/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>16929438
Got my matcha order in
Time to put it under a tree for 2 months so I can feel like it's special

t

>>16929438
tea bump

>>16929438
what milk is best for tea? personally, I like a real creamy full fat milk where even a little bit is enough

Thanks for recommending that advent /tea/ poster

>>16909160

I just ordered it as a christmas / bday present for myself. Will let know how it is!

I'm running out of stock from lockdown I. I've fallen out of love with daily drinker ripe and gave that 200g Xia guan raw tuo yet another try. I've always hated it before but not today. No more funk, manageable bitterness, mouth numbing, sweet aftertaste. Will brew again. Amazing surprise, glad I kept that one.

>>16929438
I drink a cup of black coffee with an oatmeal cookie and take a shit. Then it's water for the rest of the day. Until it's milk time.

I have never had puer tea. When it says it can do 15 infusions, do you drink 15 cups of tea in a row or can you somehow save them for later?

>>16931200
none

>>16932098
For puer you use a small brewing vessel called a gaiwan, You are supposed to brew it for short times (20-60 seconds) with a large amount of leaves (for the size of the vessel).

You also don't need to use a gaiwan and can try out puer brewing in a standard mug 2 times with a normal amount of leaves.

>>16932098
>do you drink 15 cups of tea in a row
yes but thats small cups ~100ml each for ~5g leaf. shorter the infusions the more a tea can take before running out of all flavour. so 10-20 seconds for the first one, then +5 seconds each time, google gongfu tea for more info

>>16929438
I ordered some Earl Gray and some Kandy OP, but I still have to finish other loose leaves before any more serious tea buying.
>>16931200
I used to use plain whole milk. Whole milk ads this creamy element to the tea, but takes away from the flavor of the tea itself, to me anyway, depends on what I'm drinking. From my experience, lots of black teas do fine without milk.

Is tea really worth it? Why not just drink water?

>>16932380
Is water really worth it? All that effort finding a clean glass and filling it. Why not just crack open a beer?

>>16932402
Is beer worth it? Spending all that money and drinking all those containers. Why not just smoke crack?

>>16931602
>Thanks for recommending that advent /tea/ poster
glad someone found my recommendation helpful. hope it turns out good. i will be interested in hearing about what you got.

>>16931200
>milk
what the fuck man. that sounds disgusting.

>>16932603
Anon is probably Br*tish, it's in their nature to be disgusting.

>>16929438
Thanks for making a new thread

>>16931972
What year?

>>16931200
Absolutely. Has to be whole milk. Gold top is best.

>>16932610
Pretty sure we didn't invent it. Sure I've seen really Asians in Asia putting milk in it on the telly.

coffee makes my stomach hurt : (

What's going on, /tea/? Been quite a long time since I posted a tasting here, mostly because it's been too damn hot where I live. I spent the whole summer doing cold-brew and kombucha, but it’s finally cooled down enough to enjoy some proper tea again. My YS shipment just came in today and I wanted to go for the new ripe I got, but it needs to be aired out unfortunately, kinda has that fishy thing going on. Still wanting some ripe, I decided to break out my 2018 Menghai DaYi V93 tuo, which has been sitting in my tea drawer for over a year now.

When I first tried this cake I only thought it was ok. It had a very intense earthy/leathery taste that I didn’t much care for. Coming back to it now though it tastes fantastic, It seems to have developed a strong vanilla taste to it, and the earthy notes are much less present than before. Could a year of dry storage really make that big of a difference, if any at all? Most likely it's just me that changed.

y'all niggas spend THIS FUCKING MUCH on tea? Are y'all lawyers or something? Fucking white people.

>>16932675
The box says 2012
Bought it in spring 2020, did not care for storage conditions. Mediterranean climate. Maybe did I just give it enough of a rinse for once.

>>16932179
>>16932210
is there no way to save the leaves for a second session instead of doing 10-15 infusions in one session?
i regularly drink black and green tea in the gongfu manner, but that's usually no more than 5 infusions or so

>>16932985
you could keep the teapot/gaiwan in the fridge but i doubt the flavour would be worth it, i take my black teas for ~13 infusions, my sessions are usually over 3-4 hours so its not like im chugging 1.5L in an hour

>>16933109
makes sense, thanks anon

>>16932923
>Could a year of dry storage really make that big of a difference, if any at all?
Yeah i have had some fairly dramatic shifts in puer that i have had around for a year or so. I heard that 2018 and 2019 were good years for v-93 and that before then they hadn't been that great since around 2012 or so.
Im sure your tastes have probably changed some as well. V-93 tends to be in kinda the burnt Belgian waffle zone of ripe flavor, so I'm sure some extra time to mellow out wouldn't hurt it much.

>>16932949
Not to brag or anything but i typically spend $200-$400 a year on tea.
That guys order might be a bit high on the price per gram side because he got lots of samples, it's cheaper if you get 100+ grams at once.

>>16932949
>spend THIS FUCKING MUCH on tea?
yes, though there are some teas you can get for less (or others that cost far more as well..)

>Are y'all lawyers or something?
cant speak for anyone else here but i am not rich. tea is a hobby for me. i don't drink alcohol or eat out so spending a couple dollars a day (or less) on tea is an acceptable expense for me. its less than what a lot of people spend on buying coffee (albeit many people spend a lot on coffee).

>>16932985
>is there no way to save the leaves for a second session instead of doing 10-15 infusions in one session?
if its only part of a day you can just let it sit with the lid on. the tea is probably still better if rebrewed when fresh though and i would no recommend leaving it out overnight. i will usually just cold brew or western style brew then refrigerate any leftover tea at the end of the day.

>i regularly drink black and green tea in the gongfu manner, but that's usually no more than 5 infusions or so
a lot of it depends on your brewing ratios and at what point you consider the tea spent. it should go without saying but if you use more tea for the same size teapot/gaiwan you will get more steeps. i am honestly not sure that i agree that puerh/heicha gives all that many more steeps then most other Chinese teas assuming the same brewing conditions and same amount of tea. i regularly get 10+ steeps out of most things i brew but i also use more tea than is typical (8+g/100ml).

>>16932949
i'm a grad student and this isn't even a dent in my budget
imagine not being able to afford smelly leaves lmfao wtf man

>>16932968
Nice, yeah xiaguan can be pretty fiesty. I have a 2009 cake that could use another decade of age to mellow it out some more. Kind of an extreme example but for the rough factory style xiaguans and not the fancy boutique single origin cakes they make they usually need at least a decade to start to get drinkable.

>>16933142
thanks for the info, anon
i have a raw pu'erh and a few ripe pu'erhs coming in the mail soon so i'm excited to try them now

>>16932985
You are not going to really get 15 brews out of a puer unless you infuse for 5 seconds each time. My regular sessions with puer i typically get 5-7 brews before it tastes like lightly flavored water. Don't stress it anon, 15 brews is mostly just marketing wank.

>>16933151
>paying 75 bucks for 425 grams of tea
>more than 150 bucks for a kilo
What are you doing with that student money
rolling it to smoke pure saffron or something

>>16932923
>Could a year of dry storage really make that big of a difference, if any at all? Most likely it's just me that changed.
it possibly changed and it could also possibly be your tastes. Tea and my tastes can be so fickle sometimes. one day i drink a tea and love it, then the next week when i have it again i am underwhelmed, subsequently i have it a couple months later and like it once more and am left wondering why i ever doubted it.

>>16933172
That's around 17¢ per gram, it's in no way expensive

>>16933172
how much tea are you drinking nigger
god if you set your mind to it you can make water sound expensive
tea is fucking cheap man

>>16933172
>150 dollars for 1000g of tea
>typical gongfu session uses 5g of tea
wow man yeah that's so expensive that $150 will only last for... <checks notes>... 200 sessions of tea drinking
that's only over half a year! what a rip off!

I've gotten kind of interested in matcha lately despite it being expensive and a meme. Somebody talk me out of it. Is it good enough to justify the price and how finicky the preparation clearly is?

>>16933172
Boi even at that price, if you drank 1 can of soda every day you'd be spending the same amount. And you'd get less liquid per dollar. 5 grams usually gets me about a liter before I get tired of it, and it can usually go further than that.

>>16933763
I buy a kilo of mate for less than 15 bucks and I succ that for two months, drinking around 100 liters of the thing.
So yeah, you guys are nuts.

>>16933696
the price is crazy high
that said if you like it, get some, or you can always do it for special occasions like the japs. Problem is stuff keeps worse than green tea so it's hard to keep a reserve on hand.
If you want to make it a daily drinker, that really depends if you're willing to fork over money for a grassy version of espresso.

>>16933780
Why would you do that

>>16933822
mate is good and cheap and simple to make and keeps me awake

>>16933780
>mate
yeah i can buy a kilo of horse shit for dirt cheap
i'm not gonna consume that though

>>16933871
>wipipo mentality
chinga tu madre

>>16933828
>simple to make
bro mate is the most ridiculously stupid thing to prepare lmao
you're out of your mind

>>16933878
me cago en tu madre maricon, los unicos que toman mate son maricones y peruanos (maricones con acento)

>>16933878
>>16933886
maybe it's argentinos not peruanos
different flavors of the same shit, same difference

>my leaf juice is better than your leaf juice

>>16933899
yes.

>>16933886
>mate
>hard to mate

wow you're telling me I have to fill a gourd, flip it while covering the hole my hand and then just keep putting hot water???? Do I look like a rocket scientists to you???

>>16933989
as opposed to
>pour water on tea leaves
in literally ever other method for preparing tea other than matcha

yes, mate is dumb gimmicky bullshit only drunk by the worst spics

t. spic

Someone posted about growing your own tea and I'm curious, how difficult is it to actually harvest and process your own tea?
I'd be drinking it either white or green.

>>16933899
This but unironically

>>16934049
I haven't been growing it long enough to harvest any but i think white tea would be the easiest followed by green, black is probably somewhat tricky, oolong would be pretty hard to do at home. Postfermented stuff is pretty much out of the question.
Here is some basic info on tea processing so you can get an idea of what goes into it
https://www.teaflowergardens.com/making-tea.html

I just steep Mate like a regular tea it works fine for me.

>>16934353
>>16933886
>>16933828

I drink Mate Cocido on days that I go to boxing class because I can't really bring a gourd with me. Four tablespoons of Yerba in a French press, and add about 1.5 cups of not-quite-boiling water and steep for five minutes

>>16934460
I should add that I make about four cups usually out of those four tablespoons.

For me it's mate de coco

>>16934511
you wish

Long Jing gang rise!

>>16934589
Going to change my daily drinker once this bag runs out, until then, rise up long jing boys

>I drink mate de dionza cocida, Joaquin said en la dia
>Ching bong ting wing ling ding biachuo kingpow
holy fuck I thought tea was English. I can kind of understand the Chinese here but spics need to gtfo

>>16934708
Who tf thinks tea is from England

>>16934708
Normally I'd be fine with shitting on the spics, but I'll take them over the fucking English any day of the week.

>>16934736
Nah, Hispanics are pretty freaking bottom barrel.

>>16934773
mamaguevo

>>16934679
Whats next?

>>16934800
Probably matcha gang until spring harvest, mostly due to having to get rid of matcha before march

>>16934589
Whats your leaf/water ratio and time? i have a bunch of longjing to get rid of and grandpa style isnt working out for me

>>16934908
I do 5 grams to 160ml gaiwan at 15+3 seconds at 80C. Kinda standard, comes out a bit weak though, could definitely go up to 7 grams if I wanted to.

>>16934921
Gonna try it out when i get home, thanks

Its an old liu bao kind of night.

I don't do anything fancy I just get either Twinnings English Breakfast or Earl Grey. And I just drink it black.. Is Tea good for you? If there arehealth. Benefits what are they?

>>16934460
Yeah, mate cocido is great, just mate without the extra steps

>>16935819
>Its an old liu bao kind of night.
how old are we talking about?

>>16935970
the l theanine in tea makes it feel different from coffee, you still get caffeine, just less of it and much much less of the cortisol. tannins are good for the heart, there's lots of antioxidants in it and such

Alright tea niggas, rate my Yunnan Sourcing order. The 250 gram cake is my freebie

>>16937153

>>16937153
>>16937154
I've tried a few of these
>Tie Guan Yin of Anxi Oolong
Insanely floral, tasted just like an orchid smells. Not one I reach for often but its good when you're in the mood for something different.
>Gao Jia Shan Wild Hunan Fu
Super ugly looking tea with lots of stems, but I loved this one when I tried it, it tasted like chocolate cherries to me. If you're using a smaller tea pot the stems can get lodged in the spout which is annoying.
>Chen Nian Shou Mei Aged White Tea
Hands down one of the best teas i've ever had, expect the usual honey/stonefruit notes. At low temps I got sort of a banana-like taste from it, at high temps a maltier black tea taste.

>>16937153
>>16937154
I'll comment what I've had or care about
>raw 2021
know you said it was free but...unless you know how to store it thats a yikes, it won't be good for years
>AAA Tie Guan Yin
I've had it, don't particularly like it. Scott likes Taiwanese style oolong, I don't. Simple preference. You might like it more than I did
>Shou Mei
It's okay, I prefer the Gong Mei, but it's a solid white tea, especially for the pricepoint.
>Ning'er
Should have got more of that, it's an amazing daily drinker. One of my favorite go to black teas. Goes decent with a little pinch of lemon western style or on it's own brewed a bit strong to really get that honey flavor. Fantastic choice.
>2007 Tuo
Thing I have that one sitting somewhere, pretty decent.
>Silver needles
I think it's mushroomy in flavor, if you like that 25 gram sample you should try the cake version.

Lot of variety for 1.2 kg of tea, I'd recommend focusing on less variety but bigger volumes, a lot of that 25 gram stuff will run out fast if you like it, realistically less than a week if you really like it.
7/10

>>16937153
Nice, pretty good variety, those fu bricks from gao jia shan are really good, lots of other good stuff. Good picks for puers, nice

>>16937213
Thanks, I think I actually picked up the fu brick on your rec because that sounds amazing
>>16937223
I like bitter stuff so I think the 2021 raw will work out.
>a lot of that 25 gram stuff will run out fast if you like it
Yep, that's why I got so many 100 gram ones. Somehow it's less of a problem for me with stuff besides puerh but I may get more of a couple anyways. Also I got those needles because they're Fuding ones. Thing in the order I'm most iffy on is those dragon balls

>>16937223
>raw 2021
>know you said it was free but...unless you know how to store it thats a yikes, it won't be good for years
young raw puerh can be good and there is plenty of stuff out there that tastes nice fresh. you have to be more careful to not oversteep them than aged sheng though. do you just hate young sheng or something?

>>16937223
>unless you know how to store it thats a yikes
Don't act like tupperware and bovedas are complicated...

>>16937153
>>16937154
looks very nice
i have some pu'erh balls coming in soon and i had a question:
should you break up the ball before brewing, or do people usually just put the whole ball in their gaiwan/teapot and brew it like that

>>16937431
Yes they just put the whole ball in, it'll unfurl when you brew it. The first steeps may take a bit longer than if it were loose or pried off a cake but that's it

>>16937301
>Thing in the order I'm most iffy on is those dragon balls
Okay here is the trick to dragon balls, they are a little annoying but if you treat em right it usually works.
Do a 1 - 2 minute rinse right away. Normally you wouldn't rinse a raw that long but you need to get the ball to open up. Toss the rinse it will probably be bitter and nasty, after the rinse leave the ball covered in your gaiwan for 5 - 10 minutes. After that the ball should have opened up and you can brew it normally, start with very short infusions.

>>16937431
>i have some pu'erh balls coming in soon
Shulloween?
>should you break up the ball before brewing, or do people usually just put the whole ball in their gaiwan/teapot and brew it like that
you could do both they both have pros and cons. brewing the whole ball will require a long rinse and letting it sit for a bit so it can open up and may brew unevenly if you dont but has the advantage of bot busting up the leaves. splitting the balls will make it brew faster and more evenly but will break up some leaf. especially if its shu we are talking about (which has smaller leaves that are not going to break as much) i would probably try splitting the ball into halves or thirds along the grain (if there is one). perhaps you can experiment some and tell us what you think is best.

>>16937471
>Do a 1 - 2 minute rinse right away. Normally you wouldn't rinse a raw that long but you need to get the ball to open up.
another way you can do the same thing is instead of fully submerging the tea for a couple minutes is just add a little bit of hot water (not more than you expect will be absorbed) and let it soak in for awhile (5-10 minutes) until the tea has opened up. you can still do a rinse afterwards if you want to. i figure you waste less tea doing it this way and some tea is so tightly packed no "rinse" is going to cut it. its what i do when brewing stubborn iron cake chunks that cant be split up further without being broken down into dust.

Hate the office. Gotta go back and work in the office. Bought new tea kettle to take to office since boss took the coffee maker home at the start of the “pandemic”. Brought shitty tea bags from home to cut open and put in infuser at work so I can use it up and make space for good loose leaf at home. FML

I decided to try this stuff out and my order showed up today. I'm kind of weirded out by how small the cups I get out of this 100ml gaiwan are.

Somehow my steeps got darker after the second. Pic related is the seventh after like 15 seconds. Tbh I'm not that impressed by this first sample. I remember having a very nice white tea once, but this one just tastes like leaves. I do like the kind of brothy feel.

Is it worth getting a filter? The little booklets I got from the vendor really emphasize filtered water.

Tea tree sellers are shit. They'll say "hurr grow your own tea with our plant" but won't mention the variety or cultivar

>>16937830
These guys are reasonably good about that.
https://camforest.com/collections/tea-camellias

>>16937507
>Shulloween?
haha yeah i placed an order last week i think
thanks for the advice, i'll be posting when i get the order in

>>16937469
thanks lad, i'll do some experimenting

In more tea-drinking locales, is there a communal tea pot /kettle for the office? If so, how do you decide which tea gets made during the day?

>>16938152
It's a gruesome affair really. Pic related, me and my green tea coworkers holding the line against the pu-erh lesbians horde.

hello
i like jabanese teas
:DDD

>white tea allergy
Is this person full of shit? I find it a bit hard to believe you can drink green+black teas but not be okay with white.

While we're on Yunnan, what Oolongs/Whites would you recommend? Price is a consideration - anything for $0.12/g is good, $0.17/g is probably the upper limit of what I'm willing to spend outside of exceptionally good teas. I know Oolongs get pricier but I don't really want to shill out like $15/25g unless it's life changing tea.

>>16938395
It's probably bullshit. Maybe they got some white tea at some point that was moldy or otherwise contaminated and it made them sick, maybe they are just full of shit. I know some lady that claims to have gluten intolerance but then suddenly she says it's totally fine for her to eat sourdough bread. People be crazy

>>16938428
Go with tiegyanyin you will have a hard time getting nice wuyi oolongs or dan cong for less than 17¢ per gram.
Look for ones that say traditional or old style and are not rolled in such tight balls, also go for medium roast ones.
Don't really drink white tea so i cant make suggestions.

>>16938428
My usual white orders are one 100g cake of silver needles and 100g of a leafier one, bai mu dan and gong mei are the two latest ones

>>16938312
It’s really like this, isn’t it? Can anyone /tea/pill me on why the fuck gay women love puer so much? I’m honestly baffled by the intersection of puer and lesbianism. I know a few gay dudes from work and they drink normal green/oolong/black/etc. teas but all of the lesbians I’ve ever known have tried to sell me on puer. Is it a signifier of group identity and affiliation sort of like how gay men pitch their voices into that lispy lilt so they can recognize a fellow friend of Dorothy?

i made a london fog, it wasn’t very good

>>16938611
The woman who owns my local tea shop is a lesbian Asian with a white butch wife. They have a large puer selection.

>>16938611
Puer is largely responsible for the high rates of domestic violence in the lesbian community, it's a public health crisis.

>>16938428
>>16938598
Seconding the silver needle cake, the first infusion that comes out crystal clear makes me rock hard

>>16938624
Oh, no. That poor Asian woman. Does she wear big sunglasses indoors?

>>16938428
I'll also voice support for that Jinggu Silver Needle cake, it's top notch. IMO YS isn't great for oolongs, except maybe for dan cong.

>>16938376
well, you're in luck
just brewed up this free sample

>>16939244

>>16929438
Have any of you guys ever done things like blind taste tests to determine differences in, say for instance, your area's tap water, vs filtered water via carbon filter/charcoal?
I recently got around to reading some of Hojo Tea's blogs, and his ideas extend way beyond the concept behind Yixing clay/tea pairings. He says that there are two variables, aftertaste and body, and that each go up or down depending what type of water, kettle, tea, teapot, or cup you're using.
Aftertaste means "softness, smoothness, long lasting, clarity, lingering feeling. Vertical depth." Body means "heaviness, weight, width, richness. Horizontal depth."

I have no clue how he came up with those terms or if they can be discerned with blind tests. In his blogs he includes videos of him pouring each cup and sipping them. I actually did set up a blind taste test for myself using tap vs the various filters I had around but it only left me more confused. I have no clue where body ends and aftertaste begins. The whole idea between body and aftertaste seems conflicting as hell. Have you guys ever noticed that tea you were tasting was "vertically challenged, but horizontally overpowering?"

What's more, he mentions that clay teapots absorb the minerals in the tea, contrary to what I see everyone say about tea oils being or whatever being absorbed. And therefore clay teapots are supposed to be dedicated to different types of tea on the basis of the location of the soil the tea was farmed, and not the type of tea. What do you guys think about that?

>>16939250
amazing color

>>16939259
first infusion was so lovely
tons of savory with some up-front sweetness that gets stronger in the after taste

>>16939264
brewed the first infusion at 65 degrees for about a minute and it was great (pic rel)
second infusion i did same temp for also a minute and i think that was too long a time -- halfway through the cup i started tasting some strong bitterness that was definitely due to too-long of an infusion

gonna cut it shorter now on this third infusion

>>16939269
this is the third infusion
leaves are fully unfurled so a long infusion isn't so necessary
i brewed this one for a fast-count 45 seconds and it's perfect
less umami than the first infusion of course, but lots of sweetness and no bitterness

>>16939289
as i'm finishing this third cup it's surprising how sweet this tastes
it also leaves a dryness in the mouth after it's done, which is kind of pleasant and makes you want to keep drinking

>>16939252
>And therefore clay teapots are supposed to be dedicated to different types of tea on the basis of the location of the soil the tea was farmed, and not the type of tea. What do you guys think about that?
Guy is just a Japanese version of some westerner that calls themselves spiritual and wears crystals for their healing energy.
There has been a decent amout of discussion about water and filters and the consensus seems to be that hard water makes tea taste worse. That filtering water is generally an improvement overall as long as you don't go too far and filter the water down to extremely low or zero ppm.
There are some interesting articles out there about how tp make you own custom mineral blends for water and there is a successful industry around custom designing water filtering solutions to a cafes local water to get them as close as possible to what is considered the ideal range for brewing coffee. Of course this is subjective to some extent but the specialty coffee association has published recommended mineral content levels you can look at.
I can't really help you with the subjective aspects of tasting because im retarded.

>>16939323
Sounds good, i really need to order some green tea next spring

>>16939341
do it faggot

>>16938395
sounds like complete bullshit
it's the same fucking plant, and the processing between white and black/oolong doesn't change anything drastically from an allergen perspective

>>16938395
if they can drink green tea, they can drink white tea (which has even less processing than green tea does)
this person needs a slap in the face

Anyone ever tried to jap tea ceremony while blindfolded like JCVD in Bloodsport? I attempted to do it solo while drunk and high on cocaine and ended up dropping and breaking all my shit and some how spilling hot tea down my ass crack. Don’t know how that happened but should mention that I was only clad in a waist wrapped towel at the time.

>consider making an online order
>get some decent teas, put them in the cart
>check shipping
>would have to order like $300 worth of tea to make the shipping price reasonable
make it stop

>>16939554
I just started making $200+ orders.
There are some domestic options too depending on what you want and where you are.

>>16939554
I'm just waiting to throw ktm a grand or so.

why has farmer leaf not been added to the wiki?
guy makes extraordinary content (on youtube) and his web shop for tea is legit

>>16939801
wait i'm retarded, i see him now
he should have https://farmer-leaf.com listed under US or China though
>%s/wiki/pastebin/g

>>16939801
>>16939805
especially since it seems the .com site is a different base of operations and warehouse compared to the .fr site

>>16939369
Is that how you messed up your laptop, Hunter?

>>16939805
His YouTube is linked, i will try and remember to add his .com store tomorrw.

>>16939864
appreciate you lad

>>16938598
>white orders
aryan choice

I only drink nettle tea with dog piss flavor that i harvest myself

I kinda wish there was a local tea club I could join where everyone pools their membership fee and votes on teas, and then the club president puts in the massive bulk order and everyone gets a generous share of tea for relatively cheap thanks to the power of bulk purchasing.
Like I can buy 1KG of tea myself but it's going to take me forever to drink that, I'd rather split it five ways or even ten ways and get 100/200g of tea at the per g cost of buying 1KG bulk.

Got my mate and bombilla
also it turns out my brewing method was already perfect, I used a digital thermometer and it seems like with the way I do it it stays consistently at 80 C° and only goes down to 79 C° after 15 minutes. Damn I'm good.

>>16941511
There are some tea group buys that get organized, i don't think they split cakes tho, at least not the ones ive seen.

>>16941670
With cakes you can buy a tong and split it however many ways anyways. Actually splitting cakes in half/quarters would be doable probably but a bit weird I admit.

I have found god with these new bombillas I was using an old throwaway I had broken and jury-rigged back together and it was never this SMOOTH. It's wonderful, it's like I'm actually drinking through a regular straw.

Is there anything I should look for in a kettle (for tea) or does literally anything work?
I mean stuff like the material it's made out of or shape. (Obviously I'd like something aesthetically pleasing but I think I shouldn't spend too much money on my first purchase as a noob.)

>>16941918
no, it is scientifically proven that if your kettle isn't kettle shaped the water will refuse to heat up. I'm sorry, but that's what the council decided.

>>16941928
Oh man I was hoping I could drink some tea for Christmas, can't the council make an exception once?

>>16941953
...I'll have to make some calls.

>>16941783
>With cakes you can buy a tong and split it however many ways anyways.
Yeah there are some group buys that do this. I have a healthy distrust for group buys but there have been some going on for years now that seem reliable.

>>16941918
I like to get ones that are all stainless steel and don't have a seam around the bottom, i don't really like the enameled iron ones because the enamel tends to chip and then the iron rusts.

I had a tea party at work. People preferred the loose leaf english breakfast blend I brought though. Tea pilling people is hard work.

I was mostly just drinking that "black gold" bailouchun thing that's popular on Yunnan.

>>16942007
>I have a healthy distrust for group buys
Online, yeah.
Which is why I wish I lived in a city with an actual local tea club, because when you meet up face to face and discuss teas and vote in person and you know everyone's name it's a LOT harder for them to try to cheat you. And why would they want to when you're basically their friend?
Also maybe I'm just idealizing things but sitting around a big table and holding a large tea ceremony/tasting session sounds max comfy.

>tfw your city water gets up to 17 grains/gallon
I filter all of my water and it still tastes I'm licking my tea off of a rock.

>>16941918
Don't get one that's designed so there's plastic touching the boiling water and make sure that you can easily control the temp. That's it.

>>16942248
I've been drinking incredibly hard water all my life and nowadays when I drink filtered water it just tastes weird. I drink my tea hard and that's it.

>>16942361
>I drink my tea hard
So do we all anon, so do we all

>>16941885
you haven't found anything. you probably drink ((organic))((bio))((fairtrade)) fannings. or you're the anon who posted pack of rosamonte some time ago. in that case, check this shit out. I've thrown away all sieve like bombillas and rancid gourds after buying this set. amanda is just ok, but I'm more of paraguayan cha qi lately.

>>16942416
>you haven't found anything. you probably drink ((organic))((bio))((fairtrade)) fannings.
dumb shit

>>16942416
Based ceramic bombilla anon.
I think the pastebin says not to get gourd bombillas and instead recommends glass or stainless steel lined ones.

>>16942429
dumb shit exactly
>>16942431
based confused anon who wants to be a part of conversation anyway.
bombilla is steel, matero is ceramic in the set I posted.

what I wanted to convey and have to clarify for mentally challenged itt is that type of bombilla (with spring and holes in the straw) is the ultimate straw for yerba mate. big chunk of metal on top cools the liquid instantly, easy to clean, just slide the cover on the bottom and rinse. beats every spoon type bombilla by a mile. try for yourself.

>tell some clueless normie that teabags are made with "the dust swept off the factory floor"
>"wtf"
lol

>tell some clueless normie that teabags are made with "the dust swept off the factory floor"
>he tells me that ackhtually the're filled with ctc processed african leaves
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmcG7OrmrBo
lmao

>>16942549
I don't drink black tea it's gross

>>16942499
the only difference with puerh is that it is whole leaves, its still swept up from the floor...

>>16942584
puerh is such a hilarious concept to me
>bunch of illiterate hick farmers pile a bunch of tea leaves into what is essentially a compost heap on the dirty floor of some rusty warehouse and let it rot for months
>go in, scoop it up and press it into a circle and then sell it to retarded Westerners for like 3x what regular, fresh, non-rotting tea would go for

that reminds me, YS has my favourite black AYY LMAOO mountain tea back in stock. any of you know when the discounts are coming? I know there was one already but I slept on that.
>>16942595
lmao, you're pretty dumb and seething, aren't you? why are you posting here?

>>16942606
you are literally drinking rotting leaf trimmings from the nation with the least care on health/safety where human life has no value whatsoever and you have the nerve to act like I'm the one with mental issues

I rest my case.
what are you drinking anon? any outstanding tea lately? recommend us some. we're in the tea thread after all.

>>16942657
I'll tell you what I'm not drinking - rotting fucking compost
I only drink tea from nations inhabited by humans, so basically just Ceylon and Japanese teas

>>16942667
>seething pajeet again
which ceylon or japanese tea should I look for? any online vendors? usually we recommend ourselves specific teas here. think you can do that?

>>16942683
>seething pajeet
Sri Lankans are not Indian
I don't drink Indian tea because they shit on their hands and don't wash them, I don't want to drink indian faeces in my tea.

>>16942695
thank you for your input. I value your opinions even more now. when I'll see you harassing white chicks on instagram for bobs and vagene I'll give you a like. take care.

>>16942606
>puer lesbian defense force
You’re an angry lass, aren’t you?

new cute little teapots came in today

I'm a beginner. What are some of the best tea brands? No Arabic/Persian tea please It's what my dad drinks and I hate it.

>>16942951
Most brands of tea are mediocre.
Check the pastebin, find a seller in your area, pick a few different kinds of black tea from different places and try them.
If it's gotta be something in the grocery store i guess get pg tips.

>>16942894
Nice pot!
digging the tea table too.

>>16942963
thank you :)

>>16942969
thank u fren 谢谢~~

anyone have experience with a soy sauce smell at the bottom of their cup. im drinking some golden eyebrow black tea and i cant help but notice that when i get to the bottom there is a distinct soy sauce smell. wondering if it's specific to this type of tea or if it's something that other tea's have as well.

>>16943219
I can kinda see that, some kinda umami type vibe. I can get a whiff of something like that in the bottom of my cold mug of puerh.

Puerh lesbians have been given free reign to shit up these threads for too long.
Well, I say, no longer.

I'm thinking about buying this: https://www.amazon.com/Harney-Sons-Genmaicha-Japanese-kernals/dp/B00F9WMXL8/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=genmaicha%2B(popcorn%2Btea)&qid=1636147586&s=grocery&sr=1-5&th=1 but I have a few questions.
1.) Has anyone here ever tried this? What did you think of it?
2.) Is 14 dollars for eight ounces of loose leaf tea a good deal? I'm coming from bags.

>>16943324
You in the US? It's cheap but i wouldn't recommended getting Japanese tea from harney and sons.
Get it from one of these stores instead here instead, price is reasonably close including shipping, both are USA stores.
https://ippodotea.com/collections/bancha/products/gokujo-genmaicha
https://denstea.com/products/genmaicha-satsuki?variant=37506609774750
Genmatcha is a very good tea, easy to drink and tasty.

>>16943324
6c a gram. You can find better tea for that price.

>>16943324
genmaicha is kind of a meme IME and was originally just a cheaper green tea option for peasants. just go with some sencha or gyokuro

>>16943260
Post quality review posts then

>>16943324
>>16943408
Buying genmaicha is a huge meme 99% of the time. It's sencha mixed with roasted rice, stop paying for roasted rice. I've bought mediocre sencha and mixed it with roasted rice before, and it's nice. There is absolutely no reason to pay full price for it though, mix it with first flush sencha, etc. It's poverty tea, but it's nice. Like huangpian. It's good, put there's no reason to store for ten years or whatever.

>Pretty new to teas, but looking to expand pallet
>/tea/ rec'd Upton Tea Imports and they sent a quality catalog
>Flipped through it on the toilet like a boomer and picked out a selection that sounded decent
I have no idea what I'm doing

drank this today (pic) https://www.teabox.com/collections/estates-nilgiri/products/glendale-winter-frost-twirl-black
Not sure how I feel about it. It's sort of astringent, but it also has a sorta summer squash or cucumber like flavor. Reminds me of the other Indian teas I've had; almost wet hay like finish.

>>16944139
I did that before. Good luck.

>>16944139
>he actually got a physical catalog
holy based I kneel boomer

>>16942894
how well did the teapot end up working?

>>16944223
Sounds nice, would make a good cuppa in the afternoon or after a light dinner

Silver needles white tonight

>>16944244
Different Anon, it's pretty nice. They put out the catalog every quarter and you stay on the mailing list as long as you order semi-regularly. They include articles about the history of tea too.

Yeah i used to get the upton catalog too, it's charmingly old school. It actually comes with a paper order form. Most of the catalogs i see these days just tell you to go order from their website

>>16944244
>>16944503
My toddler got a hold of it but this really is a fine little catalog they offer.

>>16944581
Phone posting ate my picture

>>16929438
I looking for recommendations for a small teapot, enough for two to four average teacups worth of tea. Nothing terribly fancy or exotic, just something I can brew then pour into a cup.

>>16944139
incredibly based post
enjoy your teas, friend

>>16944371
very well for the price ($10)
it doesn't have a very fast pour, but it's very cute and comfortable and retains heat pretty well

>>16944659
https://www.ebay.com/itm/233885649408
I have one of these london teapot ones but they used to be closer to $25
https://www.amazon.com/The-London-Teapot-Co-15513/dp/B000GIXH0G/
If you think two cup isn't big enough get this guy
https://www.uptontea.com/teapots/upton-tea-imports-chatsford-teapot-20-ounce/p/V00514/

what does yerba mate taste like?
is it worth trying?

>>16944799
dirt, but the bad kind.
no.

>>16944799
It tastes like bitter green stuff, sometimes smokey depending on what kind you get.
I like it but i don't drink it regularly. Using the straw and fancy cup is also really cool if you enjoy tea rituals. There is some good info for beginners and a good US website under tea vendors in the pastebin.

Am I supposed to dump the first steep when gaiwan brewing?

>>16945826
most places suggest giving the tea a wash but i drink it, its weak but it saves me having to deal with a cups worth of waste water. 10 sec is enough unless its really compact nuggets

>>16945826
It's something you can do, but its not really necessary either.

The first time you pour water in is usually referred to as a rinse, where you quickly pour it out again. The purpose is to 'prime' the tea somewhat - get it ready to brew. Rinsing also helps to heat up your tea-ware, if you haven't heated it up already. It does require a waste-bucket of sorts, somewhere to dump your rinse though.

As a 'wash' rinsing doesnt do much (if you are conserned for insecticides etc. which ive read others have been using the rinse for), since later steeps will be far longer. One useful thing about rinsing is that you are able to get rid of some of the small broken parts of leaves by holding the lid a bit more open than you would during normal steeps, this means they wont be left in your cup so you can drink without having to worry about them

Personally i discard the rinse because i have a waste-mug, and i do not care to drink weak tea when i get enough strong infusions out of all the teas i drink afterwards anyways. I also use it as an opportunity to warm up my cup before i drink cuz its a fucking heatsink.

>>16944799
To me, mate tastes extremely maritime, like salty seaweed-water. I love it, but it's not for everyone. People tend to exaggerate the bitterness.

>>16945851
i don't normally do a traditional rinse. instead i do a slightly longer first steep (so the tea does not end up weak) or if the tea is in tight chunks i do:
>>16937525
>another way you can do the same thing is instead of fully submerging the tea for a couple minutes is just add a little bit of hot water (not more than you expect will be absorbed) and let it soak in for awhile (5-10 minutes) until the tea has opened up. you can still do a rinse afterwards if you want to. i figure you waste less tea doing it this way and some tea is so tightly packed no "rinse" is going to cut it. its what i do when brewing stubborn iron cake chunks that cant be split up further without being broken down into dust.

as a tip for dealing with dust getting into your cup is to try to put the less broken/bigger leaves in front of the more broken up stuff in order to help "filter" the dust and keep it from coming into your cup. the presence of large amounts of tea dust will still require you to adjust your steep times (use slightly shorter steep times until the dust is spent).

gonna order some Greek mountain tea. anyone here had it before?

Would you, /tea/?

>>16946534

>>16933140
lol that's how much i spend a month on tea.

>>16929438
Anyone ever had oolong rose tea? I asked about rose tea in general a few threads ago, in reference to a rose milk tea I had at a japanese place and asked for recs.

I recently went to a cheese tea (I know, its basicly candy not really tea) place and got some oolong rose tea, and I think thats what I was thinking of. I really enjoyed it. Very sweet, but I think a cup of it sans sugar would be nice. I asked them who their provider was, but it seems like they make it from a machine with a syrup or something and couldnt give me a provider. So anyone got any rose tea recs?

>>16939250
That is such a cool fucking gaiwan anon. Toasted marshmallowey goodness. Nice setup.

>>16946727
ty lad, it's quite comfy

>tea thread
Man I would like to try some bong beef tea

>buy smelling cup
>always smells like actual animal shit
>realize I payed money just so I can smell animal shit
I feel weird for choosing this hobby

>>16944799
It tastes like your average hot leaf juice. Sort of grassy, it can be rather mild to very strong depending on your infusion.
I like it a lot. I drink 6 cups of mate cocido a day.

>>16929438
How much tea do people drink a day? I drink a lot of herbal tea during winter sometimes as much as 4 or 5 litre a day.

>>16933140
This got me interested enough to make my own calculations
>each cup of cocido is 2.5 grams of yerba
>6 cups = 15 grams
>15 * 365 = 5475 grams of mate used in a year
>5,475 kilos at roughly 15 $ each
Ok, so I basically spend something around 60/70 dollars a year on mate then. Cool.

>>16946983
0.5-1l on most days. Occasionally more, but if i do that long term, i am getting sick.

>>16939338
Exactly the kind of reply I was hoping for. Thank you for the info anon.

What's a good place to buy tea online? I live hours away from a store that has more than your standard grocery store brands.

>>16947047
Check the pastebin, look at shops in your country or region

>>16946908
>buy smelling cup
what?
>>16947047
what kind of tea do you want? tea?

>>16947064
yes, tea seems like a good choice.

>>16946957
>It tastes like your average hot leaf juice. Sort of grassy, it can be rather mild to very strong depending on your infusion.
this is how i would describe it as well. i would not describe it as particularly bitter or "marine" like the other anon did. i need to get some more mate sometime.

>Imperial Grade Yue Guang Bai White Tea Mini Cake
Not the best white tea i've had, not bad either though. Kinda reminds me of the sun tea my mom would make in our backyard growing up. It has a sweet hay kind of flavor, and a little malty as well. A little weak on the caffeine, i'm on infusion 4 or 5 by now and still feel like going back to bed. Overall not bad but probably wont be buying again, I much prefer the YS silver needles cake and shou/gong mei in general.

For me, it's laurel tea.

>>16947071
go on and buy some tea then? it's not like it isn't the most consumed drink after water on our planet. go buy the tea you colossal moron. do you think most of us asked on the internet first and then bought the tea?

>>16947133
oh, I was looking at that pitcher, thanks for irl photo.
how's that shitty chawangshop teapot? really unwieldy for me, it stays on the cupboard.

what do you think of this order?
did i do good?

>>16947332
equipment looks sound enuogh, don't know about those laves, mate, what are you looking for?

>>16947335
don't know never drank tea.
something which keeps me awake during the day
>enough
good to hear

>>16947332
>amazon
No. No you did not.
You animal.

>>16947340
you need pure loose leaf black and green/white tea if you're going to amazon. get some good fresh black tea leaves for you infuser and you'll be having a good times

>>16945851
>>16945868
Ok, so it seems to be mostly about opening it up. I think I understand why people chuck it or don't. I'll experiment some.
Most of the tea varieties I have left are pajeet though and those don't seem to gong fu for shit.

>>16947152
>check recipes for laurel tea
>amounts variate from 2 big leaves for 1 liter of water to 5 leaves for 1 cup to 10 to 20 grams of leaves (which is something like 40) for 1 liter of water

it's like looking for a cake recipe and finding 40 recipes that tell you to use 100 gram of flour, 500 grams of flour or 5 kilos.
It's maddening.

and now I just read a retard telling me to put 50 grams in a liter of water
fucking hell give me a god damn fucking standardization here

>>16947332
>>16947370
and there are these types of women. just steer clear of them when buying your tea and you should be allright. zeig uns die warenkorb.

>>16947386
fuck you karen you fucking skank

>>16947362
thank you
i think i should read the pastebin
>>16947351
but there are no teashops near me and i didn't read the pastebin which i will do now
>>16947386
Heh.
>warenkorb
have to wait to the next payday
this order have to do it till then

QUIT EXPLOITING THE WORKING CLASS YOU FUCKING BOURGEOISIE
BOYCOTT AMAZON

>>16947389
so like I said, get some black and white tea, some green but it's amazon so who knows what are they selling. 50 grams of tea is enough to get to know what you like, don't buy too much grams at first.

>>16946698
I love cheese tea. Apparently it was originally invented to help get people into tea by balancing out the bitterness but still letting the flavor of the tea come through. I doubt that they make it with a syrup, but the tea at those places is usually picked out by the chain its part of, rather than the individual shop.

I've never had rose oolong but I often add rose to teas in my stash that have a lot of floral notes or that I just don't really like on their own. Rose is especially good with puerh imo.

>>16946983
A few teaspoons of leaves. I just add water to the pot until I don't want to drink it anymore.

>>16947231
you're such a useless retarded nigger

>>16947047
pastebin has a great list of vendors
yunnansourcing is my go-to for chinese teas

>>16947332
I have one of those stainless steel tea brewing baskets, love it, it's great for brewing just about any kind of tea in a mug.
That kettle looks cool too.
Gauyusa ive only ever had in chocolate flavored teabags and they were disgusting but i wont blame that one the herb, post what it tastes like im sort of interested.

>>16947422
>Taiwanese cheese tea is a sweet and savory drink similar to boba tea that's become popular in Taiwan and many other Asian cities as well. Served cold, this tea is often made with green or black tea, with or without milk, and gets topped with a foamy cap of whipped cream cheese, milk and a sprinkle of salt

You people fucking disgust me

>>16947422
>I often add rose to teas in my stash
How, do you have dried rose buds or petals around? Or do you use rosewater or some kind of rose syrup?

>>16947332
etzala amol a tee schlürfen

>>16947248
>how's that shitty chawangshop teapot? really unwieldy for me, it stays on the cupboard.
I like it, its cheap but I wouldn't call it shitty. I find it comfy to hold and pour, then again I've been using it for a while.

>>16947422
>Syrup
I guess not, but I asked what brand they used and they just kinda pointed to a machine.

Also yah, cheese tea is really good the sweet and savory mixed with the bitter is pretty satisfying.
>>16947475
Think of it more like creme brulee or marscapone but a foam, or some other desert cheese. Its not just a slab of cream cheese you spread on toast.

>>16947517
it's fucking CHEESE SPREAD
on TEA

Do the brits ever put clotted cream in tea?
How about cream top milk? Ever pour the cream bit off into a cuppa?

>>16947475
I've learned that i consider every tea product apart from actual to to be different category.
It's not "taiwanese cheese tea". It's "taiwanese milkshake with tea flavor", which is probably still disgusting, but they are chinese, so its kind of to be expected.

>>16947624
>but they are chinese
well said, comrade chang

>>16947567
>Do the brits ever put clotted cream in tea?
Nah, that would be mad. It's as thick as mascarpone.

>>16947567
I'm pretty sure they just use milk. Cream or clotted cream would make some butter tea type shit, wouldn't it?

>>16947567
thats for the scones you muppet

Where's the best site to buy clay teapots? I thought yunnansourcing's stock was huge but
apparently it's not. Can't even get the right teapot->pitcher->cup combo. Not to mention shipping to
my area is over 30 FUCKING DOLLARS right now.

>>16948103
There is an entire category of the pastebin for clay teapots. Mud and leaves has good ones and reasonable prices, if you are in the US purple cloud teahouse has some good ones, essence of tea has some as well. Don't go vintage unless you want to collect clay teapots as a hobby

>>16948117
If you want Japanese clay pots most of the Japanese vendors in the pastebin have a decent selection.

Okay i finally remembered to add farmer leaf's Chinese store to the pastebin.
The intro needs work but I have no idea what to do with it.

what is a good alternate sweetener for cheap tea made by the pitcher for fridge use with meals?

>>16948222
ugh...

*what is a good low calorie alternate sweetener for OTC iced tea made by the pitcher for use with meals?

>>16948226
Try stevia and hope for the best i guess.
I would personally just use honey or agave nectar and use less of it, i find they taste much sweeter than white sugar.
I don't really think any of the artificial sweeteners are any good, or stevia for that matter. I guess splenda is probably the least bad but that isn't saying much.
If you can cut enough sugar out of your diet you can find naturally sweet teas that might do it for you, but it only will taste sweet enough if your diet is low on sugar.

>>16948226
>what is a good low calorie alternate sweetener for OTC iced tea made by the pitcher for use with meals?
i like stevia extract based products. i always keep some Truvia® for for the rare occasion i want to sweeten some tea/tisane. i know that brand at least will dissolve even in cold water although it will need some stirring to make it happen. i should try growing a stevia plant again sometime.

>>16948226
Glycine.
Thank me later.

>>16939252
>Have you guys ever noticed that tea you were tasting was "vertically challenged, but horizontally overpowering?"
i would probably not use the same terminology because it seems too ambiguous to me but i think i understand what they are getting at.
>vertically challenged
the flavor hits fast and then is gone, it does not linger or change in the mouth.
>horizontally overpowering
many different simultaneous bold flavors, likely out of balance.

>>16946985
>anon drinks 5,475 kilos of Mate per year
i still wonder how the hell we ended up with part of the world using "." for the decimal separator and the other part of the world using ",".

>>16948881
also because you could be using the . notation to divide the thousands from the next 3 orders of magnitude and that would have been 5475 kilos.

Okay, my first big bag of mate arrived this morning and it was a bit more expensive than the other brands I usually buy, I wanted to splurge out a little. And even at first glance, I have to say that I'm really happy with this.
Look at these leaves. Look! I insist that you look at these leaves. They are so goddamn green, it looks like they just picked them. And they're thick as hell, broken regularly with nearly no stems, and even as I sieved them I realized that there was next to no powder. And the smell is absolutely amazing, I dug my hand in the packet and just smelled it. It's a whole league of difference from the stuff I usually buy. I expected some difference but not this much. If the brew is as good as how these look, I think I might just switch to these as the default, they're only 1.5 times as expensive as the regular stuff I drink and bloody cheaper (and better) than the premium stuff I usually buy when I wanna treat myself.

Yep, tastes real grassy, as expected, but it has a pleasant, fresher taste than usual. Not sure if it's the leaf itself that's any different, it's probably just the fact I really wanted to taste it and let it steep for slightly less than usual, I'll check if the leaves that are still in the kettle have a stronger aftertaste in my last cup.

Oh yeah, the next cup is way grassier. Not in an unpleasant way, mind you. That's just how mate tastes like.

>>16950027
well what is it

>>16950123
'strayan for friend.

>>16950217
>'strayan for friend.
i think they were asking the brand of mate.

I'm thinking about getting a cast iron teapot after enjoying using one at a restaurant. Are there any actual benefits to it like with clay, or would it just be aesthetic?

>>16950897
aren't they just for heating the water? if its not enamelled it will leech iron into the water which apparently is good for tea flavour

>>16950835
Oh. In retrospect that's rather obvious.

Origeens.
https://origeens.com/en/shop/yerba-mate-organic/
You get basically the same pricing if you just use amazon (think it's something like 25 on amazon and 24 on their site) by the way, the difference is that you can get free shipping with prime and with origeens asks for a 35 yuro order for free delivery.
Granted, this is a french company so it's only good if you're in europe.

>>16950897
>cast iron teapot
pros:
retains heat (good for some teas, can be used to keep the tea warm longer for serving)
looks cool
allegedly changes taste if not enameled (usually only the kettles are left bare not the teapots)

cons:
retains heat (may not be great for more delicate teas)
needs preheating or it will mess with the first steep
most come undersized strainers so you may have to rig something better up
rusts if not enameled
many enameled teapots are not stove top safe (ones explicitly sold as kettles are usually fine though).

>>16950027
Based mate appreciator

>>16950027
Wait it's supposed to be green?

>>16952185
Fresh mate leaves are green. The greener the leaf, the fresher the product. I've had the unluck of buying some really old mate. It had a sickly yellow-green hue and the taste was awful.
You see this very clearly in chimarrao, which is basically neon green and spoils very rapidly.

Granted, I'm mostly talking out of my ass here.
https://www.yerbamatelab.com/types-of-yerba-mate/

>this mate is a lot bolder and stronger in taste. It’s bitter, creamy, and dark in flavor.
>Common notes include dirt, soil, chocolate, peanut butter, cement, and rubber.
>cement and rubber
That's how you know Uruguayan mate is Q U A L I T Y.

>>16952288
Dirt and soil don't seem particularly tasty either
>this tea has notes of peanut butter chocolate candy covered in dirt that you picked up from the pavement with skid wheels
You couldn't pay me to try something like that.

>>16952271
Haha mine is brown?

>>16952312
If it doesn't taste rotten, you're fine.
the vast majority of mates look more of a dull yellowish green anyway, that's why I was surprised this one was so green. It probably doesn't mean much.
Maybe.
You'll be hard pressed to find mate that looks that green though, that's for sure. Even images for that are somewhat hard to find. That makes me think it's probably better, but what do I know, I've been drinking the same mate brand for the last 3 years, more or less.

>>16952336
>the vast majority of mates look more of a dull yellowish green anyway, that's why I was surprised this one was so green. It probably doesn't mean much.
i dont know a lot about mate but some of the vendors advertise that the mate has had a year or two to "rest" as a positive thing so i don't think fresher is always better.

>>16952336
I thought that mate was traditionally aged for periods of up to 2 years before sale, i wonder if the greenness is from it being fresh or differences in processing

>>16952401
>>16952785
I guess we'll never know.

What's the cheapest tea that is still worth buying?

I have to drink Tea every single day or I feel unwell, I believe this is an addiction
>it's caffeine
No I can drink something like coke and that doesn't fix it.

>>16953277
Depends on your palate but probably gunpowder/chunmee for greens.

Oolong reccs?

>>16953405
Where do you live what kinds do you like?
For me its wuyi oolongs, medium to heavy roasted and then rested for a year or two.

Hey dudes i don't really frequent this general so I wanted to say hi and ask you all a few questions.

1. So I didn't know you could do multiple infusions from the same tea leaves. I assume how many infusions you get depends on multiple factors like the kind of tea, temperature, steep time, etc? Do you get a similar amount of caffeine each time? I primarily drink silver needle and lapsang souchong (cold smoked, yeah I know shut up)

2. How many cups of tea do you fuckers have each day? As a full time student and full time worker I hardly have time to make myself more than two cups with the small window of time I have at home each day.

3. Is cold brewing a thing like with coffee? I suppose that would help me drink more tea without having to worry about prepping individual cuppas constantly. I do lots of meal prep so it would fit right in

>>16953485
1. I probably put around 750ml of water through 5-7g of leaves on average, maybe a bit more
2. 1-2 sessions per day ~5g per, so around 1.5L-ish
3. cold brewing is definitely a thing, it works better with some teas than with others, I've had good success with cold brewing some fresh chinese greens, but haven't experimented much

>>16953485
>I assume how many infusions you get depends on multiple factors like the kind of tea, temperature, steep time, etc?
that's correct
>Do you get a similar amount of caffeine each time?
uncertain, i don't know the relative solubilities of the different chemicals in tea but i suspect the caffeine would decrease each steep.
>How many cups of tea do you fuckers have each day?
I drink however much tea i get out of 10ish grams worth of tea leaves or until i don't feel like more. probably about 1-1.5 liters on average each morning.
>Is cold brewing a thing like with coffee?
yes it is. i do it quite a bit in the summer.

my tea didn't arrive today, I'm sad I wanted to try the 2008 liu bao

This is a pretty funny article.
https://mateovermatter.com/education/health/5-reasons-why-you-shouldnt-drink-yerba-mate/

Any huangpian drinkers here? This stuff seems to die off pretty fast in terms of flavor. I start with ~90C water, no rinse, and a 20 second brew. I can get two or three decent brews this way, with the third one being around fifty seconds to a minutes. I've had some luck brewing with hotter water after that, 95 or above, but it really loses flavor fast. 6g of leaves to ~90mL of water.

>>16953485
2). I drink 0.7-1.5 liters of tea a day.

You know, that extra green mate felt sorta bland this morning.

I think I should let it steep for a lot longer, but it gets incredibly cold in the morning.

I'll try doubling the dose to 2 teaspoons per cup to see just how different that gets.

>>16955873
>2 teaspoons per cup
That sounds ridiculously low for mate
have you tried filling your gourd halfway with leaf?

>>16955998
>That sounds ridiculously low for mate
Well I burn through 15 grams of mate for 6 cups of cocido
if I did 30 grams my kilo reserve would last me only a month and I'd end up spending something like 150 bucks a year on hot leaf juice
I'm not made of money you know

yeah no cocido oscillates between 2 and 4 grams for each teabag so the quantities aren't that different
2 teaspoons is 5 grams
I'm doing 2.5 at the moment

Tea

>>16929438
new thread
>>16956540
>>16956540
>>16956540