This thread is for discussing teas, tisanes, and other herbal infusions.info: types of tea, where to get tea, how to brew teahttps://rentry.org/teageneralprevious thread: >>21036054
What kind of teas won't give me gas/diarrhea?
>>21071403The ones with no caffeine. Try chamomile
>>21070050I have picrel. Pretty neat.>>21070865You either like it or you don't, but good matcha has sort of a vivid, bittersweet taste with a strong aftertaste.I don't usually drink the good stuff but even lower-grade matcha is a solid green tea in my book.
>>21071435Yancha is pretty nice. I've been drinking quite a bit lately, and deep roasted Taiwanese oolongs when I don't want to drink expensive tea. I think I'll dive into dancong next.But yeah, nothing beats a good sheng. I also rarely reach for ripe anymore. Even when I am in the mood for that flavor profile half the time I'd rather have liubao anyways.
Did the mycotoxins finally kill everybody?
>>21071393How do I into filtering water for tea? What's the minimum I should be doing?
From the thumbnail the teapot looks like a smug cat
>>21071753Puerh, rinse at least once
>>21071845drank some lao man e gushu todayand DID NOT discard the rinse. it was nice
>>21071793I use a britta filter.If that's not sufficient then you've got problems with your water.
>>21071435lately, whites and roasted oolongs. whites are very calming to me unlike sheng so I find them great in the afternoon>>21071632I've also gotten bored of ripes. I should get more liu bao and aged ripe though
All glass kettles I could find have at least some plastic in the lid.I want a kettle where absolutely no plastic comes into contact with the contents of the kettle.Steel kettles are less prone to this sin, but I want to clearly see the water level.
>>21071435If it's not puer then black tea. Sometimes you just want something relatively simple. Also it's cold outside so maybe that's why I drink mainly black teas lately.
>>21071825He enjoys puerh.
>>21071393bought my first fancy teas recently. pretty excited :)
>>21071632>I think I'll dive into dancong next.Any reccs for inexpensive Dancong?I've only had the "top grade" one from fullchea and it was decently tasty. Slightly roasty, tropical fruity, a little bitter and reminiscent of hops. Are the dancong chatou and daily duck shit from white2tea any good?
>>21072628Viet Sun is a quirky choice. Interesting store, will definitely try it some day.
>>21072632i like their descriptor of "energizing" used for their black tea so i bought it
>>21072628I was drinking the lao Cai yesterday. It's quite good. Everything I've tried from vietsun as good for the price. I've also got the sample of ha giang deep forest black and that one is very good. Pricy but worth.
>>21071403just stop eating so much goyslop, it's making you sick. then you'll be fine and you'll stop blaming your bad health on that poor innocent cup of tea.
>>21072708Stop posting this on every board.
jesus says he has to. it's called the great commission
>>21072688This. It pisses me off when I see somebody who eats more garbage than a raccoon talk about how some fad diet makes them feel "less bloated". Unless you have celiac or an allergy, you're just eating like shit.
>>21072708Good health and cha qi will come to you, but only if you post "Xie Xie, Shennong" in this thread.
where do i learn about all these chinese teas? any good books?
>>21073432There's one that might be in the OP, but you literally just drink them and buy different ones the next time.
what was williams reccomended way of making green tea? it was in a video where he was making black tea i think and he was saying you shouldnt use boiling water (i think) and he (definitely) said that you shouldnt use a gaiwan, just put it in a glass pitcher. but what was the water temp he reccomended? i have a feeling it was just cold/room temp but i cant remember for certain. if anyone has advice on making green tea or remembers williams suggestions or has the video im talking about, id be grateful for a reply.
>>21073552Rule of thumb for green is to use water that's just hot enough to have little bubbles and make noise but not boiling yet.Not sure if he has a different technique.In general, you can't go too cool with green tea, it just takes longer. Even an ice bath will work, they do that with gyokuro.
>be me>anon>at a dim sum restaurant with friends for new years eve>"black tea" on the menu>nobody can tell me what tea it is>they find me the auntie>ask her in chinese>she understands me>it was a low quality ripeI ordered another long jing in the end but it was very very satisfying being understood my first time speaking chinese with someone.Happy new year my friends.
>check out thread faq>exclusively chinese tea website dot com>exclusively chinese tea website dot com>exclusively chinese tea website dot com>exclusively chinese tea website dot comwhere the fuck is all other tea, is this thread about the gay ceremony only
>>21073738main topic is gong fu brewing raw puerh for the most part
>>21073738>all other teawjat arter yuou looking for and what country?? ,pos the besxt price for quality tea is bought from china websites so thats why the thread faq has that mostly, but there are a lot of good vendors in other regions anywas
>>21073738
>>21073770ceylon, kenyan, indian
>>21073778why would you want to buy that shit
>>21073796to drink? what are you doing with your tea, gay boy?
>>21073712thank you for the insight anon, ill try this out tonight!
>>21073809ok im sorry that reply was rude but for ceylong or african teas you can usually find them for pretty cheap in local asian grocery stores but i havent tried any african online stores so i dont know about their quality but for indian tea vahdam is pretty good, is there a specific type of tea you are looking for? i really reccomend trying some oolong samples if you decide to make an order from any online stores thoughthe reason chinese sites are shilled the most here is simply because they have the best tea
>>21073832>you can usually find them for pretty cheap in local asian grocery storesyou can, but clearly those countries produce a better quality tea than in asian store jumbo packsI just wanted a retailer with a fresh tea
>>21073844Most of the regions listed in the vendor section have at least a few tea stores that sell Indian tea.If you want fancy indian tea look at the vendors in india likehttps://www.thunderbolttea.com/It's not really a good time to buy first flush Darjeeling though. Second or autumn flush from 2024 is probably okay.
>>21073844As far as Ceylon and African teas 99.9% of what those places produce is cheap commodity tea for teabags and cheap blends. I haven't even really found anything that really is sold as premium boutique celadon offerings outside of a few overpriced cans that are still plantation teas. For African teas there are like 1-2 farms that sell comically overpriced stuff like a stem only tea that is 80¢ per gram.Just buy Alwazah tea on Amazon if you want drinkable Ceylon https://www.amazon.com/Alwazah-Triple-Traders-Loose-Ceylon/dp/B07DZ4M75Z
>>21073868>>21073858ty
>wake up>feel like shit>force myself to brew a cup of tea>drink it>brew another>realize I'm feeling good, eager to do things, everything will work outHow normal is this?
>>21073552I thought William didn't even like green tea?anyway for chinese greens I'd do 90 degrees celsius. and yeah, I don't gong fu them, glass pitcher or grandpa style is more traditional and it works well for mild chinese greens. jap greens really benefit from more careful brewing though
>>21073738>>21073778you don't need a separate website for fucking kenyan tea, just go buy whatever's in your local walmartfor indian, someone recommended vahdam.comchina gets the most attention because they have the widest selection of tea by far and some of the most autistic tea culture. india and africa are have only been at it for like 100 years and they mostly make identical black tea for export, can't really compare to China's thousands of years of tea obsession
>>21074235the mild euphoric high you get from tea is so much better than coffee and energy drinks, it's the least demonic source of caffeine
Just made my Jianware cup shine again and got all the tea stains off of it, its like looking into a borealis, I forgot how pretty it was before a couple years of usage
happy new year, /tea/. i hope in 2025 we all find amazing new (or old) things to drink.
>>21074715Happy new year!Maybe this is the year I'll meet an irl tea friend. At least I still have you all.I moved recently and saw a placed called Kung Fu Tea near me. For a second I allowed myself to hope that it might be a real tea shop worth checking out, but it's a chain that sells boba... what a cruel joke.
>>21073738Chinese tea only has mold, japanese tea only falls apart, other tea has poo on itChoose wisely>>21073767Like me long jing
>>21074715Happy new year anons. The year of taobao continues.Alright cool, see ya
>>21074860>The year of taobao continueYeah year of taobao v2 is absolutely necessary Happy new year
>>21073728Based.>>21073738>>21073778https://www.uptontea.com (bad prices desu)https://britishtea.comhttps://www.vahdam.comhttps://www.teabox.comhttps://youngmountaintea.com/The ecosystem for those teas is different, the places that have more of a selection also have a more mid Chinese selection (if at all) so a primary puerh enjoyer wouldn't take them seriously.The fact that those regions also produce commodity tea is mostly irrelevant, although it does mean the lion's share of mid-end assamica tea is 2nd flush black tea.There's an entire separate grading system for these teas, with labels like FTGFOP1, as well as different tea estates that grow in different conditions. So you can definitely go down the rabbit hole, although there are diminishing returns.First flush black tea is the high end for sure, it is much more expensive and harder to find. Assamica greens have more caffeine. You can even get oolong.Britishtea has purple tea made in Africa that I've never seen anywhere else. I haven't tried it but I want to.
Well I made chifir and tried it. I took two sips and am never drinking it again. Extremely bitter, the brewing process is basically "how to make tea taste as bad as possible". Didn't drink enough to get any effects desu.Would not recommend. If I was stuck in a Siberian prison I probably wouldn't be able to get enough of it lmao.
>>21075221haha got a photo?
>>21075237Nah I just strained it into a coffee mug. It was opaque, inky darkness. The very edges of it were tea colored and the rest was just black.
drinking some 2023 lumber slut from white2tea. just drinking it grandpa style. its good. I can see why they describe it as woody. some smokiness but not overwhelming, a smooth and pretty rounded base flavor. Definitely some woody and earthy flavors reminiscent of a redwood grove. Or like you filtered it thru some oak chips though not unpleasant or overly tannic. strangely the tea tastes very similar to a more mellow, less smokey version of a fu cha I had. I think it was a "1953" golden flower fu cha. both teas are great after a greasy breakfast
>>21075534I like lumber slut a lot. in a sea of boring, samey budget ripe, this one stands outI gotta try that 1953 fu brick sometime, it's been on my radar for a while
>>21074423>it's the least demonic source of caffeine
>>21075534last years was good but the 2024 is even stronger and a little bit more comparable to black coffee, which i way way prefer over the "sweeter" ripes like their waffles or gingerbread man and a bunch of other white2tea shit that has that weird sweet fruitcake taste that makes me kind of sick
does anyone else pour tea on the lid of your gaiwan to make the crazing stains match
>>21076084there's no way that was that long ago already
This is Shui Xian oolong from Deng Da Yan tea factory. King Tea Mall describes it as orchid oolong from ZhangPing, Fujian. It isn't explicit, but I believe this is a yancha. A roasted version of it came in a roasted yancha sampler pack I picked up last year. Shui Xian means "water sprite" or "narcissus flower" according to Babelcarp. I'm not sure how exactly orchid comes into the nomenclature here except for, obviously, it has overt, deep floral notes. It smells and tastes very much like a tie guan yin, but with more body. There are some darker fruit flavors in there, too, especially in the earlier steeps. This was a 10 gram pillow stuffed into my new gaiwan. What attracted me to the tea initially was the reddened tips on the leaves. This has been oxidized to some degree, certainly more so than a tie guan yin. It looks very good in the gaiwan.Given that this came as individually wrapped 10g bricks, I paid a bit of a premium for what it is, but it would make a great gift, as oolongs do. Overall, thumbs up. I wish I knew more concretely exactly what tea it is, although I'm reasonably sure it's an unroasted yancha.>>21076084I wonder where anon is today.
>>21076101>I wonder where anon is today>>21039582
Bought 2 kilograms of tea to usher in the new year
I'm quitting coffee just to see if I can and because I'm doing whitening treatments now that I've finished a bunch of necessary dental work. I'm on day 4 now. I think I'm actually experiencing caffeine withdrawals. I didn't intend to cut caffeine specifically so I allowed myself a bit of soda today to wean myself off, was feeling rough. I would like to go at least 2 weeks without caffeine to at least get my whitening treatments finished without having to worry about staining.I'm going to experiment more with tea once this is over, I'm curious to see if anyone else here has ever done the same? I thought caffeine withdrawals were a joke until I experienced it myself. Felt like I had a flu, felt so much better once I had a little bit of the soda.
>>21076593It happens. I got some nasty headaches, and yeah just allowing yourself a little bit is the way to go.You should be through the worst of it as I recall. I think I was all done within a week.
>>21076101it's not an unroasted yancha, just an unroasted oolong from Fujian. it's called shui xian because it uses the same varietal as the yancha by that same nameit's actually quite a traditionally produced, interesting tea and always comes in those bricks, as they are parto of the production process. one of the oldest light oxidized oolongs on the market and the traditional production does mean you get a bit more random oxidation spots than in tie guan yin
>>21076101Nice cup and gaiwan anon. The tea sounds interesting, I wasn't aware you could get those yancha varietals unroasted.
KTM and white2tea orders just arrived! Might start with the changtai tea!
>>21076932guys what do you do with your w2t stickers
>>21076932Nice, the changtai is pretty good for the price imo, tell us what you think.>>21076938I throw them away, same as every other brand sticker I've ever gotten.
>>21076941youre awfully pragmatic for a tea drinker
>>21076938Drawer of tea crap, they could go on the wall of random shit I put on the wall if they weren't ugly
>>21076946>wall of random shit I put on the walldo you want to share your "wall of random shit you put on the wall" because i cant imagine what this would look like lol
>>21076943Lol, it is mostly pragmatism, but also I have no idea what I could possibly use them for. I know one anon here keeps cake wrappers and made a collage out of them, so maybe they could be utilized in something like that. W2T's style of branding doesn't suit my tastes though.
>>21076954>I know one anon here keeps cake wrappers and made a collage out of them, so maybe they could be utilized in something like that.oh fuck i forgot about that, that was awesome. do you have his pic because i didnt save it
>>21076947It's hard to get a photo of it that doesn't dox me in one way or another but here's a bit of it
>>21076966sovl
>>21072349At least the last 2 glass kettles I checked didn't actually have glass bottom, but a deceptively smooth steel plate with soft silicone seal in a crevice so you couldn't feel it. One of them leached taste after 2 days of boiling and refilling so I gave it away, the other one was ok but I should probably get a kettle without soft plastics. My first glass kettle I BELIEVE had full glass inside, but after the others I'm not even sure anymore. In the first one the heater element broke. Maybe I should get a steel kettle, but how do I know what taste-altering minerals it will leach?
>>21076941>>21076932first impressions on the Changai: mellow, earthy-mineralic, aged, walnuts? smooth drinking though doesn't seem too complex
>>21076965No I don't, maybe someone else does or maybe anon will post it again.
>the China sencha moldedNow I'm not sure if it was always bad or if it expired. Either way I never got a good cup out of it.>>21076593Caffeine withdrawals are brutal.Also, I've found black tea has worse staining than even coffee. Beware.>>21076993>deceptively smooth steel plateIsn't that for induction stoves?
What.
>>21077198is that the same store which also has a bunch of ass enlargment herbal supplements?
>>21077287Don't know and don't want to lol.Why would lesbians need ass enlargements?
Fellow distilling chads,I've been using a pic rel distiller for one year now. All good. Recently I realized the water taste was stale and slightly spoiled. I cleaned up the whole thing and it improved but it is note gone entirely.The last thing that is lift is the metal condensing spiral tube in the top, since it is very hard to clean.I suspect some bacteria buildup in there.Any tips on how to clean this?
Where does suspiciously cheap silver needle come from? Is it as simple as overworked trees prepared the same way?
>>21077421I'd like to know this also.
>>21073844For ceylon, you've got the Ceylon Artisanal Tea Association. Haven't tried the stuff yet, but it's got to be better than grocery store tea. Otherwise my local vendor wouldn't carry it.
>>21077421Found this guide that may help (I assume most home counter-top distillers are all designed in much the same way):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGp-2lZ0D3Q
>>21076542Hell yeah doing it right. Where from?>>21076824Appreciate it, anon. That tracks with what I've been studying about it. I have to say I think I prefer this to a tie guan yin.>>21076932There it is! I expect to hear your thoughts on the orange box liu bao and the lao bai cha.>>21076938>>21076954>>21076965>anon here keeps cake wrappers and made a collage out of themYo! I also save nei fei. I too have a lot of w2t stickers at this point, though I've never thrown them on anything. That said, I haven't thrown any away either. I'm not much of a sticker anon, I suppose.>>21076966sovl indeed. I wouldn't shit up that wall with an obnoxious w2t sticker. It would clash with Christopher of Lycea.
>>21077556Kino. The Taetea ones are a little monotonous though.Which of these were your favorite to drink?
>>21077567I hear you about the Dayi wrappers. I knew when I first started collecting wrappers that my understanding and perspective of the teas, factories, or the wrappers themselves may change. I accepted that then and I accept it now. Aside from looking nice on the wall in my kitchen, I think of them as a tea diary documenting my journey through understanding puerh. Given that I like to buy a lot of tea and go through them slowly, when I finally collect enough wrappers that I like to make a collage, they are years and years old. The one on the left in particular is comprised of my first puerh teas I ever picked up, 2017-2018. The one on the right is much more recent.As for a favorite, you know they're all sentimental to me in their own way. The two Mengku Rongshi mini cakes on the lower left of the right collage is were really good. The aged sheng had blue raspberry candy/slushie notes. I can say confidently the worst puerh I've ever had is a Yun Yuan Gu peaking out from behind the left side of the Peak Vulture.
>>21077556Got it from yunnan sourcing. Meant to try out new shops, but I've always been happy with YS and really needed some variety in my tea since I've been only drink Sheng and Shou for monthsGot whites, blacks and oolongs, since I'm waiting for spring to get new, fresh green tea. Also got one of their freebies, the happy tiger shou, just cause.
>how much tea did you buy from Japan?>a bancha tea
>>21073738First, east asian (japan/china) tea is really good and has a wide selection of styles most people haven't tried yet, thats it. You have already had teas grown in india, etc. It wouldn't hurt you to get a quality black chai once in a while though, it's better than supermarket shit.Chinese tea especially is neglected in the US so there are endless new flavors to test out. I only wish more american growers would stop shutting themselves down with labor disputes and bean counting, and leave the hippy health magic bullshit and nasty ass superfood herbals and flavor-covering spices out of it, because north america has a lot of regions that can support decent tea production and it would be a lot easier to get an oolong from north idaho than yunnan.As for the puerh obsession I have no idea, it is not actually that good. Just the most exotic. Part of it is probably the cakes with funny pictures on the wrapper.Second, you can safely ignore most gong fuing bullshit because it is dumb as hell. For a normal chinese person, the point of of a gaiwan is to have an easy to clean teapot and make a bunch of cups of good tea without too much leaf in the stuff. Otherwise it goes in a mug with a strainer.Chinese gaiwan method, as taught by a real chinese woman (my gf):>starting materials: >the eponymous lidcup>as many drinking cups as there are people>some tea that everyone there likesStep one: "You better rinse that. Have you seen how it's made?"Step two: "Dont leave the water in for too long, it'll taste like shit"Step three until tired of it: "Pour another!"No trays pets ladles tweezers or cup warmings are involved
first buy from white2tea along with a cheap little gaiwan cup, im stoked to get into this
>>21077929forgot pic
>>21076932thanks for sharing, this made me place an order!
>>21076938looks perfect for a sticker bomb job on a nalgene water bottle
>white2tea>Most shipments will typically take between 3-5 weeksAm I reading right?Buy now receive it in February?
>>21077942mine come in like 2-3 weeks more like here in der vereingten staaten, but it might be different depending on where you live and the time of the year
>>21077935nice, enjoy. I'd get bigger samples next time though, 7g is kind of too little to really know if you like a tea>>210779422 weeks minimum for most shipping from China. I've only gotten 5 weeks during the holiday season, but don't be surprised if you have to wait a while
my teeth are literally yellow and falling off from all the tea I drink. I don't go a day without imbibing a liter's worth of tea, less than my previous rate of 2.
I wanted to try this out but the price seems steep (pun intended).The only tea I drink is a local black(red?) tea and rooibos, both are 4 to 5 times cheaper than any tea I've found on these sites.Is it worth it to try a pu'er cake or other teas?
>>21077886As for the puerh obsession I have no ideaIt's a sekrit club. If it wasn't rare and expensive, I seriously doubt it would be a quarter as popular as it is. It's like whisky and cigars, and it sounds just as faggy to pontificate about how this particular damp warehouse imparted just the perfect flavor, definitely worth $1000 a cake.
>>21078030>going for a nuclear take>fuck up the quoteOh well
>>21071393i honestly couldn't care less about flavor or complexities of tea, i already went down the coffee pour over rabbit hole, i just like how tea makes me feel not mentally ill for a few hours...maybe i should just stick to harney and sons?
>>21078048Shitposting aside, the tea that makes you feel the best are the ones high in theanine, so Japanese green teas.
>>21078048why are you asking us when youre saying that you already know what you like. if harney and sons is good enough for you then its good enough.
>>21078054well >>21078050 answer was quite helpful i honestly had no idea why tea makes me feel amazing but now i do, so thanks
>>21078063
>>21078030>rare and expensivemost of this thread drinks 10$ cakes from Awazon and Fullchea
>>21078106nta but to a normal person paying anything like a few cents or dollars for tea is kind of insane but i especially love cheap puerh (which does in fact exist like you said) for different reasons other than it being "rare and expensive"
>>21078106Shou exists solely to emulate the higher status aged sheng.Puerh isn't a drink. It's an *idea*.
>>21078131>puerh is a social constructNow it makes sense why lesbians love 'erh so much
Would you use an item that combines a tea infuser and a yerba mate straw in one? Like, you sip directly from the infuser without removing it.
>>21078204that sounds like you have no control over the steepingyou're sucking directly through the leaves
>>21078204Sipping through a straw while it's seeping sounds like a great way to burn the fuck out of your mouth.
>>21078030The mycotoxins confer warming energy and rid you of bad chi. >protip: if it tastes like dirt, fish, or basement, or causes nausea, diarrhea, or sweating, just throw it out, chang fucked up
Looking at white2tea and they have some god awful looking wrappers
>>21078030I dont think chinese people even drink that shit outside of certain regions and tcm stuff. Maybe some scholarly tea snobs?Every chinabro ive known drank whites, greens or oolongs habitually, and they made it by microwaving a mug full of leaves and water
>>21078221>if it tastes like dirt, fish, or basementBut anon...It is funny though how new shou often tastes like fish, but aged a few years it goes away. You had one job.I heard the Japanese invented a sanitary way to make shou. Even just the implication is pretty funny but it also probably tastes better.>>21078237Hipsters ruin everything they touch.Snoozefest is concerning, leaning into the meme is usually a sign the the criticism is getting to somebody.>>21078239The unpopularity of white teas in the west is the real crime.
>>21078237retvrn, тoвapищhttps://www.ozon.ru/product/chay-shu-puer-sovetsko-kitayskiy-dogovor-1950-goda-100-g-979434863/https://www.ozon.ru/product/chay-kitayskiy-shu-puer-100-let-sssr-357-gramm-979303624/
>>21078239>I dont think chinese people even drink that shityes it purely exists for a handful of westerners to order online, you got it
>>21078259If just 10% of china drank puerh semi regularly thats as many people as are in all of russiaIt’s a nice treat if you have some that doesnt make you sick but i wouldnt guzzle that shit daily
>>21078106Rate my 1st purchase.
>>21078273first tea order or just first from fullchea´?
>>21078273At least it's a good price lol.Taking a guess, that ginseng oolong will be the best out of the lot.Those mini tuos are typically shit, but I always thought that bag they come in looks nice. Do me a solid and post some good photos of it when it arrives. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the teas.
>>21078285Yes>>21078320Never had puerh before thought this mix would be a good introduction
>>21078273these mini tuocha are really bad. buying random shit from fullchea is rolling the dice quality-wise, but the white and red teas are probably at least drinkable. who knows, they might be diamonds in the rough
>>21078250teaDB just gave high praise to the Mao fu brick. it's over, the tankies have won...
>>21078364The truth is it will be a fine introduction. It's too bad that there's only a couple of raws for eight ripes. Either way, note that those ripes are mostly adulterated with this or that, but in a classic Chinese way and not a Western hodgepodge of whatever herbal snake oil. I love ripe with dried tangerine or "chen pi."
>>21078237yep, they look like bad craft beer bottles. at least Kuura can commit to a coherent visual style. well, I guess white2tea has the whole "remixxing royalty free old postcard art" thing going on sometimes
Did some late night gongfuing with hong shui oolong from TSR and found it works best with slightly cooler water (190-195f), it gets bitter too fast otherwise. I lost track of how many steeps. 6 maybe? I just got fullWhy do people recommend a full boil?
>>21078404Oh yeah the sweet fruity shit really comes out later
>>21076759It's been much easier to wean off the soda than going cold turkey. Yesterday I finished my soda by myself, today I split a can with my dad. Glad to know I should be through the worst of it soon. Almost felt like I had a flu, caffeine withdrawal is no joke.>>21077187I like my black tea with a little cream and sugar but I think I will try to do monthly whitening strips for maintenance. I bought a whitening mouthwash to rinse with after drinking coffee/tea as well.
Has anyone tried the Purple Kenya Tea?Ive been seeing it pop up a couple places and Im seeing mixed results. Some saying it's delicious others saying it's quite bitter even when steeped at lower temperature for a short amount of time. Any anons here have experience?I like trying new things but the price point seems a little high and nothing is worse than having a bag of leaves you don't like sitting up in the cupboard.
>>21078285>>21078364looks ok. if you want to try different puerh i would order samples instead of a some flavor pack thing like that, because the taste of puerh varies so much by so many different factors that i would honestly say its better to just pick a ripe/raw and then think about what you like about it and what you wish was different and then research things more like what you want or ask here. the same tea will even differ in taste just between the years. still though, this doesnt really make enough of a difference to say that you shouldnt have gotten this puerh, you can still do the same thing its just it wont be as useful as it might seem. the other stuff also isnt as bad as everyone is saying it is, it is just cheap and i love cheap tea since if you like it you dont have to worry about the feeling that youre wasting it, whereas when i drink expensive tea it never feels like im taking full advantage of all it has to offer and i end up worrying about that. all the enjoyment of the cheap tea comes from yourself.
>>21078586idk about this tea but about what youre saying about bitterness, is it really something you dont like or are you just avoiding it because other people avoid? if youve never tried enjoying the bitterness its definitely worth it because it allows you to experience way more complex flavors when you arent avoiding this one element.
>>21071393>be me>italian, chugger of up to 7 espressos a day>move in with my fiancèe>start drinking tea at night after work>heartburn is gone, insomnia is better, wake up with more energyNeat. I like Yorkshire Gold and tropical tetly teas like the passion fruit mango and the anti ox vitamin c pineapple one. As a pleb, is there anything else I should know? Any neat things I can acquire without breaking the bank?
>>21078652I had a 2 week long cold recently, and it went away after I started drinking tea every day.I rarely get sick, especially not longer than 2 or 3 days. But some shit was going around where I live and I decidI'm glad I stumbled upon tea, since it's enjoyable and there's so much variety.
>>21078652I put cheap fullchea dragon well green (loose leaves) in a strainer mug with hot water and refill it twice or thrice, every day. Its tasty, my old injuries hurt a bit less, and i’ve never been more hydrated. I havent done exact math but $14 250g bag probably averages 300+ mugfulls. Less if you want a stronger flavor. Part of this is probably just that the water is hot and doesnt require metabolic input to fully absorb, and being high on some amount of caffeine 24/7. It is not the nicest, freshest and most representative longjing for a connoisseur but it tastes like green tea, yknow. Beats twinnings and is about as good as those ito en bags. Its probably the same ok green tea they serve at chinese restaurants.
>>21078131>Shou existsYes and I wish it didn't
>>21078622I don't dislike bitterness as long as it's not overpowering. I mostly drink my teas with no milk or sugar so I'm used to some astringency, but when people are saying it's overpoweringly bitter that's where I pause. I normally am okay with divisive reviews for media but food and drink is where I got to start digging deeper
>>21078711I'm a fan of that cheap longjing as well. Solid "gets the job done" for green category. It's good for cold brews too.
>>21078946>>21078711which particular longjing is it? I've been looking for a cheap longjing
Is there anything I have to be careful about for sencha tea?
Loot, I think it’s a white tea brick.
>>21077942lol during covid i was waiting 4-6 months
Moor loot
>>21078379>tea from China>commemorating a Chinese leader>what a surpriseBesides, he actually was a tea appreciator, IIRC he even brushed his teeth with tea.>>21078404I thought I didn't like oolong the first* time I tried it until I realized the cafe I tried it at gave me water that was too hot. *(and that Chinese restaurant tea I had been drinking for years was also oolong)People make all kinds of crap recommendations, ultimately experimentation and common sense are the only cure.
>>21079138Me as boat
>>21078586There are multiple types of purple tea, and it can be made into any kind of tea. https://teadb.org/puerh-oddities/The only way to know is to try it. Buy cheap so you don't get heartbroken. Britishtea has it for ten bucks (not affiliated). https://britishtea.com/products/kenya-purple-tea-broken-leaf
>>21079137It's a little pickier than some other teas but nothing major.Too hot or steeped too long it gets a bitter aftertaste. You'll know, and it's not supposed to taste like that.Buy reputable so it's fresh.
>>21079104Ah they changed it since I ordered it. Anon might have been referring to the ~$12 250g one. I guess it's a different batch so I can't really vouch for it, but the previous iteration was fine.
Seething at the chinese rn
>>21079958not even the colorblind can enter?they're strict
Anyone else drink only japanese green?I find hibiki-an has the best value for money in terms of $/g.My favorites this year were the Shincha AOTE and Sencha premium from around march, the kuradashi gyokuro was also decent. Competition grade sencha dissapointed me a bit though, did not deliver.Tried lots of chinese but nothing keeps me going back like my beloved vegetable soup umami. also raw puerh just tastes like muddy greentea instead of vegetable greentea
What you reckon /tea/? That fat slab of qian liang is a bit ridiculous. Almost got a basket of tianjian from the same seller but apparently they include lots of samples.
If I have a mini teapot, is there anything a gaiwan can do for me?>>21080026I'm too addicted to novel-tea but if I could only drink one tea it would be sencha, it tastes the best and is the healthiest. I'm not sure what's wrong with me desu.
>>21080774>I'm not sure what's wrong with me desu.As in, why I spend so much time with other teas. Incomplete thought.
>>21080026in your entire life have you ever tried drinking cum
>>21080774>is there anything a gaiwan can do for meTeapots seem to hold heat a bit better but have slower pour speedimo it's all stuff you can adapt to when you brew with it, so just preference really.
>>21080026Yeah, it's what I enjoy most. I've been suffering waiting for the next harvest, I need to just place an order in the meantime>>21080776It's still entertaining to explore, you never know
>>21080774Gong fu is tasty, but makes a lot of tea. Like 6-10 steeps, 15+ for really rich teas, so if you’re doing that for yourself buy a gaiwan under 100ml. You can also use less leaf, cooler water, and drink directly from the gaiwan. The flared ones made of thick porcelain are the best.
Quick session with "She graduates", a pre-release White2tea raw they gave out as free samples.Mostly green teaish vegetal qualities, I also get some mushroomy funk. Some upfront sugar snap sweetness, some tartness. Mouthfeel is fairly thin and I'm not getting returning sweetness.Seems like a fine enough budget blend, but nothing fancy. I will be curious to see what the price is.
>>21080549Is this taobao?
I've been drinking rooibos in place of my usual coffee and I'm quite enjoying it. I prepare it with a little milk and sugar.
>>21081334Yes
>>21081435What are the shipping fees like?
>>21081441Last time I paid about $40 on a little under 1.5kg of tea. Which stung a bit since you don't find out till after the agent repacks the goods, but it's not so bad really vs a ktm or ys order.
>>21081476Ah ok, you can't get shipping directly from the taobao merchants?Never bought from there.
>>21081504I think it depends where you are in the world, but most people use a forwarding agent, like superbuy.
Anyone got the sample of the mohei from FL?
>>21078245>The unpopularity of white teas in the west is the real crime.Hell nah, that's the good part, I bet the prices would be worse if white tea was more popular.
>>21081615I've never really understood the appeal of white teas. If I want something tasty I just pull out some black/oolong, if I want something interesting/ponder about the mysteries of the universe I grab a sheng. No idea what sort of mood I would have to be in to get a white.
>>21081630White teas can be really calming and tend to have a nice, lasting aftertaste. They can have a thick body and also change with age, usually faster than pu-erh. The flavor is understated, but I think the depth can be better than a lot of black tea at a cheaper price. They have some stuff going for them.This all goes for leafy whites, which I've only learned to like recently. Silver needles I think are just usually bland and mid, though I'm sure there are good ones toom
>>21081615>I bet the prices would be worse if white tea was more popular.If there were such a thing as commodity shou mei it would be cheap as any other. There might be, Arizona has a can with black and white teas in it. Which completely wastes the potential but still.>>21081630What it's not is almost as important as what it is. There's never any bitterness or astringency if made correctly, just smooth and sweet notes.The mood I drink shou mei in is it's kind of a treat, like golden monkey or other naturally sweet teas.Silver needle is more of a highfalutin mood. Calling it the champagne of teas really hits the nail on the head.
>>21081776>If there were such a thing as commodity shou mei it would be cheap as any otherYou can get supermarket white tea mixes sometimes, I guess these are some sort of cheap shou mei. If awazon can have white cakes for several dollars, I'm sure there is a lot of super cheap shou mei out there
>>21081576I think I saw someone say it was sweet and mellow
I have a 1.5 qt thermos that I’ve been putting shou in and it’s amazing. Maybe like 7-10g. I just ordered some white tea and was wondering how much I should put in to thermos brew it.
>>21082014Depends on the white tea. It can be super mellow or a little bit finnicky. Probably I'd start around the lower end of your shu ratio and adjust
>>21079148This is Hua Xiang rou gui, it’s an oolong tea.
do you use a thermometer to measure the water's temperature or do you just wing it?
>>21082240I boil it and let it stop boiling. If the first cup tastes like shit i let it cool a bit more from then on. I use a teaspoon of tea no matter what tea it is and only add more if it comes out a bit weak, and then next time i add the extra via a pinchI drink directly from the gaiwan. The saucer is only for not fucking up your dinner table. The lid is handy especially for stuff like earl gray and japanese tea but otherwise it just keeps it warm. I do not time anything, i drink when it is cool enough or looks tasty for the 4th+ steepI do not measure anything except how much water i put in the kettle so i dont lose track and drink a gallon of tea (apparently that is bad for your kidneys)This is how you tea. You can just ignore all the teapot pouring steep timing weirdos. There either no difference or doing this tastes better. And if i’m going somewhere or doing stuff i put a teaspoon in a mug with hot water and call it good, you can fill it two or three times for a total of an hour before you need to add more leaves
>>21082240nowadays I just trust the electric kettle not to lie to me but I've always been on the just wing it side, I don't think temps are that important as long as you're in the ballpark of where you "should" be
>>21082240Boil it and put in the tea. Proper high quality Chinese teas are meant to be put in boiling water. If it turns out bitter, the tea has impurities and you got chinked.
Looking at buying some tea from Awazon and had a few questions>shipping basically doubles the price of the order but still seems like a good deal compared to others sites I've looked, is that fair or are there other sites who handle this better?>are these cheap white tea cakes ($30-50/2.5 kg) any good and will they keep well long term?>same question for the cheap black teas ($30/3kg)>also anyone ordered teaware from them? May pick up a pot and a couple storage jars as well
>>21082358Chinese just cant taste the bitterness after a lifetime of kung pao gutter oil kitten. >inb4 no you need to steep it for 5 seconds no longer
>>21082370>$30-50/2.5 kgand thats very cheap for tea. my sweet spot is £0.10-£0.20/g or $125/kg which looking at their blakc tea seems to be around>and will they keep well long term?they'll keep forever so long as the dont go mouldy, dont worry about tea age, i have some 5 year old green tea and it still tastes fine and everyone always says greens should be drunk in the first year. i'd be most worried about buying so much in one go as you'll be stuck drinking it for a long time
>>21082370>is that fair or are there other sites who handle this better?It's pretty typical. Shipping from KTM and YunnanSourcing costs pretty much the sameOne anon liked their white tea, another anon thought it was okay but a bit bland. Either way, it's extremely cheap but maybe grab a cake + some other stuff if you're not sure you want to buy huge quantities of ot yet.The white tea should keep fine for years, many people even claim leafy whites like these improve with age. It might change flavor a bit if you keep it for years, possibly for the better.
>>21082370>May pick up a potidk about buying clay pots from awazon, I'd just buy porcelain from aliexpress.
>>21082467What's your hesitancy?
>>21082240bring kettle to a boilfirst steep is a wash to loosen up leavesnext steep i do without bringing the kettle to a boil againi keep doing all the next steeps without bringing the water to a boiluntil the tea becomes too weak to continue, in that case i raise the water temperature and steeping timesdoing it like this usually works for me since then there is always a bit more liquid left in the leaves to draw out as opposed to just using boiling water for every steep
>>21082478unknown cheapo clay pots can affect flavor negatively. porcelain is always neutral. I know some people have concerns if they're food safe too, though I don't know how valid that is. probably just for the stuff with artificially colored clay
>>21082240Temperature controlled electric kettle for me. More convenient than bringing to a boil and waiting for it to cool when I can just bring it to the temperature I want the first time around.
First tea session of the new year for me. Taiwan Teacrafts Pre-Qingming T-23 Qi Yun White Tea.
>>21082567Are you erect everytime you drink tea
>>21082596heightened senses, more intense aroma and complex flavors
Alright I ordered some samples of all the cheapest shit on there, I guess I'll report back assuming I get the order and I survive
>>21082635The '15 menghai spring is actually pretty good for such a cheap tea, I enjoy it. Interested in the rest, haven't seen reviews for a lot of them yet. God knows if the """"bi luo chun""" is any goodGod speed brave anon.
>my Yunnan sourcing order hasn't shipped yetIs it chink new year or something? I usually tip their wagies because I'm afraid they'll slack if you don't.
>>21082836Did you buy for the fast shipping? Did you order before the weekend? DHL will pretty much always get it to you on time. Last time I ordered, in October, I placed the order on the 2nd, it was shipped on the 7th, and it was at my door on the 10th. Bought from the .com site, and it got to me about as quick as it would've if I used their .us site insteadIf you didn't and just went for one of their cheapo options, you could be waiting for a long time
>>21082635I plan on doing the same thing.
can someone send me shota teapets to waterboard
>>21083151I find it odd that they have peeing little boy teapets but no peeing little girl teapets.
Holy shitI just steep some loose leaf Jin Xuan and my god, the leafs actually smells so strongly of milk candy, I thought it was just memes, but nope, shit straight up smells like store bought milk candy.
>>21083413if the dry leaf smells strongly like milk candy too, it's flavored, like earl gray or jasmine greensunflavored jin xuan is much more subtly milky
>>21082567love this teaware series, didn't know anyone in this thread got the teapot. how is it functionality-wise?
>>21083408where can i get one of these
what is the cheapest, fishiest and strongest shou youve ever tried (if there is bitterness that is good too)?
>>21077938that's nice, post about your order when you get to try it!>>21077556>I expect to hear your thoughts on the orange box liu bao and the lao bai chahad a few sessions with the Lao Bai Cha already, it's pretty great. I struggle to describe the flavor though, kind of fruity-spicy, makes me think of orange peel, honey, herbal syrup maybe. sweet and thick, I'm very pleased for the price. maybe I'll write more about it sometime and compare it to the Moon Wafflesthe liu bao I need to get more reps with, first session was just alright, typical beetrooty flavor but nothing stood out to me
You get 30 – 50 sqm somewhere in your city/town. Tell me about your tea house, Anon. Things you may consider:>What kind of tea do you serve? (Specialty tea, local tea…)>How much variety do you let your customers choose from? (Green, Red, White, Black… Chinese, Japanese… 1 of each, 2 of each)>What kind of people you try to speak to? (Local grandmas, weebs, hipsters…)>How does your interior look like? (Blending in with local customs, Eastern, modern, rural…)
>>21083765>What kind of tea do you serve? (Specialty tea, local tea…)specialty tea for tea people, flavored and herbal tea for normie women>How much variety do you let your customers choose from? (Green, Red, White, Black… Chinese, Japanese… 1 of each, 2 of each)I would do more variety rather than less. maybe make a seasonal green tea event in the spring>What kind of people you try to speak to? (Local grandmas, weebs, hipsters…)weebs and hipsters for sure, as well as trendy corporate ladies. local grandmas don't bring in much money>How does your interior look like? (Blending in with local customs, Eastern, modern, rural…)I'd love to go with full orientalism monkey's paw antique store 19th century opium den looking shit. but a blend of eastern and modern to please the weebs and hipsters would probably do the best financially, I know there's one matcha place in my city with wabi sabi x brutalism kind of rough minimalist interior and it got some hype going
>>21083793>as trendy corporate ladiesAre they into this? I get that those would be your dream customer cause woman+money but last tea thing I went to had 0% corpo, 100% hippie
>>21083986Well, they drink matcha (lattes) and anything you can market as healthy or "fat-burning". Even better if it's exotic and expensive. Hippie yuppies, Sigma females, not sure what to call them, but they are common over here.I remember someone posted photos from a teahouse in an expensive mountain resort with hippie-looking millionaires sitting around doing gong fu. I feel like that's the perfect customer base.
>>21084020You'll have to spend the rest of your days hanging out with these guys, though.
>>21083765I've pondered this before. There's no way it would be feasible to stay in business only selling the kind of teas I want to sell, i.e. quality Chinese teas, a few from each big category (black, white, green, greener oolong, darker oolong, old+young sheng, heicha), something like one cheaper/introductory tea and 1-3 higher end ones. I'd have a couple Jap greens as well.I don't want to sell herbal teas like the other tea shops around here because I'm not interested in them whatsoever plus I don't want to cater to hippies and health nuts. I'd prefer these >>21084053 kinds of weirdos, but I doubt there are many of them around.So my idea was for the teahouse to be a cafe as well (probably predominantly a cafe if we're being realistic about what would bring in the money) and hopefully convert some coffee nerds to tea. I don't know coffee though so I guess I need a coffee guy business partner.
Taiwan Four Seasons Red Pearl OolongI got this one as a free sample from what-cha. Apparently it's heavily oxidised but unroasted, though I swear I can smell a bit of roast.Probably the most interesting part is a really distinct cinnamon note which I haven't had before in a tea.The liquor is woody and somewhat dry, you have to push it fairly hard to get good body. I had a bit left over which I brewed western style, it came out much the same.It's not a brilliant tea but, since it's cheap I'll suggest getting a few grams if you make a what-cha order just to try that cinnamon note.
I use two cups and a sieve to make my tea. Kneel.
>>21084138I use a 1L french press, fill it up, let it steep for 5min, and there you go.
>>21084129they also have something like that on teahome, called "red oolong". it's quite tasty, not too complex but very sweet and caramely, would be a perfect tea to gift to people
>>21084165Nice, maybe that's an improved version of this, it's lacking sweetness imo. Tea home do have some cool stuff when it comes to oolong cultivars.
>>21084053imagine the orgies>>21083793Live in a 1M+ city but born and raised in a 50k one. Latter is locally famous for its tea culture. In that city's center I'll locate my tea house.>What kind of tea do you serve? (Specialty tea, local tea…)Traditional "Ostfriesentee" (low quality assam, darjeeling, ceylon blend): panders to tourists, welcomes the elderly/locals; specialty tea: enables curious minds to explore the possibilities; Starbucks-like beverages and kombucha with East Frisian tea theme: as to-go and for the youngsters>How much variety do you let your customers choose from? (Green, Red, White, Black… Chinese, Japanese… 1 of each, 2 of each)For the Chinese teas at most maybe 2 greens, 2 blacks, 2 oolongs, 1 white, 1 puerh, nothing Japanese. Varieties are rotating but roughly 1 daily and 1 that starts a journey for "more". "More" might be under the counter>What kind of people you try to speak to? (Local grandmas, weebs, hipsters…)Local grandmas for the warm community feeling. Next are intellectual locals interested in preserving their culture. What will eventually happen is that hipsters find out about the place and try to get some of their soul back by posting photos of my tea house and the sweet racist grandmas.>How does your interior look like? (Blending in with local customs, Eastern, modern, rural…)The local patterns are "Rood Dresmer" and "Blau Dresmer". Picrel shows the latter. Blue and white like Qinghua. It will be easier to introduce grandmas to gaiwan, pitcher and more when it blends in with the local tea sets.Never will my grandmas have to pronounce Chinese words in my tea house. Never do they have to pour water anywhere else than into their cups and pitcher. Never will my customers forget where they are. Never will my customers try to be Chinese or enlightened. I'm >>21083793 btw.
>>21083765Ah the dream. I've been fantasizing about having a tea house ever since I started selling tea. It would be a cozy hole in the wall somewhere downtown where I'd get a lot of foot traffic and regulars. The focus would have to be pretty broad to stay in business, but the focus is on Chinese teas. I'd always have the core offerings of six teas on a main display for people new to tea to look at. The essential offerings-- Ripe, raw, green, black, oolong, white. That's what I would always direct new tea drinkers to. The stuff on the shelves would be more specialty, the stuff I would drink. I'd do a lot of education and a lot of gong fu sessions. I'd have a few blends, but I'd insist on quality which would probably mean doing it myself. I'd generally price premium to cultivate a more boutique vibe.My tea house would have a very pragmatic approach. Tea meant to be consumed all day every day. No mysticism, no snake oil claims, just good fucking tea. Customer base would have to be broad. One would need to have tea and skills to talk to grandmas, hipsters, working men. I would not try to force anything Asian beyond aesthetics and tea. I'm not a weeb and I don't want to be the weeb hangout. They can go to the card shop down the steet.I imagine there would be some places to sit and hang out, but not many. It wouldn't be the place to bring a crew, just maybe a friend. I'd want to engage everybody at the tea house rather than partition anybody off to a corner or something. Interior design isn't my expertise. I tend towards practical things and sentimental knick-knacks. It would certainly be familiar to my upper Midwest USA town, some hipster vibes, and of course plenty of teas and teaware on display. Sounds a little generic when I read it back to myself. The main attraction is the tea. Education and experience of the tea.
>>21083765>What kind of tea do you serve?I would specialize in Vietnamese tea. Vietnamese tea is virtually unknown in the west, so I think there's a niche there compared to the usual Chinese/Japanese places. >How much variety do you let your customers choose from? Shelves or cabinets separated by type (green, red/black, oolong, white, dark) with enough variety of each type to fill the shelf. Also want to get a house brand of puerh cakes with anime girl mascots (hey it works everywhere else). Separate area for teaware with padded floor to minimize the chances of retards (me) breaking something.>What kind of people you try to speak to? Nobody specific. Anybody wants to sample anything, we'll do a tea tasting session on the spot. If somebody else walks in during that time, they can take a seat and join. My assumption in this fantasy scenario is that I don't have to be profitable to stay afloat.>How does your interior look like?Modern for the browsing area, antique for the tea tasting area.
>>21083151>>21083616The peeing little boy teapets are pretty popular as well as monk boys. Umiteasets or Dragon Tea House if you want specific retailers, but I'm pretty sure you can find the same things on DHgate or Aliexpress for cheaper. Many of them get their supply from the same place anyways.
>>21083765The "tea nerd's heaven with herbal tea to keep the lights on" thing makes the most economic sense although it's a meme.A Benihana-like cafe based on pin cha or sado would be kino but I don't know if it would be viable.My goal would be for customers to be able to sample teas they wouldn't be able to afford by the oz/cake.Literally just a bar that serves tea instead of alcohol would be interesting but is pure fantasy.>>21083793>wabi sabi x brutalismCan you post a pic? It's not really self-dox unless your city has like 10 people in it.>>21084191>OstfriesenteeBased but porcelain European tea culture is too effeminate for hipsters, including female hipsters. Especially female hipsters.>>21084248I would be fine being the weeb hangout, I'm just too gaijin to actually do it. A sushi restaurant that went whole hog on the tea would be awesome.
>>21084053will they have wild sutra sex with me
>>21084333>Can you post a pic?sureI've only been there once, thought the meme jap seating was a bit uncomfortable. but it's undoubtedly a part of their gimmick
>>21084353Wow that looks cool. I can see why it has hype.>PolandI don't see how I would ever find myself there but I like brutalism and tea so I'll keep it bookmarked.
>>21084353>PoznanBeen there as a child on a summer vacation. Is Chinese tea kinda big in Poland? Pottery and thetea.pl gave me the idea. Would love to visit again and drink tea with the corporate ladies in your shop.
>>21084427>Is Chinese tea kinda big in Poland?Not really, but we used to get yunnan blacks and oolong in communist times. I think people are a bit more open to trying new tea over here than in western Europe, so we have a few decent stores. Might be the tea caravan influence from Russia, the average person just drinks tons of commodity black tea.What did get big in Poland though is yerba mate, at least in the cities. It's a little random, but it became a big craze in the last decade, possibly because one celebrity globetrotter was shilling it every chance he got.
>>21084459>Might be the tea caravan influence from Russia, the average person just drinks tons of commodity black tea.Yunnan and caravan are pretty good FWIW.
>>21084459>possibly because one celebrity globetrotter was shilling it every chance he got.Could be, here in Czechia I've never seen anyone drinking Yerba mate.
Why do these japanese sites not want to take my VAT
>>21083616etsy
>>21084531https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wojciech_CejrowskiYeah I think it's gotta be because of this guy.Yerba Mate got so big here there are even some supermarket store brand mates. The specialized Polish yerba mate online stores still seem to be doing well too (there might be more of them than specialty tea stores) and the stuff is sold by many other random stores too
>>21082567Where can i get this teaware
>>21082931They literally haven't even packaged it yet...
>>21084121This. There was a place in Asheville that was all Chinese tea and I can't fathom how they stay in business. It's really wild.
hey guys, so i did a couple gong fu sessions this week to show my family tea and they really liked it. My aunt said she wants to start drinking tea now because it was relaxing/helped going to sleep, but she doesn't want to to do the whole gong fu thing with a gaiwan and multiple steepings. So I'm thinking i could get her one of those automatic brewers that you just push a button to drain the tea. Are those things any good? or should I just get her a bigger pot (like 350ish ml? for like one mug) and show her how to do western style with less leaf? She mostly liked the softer gentle teas, like green tea, white tea, one of those puer mandarins that pretty much just tasted like mandarin rather than puer.
>>21085620just get her one of those stainless steel infusers you can set over a mug
>>21085347they don't update you every step of the way. YS goes "Order received" to "Order Shipped" to "Out for delivery/ delivered". They don't tell you Li Chun took the cake out of storage and slapped it in a box during his 9 to 5, anon
I bought a box of twinings tea bags and it tastes so good and yummy compared to the loose tea I get (tezen in europe)what am I doing right?
>well-meaning family member got me a Vahdam sampler that's mostly blends>figure "sure, why not" and throw on one of the chai blends>get a stomach ache on the first cup, pour out teapotIt's like real street chai in India, 10/10, threw out the rest of it.
>>21085756I like Benner tea.If there isn't something literally wrong with it, the floor for tea is actually pretty high. We here like rare varietals and complex processing methods and novel tastes, but at the end of the day tea is tea. Brewed properly and without adding to it, it's healthy and tastes good. Simple as.
Might order from YS for the first time soon. Shoud I:A. Buy samples of cakes I can afford, because I might buy the cake.B. Buy samples of cakes I can't afford, because they're actually good.C. Leroy Jenkins a cake that sounds like I would like it, without sampling it.I guess there's D. Fuck off if $80 for a cake sounds like a lot, stick with affordably priced teas and never look back.
>>21085767A+B, buy samples of cakes that you can and can't afford.
>>21085767depends how experienced you are and if you know what you like alreadyI feel like people end up blind buying more full cakes once they know their tastes wellif I wanted to buy from YS though, I'd buy some of their fu bricks. they seem to have a good selection of that and it doesn't get the stupid high yearly price increases they do on many pu-erhs
>>21086100The Mao Zedong brick looks nice but i don't want to buy a kg.
>>21086132sounds like you should get a sample thenthe "anniversary of the reunification of hong-kong" brick I tried from KTM was really tasty, love these wacky special edition themes the fu brick makers are doing
>>21086148I want the Mao coin though
Any vietnamese raw puerh recs? Thinking of buying from either vietsuntea or hatvala before the sales ends.
>>21085794That works.>>21086100>I'd buy some of their fu bricksNeat, I hadn't thought of that.
fuck, I feel like ordering japanese greens again. why does this always happen at the worst time of year?
>>21086608Storage has come a long way since that rule of thumb was made. I just had some gyokuro that was really good. It won't be *the freshest* but frankly it's better than a lot of other teas at their best.
My cat doesn't seem to want to drink the tea but she does find the smell of it interesting. I wonder if she would drink some stanky ripe
>>21086633>puerh lesbian has graduated from hitting her wife to poisoning her catNo but really, don't do that.
>>21086637You're probably right, though she will continue to get to sniff the cup
>>21086182I really like the Viet Sun Giang Pang.>>21083577I just got it and only used it the one time. So far so good. It did clog up once in the last infusion, but I attribute that to technique.>>21084864Taiwan Teacrafts.
>>21086608i'm tired of waiting bros. i need an order to tide me over
The worst part of tea is that everyone who knows anything exclusively recommends small batch boutique providers and all of them have shipping that costs as much as one tiny 50g bag of tea. Maybe if you spend $40 you can get free shipping on 150g! it's better, trust us!Meanwhile if you want coffee and you ask whats better than maxwell house and about as good as any other good coffee, "idk peets, its like $10 at the store". You can even get it on amazon and wallmart's website.Where is the peets of tea?The answer, my soys, is 200g bags of kakegawa sencha off amazon. Fukamushi's is good.
>>21086974The peets of tea is yorkshire gold
>>21086974>it's better, trust us!It is. Good stuff in life costs money or is that revolutionary idea to you?There is plenty of cheap stuff that is good so instead of making smug posts tell us your price category.>200g bags of kakegawa sencha off amazon. Fukamushi's is good.Good for you.
>>21086974The actual travesty is that cheaper green actually tastes the same as the ippodo $40/150g stuff.
>>21087158O-Cha beats ippodo hard for loose leafIppodo beats O-cha for matcha
>>21077478>>21077498That tutorial didn't talk about cleaning the inside of the condenser tube. But it helped me disassemble it so thanks.I took it out and put it in the oven at 250°C to kill any leftover organics in there. Flushed it with 70% isopropyl afterwards. Apparently it worked, water is fine again.I will try to find a longer brush online. The one on the pic works but is too short.
Oh hey my new year YS order is arriving in four days
>>21087254What did you get?
>>21086974Nice ad. That's not even a crazy good price on sencha, look at Den's Tea.I'd recommend Fullchea for Chinese tea and Vahdam for Indian tea, both on Amazon, if you wanted an intersection between good and cheap. Yunnan Sourcing needs no introduction.>>21087158>>21087175Good matcha is for when you wish you had a coke habit without the health or legal problems.I actually found Vahdam matcha to be a good deal but it's probably swill to anybody who knows matcha.
>>21087289
>>21087429not sure how that fucked up
>>21085620Bro just help her make her a profile on a lesbian dating app. She'll find a nice puerbian in no time to show her the tea ropes. Its weird for you to engage in something as intimate and exotic as tea autism with your auntie.
>>21087434Good sized order. I have the Happy Tiger ripe but haven't cracked into it yet. All of those sound interesting and I wouldn't mind hearing a write up on them. The Black Gold Bi Luo Chun is classic.
>>21087518Always order the Black gold when I restock, and I may write up some tasting notes about the other things. Purple voodoo has never disappointed since they started making yearly cakes of it
>>21086182>>21086798>I really like the Viet Sun Giang Pang.I second this
>>21087527>Purple voodoo has never disappointedI had a purple black for the first time the other day and enjoyed it quite a bit. What's the purple voodoo like?
>>21087616Really good. To me it tastes like really jamy raisins, alittle tart but sweet
>>21087623Nice, that's what I was hoping to hear. Will pick up a cake some time.
>>21087631can't go wrong with it. It also smells delightful
how much tea a day is too much?
>>21087641not sure, i usually drink 1L, sometimes 2L if it's a good tea.
>>21087641I'd call it at 25g
>>21087295Den’s cheapest sencha isnt cheaper, $55/450g vs looks like $50/600g for "200g fukamushi sencha"s first result. Quality might be off. I’ll give it a go and see if its tasteless crap for ad-kun’s sake.
>>21086974>amazonBased off of amazon warehouse conditions I'm defaulting to: hell no. At least for green tea
>>21073552>and he (definitely) said that you shouldnt use a gaiwanWhat an idiot.
>>21082567>>21086798Is it limited? I can't find it on the website.
Alright, my tastes have changed a bit so I'm redoing my tea rankings, post yours as well.Favorite: Japan greens, Lapsang/CaravanReliably good: Tie Guan Yin, Assam, WhiteDepends on the mood: Pretty much everything.Never ever: Shou, keemun, malty oolongI don't dislike malty foods but I don't like it in tea for some reason.>>21087641I might drink two pots idk.What tea it is really matters, if it's a relatively "normal" tea then the most objectionable thing in it is caffeine, which contrary to urban myth doesn't magically turn every drink into negative hydration. I would go as far as to say there's no upper limit to the healthiest teas like organic steamed greens.If you're constantly slamming down shou puerh, lapsang, or earl grey it might be a problem though.
>>21088093I like tea
>>21088061There's still the bathing beauties teacups if you need your coomer fix.
>>21088040why
>>21088093>Never ever: Shou, keemun, malty oolongwhat is wrong with youmy favorite is shou for sure however i try to save it for the colder seasons ill explain below.i cant "rank" any tea because they are all equally as amazing to me in different situations, and what good is a ranking if what youre drinking isnt always whatever you put in your favorite category or whatever.summer: sheng, amazing drinking this outside under a tree after a nice walk in the woods. ooloong goes here too but only when its rainy--oolong always reminds me of when i would sit out under the gazebo in the rain.autumn: there isnt really an "autumn" here in nc, things only really start dying when its winter, but even then this when i start drinking shous and blacks are a great fall tea; i feel like oolong fits well here too. whites are also good but that is because i more associate their taste with the changing of the seasons because of their sweetness.winter: shou has always been my winter tea, its perfect to drink outside while reading or writing. blacks are good here too but blacks are sort of good anytime since they are my "default" tea.spring: spring, like i said, is time for whites; whenever i think of and drink whites i always think of spring when i sit in the garden and drink iti cant put green anywhere because i dont drink it enough to say. i drink it whenever i feel like it
>>21088093>FavoriteAged sheng>Reliably goodHeavily roasted oolongs, young/mid aged sheng, aged oolong, fu cha>Depends on the moodShou, liubao, Japanese greens, greener oolongs>Never everI'm not sure I have any never evers. I'm not really interested in black, white, or yellows but I've only had one or two of each of them, so perhaps the samples I tried just weren't the ones for me.
>>21088093>FavoriteYoung sheng>Reliably goodWhite, lighter/green oolongs>Depends on the moodGreens, blacks, dark roasted oolongs, aged sheng>Never evershou (used to depend on the mood, it's just I've realized i'm never in the mood lol), fu cha, cheap ass aged shengNeed to try: different whites (aged or silver needle), Jap greens, liubao (desu i don't wanna tho), yellows
>>21088277Actually I think I misread the post, and thought it was talking about green tea still. If it's for black tea, you can use a gaiwan, it's just that you have to be careful because it uses much hotter water than other teas and you can burn yourself. That's really it. If it's Indian/Western black teas, those don't work great with Gong Fu style team making though, only Asian black teas.
>>21088093>Favorite:young sheng, Japanese greens>Reliably good:aged sheng, leafy white tea, roasted oolong>Depends on the mood: ripe pu-erh, liu bao, Chinese greens, Chinese blacks>Never ever:green oolongs, silver needles, Indian blacksI've gotten a bit bored of ripes and I still need to try more hei cha
>>21088093>Favorite:Assam black, FL Yingpan Shan black, young raw pu erh>Reliably good:Sencha, White (aged and non aged), Darjeeling, Kenia CTC black>Depends on the mood:Spiced teas such as chai, smoked black>Never ever:Ripe
If tea pets could speak, what would yours say?
>>21088294>what is wrong with youKeemun and malty oolong are entirely subjective, and I know both have tons of fans (Keemun being what got the British obsessed with tea).I really like the aftertaste of shou actually, but not the main taste. I liked aged shou more, precisely because it tasted less like shou. I'm not sophisticated enough for fishy dirt, there are plenty of teas that are tasty.
>>21080026I appreciate you mentioning this company. I've always wanted to try matcha and this looks like the right price point. Placed an order and should be here before the week is out so I can see what actual japanese green tea is all about.
>>21088648to feed it lolI've started using just a kitchen towel on my desk to catch drips instead of using the big tea tray to spill water all over the place. It's much more compact and convenient this way but it also means my tea pet doesn't get tea poured on it anymore
>H&S tea that was vacuum-packed inside the tin tastes fresh>H&S tea that was loose inside the tin does not taste freshImagine my shock. It was lapsang so it still has the smoky flavor but c'mon, black tea has cha qui too keep it fresh!Not sealing hong cha, very inauspicious.
So I've never really tried pu-ehr before, I picked up a packet from Upton and I've been enjoying it, a whole pearl is good for two passes through 16 ozI understand this isn't the 'real' stuff. It felt like crumbling dry ramen when broke it up to go into the diffuser. What should I look for when I try getting it from other suppliers?
>>21089077It's probably real, tuo cha are usually lowest quality, anything serious is going to be in cakes (or rarely a brick). Taetea and Yunnan Sourcing are Just to muddy the waters, I've actually had decent loose leaf shou puerh. It was probably broken off a cake though.
>>21089097>Taetea and Yunnan Sourcing are>SQUIRREL...a good pick for cheap decent first puerh.
>>21089077>It felt like crumbling dry ramen when broke it up to go into the diffuserthese pearls are probably meant for a single session with lots of infusions where you let the water open them up. either with a gaiwan / small teapot or a large diffuseranyway, look at the list of vendors in the OP rentry. it's usually best to buy from Chinese stores that specialize in pu-erh. good big chinese brands to start with is Haiwan and Taetea, the former has an amazon store too. or you can go for the smaller boutique stores aimed at westerners like FarmerLeaf, white2tea or YunnanSourcing (that last one is bigger and not as pu-erh focused)what you got is probably ripe (shu) pu-erh, but there is also raw (sheng) pu-erh, which is unfermented and often aged for a long time>>21089097the dragon balls are usually better material than minituos, this one doesn't look like it's all dust or anything
>>21089138>the former*latter
>>21089077>What should I look for when I try getting it from other suppliers?This is interesting question and I don't know if there is an answer. In general it is hard to know if the tea you are about to buy will be good or bad. In my experience the correlation between Price and "quality"/enjoyment is weak. If you want decent value then getting stuff from big factories is usually safe bet. Day/xiaguan/haiwan etc. Since they are the largest factories(I'm ignoring tea bags) they need to cater to the largest masses so you shouldn't get something "bad".Then there are boutique stores such as FL/w2t/csh... honestly if you are curious about tea(and this is mostly puer general) lurk around, if some anons review seems interesting to you give it a try or ask away. There is just too much tea, it is confusing at first but once you try stuff, you will find out what you like and what you are looking for.
NEW:>>21089728>>21089728>>21089728
