/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>16896211
I kind of like the idea of a teas terroir being viewed more as a description of the flavor profile you should expect then necessarily telling you exactly where the tea is from, and age statements as more of a claim of general quality or levels of complexity in the flavor than an accurate description of the age of trees. Perhaps a tad cynical but the world of tea is quite the wild west still in some aspects.
The Chinese government has experimented with verifying origin info, if you buy west lake dragonswell in a big enough bag (250g) it has a qr sticker than can be verified on a website, a certain number of stickers are issued to each Farmer in west lake depending on the size of their tea farm. Assuming things are mostly on the up and up, and the govt is keeping things honest, this is an interesting system. But in only works in very limited geographic areas, it seems like it would be completely unworkable for puer farming, considering how remote much of the expensive stuff is. And i don't think either farmers or tea factories are clamoring for such a system to be put in place.

>>16896156
>Yeah i probably take it too far with my cynicism sometimes.
you are probably fine, be cynical if you want. we probably are not all that far off in actual opinion anyways and much of the debate was just semantics. this whole rant was more aimed at the anon that regularly responds with the very cranky, contrarian, and negative tone (i still appreciate their insight though so don't take it that i want them to leave). I like the cozy little community we have here. its probably my favorite place on the internet right now.

>>16896259
>I kind of like the idea of a teas terroir being viewed more as a description of the flavor profile you should expect then necessarily telling you exactly where the tea is from, and age statements as more of a claim of general quality or levels of complexity in the flavor than an accurate description of the age of trees.
i interpret is as it as some of both. the location and age claims are probably sometimes or partially true but also sometimes or partially just a claim of taste/quality. i would prefer more honesty though both because i value it in and of itself but also because it would would enable more analytical tea tasting and knowledge.

>The Chinese government has experimented with verifying origin info
they have certification schemes for other teas too but not too the level of puerh mountains and instead it is just supposed to guarantee that is a particular traditional type of tea from its traditional region (e.g. Fujian white tea or Hunan fu bricks). nice to have i guess but not overly helpful.

>And i don't think either farmers or tea factories are clamoring for such a system to be put in place
if anyone would implement if first it would be places like Bingdao or Laobanzhang who want to lock in their monopolies. i dont think it would be possible to work such a scheme on a larger scale with how tea is currently bought and sold in Yunnan. the supply chain is too rural, convoluted, and undocumented.

>>16896259
>I kind of like the idea of a teas terroir being viewed more as a description of the flavor profile you should expect then necessarily telling you exactly where the tea is from, and age statements as more of a claim of general quality or levels of complexity in the flavor than an accurate description of the age of trees. Perhaps a tad cynical but the world of tea is quite the wild west still in some aspects.
No, that's fucking stupid. Terroir should refer to the specific place and the year it was grown. If you want a specific flavor profile, buy a product that is sold by flavor profile, not terroir. Scotch handles this very well. I want to know what the terroir is because the terroir matters. It's not a matter of me buying uber special 35 sacred adjectives tea, I just want to know what I'm drinking because it's interesting, and a big part of what makes tea tea. That's not really possible right now. You can buy blended, single malt, and single year scotch, and the market survives, I can't believe that somehow tea can't do the same.

I think the problem is that there is too much assumption about what the consumer wants, and that China is wholly unprepared to deal with a growing western market. Imo what mei leaf is doing (it seems obvious to me that he's selling fake/mislabelled tea intentionally) is absolutely unacceptable, but as people pointed out, is sort of "what the market is now". The most recent video from farmer leaf mirrors my opinions so exactly it's almost scary. The biggest assumption is that consumers don't want to be sold "bad tea". Well, what is bad tea? I would like, potentially, to taste the same tea from the same terroir every year. If there was bad weather, and the tea isn't as good, is it bad tea? Not really, I want to taste terroir, (which is why I'm buying tea labelled this way) and that's what the terroir tastes like. Not all experiences have to be "good". I think huge tea companies could sell blended tea without deception.

isnt terroir supposed ot be the taste of the earthly conditions where the tea was grown. Its tied to the geographical location of the plants by definition. Let coffeecucks deal with flavour descriptors on their shit.

>>16896470
Yeah, it's the sum of all elements of the environment which affect a product. Temperature, amount of sun, amount of wind, altitude, soil compositions, whatever, are all the aspects that make up "terroir"

Long Jing gang, rise

>>16896259
>assuming things are on the up and up and the govt is keeping things honest
Hahahahahaha. Sure thing Chang

>>16896218
Ok I got some questions.
Do you guys do your shopping on amazon? Is there a end all be all site for tea buying? Any kind of loose leaf is fine, and what Im looking for. Can be foreign or dkmestic, as long as its great on quality and price. Anyone point me in a good direction if amazon doesn't have most of the good tea covered?

>>16896693
>Do you guys do your shopping on amazon?
no
>is there a end all be all site for tea buying?
no
>Anyone point me in a good direction if amazon doesn't have most of the good tea covered?
Yunnan sourcing

so anyway where is your tea really from?

>>16897308
400-500 year old tea trees

>>16897540
Based

anyone know if it's possible to find a tiny teapot for gongfu like this one that's also glazed?
all the ones i can find are unglazed purple clay

>>16898764
forgot pic

>>16898764
>>16898768
This little guy
https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/ru-yao-kiln-celadon-teapots/products/ru-yao-celadon-miniature-xi-shi-teapot-50ml

has decaf tea got any health benefits? i bought some accidentally

>>16898790
thank you king

Do you guys ever talk about Paki/Indian tea/chai?
I didn't notice anything about it in the OP pastebin

>>16896600
pan fried virgin

tastes like made from smoked paper

>>16898828
>has decaf tea got any health benefits? i bought some accidentally
its going to have the same possibly healthful antioxidants as regular tea but it has less of them per serving then regular tea because the decaffeination process removes some of them. if you are drinking tea for health purposes i would prioritize drinking regular full caffeine tea or drinking naturally caffeine free herbal teas when you want to avoid caffeine.

>>16898902
>Do you guys ever talk about Paki/Indian tea/chai?
yes, but its not the main drink of any of the regulars here. we just talked about it several threads back.

>I didn't notice anything about it in the OP pastebin
pastebin:
India
https://www.jayshreetea.com/
https://www.teabox.com/
https://www.thunderbolttea.com/
https://yatrateacompany.com/
https://www.darjeelingteaboutique.com/

Extended vendor list:
India
https://www.ketlee.in/

Ceylon
https://teakruthi.com/
https://shop.dilmahtea.com/

Nepal
https://nepalteallc.com/

Got something interesting from old way teas. This month he sent out there types of mao cha tea. What I have here is basically the unprocessed tea. Had to pick out the big twigs myself. It's very nice. Kind of malty molasseasy if you will. Not sweet though.

By the way is getting grits and broken leaves in your cup just par for the course with a gaiwan? I always have to pour over a mesh strainer kek

>>16899151
yeah depending on the type of tea i might get a small leaf or something in my tea
usually a nice gaiwan and good technique eliminates most/all unpleasant particles, but it's sometimes unavoidable

>>16899151
>grits and broken leaves in your cup just par for the course with a gaiwan?
Yeah, i either use a strainer or just dump out the last 5ml in the cup with all the leaf pieces in it before the next brew.

>>16898909
Yeah but I like it

>>16899282
based

can anyone recommend me an electric kettle with temperature settings that isn't too expensive?
thinking $80 or less

>>16899508
All water is the same you don't need temperature settings or even a kettle

>>16899508
All the commonly recommended temp control kettles are out of stock right now except this one
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003KYSLNQ/
It used to be $80 last year but inflation is a bitch.
At least it reviews well.
Sorry i can't recommended anything else for temp control, like i sid every other known model that anons here have and like is out of stock right now.
Here are a couple that MIGHT be good but do some research first, dont just buy it and then blame me if it sucks.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07XR1Z7XF/
https://www.amazon.com/Hamilton-Beach-41020-Electric-Stainless/dp/B0758BZKQN/

>>16899584
>stainless
Do they make any out of single-walled glass?

>Earl Grey GREEN tea
Thoughts?
I was under the impression that Earl Grey was a black tea (obviously it just refers to adding oil of bergamot to a tea, but still)

>>16899593
https://www.amazon.com/OXO-Cordless-Adjustable-Temperature-Stainless/dp/B01KTRDKNW

>>16899151
>By the way is getting grits and broken leaves in your cup just par for the course with a gaiwan?
a little bit of sediment and the occasional leaf fragment is to be expected if you don't use a strainer. having less broken tea and using good technique helps but some stuff will always get through. if you want your tea to be as photogenic as possible use a strainer but honestly i cant be bothered to.

>>16899593
All the ones with glass have a metal base on the inside with a big silicone gasket sealing between the glass and the metal base where the heating element is. As in the silicone is in the water. I think fully stainless interiors with no seams and windows is as good as it gets for electric kettles.

>>16899647
>>16899670
Sorry I thought that I was on /ctg/ and was shitposting

Should white tea ever be rolled like this?

>>16899151
Pretty good. The leaves really flush out here. I am really bad at describing taste but mao cha. It has an herbal variety as I think there's more than just the leaves in here. Also some regular plant leaves and twigs. Very nice.

>>16899682
Well, speaking of electric kettles, I set up a KRUPS Temp controlled electric kettle, stainless steel. I had it for two years and never unboxed it after buying it on clearance a couple of years ago. I post humorously read consumer reviews on it and the reviews suggest that it might leak after a while. Too late to return it, too late to repair it under warranty if it happens.

>>16900125
Neon colored tea

>>16899945
weed lmao

dude tea lmao

>>16900314
Piss tee

>>16900125
Looks like you need to drink more water bucko.

>>16899945
DUDE LMAO

>>16900318
>>16900856
Guys I'm serious, is rolling white tea like that associated with lower quality tea?
On the topic of weed and tea, has anyone noticed how a lot of places that sell puerh seem to market to stoners?

>>16901075
What the fuck are you talking about?

>>16901075
>Guys I'm serious, is rolling white tea like that associated with lower quality tea?
I dont know, the Chinese like decorative rolled tea like that so it doesn't automatically mean its cheap stuff. The tea leaves are nice and fuzzy so they don't look poorly handled or overly processed.
>a lot of places that sell puerh seem to market to stoners?
The kinda people that smoke eeed are the same kinda people that buy into the idea of tea drunk and weird eastern spiritualism that always seems to get lumped in with tea somehow. E.G. any white guy that calls himself a Buddhist probably is into tea, so it's just sort of an overlap.

>>16896218
is this pasta or do you guys really get addicted to tea

>>16901169
It's just caffeine addition, it's not anything special to do with tea. I drink loads of tea every day but im fine if i just have a strong cup of coffee instead. I can skip tea for a day much more easily than when i was a daily drinker of coffee.

random free oolong sample from yunnansourcing
let's fucking go lads

>>16901325
first infusion
no idea how to describe the taste since this is my first oolong but it's very smooth and savory, but not very intense

>>16901352
Takes a second for those balled oolongs to open up, nice setup

>>16901352
I get a fuzzy and comfy feeling when the oolong fills up my entire gaiwan

>>16901464
>>16901472
on the third infusion now and i feel like it might taste stronger
very very comfy

>>16901483
fourth infusion now and leaves are fully unfurled
liquor is definitely darker than first infusion

>>16901500
How does it taste?

>Drink tea 2 weeks ago
>It's good
>Drink same tea today
>It sucks
What the fuck happened???????????

>>16901857
I can drink the same tea two days in a row and it will taste different each time

>>16901857
Different water? Brew it differently? Leave the bag open for two weeks? Eat greasy food before making tea?
Honestly i have some pretty wide variation in how teas taste from brew to brew that i cant really explain with any if the things above, it just kind of happens sometimes.

>>16901857
expired

So I have a 180ml Lao Zi Ni "Xi Shi" Yixing clay pot from Yunnansourcing. I haven't used it yet, because I'm kind of afraid to season it. How do I season it, and what tea would you recommend that I use for it? Do I have to use only one type of tea? For reference, I'm a big fan of Japanese greens and yunnan black gold black, but I figured those would be out of the question obviously. Is there anything sweet or fruity that I can use in the pot? The page i bought it from said it is suitable for pu-erh (which I'm ashamed to say I've never had) and oolongs. Especially less oxidized teas like raw pu-erh and jade oolongs.

how come there is so much variance in tea brewing, even with tea leaves from the same harvest/bag, when coffee brewing has been gotten down to such an exact science that a trained barista can pull almost the exact same shot of espresso 10 times in a row

>>16901576
still more intense and with a bit less clarity
improved taste imho

>>16902254
>How do I season it,
Dont boil it, don't soak it in tea water just rinse it out with warm tap water a few times, rinse it out with freshly boiled water a few times, then make tea with it. Seasoning is a meme.
>>16902254
>and what tea would you recommend that I use for it?
You could use just about anything, i might be too muting for some greens, it might be fine, you will have to try it out and see.
No mater what the first few brews will mute the tea somewhat strongly but after that it should settle down. Anyway you really don't need to devote a pot to one kind of tea, you can use greens oolongs, raw puers and black tea in the same pot without any issue really, you just want to have a dedicated pot for ripe puer and other stinky dark fermented things.
So just brew a bunch of different teas in it, and then use it for the teas you think work best in it, and it doesn't meed to just be one kind.
I have a zini clay pot and i use it for puer and oolongs, which is most of what i drink. But i dont avoid putting anything in it except ripe puer.
Just relax, clay is easy, westerners take it too seriously and get too autistic about it. Just use it and everything will be fine.

>>16902369
just to annoy coffee autists
really just too many variables, coffee gets ground into grains for perfect consistent brewing. Tea leaves just do what they want, even tea from the same batch can have slight differences in how it was processed or other variables that make leaves taste different, many teas are blends, so you might get a variation in the blend percentage between cups. There is definitely something else going on that makes tea variable but im not sure what it is. It doesn't really bother me.

>>16899945
>>16901075
I wonder the same thing. I'm pretty sure if anything it's would be higher quality, because I doubt they would bother rolling cheaper stuff in that manner. In that manner being important because this appears to have care put in, not like a ctc tea or gunpowder green. You see the same thing with jasmine pearls, or those rolled feng qing dianhongs, one of which I had and it tasted good. The rolling may even make the tea stay fresh longer.

>>16899945
its kind of gimmicky but in that case it looks like ok tea. you probably pay a bit extra for the work that went into rolling it.

>>16901169
im on a 5g a day habit, currently jonesing because my shipment from august still hasn't left china

what is everyone sipping today?
I am having some more of my Bing of W2T snozefest (young sheng). i have mentioned it before. its nice daily drinker with a tart under-ripened stone-fruit flavor profile going. it used to be a bit more "sour raspberry jam" but i am not getting much of that today.

>>16902530
doesn't bother me either, just makes me curious

heads up in case anyone here cares: https://mudandleaves.com/ is doing 15% all Teaware off till the end of the day (EST) code is "THEBIGONE".

So i found out that Bhutan has a little tea plantation where only one type of tea is made, sold only in the US it seems. Anyone tried it?
https://inpursuitoftea.com/products/thunder-dragon

>>16904561
Thanks anon

>>16904567
In pursuit of tea is an interesting place, they have a lazer like focus on the rare and obscure, some of it is probably good stuff. Some of it is probably comically overpriced. Treat it as more of a novelty store than a place to buy daily drinking teas, just for fun.

>>16904596
I should say at least when it comes to these obscure teas treat it as a novelty, i forgot what their more general selection is like

>>16904496
>w2t

that shit looks like it was harvested in a country with incredibly cheap labour and it's main customer pool is "liberated" women who are incredibl political and "pro equality all around", and are desperate to get opressed by a man because they keep on hearing about it and eccho it every day, but never get it.

any good?

>>16904596
I was curious mostly, i live in Europe so the shipping from there is like 60$. Not worth buying anything at all.

>>16904596
>Some of it is probably comically overpriced
looking at their site that is the impression i get as well. the tea itself looks good but the prices seem fairly consistently a bit higher than the average i would expect for each type of tea. either they somehow only source expensive high tier tea or they have a fair bit of markup. still they seem fine overall just not the best priced.

>>16904627
>any good?
as a serious reply, yes the tea is actually quite good for the price. its a decent quality yong sheng that only cost 7.5 ¢/g and i got free shipping on my order. some of W2T's more expensive offerings and marketing seem a bit silly but i see no reason to turn down a good deal when they have one.

>>16904590
gonna get a teapot?

>>16899945
DUDE
LMAO
WOULDNT IT BE HILARIOUS IF YOU BREWED IT IN A BONG

>>16905298
I wish, need to save my tea budget for tea right now.

>>16904627
They’re called puer lesbians, anon.

>>16905451
>I wish, need to save my tea budget for tea right now.
same, i want to buy a nice teapot but i always end up wanting to get tea more so it has not happened yet.

I got some lapsang shouchong. That was a mistake, and now I have the taste of smoked pine stuck on my tongue.

>>16905898
Yeah it's not for everyone, that pine smoke can get pretty intense sometimes.
There is less and less of the super smokey stuff on the market these days.
You can try mixing about 10%- 20% lapsang in with a regular black tea, to get a smokey but still drinkable blend.
You can also close it up and let it rest for a year or so so the smoke flavor becomes more mild.

>>16905355
actually that would be funny yes

might smoke a green tea
probably a bad idea

>>16906420
They sell tea cigarettes in china, you can find em on aliexpress

>>16906443

>>16906450
Where can I get my sick gushu ciggies?

>>16906467
God only knows what's in these things
No promises they will get through customs smoothly
https://aliexpress.com/item/1005001710169048.html

>>16906450
Do these have tobacco in them and is tea flavored or is it all tea leaves in the cigarettes? One100% tea cigarettes are very burning on the throat. They don’t have the smooth throat of the Marlboro

>>16906551
>no nicotine
gee i wonder if it has tobacco

>>16906443
not quite what I meant but why the fuck would you burn tea leaves

>>16906450
I recently quit smoking so don't post cigarettes please.

>>16906551
>Do these have tobacco in them
Maybe, they say they dont but who knows
I wouldn't really suggest buying them except as a joke.

>>16906368
The smokey flavour is very overpowering such that not much else can be tasted. I didn't expect that at all, and I expected a slight smokey flavour. It's not really palpable to me and I don't see myself acquiring the taste. I'll try blending 10% with ceylon and see how that goes.

>>16906694
Palatable I mean.

>>16906694
Try palpating it

coof

>>16901352
>crystalline glaze with concentric rings and a shino over heavy iron oxide stoneware
Those are beautiful cups. You know those crystal rings are grown by alternating heat ramp/hold cycles in the kiln? Good stuff.

>>16905898
>>16906694
I hate smoked lapsang but quite like the unsmoked versions, they're much closer to a standard, mellow Chinese black profile. Something like the "Fruit Bomb Lapsang" from white2tea is radically different from what you got.

gonna drink some liu an today

>>16907887
thanks lad, i love tiny drinkware so i'm building a small collection of little tea cups, gaiwans, and espresso cups

if anyone is looking for some affordable shu W2T just launched their "Shulloween" sale.
$39 for a pound of mixed variety single serving shou balls. a mix of W2T recent budget productions:
https://white2tea.com/collections/latest-additions/products/trick-or-treat-pound-of-minis
$69 for a kilogram of shu cakes. looks to be mostly old stock they are trying to move plus a special production. still its cheap:
https://white2tea.com/collections/latest-additions/products/shulloween-ripe-puer-package-1
no free shipping but their flat rate shipping is only $10. not trying to shill but its a pretty good deal if its what you are looking for. i would probably buy some myself if i had not already overextended my tea budget.

my teapot arrived! Thanks to the anon who posted about this potter a couple weeks ago.

Anyone know any nice tea advent calendars upcoming this year? I loved Teabento's last year but it seems they are closed since May :( sad.

>>16909013
I only found this one so far, it seems promising but I have no idea if this is a good vendor.

https://www.palaisdesthes.com/en/tea-researchers-advent-calendar.html

All the other ones have sweet herbal teas mostly, no thanks.

what do they put in bottled tea to taste better?

>>16909054
here is the best looking tea advent calendar i have seen (also the vendor it comes from looks neat). its quite pricey especially if you are not an EU customer though:
https://www.siam-teas.com/product/siamteas-tea-advent-calendar-box/
last years:
https://web.archive.org/web/20201130134451/https://www.siam-teas.com/product/siamteas-tea-advent-calendar-box/

>>16908936
whitepill me on Shou balls

>>16909359
pre-portioned daily drinkers, simple as.

>>16909359
Puer lesbians HATE them

What is the smallest teacup you own? mine are the typical 50 ml, thinking of getting a 30ml and curious if anyone has cups smaller than that

>If you dislike the idea of licking wood and rolling around on the damp forest floor, turn back now.

Lumber Slut is not the most approachable ripe Puer tea. Blended to favor the dense flavors of petrichor, this style of ripe Puer is focused on unfolding as a woody experience with notes of camphor and lower umber toned tastes.
yikes

Why does nobody ever discuss anything other than Puerh?

>>16909394
>What is the smallest teacup you own?
100ml
I don't have any friends

>>16909427
The puer lesbians scared off all the jap tea weebs a year ago in the great sino-japanese /tea/ war

>>16909403
Why do they have to make it look as unappealing and ugly as possible when tea already has a prexisting aesthetic, does this look even have a name?

r8 my order

>>16909445
yeah he skipped leg day
what a fuckin embarrassment

>>16909445
It's called Brooklyn artisanal marketing design

>>16909459
I hate (urban) americans so fucking much it's unreal

>>16909456
Based, osmanthus oolong is one of the better flavored teas ive tried. Roasted oolongs are always a good choice and liu bao is one of my favorites. I stll need to give white tea some more attention, the only shoumei ive tried was a very cheap one and it just tasted like leaves.

>>16909471
I can't wait to try it, I really enjoy oolong tea this year. Helped me lose some extra weight too.

>>16909465
I hate it too but is works, the white 2 tea guy has a nice little hustle going on.
Ive heard a reasonably convincing argument that if i was a native Chinese i would find regular puer wrappers to be tacky, dated or just generally ugly but as a westerner i like the kitschy aesthetic.

>>16909481
Yeah ive noticed that oolong doesn't seem to increase my appetite and metabolism like some other teas do

>>16909489
I usually drink it several times a day, at least 3.

>>16909359
if you buy the Shulloween pack you get to try 6 different shou productions at a reasonable price (you usually pay a premium for samples). the pre portioned sizes are convenient if you are in a hurry. ripe puerh tends to be broken up anyways so pressing them into single serving wont affect the leaves as much as it would sheng. balls are cool.

i used to drink matcha in college. i had a gf who was big into ordering teas and she would just give me all sorts of matcha, but i haven't had any in years now.
what's a good place to start out getting back into it? i don't really want to jump in ordering like 5 kilos of top grade matcha or anything.

>>16909427
>Why does nobody ever discuss anything other than Puerh?
we do discuss things other than puerh. besides if you want to talk about other teas why don't you post about them? its not like you wouldn't be welcome too. I don't post about say Japanese tea because i don't currently drink any.

>>16909394
>What is the smallest teacup you own?
100ml i also drink alone.

>>16909445
>Why do they have to make it look as unappealing and ugly as possible when tea already has a prexisting aesthetic, does this look even have a name?
it appeals to hipsters and urbanite millennials. personally i dislike W2Ts marketing style but i wont deny that it is one of the things that made them stand out in the first place.

>Lumberslut
is actually a pretty good shou despite the marketing.

as a side note i remember some drama when Scott from YS cast shade on W2Ts marketing awhile back. i think he said something along the lines of he did not want his wrappers to be found embarrassing or distasteful 25+ years from now if someone digs out an old cake.

>>16909456
>r8 my order
looks like nice sips to me. tell us how they are when you get them.

>>16909584
I saw this last thread, dont know if its any good but i would give it a chance

>>16909598
>is actually a pretty good shou
I don't know, is Shou meant to taste like dirt and tree bark?

>>16909615
why the fuck are people obsessed with drinking garbage meme matcha
seriously what is the fucking appeal, is it just "lmao bro im drinking the whole leaf bro its so good for you! I read it on a health blog!"
fuck I actually hate the tea health craze crowd so much
its fucking leaf water not some elixir of life

>>16896218
I like to drink earl grey but the caffeine makes me feel unwell sometimes. Also I went to the doctor after a nice cuppa and they said my blood pressure was too high. It came down to normal when they rechecked it 30min later though. Basically its nice in moderation but not for every day.

>>16909624
As you said, it's mostly the "#1 health drink, highest number of antioxidants" marketing. I would like to try some good matcha, but the price makes me hesitate, since my jap greens do the job anyway. Also i find the leaves tasty too.

>>16908972
can you post the potter's name or a link?
that pot looks lovely, what's the capacity and what are you brewing in it?

>>16909394
100ml gaiwan for me, with 180ml being my largest gaiwan, but i'm getting in a couple of 50ml/40ml teapots from yunnansourcing in a few days
gonna be exciting to try them out

>>16909646
>the price makes me hesitate
That's basically the intent, Matcha was never meant as a daily drinker. It's supposed to be a super high quality ceremonial drink (outside of culinary matcha which isn't meant to be drunk but used to flavor sweets) but a bunch of retarded nu-age western bloggers thought "wow its so special its like the healthiest thing ever?" and the Chinese realized they could blend up literally any green tea into a powder and sell it as matcha for more than it'd sell for loose leaf.
So now we have all these retarded meme drinks that are just the cheapest shittiest chinese green tea blended into a powder, often bitter and barely palatable, and people go "woah im drinking matcha im gonna live to be 100"
normally I'm content to live and let live but "blue matcha, natural superfood colouring" is going too far, it's just plain insulting

>>16908936
ty for this, placed an order and gonna give it a shot

>>16909624
i was the original asking anon. i started drinking it just because i didn't like green tea very much. i live in the south so i drink a lot of black tea, but i don't have much of a palate for green tea in general.
but, i found matcha very pleasant and fast to make. i would often just dump a spoonful into a bottle of water, shake hard, and it was good to go.
i don't care about the health aspect. if i did i could just take green tea extract pills or something.

>>16909615
thats not even from the tea plant.

>>16909670
>woah im drinking matcha im gonna live to be 100
This reminds me of a girl i used to work with, who told me that my green tea drinking habits will allow me to live till 200. She was very much into spiritual, crystal shit and such.

>>16909598
>as a side note i remember some drama when Scott from YS cast shade on W2Ts marketing awhile back. i think he said something along the lines of he did not want his wrappers to be found embarrassing or distasteful 25+ years from now if someone digs out an old cake.
Scott is so based

>>16909615
i have heard butterfly pea does not taste as interesting as it looks. its probably not great on its own but can be nice when mixed with other things.

>>16909617
>I don't know, is Shou meant to taste like dirt and tree bark?
in many cases, yes it will taste earthy. what else would you expect a literal compost pile to taste like? if you don't like woody shous Lumberslut is not for you as that is what it is specially blended to taste like. i though the sample of it i got last year was good. it is certainly worth trying if it sounds your style.

Also on the subject of matcha, i read that it comes from an older chinese custom, where they processed teas into tightly pressed bricks, which were grinded and the resulting powder was mixed with water. Do they still make them like this?
The few cakes that i tried were pretty loose, easily broken by hand.

its made by @i.n.clay on instagram.
its only 75ml so mainly oolongs.

>>16909484
>Ive heard a reasonably convincing argument that if i was a native Chinese i would find regular puer wrappers to be tacky, dated or just generally ugly
Wow, as an American, I find this product horrifically ugly. I really wish instead I could buy something labelled
>THAT FUCKIN' THICCC SUGAR JUICE
With maybe a bunch of bright rainbow colors and a link to their instagram on the front.

I mean, this design is just so DATED. Everything that was made before 2019 is truly terrible, just get rid of all of it.

If you want an example of good modern design, Farmer Leaf's stuff looks fine. The real reason people do this is because
>2014 Mengku Shu puerh
Means literally nothing to most people.

>HAHAHA FUNNY PICTURE AND BAD WORD
This sells, because people can identify something in it, and it's not "scary"

>>16909729
they were also used as currency, you can still get them i think they're called iron pressed or iron cakes, hard to find much info on them. i think binders are also added and they're today seem more as ornaments rather than something to drink, iirc a Boston company was selling 'finest tea dust bricks' based on what they claimed was thrown into the sea at the famous tea party, but the actual shipping logs show what was thrown over was mostly loose oolongs

>>16909805
Feels bad that people like me who just want a year, descriptor of type (Shou Mei, Bai Mudan, Chunmee, Lapsang souchong, etc) and region of growing (ideally to determine terroir, although Chinese tea provinces are a bit too large for their name to mean much) are actually a minority and rather than knowing "2020 Lapsang Souchong, Wuyishan" people would rather see "2020 Forest Fire Fuckboi, guaranteed to smoke so hard you cough!"

>>16909760
ahhh that is the same lady that made my shino gaiwan (posted above)
might have to talk to her again about comissioning a teapot, because yours looks very appealing

>>16909584
You in the usa? Check the pastebin, there are two us tea sellers with matcha. Or order from japan, matcha is the only kind of tea where the cheap stuff is guaranteed to be trash. Don't bother if you don't want to pay for it. Don't buy the cooking grade stuff
In the usa
https://ippodotea.com/
https://www.denstea.com/
Otherwise order from any of the shops in japan in the pastebin.
I don't like being snobby about tea (i drink cheap stuff) but matcha is really not good if you cheep out.

>>16909615
Lol what is this garbage?

>>16909624
>why the fuck are people obsessed with drinking garbage meme matcha
why does it make you so butthurt? its not like health food "matcha" has replaced the real stuff. if anything it may have improved availability outside of Japan.

>its fucking leaf water not some elixir of life
it may have some health benefits but you are right it is not a miracle cure. supplementing some antioxidants cannot replace a healthy lifestyle. I don't really care for "supplement health" crowd but they are also not entirely wrong. besides though i don't drink such often "matcha" lattes or iced "matcha" made out of cheap green tea powder can be tasty. even the Japanese make and use culinary grade "matcha" themselves for various purposes. picrel

>>16909632
https://www.uptontea.com/decaffeinated-tea/decaffeinated-earl-grey-loose-leaf-black-tea/p/V00272/

I've been drinking premium Genmaicha (Sencha instead of Bancha) and it's pretty good honestly.
I kinda wonder if there are any other teas that'd lend themselves well to being blended with brown rice, like an oolong or even a black tea.

>>16909624
>>16909678
Sorry for disrespecting the sacred plant, now im going to comit seppuku to clean my family's name
Jokes aside, I proposed that just for the novelty, problably itll suck, but maybe you find it enjoyable or interestin

>>16909805
calm down, i wasn't defending w2t i was just saying Chinese tea wrappers can be pretty ugly too.

>>16909710
As far as I remember butterfly pea tastes like rice

more like butterfly pee
The only interesting thing about it that it changes color with ph changes it should be relegated to teavanna and the world of $20 meme cocktail bars

>>16909899
nothing is sacred
everything is permitted

>>16909729
>Also on the subject of matcha, i read that it comes from an older chinese custom, where they processed teas into tightly pressed bricks, which were grinded and the resulting powder was mixed with water.
i don't have time to do all the research myself right now so i am just going to dump links.
http://archive.globalteahut.org/issue/44
http://archive.globalteahut.org/issue/63
http://www.silkqin.com/01mywk/themes/teapu.htm
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%9B%A3%E8%8C%B6

>Do they still make them like this?
not really, a few replicas are made here and there but as far as i know the tradition was lost so any modern replica is just an approximation.

also look into Qu Jiangbo Pian 渠江薄片 though i am not sure how that tea was traditionally served. you can get replicas of this but they are very hard to find
https://www.chawangshop.com/hei-cha/hunan-hei-cha/2009-xinhua-qu-jiang-bao-pian-250g.html
https://www.yinchaba.com/fenlei/heicha/8339.html

finally here is a list of historical writings on tea:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_classics

>>16909624
>>16909646
One reason is for the foamy texture versus a normal infusion tea.

>>16909632
>It came down to normal when they rechecked it 30min later though.
its typical for caffeine to temporally increase blood pressure you are supposed to wait at least an hour before after having caffeine before getting a baseline blood pressure reading.

>>16909805
>If you want an example of good modern design, Farmer Leaf's stuff looks fine
while YS's wrapper art is a mixed bag they do have some nice ones.
while not at all traditional i am rather fond of this one:
https://yunnansourcing.com/products/2020-yunnan-sourcing-cozy-ripe-pu-erh-tea-cake

>>2014 Mengku Shu puerh
>Means literally nothing to most people.
"Most people" aren't really the customer demographic that buys premium teas and i doubt any amount of marketing will change that. W2T does not target "Most people" either they target hipsters.

>>16909857
>Feels bad that people like me who just want a year, descriptor of type, and region of growing
i do think the basic information should be included but i don't mind having a tasteful marketing name that helps describe the tea and makes it easier to talk about. otherwise there would be a lot of teas called "2021 menghai ripe" and it would be a pain to figure out what anyone was talking about especially if a vendor has multiple productions from the same region and year. also naming just after the year and location is not going to work well for blended recipes.

>>16909632
>It came down to normal when they rechecked it 30min later though.
its typical for caffeine to temporally increase blood pressure you are supposed to wait at least an hour before after having caffeine before getting a baseline blood pressure reading.

>>16909805
>If you want an example of good modern design, Farmer Leaf's stuff looks fine
while YS's wrapper art is a mixed bag they do have some nice ones.
while not at all traditional i am rather fond of this one:
https://yunnansourcing.com/products/2020-yunnan-sourcing-cozy-ripe-pu-erh-tea-cake

>>2014 Mengku Shu puerh
>Means literally nothing to most people.
"Most people" aren't really the customer demographic that buys premium teas and i doubt any amount of marketing will change that. W2T does not target "Most people" either they target hipsters (and tea enthusists).

>>16909857
>Feels bad that people like me who just want a year, descriptor of type, and region of growing
i do think the basic information should be included but i don't mind having a tasteful marketing name that helps describe the tea and makes it easier to talk about. otherwise there would be a lot of teas called "2021 menghai ripe" and it would be a pain to figure out what anyone was talking about especially if a vendor has multiple productions from the same region and year. also naming just after the year and location is not going to work well for blended recipes.

>>16910222
>otherwise there would be a lot of teas called "2021 menghai ripe"
You could always go the Ceylon/Indian route where the actual tea estate it was grown on is listed, I'm just not sure China has as rigid and robust an estate system and trying to convey whatever individual Chinese farm it came from (if you even know that information) might be a bit of a pain.
I was going to say "I'd love to know which teas went into a blend" but I almost instantly realized if they actually divulged the full contents of the blend it would disrupt their business since one of their competitors could just copy the blend.

I was buying Ippodo's cheaper matcha blends but then I tried their autumn blend and it was way better. 20g went by fast though. Maybe I'll get more before they go out of stock

>>16909674
tell us how it goes. hopefully it gets to you before the black Friday shipping congestion kicks in.

>>16909615
>butterfly pea flower
Is that stuff any good at all? All I've ever seen of it is people on the tea reddit (big mistake, never go there) posting pictures of it and going "woah!!!!! blue tea!!!!!!!"
>>16910222
>i don't mind having a tasteful marketing name that helps describe the tea and makes it easier to talk about
Yeah I would like this to be more common. I think YS is bad on that in particular, like their black tea is all named stuff like "Yunnan Dian Hong Gold Pure Bud Gold Imperial Grade Black Tea of Simao" which is confusing

Ripe Puerh gang rise!

I do not care for ripe puerh

>>16910344
>You could always go the Ceylon/Indian route where the actual tea estate it was grown on is listed
at a superficial level more transparency in the Chinese tea sounds nice but i not sure what the full implications of it on the market would be. i would not want it to cause a spike in prices as i would not consider that a worthwhile trade.

>>16910344
>if they actually divulged the full contents of the blend it would disrupt their business since one of their competitors could just copy the blend.
i don't think its the idea behind the blend that's important as much as it is the sources. you still need professional tea tasters to make sure the blend is correct and if you have them you can make blends anyways. its not like a baking recipe where you can just follow it to a T and get fairly consistent results. the tea produced every year varies far too much to do that. also the big factory productions may have lists 100's of different farmers and plantations who were mixed in a blend. that's assuming they even know exactly where all their tea comes from in the first place.

kinda related yunnancraft wrote a nice blog entry a few months back on small scale puerh sourcing.
https://www.pageoftea.com/the-misconception-of-puer-business

>>16910362
>I think YS is bad on that in particular, like their black tea ... is confusing
i see what you are saying but i am not sure i entirely agree when it comes to typical loose leaf. heicha tends to be blends and to be highly variable so names make more sense. plus a particular production of heicha will still be talked about many years later whereas people generally try to finish off their green teas for example. perhaps its not entirely rational and somewhat hypocritical of me but it does seem a bit weird to me for a vendor to give a special name to a traditional loose leaf tea. I don't mind if the the farmers or producers make up a new name if they have something novel however (and in the case of puerh the vendor is often also the producer). perhaps adding some relevant adjectives (eg fruity or fragrant) to the name would work. I guess i kind of like keeping things traditional but i am not really quite sure how i feel.

the black names on YS can be kind of wordy and inelegant but a least they are generally descriptive and make sense.
for example:
https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/black-tea/products/imperial-pure-bud-yunnan-black-tea-of-simao
"Imperial" (vendors subjective quality grade generally in contrast with another tea they sell)
"Pure Bud" (tells you its a tippy tea)
"Yunnan Black Tea" (style of tea)
"of Simao" (specific region because Yunnan is a big place)

perhaps they could loose name redundancy and put alternative names in the description.
example:
https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/black-tea/products/feng-qing-ye-sheng-hong-cha-wild-tree-purple-black-tea
"Feng Qing" (location)
"Ye Sheng" (wild tree and/or purple tea)
"Hong Cha" (type of tea)
"Wild Tree" "Purple" (redundant but included for people who don't know "Ye Sheng")
"Black Tea" (redundant but included for people who don't know "Hong Cha")
they could just call it "FengQing YeSheng HongCha" or "Wild Purple tree black Tea from FengQing"

Chinese tea names be a whole ass essay like I'm tryna drink some tea here not read Xī Yóu Ji

>>16910356
will do, i've been posting a lot more frequently lately so i'll post some reviews as i have a lot of new teas coming in over the next few weeks

>>16910499
>https://www.pageoftea.com/the-misconception-of-puer-business
Shame he doesn't speak English.

>>16910773
its not that bad, you can still understand him just fine.

>>16909827
>>16910109
Thank you anons, interesting stuff.

Anyone know a tea available in Ireland that's good for US South style sweet tea?

>>16911832
no problem, if you dig anything else up share it with us. i was kind of surprised how hard it was to find detailed info on old style Chinese powdered tea. there is probably some better info written in Chinese but i would not know where to look.

>>16911838
Any black tea. Just cold brew it in the fridge rather than boil it, and use enough sugar to make it as sweet as ribena.

I have a bag of calamus root among my herbal tea stockpile, but haven't used it. How's it taste, and is it worth using? There seems to be mixed evidence as to whether it's healthy or dangerous.

I think what's inside my Kyusu is limescale, what's the best way to remove it? It's been building up and I think it's actually affecting the taste of my tea now.
As it's unglazed, I have no clue what to use for removing it, I was thinking of just filling it with some hot water for a while, then scrubbing it with something like a new toothbrush (to avoid contaminating it).

>>16913039
>Just cold brew it in the fridge rather than boil it
whenever i cold brew tea it give me stomach cramps
>>16911838
i'd advise brewing then adding cold water/ice

>>16913300
That’s how it’s done here. You can brew it hot if you want, but you’ll have to wait for it to cool off.

>>16910362
>All I've ever seen of it is people on the tea reddit (big mistake, never go there)
r/tea is infested with normies that tend to choke out most in depth discussion. r/puer is generally better because it is slower and has a much more favorable casual/enthusiast ratio. reddit does however have a few helpful and genuinely knowledgeable users though, including a surprising number of prominent vendors and tea bloggers. it's still reddit though so make of it what you will.

>>16913267
>limescale, what's the best way to remove it?
i use citric acid and hot water to dissolve lime. the advantage over vinegar is it is les prone to leaving an residual taste or smell. however i have not tried it on unglazed ceramic so cant guarantee how it will work.

>>16913306
i've seen people make ice tea they've always brewed it strong then dilute it with cold water. i've made sun tea in my car before where its fermented and bubbled faster than homebrew beer, when you cold brew you're also getting any bacteria on the leaf

>>16913411
And then there's the Southern way, where you just make a big batch regular hot tea but with a ton of sugar dissolved while it's hot.

>>16912766
I'm looking through japanese sites, maybe i'll find more stuff. Meanwhile i found this interesting image.

Tisane drinkers, are you here? If I wanted to give a fancy rooibos as a gift, what would be a go-to?

I don't know why people online say white teas are mild and flavorless, I'm sampling a Bai Mu Dan pyramid a well-meaning friend gave me (my first white tea) and it's immediately and apparently full-bodied with a rich but not overwhelming earthy flavor, some floral tastes and mild notes of a stonefruit, presumably apricot.
Granted I'm a complete amateur when it comes to tea tasting but it's definitely not something I could mistake for "hot water"

>>16913741
What's the taste of the recipient, and what exactly do you mean by "fancy"
Any loose leaf Rooibos from a reputable seller is going to be good. If you're looking for a novelty, you can get Green Rooibos but you'll probably have to find an online vendor and it'll cost more.
If you're buying for someone who likes more fruity, herbal teas than I personally tried Rooibos Provence a while ago and while it wasn't exactly my cup of tea I can definitely see the appeal of it. It's a sweet, floral, fruity tea using the Rooibos base to ground it, and probably a decent bet if you want something "fancy"

>>16913849
Spicier Rooibos, fruity is probably fine, I'd avoid overly floral notes. I've had rooibos a few times, certainly there are at least some parts of production that affect taste and quality right?

>Fancy
Are there truly no organic single origin hand picked gushu rooibos sellers?

>>16913881
Well see, the problem is that Chinese tea is grown in one of the largest countries in the entire world over vast mountainous terrain with vastly different soil nutrients, weather conditions, cultivars, etc. An Oolong grown in say, Yunnan is going to taste vastly different than one grown in Zhejiang.
Meanwhile Rooibos comes from a single varietal developed in the late 30s and is grown in a single relatively small region of South Africa.
There is genuinely not much difference between Rooibos estates, I am sure there is some but you are not going to find wildly different Rooibos. The best you can do is get Green Rooibos which is prepared much like green tea is, or add spices/flavors to the Rooibos after picking (which is what Provence is, a blend of herbs and flowers)
I'm sure you could get a cinnamon Rooibos (I've seen vanilla blends available, for example) but it's going to be an actual spice added and not the natural flavor.

>>16909427
Autistic China tea gayqueer clout faggotry. As tea tries to become wine/cigars, people must latch on to the 'pinnacle' form. Puer can be very expensive and chinks go on and on about it online. So there you have it.

>>16914050
okay but try my gushu

>>16913881
>>16913919
So I've been reading papers on Rooibos production, I've left humanity behind and I'm on that wild harvest shorter ferment rooibos train now. Cultivated Aspalathus linearis is truly the rooibos for plebs

http://www.heiveld.co.za/index.html
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341999937_Rooibos_tea_South_Africa_the_challenge_of_an_export_boom#read

Genuinely going to order some, I'll let you guys know if I can taste any difference at all. In other news, since it's pile fermented, I now really really want to try some ripe rooibos.

thoughts?

>>16914161
You can just buy L-theanine and take it, I've done "heroic doses" of L-theanine and caffeine in varying combinations, it's a meme. Too much caffeine will fuck you up, sure, but even at energy drink levels, far higher than what you'll conceivably get from tea, not much is going to happen. Absolute least important chemicals that you can extract into tea.

>>16914161
>>16914170
Ive also had l-theanine caps around before and coffe + l-theanine pils doesn't feel smooth like caffeine from tea at all. I'm not convinced that it does much on it's own or that it is responsible for the difference between coffee buzz and tea buzz

>>16913881
>Are there truly no organic single origin hand picked gushu rooibos sellers?
mostly no, rooibos was a lightly processed folk drink that only recently had an significant market. i don't think rooibos has a history of sophisticated cultivation (it was traditionally harvested wild) and the current export market is based around selling "supermarket grade" herbal teas. in contrast tea proper has a long history of domestication and sophisticated processing in order to make it "fancy". tea has a long history of being a trade staple and was used used as tribute to from farmers to their feudal lords. tea also has longstanding and very deep cultural significance in Asia. these factors led to the development of "tea culture" and "specialty tea" in a way that rooibos does not really have a direct analogy to.

>>16914151
be sure too tell us if you find any interesting sources. most of the rooibos sold does not tell you the producer. even after doing a bit of searching i could not find much.

arborteas sells some where they name a co-op but they don't claim it to be wild:
https://www.arborteas.com/organic-rooibos.html
https://www.arborteas.com/organic-green-rooibos.html

a few other sites claimed to have wild rooibos but did not name a source.

>http://www.heiveld.co.za/index.html
they look interesting, wish they had a proper webstore.

Anyone have any good Tsar Nicholas recommendations?

>>16915203
You might as well buy the real stuff
I have no idea what varietals they use or if you can get a more premium version elsewhere
https://www.russianfoodusa.com/czar-nicholas-ii-premium-russian-tea/

>>16915086
>Among these processors, Rooibos Ltd. is the market leader. It captures 75% of the market share, and in particular dominates the national market through the Freshpak brand (part of the National brands group). Rooibos Ltd. is not involved in production, nor does it have its own trademark. It arose from the state-owned Rooibos Tea Control Board, which was created in 1954 to organizethe production and the marketing of rooibos. Until the 1990s, this organization was the only actor in processing and marketing rooibos. In 1993 it was voluntarily dismantled and its assets were shared among the producers, who founded Rooibos Ltd. Even now, some 200 producers retain the majority of the company’s shares and are its principal suppliers through a fixed annual price system.

Yeah, basically it seems the yearly harvest is just bulk aggregated, processed, and distributed to whoever. The interesting thing is that this means that quite literally the only thing that matters, unless you're buying rooibos from a very specific source, is price. You'll have cuts graded from powder to long cut, and that's it. It's all from quite literally the same source, you can go and buy ten different brands of rooibos from whole foods and walmart and wherever and it was probably all in the same pile / farm / facility when it was being made.

>>16915471
Good find, thanks for the info

>>16915213
>https://www.russianfoodusa.com/czar-nicholas-ii-premium-russian-tea/
>natural & artificial favors
hmm

>>16916217
I think that's a generic description because they sell a bunch of flavored teas from the same brand.

comfy green tea night
early spring 2020 dragon well

>>16916544
it's like drinking a delicious brothy soup
exactly what i wanted tonight

>>16916551
loses steam kind of fast -- the second infusion was notably weaker than the first
i intensionally dragged out the third infusion and i think we're back to where we want to be in terms of strength of flavor

>>16916590
Man a nice rich green tea really hits the spot

>>16916712
you said it right, friend
got a green tea sampler from yunnansourcing coming in soon, very excited for that

>>16916544
shamefully i have not tried longjing yet. I will have to try and fix that this next spring.

>>16896218
What do you guys think of peppermint tea

>>16917816
i like it. i should grow some myself when i get a chance.

>>16917816
Peppermint tea is pretty good. It can get a bit bitter if you overbrew it compared to regular mint

Would you buy his tea anon?
https://youtube.com/watch?v=iaMgWNKGwrQ

>>16918722
sure why not?
https://obubutea.com/
https://yunomi.life/collections/kyoto-obubu-tea-farms

>>16918918
Oh its actually available, nice
i just might buy some with a quality ad like that

>>16917905
>>16918533
i got it yesterday cause I heard it was good for gassy people. might brew some tonight.

i wanna hug you cookbros.

>>16919002
Try it anon. I have IBS, so i basically grew up with mint tea, since doctors always recommended it.

Free shipping for orders over 10,000 yen at sazen tea today. Don't know what to choose though

>>16919145
Haven't tried these but suggestions for winter sipping
https://www.sazentea.com/en/products/p551-premium-ise-bocha.html
https://www.sazentea.com/en/products/p349-ohmi-inakabancha.html
https://www.sazentea.com/en/products/p27-kyobancha.html
https://www.sazentea.com/en/products/p28-yame-koucha.html
https://www.sazentea.com/en/products/p28-yame-koucha.html
https://www.sazentea.com/en/products/p22-sencha-genmaicha.html
https://www.sazentea.com/en/products/p17-ureshino-kamairicha.html
Also black tea
https://www.sazentea.com/en/products/p28-yame-koucha.html
Maybe some heavily roasted taiwan oolongs
Also they have some really cool teapots that arent that expensive

>>16919145
>>16919224
thanks for the heads up, just bought some senchas and gyokuros to try japanese greens for the first time

>>16919722
rate my order lads

>>16919745
Nice, should be fun anon, just make sure you finish them off before next winter

>>16919925
thanks for the tip
gonna be sharing with my dad so that shouldn't be a problem

>>16919026
>Try it anon. I have IBS, so i basically grew up with mint tea, since doctors always recommended it.
I actually think I developed IBS around the time I turned 18. I have no idea why.

First time trying tonight... I love you anon.

>>16919745
if you drink green tea normally at 3 to 5 grams per day, will probably last you 2 to 4 months, which will be close-ish to spring harvest. Should be timed pretty well

>>16901857
i experienced this too with a bag of tea my mother got somewhere. was heavenly the first day or so and then it just lost all quality rapidly. no idea

For Canadians: about a month ago I ordered an assortment of organic black, green and oolong from Tealyra and I found the quality to be very good. They had a sale yesterday so I bought another 500g, this time including a white tea.

Probably worth adding to the pastebin for Canadian sellers.

>>16920154
Reporting my poop progress today. I am actually pooping somewhat okay. Not much mud but I think is in combination with the carrots and carrot juiced last morning. Slighty wet and messy

>place YS order from China
>cheapest shipping option is $38
it's going to get worse before it gets better, isn't it?

>>16922088
never go for surface, im still waiting on an order from the 12th of August

>>16922361
>>16922088
I agree with anon. While cheaper shipping is attractive, the waiting can be quite stressful. I assume 38$ means AIR. I ordered something from YS with AIR on 19.10 and tomorrow i can go pick it up.

>>16922002
Thanks i will take a look at it anon

>>16922002
>>16922805
Okay i checked out Tealyra, i think they might have been in the vendors list at some point, or at least in the extended one.
They look okay but the issues i have are, too much flavored tea, and more importantly they only list year of harvest for a handful of listings. There are some exceptions if you dig through the vendors but i try not to add new ones that don't have a year of harvest for every tea.
This doesn't mean they are a bad vendor but the idea behind the vendor list is to keep it as retard proof as possible, so new buyers can feel pretty confident about buying most things from most vendors. I guess i can add them to the extended list but nobody ever looks at it.

My first impression of Tealrya is that holy shit their tea is expensive.

high mountain tea only

>go on tealyra
>first tea i see: Japanese Pu'erh
>look at "teaware" -- it's all huge glass jugs, infusers, and huge cheap-looking ceramic
what a disgusting hell-site
imagine ordering tea from this place

>>16923077
>Expertly produced in the Shizuoka prefecture of Japan, our JAS Organic Pu'erh tea is a blend from the first and second flush harvests of the year. Prepared by fermenting the high quality tea leaves with organic rice yeast,

Is it supposed to be a shou puerh? It looks fucking dark
>First and second flush
Mmmmmm, leftover tea sprayed with what I assume is koji and left to rot. Delicious. And they're charging fucking HIGH prices for this, $50 for 100g

>>16923124
>Prepared by fermenting the high quality tea leaves with organic rice yeast,
thats more like a fu tea than a ripe/shou
half their Pu'erh are flavoured, saw one with added coco powder

>>16896218
Tea is disgusting, only tisanes are of value. Coffee is the greatest tisane.

>>16923225
What's the difference? Besides shou needing to actually be puerh first. I don't know a ton about tea.

Been drinking tea for a long time, enjoy green, oolong, Assam, and Lapsang Souchong. I've been ordering from TeaSource, but haven't seen them mentioned here. They have great service, easy to search varieties & order, and as far as I know, decent product.
Am I getting scammed?
pls no bully

>>16923419
if im correct ripes/shou are wet piled puerh (aka composted) for 2 months, fu is also wet plied but has golden flowers (aka fungi, usually from wheat) added, there are lots of health claims about golden flowers but they dont seem to add much taste and health claims are always dubious. then there's hei cha which is post fermented(wet piled) but seems to be a more general term i.e both shou & fu would be hei cha?

Thoughts on milk oolong?

>>16923124
it's just further retardified by the fact that the Japanese can not, both by-definition and de-facto, make Pu'erh tea in Japan
not to mention all the dust and broken leaves in the glamour shot on the page

not to mention those prices holy shit

>>16923124
The Japanese do make some fermented bancha, it's interesting because they do an anaerobic ferment where the tea is compressed in large barrels. Ive wanted to try it for a while. However the stuff of tealyra is the same thing.
Here is an example from another vendor
Actually this Batabatacha says it's fermented in a style similar to puer
https://yunomi.life/collections/japanese-dark-tea/products/furyu-batabatacha-rare-bancha-tea-30g

>>16923651
but it's not pu'erh and it never will be
a Mexican in Guadalajara could import grapes and process them identically to the way it's done in Champagne, but he will never produce Champagn, both by definition and because of terroir

>>16923478
>i.e both shou & fu would be hei cha
Yeah
Fu tea is processed differently than puer, the tea is chopped, it's pile fermented but usually not as long as ripe puer is. Then when it's pressed into bricks it's not immediately dried like puer cakes are, instead it's left moist for a period of time to promote the growth of the golden flowers fungus.

>>16923445
They look fine anon, year of harvest listed for teas, prices seem reasonable. Nothing sketchy. They sell more flavored stuff than i like but that's not the end of the world.

>>16923077
>>16923124
>>16923225
>>16923646
that Japanese "puerh" tea is actually kind of interesting looking. its been on my radar as a tea i want to try for a while now. here is the manufactures website:
http://www.y-nadesiko.jp/
English promotional pdf:
http://www.y-nadesiko.jp/yamabuki_english.pdf

arbor teas also sells it for less than tealyra:
https://www.arborteas.com/organic-japan-pu-erh-tea.html
even palaisdesthes sells it for slightly less.
https://us.palaisdesthes.com/en_us/yamabuki-nadeshiko.html
there are actually quite a few vendors that sell this same tea by a number of different names.

>>16923876
Interesting, that pdf is kinda funny but asians do love their health claims.
Any idea what it tastes like?

>>16924016
>Any idea what it tastes like?
not a clue besides what the vendors say of it, i will post about it when i get some.

why cant i just grow tea at home

>>16924371
Where do you live? There is a nursery in the USA that sells tea plants and they sell some very cold hardy varieties, including one developed in the tea research institute in Sochi Russia
You will have to wait till spring to buy and plant some but they will grow to large bushes in a couple of years.
https://camforest.com/collections/tea-camellias/products/cs-sochi?variant=12346912047216

>>16924481
They also have a high altitude Korean varietal that's also pretty cold hardy
https://camforest.com/collections/tea-camellias/products/cs-korea

Drinking Fu
Its very meh but I have tons of it sitting around
Kinda been doing 20+3s at 95F because this stuff bitters too easily

>>16924752
95C, sorry

>>16924752
Huh it sucks that it gets bitter on you anon, i don't have a load of experience with fu cha but the ones ive tried are usually pretty mellow and can be pushed pretty aggressively when brewing.
I was going to suggest simmering it but if it's going bitter on you that might turn out pretty foul

>>16924809
Yeah its weird. It's not like its even that great either to make me care about being autistic about time and temp, so I end up not drinking it often.
Its a 400 gram brick from Yunnan Sourcing and I really think Scott dropped the ball on quality control here. It has a decent qi or whatever but if I'm going to have to worry about bitterness I'd rather do something green.

>>16924850
Which one is it?

>>16925002
2018 Mujan Fu Cha

>>16924850
Damn, that sucks

>>16923651
>>16923876
I mean, I'd drink it, but that's steep prices for what is definitely not going to be a refined product, and what is admittedly and obviously made out of pretty low quality materials. You can get decent shou at $20 a cake, this shit is ~$150 a cake. Sorry, ain't gonna happen. I was right about the kouji at least. If someone does get some I'd like to hear about it though, it certainly sounds interesting

Also
>A Grand Cru with complex cereal, roasted barley, cooked fruit, caramel and coffee bean notes.
These tasting notes are a huge red flag imo, but most people writing tasting notes are retarded anyway.

>>16925251
>These tasting notes are a huge red flag imo
Yeah you are right about that.
It's not high on my list of things to buy.
I noticed the Japanese love to make teas with massive third flush leaves from way down the shoots and just fully chopped up leaves. I guess they got in the habitat of being economical about it in times of scarcity but they seem to just trim all the bushes with big automated hedge trimmers and just make tea with the entire foot of old stems and leaves they cut off.
I very rarely see other tea producing regions making tea like that, maybe some of the rustic traditional chinese teas like fu brick but in general the Chinese seem to be loathe to make tea with anything but buds and the first 5 leaves.

>>16925421
*and just fully chopped up branches

Is there an iceberg meme for tea?

just bought an electric kettle, it's insane how fast it boils water. Definitely going to get into tea now that I have the kettle, it simplifies and speeds up the process so much

>>16925508
No, im kind of tempted to make one.

>>16925599
Yeah electric kettles save tons of time. One of the better gadgets ive bought.

>>16925599
I don't know how people manage with stovetop kettles. How can you relax with your tea when you have to listen to the most stressful whistling in existence?
What kind did you get? I've been using my Bonavita Variable Temp every day for years now and it holds up great.

>>16925793
do it

>>16925508
My hatred for the Chinese "language" is beyond what the English language is capable of conveying with 26 characters and 470,000 dictionary-recognized words.

>>16927317
cringe?

my fucking bombilla broke
AGAIN
and I can't fix it this time, it literally broke in the middle
so I'm ordering another set and also some origeens while I'm at it.

>>16927317
ok retard

>>16927317
>My hatred for the Chinese "language" is beyond what the English language is capable of conveying with 26 characters and 470,000 dictionary-recognized words.

But only Canto. Mandarin sounds much classier. Canto sounds like dirty ignorant Vietnamese pesants yelling at each other. God that nasally, high pitched yelling makes me apprecate Japanese so much more.

Bros, what is the BEST TYPE of equipment for making various types of tea on a daily basis?

Electric kettle and chinaware teapot?
Tetsubin to any kind of teapot?
Electric kettle to tetsukuyu?
Any ole' kettle to silver teapot?
Etc?

>>16927623
electric kettle and glazed gaiwan. gaiwan so you can brew gongfu or western style and glazes so it doesn't affect the tea flavour

>>16927623
Electric kettle with temp control
Mug
$10 brew basket from finum (pic related)
+Can brew any kid of tea, in any brewing style including gongfu,
+temp dialed in for easy brewing of greens and delicate oolongs
+Minimal extra bits so you can spend more money on tea
+easy cleanup
-doesn't look fancy
-less objects if you want to get into tea brewing as a ritual
If you want to go the teapot route you have to pick 100ml for gongfu for 2cups for western brewing, something in between for Japanese greens

>>16927673
Would be good for the office.
>>16927667
What makes a gaiwan special aside from being all chinky? Doesn't a teapot do the same thing?

>>16927673
>$10 brew basket
you can get a gaiwan for ~$10 and plastic is bad, i think there's full stainless steel mug baskets out there

>>16927710
>Doesn't a teapot do the same thing?
yes but easier to clean out, also you will spill and burn your finger a few times a month regardless of how many years you've used it

>>16927715
I recommended the finum ones because they are made in Germany and put some effort in to using plastics that wont leak hormone disrupting plasticizers, i agree that people who are concerned about that should opt for the stainless steel ones, they just are not typically as wide or deep.

It's finally here

>>16927930
When did you order?

>>16927943
October 11th

>>16927949
king of duck shit aroma huh. sounds tasty

>>16927949
That's not even slow for orders from YS
Should be good, post about your favorites

>>16927983
Yeah, I was expecting to wait at least a month but no. I'm currently just smelling all of them. They smell great.

>>16928003
Post a picture of the cup, it looks cool

Am I remembering correctly and there are discounts on 11/11? Should I wait to order from yuunan sourcing until then, and do they also apply to the website? I usually order in spring but I'm sure I've seen it announced on other years.

>>16928176
Yunnan sourcing will probably do a black friday sale, maybe 11/11 i forget.
If you wait untill spring make sure you order before February when he does his yearly price hikes.

>>16928176
Right now they are doing 10% off sitewide
https://yunnansourcing.com/pages/sale-page
Also when ordering make sure to grab some of the freebies if you have spent enough money
https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/free-gifts-and-bogo-offers

>>16928231
>Yunnan sourcing will probably do a black friday sale, maybe 11/11 i forget.
unlike most stores he does not do a single big sale on black friday and instead does a bunch of smaller discounts from October to December. YS's black friday sales tend to be rather tame so it may be better to pick up stuff from vendors that are doing better sales right now and grab what you want from YS latter.

>>16928244
>Right now they are doing 10% off sitewide
>https://yunnansourcing.com/pages/sale-page
the actual code is: SITEWIDE10

>Also when ordering make sure to grab some of the freebies if you have spent enough money
>https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/free-gifts-and-bogo-offers
YS does not normally let you combine discounts so the depending on your order the BOGO/"free gifts" offers or spending your accumulated loyalty points may be a better deal.

from YS:
>Sale excludes all silver teaware. Only one code may be entered at checkout, cannot be combined with other codes (Loyalty points codes, discount codes, or Free Gift / BOGO Codes)! Please note that we cannot honor the 10% off on orders made prior to this sale.

>>16928449
Thanks for clarifying i haven't ordered from ys in ages

>>16928176
>Am I remembering correctly and there are discounts on 11/11?
yes, but only a few of the western tea vendors do, most of them just hold off until black friday. tmall may have some good deals though if you know how to order from them.

>>16909691
Who doesn't want to kek at wrappers in 25 years. What the fuck is scott thinking? There are only so many pigs sipping tea before they start to blend. You want distinct memery.

>>16927735
>also you will spill and burn your finger a few times a month regardless of how many years you've used it
maybe if you have cerebral palsy, idiot

>>16927623
Eh, my home setup is an electric kettle, glass teapot with cuts to strain in the leaf cup, and a metal tea light candle stand to keep it warm. Works great with my Chemex coffee pot too.

At work I have a bottom-drop polycarbonate single-cup brewer.

>>16928122
sorry for the late reply but here you go. it looks even better in person.

>>16929260
Nice, i like that finish effect

How would one describe the taste of "expired" green tea? I finished off some old sencha I found that tasted bitter with a touch of funk. I don't know if my water was too hot and I burnt the leaves but all the following steeps were also ruined.

>>16929990
I don't think it really gets funky per se, more the flavor becomes more mellow and less intense, more muted, and less green tasting. Im sure it can get a little funky tho depending on how it's stored.