/ck/ - Food & Cooking

My aunt used to buy me big cases of nestle green tea bottles. Good stuff. All other tea is stupid and gay for brit faggots

>>18804218
Ito en green tea bottles are better

>>18804194
>tfw can't justify getting a gaiwan besides the fact they look cool

>>18804427
>gaiwan
But anon, you are the gay one

>>18804427
I bought one of those tea testing cups instead for now
might get a gaiwan too at some point

tea is an alt right hobby

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.9b02540

drinking some Kurupi brand yerba mate today
getting some notes of grain, mild smoke, sweet wood. a pleasant balance. nice deep, seasoned paraguayan flavour, none of that in your face green taste of younger mate

>>18805144

>>18805043
Now there's not only microplastics to worry about but nanoplastics as well.
10x as deadly

>>18805144
Sounds good

>>18805252
yeah, it's nice
I still think the best mate is the one you can get a good price on. but I've come to prefer the paraguayan stuff generally. would reccomend for ripe enjoyers

making a gallon of matcha ice cream rn
bought the cheapest 1lb bag amazon sells

>>18805043
looseleaf bros cant stop winning?

havent had a gongfu session in so long, probably still wont have enough time till next next week :(

is it cringe to prefer tea bags? i like the aesthetic and process of using a tea bag over loose leaf. its also just easier - however it filters you out from enjoying the most interesting stuff....
>>18805040
ive never known an alt right person to drink tea. seems very unlikely. tea drinking is not a libidinal reactionary activity so it would be very bizarre for an alt right person to enjoy it.

>>18806248
at least use a tea ball plebmaxxer

>>18806248
>ive never known an alt right person to drink tea.
I am VERY racist.

>>18806325
maybe. the metal seems non-aesthetic tho. i like the bags
>>18806327
well theres a difference between being alt-right and racist.

>>18806342
>theres a difference between being alt-right and racist.

>tfw had yerba mate in the morning, ripe pu-erh after lunch and GABA oolong in the evening
who else effectmaxing??

>>18805040
correct.
>>18806248
>is it cringe to prefer tea bags?
yes, its the tea equivalence to instant coffee and just as bad

>>18806327
It's that Terry Davis?

>>18806980
I had yerba mate, gunpowder and oolong.

No work tomorrow, so I can have some tea in the evening today. Drinking some sheng dragon balls at the moment.

>>18807263
Nice, i didn't like dragon balls at first but once i got a hang of brewing them i came around.
Im having some roasted oolong tonight

I was just fucking my wife but remembered I was steeping my black tea for too long so I immediately stopped and ran to get it out before it got too strong

Has anyone else done this?
Proof btw:
https://files.catbox.moe/5jhfub.jpg

>>18808086
Can't say that i have, maybe i remembered i left some tea steeping once but i just let it go

less sleeping, more drinking tea

>>18805040
The asians are alt right?

>>18805040
top tea drinking peoples include
>Turks
>Arabs
>Bri*ish
>Russians
>Chinese
>Japanese
>Pajeets
>Southrons
Gonna say no, seems to be the drink of old school 19th century imperial ambitions. Only outlier is India and tea is popular there because they were forced to grow it for an Empire.

tea is a royalist hobby

>>18809146
filthy peasant here, getting my 20 dollar box of ebay cakes today

>>18805040
>>18809146
tea is an imperialist hobby

matcha ice cream:
2qt half & half
12 egg yolks
2 cup sugar or 1 cup erythritol 1 cup allulose (or xylitol) or 2 cup erythritol if eating within 48 hours
matcha (doesn't matter, the sugar and cream is gonna murder any subtleties of the leaf)
25 dollar walmart churn https://www.walmart.com/ip/Nostalgia-4-Quart-Electric-Ice-Cream-Maker-Blue/749542584
big boxes of salt

1. make matcha with the half & half. it honestly doesn't matter how much you make, i've used just fuck my shit up levels and it was perfectly fine. it just has to dissolve
2. put a metal bowl on the stove and dump everything in it. remember to break yolks. add pinch of salt. turn the heat to maximum and stir it
3. you can do this until either the sugar is fully dissolved or to official guideline which is like 150F to kill salmonella. use infrared thermometer and remember what temperature you turned the heat off at for next time
4. dump ice cream custard into ice cream maker cylinder and put it in the fridge for a few hours
5. make lots of ice sitting in the freezer the day before
6. put cylinder in bucket, put paddle in cylinder, put motor on, dump layer of ice, layer of salt till it's full and plug in
7. churn for about 20-30 min or until it fails to churn. if you used sugar or plain erythritol, it's ready to eat. if you used erythritol with alluose (or xylitol), it needs a day or two in the freezer to get firmer. the bottom is usually ready though.

tl;dr erythritol for eating right away and not storing, erythritol+allulose/xylitol for storing in the freezer for like a month
pic is erythritol and xylitol

>>18809641
i've made earl grey icecream before, steeping the leaves in the milk for too long can give it a clawing feeling in the back of the throat. other than that very nice

>>18809572
Damn that was fast

I've been ordering exclusively from What-cha and Den's Tea (only place I've found hojigenmaicha) for a while. What's the next place to consider? Not buying puer cakes.

I tasted decaf English breakfast by twinnings at a hotel
It was really good, should I buy more of this brand or are there better brands

>>18809799
https://www.amazon.com/AHMAD-English-Breakfast-Loose-Tea/dp/B07C9J243Y
https://www.amazon.com/Organic-Positively-Tea-Company-Breakfast/dp/B09FQ9Y9YK/

which is the better rendition of black tea leaves hit with the bergamot fabreeze (aka earl grey)
the one made with keemun or the ceylon one
the 10 dollar supermarket allaku akbar half kilo tins are lookin fine

the temptation of the mohammad rite-aid poverty tins is too great... inshallah brothers

>>18809799
only had twinnings teabags, not sure about their loose. i'd suggest loose leaf and vahdam is good for indan tea
>>18809850
>hit with the bergamot fabreeze (aka earl grey)
please no, not even as a meme

How do they call that tea that comes packed in small cubes like bouillon and smells like fish ass?

>>18809880
Puerh tuos

>>18809880
This might help https://www.ebay.com/itm/203546087608

>>18809880
ripe Puerh tuos. usually very low quality

I only ever slonked supermarket matcha, I'll one day have to try the real supreme imperial autism grade thing

>>18809918
>kosher matcha

this globohomo 2023 based chcecklist

>>18806248
>alt right person to drink tea
hello I like shou puer more than sheng, even aged

>farmerleaf order placed in November still hasn't arrived
>now the tracking link no longer works
is this a good thing or a bad thing bros?

I'm on the board of directors of Racism and I enjoy my gongfucha, thank you very much. Why are there teabag pariahs ITT right now. Remove ya.

>>18810153
it's an email to the vendor thing you autist

>>18809880
sounds like really shitty ripe pu-erh to me

>>18810092

>>18810092
>non-GMO
GMO is great for tea though, the entire taiwan tea industry is alive because its built on their unique varietals created to seperate their teas from chinese ones, same with a lot of the japanese varietals.

>>18810199
based

>>18810133
based

>>18810229
happy for your onahole to be arriving so quickly anon. or was it dragon deel-doh?
>>18810232
>>18810240
based based poster(s), highlight of any thread

>>18810250
it's not onahole, it's the worst weed the US customs guy ever smoked

>>18810255
This reminds me, has anyone tried those puerh cigarettes? Hard to trust smokes from china, but the concept seems nice.

>>18810265
>Hard to trust smokes from china
what makes you think this?

Followed the instructions in the pastebin when steeping some raw pu-erh and it came out too bitter. Was it because I steeped it too long or because the water was too hot?

>>18810613
its supposed to be like that.
you dont like it?

>>18810613
try shortening the brews or adding less leaf
some bitterness is expected in young raw pu-erh, but you can always mess with the brewing if it's too much

>>18810560
The periodic visit to /csg/ and some previous experience with AliExpress, Gearbest, etc.

>>18810613
how old was it? young raw pu-erh is essentially non pan fried green tea so treat it as a green tea until its aged a bit or do flash infusions, literally just pour water on it then drain straight away

its why i stick to ripe, raw is a shilled meme because merchants can bump up the price on any unsold stock year after year

First impression tea notes:
2020 Jinggu (200g)
https://www.liquidproust.com/listing/936595693/2020-jinggu-200g

Parameters:
12.2g/100ml water @ 212F gongfu style with short steeps

Taste:
Green bean, a bit green teaish in character (despite having some reddish tinged leaves suggesting some oxidation).
Some of the more traditionally shengy tart apricot and pear flavors.
Moderate bitterness and astringency (I have not had green tea for awhile but again this tea feels like it has a bit of green tea character to it in the way it goes down).
Relatively straightforward but pleasant and easy to drink.

Conclusion:
Seems like a fairly priced daily drinker young sheng, especially if you like a bit of green tea character. Probably a decent cake for newcomers to young sheng as well. At 200g/$20 I don't have any substantial complaints. Though if you dislike green bean taste you may want to stay away.

owo whats this

ill drink this 1st

>>18810855
Notices your jincha

thoughts on redbush tea? can it be based?

heavy umami/mushroom aroma, armpit, aged raw taste, not bitter at all, thick body
it's drinkable but idk if id recommend it

>>18810891
Looks grim

>>18805040
>>18806342
>>18808989
>>18809022
>>18810199
"Alt right" is jewish nuspeak.
>>18808086
Why are you fucking your wife with a condom?

Anyway, tried the Moroccan gunpowder last night. The Arab store had powdered mint for really cheap. It was about two dollars for a bag that fit in a half gallon jar. It tastes okay. My wife really liked it tho, so it's a win. We had a quarter teaspoon each of mint and gunpowder in the infuser and it was not quite enough, so I'm thinking double it. The bottled water literally cost me more money in than the tea did.
Reposting the tea isle of the Arab store from last thread. If any of you speak dune rune, lmk if these brands are any good?

>>18808086
>bragging about shagging your own wife
Happy Birthday btw

>>18811039
>Why are you fucking your wife with a condom?
this is exactly what i was thinking lol
>>18811031
looks like spinach

>>18811054
I yam what i yam

>>18811111

>>18804194

Inb4 Teavana but I'm trying to get a surprise gift for my gf. She really liked their Golden Dragon tea and no matter what I get her there doesn't seem to be a similar replacement. I saw that teas from the Yunnan province/ Pu-erh may be the best bet but so far the ones we've tried didn't have the buttery quality that this one did. Any suggestions?

>>18811155
The internet says it's a yellow tea, I would first try a similar yellow tea. Otherwise, yellow tea is closest to green tea, puerh is probably a poor fit.
https://yunnansourcing.com/products/certified-organic-yunnan-yellow-tea
Note that I haven't specifically tried this, I would prefer one bud one leaf to bud only in this case, and it's cheaper as well. Most people don't really drink yellow tea, I'd order this, potentially this and the bud only tea, and see where you're at. As a bonus, I'd probably throw in some chinese green tea as well.
Mandala tea also aparantly sells some, I also haven't (and probably wouldn't) tried this.
https://www.mandalatea.com/white-teas?category=Yellow+Tea

>>18811219
>https://yunnansourcing.com/products/certified-organic-yunnan-yellow-tea
I have actually had that tea a few years back. It is effectively a more lightly oxidized black tea. I recall it having kind of a nice orange marmalade and almond biscotti flavor but also that it could get quite bitter if over brewed (like a lot of black tea).

>>18811219
>I would prefer one bud one leaf to bud only in this case, and it's cheaper as well.
Besides price why? I did not have the pure bud version but I suspect it may be slightly better because the buds will highlight some of that teas lighter more floral elements better over the bitter "maltiness". I do do doubt it is twice as good though so it is not going to be as good of value.
https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/yunnan-sourcing-brand-certified-organic-teas/products/certified-organic-emperors-yellow-yunnan-yellow-tea

>>18811297
You can generally get stronger sweeter tea from a bit more stem / leaf. Buds are "lighter" because they don't extract well, you do get more floral notes though. One bud one leaf should push you farther into honey territory.

>>18811302
>Buds are "lighter" because they don't extract well
Perhaps that is true but I never had a practical problem with that.

I also had some of the black teas from the same producer (Zuxiang Highmountain Tea Co) that makes the yellow tea we are talking about and I though the pure bud versions were slightly better than the 1+1 or 2 versions of the same tea when drank plain. They seemed like they had stronger flavor for a given level of acridity/bitterness.

>>18811361
>Perhaps that is true but I never had a practical problem with that.
Crush them up and brew them side by side if you're curious.
No one really sells yellow tea, if you've ordered from the places in the pastebin that's about what your options are.

Dropped jasmine tuo into mug grandpa style, has fish smell.
Tastes bland. Oh well.

>>18811031
>heavy umami/mushroom aroma, armpit, aged raw taste, not bitter at all, thick body
>it's drinkable but idk if id recommend it
Wow that's quite the description.
I spent some time digging through that website the little card in your package was advertising. Pretty sketchy stuff for the most part. I will give you that you avoided the worst of the questionable tea they are selling.

>>18811460
With that size mug you might as well use two. Anyway those mini tuos are usually pretty questionable unfortunately. You can occasionally find ones from xiaguan or dayi/tea tea that im sure are fine but generally those are pretty funky

>>18811039
drank ahmad for most of my life but switched to do ghazal maybe five years ago since a family member said ahmad tea went down in quality. now do ghazal has become undrinkable, it leaves an awful dry coating in your mouth and tastes like tobacco. also had some ahmad a couple of days ago and it tasted much better. i'll try mahmood before i switch back to ahmad. could also that i don't use a samovar anymore and different teas are better for different types of brewing

>>18811489
Yeah. I'll try two but it just lacks ripe traits entirely. It's water that smells bad.

>>18811518
Also it's possible the jasmine is overshadowing everything. It tastes pretty good tho I'm not familiar with jasmine enough to know whether it could override somethong like ripe purerh

>>18805040
tea is an "everybody except Americans" thing

>>18811547
Its probably just not great puer

did you take the *not fit for human consumption* pill yet, anons?

>>18811650
Ive seen a few different teq stuffed pomelos over the years. They all look pretty horrific

Matcha ice cream made with erythritol and xylitol

>>18811650
When were people so afraid of mold? It's not even deadly unless it gets in your lungs over a long period of time. The health authorities want us to be germophobes but healthy people don't seem to get serious infections.

>>18811682
Why is it brown?

>>18811844
It looks green to me, but im color blind

>>18811844
Bad lighting and the ice cream is a dull green

>>18811507
I bought some Ahmed because it's been recommended here, but haven't gotten to it yet. Since I mainly drink cold brewed tea at work, I don't have time for hot because I want to get sleep by the time I get home. I've got quite a back log. Tomorrow we supposed to be a fun tasting day, but my wife ruined the kettle by letting the plastic handle touch the pot she was cooking in. Kind of a design flaw, really. I can always use a pan and boil water that way, then pour it into pyrex, but that's not as fun.
Since she actually quit coffee and gave her coffee pot away she's more keen on spending money on this so we ordered an overpriced lecruet kettle, but it went be here for a couple of days. If I didn't know how cheap she was I'd suspect she fucked up the glass kettle on purpose, but she kinda liked it.

>>18811560
Never known an Italian to drink tea

No sleep, only tea

/tea/ is practicing kanji while sipping on their cuppa, right?
You guys do want to visit tea farms and get the freshest shincha, right?

>>18813033
what kind of tea

>>18813148
Tea drink
>>18813520
2010 mengku Rongshi "Mengku zheng shan"

Friendship ended with TEA
Now YERBA MATE is my best friend

>>18813621
Eh its alright, a good tea is better

>>18813621
any favorites? I like the paraguayan stuff myself

>>18813714
I've tried most flavors of Pajarito (Paraguayan) so far and they're all pretty good.
The tastiest by far is this one. They also have a pomelo flavor one which I also liked.

>>18813759
thanks for the reccs I'll order them with my next yerba shipment. I drink mate only when the mood hits, but it may be just right now.
kurupi menta y boldo or pajarito menta y limon?
it's a mate with herbs time but I think kurupi.

>>18813860
do I buy fucking Palo Santo and get over it? I use ceramic vessel from the Amanda set with the best straw I ever used. I don't drink yerba everyday. but it's 30 eurobucks. mates I think I'l consoom. bit ashamed.

>>18813895
I use a silicone gourd and it's the bomb.

>>18813895
I do like my Palo Santo cup. it smells nice and has good heat retention while also never getting hot enough to burn your hand. it's shatterproof too, get one of the metal encased ones though if you don't live in a place with high humidity
when it's fresh it has a lot of resin, so it will add a sweet resin nuance to your mate for a while
I only use it for drinking pure mate though. I think some of the flavored stuff could stay in the wood too much

do I look good here? in set with bombilla was cheaper.
>>18813935
that thing looks like utter shit. I wouldn't let this kind of abomination in my house. how do you use it though?

>>18813935
I'm confused by what you just said. Can you explain it to me in a different way?

>>18814024
>>18814040
It's great. Pretty cheap - got it for around 13€. You can hold it no matter how hot the water is. Holds the straw in place. Also dishwasher safe.
Like all silicone kitchenware, it does collect smells over time, but the convenience offsets this several times over.

>>18813860
>>18814024
looks fine. try colon completado if you want an interesting herbal mix, the chamomile goes surprisingly well with mate

>>18814024
I prefer smaller mate cups myself though. mine is 120 ml

>>18814079
they have only those from Colon

>>18814147
yeah, I meant the completo in upper right corner. not many mate with chamomile mixed in out there, I think it's a better fit than mint personally

>>18814162
DILL?? I mean dill, what could go wrong.

>>18814179
DILL?? I mean dill, what could go wrong.

>>18814179
I mostly just got mate and chamomile desu, the dill wasn't noticable in the taste at all to me

>>18814183
>chamomile mixed in out there, I think it's a better fit than mint personally
bold statement, you might be onto something. somehow it feels like pissmaxxing stuff but I do like chamomile IIRC
have it your way

any other reccs from certified gauchos?

>>18814210
Indega if you want an earthy taste slightly similar to ripe pu-erh
del cebador for a really nice urugayan mate
some smoky paraguayan to contrast with the Kraus. maybe Kurupi or Colon tradicional or something

matcha ice cream:
2qt half & half
12 egg yolks
2 cup sugar or 1 cup erythritol 1 cup allulose (or xylitol) or 2 cup erythritol if eating within 48 hours
matcha (doesn't matter, the sugar and cream is gonna murder any subtleties of the leaf)
25 dollar walmart churn https://www.walmart.com/ip/Nostalgia-4-Quart-Electric-Ice-Cream-Maker-Blue/749542584
big boxes of salt

1. make matcha with the half & half. it honestly doesn't matter how much you make, i've used just fuck my shit up levels and it was perfectly fine. it just has to dissolve
2. put a metal bowl on the stove and dump everything in it. remember to break yolks. add pinch of salt. turn the heat to maximum and stir it
3. you can do this until either the sugar is fully dissolved or to official guideline which is like 150F to kill salmonella. use infrared thermometer and remember what temperature you turned the heat off at for next time
4. dump ice cream custard into ice cream maker cylinder and put it in the fridge for a few hours
5. make lots of ice sitting in the freezer the day before
6. put cylinder in bucket, put paddle in cylinder, put motor on, dump layer of ice, layer of salt till it's full and plug in
7. churn for about 20-30 min or until it fails to churn. if you used sugar or plain erythritol, it's ready to eat. if you used erythritol with alluose (or xylitol), it needs a day or two in the freezer to get firmer. the bottom is usually ready though.

>>18814024
>>18814147
What website is this?

what's the best site to buy tea from abroad if I'm in the EU?
is it even worth it with VAT and customs fuckery?

>>18814978
>is it even worth it with VAT and customs fuckery?
Kinda, fullchea will lower the price shown on the package so you dont have to pay very much or sometimes not at all, i dont know any other sites that do this though.
Theres more stores in the pastebin but if im ordering from EU i usually buy from moychay or hotsoup.nl but their shipping is insane to my country so i just order from china now. i've had very good experiences with a lot of the chinese stores in pastebin but the store i buy from depends on what tea im looking for
Also you can try looking for national online stores run by tea enthusiasts (not just random asian supermarkets) but it depends on the country.

>>18815088
I've ordered from the fullchea aliexpress store, but it seems to be gone now
I've been thinking about getting something from YS or KTM, but I have no idea if it's even worth it with shipping and VAT
is there any EU store where I could buy factory pu-erh at decent prices?

>>18815109
no, it's ordering straight from china/japan. it's an art unto itself. if you reside in a civilized country that is.
all the enthusiast vendors send to EU easily. if valued high, the package might get slapped with customs surcharge. if valued low, it may even get faster to your door.
ask the anon who got his onahole just before.

>>18815109
>I've ordered from the fullchea aliexpress store, but it seems to be gone now
oh i meant the actual fullchea site, https://www.fullchea-tea.com/ it operates the same as the aliexpress store.
YS has crazy high shipping so i dont buy from them, KTM is better but you still have to pay actual VAT values.
In EU moychay.nl has some cheaper ripe cakes but theyre 50/50, tea encounter ships from uk (i think) but theyre more high end, if you buy from chinese vendors you can probably email them and ask if they list a cheaper value on the package.

>>18815230
>YS has crazy high shipping
what? whats the shipping there?

picrel for one 357 cake to DE

>>18815230
Interesting how moychay, a Russian company, is still able to operate in the EU.
I always used to order from the St. Petersburg store. Didn't know they had a branch here.

>>18815290
it's a company registered in Holland

hi@moychay.nl
0628705765
Rozengracht, 92H
Amsterdam
1016 NG Netherlands

what's interesting?

>>18815269
oh nice, last time i checked a few months ago it was only the lower ones i think.

>>18815269
>picrel for one 357 cake to DE
That's insane, i get one tea cake from china to the us @ $3 for ems shipping from fullchea, $5 from some other sites, even on other sites with expensive shipping like KTM its about $35 for a kilo of tea shipped EMS. I have also never ordered from the Chinese YS website because their shipping is so expensive.

>>18815316
I thought they were cracking down on all companies with ties to Russia.

>>18815334
you checked few months ago you think and yet you posted
>YS has crazy high shipping so i dont buy from them,
>>18815341
very insane, shipping under 10 bucks, niggerman help me tentacles
>>18815345
who was cracking down?

>>18815359
>who was cracking down?
The state. At least in the butthurt belt.

Pretty good for 10 dollars
https://www.amazon.com/Coffee-Gator-Pour-Over-Brewer/dp/B01F173G0W/
It looks like it could also double as a gongfu pitcher. I'll make coffee in it first and then i wanna try pourover tea

got some lapsang souchong awhile ago, how is it meant to taste?

it always seems too watery or too bitter, the only time it isnt either is the first time i infuse it

>>18804218
the best part about tea is drinking it warm for a after a meal or a long night of drinking

>>18808086
>condom
>wife
>hotel room sidetable and clock

anonnnn

>>18815499
Why do they have to turn simple things into smart gadgets?

Do you guys completely break up tea cakes when you get them and put them in a caddy, or just break off bits if it or scrape off bits with a pick as you go?

>>18810153
Update: still in fucking Guangzhou. This tea had better be good.

>>18815088
>>18815230
thanks. so to sum up, I should just try ordering from fullchea and see how much I'll have to pay at customs?
if they really don't tax me then it would be quite the bargain

>>18815543
like smoked black tea, so like a campfire plus malty. some use very cheap pine wood to smoke and it can give a nasty chemical taste

>>18815638
>his gaiwan doesn't have LEDs

>>18815499
>>18815638
>touchscreen
fuckin where? i just looks like a glass pour over vessel

>>18815642
i break off lumps with my pick and any excess i leave loose in the wrapper for next time. some people fully break them down and store in clay urns

>>18815651
this image inspires philosophical thoughts every time i see it

picture unrelated

>>18815651
>Update: still in fucking Guangzhou. This tea had better be good.
Same brother same

>>18815651
Also 17track.net works if that other tracking site is still broken. The tracking information for my order stopped showing up as well

First time trying a pu erh outside of shitty samples from the dodgy websites I used to order from when I didn't know what I was doing.


Got this as part of my shipment of samples, will post others as I try them
https://yunnansourcing.us/products/golden-needle-year-of-the-tiger-ripe-pu-erh-tea-cake?variant=43473674600681

So nice to not have any fishy notes, even the earthy character is fairly under control. The tasting notes of being somewhat sweet yet barely bitter are on point, definitely a dark chocolate sort of taste to it which is nice. I don't really get the fruity notes that were promised but I don't have the palate for pu erh yet, so if they really are present, I'm sure that'll come to me in time. Pleasantly surprised, very drinkable, which I'm not really used to from my past experiences. I think overall it's kind of bland, but since my experience is limited that's a good way to ease me into this.
Looking forward to the next samples, can't wait to get more into this.

>>18816330
Nice anon, puer can be hard to get into, especially because of all the weird cheap stuff out there. But i think its worth it, great stuff

>>18816339
I agree about it being worth it, for sure. I've had a lot of different varieties of the more standard tea over the years, and I'm glad to have a chance to expand my horizons. Variety is the spice of life, after all.

>>18811650
>70 cbn for shipping

>>18815568
Anon married an escort lol

There really isn't a correlation with quality and price on YS. If it came from a cute little mountain village, it's more expensive than a regular ol' 7572. Buying tea is annoying.

i got spearmint tea : )

>>18817071
>There really isn't a correlation with quality and price on YS.
The problem is that he raised the price on all his puer 20%-30% every spring, doesn't matter if it's completely detached from the market, so some cake he added as a $19 cheapie ends up being $$$ after a few years. Maybe it makes sense for his own brand teas but it gets pretty wacky with some of the weird stuff he brings in sometimes. This really only seems to apply to puer, his hecha prices don't seem to go up nearly as often or sometimes at all.
Take this, he brought these in as a curiosity. They are while label tea cakes that often get used for forgeries and other sketchy stuff.
It was $9 when he added it to the store, now its $23. Ill assume he tasted them but i wasn't even interested at $9. For $23 i can get a decent haiwan or xiaguan cake and cover shipping.
https://yunnansourcing.com/products/2014-white-wrapper-generic-7572-menghai-ripe-pu-erh-tea-cake

>>18811650
kurwa where

>>18804194
Vaush makes a valid point here

Is picrel a good intro to tea?
I already own a gaiwan (100ml), a little tea pot (a little bigger than the gaiwan), and a kettle. Do I need anything else?

>>18817228
I thought this until I started drinking puerh.

>>18817112
It sounds like I need a strategy buying puerh. I have a respectable, proven pumidor for long term storage that you might call aging. What do you recommend? At this point, I'm leaning towards more Menghai classics just because they're so much cheaper. That said, I want to explore and I collect wrappers and nei feis, something YS does well.

Can you healthmax some benefits out of switching from 10 coffees and 2 teas (black/green mix) a day to all tea?

>>18817461
Coffee has the most antioxidants out of the caffeinated drinks but they all have different ones, so you're probably most likely to see results drinking coffee, green tea, any other tea, yerba mate, hibiscus and anything else I missed.

>>18817489
>hibiscus
Good reminder, I need to add this. Thanks

>>18817228
>I love Dr. Pepper so fucking much. I can't believe there are morons who drink RC Cola that I left sitting for 5 hours. It's just sickening to think about.

Any good sources for charcoal TGY?

>>18804194
drinking some ayurveda apple cinnamon tea my grandma got me (sweetened with honey) rn

how are y'all this night?

>>18817310
it's on okay selection, he really should have a honey ninger black tea and a longjing green instead of the black and green he offered. or atleast a classic 58 black.

The puerh is okay, I've tried both, neither are anything special. If you dislike them, don't let that forever tarnish your view of puerh. Cozy is very mediocre and that raw is still kinda young.
It's probably a good set, not what I'd pick to introduce someone but if you never had great tea this is a step up. Biggest complaints are the black and green in that are both kinda weak and 25 grams for each won't last you long.

>>18817577
Thanks. The best tea I've had before is Davidson's ceylon which I use for my kombucha and sometimes iced tea, and the only hot tea I've had much of is Bigelow earl grey.
Any other samplers or particular teas you would recommend?

>>18811804
>infections
Mycotoxins would give you cancer though. I'm as germophile as a home fermenter can be but uncontrolled mold on vegetal substrate is pretty concerning imo.

>>18817534
Target

>>18817792
Target has none, quit shitposting and give me a source

>>18817689
Like I said, Honey Ninger or Classic 58 are very solid chinese blacks, and his Long Jing is pretty decent.
that oolong selection is fine for a beginner, the white tea is very good, and puerh is hard to recommend to someone who never had it. He'll throw in an extra little 8 gram of a random puerh with every order so that might help. He raises prices on puerh regularly every year and gets a bit expensive, there's other shops thats better but his loose leaf is solid. Most people who hate YS are complete "puerh is the other tea worth drinking" types

>>18817878
Thanks, I appreciate the help

>>18817209
liquid proust

>>18817831
https://www.amazon.com/TIAN-HU-SHAN-Premium-Slimming/dp/B087G345SM

>>18817938
u're gay and your mother takes big donkey dick for a living

>>18817935
thanks

>>18817981
will you buy it, anon?

>>18817974
What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I'm the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You're fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that's just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little "clever" comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You're fucking dead, kiddo.

>>18818087
stale mem

King Tea Mall is running a -10% sale on everything for the Lunar New Year
any good value reccs from the site? I haven't bought there before

King Tea Mall is running a -10% sale on everything for the Lunar New Year
any good value reccs from the site? I haven't bought there before

>>18817372
King Tea Mall used to be the obvious solution for who to use as a big warehouse style tea dealer. But his prices have gone up quite a bit in the last few years, still good finds to be had there once you know what you are looking for.
Anyways, read the beginner puer guides on teadb.org they are getting kinda old but still have good info. I think YS has a video on YouTube covering the major factories, just recognizing their logos when shopping around can help some. Try stuff, find out what you like, figure out why you like it, find more stuff to try repeat

>>18817534
>roasted tgy
Purple cloud has some, very good taste but kinda pricey, fullchea has some on the cheaper side (don't get the ones called black oolong they are burned to a crisp). Also sea dyke brand oolong, you can usually find boxes on Amazon or ebay but i don't see any tgy right now.
Also that nannushan website that is in both us and eu has some, check the pastebin

>>18818165
>King Tea Mall is running a -10% sale on everything for the Lunar New Year
>any good value reccs from the site? I haven't bought there before
>good value
Go to the specially selected tea category for puer, pick random old $30-$40 cakes order and enjoy. Seriously that's where the best deals are right now. He at least tells you what teas taste like these days so its easier than it used to be.
This is good
https://kingteamall.com/collections/2022-xiaguan/products/2021-xiaguan-hong-cha-black-tea-300g-yunnan-fengqing-dianhong
This is supposed to be good
https://kingteamall.com/collections/2022-xiaguan/products/2022-xiaguan-da-xue-shan-big-snow-mountain-357g-puerh-raw-tea-sheng-cha?variant=43017993748710
This is by far my favorite cake from my last order but he has raised the price by $25 and its harder to recommend
https://kingteamall.com/collections/2021-mengku-rongshi/products/2020-mengku-rongshi-ben-wei-da-cheng-original-flavor-great-achievement-cake-500g-puerh-raw-tea-sheng-cha?variant=38075600109748
Good blance of bitter and sweet fruit and floral, good endurance, just good tea, but you can get it cheaper from tea-expert now
Haven't tried this but you should buy some
https://kingteamall.com/collections/wuyi-yancha/products/spring-tie-luo-han-medium-heavy-roasted-a-grade-wuyi-yancha-oolong-tea?variant=43408226124006
If you like liubao and don't mind it rustic this should be worth sampling
https://kingteamall.com/collections/dark-tea/products/80s-wuzhou-liu-baoliubao-a-grade-850g-loose-leaf-dark-tea-guangxi-province?variant=43572485226726
If you have any questions i can try to help

When people say "get an electric kettle where the water doesn't come into contact with plastic", they're not talking about parts touched by condensed water, right?
Because it's impossible to find glass or steel kettles where the lid isn't made of plastic.

>>18818327
my kettle has a steel lid
problem is the water line has plastic for viewing, but ig its in a different chamber

>>18818327
my Fellow Corvo is all metal on the inside, even the lid, if you care about that stuff
it also looks nice and the temperature control works much better than on my previous kettle. it is kind of expensive though

>>18818335
>>18818337
Okay, thanks. The water line viewing thing won't be a problem with glass kettles, but I would like to have temperature controls, which restrict my choices. Will keep looking around.

>>18818337
>>18818345
> Fellow Corvo
Oh, that one has temperature controls. I see.

>>18818327
https://www.amazon.com/Secura-Electric-Stainless-Protection-K15-F1E/dp/B087BRBX4Q/

>>18818369
No temperature controls. Sorry, should have mentioned that in my first post.

>>18818364
yep. no water window and high price are the only downsides I've found. you can also play Snake on it for some reason

>tfw no gongfu loving girlfriend

>>18818803
more tea for you

Doesn't YS have a blog anymore?

>>18817577
>>18817689
seconding the ninger, its lovely

>>18818963
YS had a blog?
the new hotness is the king tea mall YouTube channel

bros im new to the tea world and ive just been drinking Yogi brand stuff (green tea, their tangerine black tea, the spicy honey one)
I like it so much i dont feel the need to try anything new. Did I just get lucky and manage to try a really good brand first? Or am I drinking shit without knowing it?
What else should i try?

oh yeah i also got some egyptian hibiscus tea thats really good if you drink it cold

>>18819241
I haven't had it, but there is a lot more to tea than just flavored supermarket stuff, so there is a lot to explore if you're curious
hibiscus is nice in the summer, yeah. I brought home a big bag too when I was in Egypt lmao

>>18819255
>when I was in Egypt
Why did you go? Every single person I've ever heard from going there strongly discourage it. No matter if you're male or female, you're just under constant attack by scammers and street vendors who act like psychopathic gypsies.

>>18819263
idk I found the pushy street vendors funny
but I was mostly there for all the cool ancient sites. it was also quite a few years back, so maybe it's changed for the worse

>>18819241
I've been drinking Twinings, my favourite is their chai. Never had Yogi brand stuff, would you recommend it?

What have y'all been drinking?

>>18819255
>there is a lot more to tea than just flavored supermarket stuff, so there is a lot to explore if you're curious
any recommendations?
im mostly interested in the health benefits, and would prefer to stay away from caffeine
>>18819289
https://www.sadakafirm.com/blog/tea-bag-containing-deadly-pesticides/
I would stay away from twinings fren
>Never had Yogi brand stuff, would you recommend it?
yes definitely try it. its pesticide free and you can get it on amazon.
https://yogiproducts.com/teas/herbal-teas/honey-chai-turmeric-vitality-tea/
you might like this one
their green tea is the best ive ever had too

>>18819316
>any recommendations?
you could try some japanese teas, get some high quality, fresh bancha. it isn't all that high in caffeine and it's easy to find organic versions. it has a ton of good shit in it because it's very lightly processed
you could also try ripe pu-erh, which can supposedly help with digestion according to some people. it's a bit harder to find pesticide-free options though

>>18819316
>>18819373
also, GABA oolong

>>18819373
thanks, ill try to find some

>>18819316
>https://www.sadakafirm.com/blog/tea-bag-containing-deadly-pesticides/
>Twinings: Earl Grey, English Breakfast, Classic Lady Grey, and Classic Assam Tea
Noted.

I'm also a broke college student so not much to invest in tea sadly. Checked the amazon for yogi and it's like $20+. Pretty expensive for tea don't you think

>>18819408
>Checked the amazon for yogi and it's like $20+. Pretty expensive for tea don't you think
thats for a box of 6 boxes i think
one box is like $4

If I wanted an tea but green and won't do then how leaf is brewed for cupping?

>>18819503
Yes.

>>18817112
>The problem is that he raised the price on all his puer 20%-30% every spring,
YS is not the only shop with arbitrary pricing on aged tea. They just tend to be the most notable one because most of the other big western vendors don't have as much aged inventory and tend to sell out faster.

>>18817577
>2021 Cozy is very mediocre
whats wrong with it? I know the 2020 cozy was pretty popular.

>>18819316
>im mostly interested in the health benefits, and would prefer to stay away from caffeine
There are no real health benefits to drinking tea, and all tea has caffeine.
>https://www.sadakafirm.com/blog/tea-bag-containing-deadly-pesticides/
All pesticides are deadly, that's why they're pesticides. It's important to know what you're doing because if you dumb the ultra concentrate all over yourself like a fucking moron when you're putting it in the sprayer it can make you sick. Basically all food is grown with pesticides, I would personally not worry about it, but you can buy tea and herbs that have undergone pesticide testing if you really care. There is no rule of thumb here, if it hasn't been tested you don't know.

>>18819456
Just go to mountain rose herbs if you want cheap herbal tea.
The yogi pack on amazon is 0.12/g, mountain rose sells herbal tea in the 0.06/g ballpack. Just stop drinking teabags.

>>18819514
>YS is not the only shop with arbitrary pricing on aged tea.
I wasn't trying to imply that it was just trying to offer an explanation for the posters observation that YS prices are detached from quality.
Im also not saying that people shouldn't buy from YS, just that they should try and comparison shop if possible or avoid things that seem more expensive then they should be.

can I get a quick rundown on lower vs higher fermented ripe pu-erh?
what are the typical differences in flavour?

For context, I am a junior in high school and I absolutely love teas. It started when I read a book about teas and began my passion for drinking, making, and blending teas. I love reading books about tea history and if you ask me about tea I will answer you, and if I don’t know the answer I will spend all night researching whatever was asked about. Anyway, my parents and my school were getting on my butt about joining a club. There’s a ton of things I’m relatively interested but are a huge time commitment that I, being a junior with adhd, do not have the time to spend on. Enter my acquaintance- I’ve known xem for such a long time but we are not very close. Xe starts talking to me about teas and I engage as my usual tea loving, friendly self. We realize our common interest and xe suggests making a tea club together. I should also mention that this is kind of more a side comment, not really a full suggestion. Xe is also in many clubs already. But I’m just like, “why didn’t I think of that?” And so we did. We started a tea club that meets during lunch times and every week I bring a new “tea of the week” for everyone to try and I explain the history of the tea if there is history and talk about the blend of flavors. Sometimes our lovely club sponsor brings baked goods from home. Basically, I get to talk about my obsession with people who are equally interested and I’ve solved the problem of not having a club.

TLDR: I started a tea club with a friend at my school because I love tea and I didn’t have a current club

>>18818047
I don't think so, I have huge stock of raw factory puers and oolongs. I was mostly curious which shop have such fancy tea(s). Thanks for sharing!

>>18820185
yeah liquid proust has some unique teas on offer. horrid shipping rates to the EU from what I see though

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

>>18820249
>10 fluid ounces of sugar (low estimate) is 1.25 cups
>1.25 cups of sugar is 250g
rip

>>18820249
also all that black tea and sugar when you can just drink charcoal roasted oolong

>>18819787
Higher fermentation, darker tastes, more mellow, more rounded out, if fermented properly they are ready to drink much sooner, don't benefit much from aging.
Lighter fermentation, more likely to be bitter, retains more of the teas original character, less rounded and smoothed out, the really lightly fermented stuff needs a pretty solid aging period before its ready to drink, but they haven't produced much like that since the early 2000s and further back.

>>18820320
Yeah its amazing how sweet some tea is on its own. Sugar really only belongs in some English breakfast type teas if at all.

>>18820249
careful, buddy! you got some tea in your sugar

>>18820249
A huge portion of that drink is ice so it's at least slightly more acceptable, if you assume the tea was super dense simmered tea and the end product is more of a flavor syrup it's not so bad. Probably still disgustingly sweet, but hey.

>>18820241
I fucking hate that, always getting fucked by being in EU. Last time stopped ordering from What-Cha (Brexit) because of that. Currently ordering mostly locally and sometimes from dragonteahouse/ys/yunomi, and that's it for me...

>>18820424
>flavour syrup

So like what industrial tea in jugs is made of?

>>18820658
Or like any manufactured drink, everything you see at starbucks, all soda, etc. Shipping water is expensive so you make it as dense as possible and then just mix and sell (or bottle) it locally. If you were trying to do some kind of homemade version of fastfood sweet iced tea that's probably how you'd start. I'm 90% sure it'd still be too fucking sweet but it might not be undrinkable.

Anyone try HK style brewing? Is a meme for home tea drinker?

>>18821161
What are your referring to specifically? Milk tea?
Otherwise im guessing you are talking about gongfu which is pretty popular among tea nerds, you can find info in the pastebin.

>>18815269
That anon is not wrong. I only have the two lower options for my country too.

>>18820363
cool, thanks
I've been sipping on some 2018 V93 and was wondering what the lighter fermentation entails
what would be the most contrasting ripe with something like this? lao cha tou?

>>18821949
Ripe only varies so much, fermentation is sort of the great homogenizer. But that v93 is like burnt Belgian waffle flavors right? Is it bitter or just sort of dark and heavy?
Anyway these are two of the better ripes i have had in recent memory, shipping is reasonable too, plus they are old, should give you some contrast.
http://www.pu-erhtea.com/TeaDetails.aspx?TeaID=225
http://www.pu-erhtea.com/TeaDetails.aspx?TeaID=58
That second tea probably isn't made from notably old trees, and it might be 3-4 years younger then it claims to be. But they proof as they say is in the cup and i can assure you proof abounds. If you try those and still aren't sure ripe is for you you can pretty safely move on and start exploring other genres for a while.

i really like the way w2t presses their ripe cakes, they're very easy to break apart with your fingers but fragments dont fall off it when handling them and they feel nice to touch :)

>>18821964
thanks, anon
gotta say this site you linked has some good pricing, they have some pretty cheap Dayi ripe cakes too.
>But that v93 is like burnt Belgian waffle flavors right? Is it bitter or just sort of dark and heavy?
I wouldn't say it's bitter, just toasty and doughy. I do get the burnt waffle some times, other times just a vague dough flavour and earthiness. It's not bad, but I wish it was sweeter with some more fruity or creamy flavour.

>>18821993
Yeah that website basically hasn't been touched in 10 years except to add their new teas. Prices are like a time capsule to 2012. Anyway that brick has some good sweetness, tuo has some interesting complexity, both good. Haven't tried anything epse there, no idea if their own brand tea is any good, but i wouldn't expect the world for a few coin if you catch my drift. Don't buy one of those $50 stacks of cakes and then complain that it doesn't taste like anything.

>>18822031
yeah the "totally old tree first spring harvest bro" cakes they sell for 11$ per 350 gram cake seem sussy af, no cap

>>18819263
>my gf is egyptian and constantly begs me to go with her
I'm in danger

>>18819514
>whats wrong with it? I know the 2020 cozy was pretty popular
idk, its just very muted for me. Its one of the puerhs I am least like to go to that I own, its not offensive or anything though.

>>18820249
Bros why do we allow southrons to exist

>>18821984
Though i dont really like this cake, it was a really dumb mistake to get a 2022 ripe its way too young and probably not drinkable till 2-3 years i think. My ripe puer pumi is doing well though so im hoping it ages decently.

do you guys think 2021 Dayi Lao Cha Tou are drinkable already, or two young? what should I expect from them taste-wise?

>>18822189
>>18822205
If your tea is "too young" it's actually just shit.

>>18822257
based retard

>>18822278
There's no point in storing garbage tea for years hoping that it will somehow drastically improve. If it's undrinkable now, it's bad tea. You bought shitty overpiled tea, you can air it out but your "pumi" is not going to transform it into something good.

>>18822293
the whole point of puer was that it started as shitty astringent tea and aging it changes the astringency to sweetness, similar to wine aging. young puer is a very new development and i dont think its 100% right to actually call it puer even.

>>18822295
That doesn't apply to shou puerh, shou was developed in the 70s to mimic the taste of aged sheng. The whole point is that it needs to be drinkable immediately, without aging. It doesn't actually taste like aged sheng, but it certainly doesn't benefit in the same way from aging, although properly stored aged shou can be pretty good. This will not happen in your pumidor. Young sheng was the only puerh that was drunk for most of history, young sheng is still what is drunk today in Puer. Aged puerh was a market that was created to shift the large amounts of stock of puerh that existed primarily in Hong Kong to Taiwan, it spread from there. Similarly to shou, however, if you have a bing or batch of maocha that doesn't taste very good, it's bad tea. Aging will not fix it, because the tea is simply bad. If you age good tea, the flavor will transform as the years pass, and if you store it properly, it can improve significantly. You cannot do this with bad tea.

Aging tea is causing gentrification.

>>18822309
what about all the classic factory raws that are designed for aging though?

>>18822431
"designed for aging" just means that the tea isn't processed as green as people might be used to. The tea should still taste good young. Parts of the world, primarily Taiwan, HK, Guangdong, don't really drink young sheng. That doesn't mean that young sheng is undrinkable, or that it's acceptable for it to have any of the flaws you'd usually assosciate with bad tea. Flat taste, high bitterness, weak liquor, or any obvious defects like it being murky from oversteaming, toasted or burnt, etc. The tea commonly drunk on whatever your preferred tea mountain is, Jingmai, Yiwu, whatever, could also be aged as is.

People always say that western countries don't get hot or humid enough to age tea properly. What about Louisiana?

>>18817763
That's why you drink even stronger mycomaxxed tea when that happens. It's like chemotherapy.

>>18822461
Maybe, I'd suspect the humidity isn't high enough, but you never know. Kunming is pretty darn cold and dry, and tea stored there is fine. I'm suspicious, especially because no one has managed to mechanically replicate proper tea storage, that there is something fundamental missing. The climate in most places tea is stored is especially stable, it's possible that's more important than average temperature or humidity. Tea itself also acts as a sort of humidity control, my intuition is that storing thousands of kilograms of tea together is extremely beneficial or necessary for proper storage.

>>18822461
tfw no one has invented bayoucha or floridacha yet

I thought all supermarket teas were utter garbage, but I was gifted a box of Twinings English Breakfast teabags recently and it turns out I actually enjoy this stuff. I might buy the loose leaf version after I run out...

>>18822815
supermarket black teas can be decent. ahmad, twinings, some dilmah stuff.
it's the other teas that are the problem. very hard to find decent pu-erh or green tea at the supermarket

Why are you buying tea when you could do this?
>befriend Asian household
>mention offhand that you like tea
>be regifted tea nonstop until you die
Hustle and grind, kings.

>>18822831
I'll keep that in mind. Made a mistake of buying pic related today as an experiment. I'm having a taste right now and it's... not good. Never again. Guess I'll stick to black teas from twinings when it comes to exploring supermarket stuff.

>>18822967
forgot pic

In elementary school we had a Class Party for Chinese new year, and they gave us all Tea.
It was Yellow, and smelled strongly of Urine. It also tasted like how I imagine urine tastes. Could it have actually been urine?

rooibros wya

>>18804194
>japanese black tea arrives tomorrow
what should I expect?

>>18822967
>>18822971
try to make sure it at least says "orange pekoe" or "OP" somewhere on the packaging when buying supermarket black tea. good way to make sure you're not buying total trash

>>18822309
>That doesn't apply to shou puerh, shou was developed in the 70s to mimic the taste of aged sheng. The whole point is that it needs to be drinkable immediately, without aging.
Shou got the same cellering treatment as anything else going to hong kong. My understanding is that it was a complete failure initially because nobody wanted to drink it fresh (because it tasted like shit)
its not unreasonable to expect pile taste to deminish some after a year or two. That said i wouldn't ever intentionally buy tea that i couldn't drink right away.

>>18822148
She thinks it's quaint because she doesn't look western and therefore isn't under 24/7 siege by her psychopathic people

hojotea has a surprisingly good selection of oolongs, i have some samples arriving next week will post notes

>>18823398
she's coptic though so her people suffer a lot of terrorism attacks

>>18823031
Lipton then?

>>18823894
Lipton is orange pekoe? this would surprise me cause it's kind of shit. really flat and tasteless compared to Ahmad, Dilmah or Twinnings

>>18822364
sign me up

>>18822157
because you yankee fucks are too busy lopping off your own cocks or trying to drink childrens blood

>>18824399
Sorry for party rocking.

>>18824404
just keep it in the house tonight, i'm tired of that shit in the streets

what's a simple, reliable, and inexpensive scale for tea

>>18824561
https://www.amazon.com/My-Weigh-T3-400-Triton-Digital/dp/B00A755058

>>18805040
>tea is a gay hobby
you gave yourself away, alt-right

>>18822498
>something fundamental missing
Yeah, market demand.
>>18822498
Probably as good as it gets in the continental States. Try it. Monitor it.
>>18822540
Start it. I'd buy cajun aged puerh.
>>18824561
All of them.

>>18806248
>is it cringe to prefer tea bags?
yeah, gay too

>>18819241
>Yogi brand stuff (green tea, their tangerine black tea, the spicy honey one)
you shud try english breakfast tea leaves with cream or milk. And pu-erh with milk.

>>18819289
twinnings isnt that good, just finished a box of their irish tea bags. I recommend english breakfast leaves, pu erh, and this oolong i found that is called Buddha’s Palm Oolong.

>>18820375
go back to REdd it

>>18822309
found a bag of tea in my cupboard, untouched for 20 years, tastes pretty good, its oolong buddha palm.

>>18820249
>wypipo kool aid

>>18822831
Hmm, turns out both Ahmad and Dilmah are pretty much nonexistent in my eastern european shithole of a country. Even Twinings is somewhat hard to find (apparently only carried by one supermarket in my city). Guess I'll just pick up a box of Twinings from time to time and avoid anything else.

>>18824881
recommending tea india and company of heaven for milk teas. cheap, higher quality than bagged tea and gets the job done

>>18820249
no thanks, that's totally nuts. no way you can even taste the shit over the sugar

>>18825549
Do you get mail deliveries? Grocery store selection isn't great. I've ordered Dilmah online straight from Sri Lanka free shipping.
https://ceylonteabrew.com/dilmah-tea/

>>18820249
The thing i keep wondering about is what kind of tea that is. It looks like it has some big coarse chopped leaves and stems. I would expect ice tea like that to be made with some pretty standard Orthodox black tea but that looks more like some rough sketchy ripe puer or even some hei cha then standard black breakfast tea.

>>18825694
Some ceylon can look like that. Can't really see it clearly enough to make a guess though.

Is there anywhere I can get a high quality rooibos tea? I've had it from a couple places before, and while not bad, they weren't exactly premium.
Ditto for mate, where should I look for mate?

I heard about Mountain Rose Herbs, but they seem to specialize in flavored examples, and I want just straight up good rooibos/mate.

>>18825706
Roiboos all comes from one farming collective in africa. So basically no matter where you buy it from its comming from the same farms and blended in the same warehouse for export. Freshness will make the biggest difference in quality. I also think it does better with short steeping times. 60-90 seconds. Mountain rose herbs should have straight unflavored roiboos and its cousin Honeybush which i think is better personally, it's extremely sweet but again keep brew times short for best results.
For mate you want to buy the proper south American brands, you can find them on places like amazon.
Some super premium brands are mate & co and Anna Park. More reasonably priced brands look for La Merced, for more affordable brands rosamonte especial and cruz de malta.
There is a lot of variety with taste and flavors between brands, some are sweeter, some more bitter, some smoked. You need to try some and figure out what you like if you want to get into it.

>>18825706
>>18825755
Oh if you have no idea where to start with yerba get cruz de malta. I also strongly suggest getting some filtered straws and drinking mate the traditional way, its kinda fiddly to brew like tea.
I grabbed these ones and they work fine
https://www.amazon.com/Bombilla-Drinking-Food-Grade-Stainless-Bombillas/dp/B083HWLTYH/

>>18825691
I don't know about that. If I'm going to import tea, might as well get something fancy, and not some generic brand name ctc black (even if it's a higher quality ctc black).

I'll remember the name though, in case I ever come across one of these brands while shopping.

>>18825706
I second what the other anon said about mate.
Look for pre-packaged south-american brands and feel free to cheap out a bit, because mate isn't really like tea where you get massively better quality and taste on the more expensive stuff, it's more about personal preference.
I think Cruz de Malta or Kraus + some classic Paraguayan mate would be a good start so that you get both the more mellow, grassy side of the mate spectrum and the smokier, punchier side.

>>18825765
I like Ceylon because everything they make there is orthodox instead of CTC. Dilmah has the perk of being available in teabags for similar prices as Twinings. Not quite fancy, but maybe the best generic brand.

>>18825802
Hmm, now I'm curious. I don't think I've ever had pure ceylon tea...

>>18824399
thanks for acknowledging we could destroy the south if we put our minds to it
makes me feel good that southrons acknowledge they are our lessers

Rooibos today. Got it at David's tea visiting Toronto the other day. It was a bit expensive but I saw happy mug sells a pound for like $18 so I'll probably get that soon. First time drinking rooibos without added flavors, it's really special. I'm increasingly interested in caffeine-free teas and coffees, and this is exactly what I was hoping for. Really comfy honey taste, almost a molasses flavor that lingers on your tongue. It's not as complex as many teas/coffee but that's alright. I'll come back to this regularly

>>18826916
Its good, try Honeybush too when you get a chance, similar plant, even sweeter imho

my tea is not going to make it out of china before the new years holiday starts...

I'm a little retarded
how do I measure loose tea on a scale in a way that I do not make a mess transferring it from the scale to my pot

>>18827838
Use a paper plate, use the little plastic cover that comes with the scale as a tray, cut an square of paper and weigh the tea on that

>>18827838
Put your pot on the scale.
>But I-
Put all of the tea on the scale, tare it, and scoop tea into the pot.
>That's still too hard I'm retarded
Just go back to teabags

>>18827838
Use some kind of condiment cup. I have some nice steel ones that are pretty nice.

Also, this will sound like a joke, but the icing cup out of pic related is perfect for small scales. They're polypropylene and only weigh 5-6g.

>>18828034
*small steel ones. Dunno why I repeated myself.

>>18827500
nope.

>>18827838
lmao look up what scale taring is

>>18828034
Very nice. I use the plastic measuring cups that came with my rice cooker. Only weighs 9.8g.

>>18827838
get a better scale

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW3IxfFXfoQ
You ever do this?

>>18828553
Finely chopped tea, brewed at gigatemps, pulled six times. This is tea equivalent of a nuclear bomb. Sounds fine to me, though. A little blunt an imprecise, but seems like a fine way to make it. A nice, angry, dark, brew cut with milk. I'd like to try it. I wonder how "secret" the six teas are or if it's just whatever is in the market that week.

>>18817228
pedophile

For me, it's half oolong and half skim milk.

>>18828553
>black tea that looks like it was taken out of teabags
>don't just steep it, fucking boil it
No wonder they have to add milk, it would not be drinkable otherwise. I guess you could easily replicate this at home by simply boiling some random teabags. Not like the quality of the tea matters much when you're doing THIS to it...

>>18829422
I wouldn't count out boiling, I've had some really good results boiling liu bao. tasted much better than when I brewed it normally

>>18827500
just order at the last possible moment bro, what's gonna happen

Kingteamall is doing 10% off sitewiede with ktm10 code

>>18829422
Pretty accurate but that's kinda the point, it's cheap street tea. I bet when that's what you grow up drinking though it tastes amazing.
>>18827838
That's the purpose of a chahe. I'll second the other replies though and say I use a small black plastic ramekin, it just works.

we're over bump limit, someone brew a new one

>>18829699
Coming up

>>18804194
New
>>18829742
>>18829742
>>18829742