This might sound a little strange, but I'm something of a tea evangelist. I wanted to mention a tea I just reviewed sold through a website in Switzerland. I don't really see that as an ad, since anyone else can mention any other sources for tea here, or talk about tea culture there (not that mentioning tea in different places typically leads to that, just saying).
This version was Japanese green tea, which is not really what I tend to drink. It's nice, it just tastes like seaweed, which would be great only for people who like seaweed. I like Chinese black teas and oolongs best, fruity teas, or others that taste like cocoa or more floral, and I've been drinking a lot of sheng pu'er over the past 9 months. That's a compressed tea somewhat similar to green tea that changes with age (it ferments).
It's understandable that Switzerland may not embrace tea culture as much as other places. It's a long way from China, Japan, and India, and the reasons for why tea became popular in places like Britain, France, and Germany may not apply as directly there (or where I live now, in Thailand). It's hard to explain what better tea is and why people should be drinking more of it, why it should be as respected and desired as coffee. Actually trying medium quality teas explains that. This review is of a slightly better version than that but Japanese green tea isn't really my favorite, they're just interesting in a different way:
http://teaintheancientworld.blogspot.co … thats.html
Tea in Switzerland
A bit off topic..
I'm collecting some Indonesian teas for a mate in England and can pop a small selection off to you as well if you fancy.
Not much, just a few small packs of black teas.
That is the nicest offer, especially given that you're not even going for marketing promotion. Maybe we could switch that to a trade, and I could send you back whatever you are interested in, or just pick some random things. A Russian vendor (Moychay) really hooked me up with a lot of sheng and shou pu'er lately (a bit much for samples), and I just bought some interesting black teas from Thailand.
I was just talking to someone about tea in Jakarta, and about shops there. I've tried teas from Toba Wangi, Harendong (also sold as Banten), and Bangkit Wangi. I've never been to Jakarta so I don't know about shops but I looked up a couple and Pantjoran and Siang Ming seemed to have the right look. We visited a plantation in East Java while there (Wonosari, outside Malang) but the tea was only ok.
About details for a trade, I can check in and mention shipping location details by PM here (or a Facebook page for that blog is public, but either way works the same). About how much to pass on, it doesn't matter, a bit to try is fine. I give people tea all the time so I'm definitely not worried about the amounts equaling out, even more so since vendors give me tea for review, and two just gave me a lot more than they typically do. My wife has been going on about the tea taking up too much space, spilling out past the two storage containers worth of space she thinks is enough. She's not clear on the pu'er aging idea, that if I had an awful lot more that would be a really good thing. One guy just posted in a FB tea group about storing a few tons and that really would be pushing it.
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