This is the thread for discussing teas, tisanes, and other herbal infusions.Info on types of teas, where to buy, and how to brew: https://rentry.org/tea-pastebinPrevious thread: >>21735204
Thoughts on western fruity green tea blends?
>>21750679Bad idea, they will always be using bottom of the barrel, stale green teaWestern brands can be good at black tea, but their green tea and flavored tea is usually bad
>>21750679I just tried Harney & Sons Cherry Blossom Green Tea because I've been seeing it in like every grocery store around my area. I didn't care for it. It just smells and tastes like perfume.
>>21750705yeah, these are made to sound good and maybe smell good. the flavor is irrelevant, they're not made to taste good
Where can I get good black tea not sourced from Asia.
>>21750727>Where can I get good black tea not sourced from Asia.According to ai, black tea mainly comes from china, india, and sri lanka.Some black tea is grown in Kenya. See if you can find that.
>>21750329Sorry for the delayed answer I was out all day. One of the earl grey would be a good idea to try the historical teas of the brand. Oolong are not greens. They are listed as "Blue" on mariage freres some are decent but not top taiwan tier for the price tag. Wedding imperial, early grey and the marco polo are the 3 "main" teas of the brand I think. With the marco polo way ahead for the normal audience. If you can visit one the place or want to try something nice you can buy one the the gelée de thé which are really nice and some are part of the meals you can take at the different restaurants. The Pleine lune is also quite known but it's closer to general scented tea that you can buy at other places but it's one of the nice ones and also a big name of the brand.
>>21750727Colombia have some, malawi, then some in rwanda and tanzania also south africa, new zealand.
>>21750727I've heard Georgian tea is pretty good, not tried it myself though.https://what-cha.com/collections/black-tea/products/georgia-imereti-elegant-black-tea
>>21750727Africa tries to do some slightly premium productions nowadays, they also grow it on some islands like Java and in Georgia (Europe) they make pretty decent black tea.But why limit yourself so much? Tea is an asian plant and historically completely Asian. Africa only started producing it not long ago and they don't have the culture of fancy varieties and premium black tea that a place like China has>>21750748>According to ai, black tea mainly comes from china, india, and sri lanka.It's good that we have AI to tell us commonly known information that doesn't even answer the question
>>21750782It's kind of cool, the one I've had was light and fruity. Not outstanding but with its own character, not just generic black tea
>>21750785>It's good that we have AI to tell us commonly known information that doesn't even answer the questioni guess you missed the part where it said Kenya.it's funny how ai never answers a question directly. it always gives a little introduction paragraph first, like it's a middle school book report.
>>21750788>>21750782A marketing point of Georgian tea is that it's produced in reclaimed Soviet farms that were wild and overgrown for decades, making it semi-wild black tea. They also force organic farming on all Georgian teamakers I think
>>21750705Get this
>>21750199>Which one?>Anything else impressed you?So I've tried both their deep forests on offer and I think the one I really preferred was the Ha Giang but the Lao Cai is really good as well. Their puehrs are really meh to be honest wasn't blown away by any of them. The aged ones are better but required a very short steep time (like 5 seconds) otherwise it quickly became overpowering. The raws I could really get nothing from them. Guess just don't have the palate for it. Their white, Ngai La Thiau, was actually the biggest surprise of the bunch for me. I really enjoyed it. And would order again. Had a very interesting leaf composition, when you brew it you have to make sure you break it up a bit because it's a bunch of very thin leaves stacked on top of each other. Unflatteringly it kinda looks like leaf litter scooped off the forest floor but I can't complain with the taste. Very much reminded me of the syrup of dried fruits but it wasn't too strong. If I do order I will be sure to get that again.
>>21750672Trying to get in a cheeky order from KTM while their BF sale is still on, but the AI summaries on every single item is killing me. It's just vague LLM fluff that doesn't change from tea to tea. What were they like before machines took over?>undergoes decent fermentation>the tea flavor is well-integrated into the water, creating a harmonious drinking experience
>>21750855>I really preferred was the Ha GiangYeah I think this was the one I've had last year, top3 black teas I've had for sure and I think the price is reasonable. Did you try any "regular" sun dried blacks as well?>Their puehrs are really meh to be honest wasn't blown away by any of themI have the ta cu ty and son la... yeah they are ok, but other vendors have similar cakes for cheaper. I liked the tua chua, that felt like something unique to me, but sadly not this year. >Ngai La Thiau, was actually the biggest surprise of the bunch for me. I really enjoyed itI'm not the biggest white tea enjoyers, but I could try it. Really trying hard to get to the $77 mark, don't want to buy 400g of ha giang. Not sure how black tea ages, I'm assuming not brilliantly and I'm usually sipping on black tea only in winter.
>>21750881they just didn't have descriptions on many itemsothers had a specific and often memed type of terse Engrish descriptions. something like this:>tea flavor and aged tea flavor. flavor goes deep into throat with good salivation. totally an easily acceptable tea
Having some jasmine tea from Smith Tea today.https://www.smithtea.com/products/jasmine-silver-tip?variant=41325309624455It's your archetypal Jasmine green tea. No complaints on quality here. Not the best value but they sell bags of lose leaf in stores at Whole Foods which is convenient. I do think it is a better grade than the CNNP "sunflower" brand tins from asian grocery stores but it also costs significantly more.
>>21750898>>21750855I have a cake of Giang Piang and one of Cao Bo raw.They're alright and not generic or anything. Cao Bo can be a bit too green for me. Probably some non standard processing on these, I definitely wouldn't buy them to age. I won't rebuy, but my curiosity for vietnamese puer is satisfiedI also bad a sample of their Cao Bo white, which was quite good actually. I liked it a bit more than 2024 Jingmai White from FL and Moon Waffles from w2t
>>21750881>the tea has strong tea flavor along with slightly typical taste
>>21750727there's usa and even uk tea, both very expensive
This is my Teavivre Black Friday order. A diverse sampler of their cheap teas plus a jianshui xi shi teapot I've been eyeballing. >Ginseng oolongI've been meaning to try ginseng for some time. There are hardcore Chinese ginseng nerds that really like this stuff.>Lychee black teaI had one from KTM I thought was really good. I appreciate what lychee does for the black tea more than bergamot, jasmine, osmanthus, etc.>Flavored milk oolongI've had milk oolong before, supposedly unflavored. I've never seen anybody carry milk oolong marketed as flavored. I'm going to give it a shot and keep some in storage in hopes that it may help me or someone else identify dishonestly labeled milk oolong in the future.>Rando dianhong, puerh, liubaoShould be interesting. Price was right.
I don't want to intrude, but it's prime yerba mate time rn and I culd go for some Selecta Corazon Espinado gets me going too good
>>21751086Cute snake.
>>21751106I've only ever had Rosamonte. What should I try next?
>>21750672>picrelI've only ever bought puerShould I branch out? What should I get? Sheng puer lao shu is my favourite
>>21751145what do you think?
>>21750881>Harmonious Integrationlmao
the w2t Big Jacko doesn't taste so bad mixed with rum and orange juice. it dilutes the pencil shaving aroma into some vague smokiness and woody notes - it's just missing some bitterness to be 'perfect' for this kind of application.
>>21751165>Sheng puer lao shuthis is the most generic name possibleif you like shu pu-erh, definitely try liu bao. it's quite similar
>>21751185It's the only one I've had. My mom said it tasted like cigarette butts and I don't entirely disagree, but I still like it.
>>21751106>>21751145For me, it's usually PajaritoI also have Rosamonte right now too. Enjoying it a lot more than I thought, though I tend to prefer Paraguayan mate
>>21751270>this is the most generic name possibleIt's what is written on the cake man.I'm open to wildly different drinks as well, is there anything more outlandish you'd recommend?
>>21751270"Shu" can also mean "tree" and not "shou"https://babelcarp.org/babelcarp/babelcarp.cgi?phrase=shu&define=1>>21751325is it sheng or is shou puer? aged or young? wet or dry stored? Anons can give your recs for either if we know what type of tea it is you are drinking. I think the name translates into "old tree sheng puerh". if you take pictures of the tea and wrapper or at least describe it people may be able to help you better.
>>21751435Here are a couple options for each category:young sheng:https://farmerleaf.com/collections/yunnan-pu-erh-tea/products/spring-2025-fa-zhan-heany of the other farmer leaf stock is good to. The fa zhan he is just notably cheap.https://cspuerh.com/products/2024-na-ka-raw-pu-erh-teaI have a CSH referlal code for $20 off if you go with them:https://i.refs.cc/i9DCkFen?smile_ref=eyJzbWlsZV9zb3VyY2UiOiJzbWlsZV91aSIsInNtaWxlX21lZGl1bSI6IiIsInNtaWxlX2NhbXBhaWduIjoicmVmZXJyYWxfcHJvZ3JhbSIsInNtaWxlX2N1c3RvbWVyX2lkIjoxOTIwNjcwMzk3fQ%3D%3D Aged and semi aged sheng sheng:https://quicheteas.com/products/2013-xiaguan-love-forever-paper-tonghttps://kingteamall.com/products/2013-xiaguan-fei-tai-hao-love-forever-357g-puerh-sheng-cha-raw-teahttps://quicheteas.com/products/2010-dayi-001-7542https://kingteamall.com/products/2010-dayi-7542-cake-357g-puerh-sheng-cha-raw-teaShou:https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/haiwan-tea-2022-ripe-puer-chinese-tea-classic-7578-batch-221-shu-puer-chinese-tea-357ghttps://white2tea.com/products/2022-lumber-slutExtra, extra wet storage:https://yeeonteaco.com/collections/puerh/products/2008-taste-of-hong-kong-raw-pu-erh-teacake-cellar-storagehttps://yeeonteaco.com/collections/puerh/products/2009-purple-tea-ripe-tea-cake-7342hDry stored extra cheap semi aged sheng:http://www.pu-erhtea.com/TeaDetails.aspx?TeaID=796
>>21751165Really? I thought OPs image was a just a meme about how online tea discussion has been hijacked by tea trannies pretending to be lesbians. You never bought a green or black tea and jumped straight into puer? Why?
>>21751286your mom?
>>21750751Thank you for the response. I am aware that oolongs are not greens. When you mean, "earl gray," do you mean "Earl Gray French Blue," from them? I like Earl Gray, but I prefer other types of black teas. I saw that you recommended the Pleine Lune. I'll check it out. Do you have any other recommendations from them?Looks like Mariage Freres is not taking shipments to the US.. I see Cultured Cup sells them, but they aren't a part of the Black Friday sale. Do you know where else Mariage Freres would be on sale?
>>21751468I had it at a friend's place.>>21751461Nice, thank you, I will peruse these
Fellow tea-anons, how do you take your cuppa?Personally for me its always the same, never cream nor milk, even for breakfast teas. The only addition to the flavor is a spoonful of honey, perhaps two depending on the size of the cup and the tea in question. I also never make iced teas and always keep my teas hot, I try to brew from between 5 and 10 minutes usually, and I tend to use about one teaspoon of well, tea for each cup, which usually is about 12oz. To hold the tea during steeping, I use a stainless steel ultrafine mesh tea holder.
>>21751461Wait did fullchea stop shipping to the US as well?
>>21751794Yeah, that sounds about right. I'll add around 3-5 teaspoons to a pot holding a quart depending on how reluctant I am to "spend" the tea, but I never really measure consistently. Lesser also tends to give a less overextracted brew for me in the end since I'll drink the whole thing by myself over a half an hour - hour or so (I don't do cages). I don't add much to the tea itself either, I'd rather have biscuits to go with it if I want sugar, either separately for "pure" teas or for dipping with darker ones. Follow-up question, when do you add milk? I do it before pouring the tea, otherwise it'll scald, and it's easier to measure. You only started adding milk after the tea since teabags became ubiquitous.
>>21751808looks like it. their amazon store is still there though
>>21750672For me, it's Tata Tea Agni.
>>21751794Depends on the tea. Some times, I like to brew some assam strongly and put milk in it. But I never ever put sugar in my tea. All of the teas I buy are already naturally sweet. I really like home-made oatmilk matcha lattes made with the good quality stuff. But I also drink it traditionally without oatmilk, too.
>>21751579The earl grey breakfast is the well known one. The Blue ones are always variations of the earlier version. Imperial would be second for the early grey base version. Mariage freres have counters in France of course, Germany and London, some in japan but not in the us unfortunately.For another recommendation, French breakfast is also a staple of the brand. Black leopard is a smoked african black tea also good if you like smoked. Last one maybe Black orchid which I tried once is decent. I started drinking tea trying my local stores including mariage freres but now I changed and don't drink much from them anymore I never went too deep in flavored teas but still receive gifts from family and friends knowing I'm into tea and mariage freres is the most well known one in france so I get to try some of their teas sometimes after all that's how I discovered the smoked japanese one which are quite good.I don't know where to order for us shipping and for sales they don't do any. Right now on the website there's no sales and I've never seen one. Some retailers of mariages freres also have fixed prices by the company and don't put on sales even right now during black friday they are the same prices. Galeries Lafayette is selling some mariage freres teas but they are listed and sold at the same price than the website.
>>21751461these are very good recommendations
Why do teafags in the archive think fluorosis only happens to people who drink cheap bagged tea? Seems like a cope
>>21752211It can happen when you drink huge amounts of low grade tea brewed very strong. There is more fluoride in stems and old leavesSo tibetans boiling cheap brick tea into a thick butter tea every day or people drinking hundreds of teabags a dayAs with every food, if you overdo it it may have adverse effects. But probably billions of people drink cheap garbage tea every day and few of them get such issues, so it's probably not exactly a thing you should worry about
>>21751461Finished my Fa Zhan He cake a few days ago and had the 2010 7542 from Quiche todayGlad i finally tried this recipe, it's good if you like that Menghai flavor like that Naka. Actually quite complex and with good texture and pleasant aftertaste, though the longevity is so-so
Just because a lot of people live with low-level fluor intoxication doesn't mean it doesn't have a health impact in you, or them. The average person in Ireland consumes 4-6 cups of tea, which should put them at risk:>The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) reported that drinking just 2 cups of tea per day (with a fluoride content of 5 mg/L), combined with an average consumption of fluoridated drinking water and the use of fluoridated tap water in the preparation of food, but excluding all other sources (including solid foods, toothpaste and dental products), would provide a daily dietary intake of 6 mg fluoride per day [9].>the Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) for fluoride has been established at 1.5 mg/day for children aged 1–3 years, 2.5 mg/day for children up to the age of eight years, 5 mg/day for children aged 9 to 14 years and 7 mg/day for children older than 15 years and adults [110].>Non skeletal effects of fluoride include cardiotoxicity [1,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29], neurotoxicity [2,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37], endocrine dysfunction [1,2,38,39,40], hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity [41,42].
>>21752265https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4808922/
>>21752266This shit is about teabags, don't think anybody here really uses them, and most of the high fluoride content teas seems to be from africa or undisclosed location, thought it would've been sri lanka but they seem to be way better quality.> Recently, authorities in China imposed restrictions on most of Kenya’s tea products due to potentially hazardous concentrations of fluoride found in some of themLmao>drinking water is artificially fluoridatedWhy are they doing this lmao
>>21750403>Honestly, I always compare prices with regards to soda cans>Which is why I don't even scoff at prices until 0,40 USD/gram. Yeah, soda is expensive, and tea is dirt cheap.Meh, assuming 1l of Coke is $2 at the supermarket and a fancy tea is $0,25/g - which you need 8g of to get 1l of tea - you also end up at $2/l. But that does not include the water. You will have cost there, no matter if you filter, distill or buy bottled.Also you really shouldn't drink 1l soda per day, but for tea this is common entry level.>inb4 drinking expensive tea with tap water>>21751244nice! did you drink it hot or cold?
>>21750672I haven't bought more proper tea for what, 2 years.next thing i'll aim for is a spread of medium oolongs from YS.
>>21752413if you want medium roast taiwanese oolong, try teahome.combest value for that type of oolong if you can be assed to use the website with autotranslate
>>21751856I would love to start making pots of more fruity and better large portion drinking teas and icing them to have with meals (I rarely have a meal with a hot beverage, hot food with hot drink just feels wrong) but I unfortunately do not live alone and don't really have the fridge space, so I've always had tea one cup at a time.As I said before I never ever use milk. I'm a southerner and an American and the idea of mixing milk with tea sounds to me like mixing soy sauce and white chocolate, its just bizarre and doesn't sound good to me.I've tried it like once, didn't care for it. I take half and half in my coffee, but thats where it ends.I personally prefer it that way anyhow. Breakfast teas usually possess that strong bitter 'back and edge of the tongue' bitterness and herby aftertaste, and I've found that complimented exceptionally by a spoonful of honey.A further reccomendation, different types of honey are worth looking into. Wildflower honey can be a lot more floral and sweet, I find it better on lighter teas with a more traditionally fruity or crisp flavor like herbal hibiscus or green tea, but recently I went to a Brazilian supermarket that opened near my house and they have this honey buy a brand called SerraMel from Brazil, 'Mel de queiró e castanheiro', or 'Chestnut and Heather Honey' which has a richer, fuller, more earthy backnote that I find goes very well with the more bitter and astringent teas.I'm actually suppong some Lyons Exchange New York Breakfast with some of the Brazilian stuff right now. Its very nice.
>>21752299>nice! did you drink it hot or cold?Hot. We made a pot of 'experimental' hot orange punch (OJ, quince sirup, rum from a plum+rum pot, cheap and strong Assam) that turned out overly sweet, so I was mostly looking to dilute that concoction down into something drinkable. Big Jacko did a good job.It also got me pretty wired, with the Assam, Puerh, sugar and alcohol combination.
>>21752211>Why do teafags in the archive think fluorosis only happens to people who drink cheap bagged tea? Seems like a copeBecause that is the case for the majority of reports of it happening in the west from tea and even then it is exceedingly rare and primarily occurs in post menopausal women who have been heavy tea drinkers for decades.
Would you?
>>21753038E.M.T. !
Thoughts on https://oldwaystea.com/tea-club?I kinda wanna get a subscription just because I'm lazy and having some variety of teas delivered periodically would be neat without having to get off my ass and hunt for new stuff every time I run out. I don't have very strong preferences and enjoy variety (and I can just order more of the things I know I definitely separately, which is basically mostly CNNP liubao lmao). A black and oolong focus also sounds cool, puerh is weird and I don't understand it.
>>21753038>ancient1970s is post china communist phase, right? I heard they raped all their traditional tea production in the mid 20th century. A properly ancient tea would be from before that, which I think basically means pre 1950/1940 or so
>>21753038looks like garbage quality, possibly one of those decorative pressed bricks that aren't really drinkable?or maybe there are some hei cha bricks that look like that
>>21753160look up some opinions on this particular tea club45$ for around 100g of tea sounds expensive to me, it better be some premium shit. I have heard good things about OWT as an oolong vendor though
>>21753160essence of tea is also worth considering, their monthly tea club has good variety and really nice teas, though it can be a bit heavy on puerhif you like yancha i heard it's hard to go wrong with old ways tea
>>21753249>looks like garbage quality, possibly one of those decorative pressed bricks that aren't really drinkable?They are garbage quality but I think a lot of them are really drinkable. I doubt the CCP was in the habit of wasting so much tea back in the day. I have seen some ornaments pressed out of tea that looked glued however.>>21753253>45$ for around 100g of tea sounds expensive to me, it better be some premium shit.It's proper yancha so that is to be expected.Does anyone know if oldwaystea still does a yearly "lucky bag" sale and when do they do it?
>>21753294>I doubt the CCP was in the habit of wasting so much tea back in the dayOne of the weird things the Communists did was force the tea factories to mix high-quality leaves with low-quality leaves, to make sure peasants got some of the good stuff.
>>21737300i make shou like this all the time. but usually in a hydroflask and for 12+ hours. it makes it taste like arizona iced tea and dark cherries. i use maybe like 8-10g of shou/1l of water. i just take the hydroflask with me to the woods with a cup and a strainer for whenever im thirsty. i do the same thing with black tea but lower the steeping time by a handful of hours and use far more tea (maybe like 20g) and drink straight grandpa style from a jar instead of hydroflask/cup/strainer approach. also your hand is so cute i want to hold it>>21750977i would honestly love a tea site that gave descriptions that held the same weight as the perfume community>picrel
>>21753305I don't really like the way Fragrantica reviews are used as creative writing exercisesBut sometimes someone comes up with good stuff, like this review of Rien, which is on point
>>21753038Tea ages than females
>>21753400ages better
Did a quick ctrl + F for teethAnyways TL:DR I quit all sugar and have been hard on black tea lately. ive noticed very clear stains showing on the backs of my teeth. it's excessive, but I drink about a half gallon combined of tea and coffee each day.any tips or tricks? last time I went to the dentist, they removed all the cigar stains from my teeth without any problems, and the tea ones look much less dark, but cover more of each tooth. Will the dentist just remove them as easily as they did the cigar stains? not changing my tea habits either way. t. daily coffee drinker for 20+ years.
>>21753405Yes, they are easy to remove, but will appear againIf you can be assed and have the money, you can just go get them whitened from time to time
>>21753256>essense of teaHmm is it going to be mostly raw or ripe? I have approximately zero interest in ripes (I kinda hate how they're both grouped under puerh and sometimes people don't specify, even though they're so different). If it's mostly raws though I might give it a try.What about white2tea's one?I might just go full lazy slob and live off off like 2-3 tea clubs lmao
>>21750782>>21750793Sweet, never heard of Georgian tea. I ordered some.>>21753679>I kinda hate how they're both grouped under puerh and sometimes people don't specify, even though they're so differentSomeone has to say it
>>21753679I think they don't do that much ripe
I tried puer in China. It wasn't that good. Tea in general isn't very good.
>>21753405Glass of water after the tea, it's that simple.
>>21753679>Hmm is it going to be mostly raw or ripe? I have approximately zero interest in ripeslike the other anon said they don't do a lot of shou, but they do have liubao every now and then>What about white2tea's one?i actually just unsubscribed from it last month after two years desu, it has some interesting stuff sometimesbut they do a lot of young sheng and black tea which i don't really drink much nowadaysthis is everything i got this year, they also have 7g minis of new puer blends most of the time>january - aged shou puer>february - nice yancha samples>march - fujian white and black teas>april - sichuan green and more black tea>may - old arbor sheng puer>june - full sheng puer cake>july - sichuan and fujian black teas>august - tieguanyin and fujian whites>september - jinjunmei samples>october - white tea mini cake>november - old arbor sheng puer>december - sheng puer huangpian cake
>>21754534>this is everything i got this year,Is this w2t or essense? Thanks for the rundown anon
>>21754538sorry i should've mentioned that's w2t, i haven't been part of eot's tea club for that longbut so far i think it's much nicer and more curated
>>21753256>>21754554Damn had no idea EoT did one, do you have an idea of roughly how many grams of tea you get yet?
>>21754562it tends to be around 50g for the most part, pretty decent value for what you get
>>21754432"fish and dirt" is an acquired taste.
I think TaiwanTeaCrafts is still having a sale.I recommend you try out their Red Jade T-18 white, a highly oxidized white made with a cultivar developed for black tea.It's like a good, flowery dancong without the nutty, buttery part that many of them have, and the price is reasonable for its quality.I've searched for other similar teas and found some funny looking white/black hybrids or mixes on white2tea, but I've never really found anything else quite like it.
How do picking time and aging affect a tea?Would you prefer a tea picked in early spring 2023 that's been sitting on a shelf for two and a half year, or one picked in early autumn 2025 that's been shipped to you right after processing?
>>21754766Depends on the tea. Some teas age well, some are best consumed fresh.For any green tea or light oxidation oolong, the fresher the better.For puerh, hei cha, white tea and high roast oolong, age can improve them, but not always.Black tea holds out longer than green, but doesn't really improve much.For picking, spring is pretty much always more prized than other pickings as it's stronger and more concentrated. There are some exceptions but that's mostly the rule.
>>21754766Autumn leaves are like 3x cheaper than spring leaves. It's up to you to decide if you want to pay the extra, but that's what the market decided is the rate. Also some years are better than others since it rained less for example, but nobody really knows what the weather was in the given area so you can ignore it. Aging is more related to the type, for example puer usually is let to age, but these days even young raw puer is tasty and I like it more than the aged stuff.
What kinda g/100ml do anons use for yancha? Usually I just eyeball it at a bit under half the gaiwan, but I've got some fancy shit in 8.4g bags and I don't wanna screw it up.
>>21754865Yancha niggas be like>Yeah just having some budget daily drinker, kind of trash but only 2$/gram>Using my usual ratio of 25 grams per 60ml btw>Gotta crush the leaves in a pneumatic vice before they fit inside the pot, but the mouthfeel is totally better this way
>>21754780>>21754784>it depends, some's better and some's worseYeah, but how do those factors affect the tea?Do they make the tea less flavorful and if you add more then it makes up for it completely, do they give the tea a different flavor, do they make the infusion more or less bitter, do they make it just as flavorful but with less of a smell...Also I mean tea that's not purposely aged like pu-erh, my bad for being vague.>>21754865I use 1g per 33 to 50ml or water depending on the specific tea, but it's a matter of taste and if you watch chink videos it's not uncommon to see someone use a full 5g or 7g packet in a 120ml or 160ml gaiwan.
>>21754865Not a yancha expert, but the full 8.4g bag will be fine in 100ml. It is what I would do. You could probably go higher if you wanted to, but it is not worth splitting up single serving bags imo.
>>21754784>autumn leaves are like 3x cheaper than springRemember when FL lied about the season of that cake and never refunded anyone?
>>21754784>Autumn leaves are like 3x cheaper than spring leaves.I don't think the price difference is quite that great unless you are comparing pre qingming picked tea to late autumn mulch. The quality difference is definitely not typically threefold.>>21754932In regards to non-heicha, shorter term (years not decades) dry sealed storage, "fresh greenness", "roasted notes", and "delicate florals" tend to fade somewhat. The contemporary view is that this is unfavorable for green teas and green oolongs because the fresh green and floral notes are part of the appeal, neutral for black teas and moderately oxidized oolongs becuse they don't change much shorterm, and and sometimes favorable for highly roasted oolongs because the fading roast may allow more lesser notes to stand out.
has anyone tried the 2024 bangwai small trees cake from FL? thinking of picking it up instead of a few samplesaa2
>>21754960I haveI prefer tang fang liang zi or fa zhan he, I find bangwai a bit boring. but many others like it
>>21754954>I don't think the price difference is quite that greatAutumn LME sweet gushu $78Spring LME sweet gushu $230It literally is that big of a difference. Even William said so in one of his vids that the difference can be 3 or 4x, can't remember the exact number.
>>21754971ok thank you, i havent finished my fa zhan he yet so i think ill get the samples instead before buying more daily drinker cakes
>>21754987That's a good idea while the sample pack is up. Add a sample of bangwai if you're curious, I'm sure they will press it again anyway
>>21750705I love that. It makes me feel like I'm sniffing a girl.
>pu erhUnironic fish flavored tea
>>21755101I would say more a compost flavored tea
I only ever drink flavoured black tea in december. What should I get this year? Last year I had a couple with green apple in them, which were really good.
>>21755201I don't usually go for the flavoured ones, but the other day I sampled a ceylon with rose that was pretty nice.
>milky oolong anxi tieguanyin high mountain roast aroma>it just tastes of artificial peach flavoringsasuga, aliexpress.
>tfw slipped and obliterated my little porcelain hohinI thought I just lost one of the cups but no. The entire side had a hairline crack that weeped water when filled I almost considered keeping the second cup as a little caddy for my tea pet but I figured I had enough crap sitting around as it is. Guess I need to order a new cheap as hell one. Damn shame because that was the best way I had to drink my Japanese greens.
>>21755201Lapsang Souchong is nice in this weather.
i used to like the green tea in chinese restaurants but the green tea i'd make never tasted anything like it. i looked it up and chinese restaurants might be using a blend of green tea and jasmine? is there anything else it could be? it was a pretty consistent taste across most of them.
any of you guys have recs for a thermos/bottle for grandpa brewing? preferably with some kind of strainer?
>>21755101drink sheng
>>21750672>Tazo Hibiscus, and Orange Looking to upgrade on these, anything similar?
>>21755446Definitely Jasmine green tea. Boil lower than you think (high 160s) 3 minutes.
Thoughts? 1/2
2/2
>>21755475>any of you guys have recs for a thermos/bottle for grandpa brewing?Consider the following:https://www.sunstea.com/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?cart_id=1656338653.304871&product=Double_Wall_Glasses&pid=52
>>21755475>grandpa brewing
>>21755496thanks
>>21755633>>21755635Looks like a fun place to visit but most of the tea on display looks like cheap stuff and it ideally should be stored better. They probably also have more nicer stuff not shown in the clips. You can see some of it off to the side. What shop is this?Challenge, how may brands can you spot? I found XG, Dayi, Lao Man'e (brand), what looks like either Nanjian Phoenix or Nanjian Tulin, and some cakes that are probably CNNP but are hard to tell because the classic wrappers are so widely copied. The wrapper with purple crescent moon wrapper is a known pattern from an old factory I forgot the name of but I believe it is mostly found on replicas/bootleg productions. Kind of like the many fake Song Pin Hao cakes.
>>21755674>What shop is this?I'm not sure, but I got it from here:https://www.xiaohongshu.com/user/profile/676a285c000000001801f033
Is awazon dead? I can't seem to access it
>>21755950Up for me.
>>21756056Dang. It won't load for me
>>21755633>>21755635Sketchy tea hoarder messy vibes. All these giant unwrapped blocks and even cakes piling up all over the place. The open buckets where you'll be drinking all the nice dust collected over the years. I wonder how it smells like in there. Propably piss cheap but I would wish for a more professional presentation. I've been to a bunch of smaller tea shops in China and they were all much nicer.
>>21750727Why don't white people grow their own tea?
>>21756237because we live in the frozen tundra
>>21756237>In 1848 the Scottish botanist Robert Fortune used Wardian cases to smuggle more than 20,000 Camellia sinensis plants out of China to establish tea plantations in India and bring an end to the Chinese monopoly on tea.Based?
>>21755950>>21756056>>21756070i changed to a public DNS and it worked. don't know why but it seems spectrum is blocking awazon
>>21756249Based ending monopolyCringe only making tea plantations and not individual trees in a forest. We could have had 170 year old indian gushu by now.
>>217517945 pumps vanilla, 5 pumps sugar
>>21756422Who's to say there isn't?There could be ancient teas accessible only to the descendents of Scottish tenants of the English Raj out there right now and they're laughing at how you'll never taste this forbidden brew.
My green tea keeps slowly turning more bitter after I take the leaves out, as if I had left them in. Wtf?
>>21750785kenyan ctc is pretty good stuff but its good for like 1 power steep and way more expensive than chinese teas of similar quality
The tea up close is just needlessly erotic...>>21756924Maybe you're tasting the bitter flavours becoming more pronounced as the tea cools?
>>21756924taking leaves out?>confusedgrandpa.jpg
>>21756984Yes, what's wrong about that?
>>21756924Either the bitterness gets more pronounced as it cools or you're leaving it out for hours and it is oxidizingPresumably the first
>>21756990Well, it's definitely not the latter, since it gets bitter after a few minutes.Is it normal that it gets more bitter as it cools, though? How can I counter that? And does it have anything to do with the fact that I'm using paper tea filters for steeping?
>>21756975
spider legs > tea
>>21756996>Is it normal that it gets more bitter as it cools, thoughYes, it's normal >How can I counter that?Either change your steeping parameters (lower temperature water, less time or less tea) or drink it while it's hot
>>21756975>>21757005I am a little turned on rn
>>21757005
>>21750855I actually wound up getting a cake of the white and some Ha Giang then tossed in a 25 Gram order of the Oolong to just get me over the hill. Considering last time it took over a month for the order to get here that gives me plenty of time to work through my current selections and make room for fresh tea. If I pace myself that might even get me through to spring for the new jap selections.
>>21757180Bruh I thought I was looking at my order. I also got the white cake, 250g of the ha giang deep forest stuff, but instead of oolong sample I've got sample of ha giang green.
>>21755674Speaking of Song Pin Hao replicas, today I am having "2002 Song Pin Hao replica sheng, Malaysian stored". The tea leaves look well aged with moderate humidity, tight cake pressing, compression related breakage makes telling the exact leaf size difficult but it looks moderate to small. The sample came with a strand of plastic fabric in it plus a wood shaving, and a tea flower bud meaning it contains at least some autumn material. Tea liquor is a brownish orange, a touch cloudy at first but soon clears up. Taste is old leather prominent with some smoke and barbecue, and conspicuously sweet. Finish has a sweet "plant juice" aftertaste, maybe a little cooling menthol and mint, mild to moderate bitterness befitting its age, a moderate lingering dry astringency, and average Qi. Seems like it has the Yiwu terroir profile to it like a real Song Pin Hao should. Overall I quite like it, It has that classic old school vibe going for it both in taste and production.Newer fake cakes are seldom good but the older ones often are. Back in the day before the privatization and the puerh boom making replicas were more used as a lazy way for small producers and commissioners to handle branding than outright deception. Because of this they were often just as high quality as anything that came out of the big state owed factories. These days most fakes are clearly intended to swindle the inexperienced and typically consist of cheap shou being sold as aged or sophisticated forgeries and cake re-wraps targeting high value collectible teas. Whereas today anyone making good puerh will have their own brand or sell wholesale to one. You can still get farmer cakes and tribute teas that are quality but they will be clearly marked as to what they are. The big downside with old replica cakes is that once your source runs out it is often impossible to find more of the same batch.
>>21754954Thanks <3
>>21757304>These days most fakes are clearly intended to swindle the inexperiencedThese deceptions hit greedy cheap people the hardest--deal-hunters who scam themselves in pursuit of savings.
>>21757308I just realized I forgot to mention white tea. Some white teas (typically the finer greener or hot air died ones) are considered best fresh again due to their "green" and floral characteristics which can fade. Other (especially leafier or sun dried) white teas will lightly oxidize with time giving them some subtle black tea or oolong like notes which is often considered a good thing. White tea aging happens much faster than heicha at least in terms of how long it takes to be considered an aged tea.. Some people also think sun dried black teas benefit from a year or two of extra time to slowly finish oxidizing and maybe gain complexity.
>>21757304There is also the third kind of fake which consist of bootleg versions of big factory teas intended for aging and speculation. They are cheaper knock offs of the real deal that the forgers try to slip into the supply chain for a profit. This works because many of the buyers of these teas buy in bulk and get them to age or resell and therefore because they don't open or taste the tea they may not notice that it is fake. It may even be mixed in with legit tea to make it harder to spot. For example the top two cakes of every tong could be real with only the lower ones being fake. That way even if you checked the top cakes you may miss that the rest of the tea is fake.
>>21757293Hell yeah man. Good choicesI'm no connoisseur but this really is something else. I had a 'Vietnamese Red' once ages ago and I couldn't find anything like it until I tried this place and it was ten times better than what I remember so I think these guys have really become a shelf stapleBe sure to let me know how the green is. I was pondering trying that but something about the Oolong called to me first.
>>21756924Green tea is notorious to change/getting bitter by just sitting in a cup doing nothing. I had a low quality Columbian made green tea and couldn't figure out brew parameters. Would taste fine when fresh and hot but letting it sit a little turned it bitter. High quality green tea is sometimes advertised as being "stable" after brewing.
>>21757489i would rather drink piss straight from the dick of the most drug infested looking hobo i could find than buy green tea from columbia
>>21757489I have never had a problem with Chinese gunpowder green getting overly bitter unless I steep at too high of a temperature (over 83 Celsius).
>>21757439I remember it being interesting which is rare from a black tea. Even very good black teas are just that. Very good, but simple. This one was more complex like puer for example.
>green teaGreen tea is the "India pale ale" of tea. Women and men of womanish temperament are drawn to green tea because its pale coloration is less intimidating, but the beverage itself is harsh, and often of poor quality. Its inherent bitterness is why tea manufacturers of ill repute adore it, as it masks flaws that would be otherwise be apparent.
>>21757564I hate how it's the new smug thing to just hate beer or tea with flavor.
I blended Bangwai Small Trees and Honey Orchid dan cong in my teapot. You can't stop me.
>>21757568anon is spending his lab time wisely
>Silver Needle
>>21757634I should call her...
>>21757583sounds like it could be decent desu
>>21757304>>21757325>>21757354quality posts
So gay people drink tea? Got it.
Receive my white2tea and Bitterleaf orders on the same day despite not ordering them at the same time. Tea gods shining on me?
>>21757735
>>21757735Yes.
>>21757717yeah, you might be right. what do you drink?
>>21757717Are you new? Wait until you hear about the puerh lesbians... not to mention the domestic abuse.
Can tea help us cope?
>>21757866Now that it's free from tariffs? Yes it sure can.
>>21757797> the domestic abuse.That only happens when there is no (good) tea to be had.Which judging by statistics...
>>21757735Damn snoozers are already here? God bless.
>>21757692After one and only one session, I would say use a ratio of 3:1 Bangwai to Honey Orchid. Expect to push the ratio towards even more Bangwai. The roasted flavors are strong. So-so blend. I did a 1:1 and regret it.
>>21757866I cope with tea regularly, but it has never successfully made me less smug, or tolerable.
>>21757737cute micro-tong
>>21756691
>>21757564Depends entirely upon the tea in question, green teas can be more bitter than some dark teas.
>>21757304>sips my Taylor's Earl Grey tea like a common peasantYou made those words up...
>>21757697Thanks for the (You) anon. Long posting takes time and I am always afraid no one will read it.
>>21757354It's exhausting to read about. I hope that the usual vendors the thread recommends are legit enough to avoid these types of unsavory markets and people. I look at a place like King Tea Mall, all the tea he brings in all around the year, I have to wonder how often my man John is buying fake tea and selling it in good faith.
how long do i need to steep this moroccan mint, i went for like 5 minutes and this is weak AF
>>21758334I also found your posts stimulating, though I didn't say anything at the time. Remember, for every overt thanker, there are nine others who remain silent, but are thankful on the inside.
>>217583425 minutes should be enough. Perhaps you've put too much water...
it's finally cold outside, which means cozy tea time. gonna drink mojun 1368 in the clay pot tonight bros
>>21758334Thank you for the effort, this >>21758345 anon is right. I don't like to post unless I have something to add, but I always appreciate quality posts and thoughtful analysis.
>>21758340As far as I am aware most of the mainstream western vendors are ok. There is no guarantee a high quality fake dayi cake or two does not occasionally slip through but I don't see that accused often. You also have to consider most of the cheaper and smaller brand productions are not typically worth faking and therefore almost certainly the production they claim to be. That is not to say the producers themselves don't sometimes embellish their claims of tree age and famous terroir, but that is a different discussion.The fake aged teas I see most are sleazy (or inexperienced) vendors claiming to sell very old tea at prices that are implausibly cheap (e.g. 1980s puer for cents a gram instead of dollars) and are almost certainly just cheap shou, maybe with a bit of age if they are generous. At least they tend to look obviously fake once you know how to spot them. In particular these tend to pop up on Amazon and Ebay which is part of why it is not recommended beginners buy tea from them, besides the fact they typically just don't have as good a selection. Some of the D-list (probably drop shipping) tea vendors also occasionally carry dubious tea of this type even if the rest of the inventory is legit.From the western perspective I don't think you have much to worry about from fakes unless you are buying collectible old cakes and tongs of suspiciously cheap dayi 7542s off of Taobao and Chinese auction sites through shipping forwarders. I too worried when starting out but it does not seem as big of an issue in practice. The pre-2000 aged tea market where high quality fakes and old replicas exist has such low availability in the west and is expensive enough that if you are at the point in the hobby where you are considering buying them, then you probably have the know how to deal with it. While I prefer honesty, at the end of the day the mantra: "buy the tea, not the story" will help save you from wasting money on overpriced tea.
>>21758420this is peak comfy, i love this tea so much. I still need to find more fu bricks to buy
>>21758420>>21758490I'm having some of the same too right now, cheers.I'm going to try to get around to finishing up my fu brick thesis in the next few days. I've got brief tasting notes on the 9 KTM bricks that were my favorite out of the 30 something I sampled, and on all of the YS fu bricks from their sample pack. I'm gonna try the best of the best side by side so I can make some direct comparisons and pick out a brick or two to buy.I will say that the mojun 1368 is one of the best that I've tried.
>>21758439To add for any beginners reading this. Beware of any vendors claiming to sell Lao Ban Zhang or Bing Dao puerh that is cheap, especially if from unknown or obscure brands or sellers. These are famous, typically very expensive locations, and many cheap teas from unscrupulous vendors are sold with these names falsely attached to make them seem more valuable. This is the other type of fake (or mislabeled) tea. There are cheaper teas from around those areas and honest homages but the high end tea that made those areas famous is seldom affordable. Sometimes the producers technically only claim the tea is "in the style" of the location or from near there but this is frequently lost in translation and is often dishonest regardless. These sort of cheap fakes like fake aged tea are also often found on generalist online marketplaces like Ebay and from drop shippers. Similarly claims of old tree tea (gushu) are frequently thrown around with older trees making more valuable tea, but this should always be taken with a grain of salt and any vendor trying to sell tea from 1000 year old trees and the like should be looked at skeptically. In either case high price is not a 100% guarantee of authenticity, so try to buy this sort of tea from reputable vendors known for it, or at very least try not to overpay. If you buy a cheap cake of say "Bing Dao" sheng you will get a cake of cheap sheng but probably not what you may have though you were buying. The worst case is dishonest (or naive) vendors selling highly marked up mislabeled tea, at least with the cheaper mislabeled cakes you often get a tea that is commensurate the price. In my opinion some of the otherwise reputable vendors or factories embelesh tree age but they usually don't outright lie about location. Again, avoiding outright fraud is worthwhile but it is probably not worth getting too hung up over absolute authenticity. Buy tea that looks and tastes good enough for the price asked, and enjoy drinking it.
>>21758345>Remember, for every overt thanker, there are nine others who remain silent, but are thankful on the inside.>>21758430The rational part of my brain presumes this to be true but the emotional side likes proof and appreciates human interaction. I also simply like hearing what others have to say. It is not like I don't have more to learn.>>21758322 No, just a bunch of jargon I picked up from the hobby. Nothing wrong with keeping it simple but there is a lot to explore if you want to. Someday I intend to dive into more genres of tea. In particular my Japanese and Korean tea knowledge is not as strong as I would like.
Anyone else given Yaupon Holly tea a try yet? Its an herbal tea, sourced from a holly native to the southeastern United States.Picked some up at whole foods a few weeks ago and have since been so impressed with the Florida Chai that I had to get the Lavender Coconut, Spiced Peach, and American Green, and I've absolutely loved all of them.The Yaupon has this lovely light aroma and flavor of crisp, clean green, almost minty, and mixed with different herbs and flavors its quickly becoming my favorite herbal.
What price point should I go for when buying loose leaf tea? I'm a student, but I don't wanna cheap out too much
>>21757520Well, that's exactly what I (OP) have. Maybe it's low quality?
>>21758670Don't go bellow 5 cents per gram. Plenty of good teas around the 10 cents per gram range. 20+ you really start to get to the dimishing returns territory. Just lurk and try cheap stuff anons here like, chances are it's not their first tea so if they like something it's worth the money.
>>21758670I generally look for 10-15 cents per gram for daily drinker type stuffThough I have had nice tea down to like 3c/g you have to pay to sort through duds as the price gets lower, if you haven't got a specific recommendation
>>21758532That would be useful. There are not that many fu brick reviews out there compared to puerh, would be nice to know which ones are good
>>21758534>Similarly claims of old tree tea (gushu) are frequently thrown around with older trees making more valuable tea, but this should always be taken with a grain of saltThese are much more rampant than fakes in western facing storesFor fakes, you mostly see obviously fake LBZ and Bingdao cakes for 20$, not really something anyone who knows anything about puerh will fall for. I don't think fake Dayi is all that common in the west
>>21758670Depends on the type of teaLike for ripe pu-erh, you can get decent ones for just a few cents per gram if you know where to lookFor raw pu-erh, hard to get anything decent below 10 cents and the benefits of going up to 20 can be bigDecent taiwanese oolong can be cheaper than dancong... Etc.
>>21758439I don't trust any mainland vendor, who is selling expensive aged factory tea, especially not the western facing ones. If I was a scammy chinaman, the first obvious target for faux puerh would be western vendors who think they know whats up with their fat wallets. If there is money to be made, you will get scammed by chinese businesses, it has always been like that.There are propably some premium domestic sellers, who are legitimately fighting scams but good look finding one. Or work yourself along the official distribution chain from the factories itself and buy at an official distributor, but that method would only work for relatively young tea.But to be honest whether a tea is faux or real is only important, when you are a boutiqe aged collector. If I just want to slurp I couldn't care less if the tea is "fake" or not - I would judge it by it's taste. Buy samples first. Or don't buy posh factory teas at all and switch to artisan tea directly from the source such as FL etc. and never worry about this problem again. Otherwise your brain will melt from all the scam paranoia in it.
>>21758913Personally I hope the fakers get really good at it and tea with good aged taste can be had for cheap...Some of their methods are described in this article, fairly interesting https://www.pageoftea.com/fake-puer
I remember there being some experiments with aging whisky barrels faster by taking them out to the sea, they should do this but with tea
>>21758967apples and orangeswhiskey aging is about encouraging it it to absorb flavor from the barrel, tea aging is about encouraging the microbes in the tea to thrive
>>21757866owes me sex
>>21757735my ys black friday order still hasnt shipped
>>21757564except young sheng actually tastes like IPAif you think green tea is harsh you havent tried very many. longjing and biluochun are extremely mild
>>21759079He's either tried garbage quality Chinese greens or only Japanese greensSome dancongs actually legitimately give me IPA notes. They can have the same exact fruity hops aroma. Young sheng not so much, but it is like IPA in terms of being bitter and trendy
>>21759096maybe its just the xiaguan tuos i bought a bunch of before tariffs but they def give me the ipa notes
>>21758913>If I was a scammy chinaman, the first obvious target for faux puerh would be western vendors who think they know whats up with their fat wallets.I think you have things backwards, it is the Chinese (and Taiwanese) market where most of the whales reside. A wealthy Asian businessman who thinks aged puerh looks neat but is not really an enthusiast is going to be an easier target than professional tea sellers or even puerh fanatics abroad. Westerners are likely to be seen as marks but only because they are assumed to be inexperienced. There are comparably few in the west interested in $300+ cakes let alone $1000+ or $10000+ cakes. Most of the demand for those comes from the wealthy Chinese elite. Same goes for private collectors buying whole storerooms of tea as an investment. It is quite possible the average western puerh drinker spends more per gram than average Chinese puerh drinker but at the top, the high rollers and market movers of the puerh world are primarily in Asia. The whole western puerh market is something of a happy accident.>Or don't buy posh factory teas at all and switch to artisan tea directly from the source such as FL etc. and never worry about this problem again.The problem with this is those sorts of vendors mostly sell young tea so you are out of luck if you want aged. Even if you buy tea from them and wait 20+ years there is no guarantee it will age well in your storage, or even at all. While I don't have a problem with home tea aging for fun, in my opinion if you are looking for cheaper aged tea the best bet is to buy good value semi-aged tea that already has the aged character you want and hang onto it a bit longer until it finishes mellowing out.>If I just want to slurp I couldn't care less if the tea is "fake" or not - I would judge it by it's taste.Agreed, I am here to drink good tea not for bragging rights.
>>21758938>Personally I hope the fakers get really good at it and tea with good aged taste can be had for cheap...shou?More seriously, has anyone here ordered from yunnancraft? pageoftea is the owners blog.
>>21759067They should still do it
>>21759077nevermind i just got the shipping email
>>21758532nice, looking forward to it! I hadn't been keeping up with the thread for a while so I was worried I'd already missed your reviews
>>21750782>>21750793Georgian black tea from Maghali Etseri mountain arrived. Threw some Darjeeling green tea and some Yunnan "green tea" in the cart since they are so cursed. I'll post once I got to try them
For seasoned tea lovers, brewing tea with a pure gold teapot is not only the ultimate sensory pleasure but also the highest pursuit of the tea ceremony’s spirit of "seeking truth and purity."
>>21760038Oh yeah. That's the shit right there.
>>21760038thats not very wabi cha
Is this OK?
>>21760382I think yes, because I like chocolate with rose, so I can imagine chocolate with jasmine works. I doubt the tea bit makes much difference.
>>21759195Nah, I just got kind of burned out on fu bricks and also I've had other stuff going on.It doesn't feel like it but it's already been a year and a half since I bought the first round of samples. Damn, time flies.
What's /tea/'s opinion on tea resins?
>>21760038Most decadent, I'd feel utterly disgusted at myself for pouring tea from that.
>>21760579i haven't heard about any of them being good, it's cheap tea that they boil the shit out of (and burn most of the time)
>>21760038The kind of pot the protagonist would walk in on me using, as I'm sitting in my decadent, villainously opulent mansion / hideout (which is inconspicuously built into the side of a mountain) after having taken over the world, stroking a black, long-haired cat in my lap and twirling my waxed mustache.
Best website to buy heicha from?
>>21760038That seems insanely overpriced compared to spot, no? You're paying $16k just for the labour/craftsmanship, and that's at the current mooning gold prices. I'm pretty sure it doesn't cost $16k to make a teapot.I get there's markup for a niche collector's/vanity item but here you're paying literally double the gold price just as markup which seems excessive.
>>21761359>You're paying $16k just for the labour/craftsmanshipThis is the deeply flawed Labor Theory of Value. Price is never just cost of materials/labor.
>>21761378Hence my second paragraph. You're paying an insane markup just because "waooaowo gold teapot!! rare and expensive!!!!" and just the fact that it's rare and expensive makes it 2x more expensive somehowAnd $16k is serious money, to the point where I would not be surprised at all if you could find a metalworker/jeweler right here in the west and if you supplied them with 120g of gold they could make you a custom teapot and it'd run you less than $32k all told
>>21761380Might be a 'conspicuous consumption' thing, where wasting money to dunk on the plebs is the primary motive of purchasing something like this, though the buyer might not even realize it.
