Where to buy tea in Finland?..

[chinchan_thexfiles]

I have tasted many Thai-wulong tea. They are the variation of Taiwanese tea. The taste is a little different from the Taiwanese tea but quite similar, I could say. I think the one grown in Taiwan is a little bit sweeter and milder in aroma. But I like both of them a little bit less than the Chinese Tie Guan Yin.

I have planned to visit Soihtu cafe. But it is closed on the weekend so I can't go. Maybe next week, I will arrange the time to be on weekdays. (I have heard that Soihtu is serving tea in real yixing teapot.) If anyone wants to recommend some other cafe, I have one week time to collect the list.

http://www.soihtu.org/

Iron Buddha? I firstly thought that it's one of the famous Wuyi tea called "Tie Luo Han". When I searched in google, it gave me the name "Tie Guan Yin". So I just want to ask which one you mean. I have tasted plenty of "Tie Guan Yin" but never tasted "Tie Luo Han" (Tie - Iron, they are both iron) Oh, I'm also the fan of Wuyi tea too (Wulong again...) Seeing from the picture, it looks like wuyi tea color though.

BTW, what tea you guys are drinking? I also drink some green, red, black and puerh too. Yellow and white is scarce and not my favorite so I hardly drink.

Thanks for all the tips, anyway.

[sammy]

I think the Lipton Iron Buddha teabags are "Tie Guan Yin" but will need to check the next time I manage to buy them. Just threw one empty box away, and the Chinese shop in Hakaniemi where I've usually bought some (the one close to the market square but not on Hämeenkatu, I forget the name now) did not have it this week...

Usually... I'm interested to try out new stuff, but usually at home I make black teas (Assam, Keemun, Darjeeling especially) - I do also like Wulong a lot, and green teas - including the Japanese ones. These two were particularly tasty - the blue pack was from Tokyokan, the other from Thehuone...

Pu-erh has... an "interesting" taste But it's not bad once you get used to it, reputedly it's good for you.

The only teas I do not particularly like are so-called "scented" teas... some of them are ok occasionally, but one get so easily bored with them, and many taste a bit artificial IMO.

I should get more familiar with Chinese teas actually. There's an interesting book published in Finnish some years ago, Kiinalainen teekirja - Chinese book of tea... I haven't come across other equally extensive ramblings on tea in Finnish...

[chinchan_thexfiles]

Umm...I just realised that Lipton Iron Buddha can be Tie Guan Yin too. But it's not the green Tie Guan Yin, it's roasted Tie Guan Yin. I haven't remembered to take a look when I go to supermarket. (Have to remember it next time.) Anyway, I will try not to be reluctant to buy bag tea. (I don't remember myself buying it though. The only place I bought tea bag is at the cafe. However, I have made my own small protest by not to buy tea at any cafe that has only tea bag. And I will only support the cafe that serves leaf tea. This leads to limitation of choices, I know. But I just want cafe to increase the quality of serving tea as they do with coffee served with Bodum coffee maker.)

I do drink sometimes Japanese green tea too. I have a few different bags of Sencha. Forgive me that I'm too lazy to take pictures. All of them were bought from Japan by my friends. But I'm quite slow to drink so I still have a lot of them left. For myself, drinking Japanese green tea requires "mochi"
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mochi).
They taste very good together, I can say. It's not available here so consuming Japanese green tea is a bit slow now. Moreover, I just broke my precious "schwann" too so drinking matcha is impossible. I like matcha very much. It's tea that has very interesting taste when it's in the powder form.

Pu-erh is my favorite though. There are two types of pu-erh, shu and sheng. I like the Sheng type but Shu type is ok for me to drink sometimes. The first time I drank pu-erh, it was the Shu type. I thought I was drinking muddy water and I didn't like it at all. But the Sheng type is so clean and gives me the feeling of drinking flowery tea. I guess you have tasted the Shu type so you think it has interesting taste with that smaile Try Sheng type and then you might like it, I recommend.

I don't like Scented tea and I don't buy it either. I think tea is needed to be mixed with flowers and stuffs because tea itselfs lacks of taste and aroma. I have got one from mom two years ago and i have never made it. I guess there is some good one that is made with good tea. But I would drink tea for the taste of tea rather than the taste of something else. (Umm...this topic is a bit too strong to say this way, I think.) I think it's not wrong to drink those scented tea but it's just not the way I drink tea.

That teabook I have seen in the library. It's written by Chinese expert/professor. But I can't read it. (It's in Finnish.) I have this book on my shelf
(http://books.google.com/books?id=3NBtM5 ... &q&f=false)
but I have not yet had time to read it. It's a good book written by foreigners too. I bought it from Suomalainen kirjakauppa last year. I'm not sure if it is still available. Chinese tea has a lot of varieties so it takes time to get to know it.

[sammy]

I would drink tea for the taste of tea rather than the taste of something else.

[Cunamara]

Hi Metsämarja,

Big tea fan myself and having just moved to Helsinki from Dublin I was interested to see your post.
I used to buy my teas from Kingfisher in Ireland. They had a stall at the local farmer's market and they have an amazing collection of teas that they have sourced themselves.
Here's the website if you are interested: http://www.kingfishertea.com/
Prices are very reasonable when compared to the prices that I have seen in some Helsinki shops. My favourite teas from the Kingfisher range are:

Liquorice Mint
Japan Sencha
Sweet Osmanthus "Native to Southeast China, the Osmanthus Blossom imparts a sweet, citrus-like note to this half-oxidised green tea"
Pai Mu Tan

Hope you find this useful.

[sammy]

Umm...I just realised that Lipton Iron Buddha can be Tie Guan Yin too. But it's not the green Tie Guan Yin, it's roasted Tie Guan Yin. I haven't remembered to take a look when I go to supermarket. (Have to remember it next time.)

*bump*

It seems the Oriental Supermarket in Hakaniemi have this back on stock...



... it says "Ming Han Ching" on the pack. As far as teabags are concerned, they're from the tastier end of the scale.

You can't beat leaf tea though...

[sammy]

...just to tell all tea people out there, some really nice Wulong teas spotted at thehuone (in Helsinki)

I bought this one... quite good!



The same seems to be available on-line from http://www.teekauppa.fi, too...

[martha102]

In Helsinki (Finland), there is a few great Tea rooms. You can try and buy everything from a very rare yellow Teas to a special edition white Teas. So, i am mainly looking for a place with good (rare) selection and of course if it comes with upscale atmosphere always better.

[kipfow]

I want to buy Sleep Tea in Finland. Can anyone suggest me a place where to do it?