Friday, June 1, 2018

The Summer 2018 Upton Tea Quarterly

The latest issue of the Upton Tea Quarterly arrived this week, and as always, I found it to be quite enlightening and entertaining reading. In the front of the book, I learned that Darjeeling production has "decreased from an annual average of 5.5 million kilograms to 3 million kilograms in 2017," a reduction of nearly 67 percent (!). I haven't bought any new Darjeeling tea in a while, and sure enough, the prices are much steeper than I would have expected, so if we're looking for quality Darjeelings, I guess we can expect to pay more for them, thanks to "a worldwide surge in demand and a limited supply of quality tea."

So that's the bad news. The good news is that there's a delightful feature on Roy Fong, owner of the Imperial Tea Court in San Francisco and a name quite familiar to those of us who study tea in this country. My favorite quote of his: "Tea chose me. Looking back, there was no other path but tea."

If you'd like to check out this issue for yourself, click here.

7 comments:

  1. Wow, that is quite a decrease. I haven't looked for any Darjeeling recently, although I enjoy it.

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  2. Thank you for the link to that newsletter! The article on Roy Fong IS very interesting. Have you had the "monkey-picked tea" that he mentions? I find that it is not really picked by monkeys, but that's a memorable name for it anyway.
    --from Vernona in DC

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    1. Vernona, I've not tried the monkey-picked tea but would find it intriguing, no doubt, and yes, the name is quite memorable!

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  3. Do you have a Darjeeling that you particularly enjoy? I've never found one that I really enjoyed ... so maybe that's good news for me! ;)

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    1. I've had some from both Harney and Teavivre that I've enjoyed, although I can't remember which specific ones. But when I see it in catalogs and online now, I'll be paying attention to the prices for sure! (Let me know if you try an excellent one that *you* recommend!)

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  4. Sounds like a good issue. I do buy one order a year of Darjeeling teas. I buy enough to get free shipping and also wait until they have a special discount offer and I jump on it. It is my yearly tea treat. I buy right from Darjeeling. There are two companies worth checking out: Lochan Tea and Thunderbolt Tea. I see one of your readers doesn't like Darjeeling. I didn't like it until I got the good stuff; so try it once in the while until you find the good ones.

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