/ck/ - Food & Cooking

1

>>12861863
I have green, black, diet, and diarrhea tea.
I keep on forgetting to buy valerian root, and chamomile.

2

>>12861870
>diarrhea tea
Do you mean Jenkem?

For me, it's the ____
What is your #1 favorite tea?

Are electric cup warmers any good?
I usually have a cup of green tea on my desk but I don't like the taste of the stuff cold.

>>12861863
matcha seems like some gay gimmicky shit. they really just ground low quality tea up into a powder, because bitches love powders. for what other kind of tea do you need to buy a specialized stirring implement? fucking unitaskers

Milk oolong.
It sounds funky, but it's surprisingly pleasant.

>>12862820
apparently those little electric whisks work better than the traditional bamboo

>>12862820
It's actually the highest quality tea there is

Low quality tea leaves simply cannot be ground into matcha

>>12862820
Like other anon said, matcha is usually made with higher quality material. You technically can grind whatever shit you find into matcha, but it won't be the same thing as 99% of matcha you buy.

>>12862820
It's easy to tell the difference between high and low grade matcha. When you see things like Starbucks matcha frappucino it is obviously not powdered gyokuro, just cheap substitutes. When it's made from the real stuff it's great

Pals, I'm. So. Sleepy. Slept all weekend. After my only tea strainer rusted to pieces. Yes, I'm used to drinking lots of tea every day. only place that sells non-shit strainers is 30 miles away and my car's broken. Should've bought two back then. I could always do it granpa style, but I haaate those small floating sticks that pop out of nowhere and stab my tongue, to the point I refuse to do it. Not looking for a solution, just ranting.

Hi, /tea/
Coffee convert guy from last thread who was asking some questions. I took the advice of some anons here and ordered the following from Yunnan Sourcing USA (pic related) along with a cheap gaiwan to try brewing gong fu so I'm pretty excited.

>>12862820
I know barely anything about tea but as far as I'm aware hasn't matcha been around for like a million years and it's also super culturally significant in Japan and China? Hardly a gimmick.

>>12862823
Any recommendations? I want to try this. I was looking for milk oolong (= jin xuan?) on Yunnan Sourcing but they only had organic varieties and some anons in the last thread were advising against organic tea. I did see one non-organic but it appeared to be artificially flavored. Apparently that's common for milk oolong. Someone in the last thread mentioned teafromtaiwan for ordering milk oolong but I couldn't tell which of those are flavored, or if I should even be avoiding flavored (I assume I should be).

>>12864951
Probably can't help you there, bought the milk oolong from a shop that doesn't deliver outside my country.
Mine was supposedly flavoured with milk, but I don't think they mean artificially flavoured (gets kinda lost in translation). But it was still really good.

>>12864878
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32890288064.html

Order how many you can while still getting free shipping for your country and then make multiple orders to get your required amount. I'd say 4-5.

>>12864951
For milk oolongs it's more or less taiwan yeah. So any vendor based there should be ok. Commonly they are flavored in the more generic vendors. Google is your friend for finding vendors, but you can find some here https://teadb.org/taiwanese-oolongs/

>>12864951
>zhengshan xiao zhong

ma nigga

thats GOAT everyday black tea, comfy tier

>>12864951
>against organic tea

whats wrong with organic teas?
im out of the loop
isnt it better to be organic?

>>12864951
Oh and if it helps, the oolong I got was from Xianyou in Fujian province, apparently.

>>12865106
the idea being if your tea is good you sell out without needing an 'organic' label, the label costs money so cheap crappy tea can go organic to gain some prestige. organic is mostly a con

Where can I yuzu tea in Australia? I'm really lost.

>>12864951
Based.
Enjoy your tea anon!
I know the guy from YS also runs taiwanoolongs.com but the prices seem pretty high for someone just getting in to teas.

>>12865185
Note that this mostly applies to china. Might be different with other countries. But still organic is very new and not traditional so older established farms are slow to adopt.

So I ordered some lapsang suchong (zeng shan xiao zhong) from Wuyi Star tea factory a while ago and said I would do a writeup when it came in. I paid about $22 for 100g on ebay. Initially I was disappointed because it was supposed to be pine smoked but instead it just has a light charcoal roasting. But it is very good tea, it's basically a lightly roasted black tea oolong. It has that mineral "rock flavor" that wuyi oolongs have. Overall I would recommend to anyone who likes Chinese oolongs and wants to try something a bit different.

>>12865399
has anyone tried pine smoked tea before? pine smoke is quite acrid, i imagine that the taste from it wouldn't be nice. i've had logan wood lapsang suchong which was great

>>12865303
Where? Explore the Chinatown in the closest city and then the equivalent suburb.

>>12865529
Brisbane. I was hoping somewhere online.

>>12861879
Lol

Anyways, I have some nice honey with cinnamon in it and I'll put a tiny bit in my tea. Is that a tea sin? I only drink it for the health benefits so I don't know if that's a wrong thing to do. Also, is it bad to leave my tea bag in the cup the whole time I'm drinking? I just want to get as much of the nutrients as possible.

>>12865577
One of the chinese ebay vendors has a secondary store located in Australia. But I can't seem to find it.

Having some fu brick tea today
2009 pressing
This shit looks like mulch and is half stems buts it's great. Very creamy. Would recommend grabbing a sample next time you order from yunnan sourcing in china.

Is loose-leaf puer really just as good as brick/cake form? That's what they tell me at my local tea store. They source great teas from China and Taiwan (overpriced compared to online but still) but a lady there once told me that puer had little to no caffeine so I have a hard time believing any of what they say

>>12865950
its bricked so it will last longer, you may lose some flavour from old loose puer vs bricked puer, probably so small you wouldn't notice. all teas have roughly the same amount of caffine but people always seem to think it changes based on type of tea. picking leaves later in the year will give lower caffine but white vs black vs puer will have have the same

>>12865950
Loose leaf ripe pretty common. Loose leaf raw is fairly rare. I would say once you get to 5+ years of age the stuff stored loose will have lost more flavor than a pressed cake would. Loose leaf also ages faster which is good. Nothing wrong with loose leaf ripe tho, in fact it is less likely to have weird fishy smells/ tastes from fermentation. Raw I would be more worried about because I have no idea where they would source it from but all that matters is you enjoying it.

got some oolong, bought it like a year ago, cooking these leaves western style, i'm sorry for bastardizing these leaves with my gorilla methods but i cant afford even a gaiwan (im a neet)

Decided to treat myself and buy premium.

This might me a really dumb question, but how does tea in a french press doesn't get bitter? Like when I stew a bag of green tea longer than 3 minutes it'll get bitter, why shouldn't that happen here?

Also, how long can a press keep tea warm? I'm looking for a way to make more than one cup of tea at a time, but the glass models look like they dissipate a lot of heat

>>12865454
Depends. The more expensive stuff is great with a nuanced flavor. The cheap shit tastes like liquid smoke and hints of lighter fluid. The trick is finding a place that doesn't sell you cheap shit at a high price.

>>12867153
it should get bitter. transfer to something else once its brewed. its a somewhat closed container so it will stay warm for a little while. id just use a teapot with a removable leaf holder, i have a small 400ml glass one that holds 3 cups, stays warm just long enough too

>>12867186
Thank You!

How long does the tea stay warm? And is there a way to use the leaves multiple times with the big teapot? I'm drinking about 500ml (so about one stew with your pot) and it feels wasteful to throw them away afterwards

>>12867223
>And is there a way to use the leaves multiple times with the big teapot?
Put more water in after pouring the tea out.
Some teas can be re-used up to eight times, but of course it depends on the individual tea and how tolerant you are of the flavor changing over successive brews.

Don't listen to anon about teapots with built in infusers, though. An infuser doesn't give leaves room to fully expand, squeezing out more bitter tannins.

>>12867223
15-20 mins maybe, i re-steep my leaves 3 times when western brewing, i have pic, after 3 brews its just coloured water

>>12867240
>An infuser doesn't give leaves room to fully expand, squeezing out more bitter tannins.
yeah but its easier than fully decanting. the proper english way is to have a second teapot just for brewed tea with a tea cozy

>>12867240
Thank you, but my problem lies somewhere else: I can't drink more than ~600ml tea a day, meaning after brewing I need a way to store the pot overnight where the leaves won't get bad or loose their flavor

>>12867257
That looks great but I'm looking for something to keep my tea warm for 2 hours, maybe 3h max. Thank you nonetheless

>>12867266
>yeah but its easier than fully decanting
I don't see how decanting tea is any harder than pulling a basket out, nor do I see how any perceived convenience outweights the fact that you're ruining your tea with excess tannins.

>>12867273
>I need a way to store the pot overnight where the leaves won't get bad or loose their flavor
That's fine. I leave leaves out in the pot overnight all the time. They'll get moldy after a few days though.
If you're really worried you can dump them out onto paper towel or something to dry them out again.

>>12867277
2nd teapot vs small basket that can be stored in its teapot. all my tea stuff is on my desk, space is an issue. also the stuff i use my teapot for isn't the highest quality, for that i gongfu in my gaiwan.

>>12867303
The very small basket ruins your tea.
You can put the tea into things that aren't a second teapot, too. I use a vacuum flask, which will keep my tea piping hot for 12 hours and doesn't take up much space.

>>12867313
but its another thing to clean and i'll drink 1.2L within an hour so keeping warm isn't an issue for me

>>12867329
Alright, so you're determined to make shitty, over-tannined tea despite all sense and reason.
Doesn't mean you should recommend others do the same.

>>12867334
i bet you couldn't even taste the difference

>>12867346
You don't drink a lot of tea.

>>12867766
2L a day. the difference isn't noticeable

>>12866215
Looks good anon. I like your teapot.

>>12867778
What you are drinking isn't tea buddy

>>12869379
anything western brewed isn't tea pal

>>12862855
ofc, low quality chink leaves explode if you try to pass them for matcha, leaving you with a visible mark on your hands stating "I'm an idiot"
>>12864951
the japanese stole all of their culture from china and then changed it up a bit, japan didn't know what tea was until the 9th century when some ambassador brought it back from mainland china
matcha is almost non existent in china, and it got the meme status is because of weebs
>suggestions
the only tea worth getting from yunnansourcing is pu-erh if you ask me, the rest (most of which doesn't grow in yunnan) may or may not be good depending on what you're getting but it's overpriced and you can get it elsewhere for less, the pu-erh less so and they have a hell of a selection
which tea, pu-erh or not, to get depends on your taste entirely, you could buy some samples of old-ish raw/shou pu-erh, younger raw, very young raw, and a couple ripe/sheng to get a good idea of your options, even though it's not like there's "specific" varieties like long jing, tie guan yin and so on
>milk oolong
whatever reputable seller will do, I would not buy taiwanese tea from a seller that specializes in south china tea but anything goes as long as it's not flavored with condensed milk
>>12865399
thanks for the review!
you should try jin jun mei if you're into smoked teas, it's a red tea but it doesn't have that citrusy character commonly associated with premium reds
>>12866215
you should brew/steep things how you prefer, but know you don't necessarily need a gaiwan or clay pot to brew/steep tea gong fu style, you can just follow the directions in the pastebin with your teapot
>>12867240
>eight times
depends on the method you use, I wouldn't brew my tea more than maybe a couple times with the english method
the difference a built in infuser makes is also not much if the infuser is big enough to let the leaves move around
>>12867273
get a thermos/vacuum flask, brew the tea, pour it there when it's done and then remove the teapot

>>12861863
I dont know if this is a recurring theme among korean restaurants but they all seem to serve the same type of tea, anyone know what I'm talking about?

>>12861863
Arnold Palmer

Where can I find good, strong chai tea? First time I had it, I was getting "chai smoothies" (chai, ice, water, blend) from a little coffee shop in Kuwait. Nothing that I find in America is that strong in terms of spices and flavors.

>>12861863
Just picked up some peppermint matcha bags about a week ago, been trying to figure out how to make it taste a bit better, I've added honey, milk, half & half (milk/cream mixture), and even sugar, and I've got it to taste pretty good.
What do you guys add to matcha?

>>12870412
try vahdam com chai is common in india and you'll be buying straight from the indian grower

>>12861863

We have a tea place around here, and lately I've been sampling some of the "Puehr" variations.

So good.

pic related for when I hit the lottery.

>had some nice gyokuro
>really loved it
>lost my sense of smell
>now it's just expensive hot water
FUCK

>>12870386
It's barley tea.

>>12870632
whats the difference between raw and ripe pu-erh? is it just that one is fermented before being bricked and aged? and how long does a brick needed to be stored before it can be called pu-erh

>>12870634
F

>>12870697
Ripe is wet pile fermented for 30-45 days (basically composted). It's usually considered puer as soon as it is pressed (or even still in loose leaf form). However raw goes through a lot of changes in the first year or so after pressing and traditionally nobody would plan on drinking it for several years. That has changed since the early 2000s with greener more lightly processed puer and drinking it younger has become trendy.

In the 60s-90s the precess for puer was generally
Press bricks of undrinkably bitter tea with whatever material they could get their hands on.
Ship to Hong Kong and Malaysia where it is stored in wearhouses for several years that are so humid it gets moldy.
Then it is sold locally for consumption.
Puer is just one of dozens of weird semi fermented regional pesent teas (fu cha, liu pao, liu an, zhuan cha, tian jian etc) that became popular for some reason. It was not really even consumed in mainland china outside of its region untill the mid 90s.

Ripe puer was developed in the 80s as a way to try to skip the step of the tea getting moldy in a wearhouse for years before anyone would drink it. It was initially unpopular and took a long time to catch on.

Is green tea better for your stomach than coffee? After a few days now I would say yes, any experience with that?

>>12871694
>all of my friends drink coffee
>constantly complain of stomach pain
>only person in my group who drinks green tea
>no stomach pain ever

>>12870425
water
good matcha goes with water
bagged matcha might use colder water or a shorter steeping time than you're using now
>>12870456
>straight from the indian grower, the guy who owns a small business with near slaves who get paid by the kilo of harvested leaves, who maybe owns a computer than can run internet explorer 6 and doesn't speak more than three words of english
vadham is a big for-profit distributor and possibly manufacturer(handles tea processing) who boasts a number of lies on their website, like India being the world's biggest tea producer, I can't imagine them directly employing growers, and the growers sure as hell don't treat their occasional workers humanly
>>12870634
my condolences
>>12870697
mostly what the other reply said, but
ripe pu-erh was invented, so to speak, less than 50 years ago to save money on pu-erh production by essentially accelerating the aging process, and as a result ripe pu-erh is similar enough to raw pu-erh aged for many many more years, and while some purists have very strong opinions against it some people even prefer the taste, regardless of the reduced cost
it's not true though that nobody would plan on drinking raw pu-erh before it's been aged for several years - young raw pu-erh exists, and while today it's not nearly as popular as old pu-erh it's a honest to god good tea, I prefer it to old pu-erh by far, and before the '90s saw "vintage" pu-erh being memed as the holy grail of chink tea it was actually more highly regarded than the old kind
>>12871694
yes
I have no direct experience but everything would point to it being better, it's a lot less bitter (less caffeine and tannins), less acidic, it has more anti oxidants...

on another note, my usual chink supplier has dong ding back in stock for the love of god I missed it so much, I'm currently dirt poor so I decided I'll trust them with my €7,90 and see if the stuff they're selling this year is worth it, please pray for me if you believe it will help

>>12871832
I don't disagree that young raw puer is good but I don't really think it was that popular until the early to mid 2000s. I also agree that the fetishization of super old tea is a meme and has more to do with projecting wealth (and probably some superstition from traditional Chinese medicine) than it does with the quality of the tea. That being said the stuff that is made to drink immediately is different than the stuff that is intended to be aged and I usually prefer the latter with a good 10 years or so on it.

i use the same cup for caffeinated tea as de-caf

>>12865072
Thanks bro, that seems quite handy. I think 5, just to be sure.

suggest me any kind of tea that can help me survive throught the night shift please

>>12874041
Ma huang (ephedra sinica)

Anybody got a good source for rooibus?

>>12874831
Mountain rose herbs has rooibus and honeybush which is also worth checking out. Their prices probably are not the best but quality is good.

Today Im having some "aged aroma" tea by xiaguan.
Pressed in 2009 but appears to be using material aged for several years before pressing. It has a nice mellow flavor with some old tea taste.

>>12874851
Thanks anon. Have any recommendations on any of their other stuff?

>>12876085
Their herbal tea blends are really good. I like the stuff for colds. Getting mint or ginseng for making tea is always nice. Their regular tea is okay but too expensive.

>>12876252
Oh and their chai spices are great, but don't get the rooibus chai as the rooibus gets overbrewed if you simmer it.

>>12874686
This shit is banned in us bruh

>>12874041
Make matcha powder out of caffeine pills

>>12874041
Ginseng tea my friend

>>12864878
You don't have a tongue; only I do. Do not reply to this message.

>>12861863
How do I get this nice foam on my matcha? I watched several tutorials on the tube but I can never get it right

I'm just dropping by again to check if anyone has a preferred water-to-mate ratio that he'd like to share. I usually do 1 teaspoon/cup (2.5 g/250 ml) so about 10 grams for a liter of mate, basically the same proportions as tea.

>>12861863
Earl grey, no milk obvs...can’t stand ‘proper tea’ like builders specials typhoo and tetley crap. By no means a tea snob as you can tell by my choice.

>>12861863
Genmaicha because it smells really fucking good.

I got a new gaiwan a few days ago to replace the one I broke.
Annnd I chipped/cracked to saucer already.
At least I learned to buy cheap ones.

>>12880164
I can relate, my fellow large handed man. I just use pleb gaiwan technique and pick the whole thing up, with the saucer, so there is no way to burn yourself or drop it

>>12874851
Cool thanks I ended up with the red rooibus, and a couple herbal blends.

>>12880872
Nice, enjoy anon!

I'm drinking chimarrao

>ordered tea from china 2 months ago
>still hasn't arrived
>probably stuck in customs because some dog thought it was drugs
>out of tea so unironically considering heading to supermarket for some lipton

>>12882213
Be considerate of your eternal soul, anon. Stay away from the supermarket """Tea""" shelf!

Any Ausfags have a favourite 'English Breakfast' tea they would recommend? A friend of mine got into the T2 Melbourne Breakfast (pleb tier) but has an artificial aftertaste and is looking for something similar with better flavour, thanks!

>>12882246
Thanks anon for giving me the strength I needed. It looks like the tea god has answered my prayers because the package arrived today.

I want to start drinking more tea but I haven't got a taste for it. Where does someone coming off of iced tea with a little added sugar or sugar from fruit juices begin?

>>12883243
>Tea god
I bet the chinks actually have one of these.

that's the ideal color for bog-standard tealet builders brew from shitty packet tetleys?

>>12861863

whats a good british tea to drink? I have to meet with some soon.

Someone rec me a powerfully relaxing tea that makes you slightly sleepy, so i can listen to music in a transcendental, hypnogogic state of mind.

Also rec me a tea that enhances reading endurance and focus.

ty

>>12878139
get better quality matcha
>>12878173
around 2:3 mate to water
while it's possible to treat mate like tea, the traditional way of consuming it is putting it in a bowl, put the bombilla (straw with a filter) in, put the water in and drink the liquor through the straw while the leaves are still in the bowl, surely you can look "how to prepare mate" up somewhere and see for yourself
>>12883269
spend €10-15 on a tea sampler from a reputable enough seller and try everything, ensuring that you're preparing it the right way
if that doesn't work, you probably just don't like tea very much
>>12883666
chink tea culture isn't really like that, tea used to be fairly closely related to wealth so now chinks treat expensive tea and teaware like westerners treat rolex watches
it's the japanese who stole/appropriated/got inspired from chink's tea habits and got those wrong as well, making it a spiritual thing on top of everything else, the chinks only worship money nowadays
>>12883738
none
if you absolutely have to, GFOP or FTGFOP from Darjeeling
>>12884428
chamomile and coffee, respectively

>>12883738
we bongs only drink tea bagged shit.
as >>12884653 said GFOP or FTGFOP Darjeeling, or assam if you like it stronger and more malty. theres also early grey, i get mine from vahdam.

>>12883738
>"British tea"
We barely grow tea here m8
The mass-market teas here are mostly assam blends if that's what you mean

>>12867096
Actual premium tea, says so on box, don't see that on your Shipton

Gingernuts dipped in strong milky chai are one of life's greatest pleasures.

I wish there was more information on green/white tea's health benefits. Do I need to steep for minutes to get the good stuff out or does it dissolve readily?

>>12884762
actual premium tea isn't sold in boxes mait

>>12884766
you can always re-steep, i re-steep mine at least 3 times

>>12884766
what you call me? i'm strawberry blonde

>>12884428
>a powerfully relaxing tea that makes you slightly sleepy,
Poppy pods
>a tea that enhances reading endurance and focus
Ma huang

>>12884744
Is there actually tea grown in england?
On that note does anyone know where I can actually buy some of the tea that is grown in Russia? It sounds interesting.
I also found this website listing all the tea farms in the united states.
https://specialtyteaalliance.org/world-of-tea/us-grown-tea/

>>12884958
>Is there actually tea grown in england?
tregothnan.co.uk no idea if its any good

>>12884998
According to their website their products are some unspecified portion of brittish grown tea blended with tea from overseas. Not surprising, the few I have found from the USA and canada are priced at $12-$30 for 10 grams of tea. Shits expensive without that sweet sweet slave migrant labor.

>>12884653
>surely you can look "how to prepare mate" up somewhere and see for yourself
I've looked everywhere, but there isn't a definitive guide about it because mate is still a hipster beverage outside of its countries and even then everyone does it however they prefer
Hell there's even cold mate. I just want to know the perfect temperature, steeping time and mate to water ratio to get the best mate, just like you already have for tea.

How do I get into tea? Where the fuck should I start? I'm a big fan of cold black coffee. Should I just try straight unsweetened black tea? What's the difference between green and black tea?

>>12884958
>On that note does anyone know where I can actually buy some of the tea that is grown in Russia? It sounds interesting.
I don't know but maybe you can contact Alistar at What-Cha and see if he could stock some tea from Russia?

>>12885026
yeah i dont know how big their fields are either so it makes sense that they would cut the english grown tea with non-english

>>12885142
get a variety pack with different types and a strainer so you can brew in a mug. thats all you really need to start with.
>What's the difference between green and black tea?
how much the tea is oxidized before being dried, black having a deeper flavour compared to lighter green tea.
avoid bags, they're the worst grade of tea and loose is roughly the same price

>>12885186
So I can just buy ground up black tea and mix it in with hot water? No bag required? I've literally only drank tea maybe twice in my life, but the culture around it seems interesting. I want to give it a shot.

>>12884921
interesting, ty

>>12870412
>chai tea
Do you also enjoy catsup ketchup?

>>12884766
>Do I need to steep for minutes to get the good stuff out or does it dissolve readily
Here's a study that might be of interest
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4930538/

I don't know if tea has any fat soluble compounds of possible health benefits. In that case you'd be better off drinking matcha since you consume the whole leaf rather than what's extracted into the water. I guess you could also sprinkle some tea leaves on your food or something...

>>12885197
how the fuck did you get that out of that post

it's not like eating tea leaves will kill you but why would you do that

What is your opinion on blooming tea?
Hipster garbage?

>>12870412
>"strong"
Same place you can find "weak" chai, just use more of it, dummy

>>12885238
It's mostly just for looks, good for brewing in a clear glass/vessel to impress women or to enhance a cozy atmosphere. Not really anything special flavor wise.

>>12885197
loose tea isn't ground up, anything with very small leaf is going to be bad/nasty tea. you'll want a strainer or teapot to remove the tea from the leaf once you've brewed it because over brewing tea will make it bitter

>>12885246
I think making chai with fresh spices would make a big difference. If you really wanted to go crazy you could get whole spices from a specialty retailer like penzys and then lightly crack/grind them right before brewing.

>>12885238
just got some as they were cheap and novel, tea is ok, takes ~8 mins to fully open, cant find any info on how much water per ball. only buy to impress a woman.

>>12861863
What's the point of that flat-sided measuring cup?

Let me start off by stating that I'm an absolute tealet and former coffee fag
I once had a green tea at a trendy coffee shop a few years ago. I don't know anything about it besides that it was a fairly bright green liquor with a very distinctly seafood kind of savory flavor, kind of like chewing on a sheet of nori. Any tea that you can tell me for this feel, I want to start drinking more tea at home and would like to start with shit I know I'll probably enjoy a lot.

i let my tea stew over night and drink it room temp. in the morning :)

>>12885620
0, it's just what I have

>>12885833
Sencha green tea. Probably

>>12886791
>>12885620
Besides measuring water. I use about 75ml for 2g matcha, I meant the shape does not matter

>>12885833
>>12886791
seaweed-like taste is usually attributed to gyokuro green tea or kabusecha green tea.

What supplies do I need to make good tea at home? I'm very new to this. I love coffee because it's simple. I have a cheap coffee maker and some coffee, and that's all I need. Does good tea require any elaborate setup?

>>12887469
Good tea, a vessel to brew it in and a strainer to transfer it to your cup are really all you need. That said, a variable temperature electric kettle and a gaiwan are the ideal minimum, they'll run you perhaps $40 total including shipping. Depends on what type of tea you'd like, too, if you want japanese greens you'd be better with a japanese pot instead of a gaiwan, or you could get a big cup sized strainer to be more versatile.

>>12885049
the following is the first result for "how to prepare mate" on duckduckgo: https://www.wikihow.com/Make-Yerba-Mate
you don't need a gourd, whatever cup or mug is fine, but you need a bombilla, luckily you can get one for €1 on Ali or a bit more on Amazon, it's worth it if you like mate
you may use a bit more or a bit less mate, just be careful not to stir it using the bombilla - the idea is that the water shouldn't touch all the mate in the cup/mug during the first infusions, else the result will be too bitter to drink
>>12885197
the tea powder in teabags isn't chosen for its low quality and then ground up, the fact that it's low quality is directly related to the fact that it's powder, so it's against your interest to ground good tea
for everything else, read the damn pastebin in the op, it's there for a reason
>>12885238
it looks good and is not tea
>>12885833
>seafood
can't think of anything
if the liquor was really green and there was no taste of smoke it was gyokuro (grassy and not very savory though), good quality sencha, some other steamed green, or bi luo chun (pretty sweet though) or similar
it might have been some blend as well, it's really hard to say
>>12887469
read the pastebin, at the bare minimum you need hot water and a mesh strainer, and from there you can go anywhere

>>12887820
>bi luo chun
drinking black bi luo chun right now. ill have to pick up some green next time

>>12887820
I mean, thanks but don't get me wrong, I know about the gourd and I have been using a bombilla already, I just wanted to now if the method I'm using is right
Honestly I'll just leave it here and hope someone else who drinks mate doesn't find anything weird with it

I bring a little bit of water to a boil in metal teapot to warm it up while I heat a liter and a half of water in a heater. Then I discard the boiling water open the lid to let it cool down a bit, pour nearly half of and a half of water inside the kettle to both to raise the temperature of the water (which might have dropped a couple degrees in the process) and lower the temperature of the kettle to make sure it stabilizes at 80 C°, then I pour 15 grams (1g mate every 100 ml) and pour the rest of the water on it so it's completely covered. Then I close the teapot and I let it settle for at least 15 minutes and start taking cup after cup. A teapot usually lasts a couple hours this way, until the mate becomes too strong. I tried making a second infusion with these same leaves after 2 hours, but it's just colored water.

Basically I'm using the teapot as my gourd. I do pour from it into a cup and drink from a bombilla, because every time I pour I get a healthy dose of leaves in my cup.

Thinking about it, I might just be a smidge too autistic about this, it's a pretty good method. I just wanted to know some other mate drinker's opinion about it to know if I'm fucking something up in the process.

>>12888083
>I just wanted to now if the method I'm using is right
given that there's no "right" method, and one should drink anything the way they prefer it, your method is wrong
read the linked wikihow page and try that method, that's the traditional one

>s/he doesn't drink 1 dollar bagged tea from the clearance section

It was so good it was crazy.

>>12887137
>trendy coffee shop
I doubt it would be gyokuro it is too expensive, and kabusecha is pretty niche outside of Japan

>>12861863
I just got a Nepalese breakfast tea. I've heard that the soils of the few Nepalese tea plantations are similar to those of Darjeeling, but the tea was very unique. It has a raw aroma, but the liquor tastes like mountain-laurel flowers, slightly grape and smokey. Mountain-laurels are native to my homestate and for me it's the nostalgic smell of summer. Unexpected, but very nice. Also cheaper than most Indian teas from the same company so hey.

>>12888442
It was a fairly expensive tea option iirc. I'm gonna go to the tea store and see if they have some sencha or gyokuro to try. I'm thinking gyokuro sounds about right from what I can find online but I'll never know until i taste some again

>>12889019
How much was it? Gyokuro is served almost lukewarm and in small amounts (a couple tbsp), it also tastes buttery/nutty. if you had a big hot cup of green seawater I bet it was sencha. You should still try both

>>12889258
>How much
as in volume not price

>>12861863
>>12861868
>>12861871
This looks so fucking good. How do I make tea like this?

I don't understand the culture around tea. Am I missing something? Is tea mind-altering or do you guys just really like tea? I understand discussing different types of alcohol, or marijuana, or even coffee as all of those are mind-altering and different types may have different effects. Is tea like that?

>>12889620
have you heard of beer
or wine
or coffee
or cigars
or cars
or literally anything with extensive variability

Are these any good? Is the temperature accurate?
>currently drinking
>what-cha thailand jin xuan
>>12862820
I agree with this. It's very difficult to find good matcha outside of Japan. Even then, it's best served with wagashi.

>>12889262
Ah it was like a 6oz cup and it was served hot
I just bought 2 oz Each (so I could get the nice tin cans btw) of gyokuro and sencha from the local tea shop and I'm gonna brew it later for tasting after dinner. The gyokuro I got doesnt smell quite like the tea I had but the sencha smells pretty close.
I also got some sample sized genmaicha, some loose leaf puer, jade oolong, and darjeeling. Bought them all based on how appealing the smell was except for the puer which I recognized from the memeing itt. What am i in for /tea/

Where are my mate chads at? Gaúcho of course

>>12889927
Great picks. How are you planning to brew them? Do you have a gaiwan, teapot, scale, or thermometer?

>>12889826
I bought it in Japan
I had no food with it you are right so I brew it thinner than usual which I prefer with this type when drank alone than thicker

>>12889006
neat, good for you
>>12889534
1. buy matcha
2. read the pastebin
>>12889620
nothing mind altering, it's just interesting, and for someone there's also the culturally significant aspect (see "the book of tea")
btw different kinds of alcohol and coffee respectively produce the exact same symptoms, be marijuana at large does that as well
>>12889826
they're fairly accurate, but a plain electric kettle + an ir thermometer will likely be cheaper overall

>>12890101
I have a scale thermometer teapot and kettle
My more precise scale bit the dust recently though so I'm only accurate to the gram rn but my new scale comes in a couple of days.
My teapot is some chink shit I bought at the Chinese store a few years back on impulse.
I think the Chinese store also sells gaiwans, is it worth it to pick one up?

>>12890135
gaiwans are super easy. you can weight the leaf directly into them and dead easy to clean as you can flick the leaf out and rise. teapots you'll always be fighting to get every last speck of leaf out.

>>12890334
Thanks bro I'll see if I can buy one tomorrow
But for now, high quality sencha out of my tea pot.

>>12890439
That cup is awesome. I would get one but I know I would constantly knock it over.

>>12890006
Not a lot of HUEs on /ck/.

Been watching travel shows, what's the tea that seems to be all over the levant and Turkey? Not a big tea guy, but now I want to try it.

>>12891804
it's likely this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maghrebi_mint_tea

>>12891976
100% no, they don't really drink this outside of NW Africa (the Maghreb).

>>12891804
Strongly brewed black tea with lots of sugar and sometimes spices such as cardamom, cinnamon, etc. Yerba mate is also popular in Lebanon and Syria

>>12892973
>>12891804
If you do want to try Moroccan mint tea I recommend it as it is actually special, I definitely prefer it. Turk/Levant tea is basically sweet Lipton in nice cups

>>12889006
>>12889006
Vahdam? It's /tea/'s favorite but I have been looking for a new source for Indian teas (I don't much like Chinese black tea). Your description sounds perfect, can you give a link please?

>>12861863
What brand of Matcha is this?

>>12889006
My local store sells some "Mist Valley" tea (GFOP quality) from Nepal which I find very pleasant. Is yours sold as "Nepalese breakfast tea" ?

So I tried Rooibos for the first time. Is it supposed to taste like nothing? It was like warm water only

>>12895006
should taste musty and like tobacco
HOT boiling water and give it a long steep

>>12894171
Marukyu Koyamaen brand, Unkaku matcha

>>12895006
You were lucky, it's supposed to taste like shit.

>>12895167
>>12897147

I used boiling hot water and let it steep for ~6 min, think that should be enough.

Reading through your post and seeing how everybody complains about Lipton bags, could that be the problem?

I'm currently looking for new tea tastes. I was about to try peppermint next, but if all the cheaper Lipton bags don't have taste I can't do it. I don't want to pay a lot of money for more expensive tea before having a clue on how it tastes

Anyone have a recommendation for yuzu tea? Could I get it anywhere? Ive never seen the fruit in my life in any store, even asian ones. Ive seen yuzu jelly/marmilade before. Maybe Ill just have to pick that up and add it to some plain green tea or matcha.

Maybe I could buy dried yuzu fruit online?

>>12897724
step away from the Lipton and Bigelow, then your experience will improve greatly

>>12897840
Do you know a cheap bag brand that is good enough to check out the general taste of a tea (mainly peppermint and rooibos)

>>12897840
lipton teabags, more so than other teabags in general, are filled with a mix of the lowest quality dust of the lowest quality teas, and they're rightfully frowned upon here
if you want to have a taste of a kind of tea in particular you can order a sample, they're relatively expensive in that they are expensive for the amount of tea you get, but you're getting so little tea it hardly matters, or you can spend €10-15 and get a tea sampler with a number of different kinds of tea, check the pastebin for more info
or, you can find a tea room, they're quite nice usually

>>12897737
I've seen juzu tea jars at korean markets and they look like jelly, you're supposed to dissolve a spoonful of it on hot water.

I've only ever tried Lipton's green matcha and Twinings of London's black tea. It was alright, but I'm looking to improve my tea drinking experience. What should I try next? I want the real authentic shit. OP's tea looks delicious.

>>12897876
Celestial seasonings for peppermint.

>>12898460
find a loose leaf selection pack and get a strainer/gaiwan. you want real authentic shit youtube gongfu and get some chinese tea