/ck/ - Food & Cooking

Black tea edition
Your favorite black tea?
Have you tried Indian or african black teas?
Have you tried Japanese black teas?

>>15662085
Let's keep it civil this time
2018 funding shou mei, tasted a bit sour at first but evolved to a mild sweetness, somewhat fruity

>>15662090
I like my arabian "green tea" which is so black its only green on paper with fuck loads of homegrown mint schorched and oversteeped over the embers, sweetened until we reach saturation and finally served too hot to drink. Just like they do it at home. Man shits cash.

>>15662090
Darjeeling autumn or summer flushes.

>>15662112

>>15662090
This is my favorite black tea in recent memory, It had a complex flavor with just a tiny hint of smoke.
Xiagaun actually makes a decent amount of black tea and its all supposed to be pretty good.
https://kingteamall.com/collections/black-tea/products/2017-xiaguan-gao-shan-yun-wu-lao-shu-hong-high-mountain-cloud-old-tree-black-tea-cake-200g-hong-cha-dian-hong

>>15662141
Nice, is that from yunnan sourcing?

>>15662173
Yeah, shipped last week, seems they are shipping things out early

>>15662085
R8 my yixing

>>15662285
Flat/not flat

>>15662285
Looks nice, make sure you wash it really thoroughly with a fresh unused spong or similar and just warm water, sometimes pots that shiny are sort of polished before firing but sometimes the potmaker will put a cheeky coat of olive oil or some similar cooking oil on the outside to give it that luster. If they did the latter you want to try and get it off before you start using it.

>>15662285
As far as seasoning goes im not she if YS offers any suggestions on the subject, i would advise against boiling to pot, too easy to damage it.
Probably the easiest thing to do is to gently wipe the inside out, then fill it and empty it with warm water from the tap a dozen or so times or untill you get bored. Then fill the pot with boiling water, leave it for and hour or two, then dump it out, do that a couple times untill the water coming out of the pot is clean and free of clay dust. If you really want to you can pit a few grams of oolong in there when you do the fill with boiling water and empty step but it's mostly unnecessary.

>>15662303
What
>>15662325
Thanks, I'll scrub
>>15662357
Is the problem with boiling that it can jitter too much and snap?

>>15662460
>Is the problem with boiling that it can jitter too much and snap?
Yeah thr bubbles will push the pot around and can crack or chip it. Some places tell you to put a towel in the bottom of the pot and boil it but then you risk making your teapot taste like your towel.
I tried the boiling thing once and it's violent, i guess you could very carefully put the pot at the lowest possible simmer but it will still rattle like crazy

>>15662492
Could I put it on one of those oil strainers , elevated, to keep it from breaking, or would that not work?

>>15662581
Maybe, or one of those vegetable steaming inserts or something. Be careful of the lid rattling against the pot as well. I don't know if you really need to boil these things, i only did with the one i had because i bought it from some guy using it as a decoration and he smoked in the house.

Reminder that yunnansourcing.us is having a 15% sale this week on all their old stock loose leaf tea. This is also your last chance to buy puer and other aged teas before their yearly 15% to 20% pice hike on all in stock puer, hei cha etc.

>Fukamushi Saeakari Sencha

Notes of Grassy, Lemon, floral, meaty, artichokes, pickles. An overal strong umami and vegetal taste. Smooth and thick that leads to an ever so slightly dry tongue after a few seconds.

>>15662164
Can confirm, this is an amazing cake. Has that Xiaguan signature taste, but in a hearty and lively black tea that can go the distance. If you like their style, you'll enjoy this as well. I wonder what that taste actually is from anyway? Anyone know?

>>15663337
It's something from their processing, im not sure what it is exactly, some kind of rea voodoo.

>>15663363
*some kind of tea voodoo
They must have some crazy setup for smoking their teas since there is no way the smoke flavor is just from wood fired woks like in a low tech small production tea.
I can't find it but there was a video on youtube from one of the factories that makes fu bricks showing how they smoke the tea. They had a big wood fired oven with a big square opening over the top and they spread the tea out on bamboo mats over the opening. Turing it to get it smoked evenly.

2020 YS Ba Da Mountain ripe i got as a sampler
The evolution on this is nice, tastes like a very calm breakfast tea at first but gets sweeter and longer lasting each brew. Brewing it with my tea noob friend from London and he says irs the best tea he ever had

>>15663404
Bitterness?
Smoke?
Mind taking a closer shot of the leaves?
Any other major flavor notes of mention?
I was thinking of picking up a full brick so id like to hear anything you have to say about it.
Thanks anon

>>15663404
Sounds good. I love a nice sweet ripe.

Are any Indian teas good other than chai?
Are there any regions that grow tea outside of India, China, and Japan?
What's a good starting point for Japanese tea?

first yunan sourcing order shipped

>>15663627
>Are any Indian teas good other than chai?
Darjeeling, i would suggest trying a second fluah version from Margret's Hope Estate for a nice intro to what Darjeeling is all about. There is also Indian Assam which is a major component in English breakfast blends.
>Are there any regions that grow tea outside of India, China, and Japan?
Taiwan has lots of good oolong, some other south east asian countries like Vietnam and Bu
The country of Georga makes some decent black teas.
Africa and a few south American countries grow some tea but it's mostly used for commercial blends.

>>15663404
2018 Fuding Gong Mei I just switched to
I got this before as a free surprise sample Scott sent me so I ordered it after I fell in love.
85 c, 6g/160ml, 15s + 5s
Its judt so sweet and hony like. My English friend described the first brew as exactly like turkish delight, and evolving to marzipan flavor. He said if the last ripe puerh of "the tea of the fairy King, this tea is the nectar of the gods, ambrosia" and said its his new favorite tea
I have to agree that this tea is heavenly delightful, its a high recommendation

>>15663627
>What's a good starting point for Japanese tea?
At this point it's probably best to wait a month or two for 2021 green teas to become available for maximum freshness. Ideally order from one of the shops in the pastebin that is in japan but shipping is kind of expensive due to the virus.
If you look in the pastebin there is at least one or two shops in each region that sell good fresh Japanese green teas.
Order some sencha, nothing too expensive, maybe a smaller amount of two or three different kinds. And focus on carefully following the brewing instructions from whatever retailer you buy form, or just look at the instructions from some of the Japanese seller in the pastebin.
You can also try some genmatcha (get the kind without matcha powder) or hojicha if either of those sound good to you.
The simplest way to brew is to get a brew basket from a german brand named finum, they should run around $8-$10, then you can just brew in one of your mugs.
If you have questions about a specific retailer and what of their teas you should buy, or want to get some more fancy brewing equipment feel free to ask for advice.

>>15663696
I really need to hurry up and get some white tea cakes. At least some samples. I guess i should get a YS order together, i want to try half a dozen of his new hei cha teas and some of the new non-ys puer he recently added.

>>15663654
>>15663698
thanks frens. I'll add darjeeling and sencha to my to-try list.

>>15663710
Yeah anon, i try not to be snobby about tea, but a good sencha from a good seller vs a standard green tea is such an insane difference, Japanese greens are extremely flavorful and some might say intense teas. Loads of umami flavor.

>>15662085
>https://pastebin.com/80GeeXJV
why is there no meileaf in the pastebin?

>>15664032
Meileaf is overpriced, dan

>>15664054
sure but the tea is still pretty good, it should probably be added either as a suggestion with a caveat or a "do not buy" note.
It will save people like me, whom are just getting into the hobby, from wasting money on their effective marketing.

Having some super late night border bing.
Thanks again to the anon that reccd this little gem

>>15664080
I have been trying my best to avoid adding vendors to the pastebin that require caveats. For meileaf it would have to say
Meileaf (lies about tree age for puer, prices are kind of high)
An older generation of the patebin had tons of commentary like that and it was a mess.
I also don't really want to do a do not buy list, and even if i did one meileaf wouldn't be on it. His tea is expensive but i haven't actually seen anyone say it's bad, just not the super high end material some of his prices would imply.

Hey to the anon that got this liu an basket from chawangshop.
Is it a green liu an or were the leaves pile fermented before getting pressed into the baskets? Are the leaves green or brown after brewing?

Hey to the anon that got this liu an basket from chawangshop.
Is it a green liu an or were the leaves pile fermented before getting pressed into the baskets? Are the leaves green or brown after brewing?

>>15664112
I can vouch for teasource in america being very good. They have a few irl shops too if you want a teavana-type experience but with tea that's actually good and not overpriced as hell.

>>15664170
relevance being they could go on the pastebin too if you're looking for more, idk

EXPLAIN THE TYPES OF TEA TO ME OR I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU! DON'T DUMB IT DOWN INTO SOME VAGUE SHIT! EXPLAIN TEA TYPES TO ME RIGHT NOW OR I'LL LITERALLY KILL YOU! WHAT THE FUCK IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN OOLONG AND BLACK? WHAT THE FUCK IS PUERH? DON'T DUMB IT DOWN OR I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU

>>15664198
Black is peak oxidized, oolong is the oxidation between green and black, puerh is pressed and aged green tea.
Not even dumbing down

>>15664112
they still sell really good tea though, thats the main point
>>15664241
>puerh is pressed and aged green tea.
its not always pressed but i think the main difference is its sun withered and not pan fried to keep it green

>>15664264
Puerh is still pan fried, just not fully fried lije green tea is, the frying is stopped short of the tea being "fixed" so that it can continue to have enzyme activity and ferment over time.

>>15664158
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpF44Gh_IUQ

>>15664198
Green tea is cooled after harvest to stop enzyme activity from fermenting it.
Black tea is allowed to fully ferment and oxidize without being heated untill the drying process.
Oolong is partially fermented /oxidized during processing, it is often also baked over charcoal to help sweeten the tea and enhance floral and honey notes.
Puer tea is partially fermented/oxidized and then partially cooked so enzyme activity is mostly stoped but not completely, it is frequently steamed and then press into brick or cake form.
Ripe puer is pile fermented after the initial processing described above. It is put in large piles on a warehouse floor and them moistened with water, it is turned every few days and moistened for around 30-45 days. The process is very similar to a carefully controlled compost pile. It is then dried.
Various different hei cha like liu bao is also pile fermented before being steamed and packed into baskets or pressed into bricks.
Fuzhuan is partially pile fermented, inoculated with the spores of a specific fungus, then steamed and pressed into bricks that are dried very slowly over the course of a month or so so the fungus can grow throughout the moist interior of the brick.
White teas are quickly dried after picking with limited other processing steps.
All of the above teas are also rolled in rolling machines after harvest which crush the leaves cell walls and make them easier to processes and also make it easier to extract flavor from the leaves with hot water.

>>15664299
Nice find, that didn't really answer my question, it looked like maybe they were doing some fermentation after pressing, and they also were maybe doing some pile fermentation on the bamboo matts, but that might have just been a drying step.
That border bing is coming along nicely by the way, they finish is really stretching out and the overall flavor seems to just be getting better.

>>15663698
>The simplest way to brew is to get a brew basket from a german brand named finum, they should run around $8-$10, then you can just brew in one of your mugs.
When you use one of those baskets, how much tea do you put in? Because I know for sencha you usually put 10 grams into a pot and then pour in like 200ml of water, but are you supposed to put in the normal 10 grams for it or put in half as much?

>>15664389
Im not sure ehat the exact ratio is for Japanese greens, you would measure how may milliliters of water you mug holds and then look at the recommended grams per ml.
O-cha recommends .6 grams (dry weight) of sencha leaf for each 30 ml (one fluid ounce) of water
https://www.o-cha.com/make-green-tea.html
Pic related is one of the brew baskets i mentioned, they are much better than tea balls of those teabags you fill yourself because they are very big and that gives the tea room to expand and swirl around, the very fine mesh is also very good for deep steamed Japanese green teas since the leaf can be broken up very finely and they would pass through more coarse filters.

I'm mostly brewing almost everything in small glass pot. Is it bad I don't own yixing pot or it's fine? I have gaiwan but using pot is very comfy

>>15664498
Nah don't worry about getting a clay pot, thr pastebin has a section explaining information about them but my suggestion is to just stick with what you have. Collecting clay pots is it's own very expensive hobby and many good quality pots can cost several hundred dollars or more.
If you really want to get one get this.
https://essenceoftea.com/collections/yixing-teapots/products/100ml-fangxia-zini-shui-ping-yixing-teapot
Or this
https://essenceoftea.com/collections/yixing-teapots/products/120ml-fang-xia-zini-shui-ping-yixing-teapot
Or this
https://www.tealifehk.com/products/126ml-half-handmade-yixing-modern-zhuni-shuiping
Or this

Damn, Taiwan tea crafts has a porcelain pot that is pretty much exactly what i want the right size, shape, filter type etc.
It's only $32, which isint bad considering they are custom made for the shop to their design.
But their cheapest shipping option is $20 or is have to spend at least $70 or $80 to get free shipping and i don't really need to spend $40 on Taiwan oolongs right now.
I'm so sick of this virus shit fucking up international shipping.

>>15664554
Thanks friend

>>15662090
I drink a lot of dianhong as it's easy on the wallet, but my very favorite blacks are from the Wuyi area; I actually prefer Old Ways Tea's Wuyi blacks to their oolongs. Haven't liked any of the Indian teas I have had so far, but I'll need to give darjeeling a fair shake. Japanese black sounds intriguing; I see O-Cha carries one, might have to snag a packet with this year's shincha. Would it be better suited to a gaiwan or a shiboridashi, do you think?


>>15662112
Did you get cinnamon notes from it? That's a lot of what I experience with both that and the 2018 gong mei (assuming you're talking about the cake from YS).

>>15664498
My only concern would be that glass doesn't hold heat too well, but that would only matter for things like ripe pu'er and yancha that call for sustained high heat.

>>15664678
>gaiwan or a shiboridashi
Good question, you don't have the issue that you get with steamed Japanese greens where the tea is broken up pretty fine so i think a gaiwan should be fine to use.

>>15664678
Yes you are right I'm making my puerh in gaiwan mostly

>>15664678
Hey anon, im thinking about grabbing this porcelain pot, 100ml, flat hole filter ~13 second pour.
Other than maybe ball oolongs will this shape work for most teas? I mostly drink puer and oolong

>>15662085
Do any anons have a insulated or double walled teapot they can recommend?
I know it's a jap fetish website and all but I'm tired of my tea cooling down in my little clay pots.

>>15665013
Don't brew in an insulated or double walled pot, they keep the water too hot and it makes the tea get overextracted and taste gross. Get a big double walled ceramic cup and preheat it with hot water, then dump all your tea in there after you brew it in the pot.

>>15664938
I'm not the most knowledgeable on pot shapes- I bought two cute yixing pots over the years and managed to break both within a month of arriving, so I mostly stick with a gaiwan rather than invite another big loss.

>>15664089
>Having some super late night border bing.
link?

>>15664158
>to the anon that got this liu an basket from chawangshop.
how is chawangshop's liu an? i am intrested in posibly buying some.

>>15664349
but it did. I don't claim to know more than this video. what is "green liuancha"? another scam like fresh hunagipan cakes?
the baskets form chawang are products of this company called sun yi shun
https://www.puercn.com/pin/news/628164
this is liu an cha. non fermented liuan? sounds like cutting corners in the wrong places. is it lao cha po sold as liu pao all over again? fucking westerners trying to outchink the chinks I swear.

>finish is really stretching out and the overall flavor seems to just be getting better
funny you mention that, I tried mine about a week ago after several months and was underwhelmed. seemed like awkward age right now. still not that bad, I drank the whole session. your storage may vary.

I'm posting only because I was called out, so while I'm typing why not a fulchea protip: order only one cake/piece of tea at any time. even one after another. not only it will get you some aliexpress style discounts faster but the packages seem to clear the customs a lot quicker this way. shipping is already in the price so nothing is lost.
hmm, which one should I buy?
https://www.tealifehk.com/products/2019-traditional-storage-china-tea-8003-recipe-grade-iii-liubao-100g
or maybe this one
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/zhongcha-liupao-tea-dark-2019-dark-tea-loose-leaf-8003-areca-aroma-250g-p0674.html
also hk dank cellar storage is the next big one in the west, contrary to what dry taiwan faggots on auctions let you believe.

>>15665398
>link?
2016 myanmar cake.
>how is chawangshop's liu an?
the only legit non aged one. find out for yourself.

>>15662085
Anyone here drink Russian style? This is my favorite, you make a very concentrated brew in a pot and then dilute it with water in the cup. Czar Nikolas is my favorite.

>>15665677
>russian style
>Natural & artificial flavors

you got scammed hard. but there's lesson to learn if you're willing. read up on literature.
also diluted concentrate tea is not unique to russian style tea drinking. but again, read up.
>bbbut it has something written in russian font (cyrillic) and golden.

the next best one is guy drinking the glued together dust black tea bricks.

>>15663696
You know, I was gonna say your friend was a fag. but I describe tea like that sometimes to, so I can't judge

>>15665740
>>russian style
can also be served with milk unlike turkish/ other middle eastern methods. also sweetened with jam

>>15662090
I'm a brit who tends to steep my normal cheap teabags (yorkshire tea or clipper) for 5+ minutes, so it's been weird drinking such smooth black tea. I like it really bitter.

I got some indian nilgiri first flush black tea from what-cha the other day and that's really good, the first time I brewed it to the instructions and today I had it stronger, i steeped it for 5 minutes.
I have some 2020 1st flush darjeeling too but haven't opened that yet.

Can anyone recommend a really dark, strong black tea?

>>15665654
>the only legit non aged one.
you think the other vendors with yong liu an are selling fakes?

>find out for yourself.
i try to avoid blind buys. i don't need full tasting noes or anything i just want to know if it is good.

>>15665798
are you drinking your black tea with milk and sugar?
that's a teabag style (nonce), read up on literature and switch to loose leaf chink red (black) teas.
keywords: yunnan black tea, dian hong
example https://www.fullchea-tea.com/2019-yunnan-black-tea-fengqing-classics-58-dianhong-hand-made-box-tea-180g-box-p0551.html

if you intend to stick to teabags and milk from plastic jug - I can't help you, you're probably more versed in that world than me.

>>15665861
> other vendors with yong liu an are selling fakes?
which ones? link me and I'll tell you just by looking at the listing.
> i don't need full tasting noes or anything i just want to know if it is good.
it's pretty fucking good. worth the price for sure. but it's only my opinion. and I'm pretty anonymous.

>>15665882
>which ones? link me and I'll tell you just by looking at the listing.
these are the only other 2 western vendors i am aware of that stock it:
https://www.yunnancraft.com/en/heicha-anhui/
https://purplecloudteahouse.com/products/liu-an-500g-basket

>worth the price for sure. but it's only my opinion. and I'm pretty anonymous.
thank you, it will probably be the next tea i order then. i already had my eye on it before it was brought up here.


if anyone has any other chawangshop recommendations i would love to hear them. i am particularly interested if anyone has had any of their Hubei Hei Cha.
https://www.chawangshop.com/hei-cha/hubei-hei-cha.html

>>15665798
it you like bitter tea, raw puer. its closer to green than black but black tea shouldn't be bitter if its quality leaf.
for British(western) brewing assam is malty and strong, vahdam sells good indian loose leaf, they also do a smoked Assam thats max comfy, Darjeeling is more floral and best from 2nd flush(summer harvest). ripe puer and other hei chas will give you a brew so dark it looks like coffee but thick, smoother and woody not bitter

>>15665930
yunnan craft looks legit and high grade.
purple tea house looks like sticks sold at discount (to them)

chawang is so lazy with their packages that I'd never recommend them to newcomers. from them it's big packets or bust. still the best hei cha source right now. or maybe someone will correct me. I hope.

>>15665882
I drink my shitty everyday tea with milk but no sugar, but haven't been drinking this fancy shit with milk.
Thank you

>>15665969
I knew i was baiting the puer shills with that post, my power level isn't high enough. i am a dyke tho so i guess I'm getting there.
Thank you, I'll try some malty tea.

I'm trying to cut milk out of my diet so the fact that this nice shit doesn't need milk is good.

>>15665972
>purple tea house looks like sticks sold at discount (to them)
yeah it is clearly not a higher grade. i did not not think i was though.

>chawang is so lazy with their packages that I'd never recommend them to newcomers. from them it's big packets or bust.
i guess will have do some more research on peoples experiences with them. i unfortunately cant afford to make a huge order.

>>15666023
>puer shills
i have just about every variety of tea except yellow and purple in my rotation, you can get some really nice puer for the same price as blacks/greens ect, i wouldn't pay big money for tea, try one of each at least even it its just a sample. Black Gold Bi Luo Chun is very malty and possibly my favorite tea and would probably go well with milk, it almost tastes like ovaltine
https://yunnansourcing.com/products/yunnan-black-gold-bi-luo-chun-black-tea?_pos=2&_sid=0dc4c5d0b&_ss=r&variant=3279220080661

>>15665085
thanks, that's what i do actually with a thermos, it just seemed better to skip a step.
also don't japanese restaurants make it in those stainless steel caraf-like things? or are those only low class japanese restaurants.

>>15662090
I have tried "Thyolo Black" from Malawi, second place for african black teas,
I tried "Ruanda Rukeri" from Ruanda, third place for african black tea,
and the best african tea I have ever had and is "Millima" from Kenya. Really aromatic, flowery, but malty. Best tea for running. Probably my favorite black tea overall, but I have never tried the "Mariage frères" tea house so that's next...
But I'm quitting caffeine anyways so whatever....

>>15666030
>i guess will have do some more research on peoples experiences with them
that's what I see as completely wrong way to approach the topic. I get that you're minmaxing with your approach but never fucking ever will it replace the learning the tea by drinking the tea. duds, missbuys and all. you need to experience it all to be able to say that you drank the tea. no need to be rich. at first at least.

>>15666070
no puer for you mate. try again.

>>15666023 here
I've been drinking so much of this nice shit from what-cha that I just had a cup of Yorkshire tea and it tasted like asshole.
you fuckers have ruined me

>>15666070
I am being silly by the way, it just seems like puer is a bit of a cult in these threads.

I will look at the black teas you recommended, but my tea cupboard is already fucking overstocked so I don't wanna get into any new types of tea just yet. Lockdown is my buying tea from the internet time.

I guess mainly I can't be bothered with the ceremony around tea, I drink it for the taste and caffeine. I mean, I do own 5 teapots, but they're... for the utility...

>>15666139
>I guess mainly I can't be bothered with the ceremony around tea, I drink it for the taste and caffeine
Puer shill here, i drink almost every tea by dumping the leaf in a cup and adding boiling water, it's even lazier then adding teabags, i just keep the leaves in and refill with boiling water occasionally.
I agree with grumpy tea anon that you should try,
Some Dianhong Classic 58. It will knock your socks off and should be a nice malty, slightly bitter experience right up your ally.
I strongly recommend this brand, i know the packet is kind of large but they are a popular tea factory that has been making this tea for a long time.
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/2019-yunnan-old-tree-black-tea-dianhong-feng-qing-red-tea-cake-357g-p0593.html
There are a few other classic 58 teas on there you can buy in smaller quantities but ordering from China you might as well get a nice big packet.
Here is one of the smaller packets from a smaller less known factory
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/2019-yunnan-black-tea-fengqing-classics-58-dianhong-hand-made-box-tea-180g-box-p0551.html
I know that site can be a mess with the chinglish but they are a very reliable vendor that many anons buy from somewhat regularly.

>>15665930
>if anyone has any other chawangshop recommendations i would love to hear them.
This is a very nice liu bao, a touch bitter still but richly chocolatey and with some bright almost citrus notes, ive almost bout the full kilo brick on a few occasions.
https://www.chawangshop.com/hei-cha/guangxi-liubao-cha/2014-2018-three-cranes-brand-ye-yun-gu-shu-liubao-brick-tea-50g.html
This is a very traditional liu bao in the style of ones made for the Malaysian market.
https://www.chawangshop.com/hei-cha/guangxi-liubao-cha/2010-wuzhou-tf-large-leaves-05307-liubao-tea-100g.html
This one is kind of pricey but a fantastic quality liu bao, one of the best three cranes teas i have sampled.
https://www.chawangshop.com/hei-cha/guangxi-liubao-cha/2008-three-cranes-brand-0855-liubao-tea-1kg-442.html
I haven't tried any of the hubei hei chas but I'm thinking this would be the one to get, it seems like a special quality production that's a bit nicer that the other ones.
https://www.chawangshop.com/hei-cha/hubei-hei-cha/2012-dong-zhuang-qing-zhuan-tea-200g.html
I'm not sure that you need to order a ton of teas at once from chawang, my last order was packed fine and i didn't have any issues, his shipping prices seemed reasonable.

>>15665972
>still the best hei cha source right now. or maybe someone will correct me. I hope.
If you only care about liu bao then i think purple clould has a very good selection, mostly of cnnp productions. Their lack of tasting notes is a bit annoying and i would suggest avoiding the random sketchy looking bricks.
https://purplecloudteahouse.com/collections/liu-bao/products/2005-si-jin-quan-four-gold-coins-liu-bao-tea
https://purplecloudteahouse.com/collections/liu-bao/products/2015-2008-200g-black-box-liu-bao

>>15666868
oh gee thanks
>purple tea house looks like sticks sold at discount (to them)

>>15665188
Sorry anon i got you confused with some one else.

Thinking of getting herbal teas to have something at night without caffeine. Any suggestions? Bonus points if studies somewhere have shown a health benefit.

>>15666894
:^)
That four gold coins liu bao is one to try, still decently priced to grab a kilo.
Cheaper than EOT was charging for the same batch (now sold out)
https://essenceoftea.com/collections/liu-bao-tea/products/2005-four-gold-coins-liu-bao

>>15667040
Just don't buy their regular tea plant tea it's not the best
https://mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/teas/herbal
Just pick some that sound good, they don't make specific health claims on their website but you can look up the ingredients used and see if they actually have any studies behind them.
I really wanted to recommend the berry bramble for flavor but it's out of stock right now.
Here are some other reccs
https://mountainroseherbs.com/echinacea-and-elder-tea
https://mountainroseherbs.com/evening-repose-tea
https://mountainroseherbs.com/fidnemed-nighttime-tea
https://mountainroseherbs.com/happy-man-tea
https://mountainroseherbs.com/the-blues-tea

>>15662085
What makes a tea Chinese or Japanese or Indonesian? What makes a tea from a specific country is what I’m asking. Is it the discovery of it or where the company grows it?

Like if I take Japanese tea and grow it in turkey for years, does it make it Turkish tea?

>>15667243
>Like if I take Japanese tea and grow it in turkey for years, does it make it Turkish tea?
Yes, lots of the same variety of teas are grown in different parts of the world and typically because of soil, local climate differences in processing etc the en result is very different.
For example indian assam teas are originally came from Chinese assamica tea plants that were taken to india, yet indian assam teas and Chinese teas made from the assamica varietal are typically very different.

>>15667040
chamomile (makes u sleepy)
rooibos (tastes good)
spearmint or moroccan mint (tastes good)
willow bark (contains a chemical similar to aspirin)
hibiscus (tastes good)
st johns wort (antidepressant, don't drink if u take prescription drugs it can cause interactions)

I'm switching from coffee to tea, I don't use sugar or milk and I don't have a pretentious taste. I drank cheap ass generic coffee before, and I want to do the same with tea.
What black tea is the best for my buck? I like to buy in bulk. Right now I'm just drinking lipton as it's all I have. I'd prefer it be from amazon if possible. I know I'm not going to get ultra quality tea, I'm looking for the best cheap shit you can get.

Can milky bois post here?

>>15667599
how much do you mean by bulk? vahdam sell over amazon(cheaper through their website)

>>15667661
Not sure, I probably will drink 2-3 cups a day. I bought coffee in the large 2-3 lb tins, which lasts a couple of weeks, so I guess something similiar to that.
Im seeing that upton tea prices their cheapest loose leaf at 0.10 a cup, is this as cheap as it gets?

>>15667671
chinese tea i buy by the kilo, 5g gets me 1.5L (~15 small cups) and costs around £0.10/g, vahdam (indian) is around your price but i steep those leaves twice sometimes 3 times so thats at least half the price and this isn't the lowest quality you can get but good drinkable tea.

>>15667654
Those cookies are dank

>>15667654
milk tea is the best tea, these fuckers are hardly even drinking the stuff

Trying some of this 2014 cnnp T1101 liu bao i picked up fron chawang shop. I have been trying to air this out for a while as it has a real cellar aroma to it. The tin is totally sealed so it didn't have much air exchange while it was in storage before i got it. I probably should be storing it with the lid off in my pumidor.

>>15667599
>What black tea is the best for my buck? I like to buy in bulk.
$23 shipped for half a kilo of black tea
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/2018-fenghetang-yunnan-black-tea-dianhong-maofeng-500g-p0325.html
I would strongly suggest getting this, which is 380g for about $27 shipped but the first one is fine.
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/2019-yunnan-old-tree-black-tea-dianhong-feng-qing-red-tea-cake-357g-p0593.html
Or this which is also $27 shipped for half a kilo
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/dian-hong-china-yunnan-famous-organic-black-tea-with-golden-buds-premium-quality-tea-p0217.html
That retailer is good, don't mind the chinglish, pick whichever one sounds good based on the flavor description in the listing

>>15667950
Oh i forgot to mention, at 2-3 cups a day that is roughly 1.5 to 2.5 kilos a year, shipping can take a little while so i would order whatever two teas sound the best to you and that should keep you happy for half the year. Upton is good but they are far from the cheapest. Amazon sucks, there isn't much good tea on there and none of it is priced very well for bulk purchasing
Kingteamall also has some really cheap black teas but their shipping will run you closer to $10 for half a kilo. Still something to consider.
https://kingteamall.com/collections/black-tea/products/2020-black-tea-dian-hong-yunnan-hong-cha-loose-leaf-tea-hong-cha?variant=37636821942452

>>15667975
You can also usually get two western style brews out of these nice looseleaf black teas, so you will have to try out resteeping and see if the second cup is up to snuff for you.

>>15667902
Here is a picture of the leaf
This tea is coming around a bit, i have managed to knock down some of the storage notes, it's very woody with some hints of chocolate notes. I'm actually digging this now.
I still would not recommend this guy to new iuo bao drinkers, chawangshop has plenty of nice liu bao that doesn't require airing out in your pumidor for several months after you buy it.

>>15662090
I greatly enjoy Ceylon for easy drinking with milk, it has a banana caramel note somewhat like Jack Daniels and what sort what reminds me of how fresh tobacco smells also very smooth for a black tea without the harshness. Naturally Darjeeling first flush but I almost feel that it shouldn't be considered a black tea since the perfumed complexity is almost more akin to a white tea.

>>15666759
Thank you kindly anon

>>15667040
>>15667545
Spearmint also reduces testosterone in the blood which can help with hair reduction, if that's what you're after

So what's up with yee on tea?
Did the anon that ordered from him get their tea?
Is their stuff any good?
Any chance his cheapish early 2000s raw liubao is any good?
Where should i go for to get some nice stinky basement Hong Kong storage puer?

Any trustworthy tea seller in chinkexppresse?
some anon mentioned HealthTeaHouse Store in a previous thread

>>15668284
Yeah but their store is a fucking mess right now.
https://m.aliexpress.com/store/v3/home.html?shopId=1269947&sellerId=221244937&spm=null&pagePath=index.htm&gclid=null&extParams=
I think sellers arent actually supposed to sell tea on ali, it seems like they are doing some weird thing where they are changing all their listings to gaiwan lids during certain parts of the day.
You should just buy from their website
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/
Half the stores on aliexpress are using fullchea as a drop shipping service and just selling their tea with a markup, the other half of the tea stores on aliexpress are using super sketchy drop shippers filled with fake tea and literal garbage.

>>15667654
No

I did it anons i ordered a porcelain teapot, the call of the gearfaggotry was irresistible.
I have just about a complete, totally non matching tea set for solo sessions. I just need to decide if i should get a tea table, or a tea boat, or just kick it old scool and get one of those decorative deep walled plates to put my teapot on. I'm leaning towards something like pic related. But i have to decide if i want something that can hold the teapot and pitcher and cups or just the teapot.

i placed a 100€ order at ching chong sourcing like a boss

>>15669023
Post a screenshot of your order, I'm always interested to see what people get

>>15668983
I ordered this teapot and a few samples of HK traditional storage tea from thr tealifeHK guy, he had a 20% off sale for CNY.
I'm sure i still overpaid for the tea, and maybe the teapot but i couldn't find the same pot for sale in any western facing shops and the tea was from HK dealers that don't have any western facing internet presence. So it's a least a little less silly than buying a tuo from him for a 50% markup because he kept it in his magical HK warehouse of tea transformation for a month.

>>15669032
Feng Qing Ye Sheng Hong Cha Wild Tree Purple Black Tea × 1
100 grams / Spring 2020
$20.50
Imperial Grade Pure Bud Bi Luo Chun Green Tea × 1
100 grams / Spring 2020
$13.25
13 Years Aged Da Hong Pao Rock Oolong Tea × 1
100 grams
$32.00
Anxi "Hairy Crab" Mao Xie Fujian Oolong Tea × 1
100 grams / Autumn 2020
$8.25
15 Years Aged Golden Melon Ripe Pu-erh Tea Tuo × 1
3 Tuo
$12.50
Yunnan "Black Gold Bi Luo Chun" Black Tea × 1
100 grams / Autumn 2020
$9.50

Does this looks safe? Had Chrysanthemum tea long time ago, would like to give it a taste again

>>15669144
Nice, some pretty classic choices there, should be good.

>>15669196
Seems reasonable, it's in some kind of retail packaging which is nice, it should be fine.
If you are really worried about it i see this korean brand with Chrysanthemum teabags on amazon.

>>15669238
Ordered the chink one. Will report once they arrive
pic unrelated

>>15669270
>pic unrelated
Enjoy your anthrax.

Anyone have a recommendation on a tea tray? Renting a room right now with an electric kettle, would be nice to keep everything I use for brewing all on one neat looking platter.

Late night sea dyke oolong, they don't even mention what kind, just oolong. Medium high roast, medium high oxidation. I keep meaning to get some of their tieguanyin.

>>15669412
>Anyone have a recommendation on a tea tray?
Get one of these stainless steel tea trays off of aliexpress, they aren't the most pretty but they are very practical, easy to clean, and durable.
If you get a wooden tea tray i suggest getting one that uses a plastic insert to hold any water that gets spilled on it, again they are much more durable and easy to clean than the tea trays that just use lacquered bamboo to hold the water.

>>15668279
shhhh

>>15669412
If
>>15669531
Is too cold and industrial for you, here are a few with a bamboo top and a ceramic base, just makes sure you look at the sizes and make sure you stuff will fit on there nicely. I recommend not getting one with a wooden base because they can become damaged if you leave water in them for too long. Consider adding a dump bucket to your setup to hold your excess liquids so you aren't just pouring everything through the tea tray, especially for some of the more shallow ones i have linked.
https://aliexpress.com/item/32921081488.html
https://aliexpress.com/item/1005001984604682.html
https://aliexpress.com/item/33008699442.html
https://aliexpress.com/item/1005002029065680.html
https://aliexpress.com/item/1005002068516639.html
Here are a few wood ones with the inner plastic tray
https://aliexpress.com/item/1005002097394900.html
https://aliexpress.com/item/1005002104714220.html
These may not be the cheapest version of each product or the best seller to buy from so make sure you shop around on ali and check that you aren't overpaying

>>15669561
But is the tea good? Dammit i need damp leaves

>>15669604
only if you really do need them. and ALL the leaves are damp. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-aK6JnyFmk
but let's keep it quiet, ok?

>>15669627
https://youtube.com/watch?v=SuYXodsEwpc

>>15669661
sounds like the stuff I'd listen on a cassette tapes back in 2010 when I was living in London. john maus, molly nilsson and forest swords.
speaking of, italians do it better seem to carry on quite nicely https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5gdQCs85tM this banger captures for me that nonsensical half-erotic lyrics with off white plastic electronics sound without too much wink wink nudge nudge ya know that modern acts love to do.
/end blog
just buy the cellar tea and let me buy more for a fair price. shhhh.

So I have stupidly hard water (seriously, it's like slime). What impact does it have on tea taste?

>>15670358
if you can't drink your water cold from the tap then it's not suitable for any tea or even soup for that matter. are you african or other kind of third worlder? a shame really. good that you have internet though, keeps us connected. use a filter. good luck.

>>15670358

I'd get a filter ASAP, not even for the tea. if you're not careful you're gonna end up with kidney/bladder stones

>>15670358
The impact is your tea tastes like shit. If you're in the UK get a Brita jug filter, if you're a mutt get whatever water filter is good there. Do not get a purifier or RO/sand/carbon/micron filtered stuff, that's going too far.

>>15670460
>that's going too far.
nah man just go full tism and re-add minerals
https://kuura.co/blogs/education/water-ii?_pos=3&_sid=cb2b54d18&_ss=r

>>15662085
/tea/ general is a scourge of anime roleplays and narcissists. you guys are no better than the coffee fags. 0/10

>>15670583
This is literally the only good thread on /ck/ you nonce

>>15670583
What?
Where tf you seeing anime roleplay?

>>15666081
>I get that you're minmaxing with your approach but never fucking ever will it replace the learning the tea by drinking the tea. duds, missbuys and all.
When i said i was going to "do some more research on peoples experiences with them" i was talking about shipping because you implied their packing was poor on small orders. I get what you are saying and agree to it to an extent but even if i stuck 100% with recommendations and buying what others like (I don't) i would probably end up with a decent variety of tea including some that are duds to me personally.
>no need to be rich. at first at least.
I am still limited on how much i can spend on tea right now though so i do try to make every dollar count. when i have more cash i will be more inclined to take more risks.
thanks again for your advice

>>15666830
thanks for the recommendations.
>I'm not sure that you need to order a ton of teas at once from chawang, my last order was packed fine and i didn't have any issues, his shipping prices seemed reasonable.
glad to hear.

I'm glad i finally tried a Dayi 7542.
It's pretty tasty, tho at least the 2010 version doesn't have great endurance.

Any good teaware stores you guys shop at?

I'm looking for a slatted gongfu tea tray but I'm being autistic about the measurements so it can fit perfectly on my serving cart.

>>15672195
This guy has a bunch, lots of it is just from aliexpress if you look around on there.
https://kingteamall.com/collections/tea-tray?page=1
Really you should just go to town looking on aliexpress, none of the sellers im aware of art actually selling unique tea tables that aren't available elsewhere and if they were they would cost hundreds of dollars.

>>15669512
Having sone more of this today, it's kind of nice, it barely has any tea flavor, just tastes like toasted graham crackers. I need to get some higher grade teas like this

>>15670710
>you said some asian sounding words, that means you're roleplaying anime

Anyone else make sweet tea?

Get about 9 tea bags. Fill up a kettle, get it to a boil. Pour that shit in a gallon jug, let it sit 5 minutes, remove the tea bags, add 1 1/2 cups of sugar, stir that bitch up. Fill water to the 3 quart line, sit that bitch in the fridge.

Anyone else do this?

So I'm here to shill this mug
I'm a slow drinker and my quality of life has gone up so much now I can take my time. Plus, it holds like 350ml, so you get plenty of tea.

I know you probably all love your china and whatever but honestly this thing is nicely ergonomically designed - nice to hold, with a nice lip to drink from.

>>15673412
used to always have it in the fridge, only thing i drank as a kid growing up

>>15673462
Insulated mugs are great. Nothing wrong with keeping your tea warm.

Does puerh taste good western style?
It's not my favorite tea and I have some lying around. I don't know if the taste would lend itself to iced tea but I want to attempt to use it somehow without doing gongfu

>>15673781
>Does puerh taste good western style?
shu should work ok, sheng is probably less than ideal.

>>15673781
As long as it is not super bitter it's fine western style.

>>15664158
speaking of liu an look what Cha Wang shop just added:
https://www.chawangshop.com/2020-yesheng-liuan-bamboo-basket-500g.html
looks nice but a bit pricey.

>>15674062
Damn the material looks pretty nice,
I don't know about buying it so young, i would rather get it after it spent a decade in HK, but then i would probably be priced a $500+

>>15673462
Hey I use a very expensive thermos for my loose leaf at work and I do find it significantly effects the flavor, I tend to make it as per normal and then transfer the tea into the thermos (not putting the tea leaves in it) and it tends develop a bit of a weird taste not sure if it's the mug itself or the fact it's contained, stewing and unable to breathe messing with the balance of flavor. Has anyone else experienced this?

>>15673781
I'd doubt it but you can always experiment, if so post results.

>>15664198

>>15674449
I dont have issues but i only keep tea in a thermos for a few hours at most.
Is yours stainless steel lined on the inside? Some claim that metal can effect the flavor of tea but i really haven't run into it personally. I know you can still get glass lined double insulated bottles if you search around some, ive seen them on aliexpress
But first try letting the tea cool by another 10°c or so before you pour it into your thermos in the morning. Maybe that will help keep it from stewing in the heat and it should still be warm enough to last over the day.

>>15674645
Nice, saved

I hear a lot of people describe puer as different flavors and notes, but all I get is it tasts like puer and nothing else.
Other tea I understand the notes, they come through clearly, but puer tastes like puer

>>15673781
yeah, tastes great

>>15674809
It depends a lot on the puer, are you talking about the ripe or raw stuff? I guess i understand saying that lots of ripe has a similar flavor but i don't think it all tastes the same.

Late night ripe puer, as usual i didn't buy enough ripe and now I'm running out, i have a cake and a brick on the way from china but they are taking their sweet time.
This one serviceable but nothing special. 2006 and it's still got some fermentation funk due to dry storage and super heavy compression.

>>15662085

This is my go-to tea.

>>15674904
It's ripes, I never had a raw, tend to be outside my pricerange

>>15674645
>KILL GREEN

Yorkshire gold is the best tea for grocery store plebs like me

>>15675104
Grab one of these
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/xiaguan-2012-tuo-cha-jing-mai-ancient-tea-raw-puer-cha-100g-pcs-p0341.html

>>15675126

How does it compare to pg tips or builders?

>>15675974
what

>>15664198
Black tea is fully or very mostly oxidised. It is bitter and strong. Oolong tea comes in varieties close to green tea which are lightly oxidised or closer to black tea which are more heavily oxidised, but only partially. Oolongs are like the Wine of tea, there are many flavours within each category, all undergoing different growing conditions and processing and oxidising to produce their unique tastes.

what sort of water filter do you guys use?

>>15676351
I use the pur pitcher one, one of these big ones and i keep it one the counter, if you want to use a smaller sizes pitcher you shouldn't get a pur because you can't pour them with water in the top and sometimes the filter with get an air bubble in it and stop if you let the top dry out.
Also don't get one of the zero water ones, they remove too much stuff.

>>15676417
Forgot picture
Anyway other than the issues i mentioned the pur one is great and softens my hard water and improves the taste, ideally you should install a filter system under the sink and add a second tap next to your faucet, a good filter under sink system is only around $100 plus replacement filters.

>>15676417
Fuck

what do you guys think about stuff like this? putting aside the $$$ issue, is it good for when you just want to drink tea all day long without taking breaks to prepare it or are there any underlying problems i'm not thinking of?

>>15676532
If that's a strainer in there and not a heating element, the problem is it would get extraordinarily bitter if you did this all day. Even if you just made a pot and pulled out a strainer and kept it on "hot" it would get more bitter just through the tiny particles still cooking in there. I also imagine running a tea pot all day would boil down in an hour or so to the point it's either gone or just tea concentrate, at which point might as well just use a samovar. Probably also quickly get some mineral buildup and have to deep clean it every day like a humidifier.
If that's just a heating element and all it does is boil water and not brew tea, then you deal with the evaporation problem unless it's sealed and pressurized to some extent, in which case >glass. It would probably also have mineral buildup like a humidifier as well but not nearly as bad. Probably also run your power bill a bit to boil water 8 hours a day every day.

>>15676532
It's really best to keep the boiling water step and the brewing tea step in separate containers. Like the other anon said keeping it clean would be a big hassle, and you don't want to leave brewed tea on a heater, it will get bitter like coffee does when you leave the pot on a hotplate.
If i wanted to be lazy and drink tea all day i would use a 2 cup teapot and pour the whole thing into a big insulated mug after brewing, just make more tea when needed. Or i would simmer some white tea or ripe puer in a big pot on the stove and then strain it into my 64oz insulated bottle.

>>15673781
try it and post results, last year i gong fu-ed Yorkshire tea, it was bad.

>>15677022
too late, I consumed it all in a gong fu ceremony

What tea youtuber is the most trustable? Which is the most entertaining?
Who's the biggest shill, and who's the biggest liar?

>>15677572
meileaf for all

>>15672088
7542 doesn't have good endurace period
8582 chads reporting in

Had my first ever raw earlier, 2012 Zi Yun Hao recommended by some anon 2 months ago.

It tastes like wet hay, but more "mature" than a green.
It reminds me of spending time at my grandparents farmhouse, comfy af.

First five steeps were bitter, mostly because i included all the dust from breaking the tuo
After that it was smooth, i could easily have gone for more than 10 steeps but i have other stuff to do, might try to push the leaves more later.

Gonna get some raw samples next time i order stuff, i want to explore this.

>>15674809
Definitely agree with you, every ripe puer I've tried so far has tasted about the same. Some raws I've tried also have that same funky flavor, but there have been a few that actually tasted like tea and I'd order again. I got the sample pack from Nie Qun on ebay and these were the ones that tasted the least like fermented wood:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Puwen-puer-tea-sheng-raw-green-pu-er-Ai-Feng-Wang-puerh-400g-/303098187366
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Puwen-puer-tea-factory-sheng-raw-green-pu-er-2013-YUN-YA-YIN-XIANG-puerh-400g-/303098240168

Who else waiting on YS to actually start shipping things out?

>>15679286
when did you order? for a lot of people I've heard from (including myself) they started shipping out orders last week already

>>15679308
Roughly around Feb 10th.
I bought an order a few days later and got DHL because it had an accessory that I needed before I got the first order, and that one arrived on the 26th, but my main order was regular shipping and hasn't shipped out yet.

>>15678973
Ordered 2/17, still waiting for them to actually ship. My supply is starting to run dangerously low too, down to my last 100g or so

>>15678624
Nice anon, that was one of the teas that got me into raws. Like you said you can control bitterness by leaving the dust out, also keeping the first few Infusions really short.

>>15674987
>as usual i didn't buy enough ripe and now I'm running out
why don't you just stock up if you use it up so fast? didn't you just buy that fangcha a several threads ago?

>drink te guanyin
>it starts with grassy aroma and taste and later incredible flower aroma with black currant aftertaste comes, plus it relaxes me and makes me sleepy
>drink the same te guanyin a week later
>can smell the flower aroma but it tastes just grassy and too much sour

why is that? It is kinda old, almost a year, but that doesn't explain why it changed in a week

>>15680347
>why don't you just stock up if you use it up so fast?
Excellent question, when I'm making orders ripe always seems like a boring safe choice and I'm called to the allure or different raws and other stuff.
I generally don't drink that much ripe but occasionally i get on a big ripe kick and obliterate my stash by drinking it every day.
I do have about 600g on order so hopefully i will be better prepared.

>>15680404
Hmm interesting, do you think after you opened it last week you maybe didn't seal the bag as well, or closed it full of a lot of air? It coul be that it dried out some some how and that knocked down the aroma some. Did you yuse different ratios of leaf in the two brews?

>>15680452
Here is the pic of the previous brew, amount is about the same. Maybe I didn't seal the bags well, as you can see in the pic above, I roll them up and put a clip on it, so I might roll it up with too much air inside. But still I'm not sure that one week would make such change, it's weird. Maybe it's something with the time and the way I drink it, but the differences in taste and smell were almost obvious to me. One more reason could be the fact that I have been drinking too much tea this week and my taste buds got too used to it

>>15680507
Hmm, weird, try it again nect week and see if it comes out different

I don't get why tea has to take such a backwards route to get from China to me
>Be me
>Western Colorado (opposite side of the great divide than Denver)
>tea ships into Texas for some reason
>>15680624
life is suffering, just ship it to Arizona or Denver please. You always add on like an extra day

>>15680699
I don't know why I quoted you

>>15680699
I have a tea order on the way from Taiwan. It shipped from Taiwan and cleared customs in 4 days from when the seller put the package ine the mail. That was a week ago and it has now completely disappeared into the either, no updates at all. I also have a package coming from portland that as far as i can tell has been sitting in thr Portland USPS sorting center for over a week now.
The USPS hasn't been this bad in years. Ever since January they are shitting the bed.

What battery power tools /tea/ has?

>>15669412
2.5" hhd?

>>15680747
I have a battery powered scale

drinking some guricha

post sencha

>>15680903
What kind of pot works for Japanese greens? Never see them use faiwan and I cant imagine using a normal pot or a yixing pot fir delicate tea, it would burn it.

hi

>>15680913
I use a kyusu. Some people use houhins or shiboridashi, usually for gyokuro.

Newbie here, I'm just starting to drink loose leaf tea and I really like pic related the most out of what I've tried. Where can I buy a higher quality Jasmine tea and what I should I be looking for?

>>15680913
There are a few different styles that get used.
Usually a Tokoname, or a Shiboridashi which is like a gaiwan but better designed to handle fine green teas.
Yuki cha has a bunch of the teapot models if you want to take a look at them and the different types if filters they use.
https://www.yuuki-cha.com/teaware/japanese-teapots
Here are some more
https://yunomi.life/collections/teaware

>>15680970
Yunnansourcing.com has a good selection of Jasmine teas. Just do to their site and search jasmine.
For really affordable jasmine try these guys.
Shipping should run around $2
I would suggest getting 100g-150g of each kind.
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/jasmine-green-tea-chinese-100-natural-organic-jasmine-buds-flower-tea-premium-quality-tea-p0210.html
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/organic-jasmine-dragon-balls-100-natural-jasmine-pearls-fresh-green-tea-chinese-beat-green-tea-organic-tea-online-p0179.html
For shipping from within the USA try these guys. And pick 1 or 2 types that sound good.
https://redblossomtea.com/products/jasmine-yin-hao?_pos=6&_sid=ebf152eb6&_ss=r&variant=31871729540
https://redblossomtea.com/products/spring-jasmine-maofeng?_pos=7&_sid=ebf152eb6&_ss=r&variant=37692644130998
https://redblossomtea.com/products/dragon-pearl-jasmine-green?_pos=9&_sid=ebf152eb6&_ss=r&variant=31583075237950

>>15680970
> what I should I be looking for?
An indicator of high quality Jasmine green tea is the absence of actual jasmine flowers from the end product. Low quality jasmine green tea is just green tea mixed with jasmine flowers, whereas in higher quality the green tea has been left near the jasmine and allowed to absorb its aroma.

>>15681310
The lower quality tastes better to me

Any one have suggestions for a cool looking cheap dump/wastewater bowl?
Any terms i should search for on ali?
I'm tempered to get something like pic related but it's a bit overkill for home use.

>>15681471
Apparently the Japanese version is called a Kensui, there look good because they have a grate on the top to dump the spent leaves. Apparently the English refer to it as a slop bowl. I would really like to get some kind of raw clay, as cheap and porous as possible.

I used to really like this stuff, but they don't sell it in the US anymore. Would anyone be so kind as to suggest an inexpensive substitute?

>>15681471
I just use a pint glass desu

>>15681816
https://www.uptontea.com/afternoon-tea/russian-caravan-loose-leaf-black-tea/p/V00093/

>>15682072
Actually the higher grade version is only $1 more. I would read the reviews to try and decide which version is better for you
https://www.uptontea.com/afternoon-tea/russian-caravan-loose-leaf-black-tea/p/V00411/

>brew gongfu
>go do something else
>gets cool in the pitcher
>tastes different but still good
what can't gongfu do

>>15682571
I enjoy seeing what most of my teas taste like cooled off, it's usually nice.

So after a year of brewing tea grampa style exclusively i finally dug out my dayi branded gaiwan and had a gongfu session earlier and i think im going to have to take a break from grampa style, at least for raw puers. Earlier i was drinking an 8653 which is absolutely punishing on my guts grampa style and it was pretty nice gongfu. Putting my boiling water in a big insulated bottle so i don't have to constantly reboil the kettle makes it much less of a hassle.
Do you guys typically use a fairness pitcher for solo sessions? I have a cup i can just dump my whole gaiwan in so i have been doing that..

>>15682755
I typically use a fairness pitcher because I have a hard time with super hot beverages and I want the tiny cups so it cools off to a drinkable temperature to drink it. If I poured it into a western teacup, I'd have to wait longer to drink it.
Sometimes if I'm feeling lazy I'll just max out my fairness pitcher with like 4 or 5 brews at once and just drink my little tea shots while doing something. Dulls the flavor like mad when I do that but it means I don't have to stop what I'm doing to do the ceremony

>>15682755
I think it's a bad idea to use a pitcher
It takes something out of the tea and the added pouring airates the tea making the body weaker

Either use a couple small cups and learn to even the color, or just use a big single cup

>>15683043
I was always told aeration is a desirable quality in tea. I learned how to do impressively high pours as a teenager because of that.

>>15683117
Try it for yourself
no point listening to me when it's an easy test

Pouring your kettle from a height into the pot in a steady & fine stream?
This is good for high-note tea's, or just to generalize, greener tea's, otherwise pour low


but from my tests, it's worse to do that constant exchange of pouring from pot, to pitcher and to cup
not to mention leaving tea in the pitcher

but again, as with most thing's, try for yourself

>>15683043
Yeah right now i just use a big (~180ml) stoneware cup. It's kind of a double edged sword because if i pre warm it too much it keeps tea too hot to drink for longer, but if i use it at room temp it cools the tea a little too much. I guess maybe i should look around for a 140m thin walled porcelain cup.

Tea review time
>Tea?
Jinggu Sun-Dried Silver Needles White "Pu-erh" Tea Cake from Spring 2020, Yunnan Sourcing

This was a cake I didn't know what to expect, most white cakes I've had are very sweet, so I picked up a few new cakes to stock up on a flavor profile I like.
>First impressions
The cake itself is only wrapped in one layer of paper, which is fine, but I would have wished for a bit more. No label or design, no text or anything, extremely plain. Touching the cake itself, it is a very soft sensation. It somewhat reminds me of dried mushrooms stems, which is appropriate for later. The cake breaks apart beautifully and with grace, whole full leaves come off with ease and almost no scraps at all, even with a rather aggressive picking apart. You could tear this with your hands and maintain leaf integrity, which I enjoy.
These large leaves lend well to gaiwan brewing, they don't stick to the lid like many tea cakes tend to, and you could easily go without a filter if you wanted to, as the large leaf size is practically 99% filtered just by the lid alone.
>brewing parameters
I am still new to white cakes, so forgive me if these seem silly, I'm open to suggestion.
Brewed at 82 degrees Celsius, for 15 seconds + 5 seconds per each sequential brewing. I put in 7 grams of tea into my 160 mL gaiwan.
>1st brew
The first brew (I threw the wash) surprised me, as it wasn't like other cakes I have experienced. It had a subtle flavor that took me a while to place. The initial flavor I got was a sort of meaty, mushroom like flavor, but very subtle. It mostly struck me in that the after taste was like those hard candies flavored with artificial cherry flavor, and that flavor lingered for a long time at the top of the mouth.
>2nd brew
It didn't evolve substantially like some teas do, which was disappointing. It largely just blurred the forward flavor of the mushroom notes with the back flavor of the cherry candy into one flavor that permeated both the front and back of the tea.

>>15683231
>3rd brew
Surprisingly, the little mingling turned into a swap, becoming cherry forward and mushroom back flavor, but with much less lingering.
>4th brew
Disappointingly, the flavor returned to how it was originally in the first brew.
>impressions
Overall I am very disappointed in how this tea simply lacks a dynamic evolution of flavors between brews.
For $10 for a 100 gram cake, I'd say it's worth it, but you can get better cakes for the price. This tea strikes me as something you'd drink for lunch, with the ease of brewing and the kinda broth taste. May pair well with panfried or slow cooked beef?
I did feel somewhat tea drunk after drinking it, by the 3rd brew, but I also had 6 brews of another white tea a few hours prior, I can't fully say if this tea is potent for producing tea drunk or if I just have too much tea lingering in my system.

>>15683222
It's up you, it is better to use 1 single cup
but there's benefits to use 2-3 smaller ones also

I just use 2 qing porcelain cups

>>15683231
try 15sec then +15, white tea i find needs a little longer than others

>>15683305
thank you, I will test that out. The Gong Mei I brew seems to do fine at 15 + 5, but does seem to die early, so maybe this is the trick.

>>15683231
Interesting that it would have that mushroom broth flavor, i tend to associate that with raw xiaguan puer. I wonder if that is a result of processing or inherent in the base material.
Two experiments you should try at least once with white tea, brewing it grandpa style, and simmering some in a pot of water on the stove for ten minutes or so.

>>15683355
The mushroom broth flavor was definitely out of left field. I was expecting a totally different flavor profile than what I got, and I have found other teas do the flavor better. I somewhat think it may be processing, as scott for some reason labeled it puerh when he doesn't label almost any white cakes puerh.
I will try the stove experiment, not sure if I want to grandpa style this tea though.

Can anyone from Germany recommend me some online stores to order puerh from? I once ordered from white2tea but shipping time and cost is too much for me (also had problems with customs because the package was mislabeled..). I could of course order from other stores within europe but cost would of course be lower if I order from within Germany :)

>>15683671
fuck off
i know you
buy more pots you degenerate cunt

so thing thing just dissolves in hot water? Is it any good?

>>15684978
Instant puerh? I've seen that on a couple sites before, looks nasty

>>15684206
bro what? I don't even own a pot.

What is a decent black tea for a tealet such as myself? I just wanna know if I can even taste the difference between some higher shelf stuff and regular bagshit.

>>15684978
I want to try some but i haven't ordered.
Is that the one from fullchea? Look at the russian reviews. A few like it, one says the smoke taste overwhelms the tea flavor.

>>15685049
>What is a decent black tea for a tealet such as myself?
Try one of these blends from upton
https://www.uptontea.com/afternoon-tea/afternoon-blend-loose-leaf-black-tea/p/V00095/
Try this if you want something smokey
https://www.uptontea.com/afternoon-tea/afternoon-blend-loose-leaf-black-tea/p/V00094/
Or go straight to the source and grab some of this, should be slightly bitter, chocolate, can probably hold up to milk.
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/2019-yunnan-black-tea-fengqing-classics-58-dianhong-hand-made-box-tea-180g-box-p0551.html
Or if you want something more honey sweet
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/jibian-high-mountain-black-tea-loose-leaf-from-yunnan-tengchong-dianhong-tea-red-china-cha-168g-p0699.html

>>15685165
Thanks buddy

Having some cheap wet storage yiwu from Yunnan Sourcing. Based on how long i have had it around this is my least favorite puer cake. Maybe some time in my pumidor will have helped it. I tried to get some inner chunks from the middle of the cake where compression is still high.

>>15683231
>>15683355
>>15683399
Personally, I am extremely biased towards white teas, in which I really don't care for bud heavy whites.
I wouldn't recommend grandpa and especially not boiling bud whites, they are fairly delicate.
Large leaf sun dried whites though, thats the tea that can take any abuse, and I regularly boil my post gaiwan brewed leaves to get the rest of the flavor out.

>>15685641
Yeah good point, that bud cake anon posted is the wrong tea for simmering, i meant to say that last night.
You try any higher end white tea cakes? Any tips on what to look out for when buying white teas?

>>15685663
To be honest I don't have any real experience with higher end teas. I tend to try and stick around a .10 to .20 cent per gram range in general as I've found its the best bang for your buck, and I can't splurge on teas.
My tastes for white teas center around the shoumei/gongmei grade for the most part. Large sun dried leaves with a year or two of age, sometimes up to 5-6 years. I find this is my personal strike zone for honey flavors in white teas.
Pic related, 2014 Gongmei brick from W2T.

>>15685766
Thanks anon

Speaking of affordable tea health tea house recently put up a kilo brick of Fu Cha on their ali store, should be loaded with fungus.
https://aliexpress.com/item/1005001999553225.html

>>15685822
No idea if it's any good but it's only $30, someone else should buy one and review it.

Why can nobody agree on how yixing works, how to season yixing, and what flavors yixing mutes?
It's utterly frustrating. I want to season my pot on friday but I don't want to screw up my first yixing, I'm hoping to make something that I can use my whole life.

>>15686211
Only the experienced pot owners agree
fuck off with your "muting yixing clay" stop caring about clay type, just buy good pots that you enjoy to use and brew tea that you find brews well in the pot, western anxiety of "making sure I'm doing it correctly!!!!" bullshit

Seasoning Yixing? use it for a couple years, not rocket science

When you first get it? Pour Boiling water inside, leave for a minute, pour out, repeat 1-3 times, oh it's ready
first 5 sessions of your pot will be bad, just accept it, then it'll be fine, it just means the pot is hungry

Pre-heat with 50-70C water, then boiling water, if you don't do this, you won't have it for a lifetime, because it'll fucking crack eventually

Don't be a dirty cunt, don't leave tea in the pot, don't let tea stains accumulate, fuck off with your "season the outside" gay shit, after years of use the outside will be seasoned from the inside

Anything else?
otherwise, fuck off with your gay little anxieties and just use the pot

>>15686211
Don't worry so much, just use it and see what happens. If you some how screw up seasoning it (if that is even possible) i have seen people soak them in diluted unscented bleach to "reset" them and that's apparently totally fine. Just wash it out thoroughly with tap water and use it. Wats the worst that could happen?

>>15686241
Why you so mad That I just want to feel satisfied doing something? Some people like ritual.
Rude
>>15686247
>bleach
Odd.
>Whats the worst that can happen
I see people particularly argue whether you should boil it with tea leaves or not. Some people say it makes it bitter, others say it makes it season better, faster.

>>15686271
fuck your ritual
go suck off po monk's cock if you want ritual

>>15686271
Let me put it this way, if you boiled a bunch of oolong leaves, would you want to drink that liquid? If not why would you want to soak your new teapot in it?
The other anon is bring snippy with you, but if it's who i think it is he also owns a few thousand dollars worth of nice clay pots. So i would probably just do what he reccomends.

>>15686241
Speaking of, potanon do you collect vintage pieces or do you focus on modern stuff? Is lazer/hologram label factory 1 worth buying or should i go older if i want to go the factory 1 route?

>>15686287
How do you feel about Verdant's method of just strong brewing gong fu and putting the liquor into a bowl and soaking the tea in that bowl?
I kinda feel like that may be a waste of time since it would cool too fast. Scott's video from yunnan sourcing is brewing it with 25 grams of leaves at boiling for an hour, but that seems sketchy.
I never trust Dan from Mei Leaf on what he shills
>>15686279
ritual is like 60% why I drink tea tho. I enjoy doing it. I'm in college for being a priest though, so I generally like ritualized life I guess.

>>15686308
dude
you mentioned verdant and scott in the same post
you say you don't trust mei leaf on what he shills
but you trust those two fucking mongoloids

>>15686323
I don't trust either, which is why I asked about them

>>15686350
don't trust any vendor
trust experienced users

>>15686360
A lot of users still do absolutely pants on head crap even after decades because they get stuck in their ways. It's hard to really trust anyone in particular, which is why I find it frustrating there's no consensus on what to do so I can tell who does what wrong.
I'm fine with tea itself being experimental because it's cheap as dirt and you can toss it out, but having to spend years on a pot is sketchy to try my autistic experiments on.

>>15686381
there's a consensus with the experienced users

but anyway, go read marshaln's blog
literally no point asking questions when marshaln has every answer for all your questions

>>15686381
you're in a college for priests and yet you seek absolute answers. something doesn't sound right.

clay pot is not for seasoning, it's for drinking from it.
anon above mentioned this method, do it https://www.mudandleaves.com/teatime-blog/before-using-your-yixing-teapot

now show us which pot you bought, I could use a laugh.

>>15686411
I posted the pot earlier itt
>yet you seek absolure answers
I mean we have to get a masters degree to do this, I had to do all the standard peer review college paper stuff like everyone else in college.

>>15686450
the flat dark one? shiny outside? posted on saturday? you still haven't touched it? god bless you. I'm not laughing.

>>15686471
Yeah. My oolong is still in the nail so I dont have anything to drink with it right now

>>15686308
I trust verdants method. Ive used it before. It makes sense honestly. If you preheat the pot and pot it won't cool that fast.
>>15686323
Verdant isn't that bad, though they do dip heavy sometimes in to marketing. Only bad thing is sometimes new batches of tea will taste amazing, then when they get another shipment it isn't as good. I feel like they would be more based if not for marketing required to turn a profit. I'm still kinda mad I never got to go to their tea room.

>>15683231
I had an older form of that once. Got some real weird flavors out of it over the steps. Scent of gunpowder, caramelized bananas, strawberries, along with an overtone of hay that stuck around as the flavor mutated over the session.

Gonna need to buy a cake of the new stuff for when my commissioned teaware arrives.
Or maybe a sample of some expensive oolong, so I can baptize the set with tasting notes

>>15676433
i have exactly pic rel

Le country grandma teapot has arrived

>>15686884
Based, ive just gotten lost looking through teapots on ebay a few times.

>>15686884
nice teapot but
- "russian font" tea
- "dolche" vita
- some random petals in transparent jar with "black tea"
- the tea brewed so weak that after adding milk it looks like newborns vomit, probably smells like it too

no upvotes here, try on the other webzone.

correction >>15686986
he upvoted and said "based", that means he's 4channer.

Is it totally nuts for me to spend $15 on a 250ml cha hai when I already have a 600ml coffee pot i could use?

>>15687018
Pic related is what i have now, it just seems too big when the largest gaiwan i have is 120ml, I'm afraid all the surface area will excessively cool the tea.

>>15686884
Are you a woman?

>>15687037
I use an old 2 cup glass measuring cup as a cha hai and it works, but I have a dedicated one in the mail because my wife wanted to get me a tea thing for my birthday
It's like 99% for aesthetics

>>15687018
spending $15 on anything is not totally nuts in 2021. 120ml of tea on the wide bottom of your coffee pot might look silly. there are also various negromancers itt that will tell you how not optimal the water molecules will behave poured from such a height, but you'd be silly to give them an ear.
that said I'd buy the fairness pot for your gaiwan.

>>15687072
>120ml of tea on the wide bottom of your coffee pot might look silly.
Yeah you are right, it's actually closer to 750ml and it does look kind of silly.
My main goal is to get one where i can stick a teapot in the top and leave it as it drains.
I should probably just get pic related from Yunnan sourcing.
Anyone have other suggestions for where i can get a pitcher like pic related, i looked on aliexpress but they seem to oly have crappy ones. Is ideally i would like to get one that is made from borosilicate or similar scientific glassware.

>>15687138
picrel you posted is the classic of the classics, throw in steel mesh filter marked sonsitai and you're basically Paul Dano of the kungfu tea.
notice how the pitcher narrows down towards the top to trap the aromas in but then it flares outwards to create the perfect cosy nest for your teapot/gaiwan to rest in. if you're brewing sans filter, you'll notice that the narrowing acts like a dam for all your stray leafs and tidbits to stay in the pitcher.
truly a triumph of utilitarian and yet eye pleasing consumer art.
and to think that's started as milk pitcher repurposed by the mighty and industrious chink.

myself I use a 250ml pyrex mostly now.

>>15667228
>>15667545
>>15668226
I've ordered rooiboos, mint, and osmanthus
I forgot that pretty much everything is a poorly studied antioxidant in this realm, so I might as well just grab the ones that seem tasty.

Out of these two shapes which one should I get for my solo tea sessions? these are around 150ml so they can fit a whole potfull. I would prefer the one on the left but i'm not sure if I have to take shape into consideration when it comes to flavor.

>>15687391
link me the ali listing first.
right would be nice with full size bottom.

What style teahouses have the best aesthetic? Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, or British?

>>15687410
>link me the ali listing first.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001331098581.html

>>15687410
this one also looks good
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001304654006.html

>>15687564
this store looks legit https://sjzmicai.aliexpress.com/store/4787008
god damn, now I'm stuck looking at the cock cups. I have enough cups, but I don't have a perfect cup. it's somehow most elusive piece of all.

>>15687505
never been to one. somehow they've never once been in any places i've been to. what's the atmosphere usually like?

>>15687635
Yeah the sheep fat rooster ones are sort of tempting.

It smells and tastes like shit. I hate it. Not sure what I was expecting

>>15687812
Oh no my pic

>>15687825
It's not supposed to actually smell like shit

>>15687564
>https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001304654006.html
why would you drink something hot out of a handleless cup. mug master race here

>>15687847
You have to assert your dominance against the tea by showing it that you can hold the hot liquid with just a thin piece of porcelain to protect you.

decided to go with this one, I like the rim around the top, it makes it easier to hold.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001400104618.html

>>15687674
I been to a middle eastern teahouse. It's insanely chill, you just get a table and they bring you the stuff to make tea, and leave you alone until you ask for something like a snack or more tea. Huge selection was very nice to have without having to buy more than needed to brew.

>>15687949
I went to a teahouse like that once, it was pretty cool, a nice way to spend a few hours after lunch.

this is my first time ordering loose-leaf tea
does this order look decent, or am i being a retarded faggot?

>>15688410
25 grams are good if you just want to try, but you'll blow through a 25 gram sample in 3 or 4 sessions

>>15688410
That looks good anon, like the other anon said you should probably add another 50g of an affordable black tea. But everything you picked seems like it should be really tasty.

>>15688433
>>15688450
thanks, lads; appreciate you

>>15688433
>>15688450
added another black tea and checked out
thanks again, lads

>>15688479
make sure to not judge the long jing too harshly, it benefits better from being new
If you like it, definitely buy the 2021 batch when it comes out

>>15688479
Damn you couldve got one of their spring 2021 green teas that were just released, RIP. The dragon well will still be a good choice, its just really nice to have super fresh green tea. They do freebie offers too for your orders if you spend enough, it looks like you might have missed out on that too, double RIP.

>>15688479
Enjoy anon, don't forget to post what you think about the tea once you get a chance to try it. I'm interested in that puer, was thinking about buying a brick so i want to hear about it.

>>15688670
>>15688479
yeah mke sure to do a tea review. Tea review posts are the highest quality posts in these threads

RECOMMEND ME A GOOD JASMINE OOLONG PLEASE :)

>>15688679
https://m.teavivre.com/product/view/jamine-oolong-tea.html

>>15687004
>- "dolche" vita
Dunno what this means
>Random petals
Dried strawberry and blackberries. Was very tasty
>Brewed weak
Could probably have brewed longer yeaj
Tasted pretty nice regardless, I liked it

>>15687051
No I'm a dude I just like china a lot. Fuck the country though.

>>15686986
I love china teapots so much, idk why. I'm a fucking old woman in a man's body sometimes. I think it's just nostalgia for my grandmother's old house, I just like it a lot. It's so comfy, old furniture and nice plates.

>>15688784
it's more the whole aesthetic, the milk tea, the fancy butter dish, the jar of tea, fancy western style pot. I either thought you were a woman or bri'ish

>>15688795
Nice, are you a collector?

Late night xiaguan fangcha
I got a few from 2009, a few years older would probably be better, i think these actually have tighter compression than their iron cakes.

I'm doing rolling water fasts and looking to add in some tea as I am getting extremely bored of saltwater and water

https://www.play-asia.com/dragon-quest-kyuu-slime-teapot/13/70dfmv

Does this work as a clay teapot?

>>15689043
oh it's porcelain, yeah

>>15689043
What do you need a clay teapot for?

>>15689121
I thought it was clay, I just want this teapot, I love Dragon Quest and it's cute

>>15689123
Oh nice, yeah it looks awesome

>>15662085
new thread
>>15689154
>>15689154
>>15689154

>>15685049
vahdam's earl grey, Darjeeling, Assam and the ever shilled Black Gold Bi Luo Chun
https://yunnansourcing.com/products/yunnan-black-gold-bi-luo-chun-black-tea?_pos=2&_sid=0dc4c5d0b&_ss=r&variant=3279220080661

>>15688410
dont buy year old green tea, greens dont age and are best fresh, 2021 harvest starts end of march so buy from April onwards