/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>5056044

Amazon, usually. There are an infinite variety of teas to try. Personally I like Russian Caravan tea (a MANLY tea). In the same breath, teas like "Puh-erh" are INCREDIBLE. Even orange pekoe tea isn't all bad!

I get it from online stores. Teavana has some decent tea, but yeah it's overpriced and hardselling all that useless bullshit. It's meant for soccer moms associating with Eastern pseudomystical bullshit.

Here's one:

http://www.uptontea.com/shopcart/home.asp

But there are many more.

I like all kinds, but mostly have experience with standard green and black teas. I really enjoy pu-er and jasmine, though Earl Grey is almost always a morning standby for me.

I get tea from the grocery store. I know it is lame, but I don't have a tea shop in my town and I am not ordering anything I haven't tried first (I will order harney and sons teas though because they are wonderful) I usually go for earl grey or ginger peach tea.

>>5056071
I was thinking amazon, but I wasn't sure if there was some great site for tea.

Adagio's pretty good, a little pricey but a lot of variety too.

>>5056085
IMO black tea from the grocery store isn't too bad. I'm no connoisseur, but loose leaf black teas and Twinings bags haven't really had a staggering difference in quality for me. Green tea from the grocery store is absolute trash, though, and there is a huge difference between that and something from a decent store.

Gotta get some of dat Trader Joe's tea my friend.

Try the Pumpkin Spice Rooibus when fall comes back around.

>>5056111

agree with this. jasmine green tea is what I enjoy every morning usually and have tried tons. no tea bags have ever come close even to the cheap loose leaf jasmine green at my local peet's

in comparison, the tea bags are usually either significantly more bitter even if you take care to avoid it while brewing, or so weak that you need two of them to taste it. the jasmine fragrance isn't as good either. it's easier to just get loose leaf for delicate green tea flavor and light scent of jasmine that you can smell and taste without it overpowering the green tea or being nonexistant

>>5056081
>http://www.uptontea.com/shopcart/home.asp

I second this. Upton rocks. You can get a couple dozen samples for as many dollars. And upton is definitely divorced from the whole "flavored black tea" thing that all the hip young folks are into. Seriously if you go to an online retailers site and the first thing you see is a rose blossom blackcurrant boisonberry sunrise black tea blend then you are absolutely in the wrong place. If you have to peddle your flavored bullshit then your tea probably sucks.

But yeah man, Upton. Get a buncha samples and find some things you like. Simple as that.

>>5056095

Adagio is indeed a little expensive. Frankly I have paid less elsewhere for better tasting teas. Also adagio really fell out of favor with me when I got moldy tea from them. They were very apologetic and awesome about giving me back my money but still. Thats fucked.

>>5056044
I work at a tea importer in Minneapolis, so I take home the samples we're sent when we decide on our purchasing. Shit's REALLY cash, yo. That awesome stuff that we want to carry but is too expensive to sell? That's one of the perks of my job.

>>5056332

does this importer sell to the public? "importer" seems to mean a lot of things in the tea businses.

how do I even make tea. What use?

>>5056343
Tea leaves, tea pot, strainer, and hot water.
No cup, just pour it directly into your maw.

>>5056338
Yes, retail and wholesale. We just got in (I think) 8 pallets of tea direct from china this month. So when I say importer, I mean we source our own shit.

Local tea shop > David's Teas >>> Teavana

Teavana is expensive as shit and David's Teas is another multi-state chain that offers tea just as good for a smaller price. If you have a local place, even better.

Also, anybody here to to Argo? It's alright, a bit pricey, but it's pretty much the only tea chain around here. Beats the shit out of Peet's.

>>5056374
what is it called?

>>5056391

argo, davids, and teavana are the kinds of places that push flavored crap teas for exorbitant prices while the people working there dont know how to make green tea. its shit tier pleb crap.

>>5056081
Thanks for the link mate, been looking for decently priced tea online.

Normally I like to get my tea from a local asian store. You can get a 1lb tin of loose leaf tea from there for about $2 and it's good shit, you get the full pieces of tea, not a bunch of sawdust.

I've been to Teavana and it's nice to have the free tea samples but I've been given some of their tea by friends and when I brew that stuff in a mesh strainer at the bottom I get tons of loose dust pieces.

I also received one of their cups which is pretty and decorated and has a built in removable strainer and a lid and the strainer is the same material as the cup, and the holes in it are so big that most tea just falls through. Their strainers don't fit their tea pots either so a lid can't be put on the tea pot while the tea is steeping.

>>5056416
Tea Source

Are there any teas with calories (I mean like over five)? I know tea is generally free of calories but ive ran into some that have like 30 calories a serving (Teavana...).

>>5056449
That's because those fuckers add sugar to their samples.

>>5056449
because of all the bullshit they put in there. tea should be tea. davids and teavana sell shit thats more akin to a frappuccino. imo.

High end grocery store here called dean and de luca, pretty sure they have a website. They sell these little 32 dollar tins of tea and fuck that jasmine green tea of theres. It's got orange flowers and all this stuff in it, nothing can compare. I don't think the kind they sell on the website is the same as you can get in the stores but i'm sure its still great.

Pete's coffee & tea's pu erh is amazing as well. Comes in small cakes and is pretty damn good, you can just split one in half if your bad about re using them like me. Again pretty damn expensive but still if you are looking for quality they do that shit justice.

>>5056081
Upton is good. English Tea Store is also good. I tend to order all my tea or go to local, independent shops because they actually have good tea and usually very cool and knowledgeable owners. I don't like places like Teavana because they're overpriced, always try to sell you a ton of bullshit, and don't usually sell unadulterated tea. It's entry-level and attracts a ton of hipsters and people that "love tea" basically. Nothing really wrong with it but I don't think any serious tea appreciator picks it over something else.

>>5056320
I support this post.

Just try teas. Experiment with the better tea bags at your local grocery store, don't buy into the pretentious elitism that is tea culture, and every now and again, splurge at a specialised tea shop. I mainly drink Twinings, myself, particularly the Australian Afternoon tea blend by Kevin Rudd. If I'm looking for a fancier loose leaf blend, I'll head down to the Tea Centre or T2 or something.

>>5056559
It's only pretentious and elitist if you make it so. Tea bags are a start, and they're good for a quick cup, but you can find much more enjoyable tea for not very much at all. Buying a nice loose leaf tea isn't much of a splurge; even the sites listed above have more than reasonably priced loose leaf teas, especially for how much you get. Upton even lets you order small samples and includes some for free with your orders. Some great teas (if you shop right) are only around $5/4oz. even. Formosa Oolong (one of my favorite teas) from English Tea Store, for example.

Any EU tea drinkers around? Getting a feeling that you guys just talk about murica and how to get tea there, Any people from EU that have har Any good experiance buying tea online, i often go to lokal stores and by all my tea there.