The Best of the Best

I was thinking: What are the best tea’s I’ve had from memory and where do they come from? I made a list! You can hover over the names for a link to the exact product I am talking about. Unfortunately as things go, some of them are unavailable but I’ve linked to the website which the tea came from. One quick thing I should mention is, several of these teas on this list are ones that I import. It’s no coincidence that I import the best teas I know of but I don’t run a huge operation and I have a limited amount of inventory. If something caught your eye and you wanted it, please shoot me an email. I can probably get it or at least inform you of something comparable! I order from China approximately 6 times a year.

Best White Tea: T-18 Shou Mei
The aroma is intoxicating. It’s so unbelievably fruity. White teas made from the more mature leaves are definitely my preference. T-18 is the name of a particular tea bush which gives a very unique sensory experience.

Best Young Raw Pu’Erh Tea:
Wild Tree Lincang
2016 Xi Gui or 2016 Yi Wu
Although I have a lot of experience drinking young raw Pu’Erh, I cannot say the same about raw Pu’Erh with age on it. I’ve had maybe 3-4 which are over 10 years old (but under 20 years). I am very inexperienced when things get old, and ignorant to how good they may become. I can speak to the flavor and fragrance of young raw Pu’Erh though, and in my mind when they become fruity like red papaya, apricots, or mango they tend to be at their best for me. The ‘Wild Tree Lincang’ Pu’Erh that I sell occasionally gives such a wonderful Red Papaya bittersweetness on the finish which persists for a great length of time. A appreciable amount of flavor can also be had from a large number of subsequent infusions. Teas from Yi Wu and Xi Gui have been also lovely, but I haven’t sourced any. I get them frequently as lovely gifts from friends visiting China.

Best Yellow Tea: Junshan Yin Zhen
I can’t say I’ve had more than 10 yellow teas, they are a bit of a rarity. Once upon a time in my tea life I ordered an outrageously expensive 25g bag of Jun Shan Yin Zhen from Hojo Tea. It’s a game changer if you’ve got time to acutely focus on it, especially if brewed in glass so you can watch the dance of the leaves. After falling in love with Hojo’s offering, I am incredibly fortunate that I am able to sell one which I think is equal. Although it’s still incredibly expensive, I am able to call it my own.

Best Green Tea (China): Shi Feng Long Jing
I love rain, everything about it. Long Jing’s aroma reminds me of fresh rain and pistachios. The combination to me is essentially perfect. It’s also a tea which has the biggest shoes to fill. It gets counterfeited so often that its unlikely that people even have a chance to drink the real deal. Even in the selection of authentic long jing teas, there is room for disappointment because of the sheer amount of fame surrounding the area and tea. I tried my first Shi Feng Long Jing from Hojo Tea many years ago. Like I said with Jun Shan Yin Zhen, if I could find a Long Jing to equal his — I’d be satisfied. I have very picky tastes and over the years I have tasted a bunch. There’s fluctuations in quality, in a year that I choose to bring in Shi Feng Long Jing please rest assured that it would be amongf the best you can drink.

Best Sencha Green Tea(s):
Sofu cultivar grown in Tamakawa from Thes du Japon
Ashikubo Tea Works ‘Kiri no Kaori’
Kogane Midori Golden Sencha

There are a lot of amazing sencha’s I’ve had… to choose 3 was the only even slightly easy way out of this. Florent at Thes du Japon brings in pristine teas of all types. I look forward to tasting his teas every year. They do come at a high cost and generally low availability but they are worth every cent. Everything I’ve had from Tamakawa has been stellar.

Ashikubo is an area which historically makes amongst the most sought after tea in Shizuoka. It was the area which the Shoguns of Japan preferred to drink from. Surprisingly Ashikubo teas are not sold often in many of the stores I frequent. When I saw this tea available on yunomi.life I jumped at the opportunity. Definitely one of the best sencha’s I’ve had, there’s no mistaking that this area, or at least this producer, puts out excellent tea.

Kogane Midori Sencha was also a big ‘wow’ for me. I tried it on a whim, it’s an expensive tea but it was on sale to clear out the inventory of the previous year. Even after sitting in a bag for a year, the aroma was so majestic. I would love to try it fresh, I think I will this year.

Best Gyokuro(s):
Asahina Gyokuro
Uji-Hikari Gyokuro
Dejima 2004 Gyokuro Thes du Japon

I think any gyokuro from Asahina would fight for the first place. I’ve had many, none have let me down. No matter the cultivar I would rank Asahina as the best spot in Japan for this umami rich, luxurious tea.

Kyoto’s region is famous for gyokuro, they created it after all. I try to remain unbiased when I drink tea because there is a definite human factor involved in the creation of this stuff. Thes du Japon is one of the few sources I would trust buying gyokuro from created in a region other than Asahina. Of course I buy a lot of tea I am skeptical about (there’s no other way to build trust in others) but over the years Florent (of Thes du Japon) has definitely proved himself.

The final gyokuro also came from him. It was a gyokuro from 2004 which was bought in 2019? 2018? I can’t recall, but it was intense. The umami was probably the biggest I’ve encountered in a tea. A lovely experience and a great learning opportunity that gyokuro under proper storage conditions can last over 10 years without much (if any) detriment? It would have been neat to compare it with a current release from the same producer.

Best Light Oolong (China): Tieguanyin AAAA Grade.
I have a preference for darker oolongs, and my wife doesn’t like floral teas. I don’t get a chance to drink Tie Guan Yin very often. I’m being more objective than subjective when I write that this is my favorite Chinese light oolong but there isn’t much competition for it. Many years ago I did a flight of various grades of Tie Guan Yin and found that A4 was a better tea to me than A5. The price of A4 is about half of A5 too, so it works out. I used to sell this tea a few years ago, I’ve stopped for now just to focus on other things.

Best Light Oolong (Taiwan): Fushoushan or 2019 Competition Grade Dong Ding 1st Place Winner from Taiwan Tea Crafts
Both teas come from Taiwan Tea Crafts but the Fushoushan tea is one that you could actually buy. I love the richness, I love the pumpkin pie notes. The Dong Ding was given to me as a sample from them, it doesn’t seem that it’s currently available for purchase though — I love the reference to whiskey in its aroma and flavor. Honey, Oak, a bit of Toastiness. Very rich. It was great tea.

Best Dark Oolong Tea (China): Phoenix Oolong Dan Zhu Lao Cong Mi Lan Xiang
Its not hyperbole to say that with a good state of mind, this is THE best tea I’ve ever had. This tea is the reason sommerier.com exists, and somehow I don’t even have it available to purchase. The only kind of tea that gives a similar level of satisfaction to me is a great gyokuro though they are completely different beasts. The aromatics and their intense resonance in the finish make this tea a work of liquid art. I’ll have to put this up for sale… but I want to drink it all… Actually when I started to import tea I had purchased a kilo of this at considerable cost. I’ve drank it so often in the mind set of not caring or trying to appreciate it that I’ve started to be disappointed in myself. This is a tea best purchased in tiny quantities, and reserved for days you really want to treat yourself. Don’t let yourself get accustomed to it.

Best Dark Oolong Tea (Taiwan): 2017 Competition Grade Oriental Beauty 3rd Place Winner Taiwan Tea Crafts
Another tea I wish I could have bought more of. Buying competition grade tea is always a nice treat, especially if it was one of the winners. This was Oriental Beauty close to its finest (3rd place), but the finest for me. I hope one day to find another version which is comparable.

Best Aged Oolong: 1966 Beipu
Crazy experience. How could something so old have so much power? It’s like getting locked in an attic with only viva puffs to eat. Opening up a chest containing bottles of hundred year old balsamic vinegar’s and smelling them. It was such a fascinating sensory experience.

Best Black Tea (China): Jin Jun Mei
Although I put gyokuro and phoenix oolongs on such a pedestal, a few years ago I gave jin jun mei its first chance. It’s incredible, truly a marvel of tea. Understandably it’s out of reach for a lot of people — it’s just about the most expensive black tea which exists. Some friends of mine would comment that black teas made with the same concept in mind (golden monkey, golden buds from Yunnan) produce virtually the same tea at 1/3 or less of the cost. I would say that I whole heartedly disagree with the comment that they are similar. Considering that astringency and perhaps sour or bitter flavors are in virtually all black teas at some threshold, they do not exist in jin jun mei. That fact alone makes it far superior to me. On top of it not having flaws, it has a plethora of ideal aromatics. Chocolate, Brown Sugar, Hazelnuts, etc. Nothing comes close.

Although not in the same league as jin jun mei, I think T-18 black teas from Taiwan are also excellent and readily available at Taiwan Tea Crafts. I also recently had a great Japanese black tea from Thes du Japon. Speaking about Darjeeling — well, the ones which I’ve thought were fantastic I don’t think count to call them ‘Black tea’ — they are really quite green.

Best Dark Tea: Awa Bancha or Fu Zhuan Cha
I might not drink them by themselves, but they do make wonderful food pairings. Awa Bancha with its pickled ginger and weird lychee qualities is a great pairing for those muddy tasting fish and Fu Zhuan Cha for a really raw beet and fresh moist soil fragrance, a great pairing for earthy dishes. These teas have their place for me, and they seem to be quite good for health reasons especially cholesterol management. Fu Zhuan Cha is a tea I keep on hand at the restaurant I work for pairings. I don’t sell it on sommerier (yet) but would be happy to bring it in if there would be any demand.

Best Scented Tea: Supreme Jasmine Silver Needles
The 2 best scented teas I have had in life were both jasmine silver needles. The first of 2 was given to me by a customer at Q back in 2014 or 2015. It set the bar high for what a jasmine tea really is. The supreme jasmine silver needles I sold in 2018 was probably the best silver needles I’ve had in life yet though. It was scented 8x with jasmine. A comment a customer once gave me which struck me as interesting was (paraphrased) ‘as ubiquitous as jasmine tea is in the realm of Chinese tea, they don’t usually smell like jasmine unless you try really hard to make the connection. I am impressed that I don’t even need to get close to the tea cup to smell it so strongly. In fact I can smell it from across the table!’ I don’t know if I can get another scented tea at this quality again, I hope so though!

Best Herbal Tea: Labrador Tea, Wu Wei Zi, Lavender
They are all great for different reasons. Labrador tea is very cool because 1) it’s Canadian, and 2) it smells and tastes like the boreal forest in winter. Wu Wei Zi is just such an exercise in taste and smell, especially when you brew it in the Korean style with cold water. Lavender tea has been a wonderful pairing with lemon based desserts. I’ve sold all 3 in the past, but that was before this website existed.

Honorable Mention: It doesn’t really fit another category. Kyobancha is awesome stuff for an everyday tea. The flavor really starts to fit the image of outside in the late autumn and early winter. That image evokes 6 months of the year for us in Calgary. I’ve had plenty of different kyobancha’s during my trips to Japan. Bancha in general is something I drink a lot of because I’ll buy nearly every single one I see due to their low cost. This kyobancha offering from yunomi is a bit of an ‘upscale’ version. I like it a lot.