lubarsky > wrote:
> Over twenty five years ago a Chinese history professor of mine gave me a
> sample of
> unlabeled tea of unknown origin. I have been trying to find the tea again
> and at last
> the Tea Gods heard my plight and delivered. The tea was Formosa Baozhong.

No kidding. A baozhong (also "pouchong") was my first really good
Chinese tea also. It can be just astonishing in flavor and taste if
it is good. The downside is that prices of good pouchongs are pretty
high.

My introduction was from a colleague of mine. His Taiwanese student
gave him a can of good baozhong from Wen Shan County. He is a good
English breakfast tea type, which this definitely wasn't, so he gave
it to me surreptitiously. I honestly can't tell you the brand because
it doesn't appear in English or, according to students, in Chinese.
Just "Wen Shan Pouchong". I show the can to other students and they
get their mothers to buy me more (several mothers have apparently
approved of my taste). But other good Taiwanese pouchongs match it.

In the U.S. I have gotten decent pouchong at Ten Ren, but am
suspicious about their business practices and the knowledge of some of
their staff. I have gotten great stuff from Shan Shui Teas,
http://www.shanshuiteas.com/ , run by Brian Wright (no connection)
along with good service.

If you like pouchong you might try dung ding oolongs which, though
slightly more oxidized, have a similar flavor. I'm drinking some now.

Oh yeah. On all these teas, infuse multiply. You get lots of
different flavors and the price per cup goes way down.

Have fun,

Rick.