/ck/ - Food & Cooking

What are some good, but unusual, herbs for steeping?

>>19799676
>What are some good, but unusual, herbs for steeping?
Mugwort has an interesting yet not-overpowering flavor that makes for a nice infusion of its own, so that could work. Sage and rosemary aren't uncommon, but can be nice when paired with lighter flavor profiles (think floral/herbal-focused whites or oolongs, etc). Anise has a lot of potential in blends/tisanes for a more liquorice-esque flavor. Lemongrass is alright, being somewhat sweet and easily-infused.

Honestly, with the right teas, you can use nearly any herb, though the ideal preparation may differ. I bet you could make something like thyme work with a savory red.

>>19781032

Can I get this US side?

Brought back some quality gyokuro and matcha from japan. First time trying gyokuro, and first time trying matcha that wasn’t food grade. Really unique stuff coming from mostly Chinese teas. The savory flavors from the gyokuro especially took me by surprise, almost felt like I was drinking broth.

Wish it wasn’t so expensive to get the good stuff online.

Whats in your cup today?
I am drinking sample entitled "random shou from 2012" courtesy of last years LP puerh beginner pack. The material seems to be a blend of medium to fine graded leaves. It has a good number of buds present but not as many as a "gong ting" blend. No large stems or rubbish present. Taste is bready with some wood notes, slightly bitter, perhaps a hint funk. Notably more woody than earthy. Has a oily mouthfeel. Overall very "shouish" to me, not particularly exceptional in any way but not a half bad sip in the end.

how do you guys brew dan cong oolong in the gaiwan? got a small duck shit sample and don't want to fuck it up

>>19800171
Like 6g in a 100ml or just use the whole sample if it's close enough, boiling water, short steeps. Based on the first couple brews descide if yoi can push the steeps longer or if you need to keep them short. Some dancongs can get a bit bitter if you steep them too long.

>>19800171
10s brews in a 100ml gaiwan. 6 grams.

>>19800157
Matcha-iri genmaicha, brewed in my gaiwan cause I dont have jappy stuff

Bought some raw puerh from the local shop
>Kunlu Shan Gu Shu Cha 2016
>Yiwu Ye Sheng Gu Shu Cha Bing 2016
Tasted the latter. It was nicer than I expected. Will try the first tomorrow.

IM JACKED ON MAGICAL CHINAMAN POWERS
BEEN SLAMMIN ARIZONA GREENTEA ALL DAY

>>19800308
based tea leaf abuser

>>19800308
arizona green tea is great
everything else for a cheap iced tea is garbage trash

>>19800303
Jeeze this guys local tea shop has Kunlu. That mountain seems to be somewhat in vogue recently.

>>19800171
On the topic of “duck shit” dancong, does anyone here actually enjoy it over other dancongs? I’ve tried ordering it twice and it’s always been a major letdown compared to any other dancong I’ve tried. Pretty convinced it ranks so highly on YS simply because of the name.

>>19800221
>>19800204
cheers fellas, brew 11 still going strong

>>19800458
it's nice but i think it's not really a 40c/g tea. i'll have to try some other dan congs if that's the case

The more i drink expensive teas the less i enjoy the cheaper ones i used to like...it's bad...

>>19800491
Yeah i feel ya. My taste in wuyi oolongs vastly outpaces my budget. Im getting there with puer too...

What are some starter yixing for someone who already likes high octane psychedelia and has some half burnt taste buds? I was eyeing the fat one off of Purple but have no idea how much it matters.

>>19800496
Worse thing that happen is when i just get a better version of a tea i have, better on all aspects and i can't go back... Black and oolongs mostly i moved a step up in price and can't go back. I still enjoy pu-erh on the "cheap" side but only for sheng

>>19800503
Purple cloud? Any of the ones made by Lin Hanpeng and Chen Chunhong Studio are good to go (its the same studio that muda and leaves sources from). Should be listed in the description. I don't know anything about the pots they have from other studios so i cant comment on quality.
The shupings from essence of tea are pretty nice, anything made with QingShuiNi or ZhongCaoQing clay if you want something with moderate interaction with the tea, duani if you want a stronger muting effect from the clay, frequently paired with ripes and stinky hk storage kinda teas, hongni clay if you want it to have litte effect on the taste of the tea. Wood fired in my limited experience makes teas sweeter tasting, it can be pretty great but doesn't synergize well with everything.
Also any of the pots from mud and leaves that strike your fancy.
Here are some pots i would buy for myself if i had any budget for more clay.
https://essenceoftea.com/collections/yixing-teapots/products/105ml-zhongcaoqing-pinggai-yixing-teapot
https://purplecloudteahouse.com/collections/yixing-pottery/products/100ml-yixing-zini-julunzhu-teapot

>>19800503
Doesn’t really matter at all. Chinese culture is heavy into chinese medicine tier bullshit, then add westerners trying to translate/interpret all this into the mix and you get shit like different kinds of clay suited for different teas.

Puer being marketed as diet tea is a great example of a similar phenomenon.

Just buy a well made one that looks cool if you do want one. I do think handmade has benefits in terms of how well it feels to use and pours. Maybe clay itself has some benefits , but I doubt it’s game changing for anyone. Sources in OP seemed decent when I last checked.

Small glass teapot actually sounds appealing to me after typing all that up.

>>19800527
I doubt you’d actually notice a difference in clays in a double blind test.

>>19800527
I'll check into those, thanks.

>>19800535
I'm not adverse to TCM, I occasionally shake old coins and consult the Yi Jing. For me it's not about the TCM, but general quality and not buying something ridiculous. Some of these register to me as yardlong bongs and that's not what I'm looking for, although I'm pretty immune to caffeine and fermented things at this point.

>2 years ago buy samples of various teas since i was a newb
>like the green, white, TGY samples
>but the most i liked were the heicha samples
>end up drinking mostly ripe puerh and liu bao for over a year
>can't drink anything else because i like heicha too fucking much.
>>19800535
>Puer being marketed as diet tea is a great example of a similar phenomenon.
I guess it could have a benefit if it encourages people to stop drinking soda or "coffee" flavoured sugary milk.

>>19800562
It's the light roast coffee of teas, full of flavors you don't have to add, especially when you quit smoking and need a new vice.

>>19800562
Speaking from personal experience here, I like dark roast coffee, cigarettes and islay scotch. The only substitute I've found is a pipe and some extremely strong and nuanced tea that also tastes like it was dried over camel dung.

>>19800544
>I doubt you’d actually notice a difference in clays in a double blind test.
I mean it also depends a lot on how high the piece is fired but i have a couple pots made out of very different clays, one Chinese one Japanese and they definitely do different things to the taste of tea. I mean if you wanna say you couldn't tell the difference between a few different zini clays like Zhong Cao Qing and QingShuiNi Shui yeah probably not. You could definitely tell the difference between a low fired duani or luani and a high fired hongni pot. And there is a decent chance you could tell the difference between the two even if they were fired next to each other in the kiln.
It doesn't really matter anyways because if you feel that way you should just brew in porcelain.

>>19800577
NTA, are we talking high vs low in a normal kiln or a rising dragon kiln?

>>19800392
>Kunlu
Can you elaborate on the mountain? Why is it vogue? I am new to the but this local dude who keeps the shop is big on puerh tea and goes often to China to source his stuff.

>>19800577
>It doesn't really matter anyways because if you feel that way you should just brew in porcelain.

Fair enough. I had more the types of clays in mind when I wrote my previous comment.

>>19800584
High vs low in a normal kiln. In contemporary production pots you aren't likely to run into anything that's reallu low fired but if you did it would be dramatically muting to the flavor of the tea.

>>19800157
>not particularly exceptional in any way
Par for the LP sampler course.

>>19800612
Ah, makes sense. I wasn't sure what current production was like and just like saying and writing "rising dragon kiln" because it's such a beast of industrial pottery.

>>19800634
lol

What is the puerh lesbian equivalent of tendies? Looks like I gotta move into my folks basement for a bit and I wanna know how to spend my GBPs (good butch points).

>>19800650
Consistent pucks for currently inflated prices? Take your pick, you should know the chain stores by now by the color of the label.

>>19800527
The purple cloud one made me realize what my drink coaster is actually for. I'm torn between buzzword memespeak and an uglier teapot I'm starting to like.

>>19800392
>>19800308
I'll brew the Kunlu tomorrow morning. I'll let you know what it was like.

>>19800392
kunlu is very famous in china so its not surprising that western focused stores are starting to pick up on it, i have a young raw cake from an autumn harvest in kunlu and it has a really unique taste compared to all the other young raws ive tasted.

>>19800698
My 2016 gu shu one is spring harvest and it only costs 59 euros for 357 g cake

>>19800642
>because it's such a beast of industrial pottery.
One of the largest wood fired kilns in the us is at some college. Its Japanese style pottery for the most part but you can get some pretty good prices on pieces from time to time.
https://www.saint-johns-pottery.org/studio-artists
Stuff like these little cups or plates to use as a teapot holder or something, some of the cheaper wood fired stuff ive seen out there if you go for stuff from apprentices.
Cool website about it, i wish there were more pictures in one place

>>19800704
damn thats well priced, when did you buy it? i wonder if the popularity for kunlu is new in that case since i read that earlier this year

>>19800742
I bought it today.

>>19800730
I didn't check whether that one is the same as the one I'm aware of, but this is the largest anagama, which is a little bitch version of an industrial rising dragon. My weebism was shaken off by the scale and quality, although I personally prefer the anagama and raku glazed works. Will check into that because I already like what I see.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_kiln
This shit requires an entire hillside, a metric fuckton of potters, and takes over a week to fire and another to cool.

>>19800751
I was misremembering, the anagama takes like 4 days to fire while the rising dragon is extremely efficient. Efficiency isn't the goal with the glazing I like.

>>19800588
>Can you elaborate on the mountain?
I honestly can't tell you much except that it seems popular, and i notice it for sale more often from western shops. recently. Yunna sourcing mentioned chocolate notes on some raw kunlu they listed. I had a sample of some from somewhere and remember it being good.

>>19800748
kek wait im retarded your that anon above, please post notes on it when you try it then, im really interested in that area

>>19800758
I heard kunlun so it's where all the chan monks and taoists got their tea from, it's pretty dank.

>>19800751
The one at st johns is pretty big, i meant to link their website too.
Its 87ft long.
https://www.csbsju.edu/saint-johns-pottery/johanna-kiln/design

>>19800773
Wow that is a lot of weebishness in two paragraphs. Yeah, that thing is nice.

>>19800773
A picture with people in it for scale.
Its pretty cool that stuff like this gets made still.

>>19800791
The one I was thinking of but can't seem to find is more Japanese than that, it's more like a dome with a vent for more pottery. The fucker is huge but the design is somewhat different.

Mmmmmmm, banana bread and vanilla. Vegetal notes too. Very sweet.

>>19800204
Boiling temps? I've usually gone a bit lighter on my dan congs. Is that just me carrying over dogma from gentler, unroasted oolongs? Unless it only applies to duck shit, I'll give it a shot with my remaining honey orchid.

>>19800900
haha dong ding
what does it smell like? i'm having russian caravan from the local place

>>19800930
Um it depends i guess, ive only had roasted dancongs. Maybe the greener ones require a more delicate hand. But maybe not. Have you noticed bitterness with lower temps? If you haven't you mighr as well give it a shot

This is the inside of the cup japan I got that someone asked for in the previous thread.

>>19801061
Cool cup

>>19800984
I got Madeleine/Banana Bread for aroma. It's very nice.

Assuming you're well and poetry drunk
>Face wine not aware get dark
>Fall flower fill my clothes
>Drunk stand step stream moon
>Bird far person also few
how do you pick good teas to go along with the pot you're looking at save on shipping? the bands on the cakes? Price? I'm lost here stumbling in leaves and rain.

>>19799656
what are the best sites for ordering (cheap) tea samples/a large variety of tea? king tea mall and YS seem good for this purpose

what are the best sites for ordering a large amount of quality tea? farmer leaf?

>>19800496
>wuyi oolongs
This is the one that is truly brutal. For whatever reason, whenever I drink puer I'm something like a state of zen and I can appreciate really nice gushu and shitty terrace tea as each having its own distinct character.
Nice yancha is just brutally better than cheap yancha. I almost feel like I could try ten teas I've never had before and sort them by price. It's that bad. And autumn is yancha season too.

>>19801168
Just pick good teas and don't pick bad teas, its simple.

>>19801375
I picked some shit that sounded decent, I'll hunt pooerh pucks later. I tried to keep it cheap, lel. lmao.

>>19801373
Yup it's brutal. It doesn't help that basically none of the western facing vendors give you anything close to bulk pricing on yancha so with most shops you are paying the same price per gram if you get 50g or a kilo.

>>19801287
The answer is it depends on what you want. Your questions are quite broad.
If you could only use one store to buy tea from each region these three stores have some of the widest selections.
China: https://yunnansourcing.com/
Japan: https://yunomi.life/
India: https://www.teabox.com/
For bulk tea it depend on what you want and who has the best price on it.

Is there any particular type of tea you are looking for?

>>19801381
Nice, looks like you did good.

>>19801401
>>19801373
where do you fellas typically get your yancha? i tried a couple now and want to go bankrupt

>>19801406
taste liquor 10 year 10 year ago
give finger fighter jets too low
fall go find again, taste plum
buy teapot commemorate, no drink more

>>19801409
Here are some names I have seen frequently mentioned for their yancha. Note that I have not ordered from any of them (yet).
https://oldwaystea.com/
https://www.wuyiorigin.com/
https://essenceoftea.com/collections/wuyi-yancha
https://www.lazycattea.com/

>>19801287
>what are the best sites for ordering (cheap) tea samples/a large variety of tea?
It kinda depends, in terms of sheer selection yunnan sourcing is high up there.
I think the best way to look at it is to drill down on shops with a certain specialty. Like most of the shops with a lot of taiwan oolongs mostly only sell taiwan tea.
King tea mall requires a bit of care on your part, they have very good prices in some places and in others they are too high.
>what are the best sites for ordering a large amount of quality tea? farmer leaf?
Again it depends. Farmer leaf is pretty good but he mostly sells puer from a pretty limited region. Its also mostly young though he has added several nice looking aged cakes this year. If i just wanted to buy a bunch of semi aged puer i would probably go with teas we like.
If you say you want to try a bunch of x type of tea or region of tea its easier to make suggestions.

>>19801409
>i tried a couple now and want to go bankrupt
I got the old version of this sampler and it was great. This one is a little less tea for the same price, but everything else is more expensive these days too. Or just try a bunch of their house oolongs and whatever else strikes your fancy. Don't get that sampler that's 4 packets of price winning tea foe $100 its too much unless you have already drak a lot of yancha.
https://essenceoftea.com/collections/wuyi-yancha/products/wuyi-masters-tasting-set-ii

>>19801373
>>wuyi oolongs
>This is the one that is truly brutal.
I still like cheap wuyi oolongs but I agree the difference between a cheap one and a expensive one is significant, but than again so is the difference in price.

Now that I have a pot and some breakfast blends on the way, what do i get to raise some fuggen qi? I didn't blow money on fancy drug paraphernalia for nothing.

>>19801531
>breakfast blends
>cha chi
Anon, I...

>>19801584
Both jokes, but I do love a good theanine high.

>>19801381
Oh yeah tip for a new pot owner
1 don't boil it, you don't need to, just rinse it out a bunch
2 get a package of those little wooden skewers from the grocery store. Every once a while a leaf decides to get stuck in the spout and make it pour really slow and poking it with one of those thin wooden skewers is the best way to take care of it.

>>19801631
Thanks for the reminder. In a past life, I had a pretty fierce oolong addition and midrange loose leaf tea habit, but never went all the way with it. I'm all to familiar with sticking a pokey in the spout.

>>19801672
Cheers

>>19801005
I haven't noticed bitterness at the lower temps, but that's kind of the point. I'll try pushing it next time.
>>19801061
Thanks. Yeah that's a nice cup.

Trying the Dong Ding grandpa style. Definitely tastes better than gongfu.
1g per 100ml.

>>19801795
So how would you say it compares to tieguanyin? Is it sort of in the same wheelhouse or is it totally different?

>>19802158
Different. This is more of a milk tea, that tastes of baked sweets. whilst a TGY is a flowery/brothy/spicy kind of tea.

>>19802170
>This is more of a milk tea, that tastes of baked sweets.
Okay im convinced i guess its time to order some more Taiwan oolongs

This tea vendor got shilled quite a lot over at leddit. Quite some good teas. But I've only ordered their oolong sampler. So far, their Tieguanyin is okay-ish. Scott's AAA TGY is far better tasting than ITW's TGY.
But these 3 in particular are flat out better than what I've found in YS.
The DHP is far more flavorful and aromatic than the YS AA DHP. And the Dancongs also beat his Dancongs, I haven't ordered the tinned Danconvs over at YS, so I can't say how they compare against those. But the other ones just don't come up to these in flavor.

>>19800458
This is my favorite tea along with a smoked lapsang right now. If you have suggestions if what is a better dancong I'd be open to trying them. YS just got their budget duck shit back in stock and was going to make an order anyway.

Just about the last of this Fa Zan He cake, im going to toss this in my yixing since it hasn't gotten enough love lately

Its a little cramped on here but it fits
I keep meaning to get a nice bowl for the teapot

>>19802475
How is it? parameters? might buy a cake next order

>>19802480
I do my usual 7.5g in a ~130ml gaiwan and brew it like i would any other young raw boiling water, short steeps. Its a very nice tea citrusy and sweet, not much bitterness. Its a nice casual drinking tea, i don't run into ones with this kind of citrus profile that often. Its an easy recommendation if that sounds good to you.

>>19802515
Just gathering infos on teas i haven't tried on farmer leaf, with the price tag it sounds really good to me.

>>19800650
The fuck is a puerh lesbian?

>>19800760
Here are the Kunlu leaves

>>19802754
Smell is fruity. The tea has nice astringency and then the taste moves to waxy and woody. Nice round mouthfeel.

Favorite Taiwanese teas?

>>19800650
cheap factory ripe

>>19801287
YS has probably the largest selection and sample sizes of most stuff, as well as decent descriptions. that's why it's good for newbies, but their prices aren't always the best
KTM has better prices on some stuff but focuses more on pu-erh. good place if you want a very large selection of factory pu-erh and can pick out the good deals from the not so good ones
FarmerLeaf is actually good for small orders just because of the free shipping. they're a very specialized store though, almost entirely about young raw pu-erh

>>19801287
>what are the best sites for ordering a large amount of quality tea?
I like Chawangshop's selections. Not exceedingly expensive either. Slow site with the (uncertain) shipping added on later after receiving a quote, but solid products with fast shipping.

>>19802769
Next, after a large meal I will have some Changtai 2004 Cha Hu Chen Banzhang Cha Zhuan ripe puerh

>>19803268
Mellow, full bodied taste of bark, forest floor, metal workshop

>>19802769
Sounds good
I use those same big cork coasters

bros i bought from YS september 30th and it still isnt in the US how long am i waiting? i have a feeling i got like 2 more weeks at least

>>19799656
which teapots have the best laminar flow?

>>19803803
Most of them will have a fairly laminar flow when they are full and pouring at a higher velocity. They mostly all loose this when they are nearly empty and start to dribble. I don't think you will find a practical design that totally alleviates this since the best fix would probably be an excessively long and narrow spout that would have an impractical pour time

>>19803895
The little fork or notch on the spout helps a little. Just enough to keep it from dribbling excessively.

>try boiling ripe in my big and cheap glass teapot instead of gong fu
>it tastes just as good
Bros, what the hell. BIG GONG FU made me buy all these gaiwan and porcelain teapots; i even had planned to buy a yixing teapot, for what.
On a more serious note, i wouldn't say the taste was 100% the same, i feel like some subtle notes were lost this way. This made me wonder a bit about gong fu brewing. Did gong fu really become this widespread because it's a better brewing method, or was it marketed a little as RETVRN TO TRADITION or smth.
I mean, i get it's roots: to make the best out of your (lower quality) tea (i guess boiling would bring out bitterness, so flash steeps were better). I wonder how widespread is gong fu brewing among the average Chinese.

>>19804003
Gongfu is just puer lesbian cope because without it all the young raw puer they buy is undrinkable.

So what's the best way to clean a yixing pot? I know not to use soap but what should i do? I was thinking of soaking it in a vinegar solution.

>>19804003
It's for making higher end and funky teas last longer and taste better. Your generic restaurant tea or whatever doesn't produce much liquor or have subtle aromas that can be lost with other methods. Gongfu as we received it is tea nerd shit for showing off, a bougie but frugal vestige of the Qing dynasty.

>>19804061
Pour boiling water in it and dry it out afterwards. >>19804061

>>19804003
Heicha is particularly not sensitive to brewing conditions imo. Most anything can be brewed grandpa or western style just fine too but the taste does change depending on leaf:water ratio. I do think there's a bit of marketing around it also.
For me it's mostly a convenient way to drink tea over an afternoon with minimal equipment and cleanup.

Okay im going to test out the vinegar soak with my clay tea boat. It's pretty skanky inside so this should give me some good info. I dumped some white vinegar into it, and I'm bringing some water to a boil. Im going to fill it with boiling water to the level of about two thirds of the depth of the tea boat, let it soak for a few hours and see what happens.
You can see there is currently tea staining on the inside of this so we will see what it looks like after soaking for a few hours.

>>19802772
I like Shan cha

Any one got any personal chadō tips or techniques to share?

Mine:
You can use the bing hole of a cake to store extra tea you broke off. This helps protect the loose tea leaf from being crushed.
Put broken leaves or dust on the bottom of your teapot/gaiwan and full leaves or chunks on the top. This gives room for the bigger leaves to fully expand and the bigger leaves help strain the broken leaves so they don't wash out.

Boiled up the bulang ripe (max power tiger or whatever) I got as a freebie from YS. That nice pot anon had in the last thread has got me wondering if I should replace this old thing... The handle's held together with twist ties.

>>19804354
What size pot would you be looking for? Similar size to that or smaller?

back on the russian caravan craze but i picked up Ripe pu erh (2016) from the local tea shop

i don't got a knife for it so i'm just going to use the dollar store knife i got, they're both made in china anyhow so it should be okay

>>19804372
It's the only pot I've owned so I'm not really sure. I tend to use it for boiling up bulk heicha or tisanes but I could see myself getting along with a smaller pot. I saw the guys on teadb often use a kinda medium size pot which looked quite nice. Definitely not clay though, too poor.
Got any suggestions?

>>19804354
Weave a new handle out of local strong grasses. I'll get back with you on what they are.

>>19804403
I found this with 380ml volume, not huge but bigger then typical gongfu stuff. Nice simple white porcelain, reasonably cheap.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1558893864/white-ceramic-teapot-tian-bai-glaze?
They have lots of cool stuff, worth taking a look.

>>19802715
/tea/'s very own forced meme

>>19804396
I use a particularly spiky table knife, works well enough so far
I wanted to get a dedicated tea knife with my KTM order, but apparently they don't sell them anymore. maybe I'll order one from aliexpress if I struggle with the Xiaguan tuos I ordered

>>19804543
These are the best imo, the type A one
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805002716383.html
Also some of the cheapest

Anyone used https://yunnansourcing.com/ before?

>>19804670
they are a very popular store and often recommended to newbies for their huge selection and accessible site. opinions differ on their pricing and selection, but it remains one of the most popular stores

>>19804670
Dont forget the .us website, less selection but ships from texas

I want to get a new infuser-style teapot, is pic related a good choice? I like the idea of being able to keep the leaves and the tea separate but the build quality looks kind of shitty.
https://a.co/d/5LO0K1J

>>19804812
That mechanism with the button WILL break eventually, but I've heard a few anons talking about kamjove stuff and it seems reasonably well regarded for chinkshit.
They're on aliexpress for about half that price as I recall.

>>19804812
I have that exact one. Used it for quite a while
Pros: held up fine, works as advertised
Cons: mesh screen is not removable so it can be difficult to clean in leaves get under it. I think the best way to clean it is to soak the whole thing in coffee machine cleaner or vitamin c dissolved in water.
It works, if you want something low maintenance its a fine way to do things. That price is kinda expensive. If you want one that big something like this might be better since the mesh filter is removable for cleaning, you place it on top of a mug and it drains into it.
https://www.amazon.com/GROSCHE-Aberdeen-PERFECT-coaster-BPA-Free/dp/B00KIW0T9C/
If you want something for gongfu style brewing i would get a smaller kamjove, i think mine is 420ml.

I've finally found the one.

any samples or pucks off of white2 anyone would recommend?

>>19805112
I'd wait until snoozefest drops next month.

>>19804486
I'm new to /tea/ but not /ck/ and I keep seeing puer lesbian being posted in /tea/ and only /tea/. It doesn't seem to be forced which leads me to believe you're what the meme is referring to. You /tea/fags and your culture is very strange.

>>19802715
Drink muggy HK storage pu'er while lurking/posting in the gen for a few weeks and you'll inevitably find out.

what's your preferred evening tea?

>>19805493
I've been lurkin and this shit is impossible to parse

puer is the leading cause of domestic violence in the lesbian community

>>19805605
aside from the lesbians, obviously.

>>19799676
My tea guy gave me Ironwort ("Greek Mountain Tea") to try, and it was drinkable but definitely not my thing.
>>19799735
Thanks

>>19805791
Lesbians not needed. I accidentally left a pot of puer out and ran to the store: came home to 7 broken lesbians scattered in my kitchen.

>>19805835
Did they at least spare your teaware? If not perhaps it is time to try kintsugi?

>>19805557
drink more tea

>>19799656
i drink biggelow earl grey tea
sometimes it comes out dark brown like coffee, and one bag made me feel really sick all day
others are a lighter red hue and I feel better
no idea what causes it. bad batch or did I steep wrong?
any knowers

>>19805112
I like Camphornought a lot. It's an interesting divergence from what I typically expect shou to taste like. Almost out of my cake. Mulling over getting a few more.

Somebody who is putting in a w2t order please sample PROLAXICORVATIN and let me know if it's any good. I would do it myself but im not really interested in getting a bunch of w2t teas right now.
https://white2tea.com/collections/2016-white2tea-puer-teas/products/2016-prolaxicorvatin

>>19804812
it's funny that they're using it for longjing in the pic, or whatever that is, when those kinds of teas tend to brew very well grandpa style

>>19806238
Must be the worst looking design I've ever seen.

>>19806544
I guess it's supposed to look like a perscription drug
white2tea in general has plenty of plain ugly wrappers. I guess their tea must be good if people are still buying it. I think Kuura does the whole "pu-erh that looks like craft beer" hipster aesthetic much better, it looks more professional and consistent

getting more sweetness from the Fa Zhan He again. my sample was definitely more sweet than the full cake is. I wonder what is responsible for the changes in sweetness - the unsorted material? or is it just sweeter when I push it less? my approach to brewing is not precise at all, but maybe I should try to determine this somehow
still a very tasty daily drinker, the more savory edamame aspects I tend to get from the full cake are also nice

>>19806637
Seems like a lot of variation with brew differences.

>>19806708
I always just eyeball everything, so maybe it could just be that more material = a less sweet, more savory brew? or it really is stem and huangpian to leaf ratio
I also considered that it might have something to do with broken leaves, but that's probably not likely, right?

drinking some young Duoteli first grade Liu Bao
very clean, chocolaty, earthy, light on the beetroot and cellar notes. leaves a nice roasty-sweet aftertaste
quite similar to a modern ripe pu-erh. this was only factory-aged for two years, enough to be clean and free of wo dui, but not enough to really get that full-on aged character I've come to expect from the lower grade 2000s and 90s liu bao I've tried

>>19807062
to sum up, I'm quite happy with this one. I think the aftertaste / huigan is the best part, notably better and more long lasting than most ripe and liu bao I've had. I don't really know enough about liu bao to say if it's worth the 18 cent per gram price I got it for, but it is a tasty tea

>>19807062
Sounds good, the modern Duoteli stuff ain't too shabby.

>>19807062
grandpa brewing some 2018 China Tea N3 liubao right now too, big fan of this factory

Anyone had this cheap young raw from KTM? Description seems to claim this is gushu, but surely that's not possible at this price point.
https://kingteamall.com/en-pl/collections/sheng-puerh-raw-tea/products/2023-kingteamall-ru-ya-elegance-cake-357g-puerh-raw-tea-sheng-cha

>>19807330
Haven't tried it. KTMs house productions usually are decent but not anything super fancy.
He doesn't really say it's gushu unless im missing something
>Using early spring big tree tea leaves from Jing Gu region and arbor tree leaves from Meng Hai region
These descriptions are always a bit embellished but roughly arbor is older then tea bushes, big tree is older then arbor, then gushu is older then big tree

>>19807330
>>19807380
Yeah i couldn't remember the term but big tree translates as lao shu, not gu shu

>>19807380
>>19807391
okay, thanks. the terms are a bit confusing, especially since they seem to vary by region, at least that's what William from FL said in one video. and since everyone loves to embellish or just flat out lie

>>19807399
Yes it's confusing, especially when they use different terms and two different languages. And yes im sure a lot of the sellers like it confusing. I guess john is being more honest calling it big tree instead of ancient tree. I tend to interpret most tea age claims as basically just saying "this tea isint from young plantation tea bushes" and even then obviously less scrupulous brands will call random bush tea gushu

>>19804175
Does nobody else have any fun tea tips or tricks? I want to improve my gong fu!

Anyone ever went to a genuine tea house in east asia? what was the experience like? I want to live vicarious right now

>>19804175
>>19807487
I think I'm still too much of a newbie to share tips. But the one thing I find very useful is that ripe pu-erh is so easy to brew by color compared to other tea. It makes the brewing very intuitive once you know your preferences, whether it be hong cha like color or black as tar. I'm sure most here already know this though.

>>19807487
dunno if it counts as a tip but i like flash brewing black tea for the first 3-4 infusions. straight in n out is enough.

>>19799656
Hoping for some tea recommendations. As the cool fall air is settling in, I'm finding myself drawn to genmaicha more and more. Picrel is what I've been drinking and to my understanding its pretty bottom shelf. I like it, but I'm wondering if there's something with a more elevated, clean taste? Maybe something more balanced and clear. I hope that makes sense, I'm not too familiar with discerning tea as you might tell from my giant box of twinings earl grey, but I do also have some imoroted Chinese stuff from white2tea

>>19807727
Buy some everclear, add bergamot rind and vanilla. Wait for the extract to finish. Boil the alcohol, spray over some good black tea. Let it dry out. Enjoy

Personally I would choose some good simao over the traditional qimen. Black tea. But ymmv

>>19807727
what have you got from white2tea?
if you like genmaicha, you might like some other japanese green teas for those leafy seaweed, savory aspects. sencha, bancha, gyokuro etc. just make sure it's 2023 harvest, freshness matters for those teas
you could also look into roasted teas if you like the roastiness from the rice. hojicha and also some oolongs

balanced and clear seems like a very general description to me, most good teas could be considered both of these

>>19807487
Sounds obvious but drink lots of tea
Brew it different ways. Ive been lazily brewing in a gaiwan and dumping it into a large cup that fits the whole pour then drinking that. The other day i got my tea pitcher out and some little 50ml cups and brewed into the pitcher then filled the little cup and it was a surprisingly different experience even though i was ostensibly brewing the same way i always do.
Get used to timing pours by feel. I used to watch my watch or set short timers for brews in the gaiwan but now i only typically use timers for the final 4 minute and 8-10 minute brews
When you are brewing compressed chinks of tea try and watch for when they open up in the gaiwan and keep that brew really short because it will be strong.

>>19800157
Rooibos

>>19807932
>Get used to timing pours by feel
agreed. brewing by feel just seems more fun to me. it can lead to "happy accidents" too when you overbrew or underbrew a bit and discover some new facet of the tea and then next brew you can adjust for more of a normal brew

chunks opening up is big too. and it can vary a lot depending on the tea and its level of compression

Thread for Tea.....

Amazing

>>19807727
drink liu bao

>>19807964
This is the /tea/ equivalent of
>install gentoo

>>19807984
I honestly think liubao is more acessable then ripe puer. But maybe im crazy

>>19808008
I don't necessarily mean to compare them in terms of accessibility. Just that it's never an invalid response lol
I suppose as a Birkenstock share holder I do find ripe more accessible, however.

>>19808008
you ARE crazy. but that's because i've been spiking your liubao

>>19808008
I think so too. I'd say decent liubao is easier found compared to the slew of inexpensive yet garbage pu'er. Think of all the people who'll try shou for the first time only to taste fish or something and think it's all like that. In contrast, you'll be more likely to find acceptably plain liu on the low end at least than you will with cheapshit shou or funky sheng.

>>19808008
>>19808069
I agree that there is more shitty ripe out there than shitty liu bao. but when buying from a reputable store, a newbie could easily get burned by liu bao because of how often it goes heavy on the aged notes. these can really be an acquired taste, not everyone likes beetroot and old cellars in their tea. to buy ripe with those type of flavors, you need to go out of your way a bit

>>19808082
It's consistently dank and musty, which is nice when it comes to an expression. There's no guessing whether you got what you paid for.

>>19808069
>I think so too. I'd say decent liubao is easier found compared to the slew of inexpensive yet garbage pu'er.
I think a lot of that has to do with price, liubao typically costs more. The typical price floor for shou available to the west is much lower than liubao.

>>19808122
Liubao really shot up in price in the last decade. Early 2010s it used to be pretty cheap.

I have a lot of tea. When I have a friend over, and they want some tea, it means they have some fifty or so options and that's just a few too many to list.

So, I've been trying to develop a few questions that narrow the field down. I usually go with-

>Green or Black?
>Caffeinated/Uncaffeinated?
>Sweet or Less Sweet?
>[Sweet] -> Flavored or Unflavored?
>[Flavored] -> Citrus, Other Fruit, or Dessert?
>[Unflavored] -> Floral or Grassy
>[Less Sweet] -> Smoky, Roasted, or Neutral?

And that usually narrows it down to three or so teas to offer or select from. It's not a perfect system, but it works fairly well for the cheap teas my guests tend to prefer, and the primary intent is to try and match their mood at the moment.

>>19808143
Just make them something. Playing 20 questions is too much.

>>19808153
I used to just narrow it down to two questions (Sweet or Not Sweet, Sharp [ie. Citrussy, Bitter, etc.] or Mellow [neutral, smoky, grassy, vanilla, etc.], and then select three or so teas that fit those four categories, but it felt a little restrictive.

>>19808143
Way too much, sounds troublesome. I'd advise simplifying it. People don't want to play 20 questions, especially those who aren't that accustomed to tea/tisanes. You should take the role of a participating host, and have the person drink a session alongside you. You don't have to match someone's "mood" all the time...rather, show your guest(s) a mood, a unique flavor and aroma experience that you want(ed) to share with him/her. I've done this with people of all ages, and they all enjoyed it because it was simple, chill, and pleasant.

>>19807984
Nah, "drink more tea" is a better equivalent.

>>19808143
I would try to keep it more simple and conversational and base it on their interest and experience levels. Start by asking what kind of tea do they like. You also need to use some personal discretion as the host.

>>19801433
>>19801402

looking for good tian jian, wuyi oolong, and xiaguan tuos (and maybe also other sheng havent looked into them too much)

if there are any good places for japanese green tea i might check those out too, bancha, sencha, hojicha, and genmaicha specifically

then maybe like some cheap ripes, dianhong, and lapsang souchong

Drink more liubao, terrible color rendering led lighting edition

>>19808761
>good tian jian,
Yunnan sourcing, chawang shop
>wuyi oolong
Chawange shop, one of the yancha specialist shops, maybe king tea mall if you stick with their most premium offerings
>Xiaguan tuos
King tea mall, fullchea has a few.
>Japanese greens
https://yunomi.life has a wide selection
https://www.sazentea.com/en also
>cheap ripes,
Awazon, fullchea, chawangshop
Overall my suggestion is to poke aroun on chawangshops site and toy with putting an order together and see how much you can cross off the list.

>>19808838
Overall, chawangshop has better yancha then most outside of the specialty shops, a solid selection of heicha, he doesn't have a ton of red teas but he only gets good ones, also puer.

Where can a brother drop like two bills on a wood fired gaiwan with a traditional fangu wood ash glaze in the style of ming era porcelain? Do i have to just grunt through taobao with my notepad full of teaware related Chinese charecters? Should i try to convince the essence of tea guy to commission some?
Pic somewhat related

>>19809043
Maybe fangu is the wrong term, i dunno what the context of its meaning is. I don't think they were making the thin walled porcelain gaiwans with lids we use today during the ming dynasty. I just want a nice possibly even contemporary styled gaiwan with that dank wood ash glaze baked in the big ass wood oven.
Like eot did with these Gongdaobei

Fuck it, night time tea.

>>19809071
Is that some oolong?

Speaking of EoT i missed this before but they did a ripe raw blend clocking in at ~22¢ per gram
I know at least one of you was mad that YS never made another ripe raw cake.
https://essenceoftea.com/collections/puerh-tea/products/2023-breakfast-for-meditators-mini-puerh-cake?variant=46930957893912

What the max amount of tea(grams) that you've consumed in a day? And how did you feel?

>>19809143
30 something grams
I felt fine, tea doesn't get me all jittery like coffee does unless i drink a whole lot at once

>>19809092
Yeah, milky oolongs make me sleepy drunk.

I single-handedly created the puer lesbian meme around four or five years ago. AMA

>>19809158
i usually have around 28g per day maybe more.
the ones i can only drink once per day are puerh from menghai, those are the stronger ones.

I just noticed that I can drink tea during "work".
I already feel much less like a walking corpse.
>>19809071
I have the same mug just in purple. Taiwanteacrafts made a mistake and I got someone elses order.
I really wouldn't buy such expensive teaware (80 bugs for a fucking mug!) but it sure feels nice, drinking out of such exclusive teaware.
Makes me feel like some noble chinaman.

>>19802772
Muzha Tieguanyin is one of my favorites, it's more heavily roasted and has a deeper carmelized/ toasty flavor compared to Anxi TGY.
>>19807511
I'm visiting Taiwan next week. I will report back here on my tea adventures.

>>19809143
probably coming up to 35-40g if i've got a big jug of coldbrew and some other stuff in the day, that type of thing ends up happening on summer weekends. i recall feeling hydrated

drinking Ai Lao yesheng hong cha from thetea.pl today. the store has a -9% sale on right now btw

really fruity. forest fruit, blackcurrant, maybe some passion fruit. almost sour. a bit of that tree resin / hops note and some very light malt
always interesting to try the more oddball black teas out there, though I personally tend to prefer the more robust and sweet ones

Finishing up the rest of the shincha I got from o-cha
Damn this shit is murky as fuck
I feel like it got darker with time too, might not be as fresh tasting as a few months ago

>>19809821
Thank you Anon, can't wait to hear your experience. I'm sick right now and can't travel. Had to change drinking coffee to tea and I am never going back

been a while since i threw out tea after a couple steeps. sure enough when i checked it was yeeon's cheapest sample i added on for a laugh. couldn't recommend it.

>>19809821
>visiting Taiwan
cool, hope you get to try some good shit.

>>19809821
>I'm visiting Taiwan next week. I will report back here on my tea adventures.
If you can you should visit Wistaria Tea House in Taipei. It is a historical landmark and a high end tea shop.
https://www.wistariateahouse.com/mainssl/modules/MySpace/index.php

>>19810390
Not the cheapest one per gram but yeah, they offer tiny 10 gram samples of this one. I thought about throwing it in too. Is it really that bad?

>>19809473
What was your inspiration? What is the lineage of the meme?

>>19810477
it's so cheap you might as well try it, maybe you'd like it. at least one reviewer did. i found it bland and then when i brewed it harder it just took on a nasty overbrewed taste. i'll give the other half of the sample a go in a month or something and see if my mind changes.

>>19809943
tastes more bitter than I remember, but fine otherwise. I still have one unopened bag of shincha in the fridge, I'm sure that one will still be quite fresh. I guess I could have freezed it too.

>>19809099
Not the vendor I would have expected to make a raw ripe blend. Seems a bit expensive for what ostensibly a daily drinker sort of tea. I am not sure how I feel about young raw ripe blends. I think the mix makes more sense with aged tea to round off the conflicting flavors and meld things together better. An aged blend would also be more accurate to what you would get at a traditional dim sung place.

odds liu an, evens fu cha

>>19810858
Fu it its
09 gao jia shan from YS

looking to make an order at king tea mall. was thinking about getting a mengku rongshi raw cake, maybe a few years old but pretty young. Ive heard good things about them and was wondering if any anons had recommendations. I was also thinking of getting some liu bao and some factory ripes. I love a good beety liu bao, as well as a cleaner tasting one. and for ripes I was thinkingbof getting a standard classic. any must gets or recs?

>>19810944
oh and maybe some lao cha tuo, seems like a fun thing ti try

>>19810944
for mengku rongshi, the description someone provided for the 2021 tea spirit a few threads ago seemed very appealing to me. a higher quality take on the old school factory style sounds pretty great to me

the 2006 CNNP liu bao is a nice budget option for a beety, dirty liu bao. for ripes, I've enjoyed the 2018 Haiwan 9978 a lot. some of their most recent Dayi ripes are more reasonably priced as well.
as far as lao cha tou goes, I've had the 2014 100 gram Dayi brick and it was pretty good. kind of like your average Dayi ripe, but with a better body and more longevity. the Haiwan cha tou brick also looks itneresting

here is my latest KTM order that should arrive in a week or two btw, maybe you'll see something you like

>>19810944
Wait for me to get home to check my spreadsheet before you put in an order. I have a recommendation!

>>19810944
For mengku rongshi i strongly reccomend this, one of the best teas i drank last year, price is still reasonable as well.
https://kingteamall.com/collections/2021-mengku-rongshi/products/2020-mengku-rongshi-ben-wei-da-cheng-original-flavor-great-achievement-cake-500g-puerh-raw-tea-sheng-cha?variant=38075600109748
Very representative of high quality modern productions from this factory and a really good show of the regions charecter.
For liubao a few posters have gotten tea from those 80s/90s baskets and liked them. The 2006 cnnp liubao is also cheap and reasonably good.
For ripes this years 7572 is somewhat reasonably priced
https://kingteamall.com/collections/shou-puerh-ripe-tea/products/2023-dayi-7572-cake-1st-batch-357g-puerh-shou-shu-cha-ripe-tea?variant=43887748120806
The fancy special edition xiaguan tuos should be fun if a bit expensive
https://kingteamall.com/collections/shou-puerh-ripe-tea/products/2022-xiaguan-xiao-fa-tuo-lan-biao-xiaofa-tuo-blue-label-updated-7663-recipe-100g-puerh-shou-cha-ripe-tea?variant=43777033765094
https://kingteamall.com/collections/shou-puerh-ripe-tea/products/2021-xiaguan-xiao-fa-tuo-7663-45-years-anniversary-100g-puerh-ripe-tea-shou-cha
He also added some different old ripes that sound good
kingteamall.com/collections/shou-puerh-ripe-tea/products/2007-xinghai-mei-li-xing-hai-charming-xinghai-cake-357g-puerh-ripe-tea-shou

I've had this thought before, but do any of you anons think aromas may come through more clearly when less leaf is used? I've had a frequent experience of noticing a fuller aroma in my infusions when my gaiwan isn't as full of material, at expense of perhaps concentration of flavor/texture. I think it has to do with the material having more space to open up compared to being stuffed up, like, for instance, how some do with shou pu'er and various heicha. Currently infusing some yue guang bai that I'm finishing a cake of, and I'm picking up more fruity aroma notes in the gaiwan than usual. I've had this experience with all kinds of teas, so I do think it all comes down to balancing the amount of leaf to allow full opening of materials. Could just be placebo too (I'm also experimenting with storage), but it's been on my mind for a long time.

>>19811092
Whoops i cocked up that last link
https://kingteamall.com/collections/shou-puerh-ripe-tea/products/2007-xinghai-mei-li-xing-hai-charming-xinghai-cake-357g-puerh-ripe-tea-shou-cha

>>19809821
>I'm visiting Taiwan next week
Safe travels anon. I visited Taiwan a few years ago and had a great time. Wish I was more into /tea/ back then.

Have you enrolled in the Lucky Land lottery? If you win, you get a travel stipend to cover transportation cost/select store purchases.

https://www.. taiwannews.com .tw/en/news/4879972

>>19811098
Theoretically, as all this is complicated science involving esters, terpines and temperature, less leaf could yield more subtle notes that are easily overpowered by a stronger brew with more forward scents. There's one compound in cannabis that smells like mango and breaks down at 85F or from sunlight. Poor processing will make it disappear and it usually only becomes a noticeable flavor compound when vaporized without burning. You could be releasing some of those delicate molecules and compounds without the stronger base notes.

Or you're picking up more nuance the more you drink it and what was once a ? on initial tasting becomes, say, citrus>fruit>persimmon rind as you develop an expanded and nuanced perception for it. Wine tasting is rife with both and pretty well studied from both a phenomenological and chemical perspective, so it could be both.

I think the express purpose of gongfu brewing is to approach this kind of science from an aesthetic perspective and tailor a brew towards all of that. Finding it, expanding your phenomenal horizons, making new connections in the phenomenal field of experience, making a brew that expresses those things in the way you enjoy most.

I'll also confound the whole discussion and say that putting age on anything changes it in significant ways, pipe tobacco is notorious for being rather bland or astringent and grassy when fresh and developing strange fruit notes under any amount of aging. What starts as sweet hay and burning spice turns into stewed plums after a year.

>>19811196
Excellent notes, thank you for your input. You bring up some points in a way I had not fully considered yet. It brings to mind how I often prefer a slightly lower temperature infusion or flash infusion of any leaf I use. Where other anons may prefer to load up their vessels on material and infuse for minutes at a time at higher temperatures, I'd sooner infuse multiple times very gently precisely because the subtle aroma qualities felt so much more distinct and distinguishable. The more forward notes and textures may be experienced differently as a result, but perhaps that's a good thing.
>I think the express purpose of gongfu brewing is to approach this kind of science from an aesthetic perspective and tailor a brew towards all of that.
I agree; I've certainly experienced a shift towards this myself over time. While I might take initial tastings of a new tea with a more measured, scientific overview (including journal entries), the regular experience is so much more casual and instinctive. What would be "5g/100ml" becomes "it'll expand to about that much in the gaiwan". What would have been a timed infusion is subconsciously handled, and yet, the infusion will be just right each time. In a way, I wonder if this mental shift might be like clearing a 'barrier' to greater comprehension. Though, there are of course many valid and reasonable ways to enjoy it all.

Perhaps I come across as odd or pompous in my statements, but I think these concepts should definitely be explored by more people. My favorite aspect of tea is in the dry/wet aromas, as well as retronasal aromas. It's sensing that 'nuance' of perception you mentioned that makes the experience so much more engaging and special in my view. I'd say it improves the meditative experience of a session too.

>>19811316
Nah, you're an aesthetician and like aroma over the texture of soup and liquor or base flavors, it's pretty clear. I've been fucking around with eastern art music with a Sufic spiritual competent and it has refined things in the same way, so it's a very fresh comparison to make. It's all light and shadows, echoes of things being presented. You have to find your own expression of what you're given to work with.

I think the raw sciences, of chemical compounds and phenomenology, are crucial and endemic to aesthetic philosophy, but it's not a scientific process, it's an artistic one meant to be enjoyed. I get a little peeved when anyone goes too deep into it as a metric or rule. It's a thing felt, which is why we collect so much drug paraphernalia and ritual to do the act. Smoking a pipe is 80% the act, and the rest is retronasal flavors and a very similar and unusual kind of buzz compared to the less refined shit.

I find the best experience is one without pretense, especially with a partner, where there is some tea talk and discussion of gauging the pot of sauce, but it falls to the background as an understanding develops of what exactly it is that you're trying to get from it. Squares play cards, I read cards from time to time, breaking out this kind of contrivance with a special kettle and tray you pour waste water into to sip out of tiny cups for no particular reason is a more refined version of that. Even here, we're sharing in something and tea is only the vehicle and not the thing we speak of.

Yeah, you're balls deep in "The Point" of it all and the question is not whether you're doing it right or getting something out of it, it's more that the experience and being present to such a degree that said Point is the entirety of the act itself on a macrocosmic scale. Baudrillard welcomed consumers to the desert of the Real, this is one of the Oases. Pictured is a tong of 30 year old puerh or box of competition wuyi.

What are some good sources for teaware, trays and cups specifically. I'd prefer some wood fired shit that looks lumpy and pretty but isn't retarded artisan prices.

>>19811767
Chawangshop has some modestly-priced woodfired works. I daily-drive a gaiwan from them that's both beautiful and comfortable to use. They have some appealing cups and teapots as well.

>>19811767
The two etsy shops linked in the pastebin are pretty solid
https://www.etsy.com/shop/TreasureTeawares
https://www.etsy.com/shop/GraceTeawares
These guys have a few interesting pieces and some more pedestrian stuff
https://www.craftedleaf-tea.com
Seconding chawangshop as well they have lots of affordable wood fired stuff

>>19811767
For tea trays bitterleaf teas and kong mountain tea tend to stock a lot of the plate style ones. Purple cloud has a few sizes of the ones that are a clay bowl with a draining lid.
You can also find some pretty cool ones on aliepress if you spend a bit of time digging.

>>19811001
awesome I'll check those out. That liu bao looks pretty good. Im surprised how cheap the 80's and 90's stuff is, maybe ill pick up a hundred grams of that too.

>>19811033
ill probably put my order in in a day or two, thanks!

>>19811092
That sheng seems similar to the one the other anon linked, I might go for that one since its a bit cheaper. Not gonna lie the art of the old guy sniffing is half the reason I wanna get it. Ill check out those ripes too, that old one looks interesting. Thanks for the recomendations!

britanons, is whittard any good? my brit cousin keeps going on and on about them

>>19809071
me too. couldn't sleep but at least now i'm comfy
>>19809821
have a nice trip

>>19811884
>That sheng seems similar to the one the other anon linked, I might go for that one since its a bit cheaper.
Go for it, the 2020 good accomplishment great job cake is really good. One of my favorite raws from that factory

>>19810944
>>19811033
>>19811884
>>19810944
Mengku Rongshi has not disappointed me yet. A cake I would like somebody else to try is Qiao Mu Xiao Sheng Bing. It's a cute little 100g mini cake that I think tastes like blue raspberry candy (or gas station slushy if you're Midwest USA). The note is fairly light, and mostly prominent during the strongest infusions. I would consider it a favor to corroborate it with anon.
https://kingteamall.com/products/2011-mengku-rongshi-qiao-mu-xiao-sheng-bing-arbor-small-raw-cake-145g-puerh-raw-tea-sheng-cha?variant=31463500611687

The other recommendations in the thread are solid, too. Pick up a Xiao Fa from Xiaguan if you haven't tried it before.

I brew my oolong tea in a french press

>>19812301
I also brew my oolong in a steel mate gourd and drink it with the bombilla.

When does the autumn teas are usually released on online shops?

>>19810481
>be me
>dependent on coffee for twenty years
>need a chang
>tea!
>long time /ck/ poster
>avoided /tea/ because youre all autistic weebs
>finally browse /tea/
>sooooooo many puer posts
>isnt that a DBZ character?
>/tea/ is gay fuck this
>start going to local tea houses for jap and indian tea
>90% of the staff at all non-Asian tea houses are lesbians
>???
>weeb friend starts drinking puer
>smells like week old laundry basket of unwashed yoga pants
>a shitpost begins to coalesce in my mind
And then a bunch of teanons jumped on "puer lesbian" because puer had dominated /tea/ for a long time, people were sick of it, and the rest is herstory.

>>19799735
interesting, never considered rosemary. i'll try a sprig from my plant in my cuppa next time

>>19811316
>>19811573
just wanted to say I enjoyed reading this

>>19810416
I definitely will, thanks.
>>19811155
I had the site bookmarked but almost forgot about it, thanks for the reminder.

>>19811767
if you like the bizen-style "kiln effects" look, check out the wood-fired category at Taiwan tea crafts. I think they have some quite pretty stuff over there. not cheap, but cheaper than most Japanese bizen ware of a similar quality

essence of tea isn't really worth considering if I'm a cheapskate, right?

>>19813225
Looking at all this pretty wood fired pottery made me bring out my own bizen yunomi
Used to use it for black tea, but desu it works much better with Japanese greens, both aesthetically (nice rustic look) and practically, as it can get too hot with the boiling water that I use for black teas. I do wish I got a smaller one in hindsight, it's very much mug-sized. But it fits the size of the kyusu and works well for daily drinkers.

Morning, what tea are you all having today?

>>19813574
Had some grandpa peak vulture last night. Couldn't sleep at all so I've been thinking about getting up to refill it for the last 2 hours.

>>19813574
finished up the rest of my Chiran sencha from O-cha. well, I guess it was shincha when I got it in the spring
thick and cloudy, savory, grassy, vegetably, broth-like, asparagus. some florals on the nose, like a field of grass and wilting flowers. some citrus-like astringency and it can get quite bitter if overbrewed.

honestly I've never had a decently fresh Japanese green tea I didn't enjoy. even the cheapo last year's bancha I got from some local store is surprisingly good. not very complex, but has some sweetness and florals to counter the typical savory flavors, I was really surprised. I think the balance of flavors inherent to most competently made japanese green teas just inherently appeals to me

>>19813588
why the hell not. after a couple hours i give up and go do something else for a while.
>peak vulture
what's that?

>>19813574
today is a day for best taste ripe from yeeon. i'm gonna have it with the pork stew for dinner also.

>>19813273
nice pottery.

>>19813734
w2t anniversary ripe. Think they pop up around feb.
https://white2tea.com/collections/latest-additions/products/2022-peak-vulture

>>19813734
>nice pottery
thanks. the pot I found at a thrift store at the day of my birthday. pretty crazy coincidence. it was a steal, for a kyusu made by a competent artisan
the cup I bought on ebay. I like it a lot, though I paid so much for the shipping and tax that I don't think I'll ever buy Japanese pottery on ebay again

>>19813734
how's the best taste? everyone seems to love that one

having a strongly roasted GABA oolong. smells like cinnamon rolls, vanilla and maple syrup. taste isn't quite as outstanding, but still a nice comfy brew

>>19799676
I harvested some blackberry and raspberry leaves, sorted them, dried them a bit, then fermented for three days. Then dried and put em in a glass. The end result was absolutely delicious. A golden cup with flavors of chamomile, wheat grass, apple and some funk from the fermentation. Certainly unlike most herbal teas I've had.

>>19813755
it's well balanced between the classical ripe and storage tastes, and 10c/g so affordable for easy comfy drinking. i think it has broad appeal for these reasons. yeeon says it's a blend but it's not clear to me what it's a blend of.

>>19813743
$15 for the cake? i've not bought from w2t before but thats tempting.

>>19800535
Small to medium glass teapot is my preferred solution. It doesn't look nearly as nice as Gaiwan or a clay pot, certainly. But I believe it is objectively superior to how most people brew tea, especially ppl using tea eggs or bags. I've perfected my setup over more or less two decades now, and really cannot go back. It's extremely simple:

One medium glass pot for the loose leaf. A second pot for your tea. Put your tea in, hit it with water, and watch as the color changes. I've found this to be almost more precise than measuring time, water and weight, unless you use a literal scale for every aspect, in which case fair enough. I cba weighing my water every time, and as we all know measuring by eye is incredibly inaccurate, even if your water cooker has markings.

Usually my amount of water fluctuates by ~20% and the same goes for the amount of tea, (I just use a teaspoon), so worst comes to worst one would have to adjust cooking time in the same manner.

But since I go by color I can simply ignore those two aspects completely and exclusively focus on ideal temp and time.

There's also something incredibly nice and relaxing about watching the color change. After the tea is done, I simply pour it from one pot to the next through a sieve. Done.

I've tried Taiwan, Clay pot, cold brew and everything under the sun. I still do those sometimes depending on what kind of tea I'm drinking. But 90% of the time, every single morning, I go back to my glass setup. Especially if you're cooking tea for two people it's fast and effective.

No idea why I got so passionate, I just really like the glass setup. The only shitty thing about it is that it breaks, obviously. I've replaced like 4 of them in ~20 years.

>>19813804
>$15 for the cake?
Yep. He'll also be putting out a $15 raw cake on black friday. $75 a tong. Usually does a shipping deal with them as well. I think both are worth a try.
https://white2tea.com/products/2022-snoozefest

>>19801373
> almost feel like I could try ten teas I've never had before and sort them by price.

My partner went to a teashop once specializing in Japanese greens. She smelled all the boxes and asked the owner some questions etc. about price. The one sencha she wanted was bizarrely expensive. So the weird ass tea shop guy suggested a bet: if she could correctly order 5 different sencha by price just by virtue if smelling, she'd get one for free. We still have that premium Sencha, I make it once a year.

So yeah, it's definitely possible. I myself couldn't do it, but there are people who can.

>>19801584
>>19801619
There is objectively nothing wrong with breakfast blends, or blends in general. Even the highest end coffee beans are often blends. In Whiskey, too, there are high end blended ones.

I make my own from Turkish Ceylon and Sri Lankan wild green. It's so cheap they're practically paying you to drink it, and the flavors are lovely. A good blend for an every day sip. I don't want/need to drink a rare Oolong or a Pu Erh ecery morning, in fact I like having a "special" tea occasionally, and doing the whole tea ceremony shit around it. The variety is really what it's all about. Having a standard mix and experimenting on the side.

Yes, many commercial "blends" are literally factory sweepings, but that doesn't mean the concept is invalid.

>>19804812
Just get two glass pots. I've tried every version of pot with inbuilt mesh and guess what, it fucking sucks. Even if it doesn't break or clog (impossible), your leaves still can't move around as nicely as they could if you just went for a glass pot

>>19806066
You steered it for too long, simple as that. Always stop when your color is red, bordering on brown

>>19813233
>essence of tea isn't really worth considering if I'm a cheapskate, right?
They are definitely not a shop to look for bargains.

>>19813273
Cool, is fun to see some Japanese ceramics here

>>19813842
I drink Scott's blend of purple black teas, and his impression series of Sheng. So I know blends taste good. It just seems that anon was talking about teabags.

>>19813804
>$15 for the cake
note that w2t does 200 gram cakes, so that's more like 27$ in a standard cake size
>>19813814
might actually order from them for the first time if there's a shipping deal. any must-tries on the cheaper end?

>>19813826
interesting. personally for japanese greens I seem to have inexpensive tastes, I'm happy with any low to mid tier slop as long as it's fresh
I'm starting to find that I quite like cheap teas from some categories. I can really enjoy 15$ per cake ripe a lot more than the price might suggest and I'm starting to think I might prefer smoky rough factory sheng over cleaner, usually more expensive productions.
oddly enough, black tea is the one category where I much prefer the expensive stuff. I'm hoping some of the black teas I got with my last KTM order might change that

>>19813842
I don't think the anon was trying to diss on the concept of blends, just that people apply the idea of cha qi to high end pu-erh and not English Breakfast.
Blends obviously have their place, from Da Hong Pao to famous factory pu-erh, some of the most expensive tea in the world is blended.

>>19813881
yeah I figured, the descriptions of some of their cheaper cakes just gave me that urge to consoom
>>19813886
what can I say, Hyouge Mono cursed me with an interest in Japanese ceramics that is entirely beyond my budget. I might branch out into Chinese stuff more though. bought some Jianzhan cups from KTM for now, will upload some photos when I get them

>>19813952
Ripe puer is a pretty good deal for what you get, as far as a consistent profile and desirable qualities go.

>>19813966
EoT has a lot of "wild" varietals that are good and affordable, just not for puerh.

>>19813943
Hokum is a good little daily drinker ripe. I like Lesser evils more but its almost 2x the price. I really liked the sample of three spot guanyin I got too. Moon waffles is good but I don't have much reference for whites. Other than that I'd maybe snag 50g of both nuggets if they're still available in a month.
https://white2tea.com/collections/latest-additions/products/five-pile-laochatou
https://white2tea.com/collections/latest-additions/products/wood-chips-laochatou

>>19813970
>EoT has a lot of "wild" varietals that are good and affordable
oh yeah, that's what I meant. all the young wild cakes sounded appealing. I'm not really the target audience for 1000$ aged pu-erh cakes

>>19813804
>yeeon says it's a blend but it's not clear to me what it's a blend of.
It seems like its mostly loose ripe but i do see the occasional chunks of broken up cakes. Hk vendors like to do blends where they break up a bunch of cakes and sell it as loose tea.

>>19813943
>any must-tries on the cheaper end?
Awful name aside lumber Lumber Slut is pretty interesting and is one of their signature cheap ripe blends. Its a woody shou if the name did not give it away. Worth grabbing a sample of at least.
https://white2tea.com/search?type=product&q=lumber%20slut*
Note that W2T offers pretty reasonably priced samples if you want to try some cakes without committing to them

>>19813976
thanks. I find the names of white2tea cakes a bit confusing, so it's nice to have some pointers
>>19814055
when it comes to ripe I think I am beyond samples at this point, a cake is a sample for the cheaper stuff

>>19814178
>cake is a sample
Based

>>19814187
I mean I know I like ripe, I know I will drink it anyway, so why even sample?
15$ Haiwan 9978? delicious. 12$ Fuhai 7576? quite nice.
this has also kept me from sampling much expensive ripe for now though. I can't help but feel like I would have "damn, I could have bought a whole musty Awazon cake for the price of this sample" nagging at the back of my mind

>>19814223
There's a price/performance ratio and diminishing returns there. The high dollar shit is way better, but it doesn't scale with the price. It's the whisky game where a no age statement is not quite as good as a 16 year, but is a third of the price.

Can someone explain how wanting some better loose tea turned into shopping for magic clay teapots, the terroir of Hong Kong basements, and blogs about wasp moonshine? I'm not complaining but I feel like I took a wrong turn somewhere.

>>19814492
The veil of ignorance lifts away, and the autism on which the subject is built upon is revealed.

>>19814492
Tea has thousands of years of history, reverence, and love as a hobby. It's been consumed by everyone from godly emperors to dirt eating peasants. Nearly every human experience to happen in the last three thousand years has been accompanied by tea.
It's only natural there's a lot of things that has happened to tea and a lot of ways to experience it.

>>19814492
I think every enthusiast (active or budding) naturally experiences some degree of this. The idea of "there is better tea than this" turns into "well, where is it? What is it, and what is it like?" The more you become experienced with in your daily life, the more your interest peaks, and so the deeper you'll dig. Caffeine is technically a psychoactive stimulant after all, so it only makes sense from that front too. That said, as an often more 'stiff' individual, I find everything associated with it to be meditative and relaxing too. If you like learning about weird storage and mineral balancing, what's the harm but a pleasant evening with equally pleasant aromas? I think you should enjoy the historical and aesthetic qualities of tea just how you like.

>>19814492
chinese civilization has been at it for a long time. thousands of years of tea hobbyists came up with a lot of weird shit, and when you factor in the medical, mystical and meditative elements of tea culture it can get really fucking weird

>>19813943
this post lit the flames of autism in my heart, so i've made a browser extension that reveals price per gram and price per standard cake. just YS and W2T for now. i'm sure there's bugs i missed especially on YS, but if anyone wants it i can provide link to get it on gitlab (it takes a while to get on extension stores)

>>19814223
>this has also kept me from sampling much expensive ripe for now though
If you haven't gotten a 100g portion of the bojun ripe brick from tea expert order it right fucking now. Don't think just buy. Dark chocolate black forest cake
https://tea-expert.net/mengku/00135-mengku-bojun-2020?page=2

>>19814492
I still insist that collecting clay teapots is a separate hobby thats only sort of related to tea

>>19814663
Based

>>19814663
Yeah gitlab me, please

>>19814520
That seems closest to the truth. I've learned absolutely nothing about tea. Plenty about home distillation and warehousing but nothing about tea.

>>19814667
Collecting? Sure. Pots as a functional element? That's very directly related.

>>19814686
https://gitlab.com/glodfinch/tease
there's an XPI file there, or i think in chrome you might have to load it as an unpacked extension.
feel free to let me know if you have a request or bug, but maybe best to keep such things in the gitlab issue tracker to not be too far off-topic in the thread.

>>19814710
Yep no problem

Speaking of YoT best taste ripe i tossed some in a mug earlier to grampa brew. It's pretty nice, material obviously isint fancy but is nice and smooth and easy to drink.

>>19814303
If I think diminishing returns with whiskey are beyond 100$ per bottle, where would they be with tea?

>>19814962
40¢ per gram

>>19814974
I guess its 50¢/g now with inflation

>>19814980
[Insert "Sad But True" by Metallica.]

>>19814962
for ripe? around 8 cents per gram.

>>19814988
Hm, what does 8¢/g get you?

>>19815010
that's around the price of a Dayi 7572
most of the daily drinker ripes from reputable factories are around 4-8 cents per gram. I think below that price bracket you mostly get much worse ripes and above it you get a lot of smaller production stuff that can be different but not necessarily much more tasty

>>19813863
What kind of glass pot?

>>19799676
I have shilled it before but the "He Family" Laoshan village herbal teas from verdanttea.com are quite good. The "Lu Family" ones may be good as well I just have tried them yet. In particular I am partial to the laoshan huai flower tea. I was just sipping some a few minutes ago.
https://verdanttea.com/laoshan-shandong-huai-hua-sophora-flower-scholars-tree-herbal-tisane

I also like geek mountain tea and the the other teas from Klio tea.
https://kliotea.com/collections/tea

>>19815436
>greek lemon verbena
Lemon verbena is great, would recommend if you haven't tried it yet

>>19815540
The greek lemon verbena from kliotea is actually one of my favorites. It is fantastic. I think I will make some tomorrow.

Any accessories for tea that you love using? Weird and unsual is better.

>>19815932
I use a screwdriver as a tea pick. I wouldn't trade it for another.

>>19815942
I used fingers then a knife then bought a steel "needle" and never changed

>>19799656
I discovered that coffee was causing the bloating that's so severe I feel side pain, so is there any tea that taste like coffee?

>>19816098
strongly brewed ripe pu-erh is the closest IMO. it has the body, creaminess and the chocolaty roasty notes.
just don't buy the cheapest stuff, it can be pretty nasty. Haiwan 9978 and any of the cheaper stuff from Dayi are common bang for your bang reccs. or just poke around some tea sites from the pastebin and get some samples to see if you even like ripe. good idea to get some roasted oolong too

new thread:
>>19816602
>>19816602
>>19816602

Buy more Raku chawans.

>>19813952
I'm similar to you. For Indian or Turkish black teas I genuinely even like cheap/budget options, it's Okay if they have a very strong flavor and more "woody" leaves. For japanese green teas I mostly drink the medium priced range ones. I can't really tell a good sencha from an excellent one personally. Only thing I really like to splurge on is Oolongs, Whites, Yellows and Chinese Black/Red. I recently had a Pomelo flower Oolong and that was some of the best shit I ever had.

>>19815435
I think round with a lid is best, personally. I don't buy brands, just the cheapest

>>19816098
This is the absolute closest tea that tasted like a black coffee to me. Try overbrewing it, it doesn't get anywhere as bitter as coffee.
https://floatingleaves.com/collections/rich-savory-oolong/products/dark-roast-tie-guan-yin