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Tea Tastings
Sun, May. 17th, 2026 11:40 amIn March and yesterday, I was lucky enough to be part of tea tasting presentations. Both were lead by same person, who I will be calling Tea Guy, since this is a public post. Seating was limited to 10 people at both events. The two I went to were hosted in the small meeting room at the library, but he does travel to other spaces to hold these events. It was two hours of discussing tea in general and sampling seven different teas from Tea Guy's collection. (There were two overlapping teas, so between both events, I've gotten to sample 12 new to me teas.) Part of what made these so enjoyable was that Tea Guy is not a tea snob or an elitist. He just really loves tea and wants to share tea with others.
I will do individual reviews of the teas we drank in separate tea review posts, but this is what we discussed otherwise.
One of the first things we discussed were the seven different kinds of tea (that are made from tea leaves, so no herbals, etc) and how those processes differ: white tea, green tea, matcha, oolong tea, black tea, and fermented/dark teas. At the first event, we got to take home a little chart with the explanation as well. We also briefly discussed the existence of yellow tea, which wasn't on the chart and we aren't likely to come across as it's rare and some people don't consider it it's own tea.
Fermented or dark teas are teas like pu-erh and Liu bao. According to Tea Guy, their names are based on what region of China they're produced in and each producer/farm has their own method.
We also discussed caffeine content in tea. The basic take away there is trying to calculate how much caffeine is in tea is way more complicated than coffee. And while there are general guidelines to help people make choices, caffeine content varies wildly within types, let alone between them. Also fun fact, when tea leaves sprout, they have all the caffeine in them they will ever have and it remains stable and no amount of aging will increase it. Though smaller leaves tend to have more caffeine per volume.
Brewing did not have as many hard and fast rules as you'd expect. Water temperature really isn't important. It's easier to overbrew bagged tea then loose tea because of how finely the leaves are chopped up. Water quality is important in that, if you don't like how your water tastes, it will not make tasty tea. Tea Guy prefers a tea basket over a tea ball because the tea doesn't get as smoothed together. When he tests a new tea he hasn't drank before, his first brewing of it is a heaping teaspoon of tea per 16 oz of water for three minutes, then adjusts for future brewing. Basically, the correct way to brew is to your taste.
Tea Guy does have tea vessel brewing preferences. He prefers a glass teapot for white teas and lighter teas, a clay teapot for fermented/dark teas that benefit from the heat retention, and a gai wan for everything else.
The tea tasting itself was pretty simple. Tea Guy brewed the tea and told us what we would be drinking. We each were poured tea in itty-bitty tea cups and sampled the tea, then discussed what we thought it tasted like as a group. We were also given paper and pens if we wanted to write anything down. There was also an assortment of cookies for snacking or palette cleansing.
All the teas we sampled were imported from China & Taiwan. One day, Tea Guy would like to do a tea tasting where every tea was from another country.
The vibes of the groups both times was very different. The group in March was very rowdy and a couple of people there were very pushy with their opinions. The group yesterday was so very chill. It was great.
The last thing we talked about was tea vendors. Tea Guy recommends never buying tea from eBay. These are the places he recommends:
Tao of Tea
Eco-Cha - especially for oolongs
Boulder Tea Co. - they can be hit or miss
Ohio Tea Co. - this is his highest recommended vendor, especially because most of their teas can be bought in one ounce quantities.
Yunnan Sourcing USA - this is not recommended for beginners because of the overwhelming amount of information they provide, but they do sampler /variety boxes and they are the best place for tea supplies.
Bana Tea Co. - more specialized stock
And I hope to go to another one in the future.
I will do individual reviews of the teas we drank in separate tea review posts, but this is what we discussed otherwise.
One of the first things we discussed were the seven different kinds of tea (that are made from tea leaves, so no herbals, etc) and how those processes differ: white tea, green tea, matcha, oolong tea, black tea, and fermented/dark teas. At the first event, we got to take home a little chart with the explanation as well. We also briefly discussed the existence of yellow tea, which wasn't on the chart and we aren't likely to come across as it's rare and some people don't consider it it's own tea.
Fermented or dark teas are teas like pu-erh and Liu bao. According to Tea Guy, their names are based on what region of China they're produced in and each producer/farm has their own method.
We also discussed caffeine content in tea. The basic take away there is trying to calculate how much caffeine is in tea is way more complicated than coffee. And while there are general guidelines to help people make choices, caffeine content varies wildly within types, let alone between them. Also fun fact, when tea leaves sprout, they have all the caffeine in them they will ever have and it remains stable and no amount of aging will increase it. Though smaller leaves tend to have more caffeine per volume.
Brewing did not have as many hard and fast rules as you'd expect. Water temperature really isn't important. It's easier to overbrew bagged tea then loose tea because of how finely the leaves are chopped up. Water quality is important in that, if you don't like how your water tastes, it will not make tasty tea. Tea Guy prefers a tea basket over a tea ball because the tea doesn't get as smoothed together. When he tests a new tea he hasn't drank before, his first brewing of it is a heaping teaspoon of tea per 16 oz of water for three minutes, then adjusts for future brewing. Basically, the correct way to brew is to your taste.
Tea Guy does have tea vessel brewing preferences. He prefers a glass teapot for white teas and lighter teas, a clay teapot for fermented/dark teas that benefit from the heat retention, and a gai wan for everything else.
The tea tasting itself was pretty simple. Tea Guy brewed the tea and told us what we would be drinking. We each were poured tea in itty-bitty tea cups and sampled the tea, then discussed what we thought it tasted like as a group. We were also given paper and pens if we wanted to write anything down. There was also an assortment of cookies for snacking or palette cleansing.
All the teas we sampled were imported from China & Taiwan. One day, Tea Guy would like to do a tea tasting where every tea was from another country.
The vibes of the groups both times was very different. The group in March was very rowdy and a couple of people there were very pushy with their opinions. The group yesterday was so very chill. It was great.
The last thing we talked about was tea vendors. Tea Guy recommends never buying tea from eBay. These are the places he recommends:
Tao of Tea
Eco-Cha - especially for oolongs
Boulder Tea Co. - they can be hit or miss
Ohio Tea Co. - this is his highest recommended vendor, especially because most of their teas can be bought in one ounce quantities.
Yunnan Sourcing USA - this is not recommended for beginners because of the overwhelming amount of information they provide, but they do sampler /variety boxes and they are the best place for tea supplies.
Bana Tea Co. - more specialized stock
And I hope to go to another one in the future.
