/ck/ - Food & Cooking

I ground up some chinamarket oolong last night and ran it through the tea portafilter. Shows promise. Might have to fuck around with some of the raw BXZ brick.

good morning sirs

I've been using a frother and mug to make matcha. Other than the bad aesthetics of it all, am I missing anything by not using a chawan and meme whisk?

>>17982609
I imagine the froth probably takes on a different consistency, but not much could be different. It does take the soul out of whisking by hand and drinking from a bowl

>>17982131
Is it really strong?

>>17982609
You might as well buy instant matcha at that point.

>>17982609
No its the same, don't worry about all that autism unless you were planning on putting on a kimono and doing a tea ceremony for guests

>>17982101
Does anything go better than sencha and shawarma?

>>17982771
For me its puer and granola bars

This freshly listed xiaguan looks interesting, decent price if the material is any good.
https://kingteamall.com/collections/home-page/products/2022-xiaguan-da-xue-shan-big-snow-mountain-357g-puerh-raw-tea-sheng-cha

>want to drink tea as always
>but also it's hot as balls out there and hot liquids = bad
How do you do it?

>>17982994
Green tea is the summer tea

>>17982995
Nigga it's a 80 C° liquid

>>17982994
Drink hot tea in hot weather, it's amazing
Or i guess get into cold brewing

>>17982998
Yeah that's 20 degrees cooler

sartorial shitsplat

>>17982969
i would buy it if fullchea had it but i don't really want to pay shipping from KTM at the moment.

>>17982122
based chinamarket shopper. try guan yin tea next time, it's fuckin delicious. Or mugwort if you can find a korean spot.

>>17982995
based chi theory believer

>>17983314
Yeah i don't even know how fullchea keeps their shipping so low. Probably some elaborate fraud of some sort.
Just finished off one of these, pretty nice for the money
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/xiaguan-2011-sheng-puer-cake-bulang-old-tree-since-1902-puercha-357g-p0340.html

>>17983331
My local chinamarket has 300g boxes of tgy for $15. But it seems like it's on the green side so i haven't bought one yet. I really wish my market carried sea dyke. I love their heavily roasted stuff theymake.for the SEA market

>>17983406
>Yeah i don't even know how fullchea keeps their shipping so low.
i think they just have lower profit margins. also they may actually buy in bulk and own their own inventory whereas i suspect KTM may be a drop shipper and therefore they pay more for their inventory. fullchea also seems to mostly stock tea that is more in the bang for your buck range instead of more collectible (overpriced) teas. I think fullchea tries to keep the prices down because their niche seems to be sales to countries that are generally less wealthy than the "west".

>>17983582
Yeah they clearly operate on lower volume and higher margins, and i know they also offer to act as a drop shipper for othwr stores. But i believe that KTMs shipping costs are pretty close to market rates, at least when you get up towards a kilo, and i know ive ordered 500g orders from KTM before that cost like $8 in shipping.

>>17983595
*500g orders from fullchea

>>17983595
fullchea definitely factors in/hides some of their shipping costs into their product prices, they just have really low prices in the first place. i still intend to order from KTM at some point (the XG white and black tea cakes interest me) but their is so much tea i want to get that i have not gotten around to it yet. if i feel like paying an arm and a leg for shipping right now i may put in another order with chawangshop because i love the weird stuff he brings in. i really want to get this:
https://www.chawangshop.com/pu-erh-tea/species/deang-sour-tea-tasting-set-20g.html

>>17983958
Man that's really cool.
Yeah shipping sucks now, it's at least 2x as expensive as it was pre batcoof.

Am I stupid for not realising there's a U.S version of Yunnan Sourcing's site? I think that's why I didn't get the free shipping with my 125$ purchase.

Did you know tea isn't washed during processing? Why don't you drink all organic tea?

>>17984075
what happened did you go to the .us site read about the free shipping and then put in an order on the .com site?

>>17984075
They don't make it very clear.
If it makes you feel better the .us site has a much smaller selection and they are / were sold out of quite a bit of this years looseleaf, the prices on the .us website are also higher for everything.

>>17984079
Organic tea is a meme, maybe japans organic standards are actually stringent but anywhere else organic certification is a joke. In the US you can take cow shit from the massive feed lots where cows are loaded up with antibiotics and fed mostly gmo soy and dump it on your fields as fertilizer and your farm qualifies as organic.

>>17984296
Oh. That's good to know. Thank you. All I can do now is wait. It's been almost two weeks and no update on the shipping at all. They say they'll give the USPS/UPS tracking numbers when it all gets stateside, but I doubt that'll happen.

How do I into masala chai? Should I buy the spices individually or are commercial brands good enough? The local indian restaurant makes a really tasty one.

>>17984296
if they have what you want the shipping price is much more reasonable though. I have used the .us site to pick up samples while i was planing a larger .com order before.

>>17984323
>They say they'll give the USPS/UPS tracking numbers when it all gets stateside, but I doubt that'll happen.
if you used the "YS Express" shipping they do that because they ship a bunch of orders at once in a big crate to the USA to reduce the cost a bit and then they split them up and reship them when it gets here. they don't give you a tracking number until they reship it.
see
https://yunnansourcing.com/pages/welcome-to-the-yunnan-sourcing-shipping-page

>>17983958
>chawangshop
anyone got some recommendations

>>17984425
All their fucking wuyi oolongs, also three cranes liubao. Any red tea they have is probably pretty interesting since they only get one or two batches a year.
Im also a big fan of these for the price
https://www.chawangshop.com/pu-erh-tea/raw-sheng-puerh/2006-myanmar-kokang-mei-hua-bing-raw-puerh-tea-100g.html

>>17984448
tell me more about that Myanmar tea, its one of the teas i had my eye on. what's it like? think i should get multiple?

Can anyone recommend good Earl Gray Tea?

Pic related is absolute dog shit.

>>17984396
The timing couldn't have been better. I complained about it, checked my email and got the UPS tracking number today and didn't even know.

>>17984465
It's very smooth and easy on the guts, floral slightly minty maybe. First review is pretty accurate to my experience, and for less than 10¢/g for a tea from 2006 that was reasonably well processed which is pretty rare for border teas especially back then it's a pretty solid buy. Don't buy $80 worth just cause i like it but you would probably do good to buy a couple if that sounds like a tea you would like.
Also cinsider getting some tianjian
Chawang shop has one of the better selections of hei cha, at least untill recently Yunnansourcing has been going pretty hard on it lately
https://www.chawangshop.com/hei-cha/hunan-hei-cha/2013-anhua-jiulongchi-tianjian-1kg-bamboo-basket-100g-sample.html

>>17984474
Something from upton imports if you are in the us. Don't get the extra bergamot version unless you want a ton of flavoring in it

Found out there's an updated ISO 3103:2019 that prescribes slightly shorter steep time for green tea (3-5 min according to leaf size) so I tried it out with one modification, 82C / 180F water temp. It's surprisingly good.

>>17984504
Did the updated standard still say to use boiling water?

>>17984482
thanks for the info. i will definitely get some of the Myanmar sheng.

that tianjian looks really nice. it has bigger and more rustic looking leaves then the factory stuff i have. actually i just drank some Baishaxi tianjian today.

its going to be hard to budget an order as they have so many things that look nice.

>>17984564
Yeah i run into that problem. Get at least one roasted wuyi oolong from him, he has better prices that most for yancha and gets good tea.

>>17984556
Yeah, it's tragic. It warns not to scald the milk, yet no consideration for catechins degrading at high heat. 82C because it was the unanimous conclusion of four papers that I can't link because spam filter.

P.S. I made another cup, this time of oolong, and it's pretty good too.

>>17984652
Yeah the parameters other than temp seem fine
I guess they want boiling because it's an easy to control vs measuring water temp but it's still just nonsensical.

>>17982994
>hot liquids = bad
why?

Just stumbled across the rare and elusive Korean tea. Goddamn is it expensive. Everything is ludicrously overpriced. I will continue to never have tried Korean tea.
https://www.tshopny.com/shop?tag=korean+tea

>>17985743
Yup, the only Korean tea i have found that is somewhat affordable is teabags on ebay. And it seems silly to hunt down rare teas and then buy them in teabags.

>>17985689
tea makes you hot so you sweat more so you cool down
proven by asians and arabs

>>17986175
sounds like a great way to cool down to the same temperature you were at before drinking the tea

>>17984079
I drink all organic tea, actually
>>17984320
The teas I buy are certified using EU organic regulation and not local ones. Auditors check this

>>17986394
>Auditors check this
I'm sure they do

>>17986409
It's a requirement for the certificate so yes they do

>>17985743
>Korean tea
not same anon but i know of a few other sources.
https://teabuykorea.blogspot.com/2022/02/teabuy-korea-2022.html
https://teasunique.com
https://www.hankooktea.com/
a shame that Korean tea is so expensive.

>>17986494
Have you used any of these?

>>17986541
no not yet, i just like window shopping. Korean tea is still a bit to rich for my blood at the moment. I would like to put in an order eventually though.

>>17986656
Thanks, im thinking of adding some to the pastebin with a note that nobody has tried them yet

boy I do love mate
I love my grassy hot water
completely unironic, I just like it

also
>tissanes
how many years will it take for you guys to fix that
it's "tisane"
single s
S

>>17985689
Look at those kangs

>>17986409
>americans think the rest of the world is as shit as them
it's endearing, in a way

>>17986775
Sure enjoy your horse meat hamburgers

>>17986801
I will, I fucking love horse meat
Sucks for you and the bri'sh that will never experience it, we have whole butcheries for the things down here

Sipping on some semi aged Dayi 7572 shu today. I don't drink wet piled tea very often but I am pleasantly enjoying this. Tastes like an old cedar chest someone spilled some dry potting soil and peat moss in. Quite clean tasting by shu standards. I an see why this production considered a benchmark.

what are the rest of you sipping today?

>chink tea finally arrives after a solid 2 months in shipping
>Lost sense of smell/taste due to covid only a few days before
It's always something these days. At least this white tea and puerh won't go bad anytime soon I guess.

>>17986992
I had that issue, it resolved in a few weeks. Try not to sweat it.

>>17986898
Im sipping on some cheap old liu an i got from puershop, its nothing amazing but its smooth and allegedly somewhat aged (2004) got at least some moist stirage at some point. Just a nice smooth slightly soil tasting tea.
Im waiting on a bunch of ripe from yee on tea so im going to be rolling in the real root cellar tasting tea in another 2 months when it gets here from the boat. Looking forward to it.

>>17987011
>old liu an i got from puershop
kek, that liu an is my favorite tea. i really wish i had bought more of it when it was still available. we really don't have much selection of old liuan here in the west. i may buy yeeonteas aged liuan basket at some point but it's like 3 times the price and will probably take years for the aggressive wet storage taste to settle down. the puershop basket had a nice two phase wet then dry storage on it.
>waiting on a bunch of ripe from yee on tea
what did you order from them?

>>17987045
>kek, that liu an is my favorite tea.
I agree that it was an excellent pickup for what was it $40?
>what did you order from them?
Pic related, recommended by other anons that have ordered from them before

>>17987045
Oh purple cloud tea house has some lightly aged liuan baskets that they picked up from chawangshop or the same supplier. They looks pretty good and have a decent price, probably mostly or all dry storage but from another anon that ried them he said they are nice and somewhat chocolaty.
From YOT i have tried the best taste ripe before and it rally had that hk storage taste down pat, but still felt clean and didnt have any off wet storage notes. Moderate to low number of brews before it started to lose steam but fine for the price.

>>17987320
looks nice, I own both the bricks and that cake but i have not had the "best taste" ripe yet. they all seemed good though i have a personal preference for sheng over shu so i am not the best one to ask for shu recommendations.

>>17987333
>purple cloud tea house has some lightly aged liuan baskets
i know but the lightly aged stuff does not taste like the wet stored fully aged stuff. i like them both but the difference between my two baskets is striking. the young stuff is kind of like a brisk spicy black tea where as the well aged stuff takes on a more woody and medicinal flavor profile

>>17988292
>i know but the lightly aged stuff does not taste like the wet stored fully aged stuff.
Yeah im with you on that, im definitely pining for some nice hk storage liuan. Need to reup on liubao too

what do the anons here think of W2T's newest super premium cake? $752 for 200g:
https://white2tea.com/collections/latest-additions/products/2022-must-be
honestly i not sure i trust the price on it, you can get lao ban zhang cakes from trusted upscale Chinese shops for that kind of money. not that i am likely to buy either. its at the price point where you are typically paying extra for the name/location but W2T won't give you any info but their own brand. I don't doubt that it's good tea though.

>>17988379
At least the last time he had a super expensive cake he said most people shouldn't buy it.
There are some real fucking big buds in those cakes.
Anyway as usual he does the annoying not giving out any info shit that he loves to do.
Doesnt matter really im sure he is making them because he thinks he has the customers to buy them. And I'm sure only die hard W2T fans will be buying these cakes.
Nobody should be spending $750 on a 200g cake unless thay make enough where that's their pocket money budget for the week.

>>17982101
What tea is le monke drinking

>>17989006
pg tips had chimps in their ads
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgVruwg_h2Y

>>17989608
full collection
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5em8lQAcvg

I made a fat kuura corp order.
Anyone else have experience with them? I live in NZ so I didn't really want to order from an American store, or British one. I found a shop in NZ that sells cakes, but they're descriptions and variety wasn't very good. https://www.tekkoontea.co.nz/copy-of-green
I haven't tried pu-erh before, so I'm quite excited.
If you know any over good pu-erh shops in AUS/NZ please let me know, but I think I've already had a look at most of them.
Next time I think I'll try out w2t if I ever get though my back catalogue. Kinda annoys me though is that they don't have a rating system, or reviews. Same goes for kuura too, but it's understandable because they're much smaller. I had a look at mei leaf and they've got to be the gold standard for tea website design.

>>17986409
EU is extremely anal about food regulations (sometimes it's good, sometimes detrimental). That's why so many American products, like chicken, are banned here

>>17986394
>EU organic regulation
are also a meme

>>17989728
why buy all this when you can spend just 200 dollars more for a single 200g cake?

>>17990274
That $752 usd cake is $1200 in new zealios tardo.

>>17989728
Kura corp is the only shop making their own puer cakes down on the islands. I have tried to find other shops down there a few times and there isn't much.
That's a fat order i hope you like young raws.
Puer is a big wide world, very big, very wide.
Come post about your experiences.
You owe it to yourself to try something on. The other end of the spectrum at some point.
https://yeeonteaco.com/collections/puerh/products/2001-xiaguan-grade-a-pine-crane-raw-toucha-tea
Old factory raw aged in a wet warehouse in hong kong for 20 years. That particular tuo might be a bit on the pricey side but try something from yee on tea at some point.
I don't recommended buying puer cakes from mei leaf, i cant comment on the quality but his listed info for the terrior and age of tea trees is outright fictitious, he knows it is and he hasn't dine anything about it in years. His descriptions are for teas that would cost at least a few thousand USD per kilo and thats at tea markets in mainland china, not vendors selling to the west, and especially not a vendor located in europe.

How the actual fuck do I cold brew black tea? For me it always turns out weak and usually bitter. Do I absolutely need whole-leaf?

>>17990571
The more broken the leaf, the more bitter and astringent it tends to be

>>17990571
Whole leaf helps a lot.
Instructions for cold brewing are linked in the pastebin

>>17990571
>How the actual fuck do I cold brew black tea? For me it always turns out weak and usually bitter. Do I absolutely need whole-leaf?
Why are you cold brewing anyway? You won't kill any bacteria that way. Boil water, rest it a moment, pour over tea, shock it with ice, refrigerate. Done.
https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/06/did-you-know-iced-tea-safety/

>>17990660
>You won't kill any bacteria that way.
i once left some cold brew in my car during summer and it was bubbling constantly, like homebrew beer at peak yeast activity, also cold brewed tea always gave me stomach pains/cramps

>>17988379
>>17988453
It's a marketing gimmick. Probably pretty good tea though, and he's good at blending.

>>17990607
>>17990643
How much does steep time matter? I usually do about 24 hours, since that fits my schedule, but most people seem to recommend 10-12.

>>17990862
I do from rest to rise overnight so only 8 hours or so, with just a few more leaves then is standard for hot brewing

>>17990862
I think 6-12 hours is probably preferable to 24, especially with finer more broken up leaves. The longer it brews the more likely it is to pick up excessive bitterness or tannins.

>>17989728
>Anyone else have experience with them?
no but i have never heard anything bad about them. at worst they may be somewhat overpriced. post some tasting notes on the tea when you get it, we would love to hear about it.
>If you know any over good pu-erh shops in AUS/NZ
not many that i am aware of. https://www.teaangle.com/ exists and looks passable but i have never herd of anyone ordering from them. ordering from china is really necessary in order to get the best selection regardless of where you live.
>I haven't tried pu-erh before, so I'm quite excited.
get a gaiwan and look up gongfu brewing if you don't do it already. young sheng in particular really benefits from it.
>mei leaf
lies about tree age and location, makes dubious health claims, overpriced, but i have heard their tea is actually good at least.
>rating system
elaborate notes from vendors is not really as necessary as it seems as first. tasting is somewhat subjective and if they list too many tasting notes you probably wont taste half of them anyways or you will disagree with some of them. I really only expect vendors to give a good rough but accurate idea on how a tea will taste. if make your own tasting notes you will learn what to expect over time.

>>17990571
what kind of tea are you using? what tea/water ratio? how long are you steeping?

>>17990660
cold brewing is fine if you use good hygiene and don't leave the tea sitting for weeks and weeks. a short hot steep is unlikely to fully sanitize the tea anyways. also iced tea does not taste the same as cold brew. cold brew is perfectly fine and safe. i am willing to bet the original memo was really more concerned about people making sun tea, adding tons of sugar, leaving it out for days, and never properly cleaning the brewing container.

got my verdant tea order today. I love how fast they ship. thanks again to the anon who gave out the coupon.

>>17990937
>get a gaiwan
I'm very well equipped, I already have one along side a kyusu, and a whole collection of western teapots.
Thanks for the caution about mei leaf.
>>17990521
Thanks for the caution about mei leaf.
I'll bookmark that link.
When my tea arrives I'll definitely come back again and post about it. (expecting in under 2 weeks hopefully)

>>17982131
Whoa.... How strong is it bro? Does it punch you in the face.

I just broke my gaiwan again. Do they make plastic ones because I'm just annoyed.

>>17992153
Yea they do, should be able to find plastic gaiwans on aliexpress at least.
This is why i tell everyone to buy $10 white ceramic gaiwans, preferably 2 or 3 at a time.

>titanium gaiwan
What the fuck? Doesn't titanium leech into shit?
Also based engrish.

>>17992244
>Doesn't titanium leech into shit?
No, meme lightweight campers use titanium everything, pots bowls water bottle etc.
>should i actually use one
I would be afraid that it would be too efficient in conducting heat and the rim would get too hot to hold but maybe im wrong

drinking tea on hard mode

>>17992279
Imagne the clays effect on the aroma

>>17992244
They were definitely going for a camping aesthetic

I added sugar to my tea. Wow, it tastes so good. Why don't more people do this?

>>17992509

>>17992509
Next try honey

>>17990862
With whole leaf I reach optimum flavor at 48h (5 g/L)

I want to try white tea so bad bros. Have I been missing out?

>>17993805
What’s stopping you? Get some bai my dan or some silver needle

>>17981431
well, it actually does look like that
and there's 1.3kg instead of 1kg, which is even better for the price
I'm not really sure how to brew such large leaves so I just put some more than usual and waited until I liked the color
it has the typical Ceylon taste, but it's more bland and sweeter than what I'm used to
kinda reminds me of Lipton tea bags

>>17994757
Wow that's a big sack of cheap tea. Leaves look surprisingly whole for cheap tea too.
Im guessing you don't have a scale to weigh out how much tea to brew? Use an overflowing spoonfull and see how that goes. You might even need more than that since the leaves are so big they arent very dense.

I've only ever had old shengs. How do young ones taste? Like green tea, but spicier?

>>17990571
Update: I didn't have any whole-leaf black tea yesterday, but I put some sencha in the fridge, filtered it ten hours later in the morning, then drank it now, after work. It turned a bit weak, but much better than anything I've tried before.

>>17994847
>I've only ever had old shengs. How do young ones taste? Like green tea, but spicier?
It varies a lot, the ones with more traditional big factory style processing can be a bit rough. The ones from really bitter varietals can really make your mouth pucker. More and more frequently shengs are processed to be drank young and those tend to be very delicate and fruity. I mostly drink old shengs but whenever i have young ones i usually enjoy it, but i have a weak constitution and they can be kind of rough on the guts, so i have to stick to drinking them on a full stomach

>Certain earthenware jars can give tea the taste of petrichor - the smell of rain hitting dry earth
What jars do this? Is there any tea that would benefit from doing this?

>>17982771
The best pairing that I found so far is Bai Mudan with just a simple cheese sandwich, just white bread and a mild cheese like Emmentaler, non toasted.
It's the nutty note in both that makes it work.

I just got my first loose leaf tea ever. Is that yellow looking dust in the bag normal and supposed to be there?

>>17995666
Sounds like it's just broken leaf/tea dust, which would be normal. Do you have pics?

>>17995728
I'm probably just ignorant to it all for now.

>>17995810
yeah its fine, just dust from friction

>>17982131
Something I've never got with tea, is "super strong" referring to the taste or caffeine content?
I've never noticed it to be significant when I tried one

>>17995832
Thank you. That's the High Mountain Red Ai Lao black. It's literally my first taste of loose leaf ever. It made me realize just how bad my tap water is. Lol.

>>17995810
Could also be some bud or leaf hairs falling off, if it bothers you for some reason you can do a quick rinse and most of it should be gone

>>17986808
You can buy horse meat here in bongland, my local butcher sells it

The horse meat scandal was because it was unknown meat in food and therefore could have been anything, rather than it specifically being horse. I might go get a horse steak actually, it's been a while since I've had a steak frites

>>17995838
the tase, takes a while for caffein to have any effect and tea has less than coffee
>>17995849
it might also be the small hairs that grow on the buds and leaf, pic related also from High Mountain Red Ai Lao

>>17995849
looks like tea hairs to me. tea leaves especially the buds have hair. for black tea those hairs generally look golden. its typical for some to fall off in the bag or to wash off as you brew it. see picrel for some pretty black tea.

>>17995890
That fuzz is very accurate. It being my first taste of the real stuff, I can't judge on how it is. I did the rinse off and all. I might have to go over the pastebin again to catch up on anything I might have missed.

>>17995956
i never bother rinsing and with hairy teas i try to remember not to filter at all

>>17995956
Pastebin author here, The pastebin is retarded (sometimes), brew like 3-4 grams in a mug for 3-4 minutes with boiling water if you are brewing western style. If brewing gongfu the pastebin is a good reference.

>>17995963
Does that make much of a difference?

>>17995996
Good to know. I was going to get a teapot just for Western style. I don't have a scale for now, so I'm eyeballing my leaves and using the same amount that I'm seeing people use in videos.

I've been trying teas grandpa style. Chinese greens and whites are good. Black is okay. Japanese greens are too thin. Oolong is not very good since you lose most of the subtle flavors. I'm not brave enough to try a puer yet.

>>17996181
If you can find a cheap 2 cup size teapot with a mesh basket inside you can get one of those. If you just want to keep it simple and brew one mug at a time you can get a finum brew basket for around $10 and then just use that in your mug.
If you want to do it neet style just brew in a glass measuring cup with the leaves tossed right in and then strain through a regular mesh kitchen strainer into your mug.

>>17996181
>Does that make much of a difference?
nta but I think it can make a difference, depends on the tea, many people like the texture that those hairs give you.
The best thing imo is to just try it out. Some people find all the different details of brewing autistic and I think you should not stress yourself but experimenting is always fun for me.

>>17996207
When i grampa brew greener oolongs i usually use 80°c water instead of full boiling.
Grampa works great for ripe puer and decent for aged raws, young raws sometimes work, but sometimes make a real bitter brew.

>>17995849
Said it once, I'm saying it again. My tap water is horrible for tea. I tried three leaves over the past few hours and they all tasted the same because of my water. A ripe puerh, that Red Ai Lao and a bud one. I guess I'm going to have to either do gallons of spring water from Walmart or get a filter.

>>17995849
>>17996582
I'm thinking about spending an embarassing amount of water on a water purification system. I might try and do RO + a recipe, or I might just filter, I dunno.

My tap water is pretty much equally bad though, it's just gross.

>>17995838
'Strong' seems to be commonly used to describe earthy flavors and red/brown color. To the point tippy teas with more caffeine may be describes as weak if it smells floral or fruity.

>he doesn't have a mountain stream in his back yard
It's like you want to have low cha chi

>>17996623
I'd do it if I could afford it. My tap water is hard and from a well. After the storm here, it'll only get worse. I have distilled water and I'll try it tomorrow. I just hope all my teas don't taste the same and I'm just doing it all wrong for now and using bad water.

>>17996642
Distilled isn't going to be very good. If you have distilled water, blend it around 9:1 with a mineral water. I think Fiji was one of the one's mentioned in a chart I no longer have. You can probably use something comparable though. You need some minerals to get a proper flavor profile.

Everyone I know who's tried Porto Rico's coffee swears by it, but how is their tea? Their selection is pretty big

>>17984474
Not English Tea Store's is the only advice I have, the meme flavor earl greys they sell taste nothing like earl grey, or tea in general, should, but their regular varieties are only somewhat better

>>17996582
Spring water works. I had pretty good luck with the pur brand filters with a few caveats, get the big filter thing with the tap on the side instead of the small filter pitcher. Keep it filled with water so the top compartment is never empty. If the top stays empty for too long the filter can dry out and get really slow, then you have to pull it out and submerge it in water for a few minutes to get it going again. But at least for my water that system was enough to get pretty good tasting tea.

>>17996623
if you just need to filter the water/remove chemicals and but not significantly reduce hardness this is what i use and can recommend:
filter:
https://www.geapplianceparts.com/store/parts/spec/FXUVC
https://products.geappliances.com/MarketingObjectRetrieval/Dispatcher?RequestType=PDF&Name=49-50330.PDF
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002HMUZO

filter holder:
https://www.geapplianceparts.com/store/parts/spec/GX1S01R
https://products.geappliances.com/MarketingObjectRetrieval/Dispatcher?RequestType=PDF&Name=49-50247-1.pdf
https://www.amazon.com/GE-GX1S01R-Drinking-Filtration-System/dp/B00HTNMSIS

+plus you will need a faucet fixture, soft tubing, connectors, food grade silicone grease for the o ring, and necessary tools
be sure to get the special wrench or you will have a hard time getting it all the way screwed in:
https://www.geapplianceparts.com/store/parts/spec/UCWRNCH
https://www.amazon.com/GE-Removal-At-Home-Filtration-Compatible/dp/B0026T6LJM
it needs to be tight or it will leak.

if you DIY it you should be able to get the whole thing together for less than $200.
you can get better systems than this but this one works well for the price and the filters are only $40 every 6 months.

browsing chawangshop lags so much i almost feels like dial up. they should get a better web host.

Mildly interesting confirmation of common knowledge.
>At 90C degrees, the catechins that start with E degrade into the four that don't
>5g tea / 100ml water achieves 85% the efficiency as 2g / 100ml
>broken leaf doesn't matter very much unless it's smaller than 2mm pieces
>hard water totally kills the antioxidant power of green tea

>>17992279
I have a clay gaiwan and shit, easily the least used of my teaware because the fucker puts out too much volume for me, about 150ml. It works though. I'm using it as my shou puerh segregation vessel and it brews it up pretty nice.

>>17997149
Ive never seen a website that was so slow before. It's a bit better on desktop for some reason.

>>17992253
>too efficient in conducting heat
of all the metals you could make a cup out of
titanium has the lowest heat conductivity

Does anyone know of a website for a wide range of japanese teacups? The pastebin ones mostly focus on teapots and they dont have what im looking for, also the isobe shop link dosent work.

Opinions on Rishi teas?

>>17997342
I was right to dissolve hydrochloric acid in my water before brewing.

>>17998190
There are a few etsy stores selling vintage Japanese teacups for half decent prices, you can poke around on there. There is also a ton of handmade stuff from people on their made in Japanese styles.
I can't really think of any shops off the top of my head that have a good selection of cups. Sometimes ebay has some decent stuff.

>>17998304
Meh

Does normal Slav buckwheat make decent sobacha?

I'm 100% making my tea wrong. A few have that fishy taste and I'm nowhere near getting my grams and water temperature right. I hate that I'm wasting my leaves on experimenting and having four different kinds come out tasting the same.

>>17999208
Just slow down, relax and don't stress about it anon. The important thing is enjoying tea, not having some mythical optimal tea enjoyment. People were eyeballing how much tea they brewed up untill 20 years ago and it worked out fine.

>>17999208
buy a cheap digital scale of amazon like everyone else. if your kettle doesn't have temp settings either buy one that does(in the future) or stay way from greens and bud white teas, everything else can handle boiling. also as >>17999285 said, relax, dont try to min max tea like its pour over coffee. what 4 different kinds were you trying?

>>17999432
They're all from Yunnan Sourcing. Menghai "every day drinker" ripe puerh, High mountain Red Ai Lao, Honey aroma golden needle and pure bud Bi Luo Chun.
I got some spring water and that made a difference. I was being too autismo about it at first and you're right about needing to relax.

>>17996839
anyone else here use a water purifier setup?

>ordered some "big red robe" online
>about 16$ for 250g
what i'm in for?
i know nothing about tea and i bought it because it's cheap

>>17999525
Nah just cleansui filters which filter a bunch better than just the charcoal ones
cleansui-usa.com/technology

>>17999542
That picture what you ordered? Probably a wuyi star knockoff. Or maybe you got lucky and found a seller with actually reasonable prices for wuyi star.
Anyway wuyi star is a brand a bit upmarket from the likes of sea dyke, mostly made for the Chinese domestic market and their tastes, so the roasts on their yancha tend to be much more mild than traditional yancha roasts. The tea ive had from them before was good quality. Those big bulk bags are one of the cheapest things they make so i would expect broken leaves and slightly above seadyke quality with a fairly mild but pleasant to drink tea. Where did you get it? If it's legit i would love to buy their tea at those prices.

>>17999573
Im guessing around $15 would be the actual price on the Chinese domestic market so if you ordered from somewhere like taobao the price seems about right. The vendors that sell it to the west usually change a 100% markup + shipping

>>17999432
Can also buy a thermometer you can dip into the water to check the temperature. That way you don't have to replace or fix a fully functional kettle, that can last 10 years easily, just because the thermometer broke.

>>17999920
too much autism for me, i've had more kettles just flat out die before the temperature setting does, last kettle lasted only 1 year before it started leaking ffs

>>17999542
where did you get it from? how much was the shipping.

>>17999573
>Wuyi Star Classic Old Flavor Big Red Robe
> CHINA GRANDNESS TEAHOUSE
> $39.99 free shipping

even that is not too bad of a price for 250g of yancha if its even remotely decent. way cheaper than most of the stuff sold here in the west. they have a pretty good selection of stuff, i may have to put in a GRANDNESS tea order at some point.

Does any1 else get a little rowdy after a couple of cups? I swear puer puts me at odds with my partner, trying to start shit. It's like she's asking for it, walking around with no shoes, like I'm not going to cane those babies

>>18000222
I have ordered from grandness in the past, they have a standalone website too, they were fine when i used them.
https://m.grandnesstea.com/

>>18000257
The links between puer and intimate parter violence in the lesbian community are well documented.
That's why we user of /tea/ try to raise awareness of the power of puer when we can.

>>18000333
i know, i should have been more clear i was pointing it out to imply trustworthiness. as far as i have heard grandnesstea is reliable and they have been around for awhile so presumably they are ok.

drank some nice fu brick today

>Haven't had supplementary L-theanine in months; sessions aren't the same, not as relaxing and centering.
>Just received 1kg by post, take a few scoops sublingually for ~5 minutes.
>Pre-heat my vessels and follow a full gong fu process.
>Infuse some nice gentle Bada white tea, turn on mini desk fan, sip a few infusions.
>Feels like a slow wave of mild 'ease' slowly bundling up in my brain as I embrace the 'calm', and become more present.
I think we all develop our own tea habits and rituals after a while. Feels nice to come back to one of mine. How do you anons like to personalize your tea infusion experience?
>Pic related, my comfy infusion made just before this post.
>>18001108
Nice, what brick did you infuse from? What were your particular thoughts on it? I've continued to develop an appreciation for hei cha after drinking more of my liu bao from Chawangshop.

>>18001133
>Just received 1kg by post,
what did you get?

>>18001133
>Nice, what brick did you infuse from?
this production but i think mine is from 2012.
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/anhua-baishaxi-2013-yr-classic-1953-fucha-dark-tea-yu-pin-fu-tea-brick-tea-royal-fucha-318g-p0397.html
>What were your particular thoughts on it?
i didn't take detailed tasting notes today but i would say that overall it has got a robust, sweet, and smokey taste to it.

>>18001187
>what did you get?
Not new tea, to clarify. 2x500g bags of "FIT Powders" brand L-theanine powder. Poured off into a tiny 100g capacity plastic tub for easy consumption before/after sessions. Tea of course has L-theanine in it already, but I like a nice high dose of it in addition to my sessions. Makes it more relaxing and therapeutic for me.
>Anhua baishaxi
Nice pick, 10y sounds pretty decent. Not sure if I've had comparable black label, but my plain label 2010 brick has a somewhat mineral "tobacco lounge" quality to it. Think I have some already broken off in a sealed bag, might sip it later or tomorrow.

>>18001108
Is fu brick a beating tea or is more mellow?

>>18001187
Man those teapot and cups are really cute

>>18001467
Fu brick is pretty mellow and easy to drink

Decent shot of my 2003 liuan basket tea from puershop. Pic related came out in one big clumb so it gives you are pretty good idea of how the tea looked when they were putting in in the baskets.

Has anyone here bought from bitterleaf teas before? They sell lots of decent looking 100g young sheng cakes so im unsure to buy from them or farmerleaf for my next sheng order.

>>18002422
I haven't ordered from bitterleaf but they have been around for a quite a while now and seem to have a decent reputation. Their mansa cakes i think they used to be called WMD have a reputation for getting people tea drunk and they have cute teaware

>>18002410
Brewing up really nice today, smooth sweet and mellow with a nice lasting sweetness. The first few brews off the top of the basket were pretty stemmy but as i get down into the basket a bit the material gets a little nicer.
To any anons that have liuan baskets, donyou brew pieces of the bamboo leaf with the tea? Im not sure what i think of the tea that way.

>>17999920
Everyone tells you that tea brewing should be about feel but I never made good tea before I got the right tools. I use a scale, a temprature controlled kettle (but used a meat thermometer at first like you suggest) and I time the brews with my computer clock. I would really recommend not just using feel, especially at first.

Anyone else ever drink the same tea over and over several times a day because you dislike it, so it's been sitting around a while, and you just want to use it up to clean up some space?

Usikg upp the last of my first smoky puer cake to fight off this cold, simplifying the brewing process by putting the leaves straight into my cha hai.

>>18002702
And drinking out of the gaiwan, nice
Serious puer drinking going on there

I was posting about grandness tea the other day.
I remembered there was one caveat with them. They have some obviously fake old puer
If pic related was authentic it would be $200+
Same with the other cakes i see labeled 1999 and 2000
The newer cakes all seem fine but that's the reason i don't usually reccomend grandness to everyone (and why it's not in the pastebin)

>>18002679
Yeah, I do this. Even though I have nicer leaf I favor a lot, there is some low grade stuff I've held onto to avoid being wasteful. My further aim is to clear up my less desirable stuff so the overall quality of my stash goes up. Then I can focus on buying better material down the line (kind of want to try Taobao sometime). I might just start cold-infusing them to get through it all, since the weather has been hot anyway.

>>18002513
>you brew pieces of the bamboo leaf with the tea?
not yet, but i have been saving all the bamboo leaf in case i want to use it. i have been meaning to try including some.
>Im not sure what i think of the tea that way.
whats it like?

>>18002604
>I would really recommend not just using feel, especially at first.
that's probably not bad advice so long as the noob doesn't obsess over detail so much it affects their enjoyment. i think the biggest thing people stop doing as they get more experienced is using exact preset brew times for gong fu. timing is important but improvising and adjusting based on taste will work as well or better than preset algorithms and is a lot less annoying to do. that said i do regularly use a scale, temperature controlled kettle, and keep a timer on hand for when i need it.

>>18002679
>you just want to use it up to clean up some space?
i rotate though my teas so as not to use up all my favorites and for the sake of variety but i don't generally have stuff i feel the need to get rid of. i like most of my tea and if i run out of space just i will make more. the one exception i suppose would be green tea where i want to use it up when it is fresh.

>>18002712
>I remembered there was one caveat with them. They have some obviously fake old puer
i totally forgot as well. i swear we have had this conversation before.

>>18002966
Damn look at those mellons

>>18003570
i can only imagine they were pressed so big to look pretty at tea shops and trade shows before they get broken up. doubt just about anyone bough a whole one.

>>18003666
Yeah they probably got broken up and sold as looseleaf or clumps.
Chinese collectors seem to hate anything that isint standard cake / tong size since everything with irregular sizes and shapes seems to be cheaper than market rates, other than tohe meme 7,000g cakes for some reason those tend to be expensive.

>>17987320
had some of that jiang cheng raw brick today. very tasty.

https://mudandleaves.com/collections/new-arrivals/products/tianqingni-xiangyu-yixing-teapot-%E5%A4%A9%E9%9D%92%E6%B3%A5%E9%A6%99%E7%8E%89%E5%A3%B6-120ml
Mud and Leaves just re-released their most practical shape in their highest quality clay in case anyone felt like spending a lot of money.

>>18004524
Awesome, I'm exited for it to come in.
>>18004786
Good pot

>>18004786
So what's the deal with this clay? I read their blog post about it but its more about how its rare and prized than about what it's supposed to do to the tea. Is it more of a thing for somone that is collecting clay pots or is there supposed to be some noticeable advantage over some of the cheaper clays they use?

Anyone know of any good Japanese tea/teaware sites to take advantage of the USD/JPY exchange rate right now?

>>18005266
It's a rare, historically interesting form of zini that apparently develops an unusual jade colored patina with long-term use. I don't think it does anything different to the tea itself when compared to normal zini.

>>17990937
>tea angle
i lived down the street from them at one point, bought some dancong oolong and it was of incredible quality, tasted like champagne!
>>17989728
man that's a dumb amount of money to spend without buying from him before; dude offers 25g samplers of everything
i like the teas, currently have about half a cake left of both lovebeamcake and electroflowercandy; both great examples of yunan white teas. i thought both of these outperformed "i can't believe it's not honey" and "polycrystal", especially for 1/2 the price
i haven't tried metamaterial yet, desu i haven't bought any chinese teas in a year.
been all about japanese sencha & gyokuro for me this year. it's really where my heart lies

>>18004786
>https://mudandleaves.com/collections/new-arrivals/products/tianqingni-xiangyu-yixing-teapot-%E5%A4%A9%E9%9D%92%E6%B3%A5%E9%A6%99%E7%8E%89%E5%A3%B6-120ml
i've been wanting to buy a yixing teapot for some time, might take the plunge on this
any recommendations for teas to buy from mud and leaves at the same time?

>>18006022
Im not an expert on oolongs but it seems they are into the high mountain taiwan stuff.
If i was ordering i would treat myself to a few puer samples. https://mudandleaves.com/collections/puer-tea-1/products/chen-sheng-hao-puer-sample-pack-50g-total
And
https://mudandleaves.com/collections/puer-tea-1/products/2003-zhongcha-cnnp-8538-raw-puer-tea-cake-2003年中茶
Or if you prefer young raw
This sample set
https://mudandleaves.com/collections/puer-tea-1/products/2020-spring-ancient-raw-puer-tea-by-azure-spring-of-taiwan-sample-pack-of-3-varieties-75g-total
Or if you dig white tea this might be fun
https://mudandleaves.com/collections/white-tea/products/fuding-white-tea-sample-pack-100g-total
I probably wouldn't buy any full cakes or larger quantitys of tea from them. They seem to have nice stuff but its on the expensive side

>>18005448
thanks for the heads up. here are some good vendors that sell in yen.
https://yunomi.life/
https://www.yuuki-cha.com/
https://www.sazentea.com/en/

Is a standard stovetop kettle going to keep my water hot enough for ripe puerh if I just keep it on the table after the initial boil? All the electric kettles at my Walmart are either too costly or just a hunk of plastic.

>>18006929
You will have to reheat it eventually but it will stay hot enough for a good 20 minutes or so.
If you can wait for shipping i use this kettle, all stainless steel on the inside and not expensive ($32)
https://www.amazon.com/Secura-Electric-Stainless-Protection-K15-F1E/dp/B087BRBX4Q/

>>18006940
That's a really nice one. It being BPA free is a deal breaker. The cheapest one at Walmart was full plastic and not BPA free. I'll get that one when I can. I'll be using my standard kettle for now. It's at least nice looking and makes me feel like I'm serving guest.

Chinese green tea is much better grampa style than gongfu.

>>18007933
Based
You must understand that the chine drink tea in the laziest ways possible when they arent trying to impress somone. Emulate that laziness.

>>18007933
I don't use grandpa style but I like playing around with the rations for green tea. Gongfu is very concentrated, I often like my green teas a bit lighter.

Going to post my chocolate anise tea recipe here

-six pods star anise (make sure the chunks add up but you can just eyeball it)
-1 tsp cinnamon
-1 and a half tsp cocoa powder
-1 tsp cloves
-2 cups water
-1/4th cup milk
-1 teaspoon honey to taste
-a dash of salt to taste. LESS IS MORE. or don't. whatever.

add water, star anise, cloves, cinnamon, cocoa powder, and honey to saucepan.

boil for ten minutes. remove from heat.

add milk.

done.

>>18008055
What about the black tea?

>>18008084
it's a herbal tea. you could add some black tea if you wanted, though. Never tried it that way.

>>18008088
Huh interesting its somewhat close to a andian spiced tea recipie except without the tea. Sounds nice either way, thanks anon

Why does tea sometimes have a fish-like taste when you eat something together with the tea? Talking about regular black tea.

Why is lipton ice tea so dark? What kind of tea is the tea extract in it made from?

>>18009216
>Why is lipton ice tea so dark? What kind of tea is the tea extract in it made from?
It's made mostly from african grown black tea. I don't know how they make the extract but i wouldn't be surprised if they just boiled big vats of tea.
>Why does tea sometimes have a fish-like taste when you eat something together with the tea?
Good question it shouldn't

it's kinda weird how zoomers only know sencha as the name of a place at a mall food court where they pay to be told a milkshake is just a tea

anyone grow their own plants?

>>18009216
For me Lipton has this powerful yard debris flavor. I never really related it to fish. Depending on if you mean rotten fish (ammonia smell) or fresh, a fish's flavor can come from lots of aldehydes that are described as grassy, green, leafy.
https://cosylab.iiitd.edu.in/flavordb/entity_details?id=151
Scroll to bottom, look for names ending in -al

It's so dark for several reasons:
1. Fast CTC processing doesn't make bright orange colored tea, just due to chemical reaction rates.
2. It's made of assamica variety tea plants that have really high polyphenol content, which is what makes the color
3. When tea is chilled the amino acids precipitate, forming something called tea cream. It can be prevented by adding more acid, which is why the bottled ready-to-drink stuff has citric and phosphoric acid.

>wuyi rougui tea
>tastes like ashtray
i don't actually hate it but have i done something wrong?

>>18009405
I have one, it still hasn't decided if it wants to live over the winters or not.
If you are in the usa check out this nursery for tea plants for drinking
https://camforest.com/collections/tea-camellias

>>18009455
Do you know how long it's been since it was roasted? some of it benefits from sitting for a few years before drinking, but i wouldn't stress that too much.
Also use a lot of tea with super short infusions. 8-10g in a 100ml gaiwan max 10 second infusions at least for the first 5-6 brews, maybe longer after that.
Some of it does get dangerously close to a sort of burnt taste but what you are looking for in rougui are some vague hints of cinnamon like flavor along with deep complex mineral aspects and charcoal roast notes.
God i love wuyi oolong.

>>18009514
>cinnamon
i can taste it but it's predominantly smoky
guess i'll leave it on the shelf for a while

>>17984474
Twinings DARK Early Grey is pretty good. I think it's their number 4. I don't know if they sell it outside of Bongland though

>>18006016
>samples
Yeah, it was pretty dumb I admit.
Here's my 2 am impulse buy reasoning. I kinda wanted the artwork too, and if I got samples then I would need to place a second order, which would cost more in shipping and take longer.
It was also cheaper per gram to buy the full cakes, but if I don't like one of the teas I would be down more then a sample, but worst case scenario I can just give some of the tea away as a present or sell them locally, but I was pretty sure that I would enjoy them, because of their reputation.

>>18009617
Just grab a big plastic food storage tub and a few boveda 55% humidity packs and you can store puer indefinitely. But you should be fine, i think most of their tea is targeted towards being able to drink young. So you shouldn't get any insane bitter bombs that need to spend a decade in a damp warehouse before they are ready to drink. I would expect bright seet fruity teas that are easy to brew. Just make sure you don't drink young green puer on a totally empty stomach, have it with some crakers or a cake or something. Whatever the fuck you call cookies down there. On a totally empty stomach it can give some people a bit of nausea, but with food it's no problem

>>18009660
All of our cookies here are made with cannabutter. I was looking at some bovedas because I think my climate is probably too humid at an average of 80%. Is 55% the best for teas?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNDIbBpxoBA

>>18009720
>80% average humidity
what the fuck

>>18009737
https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/new-zealand/auckland

>>18009660
You still in the thread? The lowest I can find are 58% bovedas.

This is a good short little book with nice photos of tea. Dense with info, zero anecdotes or narrative to pad it out. I flipped through it in around an hour last night.
https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=5BC168AFCC60BBF3149DD02AF7C18ED5

Oriental beauty; incredibly tasty, beautiful in smell and color as well

My lapsang souchong contained the hair of a beautiful young maiden, i hope she is kind~

PooBong - Adventurous, Cloud - Kissed, Serene World of Tea Plantation

Poobong the word means ‘A valley behind clouds’ is enigmatically named as this area is shielded in the mist of clouds floating adding more beauty to the lush green tea garden of Poobong and provides a sense of ecstasy to the tourists.

>>18009720
With that humidity you could probably just store it open in a closet or something as long as theres no smell and no sunlight, just check for mold every now and then and buy a hygrometer, try to stay under 75% but it shouldn't matter that much short term if no mold

>>18009816
not same anon but i use larger sized 65% boveda packs.
https://www.amazon.com/Boveda-2-Way-Humidity-Control-Humidification/dp/B077KVC1VY
58% or 62% are fine too, they will age the tea slower but are of less risk of hitting the dew point and getting mold. there is lao some debate as to weather or not white tea cakes benefit from added humidity or not. if you have other questions ask and someone should answer you. i just don't have time to write a complete summery of the topic right this second.

Is there a reason for the unpopularity of yellow tea? I havent tried it personally but it cant be that uninteresting right?

>>18009720
>I think my climate is probably too humid at an average of 80%.
Sorry for the late reply
80% is actually fine, store the teas on a shef with good airflow, away from strong smells and out of direct sunlight, you don't need to put the tea in a container unless your humidity drops below 50% for multiple months of the year.
The southern Chinese sure as fuck dont store their teas in all these elaborate storage devices, they just put it on a shelf in their living room.

>>18010073
Oriental beauty is one of my favorite taiwan oolongs, i don't love the really green ones but this hits just right

>>18010215
Congratulations anon! time to start your journey to whatever part of china they make lapsang in to claim your new wife

>>18011625
Its kind of a weird concept in tea.
The major issues are, the good yellow tea is made in very small amouts and its very expensive $1 per gram and up frequently $3 per gram.
It needs so be very fresh so it's hard to find a way to get it reliably fresh without living in china.
The cheaper stuff that is sold as yellow tea isint very good a lot of the time.
If it's your dream to drink some don't let ne stop you but its kind of a hassle.
I think seven cups in the US stocks some decent quality yellow tea for a few weeks every year.

>>17982101
>This thread is for: Tea, "tisanes", other herbal infusions
>Always has nothing but the same boring moldy tea from China
Glad you got kicked out of /ctg/
Here's my herbal infusion. I took some flowers from my garden, dried and crushed them, extracted some of the flavor in grain alcohol, and aged it 3 months in the pantry.

>>18012038
Wow, that's really viscous anon!

>>18012038
Looks okay for that technique. That dark chlorophyll sludge isint all that great tasting most of the time. Look into making floral concretes.
Or change your technique a bit to yeild a claner extraction.
Pick flowers, dry whole, as soon as they are dty freeze them, put your bottle of grain alcohol in the freezer as well. After 24 hours in the freezer place the whole flowers in a 1/2 gallon mason jar. Dump in enough cold alcohol to just cover the flowers. Cover the jar, shake once or twice, and wait 90 seconds, pour off the jar through a mesh strainer into a second jar. Optionally filter the strained liquid through a coffe filter to remove any plant material that made it through.
Boom a bright golden color with vivid floral flavor and no chlorophyll. You can save the washed flowers to dry and do a more dirty extraction with afterwards.

Are there any temperature-controlled gooseneck kettles in the 1800-2400 watt range? I feel a need for speed.

>>18012656
Ony if you live somewhere with 220v or are willing to pay an electricians to put a 220v outlet in your kitchen and import a kettle from Europe.

>>18012715
I live in Europe, but I can only find fancy kettles made for american voltage.

>>18012731
Ohh interesting, you might just get shafted because Europe is such a small market.
Can you find ones that meet your requirements but arent gooseneck? If so go for those.
Or go hard and get one of these for the memes
https://www.220-electronics.com/sanyo-kettle-xl-size-4-2-liter-stainless-steel-ktl-9nc-el.html

>>18006787
besides the dollar to yen ratio being really favorable right now ($1 to ¥136.48) yunomi life is doing a sale right now.
https://yunomi.life/
2000 yen off your purchase above 10,000 yen
Discount code: NEWS2022
Conditions: Retail orders only, 1 use per customer.
Only valid until June 30, 2022, Tokyo time
Use the discount code at checkout.
if you were looking put in a big order of Japanese tea this is a pretty good deal. if i hadn't just exhausted my tea budget i would probably put in an order myself. you may want to check whether using your credit card or paypal will give you a better currency conversion rate (and be sure to shop in yen).

unless they changed it they also give you a coupon for a free tea sample if you sign up to there newsletter (that's how i got on it) but i doubt both deals can be combined in the same order.

>>18013583
Nice, thanks for sharing anon

Any good herbal teas that don't smell like overly sweet shit? I got this herbal tisane packet from Upton Tea and it tastes ok but it smells like some God awful overly sweet shit. I almost gagged when I opened the sample pack.

>>18013754
Try the stuff from https://mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/teas/herbal
I think only one or two of their herbal teas have any flavoring added to them, the rest are just herbs and sometimes some berries or something. I have had a few before and they are usually pretty nice. Just don't buy actual tea plant tea from them, it's often kind of medicore.

>>18013825
I'll try the tumeric ginger I guess. Looks sick and I like ginger. Thanks.

>>18013964
Cheers anon, come post about it when you get it

that chicken is ovulating, i can smell it

>>18015967
>The tea is also cursed...

>>18014074
I got some Roobois too since I never had it.

>>18015967
My vapire tea is still on a boat, only two more months till it arrives

>>18015978
kek

شاي حلو :)

>>18016297
Nice cup, whats in it?

Trying some liu an wirh the bamboo, i don't know if it's making any difference, maybe i need to use more

>yunnan order stuck in limbo for officially over a month now
I almost went for ePacket shipping, I can't even imagine when that would arrive

Going to the grocery store tomorrow? What tea should I buy if I hate drinking tea without sugar but want to drink tea without sugar

>>18017629
rooibos or white tea

>>18017200

>>18017646
But it's the economical choice! Two to infinity weeks!

>>18017635
okay

>>18017048
i just had some younger liu an with some of the bamboo leaf and i am also not sure what difference it makes. I would probably need to do a back to back tasting in order to tell the difference.

>>18017629

Lapsang Souchong or Russian Caravan

>>18017685
That anon is right. I can't even drink rooibos because it's too sweet for me.

>>18017844
It is really damn sweet, i was surprised the first time i made some

Kinda new to tea, have a few black teas and some ripe puer cakes, but wanted more variety. Doing an order from yunnan sourcing US, any ones not on the list I should get, or any I should nix?

>>18019121
Looks good anon,
All you are missing is a sample of some hei cha
https://yunnansourcing.us/collections/guangxi-liu-bao-tea/products/2011-three-cranes-15010-liu-bao-tea

>>18019144
Oh good catch, I'll add that :)

What tea do you guys drink when you have a cold?

Thinking about picking up something besides lipton black tea at the grocery store tomorrow to use in my next jar of sun tea, can I get a suggestion? Got any specific sun tea recipes you'd like to share with the class?

>>18019561
Which store?

>>18019121
My suggestions: Try a yancha or other roasted oolong, should complement that one you got. And don't get those needles get the Fuding ones. Maybe do some loose yunnan needles to compare. Also I would do some samples instead of the whole puerh cake. Looks good though, you got good variety.

>>17982771
For me it was sencha and tonkatsu. This shit's made for the Japanese kitchen, it brings out the flavour of the food fantastically like a match made in heaven.

The tea threads on here have helped me before in discovering my all-time favourite tea (milky oolong/jin xuan) and I'm back with another request for advice.

I really, really want to get into ripe pu-erhs. I like teas that have this smooth and full mouthfeel like fu brick, shou mei and tieguanyin. Ripe pu-erhs should be in this category for me as well, but I can't get used to the taste/smell. The taste is often fine-ish, though I sometimes do get a bit of fishiness in there, but the smell feels like old, uncleaned attic to me.
Due to a hospital situation i'm confined to western style and grandpa style brewing, so maybe something goes wrong there, but i'm at my wits' end here. Is there a specific ripe pu-erh that is a bit more in line with the teas I mentioned before, or a brewing method that i'm perhaps missing out on?

>>18019561
>>18020526
>The taste is often fine-ish, though I sometimes do get a bit of fishiness in there, but the smell feels like old, uncleaned attic to me.
I think ripe puer is a difficult category because it is very easy to do a shit job fermenting the tea and end up with off tastes/flavors. Especially with western style or grampa style you are kind of likely to end up with a little bit of funky smell in the first cup. That said some teas are much better about it than others.
If you are in the us maybe grab one or two of these
https://www.puerhshop.com/new/index.php?route=product/product&path=9_24&product_id=382
They look a bit rustic but i found them to be a very nice ripe on the chocolate side of things. When i last had it i was drinking everything grampa style and it worked out well for me.
He also has some dayi tea factory teabags that might be fun to try
https://www.puerhshop.com/new/index.php?route=product/product&manufacturer_id=5&product_id=226&page=2
So here is what you are going to do, brew grampa style. Sip the first cup till you get halfway down or so, refill with hot water, then get your face in there and enjoy the smell. The first brew with grampa style ripe always has a bit of funk in the odor and i always look forward to when i refill it so i can get my nose in there and enjoy they deep ripe smells without any of the funk.
Good luck anon, hope you feel better

>>18020526
I almost forgot, dayi has their own official store on Amazon now
Single brew toucha
https://www.amazon.com/TAE-TEA-Gold-Organic-Black/dp/B07FTGF9V8/
They also have a tin of gongtig (small buds) ripe
https://www.amazon.com/TAETEA-Loose-Fermented-Puerh-1-76oz/dp/B09TNL8S5D/
If anyone know how to make clean tasting ripe its dayi and they usually age teas for several years before the put them in their us amazon storefront

is mariage frères tea good ? people recommend it to me

t. total tea newfag that just found out about this general

>>18020566
Not that anon, but how many grams do you suggest for grandpa style? I want to use my coffee mug for it because I can't get bothered busting out the gaiwan for my breakfast sips.

>>18019121
i'd skip the green bi lou chun. i found it extremely bitter. try some ripe puerh, the YS cozy is very good

>>18020729
They are the only acceptable flavored tea, for what that's worth

>>18019555
Ma huang.

>>18020830
Updating on grandpa style. Using 8.5 grams of Red Ai Lao in my big mug. I'm stretching it out two almost two liters and it's still giving me a kick. Literally have my stovetop kettle next to me on some oven mitts and topping off when I'm low. Makes me almost regret getting a gaiwan knowing I can do this now.

>>18021240
>Makes me almost regret getting a gaiwan knowing I can do this now.
There is nothing inherently wrong with either choice, but I'd say each is better suited to some types of tea in general. For example, while you can arguably grandpa style plenty of shou and whites without much issue, if you try to do something like mug-infusing troublesome greens or harsh, young sheng, the result might be somewhat bitter and astringent. Or, maybe you want to experience aspects of a tea with greater clarity and detail over different stages of 'development'. Then, a gaiwan may be more useful. I almost always use a gaiwan because I find it more convenient and relaxing, but I know someone who almost exclusively grandpas because he finds it most convenient and potent (as a sensory-dulled post-COVID coffee drinker).

I replaced brushing my teeth in the morning with osmanthus oolong

>>18021358
What did you replace it with in the evening?
Don't tell me you destroy your teeth seasoning every day.

>>18021406
Correct, I drink a swig of the stinkiest, oldest raw puerh on hand to let the microbes colonize overnight

>>18021329
You're right. My gaiwan won't see much use until I get some greens and whites. My first ever order of teas was all black ones and a ripe puerh. Any suggestions on whites and greens in general? I used Yunnan Sourcing if that helps any.

>>18021535
>whites
2018 Fuding "Shou Mei" White Tea Cake is cheap and good
>greens
dragonwell aka longjin. get some jasmine pearls too

>>18017635
>>18017709
I'm at the grocery. They don't have any of any of those. Sigh guess I'll buy this bigelow vanilla caramel black tea and dump a bunch of sugar in it again.

>>18021535
>Any suggestions on whites and greens in general? I used Yunnan Sourcing if that helps any.
I haven't used YS, and don't really drink greens so much. However, I am quite fond of whites. This is not at all a strict indicator as there are too many factors to cover, and I continue to learn myself, but broadly generalizing my perceived notes (for at least moderately aged whites), I'd say that whites with more leaves may be more likely to be "bready/buttery", and more buds bring in floral qualities and maybe fruity notes. Honey somewhere in between, maybe. I've found younger whites tend to be more 'brisk' in my opinion. Not quite vegetal as a green, often more in the "fresh herbs" region if that makes sense. You can try buying based on your preference when looking at images of the leaves.

Fullchea has some decent budget white cakes (and some slightly pricier COFCO ones) if you just want to dip your toes, but quality does vary based on the offering. I tested four different cakes from them and would only really suggest against the absolute cheapest one, which I thus won't link. Here are the other three:
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/-p0685.html
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/-p0588.html
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/-p0751.html
You may find better offerings if you look around too, these are just what I've tried.

Chawangshop has one of the best whites I've been fortunate to have tried, though their shipping is perhaps a bit costly and slow. I'll link it anyway because Honza from there sells good stuff:
https://www.chawangshop.com/2021-qiaomu-organic-white-tea-100g.html
Delicate and light, but complex. Anons here shopping at Chawangshop should not sleep on his loose Bada stock.
>>18021748
>>18017629
I don't recommend those flavored teas or blasting them with sugar, but if you like them and just want to drop the sugar, consider using stevia. You'll save on calories at least. You can also try something simple like chamomile or lemon balm, mint/ginger with stevia, etc

Is coffee a tissane (sic)?

Ouhhh...
Husbant...
You spend too much at Yunnan Sourcing...
Now we are homeress....

>>18021748
Well consider looking for any local tea stores either online to save on shipping or irl, rooibus is pretty popular and cheap and anything you get online is likely higher quality than anything you can get in tea bags at the grocery store. Try looking for stores that sell loose leaf and dont focus on flavoured teas.

Having some of my 2010 Three Cranes 03507 liu bao today. It's this one:
https://www.chawangshop.com/2010-wuzhou-tf-large-leaves-05307-liubao-tea-100g.html
Still has a great "sweet woodsy soil" character to it I remember. Mild texture, smooth. Though, I sense a very subtle 'barbeque" background element now that I'm smelling it less congested and with cleaner water than before. It's an unassuming note, so it balances well with the general characteristics I mentioned earlier. Even on a hot day like today, there is something rather grounding about an earthy liu bao that makes it worth drinking.
>Pic related, casual picture of my first infusion/rinse.
I just want peace from my sessions.

Having some of my 2010 Three Cranes 05307 liu bao today. It's this one:
https://www.chawangshop.com/2010-wuzhou-tf-large-leaves-05307-liubao-tea-100g.html
Still has a great "sweet woodsy soil" character to it I remember. Mild texture, smooth. Though, I sense a very subtle 'barbeque" background element now that I'm smelling it less congested and with cleaner water than before. It's an unassuming note, so it balances well with the general characteristics I mentioned earlier. Even on a hot day like today, there is something rather grounding about an earthy liu bao that makes it worth drinking.
>Pic related, casual picture of my first infusion/rinse.
I just want peace from my sessions.

>>18022074
I give myself about 5 more years before i stop buying raw puer entirely and switch to nothing but liubao and ripe, maybe the occasional other hei cha.
Nothing else is as chill and calming feeling. Well usually, sometimes fu brick is some serious jet fuel even though it tastes relaxing and smooth.
Im glad that other people are into it.
Im also glad the YS is finally stocking more hei cha in the US store and purple cloud has a decent amount in stock.
I wish puershop would get some more, he sold it cheaper than anyone.
Ive been thinking about ordering a few 500g or kilo baskets off of three cranes directly on taobao

>>18021898
Kek

>>18022191
>Nothing else is as chill and calming feeling.
>Im glad that other people are into it.
This makes me think back some. I bought almost exclusively pu'er when I first started getting into tea some years ago (thanks, anons from then). While I thought they were interesting, I think it took countless sessions and journalings for my tastebuds to 'develop', and more fully comprehend the depth of pu'er and various heicha. What may have been harsh or too potent became, with more skill and experience, deeply grounding and clearing. This is a process I have grown increasingly fond of. I appreciate that anons here have continued to support my ongoing learning, provide recs and so on all this time.
>Ive been thinking about ordering a few 500g or kilo baskets off of three cranes directly on taobao
Do you have much experience buying directly from Taobao? I hear it's easier to buy from there now as an international consumer than it was before. I haven't ordered anything from the site, but I imagine there are also some notable gems to be found among the brands less known to western entities. That seems like it would be quite fun to try sometime. Maybe even comparative shopping between anons.

What's a good website to get ginkgo tea? mountainroseherbs have it (rather, had it) but they're out of stock. After some googling I found:

https://www.pittsburghcuppa.com/ginkobiloba.html

Anyone got any experience buying from them? Any other shop recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

>>18022344
not the same anon as the one you were replying to

>thanks, anons from then
your welcome, its been nice having you here. anons here helped me get started as well. i am pretty sure there's at least a few other long term regulars here (thanks OP). /tea/ is a surprisingly cozy little place.

>Do you have much experience buying directly from Taobao?
not yet but i plan to someday.

>I hear it's easier to buy from there now as an international consumer than it was before.
unfortunately, i am pretty sure you still need to pay an agent to buy from tmall outside of china. shipping costs are of course high right now as well.

>notable gems to be found among the brands less known to western entities.
a lot of brands big and small have official stores on Taobao/tmall. In particular i want to order some of the less common forms of heicha like qing zhuan and ya'an because we have such poor availability from regular international tea shops. maybe see if i can find a good deal on some canned yancha as well.

>>18022493
>its been nice having you here.
>/tea/ is a surprisingly cozy little place.
Likewise. The pacing and social environment in this thread have continued to be a nurturing force for mutual good. There are very few generals that manage to keep that for so long, much less have it to begin with.
>In particular i want to order some of the less common forms of heicha
That does sound like quite the treat. I can only imagine what kind of absurd things are available to the more adventurous enthusiasts. Some people drink even chong shi cha, after all. Shipping costs for those huge bricks of Tibetan/Mongolian-esque tea must be especially rough to swallow right now. Though, there comes a point where, like with my Chawangshop order some months ago, the experience pays for the price if it's something special. Maybe a good time to peek into the Japanese market for obscure darks or oolongs too, JPY inflation in mind.

>>18022638
Same here. It's a pretty nice place of refuge and is as close to a comfy digital tea den I'll find.

>>18022344
>Do you have much experience buying directly from Taobao?
I don't but it is easier than it used to be. You can make an account order select international shipping and the store will send it to an official taobao reshipping service who will then send you a bill for the international postage and ship.
I don't know how good the official service is compared to independent reshipping services.
There is an incredibly extensive guide to shopping on taobao in the taobao thread on /cgl/ which tells you just about everything you would ever need to know about how to order and has extensive reviews of the various reshipping services.
Most tea factories have a taobao or tmall storefront and if you are willing to put in a somewhat large order you can save quite a bit vs buying from some western facing vendors but shipping is more expensive than it used to be.

>>18022399
Sorry anon im not really sure what to suggest other than mountain rose.
There is a half decent chance that the site you found is just reselling tea from mountain rose herbs actually. Their prices don't seem too crazy so buy some and see how it goes.

>>18022638
>Some people drink even chong shi cha
thats me, kek

>good time to peek into the Japanese market for obscure darks
also on my todo list sometime.
here are some sources
https://yunomi.life/collections/japanese-dark-tea
https://www.thes-du-japon.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1_130_114

>>18022745
Ive been looking at those Japanese fermented teas for years but never pulled the trigger. I know one anon got some of that lactic fermented tea that cut into squares this spring, but i forget if they posted tasting notes. Anyway i also found a korean version of dark tea that came in compressed bricks like puer. I can't remember the name for the life of me but i only ever managed to find it for sale on one website.

>>18022745
>Chong shi cha
How was it? I've only seen one guy on YT talk vaguely about it and nothing more. I was intrigued by it before, but it was OOS when I made an unrelated order.

>>18022822
>>18022822
>>18022822
>>18022822
New thread
I forgot to link here, forgive me