That Tea Place in New York that Brandon Likes

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Tea Gallery Yixing Teapots


There have been wild accu­sa­tions around the ‘net of me being one to spill the beans. To live up to this unsa­vory rep­u­ta­tion, I offer you all a tour of the as-yet unnamed col­lab­o­ra­tion between The Tea Gallery and The Mandarin’s Tea Room.

Some­where along the way, we noticed that the phrase “The Tea Gallery slash Mandarin’s Tea Room” is a “mouthful.”



Tetsubin and HibachiShui Xian and Cups

There are still moun­tains of boxes to be unpacked, but I was invited to visit the new tea room on the twenty-sixth anniver­sary of my birth.

 

I like to keep Tim hon­est — and edu­cate myself — by con­stantly eval­u­at­ing his selec­tions. The chal­lenger this time was First Grade Tie Guan Yin ’10 from the most recent TeaChat Tast­ing Event. It com­pared favor­ably to Tim’s Selected Grade Tie Guan Yin, but we found it to be a slightly dif­fer­ent style.

Tim tells us that his esteemed Anxi men­tor keeps up a menu of no less than 20 unique TGY teas each year.

Gaiwan 3 Stamp Shui Xian

Pouring 3 Stamp Shui XianThe gang are cur­rently eval­u­at­ing a slate of even more Shui Xian teas for their new menu.

Many read­ers know that I can’t get enough of this tea, and at one point counted 15 unique styles on hand in my per­sonal tea room.

This was another high fired style, but was quite dis­tinct from the 3 Stamp already offered by The Tea Gallery. A sweet, cherry syrup added to the already rich fla­vors this tea is known for.

This might have passed as the per­fect tea for my birth­day cel­e­bra­tion, but Michael is not one to leave “good enough” alone.

1950s Shui Xian

He shocked even Tim by brew­ing 20g of his 1950’s Shui Xian in a pot of roughly 180ml. A fit­ting gift to some­one who can’t make tea too strong.


It seems cer­tain that with two dri­ven tea lovers like Michael and Tim chal­leng­ing one another, we will all ben­e­fit from a higher level of tea.

But wait, what are Win­nie and Dae up to?
Check back soon!

7 thoughts on “That Tea Place in New York that Brandon Likes”

  3. What do you mean, “what am I up to?“
    I was sit­ting next to you, get­ting drunk off that 50 year old SuiX­ian Michael was brew­ing. That was a fun birth­day, come back soon.

  5. I need some help. I just got back from China and I bought some very good Shui Xian and some awe­some Hong Cha from the Wuyi Moun­tains. I also bought some very good Shu Puer as well as some awe­some Sheng Puer. Does any­body know where I can get some? I love in a small coun­try town so I do not have many places to buy good tea. I have been drink­ing tea for quite a while and the only time that I am able to buy my best teas is when I actu­ally go to China and buy it myself. please help me out. Thanks!

  6. Hi Ben­jamin,
    Sorry for the late reply. If you are still check­ing, I buy “spe­cial occa­sion” Shui Xian, Yiwu Sheng, aged pu from my old friend at Mandarin’s Tea Room — Some more every day Wuyi from Best Tea House (best­teaon­line) and Grand Tea, more pu on the way from the new Tea Urchin shop. Yun­nan Sourc­ing has a large selec­tion for cooked pu, as does Bana Tea Company.

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