/ck/ - Food & Cooking

Sipping on daily-drinker shou in the office

>>11061969
Water. Lots of water.

>>11061969
A simple 'chai' rooibos with clove, cinnamon and cardamom.

I'm looking to buy black tea in bulk, any recommendations?

had "Malawi 2018 Leafy Ripe Dark Tea" today and really really liked it

>>11062293
i should add: i'm a tea beginner and hadn't tried other ones like it before

>>11061969
I've got a bad cold, so I've been chugging down chamomile with honey.

sup

anyone know a tea with both chamomile and fennel?

>>11062349
>>11062833
not tea

>>11061969
i really like Vadham's daily Darjeeling, just ordered a load of teas from mei leaf

>>11062849
fampai i could care less about the sanctity of tea i just want to sip on some fucking leaves

In not a tea drinker at all. What's a good entry level tea that isn't bitter or fruity?

tetley brewed in corningware with grans

c o m f y

>>11062849
The OP includes tisanes, Mr. Second Option Bias

just copped this cha ban. I am excite.

friendly reminder that tisane a shit.

Blooming rose tea. One of my favorite. Sorry about the sideways image.

>>11063274
Vanilla Rooibos is one of the first "teas" i had when getting into tea. Give it a try. Also jasmine tea is really good.

>>11063274
I think black tea is generally less bitter, but no tea is that bitter if you brew it properly. Its is also generally less fruity - maybe notes of dried fruits, but more often notes of malt, cacao, smoke, and the like.

Golden monkey, darjeeling, honey orchid come to mind.

Yorkshire Gold.

>>11063671
I disagree, black teas have much more tannins and bitterness on average than greens, whites, yellows, and (most) oolongs. Golden monkey is kind of finicky imo, but the rest are pretty good.

I'd recommend a Japanese sencha green tea (grassy, fresh, kind of like seaweed/like the ocean but in a good way), or a Baozhong oolong tea (sweet, floral but not fruity,), I would also recommend buying a gaiwan to brew tea with, it is more versatile and better suited to more kinds of teas than European style teapots.

Starting to get into Puer.
Glass hario teapot doesn't retain heat well enough for later brewings, and i'm generally too lazy to use a gaiwan.

I would love to get a yixing or tokonome teapot to dedicate to shous but everything is a bit more expensive than i'd like to pay. Trying to find a 20-40$ glazed teapot around 200ml.

I'm on my third cup of this shitty sencha, good enough for a coffee maker water office brew.

>>11063274
get a variety pack. had a Vahdam tea selection, 10g of 10 teas. white, green, oolong and, black and spiced

Been drinking nothing but gunpowder for the past two weeks trying to clear out a jar so I can buy another pound bag of something. Probably going to go with genmaicha, but it's also been a while since I've had Earl Grey. Might just get a smaller tin of that when it gets closer to fall.

>>11066965
>mug that says coffee a bunch
>there's tea in it
What did he mean by this?

Where can I buy only the little puffed rice bits in Genmaicha? In Japan I had Genmaicha with them added in the teacup and it was very nice added texture. I already have the tea with them, but I want to order only the little brown bits

>>11068226
Wholefood stores will probably sell puffed rice, but it's unlikely to be mochi rice, which is the more authentic option. A lot of commercial genmaicha will actually use popped sorghum, though, because it's dirt cheap in comparison. You can often find it in indian/pakistani food markets.

>milk
fuck off square-heads

>>11068323
fuck you elitist faggot
i put milk in very few teas, and earl grey is one of them. it goes well together. of course I wouldn't put milk in pu'erh or gyokuro

if you put sugar you can go ahead and jump off a cliff though lmao

>>11068391
there still exceptions though, like Moroccan mint tea, which is delicious and usually very sweet

>>11062675
Best tea my bro

Have a nice blend of Twinnings Lady Grey with Korean Citron & Ginger Tea. The Korean tea is good for treating a cold or keeping it away. The ginger in the tea is strong, it actually burns your throat if you put too much in. It's meant to be made into a tea by itself, it's good like that also.

>>11068654
interesting

What is it in the spoon? does the ginger tea come in a capsule shape?

>>11068707
Ginger peel is in the spoon. It's cured in sugar then added to the honey citrus mixture that's stabilized with a natural plant fiber gel and starch. The Korean tea comes in a jar and is kind of like super loose jelly. You have to refrigerate after opening. It's essentially, ginger, honey

I decided to try out chamomile the other day and I just can't shake the fact that it just tastes like hay. It smells like hay. All it makes me think about is hay. I know it's pretty much dried grass but goddamn it's offputting. Is it supposed to be this way or did I get duped?

>>11068756
I've always wanted to try those Korean jelly teas, any idea if it can be homemade? I can't find a recipe.

>>11061969
Cute tray OP. Where'd you get it?

>>11069126
Amazon. It's cheaply made and the wood soaked up water and grew so it doesn't fit properly anymore, but it still works (barely, but well enough).

http://a.co/j5nmF2y

>>11068965
https://www.thespruceeats.com/korean-citron-tea-2118547

I've never tried it myself, but as long as you have a Korean or Japanese market near you where you can buy yuzu fruit it doesn't seem too difficult

>>11068779
It's probably stale and old. Or, you might just be a tastelet. What brand was it?

Tea drinking seems fun and interesting but everything ive made is bitter and bland. Is this true with all teas and i have to grow a liking to it?

>>11068779
Cheap chamomile includes stalks, leaves, all sorts of shit and it tastes like shit. It should only be the flowers, but honestly they also taste like hay, but nice, kinda like >>11064861 describes green tea like tasting like grass but in a good way.

>>11069579
No. You're probably either brewing at too hot or too cold a temperature, too long or not long enough, or you're using bad quality tea. What are you using to make tea and what kind? I'm guessing you've only used teabags so far, which is a different (and 99% of the time worse) experience than using loose-leaf tea. /tea/ has a FAQ and starter's guide but I don't have it, maybe someone else can post it.

pls don't hate on me for saying this, but r/tea/ on reddit has very good information for beginners

>>11062675
Yum! I like ketchup with my tea, too. I thought I was the only one, bro!

>>11069609
>>11069579
check out teahouses near you, some offer free samples of their teas or maybe even a tasting course to help you find out what you might enjoy

Tea is one of those things where you can go very deep into the hobby and explore many different kinds for relatively cheap, or just pick a few simple favorites and stick to them.

>>11069609
Basic black tea buying leaves from the market and boiling them~

>>11069645
Boiling temperature isn't great for most teas, it brings out more tannins which cause the bitterness you're talking about. If it doesn't say what kind of tea it is beyond "black tea" I'd find a different type of black tea that is labeled (darjeeling, assam, earl grey, etc.) or venture into the world of greens, oolongs, whites,... If you can find which variety of tea it is then you can just search for brewing instructions

>>11069625
Not the same anon but what if there's none where I live thanks to it being a shithole, are there other ways to learn about teas?

>>11069755
there are plenty of websites for ordering quality tea online for cheap

den's tea has an excellent starter kit of multiple japanese teas that comes with a teapot for like $15 usd + shipping

yunnan sourcing is good for chinese teas

Vadham is also good for Indian black teas


I've been pretty into tea for over a year and learn new stuff every day, if you feel overwhelmed at first by all the chink names and complex instructions that's normal

>>11061969
Just throwing back the green teas today. Really gotta get some more sleep

>>11062108
Recommend me some daily-drinking tier shous.
I've only had whatcha's ripe cake, and a few random samples.
Looking forward to a couple things from YS soon.

bump

>>11069534
Huh, that was pretty easy, I'd have trouble finding the fruit itself but it's basically jam , I image you could just make it out of any citrus fruit, add ginger, replace the water for tea, etc. Thank you, anon.

>>11069579
here is the pastebin >>11069609
mentioned. https://pastebin.com/4ZEuMwBJ..
>r/tea/
true

>>11069773
Not that anon but trying the Den's tea kit, thanks for the rec, now we'll see how long it takes to get to my shit country.

>>11070069
Rooster King is good, but unfortunately it seems to have sold out.
I enjoyed the 2013 "Year of the Snake Red Label"; that one is quite strong and thick, not to everyone's tastes necessarily.
The 2015 "Yang Luo Han" is nice, and it has a goat on it!
Price-wise these are maybe on the higher side as daily drinkers go; for more budget-friendly options, if you snag a Menghai ripe from YS after minimal research I doubt you'll be let down.
If that what-cha ripe is the same one I had a few years ago it's an extremely typical (and decent) shou, so if you enjoyed that one the category is clearly for you!

I have been enjoying a wonderful Mao feng I picked up while I was in the orient lately.

Also I really love being able to say shit like "while I was in the orient". Makes me feel liek some pretentious world adventurer from the turn of the century.

anyone here fuck with kava? I make some every morning and drink it cold in the evening

>>11061969
Do y'all like Arnold Palmers 'round here?

>>11071027
Sure man. I can crush one on a hot day. As long as I make it myself. The Arizona ones are too sweet and don't have enough tea flavour

>>11071027
the patrician's tea.

>>11071025
where do you buy it? online?
sometimes i see these bs hippie kava placebo bags in the store, i took a box of them once and they didnt do shit
do i need the actual root to get high on it?

>>11071025
I don't think I've ever had that. Gimme a brief description

>>11071044
I buy it online, I don't want to plug the website but I think it's the first result on google. I use the root powder, you just throw it in a cheesecloth and strain hot water through then squeeze it out into a bowl
>>11071048
not the best taste. it's earthy and numbs your mouth a bit like cocaine. definitely an acquired taste. it's extremely relaxing, kava loosely translated means intoxicating.

>canned "tea"

where tf do I even begin on yunnansourcing? there are like 30 different varieties of tie guan yin alone.

I guess the best Ill just start with some spring pickings that have interesting notes. Buy a couple 25g packets to try?

How do y'all choose your tea when buying online?

Does anyone have any fruity or sweeter teas they'd reccomend? Preferably a brand one can commonly find in a grocery store. Small forestry town so selection is minimal

>>11071294
I like subscription tea-of-the-month clubs. It removes the decision paralysis. Sometimes they post their tea-of-the-month in their blog too, so you can just go buy that and make sure it's good.

Just as a spot recommendation, I really like jin xuan (milk oolong), find some of that. Make sure it's just the pure tea though, not flavored.

>>11071296
If you're NA, the grocery store probably has celestial seasonings tea bags. I like the orange zinger flavor.

If you just want sweet, you should make your own sweet iced tea. Brew black tea heavily in hot water, dissolve sugar to taste, then refrigerate/ice. You can mix with lemon/lime juice as well.

>>11071377
hmm, only jin xuan available is flavored :/ thanks for the recs though!

>>11071430
That's too bad. eco-cha sometimes has good jin xuan, but they only have https://eco-cha.com/collections/jin-xuan-related-products/products/alishan-high-mountain-jin-xuan-oolong-tea right now.

disclosure: I subscribe to eco-cha's tea club. it's good shit, but expensive, and honestly I'm starting to get tired of just oolong lately.

>>11071393
Thanks for the recs anon. Will definitely check for celestial next time I'm in the grocery store and will probably try the making my own on the weekend.

>>11071134
Doesn't kava need fat to extract correctly?

>>11070980
Shipping was over $40, I'm too much of a poorfag for now, sadly.

go buy my tea set
https://www.ebay.com/itm/283108207265

>>11072517
>That 80% off sale when Teavana was closing
What a great time. Got a tea set for like $30.

>>11072534
I didnt even realize they closed

>>11072553
>>11072534
>>11072517
RARE TEAVANA TEA SET! BARGAIN PRICE!

Paid a dollar for this.

Did i do good?

>>11073992
>paid a dollar
i seriously doubt you did do good

>>11073992
certainly not. post pic of powder and liquor.

>>11063274
they're overpriced, but capital teas has a fruity blend called Chesapeake sunrise that's gr8 with a little bit of honey

got a free sample at a mall once, started my tea drinking journey

>>11074020
I dont have a matcha set so pls no booli my bubbles.

>>11074045
at least the color is good. hows it taste?

>>11074048
I've never had matcha until now so i cant compare it, but i usually cant take my green teas without sugar/honey but this is good enough without any sweetener.

>>11074059
> i usually cant take my green teas without sugar/honey

opinion discarded

>>11061969
British Earl Grey

Fuck off with you pretentious cunt feminine teas

Earl Grey. Digestive. All you fucking need

>>11075537
>Fuck off with you feminine teas
but those are the best ones

>>11076112
>tfw the scolding hot faggot sissy tea spills all over you as your daddy pounds you from behind
sad but pleasurable

>>11076147
Missing out on a wide range of flavors because they're not manly enough for you
Poor soul, I bet you don't eat vegetables either.

Find a flaw.

>>11076337

>>11076350
>(OP)
>This is the 48th IP in the thread.
bad post

>>11076354
i was playing risk on /int/ and forgot i had it on, oops

Anyone have advice for aging teas? Like do you really need to get autastic about temp and humidity, or is it good enough to keep the tea away from rapid shifts in condition?

>>11076350
kek

>>11076337
Not organic.

>>11076283
>consuming things for flavor
Lmao get the fuck off this board

>>11076372
Climate is extremely important, if you tried making pu'erh in Arizona the aridity would cause it to stay green and bitter, but if you tried the same tea in humid Florida it could work

>>11076337
>American heritage figurine inside
wauw.

>>11061969
tiesta tea's blueberry wild child i like that herbal tea a lot.

>>11061969
water

>cold tea is flavorless
>tepid tea is slimy
>too hot for hot tea
what do
anyone chew/suck on leaves, like chewing tobacco?

>>11063552
The tea tray is called cha ban..?

>>11064861
I would generally recommend black (but not too black*) tea as better 'entry level' tea than anything from japan. Mostly because the black tea is generally in line what is considered tea, sencha is just too weird for someone not accustomed to it.

*but not too black = darjeeling, keemun.

>>11079014
I eat a leaf or two of some black teas occasionally.
Like the Rwandan Orange Pekoe I have now.
Smaller ones, little crunchy, and has some flavor.

>>11076337
I use this for kombucha to great success

>>11061969
Tfw can’t find La Merced barbacua flavor maté in burgerland

>>11079014
after brewing Gyokuro green tea I like to eat them with ponzu sauce, but maybe just wait until fall if it's too hot out to drink hot tea and you don't like cold tea

and room temperature tea is always kind of weird

>>11079014
Drink it got anyway. It'll cool you down.

>>11079014
>>11080434
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hot-drink-cools-you-down_us_592f6757e4b0540ffc84583e

>>11079236
>The tea tray is called cha ban
yeah, I usually just call it a gong fu table/tray though

>>11081537
who the fuck wants to be a sweaty mess
i drink hot tea in 90 degree weather but that article is just stupid

>>11080434
but hot water hurts my sinus.

>>11081537
>The sweat increases heat loss and reduces body heat storage. Good info to know, and it’s all thanks to Ollie Jay ― a researcher at University of Ottawa’s School of Human Kinetic ― and the research he published in 2012.
>sweat ... reduces body heat storage
but drinking hot water adds body heat storage in the first place and most of that water leaves as pee later on, not sweat

>>11081747
Pee is hot. It's like you've never pissed in a bottle before, anon, get your game on

>>11081747
water evaporating removes a ton of heat energy, we humans have the best sweat glands on the planet solely for this. but all thats not really relevant when you can just dink something cool instead

>>11061969
I drink green tea from the vending machines, usually 120¥

>>11081833
tea hee, you put it on a bowl on a circuit board

>>11061969
sarcophagus bone juice

>>11081833
how do you pick it up when its so full ketchup man

Latest order. Decided to put together a purple tea sampler - all from the ye sheng cultivar.

>A ripe and a raw puerh from the same location, and similar press dates.
>A white
>A black
>Plus a young puerh that sounded good. Contrast the older cakes a bit. Same location as the black.

Should be a fun sampling.

>>11083139
That is really nice. I hope you will find some good stuff there.

Gonna drown in shou soon

>>11061969
Water. It's what I drink every day.

>>11083688
with or without impurities? that's the real question

Any tips for deep cleaning a tokoname teapot that's been out of use for a few years?

I used to drink green tea daily but in the last few years Ive let a lot of the ritualized parts of my life go, which is kind of sad now that I'm thinking about it. Anyway, I'm looking to get back into green tea but my tokoname teapot has accumulated a pretty decent layer of dust and buildup, and has some stains from when it was in use. Any tips for getting it back to a ready to use condition?

>>11084238

Also, where are y'all getting your green tea from? My go-to 8 years ago was o-cha.com but I'm out of the loop at this point.

bump

>>11084240
Yunnan sourcing US, sometimes Upton Tea Imports for cheap bulk tea

>>11084238
I'd think letting it soak with hot/boiling water a couple times should be good enough. If not get a stiff brush and scrub that shit, with some baking soda if you need to.

>>11086648

Word! Thanks!

page 10 bump

>>11068226
always wanted to try genmaicha t b h

>>11088692
it's by far one of my favorite kinds of Japanese tea (it's also cheap), I prefer it with matcha added. the 1st and 2nd brews have a very different profile than the ones after once all of the matcha is gone. it also has a beautiful color

>>11088695
Do you know if there is a significant difference between the kinds of "rice" (puffed rice, mochi rice, popped sorghum) as >>11068289 mentioned?

>>11086648

I was having trouble finding Japanese green tea on Yunnan. Do they have it?

Some of their other stuff looked interesting. What types of teas might be recommended to someone with a penchant for grassy, tart Japanese green teas? What teas should I not steep in a tokonome teapot?

Oh fug a tea thread!? Perfect I came with tea questions!

I just moved out of the parents house and they always had black tea, just the regular bags you can buy at Walmart Lipton/Luzianne. I decided to drink green tea because its a little better for me. I always drink my tea iced and with no sweeteners added.

Anyway I've done a little bit of reading up on tea and relize the bagged shit is garbo with with the "Tea dust" in it and such. I found a store nearby that specializes in loose leaf tea and want to up my game.

Where can I get an infuser for making a gallon of tea? Only ever seen small ones.

How much loose-leaf do I use for a gallon generally? Do I measure by weight or volume?

What should I expect to pay for a pound of loose leaf green tea?

>>11088938
I don't think they carry anything other than tea from Yunnan province in China. As for Japanese tea, I can't help beyond directing you to this vendor list on >Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/tea/wiki/vendors/page_01
The list links directly to the vendors' sites

>>11088988

Thanks. Looks like I'll have to explore some shops outside of o-cha.

>>11088708
i've never tried it other than with mochi rice as it comes, but i think it's probably fine to deviate from that, and might not taste too different (more so for puffed rice rather than sorghum which i've never had before). Genmaicha has always been a peasant's tea, the purpose has been to make do with what you have (which in Japan hundreds of years ago was popped roasted rice)

>>11088975
>Where can I get an infuser for making a gallon of tea? Only ever seen small ones.
You don't need one with such large quantities,. just use any closed container, like a jar or jug, then strain the leaves.

>What should I expect to pay for a pound of loose leaf green tea?
It varies significantly from several factors, but regardless when you think of it in terms of price per serving tea is very cheap, compared to coffee, soda, etc.

>How much loose-leaf do I use for a gallon generally? Do I measure by weight or volume?
about an ounce, measure by weight

are you planning on brewing tea directly in cold water or by first brewing hot tea then refrigerating it?

>>11089064
>mochi rice
actually... does that even exist? i'm pretty sure it's roasted brown rice. Think I was talking out my ass there

>>11089064
Hot water.

>>11089067
Kek
I love the aroma of roasted rice, might just have to make some myself and add them to all sorts of tea

Just bought a small batch, left is sencha with citrus flavour, mid is oolong with orange flavour and right is rooibos with cream flavour.
What's the best teapot to have? I've been thinking of getting those glass ones with glass infusers, but I'm still a little on the fence. Also been thinking of those Moroccan teapots, any advice on them?

>>11088975
Amazon has some nice enough teas sold by the pound mostly for around $15-$20. Look for Davidson.

>>11089925
>flavored oolong
yikes

>>11089925
>with citrus flavour
>with orange flavour
>with cream flavour

You should get some tea with chocolate flavour.

>>11089925
>rooibos and scented teas
its almost as bad a using tea bags. pleb.

>>11091047
Stop enjoying things!

>>11091127
>>11091047
i agree with both of these

but >>11089925
one of the Hario glass ones are good like in the OP picture

>>11091263
nothing wrong with rooibos though, it's delicious. the other two are iffy

>>11089998
forgot pic

Steep along incoming. Giving the tokonome a boil to clean it out real well after two years or non-use.

>>11091384

These are all super old, but if I remember correctly, they are, from left to right, Uji Musashi (sencha with gyokuro stems), o-cha's "Daily Sencha" (a good bang for your buck second harvest leaf), and Sae Midori (fukamishi).

Which one do I use, /ck/?

>>11091406
throw them away and buy lipton like a real man you soyboy

>>11091411

>tfw I actually used to work making artisinal tofu

>>11091411
real men drink sea water, you faggot

>>11091406

Going with the Sae Midori. I remember it being a pretty brothy infusion, with a dark green color, but I'll be surprised if it doesn't just come out brown because of its age.

>>11091466

First steep. 45 seconds at 175 degrees. Color wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. More bitter than it should be, as well.

>>11091486

Second infusion, 30 seconds. Hard to tell in the picture but it seems like it came out slightly greener.

Taste is still the same, though. Looks like I'm going to have to get all new teas.

>>11091514

Skipping the 3rd infusion. Gonna see how the Musashi held up.

>>11091533

First infusion at 60 seconds. I think this one went even further from its original taste than the Sae Midori.

>>11091554

New order. Hopefully I'll actually use it all this time.

>>11091653
Good luck anon, I'm glad you didn't make yourself suffer through the bitterness, I know I would have.

>>11091486
>45 seconds
O_o

>>11091749

You have a stronger will than me, then.

>>11091758

What's wrong with that?

>>11091779
In itself, nothing, really. I saved all your pics by the way ^.^

>>11091795

I'll do another steep along in 7-21 days when the new order gets here. I've never brewed hojicha before so I'm curious to see how that turns out.

>>11091804
What will you do with all that old tea? How old is it, exactly?

>>11091825

I'm not 100% sure yet. Now that I really think about it it's at least 4 years old, maybe coming up on 5.

>>11061969
earl grey with milk! you utter pleb

>>11091411
real men brew tea with their own urine, to be completely self-reliant

>>11091804
earl grey is pretty difficult to mess up, it's an easy brew that only oversteeps if you leave it several minutes. always delicious, even cheap hojicha. i drink it before bedtime and sleep great, there's very little caffeine

>>11091848
nothing wrong with earl grey and milk. it's like a tea orange creamsicle

>>11091955
i'm stupid by earl grey in the first sentence i meant hojicha. was drinking it and typed that on accident. oops

>>11091848
>milk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFGfWrJR5Ck

>>11089984
>>11089998
>>11091047
Flavoured teas are great, I like to mix different things, like adding mint & bruce buds into my tea, sometimes dicing ginger into it. Sure I drink nonflavoured as well, but combining different flavours is fun and I can find some interesting new "recipes".

>>11061969
Milk and earl grey is a no-no. Hot water, mate.

>>11091486
next time try 4g per 200ml, 65°C after warming the teapot, 45sec, then next infusion same temperature for 5-10sec, then add 10-15sec each time, you fucking weeb

>>11094120

That's almost the exact ratio I used. 65 C seems too low for anything but gyuokuro, especially if you're going to go with such a short second infusion, unless this is specifically to combat the fact that it's old as shit?

>>11094153
>65 C seems too low for anything but gyuokuro
you're right, it's too low for a deep steamed tea, my bad
so I double checked, and it seems 75-80°C is ideal for such teas, with medium steamed sencha being ideal at 60-70°C and gyokuro at less than 60°C, the only time I got gyokuro I steeped it at around 55°C for best results
supposedly, the ideal steeping shouldn't change with the age of tea
I insist about the time though, at least 45sec for the first infusion, quite possibly 1min even, then around 5sec for the following one, and then 10-15sec more for each following infusion

also you might be a sensible person and get yourself some good chink tea to try out

>>11094347

I usually do about half the initial steep time for second infusions, but I'll give the shorter times a shot. Just did the Sae Midori with a 30 second first steep so the bitterness from its age wouldn't show as much and it's at least drinkable now.

>>11095357

10 second 2nd steep. Still not great but, again, drinkable.

>>11094042
what the fuck is a bruce bud
google just gives me cannabis strains and some random people
image search says your pic is a "plant"

>>11095399
pretty sure they meant 'spruce buds' from spruce trees

>>11095414
thanks anon

>>11095385
what does your hand tattoo say?

>>11095357
have you checked hojo-tea?
that has veeery veeery good info on tea, nip tea in particular, what kind of teas are made in certain ways, why they taste a certain way, how to steep them...

do you use a strainer when brewing with gaiwans? it doesn’t happen often with good quality tea but getting small bits of leaf in my cup annoys me more than anything

(yes, I know it’s 2 years old, but I just found it in my cupboard and it still tastes good)

>>11096273
ew just noticed my desk is dirty

British tea > Chinese/Japanese tea

Fight me.

>>11096226

They're banjo tunings.

>>11096241

I'll give that a look. I used to be a lot more knowledgeable but am sorely out of practice, so looking back thru online resources will be good for me, I think.

>>11096273
No, in fact I sometimes chew on the leaves after the third brew. I buy this ridiculously cheap green tea to bring to the office and a lot of leaf debris goes through the strainer and I just drink it all down with the last gulp. Leaf in my leaf water. Good shit.

Time to see how the budget second harvest sencha fared over its storage.

>>11096337
>the sky is brown with red and blue clouds
nothing to fight about, you're wrong is all
>>11096365
you're welcome
ah and check the paistebin if you want more info and useful/interesting links

>>11096383

This actually turned out sort of green. I think it's actually the most palatable of all 3 teas.

>tfw learning about gong fu and multiple steppings
But have to reheat water every time.
>tfw finally figuring out I could use my thermos to keep water hot for gong fu instead of polluting it with tea. Oh boy, that feel...

>>11096396
buy a variable temperature electric kettle. I have a Bonavita one that is excellent, you can set degrees precisely and even set it to keep temperature for hours

>>11096395
based sencha

>>11096392
>>the sky is brown with red and blue clouds
>nothing to fight about, you're wrong is all
Oh ok.

I'm a tea beginner that's only had Lipton which I'm sure is pretty bad. Anyone reccomend a good tea to try?

>>11096406
I already have one with this feature and the idea spoiling energy this way annoys me, plus I now have 500 mL or even 1 L autonomy when away from my kettle.

>>11096433
I recommend either tie guan yin or a tea sampler, and that you read the paistebin, it was posted earlier in this thread

>>11061969
Gunpowder green tea from some random bulk seller that I cold brewed overnight

Anybody have any recommendations for a really caffeine-potent tea?
I’m the retarded anon that posted that diy caffeine drink thread earlier, before an anon pointed out tea as an option and I realised that I have metric shit tons of tea in my pantry.
I’m pulling an all-nighter tonight and I don’t regularly consume coffee or tea, so for me caffeine is like aderall. So I need something really strong, strong enough that I can take one hit before starting work tonight and another so I can survive tomorrow and have survived 48 hours without sleep.

Mind, this is a recipe I’m looking to make, not buy. I don’t have any time to go to a store.

Picked up pic related in London last month, it's pretty good. My palate admittedly isn't good enough to explain how.

>>11096273
I don't either. If leaf residue in the cup bothers you then feel free, but it seems unnecessary to me.

>>11096565
... how are you going to MAKE tea? gonna farm it yourself? maybe try sprinkling a tiny bit of a caffeine pill into your tea

>>11096565
tl;dr prefer black tea, prefer bagged, boiling water, large amounts of tea and high tea:water ratio, no rinse, 1-3 minute hot steeps or one 15 min long steep per batch then toss leaves, no sugar so you don't crash later (but fake sugar is ok).

Coffee has more caffeine than tea obviously but you can just add more leaves.
Most caffeine is supposed to come out early in the steeping process, but not all of it. You could steep the leaves for 15 minutes or so and extract very nearly all the caffeine, but then again the water will get cold and reduce the effectiveness of extraction later in the steep, further the caffeine that is already in the tea water will also reduce extraction efficiency I'd imagine. BUT then that means you'd have to micromanage multiple boiling steeps with diminishing returns of caffeine. Since you don't have time for all that probably do the long steep. Then discard the leaves and use new ones.
Lower leaf grade/size would cause better extraction so oddly enough bagged tea might be good for this.
Black tea has more caffeine.
High tea:water ratio so you don't spend all your time pissing.
Don't add sugar because that'll just cause you to crash part way through your work/study session, but artificial sweeteners are fine.
Then buckle up and enjoy your bitter mess

>>11096565
you could add a scoop of matcha powder to any green tea

I hate sweetened tea, but I love eating sweets with tea. What sorcery is this?

>>11096755
completely normal. it is traditional to eat snacks with tea, often sweet, so you can drink lots because the food softens the caffeine in the stomach so you absorb less. it's like how eating food with alcohol will make you get less drunk.

i wouldn't want to eat a sugary burger, but a milkshake and burger go well together. same type of thing

>>11096704
Instead of using bagged tea, you can just run tea through a blender.

>>11096755
Are you me?

>>11094042
But did you get the tea with chocolate flavour tho.

>>11062224
Go to an Indian grocery.

>>11062224
Vadham, it’s high quality but you can still buy in on Amazon

What time at night do you stop drinking tea? after 6pm i try to limit myself to hojicha and herbal teas, but it doesn't always end up happening and I sleep like shit...

>>11097278
I stop with caffeine after 3PM, 4 if I got a late start to the day. Doesn't seem to have help since I still stay up until 2AM.

>>11096392
why got to be wrong? why can't you enjoy everything is good?

>>11071294
yunnan sourcing has a youtube channel where they do tastings.

>>11079236
I don't think Sencha is particularly weird. Gunpowder was weird. The combination of hay and smoke is somewhat off-putting.

Gonna have myself some Prince Vladimir from Kusmi. might mix some mint tea into it as well.

>>11096704
Just snort matcha until you start seeing fractals

>>11096565
A bit late, but green tea has a lot of caffiene and also a lot of L-theanine in it, which helps a lot with the affects of caffiene, making it keep you focused instead of just jittery.

That being said, if you truly just want to stay awake, get caffiene pills, or better yet, powdered caffiene and l-theanine, and a miligram scale from the internet and mix it lukewarm/hot water. control your dosage easily. If you want to go even further, order some modafinil from from shader indian pharmacy. That shit will keep you up far better than caffiene ever can.

just had a great but inexpensive first flush nepalese black tea.

could anyone with some knowledge in the matter recommend a good green tea i can buy?
i live in spain

>>11100315
WIth the power of the internet, it doesn't matter too much where you live anymore. For green tea you're going to be getting imports from china/taiwan/japan anyway, so might as well buy it online.

For types, the top of the line green tea varietyIMO is dragon's well (Longjing) from china. The leaves are usually dried thin and straight, looks beautiful when brewed. More economical though is japanese-style sencha, available most places of varying quality. Gyokuro (shaded green tea) is the top of the line weeb shit green tea, but it's also pretty expensive.

>>11100072

>modafinil

Oh shit I remember a period in my life when modafinil was really popular among my friends. It's an interesting drug, somewhere between caffeine and adderall. I'd take it orally for the workday and then crush it up and rail it at parties. Geez I used to be a degenerate.

>>11100389

How does Chinese green tea compare to Japanese? Are you still able to steep the former in a kyusu?

>>11100389
you wouldn't happen to know brand names?

How much do folks fuck around with tea/water ratios? I tend to like stronger brews but extending steep time can really mess with things. Is it sacrilege to deviate from standards?

>>11100652
Not sacrilege unless you've dedicated your life to traditional steeping methods. Experiment and figure out what you like. If you want a strong brew with short steep time add more leaf less water, possibly higher temp.

>>11100664

Word.

>>11100568
Never got my hands on moda, but I was pretty into speed for about six years and only recently quit. Caffeine does absolutely nothing to me, which isn't so bad really- I can drink tea as late as I want.
Did anyone here get into tea as a replacement for something else?

>>11100862

Never done straight up speed but I've definitely had MDMA cut with it. My first time rolling I accidentally took twice a standard dose and am convinced I nearly died. Couldn't stop talking extremely fast but a friend sat me down and brought me some lemonade.

That was and will always be the best night of my entire life. The specifics are hazy but every new thing I touched was the best feeling I had ever felt in my entire life. May or may not have had unprotected sex with someone but the ID test came up clean and she already went thru menopause.

>>11100570
At least for dragon's well I find it a bit closer to oolong than the usual grassy sencha. It's still grassy compared to actual oolong, but it has that more of that warmth to it that oolong has, I think. I steep mine in a glass teapot just because I like seeing the leaves swirl around and expand. A kyusu would be fine as would a gaiwan though. I mean, As mystical and traditional as tea steeping is, it's still just water and leaves. Don't need to complicate it that much.

>>11100594
I get my dragon's well from a local tea shop. It all gets imported from china though. There's a "traditional" province where you're supposed to get longjing from, but I think as long as it's high quality it doesn't matter that much. All the really good longjing never leaves china anyway. Someone else might have recommendations on where to get it on the internet. FIrst flush dragon's well is the best. Oh, also beware longjing/dragon's well from cheap asian supermarkets, that comes in fancy gift tins. It's cheap, but it's also shit. The boxes are nice though. You could dump it out and fill it with actually good tea if you need a give a gift.

>>11100652
>>11100664
>>11100687
One thing I'd watch out with higher temps is that if you go too hot with some lighter teas it can "damage" the leaves.

But for real, to me brewing tea is to change different variables in your method around till you find what you like.

>>11076337
People in your family will assume it is for "feminine issues".

>>11101111
wait what?

avoiding bitterness in tea is foolishness

>>11097278
I never stop

>>11101139
Bitter is easy to avoid with green/oolong tea. As long as you don't accidentally forget and then it's been steeping for like 10 minutes, it's never bitter/tannic. 2-3 minutes steep for a cup. I live about a mile above sea level so the water's at 95C even at boiling, that also helps.

>>11101158
denver senpai?

>>11101158
>it's never bitter/tannic.
>2-3 minutes steep for a cup.
These two things are mutually exclusive. Tea is bitter by nature. I'm not talking about spoiling the cup by steeping too long or overheating, I'm just talking about the nature of tea and how many articles and videos seem scared to death of any hint of bitterness in tea.

If you want to taste your tea there will be some bitterness in it, otherwise you're just drinking hot colored water.

So what's the optiomal way to brew a cup of tea?

>>11101328
Lots of leaf, short steep. aka gong fu.

>>11101649
thanks for nothing, faggot.

>>11069616
:D Adds a bit of zest

>>11101652
what more are you looking for, faggot? Its different for every cup of tea but that will always produce the fullest flavor.

there are three things which people drink that I am 100000% certain are a larp just used for social brownie points:

tea, coffee, beer. they all taste like shit no matter how they're brewed or where the leaves/beans are sourced from. literally just hot bitter water that makes your face scrunch up after each sip but you gotta convince yourself you like it cause you bought that $600 tea kit on amazon to show your buds on discord and 4chin

>>11101775
t. 12 year old

>>11101775
okay buddy

>>11101775
I doubt you've ever had good tea, coffee, or beer.

>>11101873
based and redpilled

>>11101775
Tea's not bitter if it's brewed right.

>>11061969
My favorite tea is Turkish tea.

>>11101703
Ketchup unironically might be a good additive to hot tea. Tangy and sweet, could be a good counterpoint to a strong black tea. I'm never going to try it, but still, in theory it could work

>>11101169
dude mountains lmao. The ku-cha house of tea shop on pearl street in Boulder is where I get my dragon's well tea. They have a lot of other teas too it's a nice shop. Fuck expensive, but hey, it's boulder.
>>11101183
Fair enough, but I think it's still a good warning that if the tea you're drinking tastes bitter first and other flavors second, you probably just oversteeped it. Better to err on the side of a weak cup and taste the flavors, and slowly work your way up to a full steep for your tea type/water temperature, rather than try to work backwards.

>>11061969
I'm very interested in teas, but i have no idea where to start? is there any sort of guide out there to help people who are as stupid as I am with tea?

>>11103984
seconding this

>>11103984
>>11070932
>>11069773
Or search 'tea basics' on youtube if you want to hear a human voice say the same things written here.

>>11103984
>>11104035
own a cup, read up on steeping time and amounts, use loose leaf rather than bagged. a good green tea would probably be nice for a beginner

>>11103984
>>11104035

Drink some Dilmah ceylon tea >>11081833 >>11062675
There are instructions on the box of teabags.
You can't fuck up a good old bag of black tea anyway.

>>11101775
Try harder next time, bud.

>>11103034
It's also acidic, too, which can also be pleasurable. Kind of like adding lemon rind/juice.

>>11103063
I live in boulder, thats where I've been getting my tea. As much as I want to support brick and mortar tea shops, I'm probably going to switch to online sources. KuCha is definitely overpriced and you don't get a lot of info about the tea. It is a nice shop though.

I actually plan to go today though - I've had my eye on some of their tea ware.

My favorite shop was White Dragon in Durango. Its closed now but the owner taught me everything I know about tea.

>>11104344
It's a nice shop yeah. It's nice to be able to just go there and smell all the teas, even though I also end up just buying the same varieties online most of the time. You pay for the convenience, and the atmosphere. The regular employees won't tell you much about the varieties of tea, but occasionally the owner puts on free tea tastings and she knows a lot more. That's where I first tried longjing green tea, and it was my favorite out of the 5 different chinese green tea varieties the had.

What's the consensus on yogi tea?`
I'm starting to dabble with tea and those are the higher end bagged teas at my local grocers.

>>11104430
I've never once seen either owner there.
You're right about the employees, not very helpful, I feel more knowledgeable than them. I've inquired about jobs there actually - it would be a very comfy place to work.

I'll have to go to one of the tea sessions one day. And try their dragonwell too i guess.

Just finished a session with their White Peony, now I'm excited to go.

>>11104442
>bagged tea
>higher end

anybody in this thread will tell you to just get loose leaf.

>>11104461
Yeah I just spotted that tea book, I'll probably savour it tomorrow, while sipping on that bed time yogi tea that excited me at the grocers today

>>11104344
>owner taught me everything I know about tea
now you need to teach us, senpai

>>11104442
Decent enough for bagged tea, I guess, but I'm not fond of their pseudo-health claims. People outta drink tea cause they want to, not cause they think it'll help their stomach issues or whatever.

>>11104486
What do you want to know, kohai?

>>11105067
What tea should I get?

I started drinking tea because I wanted to cut out coffee for something with a lower caffeine count. I've been drinking Lapsang Souchong. I love the weird smoke flavor. I have otherwise been drinking green teas and had a nice tea called Genmaicha or something?

Why didn't anyone tell me tea was so varied and nice?

>>11083669
Have you tried that 8592 before? Considering picking it up

>>11106345
Because the coffee and soda industry doesn't want you to know about alternative drinks

>>11106719
I just got the order from YS in today, haven't had a chance to get to the 8592 yet.
Should have some time in the next day or two.

>>11105489
https://yunnansourcing.com/products/wild-da-hong-pao-from-wu-yi-shan-rock-oolong-tea-spring-2018?variant=12136284094532

rate my cart bros

>>11107336
but anon didn't report on the 8592 yet

>>11107354
Haven't ordered yet, waiting on that

>>11103984
>>11104035
read up in this thread and you'll find a link to a guide/reference, I don't curate it so that lazy people can go and ask these kind of questions, come on

>>11107336
>spending that much on tea and getting a small gaiwan instead of one or two real teapots
the kind of teas you're getting are a matter of taste, the website you're using sells a lot of overpriced stuff, and the gaiwan
I rate your cart 5.5/10

>>11107728
>I don't curate it so that lazy people can go and ask these kind of questions, come on
you're a massive faggot

>>11107751
no u

anyway
finishing up my li shan, why in the world did I splurge for that instead of dong ding, and even washing it twice there was still too damn much dust
steeped/brewed it in a low fired yixing teapot because I prefer savory teas over perfumey teas
first to third infusion from left to right, the first one can be considered the second washing, the second and third are light, a bit floral, a bit citrus-y, usual mid to low quality li shan, I recommend you avoid dragon tea house

I also recently got me a 2014 raw pu erh cake, some who-knows-what-exactly dan cong tea, and I must be doing something wrong because it has a nice balsamic and honey-like smell but it tastes veeery dull, I'll have to experiment with it for another day or two
I'll also be sure to get at least a new teapot or two in a short while, bout time I get me a bigger and high fired one

>>11096395
What's the tat say friendo

>>11101775
>beer
Gets you drunk
You can get some beer that tastes decent, but generally it'll taste like ass
But like... getting drunk never tasted good good, but once you have a tooth for it, it can taste amazing if you get into the good beers.
Hard to explain to a fucking brainlet like you how this shit works, yeah you gotta 'get used to it' because you started doing it for the effects.
>Coffee
French press(or whatever, just don't be that instant coffee fag, I've only had one that tastes decently) is the best way to taste actual coffee, it can be quite decent
Iced coffee with cream, chocolate/whatever the fuck you like man you gotta find out
>Tea
Yeah you're a nigger

Tbh you've only tasted cheap garbage, and I'm just as biased as you.

>>11107336
Skip the fancy TGY and go premium.

is 8oz too big of a teapot for one person gong fu?

>>11107740
how to tell if a tea is overpriced? where to get great appropriately priced tea?

>>11108720
Premium is expensive shit though, maybe when I can afford it

Anybody else love Teavivre? They have a nice spectrum of cheap to gourmet tea and the higher end stuff is REALLY nice. Only thing I wouldn't recommend is their puerh.

>>11108729
depends on how much tea you like to drink at a time and on whether you steep 1l of tea all at once or you just want 7oz each time throughout the day(s)
so it's personal preference really, but imo it's about the right size, maybe a tiny bit big for me but who cares
also that may be internal volume, and I've never seen anyone filling a teapot to the brim
>>11109044
tea is dirt cheap to make unless it comes from nipponland or best china aka Taiwan, so I refer "overpriced" to the best price I can reasonably get a (very) good quality tea for
to find those prices you need to buy very many (kinds of) teas from different places and see which ones are good, even buying the same tea, same "quality level", from three different places, one dirt cheap, one cheap and one expensive (cheapest ebay listing, respectable chink reseller like health tea house, and Akira Hojo for example) will give you an idea
after a while you'll know how much you need to spend to have a good tie guan yin from last spring, how much for a good teapot and so on and so forth, which teas are best bought from a certain seller and which ones are not...
I personally wouldn't buy anything from yunnansourcing save pu-erh for that reason

>10 day old thread
can't let this die

>>11108729
just a little
i mean, it's fine but by the time you wait for the first cup to cool off, then finish the pot it'll be lukewarm, and it's easier to brew smaller amounts anyway

>>11108729
>>11110714
You also don't need to fill it all the way full anyways

Im having such a hard time choosing a tea set.
I just want a unique and hand crafted gaiwan and either a cup or a pitcher to match.
Is that so much to ask for?

>>11110843
desu, I'd rather spend my money on nice tea, not nice gear. a 10 dollar gaiwan does the exact same thing as a 100 dollar gaiwan. I do get the interest of buying nice equipment still though

>>11110861
aesthetics is part of the enjoyment for me.

>>11110999
Pottery is a god damn rabbit hole. There is so much out there

>>11110843
Etsy gets a bad wrap for the thousands of shit quality things people make and sell there, but it has some people who are pretty skilled at pottery

bump

>>11107336
I like the gong ting assortment. 8/10

>>11111360
damn, how much for that shit?

>>11110843
get a nice yixing clay teapot, that's true aesthetic. They're so cute and tiny too. Then get a cheaper ceramic or glass teapot to go with it for other teas. Glass is nice to see the tea brewing. I like double-walled glass mugs as well.

>>11061969
>milk
End yourself this instant.

>>11113570
i plan on getting a yixing once I decide which kind of tea I want to dedicate it too.

>>11113589
british tea culture must be RESPECTED just as much as chink, jap, indian, arabian, turk, etc. milk is completely fine in most brit teas. this is not arguable

>>11113722
i think people overestimate how much aroma and flavor yixing can absorb. yes, using a yixing pot that was used exclusively for pu'erh for months to brew a delicate green tea would taste strange, but it's fine to dedicate it simply to a category (i.e. a yixing for oolongs, one for pu'erh, one for blacks..), not just one single kind of tea.

>>11113722
I agree with >>11114029 . There's a lot of mystique and tradition around it, but in the end it's just a cute clay teapot that's fun to brew with. The clay will absorb and give off some flavors, but it's not going to be drastic enough to affect anything adversely by brewing different varieties of tea in it, unless you're really autistic. Just get a nice reasonably priced yixing pot that you feel good about brewing in, and brew your favorite teas in it.

If you decide later that you want to dedicate it to a certain tea, then buy a new teapot. Then you'll have an ever growing collection of cute expensive tea acessories.

>>11114014

see>>11096392

>>11114131
unlike that poster I didn't say that British tea is better, simply that it is also enjoyable just like Chinese and Japanese tea. I bet you also only eat one kind of food, wear only one brand's clothing, and watch only one TV series, right?

>>11114145
At least I respect British tea enough to not autistically add milk into it, little man.
You just lost a bet and I bet you won't own it because I know, you're a little man.

>>11114175
incomprehensible post. the practice of adding milk to tea in Britain comes from the fact that Manchu leaders from the north of China at the time added milk to their, unlike most of the Han commoner population, so the British brought back that tradition thinking it was the more noble way to drink tea. Milk is also traditionally added to tea in other parts of Asia such as Tibet and Mongolia. go to the UK and you will see that it is usually added, not just in basic bagged tea but also in more high-class teahouses.

>>11114218
>t. little man sperg out some shit he read and thinks he's cultural

>they all did it, so I did it, why you not follow it too
>it's considered as high-class even
Milk fucks up the original taste of tea. It's the same reason why you shouldn't put milk into Chinese tea or Japanese tea.
Why don't you trust your taste buds, or you are just another conforming tastelet?

Incomprehensible for you little man, since you have a little brain.

>>11114367
are you trying to understand me? i'm adding milk because I like it with earl grey. not because Lord Farcumbersquatch II did in the 17th century, not because i'm conforming, and not because I think it's classy. it doesn't 'fuck up' the taste of this tea, by adding milk i'm just adding another flavor and altering the texture. Because I am not a tastelet, nor did I drown the tea and add an excessive amount of milk, I can still taste the original flavor of it. why don't you just trust my preferences instead of being pointlessly rude. YOU don't have to add milk, and just because I put it in that earl grey doesn't mean I would put it in Japanese tea, because THEN it would 'fuck up' the flavor. it doesn't with earl grey.

Anyone ever steep tea in boiled milk? Unironically sounds delicious

>>11114442
that's how Indian masala chai is made, but I've never tried using milk to make other kinds of tea. without changing the steps from normal tea making to do that, like is done with masala chai, it would probably hide much of the tea's flavor since milk has much stronger flavor than water. even if it didn't taste great it would work though, as tea is able to steep in any liquid - it just isn't usually done in anything but water, and if milk is added it is done after the tea is brewed. try it out and tell us, it would be easy! sure would piss off some of the sinoweebs in this thread though

>>11114430
>not because Lord Farcumbersquatch II did in the 17th century
>not because I think it's classy
>but he brought all that up when convincing someone to add milk into his tea
and
>it doesn't 'fuck up' the taste of this tea
Yep, conforming tastelet confirmed,

>and just because I put it in that earl grey doesn't mean I would put it in Japanese tea, because THEN it would 'fuck up' the flavor
with double standard too.

The sky is brown with red and blue clouds, for you little man. Enjoy your shitty "tea" drink with milk.

@11114559
please stop littering the thread, Big Man. /tea/ is one of the last safehavens of frendfulness on 4chan, don't ruin it.

>>but he brought all that up when convincing someone to add milk into his tea

no, I didn't. your post @11114175 made it seem like you questioned the origins of adding milk to tea in British tea culture, and i stated where it came from. I'm not trying to convince you of anything else than having an open mind and understanding both the history of tea and people's preferences in modern times.

>>11114632
did not mean to put that image

>>11114632
>your post >>11114175 made it seem like you questioned the origins of adding milk to tea in British tea culture
Sperged out shit he read,
but blames others, like a little child always does

>not trying to convince you of anything else than having an open mind and understanding both the history of tea and people's preferences in modern times
Not owning what he said >>11114014,
>milk is completely fine in most brit teas. this is not arguable
>this is not arguable
>than having an open mind
>and understanding people's preferences
Now it's just hilarious.

At least I say it loud into your little face. You are a little man who has a funny smell, who spergs out history automatically like he's cultural.
You might want to, unironically, kill yourself if you care this "safehaven" so much, since your autism is ruining it little man.

>>11113528
https://www.etsy.com/listing/584674984/handmade-nature-rough-pottery-ware

$48 plus a hefty $20 shipping.

>>11114029
well yeah

>>11115032
new thread because bump limit

>>11115051
wow has a tea thread ever hit bump limit? lets keep it goin senpai