A Tea Addict's Journal

Today I went to a different tea store, one called Jabbok in Mongkok. The proprietor of the place is a self styled “Professor”. I think he was, at some point or another, appointed a visiting prof or instructor or some such at some university in China, and since then he has been called by that nickname. Talk about being pretentious.

Anyway, they do have some interesting puerh, although I think on the whole selection is better at Best Tea House (but prices are also higher). I tried three today. The first was a mid 90s 7582, which was a bit too mellow for my taste. It lacked any sort of real punch, and compared to, say, the Zhenchunya Hao, it’s no match (cheaper, of course, but really not worth the money)

The second is a proprietary cake that was made for celebrating the establishment of the Kowloon Walled City tea center or whatever it’s called. That one’s a 5 year old cake. The overall impression is sweet — very sweet. There’s some lingering smokiness, and you can smell some cigarette smell on the lid. The body is thin to medium. I think the main issue is that the lady salesperson brewing it isn’t very skilled, and does it in a sort of casual way. I don’t think she brings out the best in the tea. Tiffany can do a better job (because you can tell she really likes tea), and so can I :p. I am a little attracted to that tea however, but the prices is a little high as well.

The last I had is basically a cake of unknown vintage or origin, other than it is a Menghai factory cake, probably about 15 years old. That was by far the best one, and at something like $150 USD a piece, might be the best buy. HOWEVER, they said a mainland merchant just snapped up all the stock they had (about 1 jian). So, they’re out, and the only one left was the half-drunk sample that I was drinking. Oh well.

I’m partly doing this to educate myself further before I go to Maliandao and other tea places in the mainland. I don’t expect to find great stuff, but I do hope to find some decent stuff that I can age and be happy about 15 years down the road.