Finna do it

7572 from Awazon developed a spicy note since I got it. something I also found in Best Taste Ripe. interesting and welcome.

>>21572379
Spicy like capsaicin or like spices such as clove or cinnamon?

>>21572460
like spices, but a sort of earthy spice. sort of like a tingly anise flavor, maybe that's what people call ginseng flavor

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made a QuicheTeas order

>>21573332
Classic choices. I like V93s. I also like the newer ones more than the older ones, desu. I've had that Xiaguan, too. Can't help but notice you paid a lot less than I did. It's one of those that falls back in the pumi and I haven't touched it in a long time. It's probably my favorite Xiaguan raw. I noted some crisp green apple notes. I'll break mine out this week and we'll compare notes.

>>21573395
cool, I'd love to see your notes
QuicheTeas has the lowest prices for these factory cakes, pretty sure those would be twice the price anywhere else
I guess taiwanese dropshipping prices with slight mark up are much better than what the western facing vendors charge

the Xiaguan seemed like a no brainer at that price. the 2005 t8653 I bought last time because a big favorite of mine. I'm hoping this cheaper cake can compare to its glory

>>21573332
the V931 Dayi is nice

Is it normal to finish 1/2kg of oolong in a month? I drank different tea some days also

>>21574191
that seems fast to me

>>21574191
Are you steeping it more than once?

>try weird new tea
>wtf that tastes so weird
>try to like it best as I can, fail completely, can't drink it
>guess I'm never gonna get used to it
>wait 1-2 months
>try it again on a whim
>no longer weird since I've had it before
>quickly grow to like it
Why does this keep happening

On another note my jin jun mei souchong from KTM is dusty as FUCK, like almost as if it was drenched in pollen (especially since the dust is a yellowish orange, from the buds). Is that normal? What I'm doing is giving it a very quick rinse before brewing (pour in boiling water, pour out, like 3-4 seconds total probably), but I've never had a tea that was this incredibly dusty before.

>>21574600
>>21574612
Turns out it was 1/4kg my memory is just shit.
I steep it repeatedly untill it loses flavour.
I just throw what I deem to be enough in a ~200ml gaiwan and from the amount iv used in this amount of time and taking the days I drank different tea into account its probably around 10g, which is a lot but not utterly insane.

>>21574648
>my jin jun mei souchong from KTM is dusty as FUCK, like almost as if it was drenched in pollen (especially since the dust is a yellowish orange, from the buds). Is that normal?
yes, that's the fluff from the buds. jin jun mei has lots of fluffy buds.
you don't have to rinse it, it's considered a good thing

>>21574684
Interesting. I'll try it unrinsed next then.

>>21574648
>jin jun mei souchong
What's it taste like?

>>21574706
Very, very... hmm, I don't even know how to describe it. Kinda honey-y, kinda nutty? Chinese teas are generally described as nutty and this one feels like that taste but very strong.
I haven't had too many chinese blacks, mind you. My other points of reference are KTM's jiuqu hong mei and their low-grade CNNP tan yang butterfly jar, and various indian teas. The tan yang is not too different from indiant teas except noticeably slightly more sweet or maybe tangy. The "red plum" jiuqu has a very much nutty taste as advertised, not at all comparable to an indian tea, but also not overbearing. The souchong has the strongest taste of them all. I tried it first and I couldn't drink it because it just tasted so wrong compared to what I was used to. I think I've gotten used to the nutty taste of the jiuqu though so now I've started to appreciate the souchong.

Maybe honey is a good way to describe it, there are lots of different honeys and I could imagine one tasting somewhat like this. It's not the most typical honey I'm used to though and I don't know enough about honeys to give any real comparison, though I did once have a jar from some village in the mountains in northern greece which is actually not too dissimilar to this taste now that I remember it.

>>21574729
>>21574706
yeah, I can second that it's honeyish and a little bready
probably a darker honey like buckwheat honey? not sure though
the jiuqu hongmei just tastes like marzipan to me. could be stronger, needs to be pushed hard

>>21574747
Dark honey sounds about right. Not entirely sure about calling it bready, though, I tend to associate "bread taste" with something either yeasty or doughy and thick, while the souchong I'd almost say is slightly tart. It's not actually sour but the fact that it tastes somewhat like honey while not actually being sweet (obviously), and the usual nutty undertones, doesn't really make me think of bread.

I want to put together my first Awazon order. What do you guys suggest picking up for Raws/Ripes? I'm generally not picky at all with flavor notes, just don't like anything excessively smokey.

>>21575045
It makes me think on dark rye bread / sourdough more than white bread. But I have a previous year, it could have also changed

>>21575212
The 2002 6ftm tuo is good
They have a lot of really safe factory ripe in general
Their raw could be more hit or miss I think

how much tea does /tea/ drink per day?
I decided to count and I think I'm around 1.4L

Which CTC on amazon would you recommend?

>>21575212
I liked their white tea

>>21575356
probably like 3L

>>21575461
Vahdam

>>21575356
1.5-2L
7-12g of leaf

>>21575356
In the Summer it's around 1.25 liters from 7-10 grams of leaf. In the winter, it's probably double.

>>21575356
About 3L of black tea on a typical day at work: around 0730 I make a pot of tea to start the day, 1000 brew the leaves again with half the water, repeat around 1400 and 1600.
On weekends at home it's more like 2L of tea since I'm not at home hanging out the whole day.

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>Past 2 AM; would be wise to sleep
>Completely ready for bed, just have to turn lights off
>Desire to pull out tea randomly and start a session increases
The duality of man.

>>21575356
I normally make 10oz (~300ml) cups of tea. During the week I normally have one before work and one or two after work (my job is not conducive to brewing tea). On the weekend, or whenever I'm not working, I have four or five per day.

>>21576549
I did that for a whole year once, get in bed at 11, get up at 12:30, gongfu some puer then go back to bed at 2. Wouldn't recommend

>>21576549
Get some low/no caffeine tea for those hours. Hojicha?

How long does it take yunomi.life to send tea out?

>>21576549
Have a session with just hot water. They call it ghost tea.

>>21572150
Is there any teas for euphoria and relaxation? I need a way to relax without booze.

>>21574648
>why does this keep happening
There was someone in the last thread who swore smoked tea should be left for 18 or so months before drinking it, and other types of highly oxidized teas for at least 6 or so months, maybe have a look and see what his point was.
>jin jun mei
They might be trichomes (good, filled with flavory chemicals, sign of high quality).
>souchong
It might be charcoal.
If it's really fine dust it's probably charcoal, but if it looks like yellowish pollen they're trichomes.

>>21577337
poppy tea

>>21575212
Their """old tree""" white tea bricks are pretty good.
Their 2015 Menghai spring cakes are pretty good as well; only 100g pieces are available but you can get a couple considering the low price.

>>21576850
Just stick with herbal mixtures. Chamomile is always tasty

>>21577518
Nice, yes, sounds like both my souchong and the jiuqu hongmei have down's
Btw it's an unsmoked souchong, I hate smoked tea

>>21576850
I have some bancha I could use. Been a while now. I'll post a picture when I do.

>>21578087
>I'll post a picture when I do.
Based

>>21577337
idk about euphoria but CSH Naka is my most relaxing tea, it's just got a warming effect to it. makes me sweat a lot too lol but the vibe is comfy. The jiang xin is even better but that one's expensive ;-; so ive only had it in samples

>>21577337
kratom is kind of a tisane

>>21578385
do not do kratom you will vomit if you try drinking green tea afterwards

>>21578386
I believe that, both have a tendency to upset an empty stomach.

>>21578387
My friend did kratom and now can't drink green tea without getting sick even though he's stopped kratom for over a year

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Oumi inakabancha from Sazentea. It's been a while since I've had it, but this gentle roasty grain/wood flavor and mildly sweet, malty aroma are of comfort when you're tired or it's late.

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Here's a dry leaf picture of the bancha.

>>21578479
Starting to get cooler here. We are entering mulch season

Not really in this thread's wheelhouse, but I bought a bunch of black teas from Harney & Sons and I'm going to post my thoughts on them. I'll mention different steep times but I used boiling water for everything.

Firstly, I got their CTC Assam, it was cheap and I wanted to see what a straight CTC tea was like. Even at 2 minutes this is as astringent and not pleasant, just strong. Add milk and it becomes a perfectly fine breakfast tea, though.

Secondly, some various breakfast tea blends. These are all decent on their own but do benefit from milk. Also I do drink tea after breakfast so having some variety for that is nice. All needed 3 minute steeps and began developing astringency if pushed further.
>English Breakfast (Keemun)
Mild flavor of Chinese black tea
>Irish Breakfast (Assam)
Mild malty flavor
>East Frisian (Assam, Ceylon, Darjeeling)
Mild Darjeeling flavor
>Orange Pekoe (Assam, Ceylon)
More generic black tea flavor but still tasty, definitely above crap like Lipton
>Russian Country (Keemun, Assam, Ceylon, Formosa Oolong, Lapsang Souchong)
Nice and smoky, with the smoke neither being weak (it's still present with milk) nor overpowering

Onto the good stuff
>Queen Catherine (Keemun, Panyang, Yunnan)
At lower steeps this was similar to their English Breakfast but once pushed to 5 minutes this become a very delicious tea similar to imported Chinese black tea that I've had in the past. I liked it a lot.
>Darjeeling
I've never had Darjeeling before (my reference to Darjeeling flavor in the East Frisian was compared to this). Apparently this is a blend of first flush and later harvests, though they classify it as a black tea and that's what it looks like. At 3 minutes this was similar to East Frisian but one it hit 4 it really opened up and became delicious. I loved this one and it makes me want to try some more expensive Darjeeling teas at some point in the future.

>>21578780
Also, while I like the classy little tins these all came in, I have to note that the Queen Catherine and Darjeeling were the only ones that had accurate directions for brewing. Every tea I mentioned said to steep for 5 minutes, which is absurd for most of them, except the Darjeeling which said 4.

>>21578134
I agree that CSH Naka has a good body feel to it for the price
It does go more in the ecstatic than relaxing direction to me

>>21578385
>>21578390
Wtf is kratom
Also does this apply to oolong or whites, or only specifically greens?

>>21572150
I like Ti Quan Yin.
Make a pot and top it off with the same leaves all day long.

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Hello /tea/ts,
I bought this Shan Lao Shu 2014 Haiwan sheng puerh that was reccomended in a previous thread a while ago, arrived yesterday. Now I'm not much of a tea gourmand and relatively new to this so take my description with a pinch of salt.

Overall I quite like it. It's got a slightly smoky flavour although not too pronounced, with a hint of sweetness in the aftertaste. It's also very mild, definitely much milder than another puerh i have, likely because that one is half-fermented. To me that's not a bad thing though, because of the mildness I can see myself drinking this a lot and not get tired of it (I hope, this cake is a half kilo).

if someone else tried this one I'd be curious about their thoughts and get told how trash my tastebuds are.

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>>21578853
leaf and bark powder from a plant indigenous to south east asia that contains alkaloids which exhibit low potency opioid activity. the desired, positive effects plateau at a relatively low threshold, so it's pretty safe in that regard (can't overdose fatally, can't increase dose for better effects very well).
it is kinda addictive and can lead to mild withdrawals when stopping, but it's a league below the usual drug habits in my experience.

>Also does this apply to oolong or whites, or only specifically greens?
I've been wondering about this. some teas are very harsh on my stomach, while others don't have this issue at all. I remember reading something about the compound contained in tea which causes this effect, but I forget what that all was about.

>>21578875
>blind buying a 500g cake
Brave, good that it's to your taste at least. Have you considered buying a bunch of small samples to explore the variety? I feel like if you're "not much of a tea gourmand" then generally you're better served with buying ten 50g portions rather than a single 500g one. Then not only do you have more variety rather than drinking the same thing every day, but you also actually get closer to becoming a tea gourmand yourself, in particular you get a much better idea of what you like, and you can then buy a full cake of any of the types that you liked the most - after you've compared a bunch of different teas and picked your personal favourite, rather than relying on a blind recommendation.

>>21579081
samples are more expensive dough

My yunomi order got packaged, time to wait forever.

>>21578875
Good man! I have the 2017 and posted about it a few threads ago. I suspect your tea has mellowed out with an additional 3 years of aging.
>>21579081
A cake is a sample! Build a pumi and the worry about drinking tea before it dries up goes away.

>>21579114
>A cake is a sample!
If you're buying cakes as samples then cost is probably not even a factor for you, in which case sure fair enough.
>Build a pumi
Elaborate, maybe I'm retarded but I don't know what that is and searching only brings up the dog breed

>>21579081
Yeah the next teas I'll buy will definitely be smaller packages. However i already knew that i generally like puerhs so i wasn't all too worried and i kinda wanted a "special" tea to come back to every now and then.
>Have you considered buying a bunch of small samples to explore the variety?
Yes, i just have to find a place that offers sample sets at a decent price because so far most i've seen are quite expensive because they're like 30+ teas big.
Also thinking about buying an Oolong because i already have one and I'm curious about compareing the flavours.

>>21579114
>I suspect your tea has mellowed out with an additional 3 years of aging.
Really. I would've expected the taste to intensify with age. But i guess it doesn't unless the tea is fermented?

>>21579126
I mean a pumidor. A humidor for your puerh stash. And other tea. An insulated cooler or bin you can keep hydrated and with steady, warmer temps.
>>21579131
Certain notes can be made more intense, I suppose. When we're talking puerh less than 20 years old, it's generally becoming more mellow from its younger, bitter version.

>>21578853
It's an opioid drug. Basically the same as being addicted to tramadol but it's "natural", so people think it's less bad for some reason

>>21578875
Yeah a slightly upscale Haiwan production should be good drinking

>>21579081
There is also value in getting lots of sessions with one tea. You can experiment with brewing, you can come back to it in a year. It can be just as useful as more samples

>>21579126
>If you're buying cakes as samples then cost is probably not even a factor for you
Cakes are cheaper per gram. Blind buying cakes is actually the cheapfag thing to do if you know what you like already

>>21579201
If you do know what you like then definitely, but it's not a "sample" then. When you say cakes are samples that implies buying 10-15 different cakes (not necessarily all at once, but within some reasonable amount of time that's shorter than the time it would take to actually drink 15 cakes straight up)

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Apparently the bags from YS don't block smells. All of my tea now smells and tastes like the strong hay scented one.

>>21579206
"A cake is a sample" is a popular meme, but there is some truth to it
>You get to know a tea much better if you have a whole cake
>It can be treated as a sample for a whole category (lao man e cake will really let you know if you like lao man e, same for factory recipes, better than a few sessions with a small sample would)
>You start realising with time that 400g of tea is not a huge amount in the long run
>A lot of the best value stores don't have samples at all

>>21579388
What an exceptional vendor. Premium prices, premium year over year increases, worse shipping practices than the cheapest taobao sellers.

>>21579424
I'm very upset

>>21579455
If you get upset on a more visible forum Scott will come and lie to you then disappear.

>>21579460
I'll use this as a lesson and order from a Japanese site next month

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Tsushima benifuuki from Oishi Tea Farm.

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Dry leaf image of the benifuuki red. Many stems, it seems. I like the aromas and flavor. Rather beautiful fruity-floral balance.

Should i order tea or wait for 11.11

>>21580438
all your photos are so beautiful, you show off the leaves and liquor so well

>>21580591
Thank you. Even a little overhead lighting helps a fair bit with my measly phone camera. I always tried to get decent shots when I'd journal and share my notes before. I'll sip something else later today and share some pictures again since you enjoy them.

Can anyone recommend a tea shop in Japan? I'm travelling to Osaka and Tokyo (and will be passing through Toyama), and wondering if it makes sense to buy in person instead of ordering from home. I know ippodo and nakamura tokichi have stores in the major cities, but maybe someone has more experience? Thanks

To the anon who's been recommending the YS "1368" fu brick: thanks for the rec! I've tried it twice now; didn't like it very much the first time, but for the second I went for a much lower ratio (closer to sheng than to shou numbers) and it was delish. Some edge to it but given the complexity of the brew I'll instead call it "character."

Another session with 2005 t8653 from Quiche
Gotta be my favourite aged raw so far. Great mouthfeel and lots of smoke and menthol. Barbeque, wood and menthol cigarettes. Doesn't gut punch me like some factory raws do.

does anyone remember which thread the jacket schizo was in

>>21580810
I think somebody posted that telluride pic. Haven't got a copy but could probably get it in the archive from that

>>21580446
I don't know what that is. Jap tea? I thought they were too stuck up for stems.

>>21580810
I can grep for it if I could remember what you're talking about. What was the situation?

>>21580932
It was some retard samefagging about $1000 jackets

>>21580810
>>21580948

Oribe edition in April 5 of this year.
>>21283185

>>21580963
>April 5
time flies, thanks man
>>21580932
>grep
are you saying you have archived all the text from the tea threads? can you share pls

>>21580810
Lmao I forgot about that
>>21580916
Someone kept ranting about designer jackets and that spending daddy's money on designer jackets is the highest form of familial relations

>Shipment requires a certificate of origin from the Chamber of Commerce at the origin location. Certificate must include origin of goods (country of manufacture).
>Recommended action: Shipper must provide Certificate of Origin from Chamber of Commerce.
uuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhh

>>21581019
>you have archived all the text from the tea threads
Yes. Not just the text, but the whole html page. Images, links, and replies. Everything except webm.
>can you share
I would point you to the online archives first. All of the pages I have saved are relative to my POV and contain all of my (You)s. I'm a little reluctant to share such evidence corroborating who I am.

That said I have been mulling over the idea of curating a bigass /tea/ torrent with books, videos, thread archives, blog mirrors, price graphs, even some 3D models. Maybe this Winter I'll get started on organizing it in earnest. I would include archives in a share like that.

>>21581339
If you could somehow compile all the reviews anons have written about their buys and organise them, that would be a massive contribution to tea-kind.

>>21580920
I think it's this one: https://yunomi.life/en-gb/products/oishi-tea-farm-handpicked-benifuuki-tsushima-black-tea
>I thought they were too stuck up for stems.
I don't think that's the case. They have kukicha after all, which is straight-up just stems. That said, I looked at my gaiwan later, and while there certainly were stems, many of them had leaves too, just thin and needed time to unravel.

>>21581144
just have AI create the certificate, what could possibly go wrong?

>>21582255
I don't understand why yunomi won't put a several cents paper invoice in the fucking package. I'm going to have to call customs every single time I order

>>21580438
That's a damn nice 'wan. The little metal inclusions and the color are beautiful

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2022 'Chicxulub' Huangpian Sheng from KuuraCorp. It's interesting to reserve just one final portion of a tea and wait months or years to have it again and compare to old notes. I had this around the end of last year, and while most of the notes match up with my impressions now (like a grassy quality, medium thickness, low bitterness, etc), some seem different. Maybe it's because I'm infusing at a higher temperature and longer durations today, but I get less of a honey quality right now and more of...other notes. It's hard to describe, but I sometimes perceive "meat-adjacent" notes from certain shengs sometimes. Though, the leaves are spent now, so it's hard to make out much besides grass/vegetal qualities. Not a critical analysis session, just for fun.

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Huangpian sheng dry leaf.
>>21582450
Thank you; I've cherished it for around 2.5 years now. Chawangshop has had some excellent teaware in the past, and the prices were fairly reasonable for handmade works. So, I can recommend them. I'd like to possess some nice handmade Japanese or Korean works someday too. I think that teaware you connect with visually adds a little something to the experience.

>>21582459
I agree that chawangshop has nice teaware. Are they even still operating?

>>21582456
>meat-adjacent
Yup i have gotten some of these in sheng before, i see the description horse sweat used occasionally and i have had some bulang teas with that aspect. Most dramatic was a liubao i got from chawang shop years ago, huge smoked / cured meat aspect.

>>21582700
Chicken broth is another one I often get

>>21582671
Seems so. Their page loads, and I can go through various offers, though it seems they have much fewer clayware items up for sale at the moment. I recall quite liking their Bada region offers and some heicha (liu bao?). Some decent budget oolongs.
>>21582700
I guess it's just been a while since I've had sheng like that. I say "meat-adjacent" because I've had teas that are much more on the money. Yet, I never quite know how to describe that kind of note beyond some variation of 'meat'. In this case, it came across as some kind of mildly acidic, broiled meat, but not particularly acrid or offensively pungent at all. It's nice for it to not be too dominant; I've experienced that with stuff like those funky cheapass mini tuos you get from Fullchea.

>>21582788
I've got some green tea with a very distinct faux-chicken instant noodles note

What's a daily drinker green tea from yunomi life?

>>21575560
>Vahdam CTC
Had a cup this morning and while it was enjoyable it tastes like Yorkshire Gold, so I will consider spending less next time. Wagri Bakri, maybe.

>>21584053
Wagh Bakri is decent. If you're in the US Tea India has a good flavor in my experience. If you have an actual Indian market nearby you can usually get a big sack of something for cheap.

>>21582456
Maybe there is something wrong with the water? I had a water contamination once and suddenly every tea would taste really savory. I get savory chicken notes from some funky green teas some times, but never bad that with sheng.

>>21584101
The water should be fine since it's from a filter, nor do I have limescale problems (I never use tap). I wouldn't say that tea was particularly savory, I just noticed that note was in there. Maybe less direct if I'd infuse it more lightly. I think I'd have to venture into something like steamed Japanese greens to get that much savoriness.

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>open kettle to see if it needs refilling
>dead bug in the water
haha kill me

anyone order anything since this de minimis shit? thinking about grabbing all the farmerleaf samples but don't want to get tarriffucked

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I'm the anon who posted some weeks ago about going on a business trip to China. So here is how that went regarding /tea/:
Most places serve you tea without much asking, similar to the US where you always get water served. 1st hotel restaurant had plenty tea selection, I opted for some silver needle white and got it served grandpa style (annoying, leaves floated on top) and got hot water top ups. 1st business contact served me green tea grandpa style without asking and also did hot water top ups. 2nd business contact did not serve tea but pic rel. Most restraurants either served green, white, black ("red") or barley wheat tea, mostly in a western tea pot with a strainer. I did not come across any Puer in the wild but people know what it is and tell stories of their cakes at home.
Went to 3 tea stores, they were all quite small with limited selection of puer cakes, I spotted some really expensive ones tho. Shops are more focused on lose tea and sealed pressed mini pucks for convenience, which are very popular. Shops would engage you in tasting sittings, where they serve it with a gaiwan. There are some nieche puer shops for sure but did not look into it.
Factory cakes I got:
2008 Long Yuan Hao Sun-Dried Mingquian Sheng by Xishuangbanna Gucha Mountain Tea Co. (Cake is brown like Shou but it is clearly labeled as Sheng)
2018 Menghai Big Tree Sheng by Menghai Bajaoting Tea Co.
Other stuff:
Hand full of 6g sealed white tea mini pucks
Hand full of Chen Pi (this one is really fresh with strong citrus smell in the box. The other ones I saw before were old and stale)
Grandpa Style mug, which has a half round glass sieve in the top, which I thought was really convenient.
Some ultra fancy cup in a gift box

>>21584276
You probably drink Chinese dirt on a regular basis so what's the big deal? Maybe the boiled bug water will give your tea new dimension.

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>>21584462
Heres what I got. The minis are Fuding White Peony by Hang Jia Dian Cang. Tastes like sweet honey. The grandpa style cup works really well.

I forgot to mention above: I was suprised how thin the Chinese drink their tea. I always brew it stronger at home.

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>>21584516

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>>21584522
pic of the 2008 Long Yuan Hao Sun-Dried Mingquian Sheng

>>21584484
I will drink ze dirt but I will not eat ze bugs.

>>21584462
>>21584516
Cool mug.

>>21584522
Nice jianzhan cup

>>21584462
>(Cake is brown like Shou but it is clearly labeled as Sheng)
2008 sheng will be more brown in color than young sheng

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I didn't take a great picture since I wasn't planning on posting it, but the chenpi batches I've made over a few years came to mind some hours ago. First batch was with lemon peel well over 3.5 years ago (4 in the coming January). I made a few orange peel batches in different ways years after (including one this year). Have yet to ever drink any of my finished product; I wanted to commit to aging them, but they all smell lovely. Each one smells uniquely different too, whether due to how I processed it or the age. I've found that the (unheated/non-infused) dry peel aromas certainly shift from tart to something sweeter and 'softer'.
>Pic rel, my homemade chenpi.

Have you anons ever heard a roommate drop ceramics, shattering them and think it's your teapot? I just had the shit scared out of me by someone gardening and shattering a terracotta pot.

>>21584976
I have a very early childhood memory of me shattering a fancy hand potted teapot my mum had. She sat there and cried. It is a horrible memory, which haunts me to this day

>>21583511
>mini tuos
I've been wondering - are these, in theory, inferior to a full sized cake of identical material?
It seems intuitive that the fermentation process in a larger sample would be stronger, or even more complex, due to the increased volume that the microorganism can inhabit to do their thing.

>>21585181
Fermentation happens in big piles before the tea is pressed into a shape. For ripe at least.
But in practice most mini tuos are very bad, they are made from leftover dust and scraps or just low quality material. I would avoid them in favor of cakes, bricks or normal sized tuos.

>>21585181
>are these, in theory, inferior to a full sized cake of identical material?
It's more of a practicality issue. The kind of ones I referred to are going to be made of low quality material or outright scraps. Probably not stored in the best conditions either. In comparison, you'll find way morr whole leaves/buds in typical cakes and bricks. You can have small balls (pressed whole leaves) like the ones from W2T; those are fine, but please don't buy a Fullchea mini tuo bag or go out of your way for mini tuos.

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>>21584462
That's awesome to hear. It's nice to get some evidence towards grandpa style being most common. Sounds like you were able to dedicate time to tea. If I ever get to visit China, Taiwan, or Japan, that would be my dream.
>>21584516
Looks great. If that mug is entirely glass I want one so badly. That's exactly what would get me to do granda style. The white minis and chen pi are probably just fine. Those two puerh cakes are what you need to do some research into. I have never heard of these companies. They could be dynamite. Please do a review when you've had some time with them.
>>21584522
I'm so indifferent about 99% of kettles, teapots, gaiwans, and even cups. Teaware is a different hobby, imo. But those deep dark black glaze cups are so sexy. Mad jealous.

>>21584462
>Hand full of Chen Pi
>other ones I saw before were old and stale
>>21584875
Isn't aging the entire point of chen pi?

>>21572150
does anyone else just throw a whole box of teabags into their bathtub once a month and drink that?

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>>21585977

>>21585815
Aged chen-pi is preferred. The several decade-old ones go for a great deal of money due to TCM connotations. That said, this is just an amateur's efforts.

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I'm hesitant to keep posting about my recent infusions too much (I don't intend to blogpost), but I was very surprised just now to see that I appear to not have journaled on (or lost the notes on) one of the teas in my stash; that being the Sep '23 kyoubancha/京番茶 from Sazentea. I'm not sure what happened, but I took the time to write session notes and take some pictures for the anons here. I'll post them now:
_________
3g/195F(91C)/12s

Dry leaf smells of very sweet smoky (yet smooth) barbecue coals and BBQ sauce. Toasted wood behind those notes. Wet leaf is similar (albeit more savory) with the subtle wood note being slightly clearer and 'damp', yet still in the background. Maybe the slightest pinto bean note.

Low bitterness, medium thickness, Low-medium astringency.

The liquor is smoky-sweet and smooth just like its aroma, and lingers inoffensively in the mouth. A bit savory in flavor, but not starkly so in texture. Perhaps the notable amount of stems has something to do with it? It also possess a retronasal aroma that brings that smooth smoke note (and maybe a bit of the wood?) onto the back of the tongue, which I find rather pleasing. Very easy to sip on overall.

Pushing it slightly; 205F(96C) for about 15 seconds doesn't change it much favorably for me. More smoke comes out, but it's largely the same. The sweetness characteristic on the palate dulls after a few initial infusions, but can still be detected within the wet leaf. With that in mind, endurance is so-so if not a bit weak. It can be infused multiple times, but loses its prominent characteristics in the cup somewhat early and eventually thins out. Still enjoyable, especially with its smooth leaf aromas.

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Dry leaf shot of the kyoubancha.

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Bonus filled gaiwan close-up because I thought it looked cool. Like a bunch of driftwood or kukicha.

>>21586313
Frequency alone doesn't make it blog posting if you ask me. I'm always happy to see good reviews with nice pics.
Gotta try some kyoubancha, I will drink anything retronasal, and sounds very tasty. poor longevity does make sense with that kinda tea.

>>21586345
I'm glad you see it as such. Bancha in general is a chill time. I have had their Oumi inakabancha too, and it's also pleasant, though pretty different.
>I will drink anything retronasal, and sounds very tasty.
I only had a sample of it, but I recall W2T's Firebat having more of these kind of smoky BBQ notes. Honestly outright like barbecue snacks on the both the nose and palate. I imagine you'd get them retronasally, but it's been too long to say. I also only sampled it, but I had the 2019 "golden tip lapsang souchong" from CraftedTeas with a lot of nuance to the aromas and some good florality in the retronasal aroma.

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Two weeks from now I'll be in Chengdu, China. I read everything about the tea houses and will visit them with my CN-GF's grandma. Unnecessary to say, I also want to buy tea leaves. What's my approach? Tea shops, Taobao, Flag Stores? Anything in particular?

Also, I bought tickets for the Berlin Tea Festival.

>>21586032
mmm, cold brew with notes of mud and asphalt runoff

>>21586499
I have never been to china but is there anything you can buy in taobao in china that you can't just buy shipped outside of china also? Especially considering agents exists.
Also does your gf know nothing about buying local tea?

>>21586499
Having just been in China, my advice is the following: It is essential to have a Chinese speaking local with you. No one in China speaks any english at all. To find tea stores, Google Maps is worthless, since Google services are blocked in Chine by the great firewall. You have to use Baidu Maps (Baidu = Chinese Google) but thats all in Chinese. Best is you tell a local in advance what you are looking for in tea shops and they can research shops to visit. Locals told me that - no suprise - they also buy their tea online since it is cheapre than in the shop. However I would advise you to still go to some shops for the tasting sittings, which I really enjoyed.
To get censor free mobile internet, I suggest to get an esim service such as trip.com (saily is a ripoff.) Worked like a treat and is way better than the shitty Great Firewall wifi you get there.
Store don't accept western creditcards, they all do either WeChat Pay or AliPay so sign up to that in advance.
Good luck fren and tell us how that went

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Hey tea friends, I am trying to elevate my tea game as for 10 years I've been brewing western method. I also need a clay tea kettle to season. So far in my decade of tea I love greens, whites, yellows, oolongs, some black. I haven't done pur-eh im scared ill fuck it up but ill get there and make it. Im not a fan of tea blended and like just pure teas.

That being said this what I'm working with but any clay oot recommendations or just overall tea tips? I've spent 10 years just brewing looseleaf never thinking or caring past western style, now I want to branch out.

>>21587614
My suggestion would be to get a cheap gaiwan (or a cheap mini porcelain pot, easy to find on aliexpress) and get really comfortable brewing with it first, then look into clay pots a bit later.
I'd also suggest, when you do get a clay pot, to make sure you get it for usability and aesthetics first and clay autism second.
https://mudandleaves.com/ sell nice stuff

>>21587614
I agree with the other anon; a cheapshit porcelain gaiwan will carry you so far. So much so that I personally think everyone getting into Chinese infusion methods should buy one. A gong dao bei can be convenient too. With that in mind, a handful of tips to chew on:
>Get an electric water kettle with temperature adjustment options
You don't need anything amazing. Just something to heat water to a target temperature. This can help you balance your temperature for the tea in question. Can be more useful for some teas, such as perhaps Japanese greens or young sheng. Use clean water; if you use unfiltered tap or low quality water otherwise, even ignoring the water quality issue, you risk developing limescale in your kettle, and that can increasingly mess with the flavor a lot over time until you clean it with vinegar.
>Consider using a digital gram scale
Helps you learn how much leaf you actually need to put in. This is because some types take up more volume while having less mass or vice-versa. Not necessary, just maybe helpful, especially if you journal.
>Consider journaling your sessions
You don't have to go full autism with it, but if you take the time to identify the notes you pick up from the leaves and infusions through each stage, you may find you develop your perception of the senses and get more enjoyment out of it.
>I haven't done pur-eh im scared ill fuck it up but ill get there and make it.
No stress. Honestly, it's not that big of a deal to get into. If you're worried, try out a factory cake or two from a common, reputable company like Haiwan Tea Factory or TaeTea/Dayi. Or, if you want to wait and simplify it further, I think White2Tea is gonna have their "Shulloween" promotion in October if you want to try some shou pu'er, as well as their annual Black Friday "Snoozefest" sheng pu'er release. They're both limited, but would greatly simplify looking for something to try in each pu'er category.

>>21586808
Shouldn't be two, just for trust? I wouldn't trust one of those chink bastards further than I could throw it.

>>21588063
Link me to a cheap good white gaiwan I broke my last one Amazon is asking $15 for one

>>21572150
K cups are good enough

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>>21585754
>If that mug is entirely glass I want one so badly.
It is. Get one here: Mingxin Tang brand
https://sg.world.taobao.com/item/Zk1nbnlaMHFRSFg5SExhUVN1eW9ZUT09.htm
>I have never heard of these companies.
Menghai Ba Jiao Ting Tea Co. is well known.
>Please do a review when you've had some time with them.
Sure

>>21585815
The ones I had before lost their citrus smell. The ones I got now still have a potent citrus smell.

>>21588225
The one I got was the basic white one from Verdant Tea years ago, but honestly any old one from AliExpress is gonna be cheap. Search for either a "porcelain gaiwan" or "porcelain gaiwan set". I've seen some sets around $10-12, and lone gaiwans around $5-$6 (though you need to spend $10 minimum for free shipping on Choice items, and a little extra for tariffs). Costs on Amazon are inflated.

>>21587614
A 150 mL porcelain teapot.

>>21586747
>Also does your gf know nothing about buying local tea?
She does not share my interest in her culture, no.
>>21586808
>Locals told me that - no suprise - they also buy their tea online since it is cheapre than in the shop.
I see, thanks. I don't know what I imagined, maybe a tea brand store or something. But thinking about it, I guess Chinese order even more online than we do.
> I suggest to get an esim service such as trip.com
Didn't know about this as a possibility.

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>>21572150
how did kings survive in older times. imagine going to sign a peace treaty and and they offer you tea which is nothing but poison and if you drink it you die but if you don't drink it then the war starts again.

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why does coffee have a bunch of different contraptions for brewing, but tea has never really changed?

>>21587614
>I haven't done pur-eh im scared ill fuck it up but ill get there and make it.
I brew everything grandpa style and I mean everything. Just don't buy super expensive fancy cakes cause you do give up some of the subtleties of the flavor, but there's tons of sheng that's like $20-30/100gr or less, still good, and perfectly tasty with whatever lazy brewing method you want. Or just buy cheap ripe it all tastes the same

>>21589478
You have a servant taste-test your stuff if you're really in a negotiation where the other kingdom would genuinely benefit from your assassination and in a position to do so
But if they're in a psoition to do so the other guy can probably just stab you with a dagger real quick rather than bothering with fingerbox tier gimmicks

>>21589709
Tea is made of leaves and common wisdom is to not break up the leaves too much. Leaf dust exists (e.g. in bags) but is considered very low grade, whole leaves are considered to have much more refined flavour. So if you take good tea and put it through a press or some weird aerosolysing gimmick you'll just be ruining the high quality leaves
Also leaves are very easy to just brew whole, while coffee beans have a lot of internal volume that doesn't easily release flavour unless you grind them, and then you get a bunch of methods for filtering and shit
As a result tea methods are mostly about different ways to boil the leaves. There are indeed a bunch of different methods mind you, gongfu, western teapot, grandpa, samovar to name some, and things like water temperature and steep time can be controlled more or less carefully and varied to taste. I'm not a coffee guy but I think a lot of the different "methods" are just about brewing them longer or shorter or filtering in a slightly different way. A bunch of the shit in your chart look like literally brand names rather than general methods

>>21589709
>skill required:very sharp and thick
Very cool guide to not knowing shit about coffee brewing

I keep burning and/or oversteeping my unroasted oolong when doing it grandpa style. I'm gonna have to get a teapot just for oolong at this rate reee
Or buy more roasted but I have like 400g of green still to go through

Would you say 1gram of looseleaf to 100ml is a safe general rule of thumb.

>>21590469
reply quality: below average
resulting brew:

My Dayi 7562 Ripe contains a bunch of tea seed pods. How do I start my own plantation with these in central europe?

>>21591902
Let's see a photo

>>21591866
sounds alright yeah, very very roughly

>>21591905
I don't own a camera.
I picked out two seed pods so far from the spent leaves of a third of the brick. I'll just pretend like it's good luck.

Quichetea is now selling 30 gram samples for a bunch of cakes.
I don't know how bad the price is compared to buying the full cake, but the variety is looking pretty nice:
https://quicheteas.com/products/samples1

>>21591908
I usually think of seedpods as somewhat auspicious. Found one plus a flower in my Fa Zhan He recently.

You should get a camera. Anything is fine. :^)

>>21591912
Man nice. They have some expensive fuckin cakes.

>>21589933
>common wisdom is to not break up the leaves too much
why can matcha get away with it? does tea powder taste worse when it is older?

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tea

>>21591866
Yes, actually. Brewing for example 5g in 500ml once is reasonable, as is brewing 5g in 100ml five times. It's hard to go wrong with it.

Has anyone successfully beaten a puerh addiction? Asking for a friend

>>21593839
I really need to get a kyusu with one of those filters, but lately I've just been lazy and use a glass teapot.

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Got a new tea set today
What should I brew??

>>21594195
Lipton

>>21594195
My gurl, is that a Beauty and the Beast set?

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>>21594200
It was marketed as a mother's day set I think. The pot has straining holes so I can just throw loose leaf into it which I really wanted in a big western style teapot.

recommend me some oolong?
i have a tieguanyin i thought was decent but now drinking it again it tastes kinda bland/boring
i have some dancong honey orchid one too which is nice

>>21594249
legend of tung ting from teahome.com

>>21575356
Winter I go hard, probably about 4 liters
Summer has been canned coffee this year because my bank is being asshoe about importing from taiwan

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>white2tea skull pot and cup restock
>5 hours ago
>sold out already

NOOO LET ME CONSOOM DAMMIT

>>21595084
it's crazy to me that their 200$ teacups sell out in like an hour tops
I get that it's handpainted, but jesus, the Taiwan Tea Craft booba painter's cups look just as good and they cost 30$

>>21595096
>I_just_think_theyre_neat.avif

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Thoughts on tiguanyin?

>>21595356
not impressed >>21594249

>>21595356
It's the "all day" tea. When you see Chinese folks with big ass tea leaves in a bottle they just keep adding water too? That's what those leaves are.

They can be steeped about seven times before they need to be changed out. It's a unique tea in that it doesn't become bitter no matter how long you steep it, so throw that bitch in a pot, drink it, refill it, and keep at it.

It comes in two types mainly, roasted and unroasted. The roasted variety makes a brown tea with an earthy, stronger taste while the unroasted makes a yellow kind of tea with sweet and (usually) very floral taste. Shit can get pricey for an initial purchase sometimes but when you consider the multiple steeps you get out of it, it actually is one of the cheaper teas out there.

Never buy it in a bag. You also need to pour hot water in the leaves and let them set for about ten seconds, pour that water off, wait a minute, then use them to make tea. That first flush gets rid of impurities and starts the unfurling process.

>>21594249
Oolong is basically just the in-between state of green and black tea. The only benefit is you can steep it more than once usually. Tieguanyin is the kind of tea you drink while doing other shit, it's not really supposed to be the star of the show.

>>21595376
It is also the most fun tea to say aloud and order from tea houses. I always say oooooo, looong in the same tone as George Takei saying "oh my". It sounds like I'm saying "wow, that is long" but I'm just ordering tea.

>>21595376
>Oolong is basically just the in-between state of green and black tea.
Oolong is actually pretty different in how it's made and is probably one of the most varied and refined types of tea. There are some very expensive, pain-stakingly handroasted oolongs out there
There is also a lot of slopguanyin that just tastes like faintly flavored floral spinach water
I wouldn't dismiss all oolong like that, dancong and wuyi stuff is very different to green tie guan yin

Any Australians ever had their tea stuck with customs for 2 weeks with no word from them? Is there any hope? Auspost just says that it's awaiting inbound clearance (my previous parcels would go through it within 2 days tops), while the chink tracking says
> Retention of overseas import customs is to be tested (detained by border agencies/security departments for unknown reasons)

Never gave matcha a go as I thought of it as some meme additive college girls add to their starbucks order like pumpkin spice, but my local asian food store has a fair selection of it.
How does it taste really? Buying some alongside one of those matcha whisks seems like a waste if I don't like it in the end.

>>21595577
I would avoid buying it from a food store because freshness is super important for matcha. Order it online.
You can get by without a chasen but it's tricky. If you have a fine mesh strainer and one of those portable frothers that will work. Use an oversized preheated mug and force the matcha through the strainer on top of the water; then mix with the frother and transfer into a matcha cup. I have a chasen and I still use the frother when I'm lazy. Sifting is absolutely required if you do it this way.

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Having some 2008 "Taste of Hong Kong" sheng from Yeeontea Co. It's kept well in my stash, still retaining that distinctive HK storage aroma and flavor. Smooth, cleanly earthy (like fresh soil notes), subtle sweetness; just as balanced as I remember. Reminds me of liu bao but lighter and 'brighter', which is really pleasant to me. Pretty good endurance too. I overleafed, but I'll share some pics of it.

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2008 Taste of HK dry leaf.

>>21595472
Not really.
Green tea is not oxidized, slightly oxidized tea is Oolong, oxidize it further and it's black tea.
You can roast it after it's dried and the flavor becomes more earthy and the final beverage darker or you can not roast it and the tea is lighter, less intense, sweeter, and more floral.

That's it really. The flavor differences depend on region, tea plant variety, additional flavorings, etc, but that not unique to Oolong.
Note, I love me some Oolong.

>>21595577
Matcha is to green tea what espresso is to coffee. At the end of the day it's just a stronger, more bitter version of green tea that has extra steps involved but it's still just green tea.

>>21596155
it tastes like utter shit

>>21595577
NTA but that makes sense since cocoa powder will do the same thing unless sifted.

>>21596166
>>21596155
confirmed to have never tasted quality matcha

>>21596194
NTA but all I've had is culinary matcha and it's bitter. Is that not the case for ceremonial?

>>21596145
https://youtu.be/WDuN3K2HgGQ?si=8wkO9hPF5ocQxX67
There are processing differences, in practice oolong is it's own distinct tradition and is not as simple as "in-between black and green tea"

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fullchea suddenly stopped shipping to my country, its not even a part of the EU :(

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>>21596346
Oh what the hell

>>21596346
>>21596352
I wonder why it's suspended!

>>21596357
it's the jews, right?

>>21572150
I buy tea by the pound as a dirty poor who buys bulk for cheapness and am but a idiot.
Purple tea is so strong I use like a tablespoon for 3 liter of water. But I just learned about wetting the leaves and throwing that water away then steeping the wet leaves to remove bitterness in Chinese tea. Is this correct for purple leaf tea?
Because I like the underlying taste, it would be better stronger. But the "tannins?" Or bitter is to be contended with

>>21596377
Rinsing the tea isn't done to decrease bitterness. It's either to make rolled / compressed tea open up faster, to remove dust and debris or off flavours from storage

It's not necessary for many teas. By purple leaf you mean yesheng?

>>21596387
It's a variety of tea that gets red tips in the African sun. It has more antioxidants because its made to endure a screaming sun everyday.
https://www.amazon.com/Tea-Antioxidants-Caffeine-Wellness-Sustainable/dp/B0D9WL5151/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?crid=ZJFV87SHO1FQ&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.hh3BuyPtLllcHbXrkTsXIG19VbtY4x531uGe4O3SmCBMce9Y-YniYO3Hhwo7-U98tSfYTUgtUfSAs--pcx7_4Y28-NzFdX6t0s7ItOe6d9sYZFu_SHa8PFFPa9D6K6ynkiTr9p5dkOqCFteR9PBZZMdl1zfY_TT4yxJdKUSsseR9O-AFirsm5tmaAvB99Sb9LcF5po1bgoELpxhjizlEKQ.g28RwdyBEszYkiAsABvxdxXS7x__6J84uh5EB_5lpTw&dib_tag=se&keywords=purple+leaf+tea+from+Africa+by+the+pound&qid=1757766674&sprefix=purple+leaf+tea+from+africa+by+the+pound+%2Caps%2C119&sr=8-4
The pictures online look like a variant in coloration like you get with purple artichokes and purple broccoli. A purple tea plant.

>>21596397
it's not compressed or aged, so I don't see a point in rinsing it

>>21596403
OK
Ive still got half a pound i might tame it yet.

>>21596357
No idea how do you even get it suspended

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The puer tryouts continue!
After last time's disappointing experience with Jingmai Miyun, I went through all of my samples before writing again, both for the sake of not spamming this general with my dogshit newbie opinions, and also to spare you guys from an unending flurry of "I dun like it" posts if I simply didn't like any of them.
Fear not, turns out I like some puer after all.

So far I'd tried the 2024 yellow flakes (pretty good if a little unidimensional), the 2023 bangwai ripe (smells AND tastes like warm unsalted smoked salmon), and the 2025 jingmai miyun (one of the most astringent teas I've ever tried, maybe my fault, maybe it's just shit, dunno).

Now the newcomers:

2017 Bangwai ripe: slight fishy smell goes away instantly when brewed, no trace of it in the taste. Strange (in a good way) taste I couldn't properly describe, very nice aftertaste and smell, gets thicker and sweeter as time goes on. Lasts a looong time, very good experience.

2025 Bangwai small trees: stronger "raw" taste than the yellow flakes, almost no astringency and a funny bitterness that turns into strong sweetness within seconds. VERY sweet aftertaste creeps in about 20 seconds after taking a sip. Still has what I guess is the farmerleaf sheng taste. Probably my favorite of the bunch.

2025 Fa zhan he: kinda starts like the Bangwai but with way less sweetness, a bit more astringent too (maybe my fault). Quickly gets very brothy, almost savory in a vegetable kind of way, like what you get with some japanese greens, very tasty. Sweet aftertaste is present but very subdued compared to the sweet bomb of the Small trees. Pretty nice all things considered.

That's all for me, sorry for the wall of text boys, ask away if you have any question.

Picrel: giving Jingmai Miyun another chance with more leaf and cooler water as another anon recommended. Cute sitckers thrown in as an apology for the dogshit lighting and picture quality. My 8yo phone is doing its best but it's clearly not enough.

>>21596523
nice to hear you're enjoying this batch more
Bangwai and Fa Zhan He were always better liked in these threads than Miyun

>>21596523
Update: the Jingmai Miyun is still shit. Super astringent and it just does not go away.

>>21596523
>>21596784
No matter what you do, miyun will be shit.
The fact it costs more than bangwai/fzh is absurd.
The autumn gushu is the only jingmai that's worth, but it's king of similar to tflz, so I wouldn't sweat about it.
Try to get some yiwu if you like sweet stuff.
Teaencounter has something on the cheap side, definitely more reasonable than the $120+ from FL.

>>21596795
They have a euro store and cheap shipping fees so that's cool, I'll keep them in mind.
Too bad about the Miyun. I'd really like to find a way to make it drinkable, I'd hate to waste the rest of the sample.

>>21596840
You could just let the sample hang out for a year, it will probably change a little in that time

>>21596795
As far as I know FL prices everything the same way, it's the cost of the tea plus some margin they need for profit. The Miyun is expensive because it's relatively high quality Jingmai tea. Literally nobody has ever heard of Fa Zhan He so it's cheap (fortunately). The 2024 was one of the better teas on the site, not even considering price.

>>21596915
That might be the smart thing to do, just throw it in a drawer and forget about it for a while. Only downside is that if it ever miraculously stops being shit I'll only have ~10g left to drink.

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>>21596934
well damn

>>21596992
And I've long since drunk all mine, I should have bought a tong.

>>21596992
I would bet the 2025 is similar. the 2023 was similar to 2024

>>21596197
Correct. Culinary grade is usually intended to be used in some kind of cooking, so it's worse quality. It will definitely taste like bitter grass.
Ceremonial grade is much smoother tasting. It remains earthy, but a softer on the palate.

>>21597071
It's similar but I didn't think the 2025 was as good, I've had all of them. There will be more in the future though.

>>21596197
>>21597076
Matcha isn't sold as "ceremonial" or "culinary" grade, just buy matcha, anything you see with these labels is probably just powdered green tea or something, which is probably why it's astringent.

>>21597118
Wrong.

>>21597076
I see, thank you.
>>21597118
Huh

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>>21597194
"ceremonial" and "culinary" are for baka gaijin who don't know what they're talking about exclusively, the concept doesn't exist in Japan. The last time I checked there aren't regulations on what can or cannot be sold as matcha, so most of the cheap shit, the "ceremonial grade" matcha you see on amazon or whatever is just powdered green tea, because green tea is what is available. To produce matcha the leaves are heavily shaded first, like gyokuro, which is what makes it less astringent and bitter. If you're making it properly, and it tastes very astringent, it's almost certainly just not matcha. Again, there is absolutely zero regulation for what can or cannot be sold as "ceremonial" grade or "culinary" grade, they're not a standard, the words mean nothing, it's only a description the seller felt like adding to their product. Buying "ceremonial" grade matcha guarantees you absolutely nothing, which is why it's worthless as a description and worthless as a recommendation.

i want to get into yerba mate but im not sure where to get good stuff that is reasonably priced. what is like the farmerleaf to the world of yerba mate?

Is humidity important for puer taste?
I feel like my cakes get worse with time. Them drying out would explain it.
Right now, I'm trying to bring their RH from 50% to 60% to see if it makes any difference.

>>21597843
Yeah, humidity is arguably a big part of how storage affects your teas. You'll certainly smell a difference if nothing else.

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>Deep into the early morning
>See Fa Zhan He mentioned
>Urge to drink from my Autumn 2023 cake rising
Take this unposted picture of Snoozefest instead.

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I think I like the 2024 better than 2023 or 2025 but they are all so nice. My little treasured cakes. I don't want to drink them all trying to save them to enjoy them over a longer period of time.

>>21597948
What's a side view of that cup look like?

>>21597376
go for prepackaged south american brands, that way you get what people there are drinking and are not paying the western hipster tax
unlike with tea, there are no huge quality differences in yerba mate, so you can buy whatever is cheap. the differences are more personal preference and center around processing (smoky vs non-smoky, sticks vs no sticks, green vs seasoned, coarse vs fine cut etc)
I like Pajarito for a good value pick, but it depends on what is available to you at a good price

I ran out of tea and want to try Japanese greens. Is it a bad time of the year or does that not matter?

>>21597973
Not the best time, not the worst time. Worst is early spring just before harvest, best is late spring to early summer
Go for it if you want

>>21597978
So after spring is fair game until next year?

Where the frick am i supposed to buy tea from now that fulchea don't ship to eu

>>21597984
Embrace the taobao lottery.

>>21597984
If you want puerh, quicheteas

>>21597979
Pretty much

>>21597993
Thanks, anon! I planned to order from yunomi but I'm not sure which sencha I want to try.

>>21597988
the one time i looked at taobao the prices of having to use a shipping forwarder didn't make it worth it, and fulchea had the factory ones for same or lower prices.

Fuck hard water, makes my nice daily drinker ripe taste like plain Lipton (at least what I remember from it), I kid you not. Fortunately, the place where I'm staying has literal rain water on tap, slightly mineralized by the tank walls. Much better there than here.

>>21596252
>There are processing differences
Again, not really.

You have unoxidized tea (green), fully oxidized tea (black), and then you got the gradient between unoxidized and fully oxidized (varieties of Oolong). Then you can roast that Oolong or not.

It's not "processed" in any special, unique, or different way. The tea maker just picks what stage of oxidation to fire the tea on to stop it.

>>21597990
>>21573433
>>21573332
>>21580757
>>21591912
Where/when did Quicheteas come on the scene? Seems like they came out of nowhere and became popular here overnight?

>>21598002
I switched to the untested rain tap water after noticing drinkable city water saturated a Brita filter after 150L: there was scaling after the filter and in the kettle. Damn, I keep on forgetting to take care of water hardness for tea after a few months. The difference is huge, if you make your tea with hard water, at least use tea dust, not fancy quality teas.

>>21598017
This year I think? It's just some guy forwarding stuff from a taiwanese puerh specialist with low markup
Turns out Taiwanese market prices for factory tea are a lot better than the scalping western vendors tend to do and the storage is good, so word has travelled quickly

>>21598019
If you're in a really hard area you wouldn't have even gotten that much out of your filter. I wish my landlord put in a water softener.

>>21579191
I think that's due in large part to how mild the effects are, at the end of the day it is still an addictive opioid (opiate?) and there's no point in trying it if you aren't already on opioids

>>21598022
I'm sorry for you. On the bright side, hard water makes rinsing soap easier, but you need more of it. Same with the laundry. What do you use for tea?

>>21598030
>What do you use for tea?
Hard water. I tried bottled and it was disgusting. It also left weird shit in my kettle that I had to clean.

>>21598035
I'm sorry for your loss of flavor.

>>21598035
What kind of shit bottled water did you use? Some will absolutely fuck your shit up and leave you with a glass of murky tea that tastes like absolutely nothing, but if you know what to get it's absolutely fine, possibly the best solution if you don't have access to spring water or if you're not autistic enough to turn into a water alchemist.

>>21598038
I am too!
>>21598044
I keep a case of water for emergencies, it's some random brand. I don't have access to a spring.
>water alchemist
I'm afraid to ask. Is it just buying a water softener? I rent so that's unfortunately not possible right now.

>>21598049
>I'm afraid to ask. Is it just buying a water softener?
Lol
https://empiricaltea.com/water-recipe-original/

>>21598056
What the hell

I think 1:5 Fiji / distilled water is still the budget recipe water way to go, it's not that expensive and it works pretty well. Bottled water can just as easily be too hard or too soft.

>>21598073
What's it taste like if you only brew with fiji?

>>21577337
one cortisol-reducing tea is spearmint. There are other more exotic ones like ashwagandha, ginseng etc. But spearmint is way cheaper and does the job.

>>21597996
Depends on the cake, I guess.
Even with shipping, I usually got roughly the same as fulchea, sometimes less, and there is way bigger variety(which is where the gambling begins since chink description are total garbage and west forums nonexistent)

>>21598080
It's too hard / has too many minerals already dissolved, so you get poor extraction and it tastes muted.

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Are pu-ehr medallions memes?
I feel like unless you're ordering it from a Chinese website it's probably not worth it

>>21598128
They're for display, if you want to display it then I guess.

>>21598128
>That intricate motif
You just know that cake is pressed way too hard
Still drinkable but it'll be a pain to open and you'll probably end up with a lot of tea dust in the process

>>21598073
>Bottled water can just as easily be too hard or too soft
Good thing mineral content is listed on them

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>>21598056

>>21598133
>>21598135
I figured as much but I wanted to ask atleast. Once I finish my greens I'll reward myself with a good cake of pu-ehr somewhere else

>>21598128
arent these tea dust glued together? i dont think they'ye made to be drunk these days

>>21598244
They're not made to be drunk, that one looks dyed as well

>>21597843
>>21597942
is it valid to dribble some water into your puerh container, in my case a ziplock bag, to raise the RH?

>>21597843
50-60% is quite low, that's another thing in the pastebin that's wrong. You need to pass 70% for there to really be a risk of mold, and even then that's only possible with relatively severe temperature swings. 68% ish is a good safe humidity to store tea at, I would consider sub-60% to be too dry. 70% is still frankly pretty dry, but you need to start to think about what you're doing at that level. Everything in this level is kind of ignoring aging too, this is mostly what you need to keep tea at for daily drinking. The leaves start to feel different at around 55% or dryer, if your cake is brittle and you get lots of fine broken leaves when you break the bing apart, it might be too dry. If the leaves feel scratchy like dead leaves in autumn instead of supple, it's probably too dry.

>>21598488
I've watched the TeaDB video where the azn shows his pumidor and he uses a glass of water to increase the humidity. What other method are there to achieve this?
I know that some tobacco enjoyers recommend apple peels for resurrecting dried out pouches, though I expect that method to impart a bit of flavour on to the material that you're trying to store.

>>21598056
He sells premixed liquid mineral concentrate as well. I've got a few liters in the fridge.
https://empiricalwater.com/pages/mineral-composition

can anyone recommend a gyokuro and cup that are the same size? I don't see the point in making multiple cups of tea if it's just me.

>>21598539
You want something that can both add and remove moisture like a boveda pack. boveda packs are fairly inexpensive and can be recharged, but you can buy anything that works on the same principle.

>>21598681
>>21598539
I've heard rhshield beads may be the best replacement now that Heartfelt seems gone for good. They specifically advertise for puerh as well. I might have to give them a shot.
https://rhshield.com/

>>21598743
Yeah, I think all of it works basically the same way. If you buy some let us know how it goes in a year or two, it would be good to have more information about storage. Boveda packs are kind of annoying.

>>21598073
Okay, I did the math and I guess 1:5 Fiji / distilled water isn't too bad. I'll buy some this week. Thank you, anon! I really don't want to get into water alchemy right now.

has anyone tried chifir?

>>21598629
neat, will try the concentrate. I was always curious on water receips but buying, weighing and mixing minerals always seemed like an over the top effort.

>>21598743
>Heartfelt seems gone for good
That's so frustrating. They were a very respectable operation.

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>>21597966
Here's a quick shot of it. It has this same arrangement on all four sides.

>>21599801
Cute, thanks! It looks very wide.

I drink shou and it tastes like bubblegum. Then I drink liubao and it tastes like loam. Then I stop and consider it very carefully and for some reason I can see the similarities in taste between the two. What the fuck

>>21598049
Can you get a small RO unit hooked up? They require minimal plumbing, just splice it into water intake and have the output go into the tap, you might need to swap the tap out for one with two outputs to control the mains water and osmosis water separately. They're generally small enough to fit directly under the sink or really into any cupboard if you can string the small (and usually flexible) pipes across to the tap. It's something you can practically do yourself or have a plumber do in like a couple of hours. You might be able to get the landlord to agree, and he might even like to keep it because other tenants might like it, or if he doesn't then it's trivial to remove afterwards - don't even need a plumber, just need to cap off the splice that was going to the RO and replace the tap back with the normal one (five minute job if you have a wrench for it).

>>21599798
From what I understand it was just a little mom and pop shop. Guess they've had issues with response time in the last few years. I first ordered from the back in like 2011. RHshield looks like the exact same product. Calibrated hard silica beads.

>>21598025
>opioid (opiate?)
Opioid. Opiates are specifically derived from opium (morphine, codeine, heroine), opioids are any drugs that target opioid receptors.

>>21575212
Their very expensive 2008 raw (Item: AW20) is the best tea I've had.

>>21599938
A RO system sets you back hundreds of dollars + installation effort + high running costs for swapping all the filters + risk of introducing germs ins your water due to permanently wet filters at room temperature.
A 3.7l distiller is 70 bucks and has none of the problems above so I consider this as the simpler solution.

>>21599938
>>21600531
The problem with all of this is that you then need to re-mineralize the water which is a huge pain in the ass, and expensive.

>>21600661
You can just blend the distilled water with water from the tap.

>>21600661
not at all, you just cut it again with tap water. I have been doing this for years

>>21600531
You can get one for £100-150 here and installation effort is, like I said, literally either an hour from a plumber or being handy with a wrench yourself. Filters are replaced once every 6 months or so and cost like 40 quid for a pack, yeah it's not zero but it's not the end of the world.
And you can also get one with re-mineralization built in.

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>Dragonteahouse sent a replacement package after mine got stolen
Alright baby we're back in business

>Moychay package lost in transit
fuuuuuuuuu

So what's the deal with Darjeeling? Is it actually good or is it just a name to slap onto some black tea to make it expensive

never had tea other than english breakfast and other normie teas. if i were to get into tea right now via amazon, what would you suggest?

Anyone know when White2Tea usually start their Shulloween grab bag drops? Isn't it usually a week or so before Halloween? I've always skipped it since I didn't want to pay a flat shipping rate for a small order, but I haven't much shou on me, so it's tempting.

>>21601462
get some yunwu / cloud mist green tea

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>Random mixture of about one pound of mini cakesfor 69 dollars
Goddamn.... I don't need that much tea but actually getting a pound of this stuff for random sampling sounds really fun too.

Thank you anons for always giving me new stuff to try.
>>21600531
>>21600690
>A 3.7l distiller is 70 bucks
Neat. I'm assuming you did some type of testing to know the ratios on how much tap water to cut it with? I bought some Fiji water cases yesterday for around $0.05 USD per fl oz due to a sale and did the 1:5 distilled water trick that >>21598073 mentioned. I'm assuming I either burnt my taste buds recently or this gyokuro does not taste that different than with my hard water. https://www.o-cha.com/yame-gyokuro.html I did hear unglazed teapots mute tea tastes but I assume that the Japanese ones don't?
I've ruled out screwing up the ratios because I autistically measured both the Fiji water and the distilled water on my scale. I live at sea level so it should be correct. I'll try this again whenever customs releases my hojicha and some samplers I bought to try.

>>21601580
Was October 25th last year

>>21601415
Of the ones I've had I think it's quite different to standard black tea. Visually it appears like a mixture of different processing styles.. There's floral and green notes. I prefer it to other indian types.
Though I don't know what they are selling as darjeeling in tea bags, probably just indistinguishable bullshit dust.

>>21601415
It's a different style of Indian black tea. Lighter and fruitier.
I still prefer Chinese black teas though

>>21600300
Thanks anon

>>21601699
>testing to know the ratios on how much tap water to cut it with?
Just look up your tap water mineral content online at the water plant for your connection. I have an insane calcium value north of 200mg/l so I cut it about 9:1. Others will get better ratios of eg 2:1 or whatever. With calcium its quite easy since you can see bare eye with black tea if its too high. (stains will form)

>>21601415
As the other anon said, it's the most interesting of the Indians and often has lower oxidization than black. In high quality lose Darjeeling you'll find some green leaves. I have some first flush Darjeeling flight tea by Rauf, it's quite funky an I like it a lot. I brew it at 80°C since it gets violently bitter otherwise.

>it's another trying shou yet again to see if I'll like it any better this time and being disappointed yet again episode
Fine, I give up, I'll give it away to some friends or something. It's black and liubao for me until I decide to restock and try out a bunch of raws in a while.

>>21602298
What shou did you try

>>21601462
>via amazon
Unless you have a reason to buy specifically from amazon my suggestion is to get your tea from somewhere else.
yunnansourcing.us has samplers for beginners and ships from within the US

>>21602316
I have both a 2016 7572 and a 2023 xiao fa tuo. They both taste equally disappointingly mild to me. I never thought I'd call a tea "boring" like some kind of snobby elitist but I think that's the only way I can describe it - they don't taste actively bad or unpleasant but I just derive no enjoyment from drinking them.

>>21601824
>it's the most interesting of the Indians
Because it's the Chinese plant lmao

>>21602537
Try yeeon ripes if you like liu bao

>>21602537
they both are, plantations created by the British. the difference is the processing and Darjeeling is supposed to be bug bitten to get its distinct flavour

>>21602396
i like shou for its smooth, thick and earthiness but honestly they all do taste the same, very little variation. you either like it or not

>>21602573
>earthiness
I personally find that liubao has it beat by miles on earthiness.

>>21602568
https://teajourney.pub/origin-india-discovering-the-wild-tea-forest-of-assam/
Actually, their assamica appears to be native. Tea genetics are fascinating though.

>>21602537
>Because it's the Chinese plant lmao
nope, the botanical name of the strain is literally "Assamica", referencing the region in India

>>21602632
Darjeeling is specifically var. sinensis because it grows better there.

NEW THREAD:
>>21602747
>>21602747
>>21602747

>>21601415
I had some very delicious '1st flush OSTBNSDFWTFBBQ super grade' Darjeeling once. Bought it in a tea store that's long since closed. I think it wasn't outrageously expensive, maybe double that of their regular Darjeeling.
I remember it as very pleasant, sweet, no bitterness, aromatic. Had some vanilla/cream and floral/fruity notes. Definitely the best tea I had tasted at that time.

No clue how this compares to a high grade chinese black - that's a type of tea I'm looking to investigate further in the future.