehr sounds really intriguing though.

Anyone know of a truly standout jasmine green?

Re when I left the group -- it was when that vicious narcissist dominic tiberio and the near-psychotic space cowboy had driven a lot of people away. Shame,it was really active and had some great folk on it.