John Rice, General Manager.
We’ve been shopping. We’ve been searching. We’ve been finding. Finding new teas, that is. I know it probably seems like I’m making a big deal out of nothing, but it’s not always easy to find teas that meet our standards. I can (and have) received dozens of samples from some tea importers, only to find not a single one was something we wanted to sell. Some of them are good, but overpriced, while a lot of them simply aren’t particularly special.
What makes me especially happy is when we find a tea that is an exceptional value. The latest example of that is our new Fujian Oolong, a moderately dark, more oxidized variation on the classic Ti Kuan Yin style oolong, with a sweet, toasty flavor reminiscent of a premium Formosa or Wu Yi, but at an almost unbelievably low price. Another is our new Supreme Gunpowder, a lighter, fruitier option to our tried and true favorite Temple of Heaven Gunpowder, which has a much smokier character.
In the Premium category, we have developed a custom Breakfast Blend, suitably named Ultimate Breakfast Tea. In the tea world, it is considered almost sacrilege to blend ultra premium, single estate teas, but in a wild moment, we threw caution to the wind and gave it a try. The result is like nothing we’ve ever tasted before and we bet you’ll agree. I don’t want to forget our new Lu An Gua Pian green tea, a wonderfully light, sweet and toasty tea reminiscent of an expensive yellow tea we sold years ago, but this one is about half the price.
Probably the most frustrating tea category the last few years has been the decaffeinated selections we have been finding. We rarely taste genuinely bad teas, but it’s no exaggeration to say that several of the decaf teas we’ve received taste like cleaning supplies. So, we were thrilled to find not only one, but as many as three decaf teas that are not only tasty, but an incredible value. Our new Decaf Black tea with Apricot is already available for purchase, with a Vanilla one coming soon.
Believe it or not, this is only the beginning. More exciting teas are coming. We are putting the finishing touches on a custom blend Thai Chai and we axpect more tasty decafs as well as more unflavored offerings. Stay tuned and watch the main page of our site. You can always look at the What’s New page as well for up-to-the-second additions.