/ck/ - Food & Cooking

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

and obviously the tea page on wikipedia.

there are shit tons of different kinds of tea out there. upton, my personal favorite online retailer, will ship out samples of any and everything from meh quality to TGFOP1. if you have a 16 oz + pyrex measuring cup, a small plate, and a very fine mesh strainer just lying around then you can hold off on the teapot purchase until you're ready. don't microwave your water. boil it on the stove. something about pockets of cool spots in the water affecting flavor.

in terms of "best ways to prepare" you'll receive steeping instructions with anything you order online. if you're in a brick and mortar store then don't forget to ask. failing that you can always reference the internet. frankly, i prefer to experiment with steep times, decanting every thirty seconds until i find a time that works for me. also don't disregard water temperature. it's pretty important.

there is no "best" tea. that is a highly personal thing that's going to vary considerably from person to person. also, there are so many teas in the world that you may never find the ultimate best thing for your palette. for me it's the journey that's important.

welcome to tea. have fun.

>>4796118

You're approaching the subject the wrong way.

Pick an online retailer. There are tons. My favorite is upton tea. Hit up the site. Read about what tea is, what kinds of tea there are and what makes them different, how to make tea, so on and so forth. Then, browse the shit ton of tea they sell. Notice the samples. They're mostly a couple bucks tops. Get a BUNCH of them.

I am going to assume you don't own a teapot or kettle. You probably do own a glass measuring cup. Use that as a teapot. Boil water on the stove in a saucepan. Get a super fine mesh stainless steel strainer and use it to decant.

Also while I appreciate that everyone has different tastes, loose leaf tea is ALWAYS better than bagged. Those who tell you different have not had really good loose leaf tea. Bagged shit can be good, but notice how I called it shit.

Sugar/milk/honey/whatever - I don't really mess with them, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try them out.

Everyone STFU

The water is heated on the stove in a metal thing called a TEA KETTLE

Once the water has reached the desired temperature it is poured into a TEAPOT

which contains the TEA.

After a few minutes, depending on what kind of tea you're making, you decant the liquor and enjoy.

It would be fucktarded to put a teapot containing tea on the stove. Tea is to be steeped for a specific amount of time at a specific water temperature. It is not meant to be slowly brought up to a boil. If you're doing that then you need to stop because you suck at tea.