/ck/ - Food & Cooking

Gear Fag Edition
Share a picture of your setup.
Any recent teaware pickups?
Anything you are thinking about buying?

Does anyone know of any shops other than mud and leaves that sell more high end Ru Kiln or jingdezhen porcelain teaware?

I have like half year or year old tea bags, or older, that have been sitting in my cupboard that I never thought tasted great to begin with, should I just throw them out and start from scratch? tea newbie here

>>15689207
yeah, just toss them

>>15689165
Going to get a couple things
a 60's F1 Hongni
70's f1 QSN
A shibo from pu-erh.sk
TXS zhuni pot
Porcelain japanese meiji plate
and a couple qing cups

Will get the pots in the next couple months

This shop is kind of fascinating they sell what appears to be actually high end craft teaware by specific studios and artists alongside absolute garbage.
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/group/Purple-Clay-Teapot/910320300_518058723.html

>>15689207
You can try to use them for iced tea, if you fancy this. You won't really taste the bad quality when you add lemon and suger.

>>15689248
I don't have any sugar so I guess it's just tossing it

>>15689244
fuck off zera

>>15689154
where can i get a bowl like the one the teapot is in?

>>15689461
So i guess what im looking for is a bowl in the style of Ming blue and white porcelain. Are there products the sit between the low quality reproductions with awful fake patina and the meticulously crafted high end reproductions that cost thousands?

>>15689030
>Late night xiaguan fangcha
>I got a few from 2009

the purple box ones from KTM or something else?

Morning, teabags.

>>15689974
>the purple box ones from KTM or something else?
Yeah, they are pretty decent classic xiaguan, but if i had to buy them again i would probably go for the 2005 version or one of the four fortunes brick sets from 04 or 05

Taking another stab at this 2010 Baishaxi hei cha zhuan (lit. dark tea brick) i got from fullcha. This is a very rustic dark tea brick without golden flowers. I got this tea a year and a half or so ago, brewed it once or twice and never touched it again. It tasted like i was brewing oak leaves.
I'm interested to see if i think it's any better, if i don't i will probably toss it to make room for more tea.

>>15690195
>if i don't i will probably toss it to make room for more tea.
it always makes me sad hearing about tea getting thrown out but i suppose you probably don't have anyone to give it too considering how niche this hobby is. how does it compare to a Baishaxi "1953" brick in taste? (if you have ever had any). i really like the "1953" golden flower brick but i have not tried a golden flower free fu brick yet.

>>15690195
Here is the leaf i pried off the brick. This is one of the cheapest (and lowest quality) productions from Baishaxi.
After a 20 second rinse the lid of the gaiwan smells like hei cha. I didnt taste it.
15 second brew, lid smells faintly of smoke, gaiwan smells of cheap hei cha and smoke.
The tea tastes... Okay. At least it tastes like tea this time, I'm even getting some sweetness. I probably could have pushed the first brew harder. Im getting powdered sugar, floral papery sweetness. It kind of reminds me of cheap wet stored yiwu. So far its very drinkable. I think someone who likes white tea cakes would probably enjoy it.
Second brew i gave it 25 seconds or do because i know it's not going to get bitter.
Basically more of the same taste wise, powder sugar, maybe faintly nutty or baked good flavor, a bit of that floral paper sort of taste. Very easy to drink. I guess i will hang on to it for now, it's definitely not bad or nasty tasting.

>>15690292
>how does it compare to a Baishaxi "1953" brick in taste?
I have tried a black box 1953 from the early 2010s. The 1953 was very smokey with more overall dark flavor notes and just stronger in general. This tea is more on the fruity / floral side of the spectrum it definitely reminds me of this cheap yiwu cake i have.

Fuck it, can't be arsed to wait for spring harvest. Is the way you make pu'er tea substantially different from how you prepare normal tea with a gaiwan?

>>15690421
it's exactly the same

alternatively get some autumn/winter harvest oolong if you want fresh

>>15690421
>Fuck it, can't be arsed to wait for spring harvest.
Theres already spring 2021 teas being released though

>>15690421
Quick, fall for the puer meme, i promise it's worth it.
Also
2021 GREEN TEAS BABY!
https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/spring-2021-loose-leaf-teas
Also 2021 longjing
https://www.ebay.com/itm/China-Zhejiang-green-tea-Wu-Niu-Early-Long-Jing-100g/303890781320
and some super early tea from some island or something https://www.ebay.com/itm/2021-Chinese-green-tea-from-the-Hainan-island-Baisha-region-unique-tea-100g/303839874550

>>15690520
>>15690649
Well damn, I have no idea why I've been holding out against pu'er for like two years then.
>>15690547
Yeah but only a little amount. I was gonna wait until like mid April-ish to get the full glut y'know but fuck it I wanna T E A.

How do I find local tea shops? I don't think I have any other than asian markets

>>15690974
That 100% depends what part of the world you live in
Outside the major west coast cities in America (L.A.,SanFran, Portland) or New York, theres a miniscule chance there's any tea shops near you not run by Asians. Even so, unless you live in one of the bigger American cities, there might not even be an Asian teashop.
If you're in western Europe, maybe in the bigger cities there's some. The U.K. definitely has some specialty tea shops even in smaller areas, mostly catering to Indian tea.
The arab world, tea vendors are everywhere, outside turkey, arabs drink the most tea per capita. You can find a tea vendor practically in every mall or souq. I love visiting because the tea culture there.
Outside that, I think Russia its more common to drink loose leaf, but I haven't been yet.

>>15691087
Alright, I don't feel bad about ordering online then

>>15691087
>UK mostly catering to Indian tea.
Not really. They do darjeeling and Chinese stuff, whether they're indies or shit like T2.
>>15691100
Honestly, the local shops I've found all have stale tea. I always order online.

>>15691301
Darjeeling is Indian tea

>>15691384
yes, I'm saying they do Indian and Chinese stuff

>>15689974
speaking of 2009 xiaguan fangcha i just tried a sample of some i got given a while back. i think it is a nice enough tea. i found it to be very mushroomy with some smoke and barbecue along with some herbaceous undertones. it has a reasonably lubricating mouthfeel with surprisingly little harshness considering it is a xiaguan iron cake and not that old. i suspect it likely has some nice humidity exposure but its storage was still dry enough to avoid any hint of funk or off flavors.

>>15691691
It is a good tea. I think I'm still reviewing it harshly because it really bothered my stomach when i was trying to brew it grampa style.

>>15691301
Does the UK have puer lesbians or is that purely a North American phenomenon?

A member of my family recently bought me some instant tea. It tastes a bit plastic-y and sugar-y, but it was interesting.
What have your experiences been with instant tea?

>>15692026
what the fuck

>>15691897
>bothered my stomach
i always have my tea with at least a bit of food beore and or after to help avoid this.

>>15692026
Instant black tea with creamer powder and sugar is a popular way to make lazy thai tea.

>>15692175
but it's all milk powder and sugar, so I recommend avoiding it

>>15692190
>but it's all milk powder and sugar
isn't that normal for thai tea? making it properly will likely still taste better though.

>>15692226
I assume there's a way to get some kind of thai tea without doing that if you make it yourself, I'll have to admit I haven't tried it yet

>>15692014
>Does the UK have puer lesbians?
This guy is a class one puer lesbian
https://theteaguru.co.uk/product-category/tea/raw-pu-erh/
Surprisingly his content isint as annoying as his outsized branding personality would suggest. I haven't watched enough of his content to know if its any good.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=m-me-qgqQH8

>>15692233
>I assume there's a way to get some kind of thai tea without doing that if you make it yourself,
you can buy the pre flavored CTC tea or attempt to flavor loose leaf yourself. then you get to control the quantity of milk and sugar you add. I cant give any specific recommendations because i don't drink the stuff myself.

>>15692286
that's what I mean, there might also be options with alternative sweeteners, maybe something with coconut milk and stevia or something, or maybe heavy cream, now I wanna figure this out, but I'm new to tea so I want to make decent plain tea first lol

>People who only drink puer and assume everyone else only drinks puer
>they only recommend puer
>they judge every single vendor by their puer
Why is this so common?

>>15692233
The traditional way to make thai tea is to brew a really strong black tea with fanings and then add a lot of sweetened condensed milk.

>>15692333
I have sweetened condensed milk, I'm gonna throw that tea out and make orders immediately

i love coffee a lot, but it's become too expensive lately, and the gear too pretentious (even if i just use a burr grinder and 50-year old french press i bought at a garage sale). i'm an extreme tea noob, but since simply microwaving a mug of water and steeping my twinings tea bags, i've saved roughly $200 this month.
this is my first time in one of these threads, so i guess i'll lurk until i learn something, but i have a feeling there's something to this.
my first question is, are there any teas with a very high caffeine content?

>>15692306
>Why is this so common?
its partly a matter of perception. recommending a puer tends to be a lot more complicated than recommending say a long jing. you don't have to worry about storage as much for non puerh. puerh fans tend to be disproportionately be enthusiasts as apposed to people who just like drinking daily tea. all in all puerh has a lot to talk about and consequently it tends to be discussed a lot. the people who want their daily cuppa don't tend to post as much. no one would look down on you if you geeked out about different teas like yancha vendors or something. honestly i would love it if we had some oolong experts here to mix things up a bit.

>>15692374
I'm glad someone else said it, I gave up on coffee not just because of expense but also the amount of time/effort involved and pretention

>>15692306
I judge vendors based on their puer because it gives me some insight into how they source product's, how much tea knowledge they have how good they are at dealing with chinese wholesalers etc.
I remember seeing a specific small german or spanish site where the couple that owned it obviously got taken for a ride. They were selling some 200g cakes for 40€ or so. They had a picture of them standing in front of some national heritage 500 year old tree and smiling. They weren't able to be there for harvest but nice old mr Lang from the village assured them they would get only the nicest leaves from this tree, and he would press them and send the cakes along once they were ready.
That's kind of an extreme example but when shops have a bunch of puer and obviously have no idea what they are buying, or they are selling a bunch of mislabeled or fake puer tea i think it's usually safe to assume that they are equally clueless about the other teas they sell.

>>15692374
Welcome, make sure to read the pastebin, it contains like 70% the info you need to make good tea. Tea isn't much of a science like coffee, so a lot of it is just recommendations rather than rules.

Tea is pretty affordable overall, even the higher end stuff (besides older puers). Nearly everything, unless it's from an overpriced vendor preying on ignorant consumers, is between the $0.05 per gram to $0.20 per gram. If you stick to just western style, you can make a cup for about $0.02-$0.10. A big reason I switched to tea is the price as well (although I switched from alcohol, mostly)

Mostly black tea will be higher in caffeine as a rule, but there are exceptions. Indian teas tend to focus on being stronger and higher in caffeine than East Asian tea, but you still get stuff like (fresh) long jing that has insane caffeine content. Tea definitely hits different than coffee because it has much more active chemicals that affect the body. The desirable trait coming from a really good tea high in the right compounds is called "tea drunk", which feels quite different than a caffeine high from coffee.

>>15692374
>are there any teas with a very high caffeine content
why do people always ask this? to answer the question the level of caffeine content varies inconsistently from tea to tea. the plants and the growing conditions vary. this is not like a coke where they can tell you exactly how much caffine it has becuse they add an precise quantity of caffeine powder. there is not one tea or group of tea that inherently has far more caffeine. black tea is only said to have more caffeine because it tends to be brewed long and hotter and therefore more of the caffeine is extracted. i suppose under that logic matcha would be a good candidate because you drink 100% of its caffeine content. on the other hand you tend to use less. it is not a cheap category of tea however unless you don't mind drinking bitter non shaded tea powder (which debatably is not matcha proper anyways).

>>15692304
here is a recipe:
https://teaintheancientworld.blogspot.com/2016/08/making-thai-iced-tea-from-scratch.html

>>15692374
Hi anon, don't let some peoples enthusiasm for specialty tea gear scare you off, i would gently encourage you to try out looseleaf tea.
The only pice of equipment you need is a finum brew basket (or just a stainless steel infuser basket) with that you can brew any kind of tea under the sun in a mug. Don't use one of those tea balls they suck.
As far as teas to try, Upton Tea has an "intro to fine tea" sampler that covers the general areas. Or look on yunnansourcing.us at black teas, they are just starting to restock for the year so pickings are a bit slim, but everything is sorted by popularity and the descriptions are pretty accurate so it's easy to find something that sounds tasty.
I really enjoy the caffeine effect of tea vs coffee because it feels smoother and less jittery. I'm not shure what to suggest for stronger teas, but i think you should find the transition between coffee and tea pretty easy, and the easiest way to get up to coffee leaves of caffeine is to drink more tea.

>>15692374
there's nothing that gives the same effect as coffee

>>15692485
>>15692417
thanks for the advice. a couple more questions:
1. can i use a french press for effective tea brewing en masse?
2. as a computer/radio geek, i prefer the caffeine hit of coffee (not as much as the taste. i'm a big taste guy), or very strong energy drinks. someone told me i'd be a fan of cocaine. would the answer here be to add anhydrous caffeine to the finished tea?
3. teas i like the most so far (all twinings because i had a coupon): roobios, lady gray, and lemon zinger. any recommendations for other teas sort of like these? i'm open to anything.
4. in relation to 2 & 3, what teas are considered to have a "complex" taste? not that i hate simple flavors, but i do like drinking something that changes in flavor each sip to varying degrees.

>>15692574
You can pretty much use anything to brew tea en masse, as long as you have a way to filter the liquid from the leaves. You can also do "grandpa style" and just thro leaves in a mug if you really don't care and just want to caffeine.
>2
tea leaves (overall) contains about half the caffeine content of coffee, so depends how much you drink?
>3
there's always just loose leaf versions of those to try. Most people ITT just drink unflavored teas for the most part, but I'm sure someone knows some similar stuff to that.
>4
Complex tastes come more in play with gong fu style brewing where you can really examine the flavor profile of a tea. Oolong tends to be the most complex teas that are easy to tell without gongfu. Try getting a few Yunnan Sourcing sample packs of various types of tea, complexity doesn't mean you necessarily like it. Longjing is somewhat complex but it is very grassy overall, and not for everyone, as an example.

>>15692574
>1. can i use a french press for effective tea brewing en masse?
Probably a bad idea. If you have absolutely no gear i'd recommend just steeping the tea in a coffee cup, then pour it over a strainer into a second coffee cup.
>would the answer here be to add anhydrous caffeine to the finished tea?
no just brew it longer or drink more
>any recommendations for other teas sort of like these?
try a little bit of everything, bag tea is miles apart from good loose tea. the roobios on upton is pretty good (in pastebin)

Time for osmanthus herbal tea.

do you guys know any good tea sites/forums
reddit has some ok stuff but its mixed in with like people showing off cheap bagged tea for some reason

>>15692574
Nah you don't need to add caffeine powder to tea. I think once you start brewing strong cups of looseleaf tea you will be happy with the caffeine effect. I think you will find that many teas are reasonably complex, I'm surprised at how many teas that i know have nothing added to them taste sweetened. Also you get the flavors changing as the cup cools like with coffee.

Here is a more upmarket earl grey offering, upton has lots of earl greys but they tend to go very heavy on the bergamot flavoring, this is more mildly flavored.
https://www.uptontea.com/earl-grey-tea/loose-leaf-flavored-black-tea/p/V00777/
Russian caravan is a blend of several tea types including a bit of smoked black tea.
https://www.uptontea.com/afternoon-tea/russian-caravan-loose-leaf-black-tea/p/V00411/#V00411
I will get ribbed by some posters here but I'm tempted to recommend some ripe puer, it is a fermented tea with notes of chocolate, caramel, wood, leather etc, it also tends to be pretty high octane.
This one is pretty accessible, with flavors sort of trending towards slightly burnt baked goods.
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/2015-yr-taetea-shu-puer-tea-100g-v93-pu-erh-cakes-chinese-ripe-puer-bowl-compressed-te-menghai-china-pt02-aged-puerh-best-organic-tea-p0141.html
I also would recommended trying some oolongs,
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Chinese-tieguanyin-oolong-tea-Old-tie-guan-yin-100g/303118906138
https://www.ebay.com/itm/11-different-samples-Taiwan-ga-ba-tea-black-oolong-GABA-tea-11-8g/303468876556
Beyond that you just have to try tea and find out what you like.

>>15692752
>>15692704
>>15692673
thanks fellas

>>15692730
Most of the forums are dead or extremely slow. I'm guessing that means the activity is in Facebook groups but i don't know because im not on there.
Some anon recommended
>Teachat
>CommuniTEA discord
But i haven't looked at the discord

>>15692752
>get ribbed
Yeah, don't recommend puer to a noob. You work into that

>>15692726
It's mildly sweet due to the black sugar, and tastes kind of like peaches. Apparently some teas are cut with it? Not this one, though.

>>15692730
Reddit is so bizarre for the tea community there. It's like 40% basic white girl posting milk tea, 30% people who act like tea is only from england, then like a handful of total tea autists.
Tbh I only really use here, has the right balance of autists that there's some gatekeeping, to noobs so it isn't just inaccessible

>>15692775
>Apparently some teas are cut with it?
I have a sample of some osmanthus oolong i haven't gotten around to trying, and another poster said they really enjoyed it.
Is that a tea concentrate or what is it exactly?

>>15692752
>t. Puer lesbian

>>15692803
osmanthus is a flower

>>15692822
I know that, i meant what is this
>>15692726
Is it just osmanthus and sugar in a jar or something else?

>>15692835
That one is just black sugar and the flower. Black sugar is nice but next time I'd be better off just buying the flowers

im a lesbian and i actually mostly drink oolong and green teas

Should i actually be using one of these loofa teapot pads if i keep my teapot on a ceramic dish? Or are they complete overkill unless i am babying antique clay pots?

>>15692903
Aren't they more so you don't stain/burn the table, not for the teapot's benefit?

>>15692915
I don't know, i see lots of pictures of them being used like this, the teapot is just on a ceramic plate.

There's 3 types of tea communities
>Basic white girls
>Elitist snobs
>/tea/
Why is this thread so much better than most tea communities?

how do I know if im basic white tea girl

>>15693264
Is your idea of brewing tea a teabag with hot water and some sugar and milk?
Do you think loose leaf is too fancy and expensive?
Do you drink green tea only for health benefits?

>>15693195
mild gate keeping helps to keep out low quality posters and socialites and the fact that it is anonymous helps keep away attention seekers and show offs. we are also a very small community with a good number of regular high quality posters to set the tone. I agree this is a unusually nice little corner of the internet.

>>15693281
ok good im an advanced white tea girl

i've tried decent loose leaf teas black and green but none of them are as good as tetley teabags+milk. do i just have really shit taste in tea?

Honestly i can understand why lots of people have no interest in drinking green tea, every time I try a green tea bag its very boring and bland and they also seem easy to scorch, it doesn't even seem like the same type of tea when compared to a fresh Japanese or Chinese green.
It's like how the first time I had white tea someone gave me a stale box of chinese market white tea bags and for a while i was convinced that white tea tasted like absolutely nothing, no flavor at all.

>>15693336
What kind of loose leaf have you tried, i would think you would like a nice loose English breakfast, or a Ceylon or Indian Assam.

>>15693195
In all seriousness it’s the autistic puer lesbians that make /tea/ great

Gong Mei is far too addicting. This stuff should be illegal

>>15693354
every time I make bagged green tea it just tastes like hot water that has had some gauze soaking in it

>>15693368
>>15693368
i tried earl grey which was ok i finished the pack but I dont think ill get any more. got some jasmine tea which i didnt really like that much. like it's ok but it tastes super planty if you know what i mean. like i took a bit out of a hedge or something and also alot of the time i think i fucked it up by making it too hot. i had matcha at a place once and it was shithouse, like if you put grass clippings in a blender. and i had russian caravan cos it sounded interesting but it was like a shit tasting version of tetley.

all of them were from t2 btw idk if thats like noob teir shit around here but its close and not that expensive.

>>15693439
Sounds like you'd like malty black teas

>>15693416
better quality picture

>>15693524
How is that any better?

>>15693439
T2 isint the worst but they aren't great, macha is disgusting unless you buy it from very specific high end Japanese vendors. You in Australia?
Order this, should be about $11 usd shipped, if you don't like it than just don't worry about looseleaf.
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/yinghong-no9-famous-yingde-black-tea-chinese-food-to-lose-weight-sweet-aftertaste-imported-directly-from-china-bag-packing-premium-quality-tea-200g-p0097.html
If you are in the UK than get a packet of this
https://what-cha.com/collections/black-tea/products/india-assam-latumoni-handrolled-tippy-black-tea?variant=13764650926135
Based on what you have tried so far there is definitely some hope for you to find teas you really enjoy you just haven't tried the right ones yet.

>>15693524
This looks like a picture from an old nokia flip phone. Incredible.
Nice that you are enjoying white teas anon, they seem to be getting popular lately so much more seems to be getting made, or at least sold to the west, in recent years.

>>15689154
i'm getting a yard soon and i plan on making an herb garden. how do i go about making homemade tea? what are some good blends to try?

>>15693569
Thank the goddesses. Maybe the puer fad will finally end.

>>15693551
yep im aussie. ill give that first link a go and if i dont like it ill just keep going with tetley. thanks!!!

>>15693578
You should be happy everyone is hyping puer, otherwise good yancha would be up to $2 per gram these days.

>>15693591
Good luck anon!

Is there a fancy way of making milk tea? I just usually add a bit to some black tea.

>>15693569
I'm the original anon, they got just edited my pic
White tea is severely underrated. Been shilling it to my friend's girlfriend since she has been getting into traditional chinese medicine, hoping to use her to spring board it to the rest of my friend group

>>15693601
TCM stuff is kind of interesting, i don't take it too seriously but there is definitely something to the whole cooling and warming thing. I know grren tea is usually considered cooling, some fermented teas are considered warming. Do you what white tea cakes are considered? I would guess they are cooling but maybe ones that have aged long enough would be considered warming?

>>15693539
how about now

>>15693620
White tea is considered feminine qi is all I know

>>15693601
Is she a chinamen?

>>15693705
Nah, young christian white girl who wants to become a mega-tradwife who don't need no modern civilization

>>15693647
last one

>>15693820
that's aesthetic af
can you put the 茶 in a corner

>>15693731
Oh, so she’s a crazy person. White people who practice TCM are mega cringe.

>>15693950
I appreciate self suffiency a lot, so I don't mind that aspect
But yeah, TCM is cringe. I'm from the southwest and seen so many hippies get themselves killed with crazy traditional medicine stuff they have no idea about. TCM is still better than crystal worshipping though

Speaking of TCM has anyone tried official korean state certified red ginseng?
I'm trying to decide if it's worth ordering a small tin of one of thr more affordable grades.
Yes i know about American Ginseng but that is cooling and Korean ginseng is warming so i want to try it out.
Plus this packaging is so cool, it comes in big heavy tin cans with a wooden box inside holding the roots.

>>15693980
Hard disagree. While they’re both insane, TCM is a lot more destructive to flora and fauna. Bear bile farming is fucking indefensible compared to some retarded white lady waving dumb crystals around.

Waiting for new tea and tea ware is agonizing

>>15694241
I meant in mental health terms, not the environment
Everyone knows the chinese are bad for the planet. They seem to only do tea right

>>15693820
>filename
Ok you got me, had a nice chuckle.

>from Moscow to the east coast in 2-3 days
I'll be shocked if it comes that fast.

>>15693820
>last one
I lied
This one is really the last one and then i will stop spamming the thread.

>>15694257
How is TCM any better for mental health than crystal fagging? Wouldn’t the immense amount of suffering the animals used in TCM go through transfer psychically to the human consumer of such products?

>>15694248
Yep, i have one order that was shipped from Taiwan and made it through customs within 4 days of them buying postage. Now its apparently on a truck being slowly driven from the complete opposite side of the country, i have been watching it pass through different sorting centers along the way. Usually packages like this end up on a plane and make it cross country in 24-48 hours. So far it's been 10 days since it cleared customs.

>>15694286
If it goes through customs in NY it should be that fast, if it goes through customs in LA.... It might take a little while, you order that ripe cake? I'm interested to her your thoughts on it.

>>15694302
TCM fags at least acknowledge that chemical properties exist and are needed to do something to your body
Crystal worshippers think waving crystals around actually does something and that superpowers exist

>>15693820
>W2T wrapper leak
kek

>>15694296
Why you do this to my tea cake

>>15694321
>TCM worshippers think eating tiger claws actually does something and that superpowers exist and can be gained from slurping sloth semen
They’re both absolutely fucking retarded but one is much worse morally and ethically. Crystalfags aren’t sadistically torturing animals in ways you can’t even imagine.

>>15694331
>Why you do this to my tea cake
tea drunk

on a more serious note what white tea cakes do people here recommend getting? I legitimately want to try some and don't know whats good. also how do you store white tea for aging do you keep it humid like puerh or dry?

>>15694380
Gong Mei has definitely been my favorite thus far. I have no idea about long term storage (I think the thought of storing them for years is pretty new in general), but it came with those little silicon moisture beads in the bad it came in, so probably dry storage?

>>
>>15694385
>but it came with those little silicon moisture beads in the bad it came in, so probably dry storage?
Some puer producers are including them with their cakes as well recently, i think they are to help prevent water damage but not necessarily to keep the cake dry. You want to keep white tea cakes from drying out too much.
15694380
You should store white tea cakes the same way you do puer, you don't want them to get too dry, there is info and links in the pastebin.

>>15694640
Whoops i fucked up quoting
>>15694385

>>15694319
Ended up getting the slightly cheaper Lincang ripe, and some of the Georgian black.
I've been wanting a larger gaiwan for a while now, and one of their wood fired 150ml caught my eye. So I ended up spending less on the tea to stay in my budget.

>>15694319
Ended up getting the slightly cheaper Menghai "wild trees" ripe, and some of the Georgian black.
I recently had a "wild trees" raw I really enjoyed so I figured I'd try a ripe.
Went with the Georgian black instead of the more expensive Russian grown because I saw a larger Gaiwan in their inhouse wood fired collection, and I've been wanting a 150ml~ or so gaiwan for a while now. Ended up with less in my budget for tea.

>>15694380
>on a more serious note what white tea cakes do people here recommend getting?
I haven't tried a bad white tea yet, i'm not sure they exist at this point.
https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/white-tea/products/2014-chen-nian-shou-mei-aged-white-tea-cake-of-fuding
I'm gonna shill this one even though I haven't tried it yet (ys shipment comes saturday), its the most aged one they carry

>>15694306
my last teaware got sent back to the potter fucking five times before it began its snail crawl journey to me.

It sucks something similar is happening to you. Hope you don't have to call fucking DHL to yell at them to get them to stop sending it to an address that doesn't fucking exist across the country to get them to send it to where its supposed to go.

Fuck I hope that doesn't happen to me again either. Shipping troubles just suck ass

2 days until my oolong and fairness pitcher come in
with the fairness pitcher, I will have all the utilitarian gearqueer stuff complete and focus on niche and aesthetic items. I'm thinking more cake stands, a bigger puer chipping box, nicer coffee table, smaller gaiwans for small batch tastings, gooseneck kettle, samovar, teacup holder, coasters, teapot stand, bamboo charcoal, kyusu, more precise scale, and my final dive into madness, a teapet

I need mental help, please stop me from becoming a massive gearqueer

>>15694971
just get the kettle and call it a day

>>15694990
I already have an adjustable temp electric kettle, gooseneck is unnecessary

bump

>>15694640
>i think they are to help prevent water damage but not necessarily to keep the cake dry

correct it is to help avoid mold when shipping not because it is good for aging. this is especially important if it was packed when it was hot and humid or freshly made and not yet fully dry and then moved somewhere cooler.

>>15694640
>You should store white tea cakes the same way you do puer
what about black tea cakes?

Mutt here, should I or should I not put milk in English Breakfast tea? I enjoy other black teas without but idk if it's meant to be paired with milk.

>you WILL brew your tea gong fu style
>you WILL use the gaiwan
>you WILL strain it into a gong dao bei
>you WILL purify the water with bamboo charcoal
>you WILL smell the gaiwan lid after rinsing
>you WILL gradually coax out the subtle flavours
>you WILL dedicate one yixing pot for each kind of tea

I've been drinking kanna tea before I get high for the last couple days.
It gets you higher for longer by prepping the brain to receive the incoming chemicals.
Mangoes are supposed to do the same thing, but I've gotten better results with the kanna

>>15696964
>what about black tea cakes?
I dont really know, typically black tea is kept air tight it foil bags or similar, with these black tea cakes you are trying to age them but i don't really know if that means they should get the same conditions as puer.
I had a really tightly pressed black tea brick a few years ago that i just stored in a zip lock bag and than seemed fine for the couple years before i finished it off.

>>15694971
Post your setup

>>15697483
>English Breakfast tea
It's probably designed to have milk added, that doesn't mean you have to.

>>15697774
How is this soy

It's not about soy anymore, it's more of a schizo post thing now.

how to spot an absolute waste of space new fag:
- replies to troll posts
- calls puer autists lesbians, because of one sour retard who got filtered by puer and tried to force this meme

now calling my hei chads itt, which three cranes liu pao BRICKS did you drink? I'm trying to navigate the retarded numbering system and I appreciate your input.

>>15699329
>still getting assblasted by the puer lesbian meme

>>15699329
>now calling my hei chads itt, which three cranes liu pao BRICKS did you drink?
I have a brick of the 2014 0222. Its good, very chocolate, slightly bitter if you push it hard enough. Another anon grabbed the same and was a bit disappointed it tasted so much like a ripe puer to him.
>I'm trying to navigate the retarded numbering system and I appreciate your input.
cnnp and three cranes both used different numbering systems until 2018, both are different from puer factory codes.
translated from a chinese forum post:
>The serial number of Liubao tea in Wuzhou Tea Factory usually has four or five digits:

>Four digits: the first digit represents the grade, the second digit represents the starting year of aging, and the last two digits represent the batch.

>For example, 2601, it means: Class 2 tea, aged in 2006, the first batch.

>Five digits: the first represents the start year of aging, the second represents the Wuzhou Tea Factory, the third represents the grade, and the last two represent the batch;

>For example, 85109, it means: aging began in 2008, first-class tea, the 09th batch.

Rooibos smells like medicine and tastes like wood.

>>15699527
Try brewing it for exactly 60 seconds and no longer, I find it tastes worse if i brew it too long, especially with its cousin plant honeybush, which tastes like honey if brewed quickly, and then tastes nasty if brewed for 5 or 10 minutes.

>>15699329
>>15699510
if i was going to grab one of the bricks off of health tea house i would probably go for the 1103, it looks like it might have some golden flowers, or the cofco 8312, which i believe was fermented in 2008, pressed in 2014 and uses grade 3 material.
the two three cranes bricks that start with 3 look pretty rough material wise, they might be good who knows.

>>15699510
all right, so your brick from wuzhou (three cranes/sanhe) is 2014 0222, meaning that it's
grade 0 - now this can mean lowest or highest. is your brick full of sticks or pure small leaves?
material from 2012 (two years of ageing before the release seems like the standard in liu pao world)
batch 22 - now here I have some concerns. does that mean there are bricks coded 0201, 0202, 0203, 0221, 0235 etc. from this year? I'm inclined to think there are not.
so I'm still not certain how to read those.
I'm thinking the last two digits may mean batch and style of processing in whatever order. but I'm talking out off my educated ass, so be it.

>>15699593
cnnp 8303 already in the mail my non-zhongcha friend.
wz 1103 is advertised as golden flower brick, and colour me surprised, I was looking at this one too. but the stock photos with mold spores on the outside of the brick look a bit suspicious.

>>15699510
oh yeah, sorry, 0222 is also on fullchea and looks like buds/gong mei material.
how's the endurance on this one?

>>15699646
Grade 0 for both 3 cranes and cnnp/cofco is the finest smallest grade, it seems like it only goes as high as 3 or 4 for the largest roughest material with lots of stems.
>batch 22 - now here I have some concerns. does that mean there are bricks coded 0201, 0202, 0203, 0221, 0235 etc. from this year?
The batch number covers every separate batch of tea made during that year in production, so no there are not 21 other batches of just that size bricks but 22 batches (or more) are the total output of the factory for the year.
I.e. those bricks were made with some (or all) of the the tea from the 22nd fermentation batch the factory processed that year.

>>15699674
ting, not mei, pardon my chinese
>>15699679
now we're talking. that seems plausible enough.
and the source is "trust me bro" or do we have some written artifacts?

>>15699702
I found it on an english language tea forum liking to a post in Chinese on a Chinese tea forum. I think it was on teachat but i couldn't find it last time i looked for it, luckily i copy pasted it into a text file because i keep forgetting what means what.
>>15699674
>how's the endurance on this one?
it's your typical gong ting situation where it doesn't have quite the endurance that something with some larger grade material and more stems would have but it's sufficient. Grandpa style i could get 3 or 4 strong cups out of it before it started to drop off.

>>15699329
Did your gf make you post this after she boxed your dangly arm flaps like a speed bag when she caught you fucking up her puer cakes? Y’all /tea/tards are ridiculous.

>>15699702
while Im at it i might as well post the cnnp numbering system as well, this seems less clear
>There are four digits (such as 5118), five digits (such as 40318), and six digits (such as 431029) in the serial number of China Tea Liubao. After 2008, the coding method is more standardized, and the first digit usually represents The length of aging, the second represents the grade. However, you will also see the full Chinese tea name (such as Sai Pinang) or the three-digit number (such as 802).

>>15699770
hold your horses.
cnnp 8003 white box
processed in 2017, released in 2019.

there's no rhyme or reason to this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kASd71tE0Hk

I think I'll go with the 1103 for the team.

>>15699826
>there's no rhyme or reason to this
ahh but the codes were standardized across factories is 2018
>
In the "Liubao Tea Product Lot Number Coding Specification" standard, the product lot number consists of five Arabic numerals. In the batch code, the first two digits indicate the year of aging, the third digit indicates the quality level, and the last two digits are the serial number of the product.

>The issuance and implementation of this standard unifies the product batch number coding rules of the Liubao tea industry. It has industry stability and easy identification. It satisfies the needs of manufacturers and consumers in various aspects and helps to improve Liubao. The standardization level of the tea industry.

>With the implementation of the coding standards, the previous serial numbers of Liubao Tea have gradually become history, but the classic serial numbers of some major factories represent classic products.

>>15699826
>>15699840
In this case they skipped the first numeral but it is
8=fermentation in 2018
0= grade 0 aka going tine
03= the serial number of 3 i dont know if that is still a batch number or a number of when the batch was processed for retail sale, but it's the first 3 (two in this case) numbers that are important anyway.

>>15699840
>trusting ccp grading
Oh no no no

>>15699935
I mean thr tea grading is all played pretty fast and loose by thr different factories, as far as recipe numbers go this is more about knowing what they are claiming is in it and maybe what to look for in other teas in their range that might have a similar composition.

>>15699935
who the fuck asked you for an opinion?

>>15699861
it also falls under
>, but the classic serial numbers of some major factories represent classic products.
in this case HK and Macau imported chink liupao

still no definite answers but on one I can agree on
>but it's the first 3 (two in this case) numbers that are important anyway.

https://www.fullchea-tea.com/three-cranes-sanhe-2013-liu-pao-tea-3108-dark-tea-hei-cha-brick-teas-chinese-tea-400g-p0511.html
or
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/three-cranes-chinese-san-he-2012-liu-pao-tea-1103-dark-tea-hei-cha-golden-flower-teas-230g-p0509.html

>>15699997
Depends on how rustic you want it.
I would go for the 1103 or where you asking a different question?

>>15699997
I should also mentione i also have the bronze tin from there
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/chinese-tea-sanhe-2017-guangxi-liu-pao-teas-liubao-cha-loose-dark-tea-copper-jar-200g-p0515.html
Which is apparently sold out now, that's nice, it has some light classic storage notes but nowhere near on the level of that black cnnp tin from chawang shop.

>>15700026
that's two votes for 1103 and since there seem to be 3 of us, it's decided.

meanwhile I've got a bit stony, ancient aliens posting got to me.

>>15700053
I went for a red one last time, would describe it exactly as you did copper/brown one.

>black cnnp tin
but it's beetrot cellar one, one of a kind.
I'm waiting on a workers stadium red tin from them, let's see how it ages. if it eventually arrives you fucking bitch Czech bloody bastard, do the needful.

>>15700120
Let me know if that workers stadium is any good, my next liu bao pickup is going to be the black box cnnp from purple cloud tea house. It has a decent bit of age in their warehouse on it so hopefully it will be nice.
https://purplecloudteahouse.com/collections/liu-bao/products/2015-2008-200g-black-box-liu-bao

>>15700161
>Let me know if that workers stadium is any good
I'm pretty sure the answer will be "like the red tin but with some age on it" but fingers crossed that it will have something unique or outstanding to mention.

>duoteli super grade
>2015 200g $42
>american continent shop

https://www.chawangshop.com/hei-cha/guangxi-liubao-cha/2009-2011-duoteli-yellow-box-liubao-tea-250g.html
look at the grade. and the price.
but still, looks like a good one if it ships for a reasonable price to you.

>>15700279
Yeah I'm exited for it, i love in the states so this shipping cost is reasonable.

how's the taste?

>>15700578
salty milk and old coins

>>15700578
I had some in an herbal tea that were spicy/peppery, I liked it. I'm not sure if they all taste like that.

>tfw too autistic to fit in with bagfags
>tfw not autistic enough to fit in with water and clay autists
where do I belong in this world

>>15700641
on a brink of a rabbit hole.
just bee yourself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVkvhXHZ940

>>15700662
I just can't see myself getting into water and clay composition autism. I'm a minimalist for or less and I really can't stand the idea of having a bunch of bottles of specialty water and dozens of clay teapots laying around. The curiosity of the effect on tea is tantalizing but I can't pull myself to the point I'd spend money on it myself unless some more autistic people gave it to me first and I liked it enough.

>>15700679
wait, are you drinking some good tea already?

>>15693195
why is every fucking thing a "community"? just do your shit already stop making it a country club

>>15700691
Yes

>>15700679
I know i am going to fall for the clay meme eventually, it's inevitable at this point.
I use filtered water but that's as far as I will go on the water front. I'm not about to buy 5 different bottled spring waters at the grocery store and compare how they make that same tea taste, or start floating those pieces of bamboo charcoal in my kettle. But just using filtered water did make a huge difference to me.

>>15700973
I may end up falling for the water meme if I end up moving back to Dubai, since all the water there is meme water with the mineral composition printed on it. Here in America? I get my water for free, idk why I'd buy a gallon of special water for a few $
Clay gives me anxiety

>>15701028
Clay pot collecting is like it's own side hobby by itself. It's got all the ingredients of something that is expensive and hard to get into.
Modern pots made the same size and shape as 100 year old antiques.
Specific clays from specific mines that cost hundreds for enough material to make one pot.
Antique clay that has been sitting in a defunct storage site for 50 years.
There are people who make a living just selling clay, not even pots but they clay to make them.
Loads of specific knowledge, a lot of which has to be learned with experience not read in a book, to tell the difference between a pot made a month ago out of cheap clay and a valuable and rare antique.
It's definitely intimidating to get into.

>>15701076

Man, I just want better tea. I feel like I need to become my state's upmost grand tea master autist to even have an inkling of an idea what I'm doing. Like I know just doing gongfu is already above most people will ever do, but I want to actually know the real depths of info.

Tea gear i have so far:
English style teapot
150ml gaiwan
Stoneware teacup
64oz insulated bottle
4-5 different tea picks and a pair of pruning shears
Tea gear that is on the way:
100ml porcelain teapot and an appropriately sized porcelain cup
Tea gear i still need to get:
Fairness pitcher
A set of small teacups for serving guests
A waste bucket
Either a tea table or a tea boat, i can't decide which
Some nice tea towels
One of those bamboo trays to break up puer cakes in
A tea pet
I think that will just about cover things, maybe a few different sized gaiwans, at least until i get into collecting clay pots
Pic is my tea picks so far

>>15701120
I don't think you need to know much to enjoy great tea. The most important way to learn about tea is to drink and enjoy tea.

Teababy here, how do I make a good cup of milk tea?

>>15701140
need an incense burner too if you want to go full gearqueer

>>15701149
I know I don't need to know everything, I make really good tea as it is, but my personality doesn't like me not being an expert at any niche knowledge field I care about. I feel like a massive poser if I can't go in depth on it

>>15701155
What kind of milk tea? most cultures have one.
If English, brew a nice cup of english breakfast, add sugar if desired, then add milk. Teabags are fine but you can make a really nice cuppa with a good quality English breakfast loose leaf blend.

>>15701174
Yeah i understand that.
The articles from global tea hut that i have read so far seem pretty interesting and informative, all their older back issues are free online.
http://archive.globalteahut.org/

>>15701155
First of all, one should use Indian or Ceylonese tea. China tea has virtues which are not to be despised nowadays — it is economical, and one can drink it without milk — but there is not much stimulation in it. One does not feel wiser, braver or more optimistic after drinking it. Anyone who has used that comforting phrase 'a nice cup of tea' invariably means Indian tea.
Secondly, tea should be made in small quantities — that is, in a teapot. Tea out of an urn is always tasteless, while army tea, made in a cauldron, tastes of grease and whitewash. The teapot should be made of china or earthenware. Silver or Britanniaware teapots produce inferior tea and enamel pots are worse; though curiously enough a pewter teapot (a rarity nowadays) is not so bad.
Thirdly, the pot should be warmed beforehand. This is better done by placing it on the hob than by the usual method of swilling it out with hot water.
Fourthly, the tea should be strong. For a pot holding a quart, if you are going to fill it nearly to the brim, six heaped teaspoons would be about right. In a time of rationing, this is not an idea that can be realized on every day of the week, but I maintain that one strong cup of tea is better than twenty weak ones. All true tea lovers not only like their tea strong, but like it a little stronger with each year that passes — a fact which is recognized in the extra ration issued to old-age pensioners.
Fifthly, the tea should be put straight into the pot. No strainers, muslin bags or other devices to imprison the tea. In some countries teapots are fitted with little dangling baskets under the spout to catch the stray leaves, which are supposed to be harmful. Actually one can swallow tea-leaves in considerable quantities without ill effect, and if the tea is not loose in the pot it never infuses properly.

>>15701194
Sixthly, one should take the teapot to the kettle and not the other way about. The water should be actually boiling at the moment of impact, which means that one should keep it on the flame while one pours. Some people add that one should only use water that has been freshly brought to the boil, but I have never noticed that it makes any difference.
Seventhly, after making the tea, one should stir it, or better, give the pot a good shake, afterwards allowing the leaves to settle.
Eighthly, one should drink out of a good breakfast cup — that is, the cylindrical type of cup, not the flat, shallow type. The breakfast cup holds more, and with the other kind one's tea is always half cold before one has well started on it.
Ninthly, one should pour the cream off the milk before using it for tea. Milk that is too creamy always gives tea a sickly taste.
Tenthly, one should pour tea into the cup first. This is one of the most controversial points of all; indeed in every family in Britain there are probably two schools of thought on the subject. The milk-first school can bring forward some fairly strong arguments, but I maintain that my own argument is unanswerable. This is that, by putting the tea in first and stirring as one pours, one can exactly regulate the amount of milk whereas one is liable to put in too much milk if one does it the other way round.
Lastly, tea — unless one is drinking it in the Russian style — should be drunk without sugar. I know very well that I am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true tealover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you could make a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water.

>>15701162
>need an incense burner
Yeah you are right, ive come pretty close to going down the aloeswood rabbit hole a few times. I want to get into it but the nice stuff is $$$$

>>15701206
If you're willing to use charcoal, loose incense is rather cheap. I still have half a bag of frankincense I bought 7 years ago for like $15

>>15701237
Yeah lots of loose incense is affordable
It's aloeswood that gets really expensive
https://scents-of-earth.com/aloeswood-raw-woods-sampler/

>>15701277
That site has a ton of great resins and other loose incense btw

>>15701277
Does it actually produce a desirable enough sent to justify that price?
Sandalwood is good enough for a daily burner.

>>15701303
Yeah, it really is that good, that's why i said I'm trying to avoid going down that rabbits hole.

How much milk do I add to my tea? 1/5 of the cup?

>>15701713
however much you want
it'll vary based on the tea.

are these better than the metal boxes?

>>15701740
Greenfield's Oolong. 1/5th was a bit too much

>>15701797
arguably?
Less work to set up a proper air tight seal, don't have to worry about metal reacting with anything and putting an off flavor
If you know what you're doing, it's not really better

>>15701797
Yeah, those are good, lots of those metal tins that tea comes in aren't really airtight.

Early morning Liu Ann tea. Haven't tried it since it came in, should have had some time to acclimate to my storage, still feels a little dry.
I also gave it a pretty generous 20 second rinse this time.

>>15701973
Whoops let me resize that image

>>15701973
>>15701982
It's good stuff, chocolate, cherry, smooth, the rise seems to have completely taken care of the pencil shavings storage note i got last time.

If the USPS doesn't drop the ball, should get a ton of oolong today.
Will end up reviewing them all

>>15702087
Nice, im exited to see some oolong tasting notes

>>15700679
>a bunch of specialty water
>dozens of clay teapots
you're exaggerating, I only own two good quality teapots and I use regular water bottles, albeit the ones with the lowest TDS I can find, you can get a lot more autistic than that but even just this is a big improvement over brewing tea in a gaiwan or in a cup with a strainer
>>15700973
>I'm not about to test different waters
why not, it's easy, cheap, and it has the potential of improving your tea drinking experience a fair bit
worst case you just spent $3 on water
>bamboo charcoal
you're conflating reality with fiction
>>15701174
there's a sticky, check the resources listed there and keep trying new things

hello pu-erh autists, I'm in dire need of some info and recommendations here
I'm waiting for april to come to get some first harvest green and oolong, and I'm looking to buy a tea to drink in the heat
I was thinking of something fresh, light, a bit mineral and on the sweeter side, not very earthy, sapid, astringent or grassy, something light like dong ding but more on the fresh and mineral side, or bi luo chun but lighter and more mineral and less aromatic, or ali shan with a bit more body and without that fucking exaggerated citrus-y side, so I'm leaning towards a young raw pu-erh, both because of my (severely limited) experience with those and the hope that the age of the leaves won't have an adverse effect on its quality, so I could get one now and still get something high quality without having to wait one or two more months
looking in the usual places I found this cake with an enticing description - https://www.fullchea-tea.com/shudaizi-2020-mo-lie-yunnan-raw-puerh-tea-cake-spring-tea-shen-puer-200g-p0702.html
the mountain teas I've tried also all tended to have a mellow taste, so to speak, without any single note (or few notes) being significantly more present than the others, though I have no idea about this particular cake or source location

so, if you have any info on that particular cake, that factory, that type of tea, or I'm totally off and I should look elsewhere, please let me know
btw I'm drinking karigane genmaicha from yuuki-cha right now, it has too much rice in it for my tastes, though the quality of the tea itself is fairly high, or stellar if you consider I paid €8 for a 200g pack (+ shipping, but still)
I'm not sure I'm prepared enough to differentiate between the karigane's and the rice's characteristics in the final product, though the former seems to me to be a bit sapid, pleasantly sweet, nutty, with just little astringency, and with little of the usual grassy-ness of nip greens
the smoky and popcorny smell is a bit too much though

>>15699510
>Another anon grabbed the same and was a bit disappointed it tasted so much like a ripe puer to him.
its not like it was bad or anything i just like would of liked a greater difference from shu for the sake of variety. it is my first liu bao so i did not know what to expect. its not exactly like a shu either if i recall it came off as slightly lighter and less earthy than a lot of shu. i will try it again sometime soon.

Been a white tea guy since I’ve gotten back into tea and I can’t drink my favorite green (I don’t buy Chinese products anymore)
Never really liked Japanese greens since they always tasted like grass to me. Decided to try gyokuro and did about 5 steeps.
That whole “focus” thing is no joke when it comes to benefits of green tea.
Plus it doesn’t taste like grass. Really impressed.

>>15689154
Please redpill me on Matcha. Which brand should I buy? I should get organic matcha since I'll be drinking it daily, right? Also should I get a chawan or would it be OK to whisk it in a regular glass bowl?

>>15701713
zero

>>15689154
As a burger, what kind of tea should I get for the proper British tea experience?

>>15701815
>don't have to worry about metal reacting with anything and putting an off flavor
mylar bags can somtimes have a plastic smell to them.

>>15702796
>sapid
what do you mean when you use this word? the word literally means "flavorful" which is something i would would expect all good tea to be. i am not sure why you would want a tea to be not me "sapid". I presume you art looking for an insipid tea?

>I'm looking to buy puerh
i cant really give specific recommendations based on you elaborate requirements but young raw puerh would be the closest to what you describe out of the different types of puerh. however a lot of young will puerh be astringent, bitter, and i am not sure i would call them "light". it sounds more like you are looking for an oolong than a puerh. fall productions and Huang Pian (yellowed leaves removed from the regular production) are often a bit more mellow than their spring counterparts. buying last years tea should be fine for sheng i have heard if you buy sheng right after it has been pressed into cakes it may taste a bit off at first due to the steaming. loose leaf sheng should not have this problem. my recommendation is to order from a site that lets you buy samples and try a number of teas to see what you like. be sure to not over steep young sheng as it tends to not be very forgiving. some vendors to check out: https://yunnansourcing.com/ , https://white2tea.com/ , and https://crimsonlotustea.com/ .

>https://www.fullchea-tea.com/shudaizi-2020-mo-lie-yunnan-raw-puerh-tea-cake-spring-tea-shen-puer-200g-p0702.html
i would not really recommended that unless you are looking to gamble. it may be a perfectly fine tea but its a cheaper production from a minor not so well known brand so i would consider its quality a bit suspect.

>>15703401
Any British bagged tea. Twinnings, Pg tips, etc. Seriously. Brits don’t do loose tea, most things they consume is packaged for convenience even more so than Americans.

>>15703401
simple as

>>15703465

>>15692415
its also often easier to figure out the market price for puerh which can be helpful for estimating how much markup a vendor has. honestly i am often less annoyed by fake gushu woo-woo than by overpriced tea.

>>15703401
Yorkshire Tea
Milk
2 Sugars
standard english tea

(it's shit btw)

>>15703512
>He doesn't like a proper cuppa

>>15701199
this is one of the most autistic things i've ever read, thank you for making me aware of it

>>15701194
>>15701199
When the fuck was this originally written, 1898?

>>15703637
Its George Orwell, late 1940s

>>15702087
USPS is being pricks, it seems

>>15703380
I try my best to not be a snob about tea under all possible circumstances.
Don't bother with matcha unless you are importing it from japan directly from one of the known good sellers in the pastebin or buying it from a very small number of domestic sellers that are very serious about matcha.
Matcha has become trendy lately and the real deal is expensive and requires careful processing and storage, the random stuff you can buy from wherever will be nasty and bitter and taste like shit. Don't worry about organic, it's not a big deal.
Look in the pastebin, any of the sellers in japan should be fine, make sure you aren't buying "culinary grade" matcha, that means not good enough to drink.
If you want to buy it from a seller in the US
https://ippodotea.com/
Is good
Dens tea is probably good but i don't think anyone has tried them
https://www.denstea.com/
You don't need to bother with fancy bowls or whisks, lots of people like those little battery powered milk frother wands, you can just use a regular metal cooking whisk as well, fancy matcha bowls are just for fun but they won't make your tea taste different.

>>15703477
Yeah this is also a good point

>>15702632
>theres a sticky
I dont think you understand, I'm above the level the pastebin gives info for

Gonna buy my first pu'er haul
Should I go yunnansourcing or White2Tea?

>>15703466
do Americans not know about mosley's reputation here

>>15703929
>Should I go yunnansourcing or White2Tea?
what specifically are you looking to get and how much do you plan to spend? both can be good options YS has more semi aged stuff and a better selection of non puerh loose leaf, W2T is more curated and has "cheaper" shipping (i suspect they hide some of the cost in their tea prices). there are other options as well.

>>15704002
I don't know, I've never bought pu'er before. I'm getting ripe though.
Looking to spend between twenty and thirty pounds.

>>15704023
give me a sec to come up with a recomendation. do you just want ripe or do you want ripe and raw?

>>15704023
YS has some decent puerh samplers if you're legitimately brand new

How do you guys make your tea? French press? Tea bags? Electric kettles? Normal ones?

>>15704023
dayi 7572 ripe
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Menghai-black-puer-tea-shu-ripe-pu-er-tea-2020-shu-pu-erh-7572-150g/303901163788
XiaGuan ripe
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Yunnan-Xia-Guan-black-pu-er-tea-2016-shu-puer-LE-SONG-TUO-CHA-ripe-pu-erh-100g/303624228943
XiaGuan young raw
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Yunnan-Xia-Guan-green-pu-er-Tea-2017-sheng-puer-XIA-GUAN-TUO-CHA-raw-pu-erh-100g/303624159911
XiaGuan semi aged raw
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Yunnan-Xia-Guan-green-pu-er-Tea-2007-sheng-puer-XIA-GUAN-TUO-CHA-raw-pu-erh-100g/303624261002

as a note i would be very careful buying tea from ebay but a number of other anons have purchased from this individuals us eBay shop.

>>15704086
>YS has some decent puerh samplers
they do but the shipping cost would eat up a lot of their budget as they said they only wanted to spend between twenty and thirty pounds.

Yunnan Sourcing has a really nice looking light ferment golden flowers liu bao they just added.
https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/new-products/products/2020-three-cranes-golden-flowers-85022-liu-bao-tea
one problem, its a 2018 ferment that was packed in 2020. This has potential to be a good tea but it really needs at least a half decade of Guangxi or Malaysia natural storage to get it ready to go. Instead he has it in Kunming where it won't do anything. He even says in his listing that it needs another half decade to air out and encourages people to buy a full 4.5 kilo basket and age it themselves.

>>15703949
Yes, that he was based and vindicatedpilled

>>15704197
Scott desperately needs to buy another storage facility outside kunming in general. He has good product, but only 1 storage facility and it's freaking kunming

>>15703891
>pastebin

I'll read that right now. What do you mean by from Japan directly? There's this Japanese store/expat community near my place so I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get quality /nip sips/.

>>15704229
I mean literally buying from a store in japan, that ships from japan.
>There's this Japanese store/expat community near my place
Even this is pretty risky, matcha needs to be freshly ground within the last few months and is frequently stored refrigerated. Even if a store originally got a high quality product in with the best of intentions if it's been on the shelf for a year it probably tastes like shit now. I'm not this snobby about any other kind of tea but 99.9% of the "matcha" you can buy is gross. The real deal is very strong and bold and some people really enjoy it, but it got popular with mommy bloggers and health nuts and a lot of very low quality stuff is being produced to fill the demand for low priced ground green tea.n

>>15703419
>what do you mean by sapid
my bad, I meant umami, the kind of thick, earthy flavor that makes me think of a lot of more aged pu-erh's for example
>lots of young raw pu-erh's will be astringent and probably not light
that really only applies to tea formulas/recipes that are supposed to be aged a lot more in my experience, the few young raw pu-erh's I tried were mostly lowly no name cakes with a mineral, light, maybe possibly and "unrefined" taste, kinda spiky so to speak, though they weren't very astringent or bitter at all
then there's yue guang bai which is none of that, rather a sweet, sweet, somewhat floral and maybe just a biiit mineral, smooth tea
it may also not be classified as a pu-erh depending on how you look at it, but never mind that
>oolong
I don't think I've drank an oolong that tasted so fresh/refreshing save for maybe ali shan, though I'll be sure to read up on huang pian and maybe order some
>try samples
problem is, there's a number of popular/big pu-erh's recipes, and many of those I tried at some point, but there also are many more "new and original" recipes and cakes each year, and for each I'd have to buy samples, wait a month, try it and then maybe get the full cake in another month
I don't have the patience for that, hence here I am asking for advice
>that cake's a gamble
I'll see how daring I feel before my ebay discount coupon expired
I'll let you know what I end up, meanwhile thanks for the input

>>15704260
I see. Interesting, thanks anon.

>>15704261
Consider this anon, this is a high grade blend from a high end producer lin lincaing, so the same area as that tea cake you saw with and enticing description up thread but i know this producer is good.
It's a 1kilo brick but he is selling 100g portions
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mengku-puer-tea-factory-shu-ripe-pu-er-True-taste-of-perfection-2020-100g/303608177671
Ignore that the listing title says shu, it's definitely a raw puer

>>15704312
He also has a few interesting sounding loose leaf puers if you are feeling bold, check the taste descriptions in the listing these are in order of how good they should sound to you
Unfortunately mineral notes aren't super common in puer and off the top of my head the cakes advertised as having "rock rhyme" flavor tend to be in the $150 and up range
This first one sounds especially good for you
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Feng-Qing-Gu-Shu-Sheng-Cha-100-years-old-tree/303437138037
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Yunnan-pu-er-Snowy-mountain-2019-sheng-puer-DA-XUE-SHAN-raw-puerh-100g/303201689056
https://www.ebay.com/itm/China-Yunnan-Famous-puer-tea-mountain-BA-DA-SHAN-2019-sheng-pu-er-tea-100g/303171026361

First gongfu session with the Dayi 7542.
It's very nice, again it's pretty obvious why it's the benchmark of factory raws.

>>15704312
>>15704395
cheers

>>15704449
post liquor pls

>>15704531
This is the 4th infusion, photo color is roughly true to life

>>15704576
Thats a nice color

>>15704261
>I'd have to buy samples, wait a month, try it and then maybe get the full cake in another month
>I don't have the patience for that, hence here I am asking for advice

yeah but part of the point of samples is to find out what you like not what others like. additionally, when i read your first post i misinterpreted things and thought that you were more or less completely new to puerh in which case getting samples would have been a good way to start. good luck on your search.

>>15704601
The cake is the sample
(this post does not constitute legal advice)

oolong > black > puerh

>>15704800
White > shou > sheng > oolong > black >>>>>>> nasty ass greens

>>15704812
White > oolong = puer > black = green > purple

>>15704834
I've only had one purple variety black tea and wasn't a huge fan of it. Didn't list it as I can't really make a distinction on a single instance of it.

>>15704889
purple is a selling gimmick. People buy it just for the gimmick health benefits and exoticism. It tends to just end up being a duller, crappier version of black or green

>>15704800
Oolong>hei cha>puerh>black>green=white>power gap>malty black teas

>>15705021
>hating malty blacks
>whites on the same tier as green
"no"

>>15705048
I really haven't had enough whites to judge, i should have left it out entirely.

>>15705059
you should try more white tea cakes if you get the chance, it's a high tier variety

>>15705021
black>ripe puerh>hei cha>smoked black>white>green>raw puerh>oolong
still need to try purple, yellow and macha/jap greens

>>15705095
Jap greens are weird for me, i think they are an objectively high tier tea, but i have no desire to drink them

Isint good yellow tea super difficult to find and quire expensive? Or did i just make that up?

>>15704222

So I'm figuring 2.5 kg is about how much tea I drink in a year
Trying to find a way to be diverse enough without settling for garbage, while not braking the bank.
I like sweeter teas, alot of fruity notes or floral notes
I already got my Pu'erh (raw and ripe), Blacks, Oolongs, and Whites planned out. I do like Long Jing but it's a bank breaker to buy it in bulk, and it doesn't really last a year. Should I mostly skip greens and make try a few hei cha and add a few more white cakes?
I'm at 2.1 kg rn and just need to round it out.

>>15705377
try some Hei Cha or Fu Cha
https://yunnansourcing.com/products/2009-gao-jia-shan-wild-fu-zhuan-hunan-brick-tea

>>15704800
oolong > white > green > sheng pu'er >>> shou pu'er >>>>>> red

>>15705377
good quality gunpowder is still cheap enough
that or bi luo chun if you like sweet stuff

>>15705283
Not really most specialist tea suppliers tend to stock it, historically it is a "royal" tea but isn't too hard to find these days

>>15705510
that's a bit pricey just to try something, could get another ripe pu'erh I like for that price and know I'll enjoy it
>>15705523
I mainly drink green tea for the tea drunk and dubious health benefits

>>15705377
The cheap longjing from kingteamall was plenty good.
I had the 2020 "high grade" and was pretty hapoy with it, it's about 17¢ per gram.
Otherwise i say get a couple chunks of fu bricks from yunnan sourcing.
This one has some really positive reviews
https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/hunan-fu-brick-tea/products/2017-yun-tai-mountain-sentinel-mountain-fu-zhuan-brick-tea?variant=12874657267815
Some other fu also sounds good look at gao jo shan stuff
If you are really feeling brave get a big chunk of this, i frequently see these described as being bready/yeasty
https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/hunan-qian-liang-and-shi-liang-tea/products/2010-cha-yu-lin-qian-liang-cha-hunan-hei-cha-tea?variant=19551086313575

>>15705569
I can also vouch for that 2009 gao jia shan, i bought a brick but there are much more affordable options if you look at slightly younger fu cha teas.
This is new and has some very interesting reviews
https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/hunan-fu-brick-tea/products/2018-mojun-fu-cha-fu-shen-fu-brick-tea

>>15705617
That looks like a pretty reasonable price to try a new tea variety. I think I'll ad that and 50 grams of longjing to my cart (when the good 2021 stuff drops)

>>15705637
Okay, probably going to just get YS because it's such a large order
Estimating to spend about $310. What freebies in that price range should I go for?

>>15705707
Some poster said they really loved this out of a whole batch of ys samples they tried
https://yunnansourcing.com/pages/1-free-cake-of-2020-yunnan-sourcing-cozy-ripe-pu-erh-tea-when-you-buy-300-or-more-of-any-items

>>15705757
Shit I'd get that for the wrapper art alone.
Thats some cute shit

>>15705791
Don't forget to grab a tea towel or two
Brown so it doesn't show tea stains
https://yunnansourcing.com/products/microfiber-absorbent-tea-towel?_pos=7&_sid=08de82813&_ss=r

>>15699565
This actually works. I probably won't buy roobois again, but at least it's drinkable.

>>15705836
Then again, I said something like that about coffee cherry and ended up appreciating it more as I tried to finish it off

Anyone have a good recommendation for a place to order jasmine pearls? The last place i bought them was in Chinatown LA, but the place closed and I'm not driving to that hellhole now lmao.

>>15705804
I got all my gearqueer stuff, but thanks

Alright lads, YS order came a day early, I'll be starting with one of the Fu brick samples, be back shortly with results.

>>15705757
>https://yunnansourcing.com/products/microfiber-absorbent-tea-towel?_pos=7&_sid=08de82813&_ss=r
I actually got the 2021 version in my cart, lol
Yeah lad, might grab this, just didn't know if there's better stuff in the range. There's a free $60 cake in the freebie range but idk anything about the cake

Would jasmine green or earl grey go good with fresh raspberries for a tea? Or should I just make a tea from the raspberries alone

>>15706097
that 2007 CNNP cake?
Its a bestseller, but im not sure if thats because its actually good or if people keep buying it because its a best seller.
a 2007 raw from cnnp seems risky. I thought i remembered it having a bunch of positive reviews from russians but i don't see them now, lots of mixed reviews.
can you do cumulative freebies like if you spend $400 can you pick a $300 freebie and a $100 freebie?

>>15705569
There’s no such thing as tea drunk. Where do you come with up this shit?

>>15706149
you can pick 1 freebie per order, and anything under your cart amount before shipping
I could do the $30 one if I wanted
>>15706161
>There's no such thing as tea drunk
Wtf you talking about? How do you get into tea and never get tea drunk

>>15706149
Oh, also it's the 2008 Nan Jian Tulin 903 ripe puerh

>>15706139
Went with Jasmine green. Looks like vomit after steeping but the result is pretty tasty

>>15706224
I can imagine jasmine and raspberries goes good together

>>15706208
Nian jian stuff is good, at least the few tuos i have tried, i have not tried their ripe,
The listing for that 903 looks good
I would not pay $60 for it, but i would take it as a freebee

>>15706224
Nice anon, the left over brew is a mess. But i bet it's tasty

>>15706046
>2015 gao jia shan "cha duo tang" wild harvested hunan fu brick tea
The dry leaf smells amazing, exactly like dried cherries and cocoa (maybe a little raisiny but definitely cherries.) After putting in the prewarmed pot the smell transforms to cherry ripe puerh. Rinsing the leaves pulls back the cherry notes a bit and the leathery ripe puerh smell comes out a bit more. The initial taste is fairly similar to the smell, the cherry flavor is very faint now but still present. Tastes almost identical to ripe puerh, but with a nice chocolate cherry aftertaste. Overall not bad at all, just a little disappointed that it didnt taste as good as the dry leaves smelled, and i was expecting it to taste more different from ripe puerh, which i enjoy but is nowhere near my favorite. I recommend this tea though, especially considering the low price.

Thanks to the asshole that reminded me about the incense portion of tea gearfagging. :)
Hopefully this luxury sandalwood is nice.

>>15706250
My thoughts are that cake, 2019 Min Feng Mountain "Old Tree White Tea Cake", "Year of the Dog Blue Label" Ripe, or the 2020 Yunnan Sourcing "Cozy" Ripe Pu-erh Tea Cake. There's also those 2 organic aged raws in the freebie list that caught my eye but I'm not sure if they even are something I want to waste a freebie on

>>15706351
Oh hey that's me.
You're welcome buddy. Incense elevates the ceremony a lot.

>>15706264
Sounds good anon, that tea has a ton of positive reviews, i will have to give it a try. The fu cha and hei cha zhuan i have tired shared some notes with ripe puer but they were not super close. chocolate and some cherry sounds good to me.

>>15706202
Can someone redbull me on tea drunkenness?

>>15706530
drink a lot of tea leaf in a short time, its hard to describe and you usually dont notice until its happening for a while/afterwards. kind of like being giddy drunk and a little tunnel vision, no hangover obviously. apparently its from caffeine, GABA, and L-theanine which is able to cross the blood-brain barrier

>>15706367
Okay, I'm narrowed to 2020 Cozy Ripe, 2019 Min Feng White, and 2008 Nan Jian Tulin 903 ripe.
Year of Blue Dog and the raws don't interest m much.
I like the White because I love whites and would like to try something higher end, but it feels kinda risky, especially when I could get a good ripe for free
2008 concerns me because of its age not fetching a higher price.
Cozy seems the safest, but if that 2008 is actually good, I'd kick myself for passing up a 12 year older cake

Late night 12¢ brick from teas we like
I have been enjoying this so far, it's very nice for something so old and so cheap with decent storage

>>15706832
Skip the white tea, flip a coin between the two ripes.

>>15707354
Why skip the white?

Tried some osmanthus oolong earlier, I'm generally against flavoured teas on principal, it's very nice. Would be a good tea to serve to guests.

does any of you guys know how to get high off tea? teach me

>>15706832
>I'd kick myself for passing up a 12 year older cake
its a ripe though, aging doesn't really benefit ripes passed thier 'wet pile taste' phase which only needs a year or 2 to get over

>>15706351
>Tea+Incense
Here is a neat blog that may interest you.
https://www.kyarazen.com/

>>15706832
>2020 Cozy Ripe
i have had some before and thought it was good but it was a while back and i don't remember any specific tasting notes.

>I like the White because I love whites and would like to try something higher end, but it feels kinda risky
i got the impression it was kind of hard to really mess up a white tea so its probably at least drinkable.

>2008 concerns me because of its age not fetching a higher price.
do you want everything to be be overpriced like dayi is becoming? just because its not supper expensive does not mean it is bad. there is a lot of good tea from that time that is quite reasonably priced.

>but if that 2008 is actually good, I'd kick myself for passing up a 12 year older cake
age is less important for a shu.

honestly you will probably be fine with any of these just pick the one you want most.

>>15708698
>https://www.kyarazen.com/
I like this tea flavor wheel

>>15704312
>>15704395
alright so I checked those
>from a high end producer lin lincaing
can you read chink, or am I not looking hard enough?
also how would I go about looking for "reputable" pu-erh manufacturers since I don't see any identifier in the listing title save for the factory name, which might mean fuck all?
I'm thankful for the suggestions but I can't say their description titillates me, though if the quality really is good it's surely worth looking out for other, different stuff that might interest me for different reasons, say something to drink in the winter
only I wouldn't know where to look
>>15704601
I see the point, though I believe I have an idea of what I'm looking for, but not being patient and/or curious enough to try 5 new cakes from 5 new different producers each year I suppose my question can be posed like
>hey lesbians, this is what I like, do you think this specific cake would fit the bill, and if not what might?
>>15704576
>drinking tea out of a glencairn
huh

>>15708866
>how would I go about looking for "reputable" pu-erh manufacturers since I don't see any identifier in the listing title save for the factory name, which might mean fuck all?
Good question,
Here is an older YS video where scott covers a lot of the major factories.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=f2QTMvc9rOs
You can look at kingteamall, all of the factories they stock, except the random stuff in the others category, are major puer producers.
Same with lots of the brands that yunnan sourcing stocks. I wish i had a better heuristic to share other than I'm familiar with these brands from drinking puer for years.
>drinking tea out of a glencairn
Honestly i just used it for a picture of the liquid, i have a stoneware cup that i use that is blue and purple on the inside so it's not very good for photographs of tea color. That said i might try actually using it at some point.

>>15708866
>also how would I go about looking for "reputable" pu-erh manufacturers since I don't see any identifier in the listing title save for the factory name
i hate to say it but their is no single good reference to all the major factories that i am aware of. you just have to window shop, read reviews, lurk more, learn how to do your own research, and drink more tea until you get a feel for things.

for example here is a blog entry with some info on the brand you posted earlier
http://teanotes.net/blog/2016/8/9/2005-shu-daizi-bingdao

here are some reddit threads that mention it
https://old.reddit.com/r/puer/comments/9sxco0/my_latest_haul_from_taobao_8/
https://old.reddit.com/r/tea/comments/3bh9l4/dr_tea_is_this_puerh/

https://www.fullchea-tea.com/shudaizi-2020-mo-lie-yunnan-raw-puerh-tea-cake-spring-tea-shen-puer-200g-p0702.html
is probably drinkable but it may be mediocre. however, If it turns out good than it is bargain priced.

>>15708947
>Here is an older YS video where scott covers a lot of the major factories.
still waiting for part two...

New thread:
>>15709096
>>15709096
>>15709096

>>15704222
Well, I'll tell you then. He's seen as a poncy poofter who peacocked around but never really did anything.

>>15706615
As an alcohol and abuser of drugs for 20 years this is complete horse shit.

>>15710186
its not an intense high