Freelance writer and publisher of 
MYSTERY TEA
Apr 25 2008
So, a while ago, I posted my dream Tea Pantry, and mentioned that Bryan had brought back some lovely tea from China with (obviously) no English on the packaging. Lots of people made guesses at what it might be in comments, and a few people requested photos, so here they are. Name that tea, friends!
Update: I know it’s not gunpowder, so it looks like rough consensus says green oolong. Thanks, Internet friends!
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There are 28 comments for this post.
I think #3 might be called Dragon Pearl.
No one cares what you had for lunch!
(I kid!)
HA!! Great response Sam!
I wish you had Smell-o-vision. What’s it smell/taste like?
Can you get arrested for drinking pot?
Happy Standing Outside Temple Tea.
It‘s beautiful, and begs for a literal compleatly made-up name.
cheers!
Tea that starts curled up in balls and ends up all spread out is, in my experience, oolong. I’m not sure if this is what all oolong does, or if only oolong does it, but my pear oolong sure does!
So: my guess is oolong!
I agree it looks like the oolong that I’ve had before.
Maybe if you took it to an asian market they could help identify it.
Yes. I drink oolong daily and that’s exactly what you are looking at.
Could this be Japanese?
That is most definately oolong. I can’t make out the first 3 large brush-stroke characters closest to the picture in image 5, but the 4th character is the one for “tea” - so probably this is where the name of the tea is written, as there are many kinds of traditional oolong. when this kind is gone, you should try Iron Goddess of Mercy Oolong- it’s fantastic!
That is most definately oolong. I can’t make out the first 3 large brush-stroke characters closest to the picture in image 5, but the 4th character is the one for “tea” - so probably this is where the name of the tea is written, as there are many kinds of traditional oolong. when this kind is gone, you should try Iron Goddess of Mercy Oolong- it’s fantastic!
This really looks like gunpowder tea to me. It’s what my grandmother always brewed.
The cannister is very much the awesome!
Oolong. My bet is Taiwanese.
I can’t really make out the first two words, but the last two essentially translate to ‘famous tea’.
ooh exciting! i’m sure i’ve seen the packaging before. i must ask the Chinese lady @ my work!
#5 says “Specially selected famous tea”
From the text in #4, it’s in Simplified Chinese which is used in China, as opposed to the Traditional Chinese characters used in Taiwan.
None of the pictures show the name of the tea though…It’s a pity…
And I agree with Regina, you should try the Iron Goddess of Mercy Oolong…It’s great!
I’m 95% sure that’s Ooloong — Iron Buddha, to be precise. That’s a good one you got too, judging from the fullness of the leaves.
Often, the packaging doesn’t correspond to the stuff inside, because the shops buy generic boxes and fill them with different leaves bought in bulk.
I worked in an organic tea shop & that looks like high quality oolong to me!
~Nessa
I agree with Kim (comment 14). This looks like the gunpowder tea in my pantry.
Green Oolong! I love this stuff.
Forget the tea, I love the plate!! The tea reminds me eerily of the chewed-up bits of cigar my dad spits out after sucking the damn thing all day, which makes it not so much appetizing as gross…. But I drink my tea out of bags, usually, because I’m ghetto like that.
I’m kind of new here, so I didn’t catch the other tea post the first time, but I just read it, and it makes me want to go get a bunch of tea and collect tea tins. I mean, I love tea, so that’s part of it, but it seems to cool to have a collection and I want to be cool too.
Hang on, calling over my Chinese co-worker.
She says that in photo #5 the characters in reverse down the side say that the “tea is from the best selection and is a very good brand.”
She says the the characters on the back are a story or a poem, something along the lines of, “I had my servant make me some tea in the evening, and I am sitting beside my bed and the wind is very nice, and enjoying my life and having the tea, etc.”
She says it doesn’t say what kind of tea it is on there, but she will have her father-in-law drinks tea all the time, so he’ll take a look. Ha!
Oh my. Nice structure in my last sentence.