/ck/ - Food & Cooking

damn this Saemidori fukamushi sencha from O-cha has really grown on me
never had such a thick and cloudy green tea before and the sweetness and fruitiness is a great contrast to the greener grass / spinach / edamame flavors

"Winter 2022 Ailao High Mountain Oolong" Really good, my favorite from my order so far with the sun dried black.

>>19314251
how would you describe the taste? is it more green and refreshing like a lot of tie guan yin or sweet and creamy like some of those taiwanese oolongs get?

>>19314277
More green for most steeping but the last one i did (longer steep) got a little sweeter on the palate. Next time i'll drink it i'll do longer steeps to see if it's different. I'm pretty sure you can get both out of it.

>>19314277
I would say it taste like a dong ding if you short steep it.

Just brewed some TaeTea 7572.

Subtle sweet nutty flavor.

Very smooth liqueur.

>>19314395
Forgot image.

>>19314395
>>19314397
nice. is that the 150 gram minicake? what year?
I'm probably going to buy the cheap one they have at Awazon

>>19314450
2021

And yes it's 150g.

Do you guys ever notice the effects from drinking puerh?

Is it just me or does it feel similar to coffee, but far smoother and not so electrifying? For me it gives me a feeling of being amped up, but in a very warm manner. It's difference than normal tea.

Man Non Village tea producer interview and garden visit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWEOeis2gQk

>>19314513
you mean for shu pu-erh? yeah it can be pretty warming. maybe it's because it's so thick or maybe it's the flavor profile

>>19314173
Finally starting seeing some green ass teas posted this year, looks wild

>>19314513
Tea does all kinda of crazy shit, i had some specific shu that always made me want to take a nap. Ive had some cheapo shen factory cakes that were so potent they game me chest pains if i went overboard with them. And in between lots of enjoyable stimulating teas that don't get me jittery like coffee does.

>>19314643
This was nice!

>>19314513
I had a puerh that gave me a really powerful effect like you describe but not all of them do this. I know it wasn't placebo because I never experienced that before and didn't expect it.

"Yingpan Shan Black" is incredible for the price needed a second brewing to get the full potential out. Added more leaves in the gaiwain (around 8g+ for 150ml)

>>19315269
Gorgeous leaves. I really need to try some of his non puer teas.

>>19315371
They really are, need to pay 4 or 5 times the price to have leaves like that in black tea in almost any other shop not even kidding.

I only ever drink black tea I get sent as free samples, what is the appeal? It all tastes malty to me.

>>19315625
You can get a lot more than just malty from good black teas.

used brown sugar to make my sweet tea syrup for the weekend cuz I was out of domino will get back on if it's good or not once it cools

>>19315625
Irish breakfast is really malty.

Is there any good /ck/ approved book about tea? I'm a noob and would like to learn about all the different tea types, from harvesting to brewing.

>>19316183
There is one linked at the bottom of the pastebin

>>19316183
Tea: A User’s Guide by Tony Gebely
https://archive.org/details/tea-a-users-guide-by-tony-gebely-2016

hot_tea_sip_now

>>19316479
*simulatanious sip

>>19316183
why dont you drink a cup of tea, close your eyes, make a fist and punch yourself

Drinking an American green tea tonight. Straight from Mississippi. I picked this company pretty much at random and went with it. I bought an an ounce of two green teas, one oolong, and one black tea.
Unfortunately I'm not a green tea expert and my experience there is pretty limited. Still, felt like reviewing it. Something different.
When I first opened the bag it came in, it smelled strongly of tomato plants. Vegetal, and hints of tomatoes. I might have been grasping at staws, but I was reminded of ketchup potato chips they have in Canada. Something about the initial aroma plus the dry nature of the material, maybe.
I'm a few steeps in now, brewing at 185 but feeling like it's not quite hot enough. It's a smooth drink! Very refreshing, lovely pale yellow color with lots of dancing white hairs. I should drink more green tea.

>>19316447
this ones looking good, thanks anon

>>19316547
Interesting tea. Ive considered buying usa tea before but never gotten around to it.
Can you post a picture of the wet leaves?

>>19316685
I didn't have to look very hard for these. Not a bad one in the bunch. Decent green! I probably should disclose I'm a little under the weather and my sense of taste isn't 100%.

why is prebagged tea le bad

>>19317012
Because of the way it's processed always reduces its quality from its intact leaf form.

>>19317012
It's not just in a bag, it's crushed into dust so you can't steep it properly. All the bitter shit extracts before the flavor does.

>>19317012
Tastes like dog's asshole

>>19316796
Thanks for the picture, the processing is interesting, very simple.

>>19314166
I've been drinking multiple cups of this for the past week. I bought it because it has a happy dancing Ottoman on the package but it's surprisingly good

>>19317530
Is the bergamot strong or is it just a touch?

I uhh... think I just made an Awazon order, got some weird error message in Chinese after buying, but got an auto email that the payment went through and they will ship it out ASAP. bit of a strange shopping experience, but it's hard to beat those prices

anyone tried the stuff from this order? I know someone recommended the 2002 tuo on here, seems like a good price for a factory ripe of that age, I don't think I've ever had ripe that was this old
was also considering the 2005 Fuhai ripe tuo and the orange ripe, but decided I don't want to become the "mountains of cheap tea guy" yet

>>19317549
Just a touch, less present than in most earl grey I'd say

I'm mulling over a hotbox accelerated aging setup. I've been reading about it all week. A couple of tea bloggers seemed to have success and it seems satisfying. It would be fun to experiment with. Any initial opinions?

>>19314166
just gave the website a look wtf why is king tea mall so cheap? even for bad tea it seems strange, 250g for 3 bucks?

>>19317938
i think you're reading the price for 7g samples, you usually have to click on the listing and check the price for the individual cakes, pretty stupid to me but the guy running the website dosent seem to want to change it

>>19317951
i am, makes way more sense now

Can any of you lads help me identify this mystery tea I bought? I came across this red pot at a thrift store and it was half filled with hong cha. I've tried reverse image searching the pot itself and got no identical matches - the translator can't handle whatever script it's written in and it gives back gibberish. I know that it's hong cha, the tea itself is very similar in appearance and flavor to some bai lin golden monkey in my collection. The only other text on the pot is some poetry.

>>19317951
There's a pretty significant UX problem across nearly all vendors when it comes to that. I was thinking if I did it, I would have a price per gram value for some base amount, usually a cake but could be 100g uncompressed in the case where the tea isn't traditionally compressed, then the gram amounts available displayed on each item in a list.
It's frustrating to have to click into an item from a list, click a drop down (or sometimes two, like Yunnan Sourcing) to get a feel for how expensive a tea really is.

>>19314166
This is what I drink :)

>>19317973
Critique it.

>>19317977
Ok, I think the positives of this tea are the low price and the fact that the portions of the tea in the bags are tiny so it's easy to make a light tea. It tastes good with sugar, and by it self it's fine, but if I leave the bag for too long it develops this evil bitter taste that reminds me of heavy metals. But I like it, and I drink it if I'm camping and such. Btw why do tea bags have so much tea in it? It feels like all the better teas have bags that are enough for like 4-5 cups but I only even need to make one for myself and I feel like it's a waste for all that tea to go into the compost like that :(

>>19317973
at least it's better than Saga. now that's a vile one
>>19317990
that's why you buy loose leaf, so you can dose it to perfection
also because it tastes way better
Ahmad tea tends to have decent value in Polish supermarkets, try to find it

>>19317990
Nice. Glad you like it.
>why do tea bags have so much tea in it?
Do they? Usually bagged tea are crushed into dust in order to not need more material than their loose leaf equivalents.
There are a lot of things to worry about in the world and in your life, but how much tea goes to compost should be pretty dang far down that list. Don't think twice. Just drink more tea. :^)

>>19318021
True, there's some loose leaf in my house that I drink and it tastes the best of all the teas I have, but i don't recall what it is even. Its like an Indian tea in a nice tin can. I also drink picrel sometimes. But my favorite tea is chameleon because it makes my tummy aches go away. Are shitty teas filled with evil pesticide like I suspect or no?

>>19318023
god i wish i were an elephant just chillin and eating leaves. maybe find a nice mud pit to wallow in

>>19318039
An elephant never forgets

>>19318034
The shittier the tea the more pesticides it probably has. Bug-bitten tea trees produce better flavour but lower yield

>>19318039
Right there with you, my man.

>>19318023
Hard not to be mad at them when elephants are extremely rare and tea bushes aren't nearly as valuable. Have at them bushes, lads!

>>19318192
I meant hard to BE mad at them. I am so tired. I NEED TEA.

>>19317743
You did well friend,
It's true you don't want to be the mountains of cheap tea guy, But when the cheap tea is good...

>hear people talk about old-school smokey pu'er
>mix a little lapsang souchong into my pu'er as an experiment
>tastes like absolute garbage
Don't be a baka like me.

>>19317743
>2011 Dayi 7572 on Awazon
>$19.99
>2011 Dayi 7572 on KingTeaMall
>$68
I know the second one is the first batch, but damn that price difference is just stupid
also, the 2017 cake isn't even the first batch, but costs 55$? really?
can anyone explain to me what this price difference is all about?

Had some green ass tea today, grass is included for context.
Gyokuro konacha from hibiki-an. It has that standard savoriness, but it's surprisingly refreshing. Kind of a nutty flavor and a grassy aftertaste.

>>19317743
I bought the Dayi, and it is good shit.

>>19318314
7572 or the sheng?

>>19318316
The 7572.

>>19318322
nice. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the cheapest 7572 from a western-facing vendor. especially impresive considering it's got a few years on it. I hope it will be good!

>>19318286
>can anyone explain to me what this price difference is all about?
Dayi is the poster child for inflated prices. Buy the cheap cakes when you find them, don't sweat first batch autsim. Their output is remarkably consistent year after year so there is little to no justification for the wild proce variation other then people pay it.
For king tea mall his prices juat reflect current Chinese domestic market prices, and he has made posts before on his site saying lots of dayi is overpriced these days and not worth the money. Awazon is a weird little tea brand that bought a bunch of stock during the puer bubble and in the years after it, didn't do a good job of selling it and its mostly is priced exactly the same as it was they day they added it to their website. There are a few other western facing old puer shops like that, a sort of weird holdover from a bygone era.

>>19318285
Just buy an old xiguan tuo from fullchea or something

>>19318341
It's just such a shame you can't get 7542 for that money.

>>19318396
I don't have a lot of experience with aged raws, but I'll report back on that Menghai Spring, maybe it's a decent option.
That cake is also 120$ on KingTeaMall, compared 10$ for 100 grams on Awazon, which would total to 36$ per whole cake. lmao

>>19317964
I think that's seal script.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_script

>>19318434
>>19317964
yeah my first thought was it doesn't look like chinese writing. interesting

>>19318417
Those menghai spring cakes used to cost peanuts, expect it to be much closer value wise to a $40 cake then a $110 cake. Should still be nice but nothing mind blowing.

>>19318485
yeah I'm not expecting a miracle, mostly just bought it because it's a rare chance to try a 2006 Dayi raw that isn't overpriced to all hell

>>19318489
You should enjoy all of it. I juat finished off my six famous tea mountain tuo today because i saw you ordered it. Very nice ripe imo. There is something special about ripe that has had long ass kunming dry storage.

>>19318286
>>19318384
Additionally I think some of KTM's prices for the big factories are simply overpriced compared to market value. There is an cake I intend to hunt down on TaoBao because of that. I have seen some cakes that I am pretty sure are worth far less on the Chinese domestic market than on KTM. Not sure how much of it is KTM's markup vs the wholesalers KTM buys from just being overpriced on those products. I think KTM's business philosophy is to carry as large of a selection of the big factory tea as possible and let the buyers sort out what they think is worth it. With low volume orders from a limited number of wholesalers it is not going to be possible to get the best prices on everything. KTM's prices on less popular brands tend to be better and they still have fair prices on some Dayi and XG cakes.

>>19318608
Yeah i agree, ktm isint anywhere near as cheap as it used to be 5 years ago. Definitely still some value products but it used to be cheap across the board and now some stuff is overpriced if anything.

>>19318617
his prices for Haiwan for example are still good though. I think it's Dayi that's the worst offender by far

>>19318622
Yeah, and everything xiaguan from 2011 to 2018ish used to be quite cheap and now its more in line with the prices of recent years productions he has listed.

>>19318294
nice bat mug.

just got a bat gaiwan+cup from purple cloud myself

>>19316547
love the tea scoop, have exact same model!

>>19318285
kek, do as >>19318389 said, I rec xiaguan.

is Awazon trustworthy overall, or am I better off buying stuff from taobao using an automated agent/forwarder like ebuy?
I like young raw pu-erh and a cake of pic related for $12 sounds like a deal, especially if it was picked in spring last year as the product page states

>>19321260
As the guy that usually pushes azwan here let me make perfectly clear
I do not make any claims as to the quality of their house tea, it's very cheap and probably shitty, the appeal to azwan is buying cheap old ripe from established factories, that is all.
You can find some older reviews on steepster if you want more information.

>>19321260
>is Awazon trustworthy overall
They are trustworthy in that they ship what you order but I would not expect their cheap young sheng to be amazing. It is probably perfectly fine and drinkable (the pictures make the material look decent) but likely kind of mediocre.The price is just too low to expect much. $11.50 Per Cake is dirt cheap though and if you grab one I would like to hear how it is. It may make an good daily drinker or cold brew tea.

>>19321260
I truly think I enjoy this $8 menghai more than the $640 eot yiwu.

>>19321529
yeah, im looking to purchase a good black tea, but awazon seems too cheap. HOWEVER, pretty good supermarket english black tea is around the same price, like 10 bucks for a 200grams.

I'm a beginner to puerhs looking for recommendations.
So far I just finished YS journeys the destination sample and I enjoyed YS branded cooked puerhs the most. Rich, creamy mouthfeel, some spice, wood and kiss of fruits. Just incredible depth and rich aroma. This is unlike anything I've had. Though some infusions I was tasting a bit of paper.
1999 basket aged tea tasted too earthy and musty for my liking. Maybe I'm not ready for this yet lol. I just can't get over that damp flavor.

Aged raw puerhs were meh to me. I thought it was supposed to have a lot of depth and complexity but compared to cooked they tasted too mallow and sweet even. 2007 Xiguan FT was my least favorite. It's got zero character, bordering bland.

So where do I go from here? I'm still new to puerhs so I don't know what the "good stuff" is supposed to taste like and I'm probably still shit at brewing.

Drinking 2021 Yunnan Sourcing "ba wang" Ripe Pu-erh tea. Steeped 5 minutes. drink it with a splash of milk. Added extra leaves just do drink it with milk. Bitter is the first taste. Plum. cocoa. rich thick body. pretty strong too. might be the strongest pu erh i have.

>>19322219
>Aged raw puerhs were meh to me. I thought it was supposed to have a lot of depth and complexity but compared to cooked they tasted too mallow and sweet even. 2007 Xiguan FT was my least favorite. It's got zero character, bordering bland.
This is exactyly why i am putting off purchasing that 7572 as my first raw pu erh experience. i was told its similar to green tea and oolongs and very astringent.

>>19322219
why not jus t get another Ripe Pu erh sampler.

>>19322218
I haven't tried any of the black tea on awazon. they're mostly recommended because they have great prices on factory pu-erh

>>19322226
very strong dark chocolate flavor. with plum

>>19322219
>2007 Xiguan FT
yeah try to avoid 2007-2008 puerhs, during that time there was a puerh tea boom in china and factories would push out as many cakes as possible even if it was insanely low quality, its why all the cakes from that time are often cheaper than the ones from 2009. still a few good ones from 2007 but they're much harder to find. what was the other raw puerhs you drank?
consider trying some traditionally stored raws before ignoring them in the future

>>19322236
Yeah I was thinking about getting their ripe puerh regional comparison set but I still want to try more raw puerhs. All the different regions, storage conditions, recipes etc are still very new to me
>>19322258
Aside from that curated sample no.
>yeah try to avoid 2007-2008 puerhs, during that time there was a puerh tea boom in china and factories would push out as many cakes as possible even if it was insanely low quality, its why all the cakes from that time are often cheaper than the ones from 2009. still a few good ones from 2007 but they're much harder to find.
Ah that's interesting, I'll keep that in mind in the future. Any recommendations for traditionally stored raws?

>>19322219
if you already know you like ripe pu-erh, you could go all-in on a cake or two. Factory ripe pu-erh from brands like Menghai Tea FActory (AKA Dayi / Taetea) or Haiwan tends to be great value, so you could go for one of those
Fullchea and Awazon are where you can get these at a good price, YS also has some at okay prices

if you wanted to stay with YS you could get one of the YS brand pu-erhs you liked + a V93 Dayi 100 gram tuo and a 100 gram lao cha tou brick, just to try out factory ripe in a smaller form factor

has anyone tried the ripes on farmer leaf and got any thoughts on them? i'm putting together an order there and getting tempted.

>>19317012
i dunno, i like regular bag tea with a spot of milk but i'm a bong. it's just a different experience, i think of it like a different drink.

>>19322275
>Any recommendations for traditionally stored raws
kingteamall has a set of three samples, which contains a traditionally wet stored tea as well
yeeontea is the site that specializes in traditional hong kong wet storage

>>19322275
>Any recommendations for traditionally stored raws?
https://yeeonteaco.com/collections/puerh/products/2008-raw-puerh-tea-brick-jiang-cheng
Those are pretty fantastic. Grat flavor, nice and mellow but without any off storage tastes

>>19322282
>>19317012
probably cause the tea is like powdered. but taste wise, its fine. obviously, black tea tea bags are meant to be drunk with milk and drinkers are only looking for base flavors and not a bit more flavors, depth or complexity.

>>19322339
milk is gross

>>19322349
it is not.

>>19317012
>powdered
>less surface area per particle/grain = more tannins released over a shorter period = more bitter
>bagged loose leaf/sachets
>no room for leaf expansion
>same thing as above but tea may be both bitter and weak (as in not much flavor, just astringency)

>>19322283
>>19322305
>>19322277
Thanks for the recommendation friends. I think I'll grab the 2 ripe cakes from ys and grab some raws from the those vendors for now.

>>19322353
it is.

>>19322349
>>19322353
>>19322378
go have sex faggots

>>19322392
i cant. semen reminds me all too much of a certain gross white liquid....

>>19322392
Go fuck your mother again, normalfag.

>>19322396
cum?

>>19322400
cum is delicious.

>>19322219
Glad you had a good time with them! You sound like a lot of people in your first experiences with puerh. Ripes are the most accessible, by all means keep drinking those primarily for now. They have a lot to offer. In the mean time, keep tasting a raw here and there. I promise they will grow on you.
>So where do I go from here?
Keep drinking tea, reading about tea, talking about tea. Don't sweat the hunt for "the good stuff." Just try a variety when ever you can and ask questions.
>>19322230
>7572
>raw pu erh
Got a line crossed there somewhere.
>>19322277
>V93 Dayi 100 gram tuo
I second that for a recommendation.
>>19322283
>kingteamall has a set of three samples
I honestly forgot that's why I made a KTM order in the first place. At this point I'll be able to add Guangzhou port storage.

trying to learn to taste the notes in puerh properly, it like it but it's like my palate can't cut the flavour/smell up into parts. this is the first puerh i ever tried so some comparisons will definitely help later. after a few sessions i sniffed the leaves and suddenly, i understood wtf you guys were saying about stone fruits.

>>19322431
oops meant 7542. but my point still stands, im not too sure about grassy and floral flavors

>>19322431
Wait did you order ems or surface (on the boat) shipping?

>>19322451
it's usually more fruity than floral to me. it does tend to be astringent to some degree though
you should try some more aged raw if you don't like astringency and green tea like flavors

>>19322477
idk. Probably whatever was cheapest. It's worked for me so far.

>>19322477
>>19322496
It was harder to find than expected. Not on any emails or their tracking app.
>Shipping (SAL / ePacket (15-20 Biz Days))
I assume that means surface.

>>19322499
I think epacket is just economy air mail

>>19322490
>it does tend to be astringent to some degree though
how astringent? i drink a lot of ceylon, assam, eng bf, irish bf, black tea, hk milk tea, chai, so i can stand bitter/ astringent in black tea, but not in oolong or green.

>>19322490
idk, im judging the entire raw pu erh based on color. it looks too light.

>>19322499
Yeah what the other guy said, epacket is air mail.
Damn, if it was on the slow boat it would make more sense, you just got unlucky i guess

>>19322558
Old enough raw brews up orange or red. Anyway it's stronger then it looks, even the rally light colored young puer is fucking strong

>>19322446
Remember that identifying notes in tea is a skill. The best way to learn tasting notes is by contrasting different puerhs. It's easier to isolate a note when it's one of several differences between two or more teas. Don't become discouraged, just build your own internal databases of tasting notes. Maybe you find the right word for a note later, maybe you don't. Maybe you find exactly the right description, but anon has a different understanding of the note and calls you a retard. That's fine, but don't let it put your understanding into doubt.
Additionally, I find it helpful to keep reaching to different kinds of teas. I went a long time without trying good green teas. When I finally picked up some, I feel like it gave me a better context for understanding other kinds of tea, especially puerh.

>>19322258
>yeah try to avoid 2007-2008 puerhs
While the average quality of those years was definitely lower, I think most 2006-2008 puerh productions are still fine so long as you don't overpay. There is a lot of good semi aged teas from that time frame that are currently very well priced for their age. They can be good picks if you are looking for cheap daily drinkers with age. I would however use more caution before buying anything with a premium price from that era unless you have already sampled the tea, have had someone else rec it, or really trust the vendor. You don't want to overpay for a underwhelming tea.

Anyone try gucci raw puerh teas? Like the stuff that goes for 10 grand per cake

>>19322305
>>19322376

>https://yeeonteaco.com/collections/puerh/products/2008-raw-puerh-tea-brick-jiang-cheng
>Those are pretty fantastic. Grat flavor, nice and mellow but without any off storage tastes

That tea is good but you really should really tell them that the tea tastes and smells like it came out of a damp musty cellar (because it did). HK cellar storage is intense and many would call it an "off storage taste" in and of itself. I would not typically recommend HK cellar storage to beginners unless they are specifically looking to try it and know what they are getting into.

>>19322653
thanks for the tips. i'm finding it pretty fun to extract as much enjoyment as possible from what is essentially a bunch of weird old leaves. i'm going to pick up a tasting set from YS soon i think.
funny you mention that with greens, i did the same thing with black teas for many years, but found out last year i just dislike assam and assumed it was all like that. been playing catchup with chinese blacks ever since

>>19322550
The "astringency" in Sheng is more like what is in green tea than what is in black teas. Probably more chemically similar as well. I am the opposite I don't drink "breakfast" teas because they are hard on my gut. Green tea is fine though.

>>19322718
how does a 5 minute steep hold up with milk? does it match? like black, pu erh with milk? i sometimes steep the first steep longer with milk, and the other ones i drink plain. that 7542 is is the one i would get, but a whole cake is icky.

>>19322718
breakfast teas give me that black tea kick i want sometimes. that bitterness/astringency is good with milk. Green is icky to me. id rather oolong then.

>>19322718
>I am the opposite I don't drink "breakfast" teas because they are hard on my gut
you are supposed to add milk

>>19322936
One of the main reasons why milk and sugar was added to tea is because for centuries people have been fucking up their brewing of tea, hence why it becomes too bitter. So they add more and more sugary shit to make it drinkable.

>>19322979
i get what you are trying to say. but a long steep with milk, makes a very good tea too. after drinking steeped tea for most of my life, its hard to drink it gong fu style. I do drink shorter steeps after my first milk tea cup. you should try it sometimes. its not "too bitter', you are steeping it longer, but right before that point where it becomes too bitter. i think 4-6 minutes is a good spot.

>>19322979
>centuries people have been fucking up their brewing of tea,
centuries. doubt. i do believe most people dont know how to appreciate tea if all they drink is milk tea or tea with grandpa style

>>19323002
Someone should make a youtube skit where a guy is trying to gongfu brew while on the freeway.

>>19322653
Thoughts on /tea/ designating certain teas as universal benchmarks? Everybody who stays in the hobby long enough inevitably ends up trying a bunch of teas to expand their palate. It'd be easier to compare tasting notes, especially for new people, if they had some sort of baseline to compare teas too.

>>19323062
maybe you do it, lazy fuck

>>19323062
that sounds easy (1) and thats retarded (2)
webm related

rs gongfu?

>>19323208
7572 and 7542 are considered the benchmarks of factory ripe and raw in general. not sure about other teas. maybe V93 and Xiaguan Jia Ji tuo?

if you add milk to tea is it still tea or is it a tisane?

>>19324030
still tea obviously. you're not steeping the milk, you're just adding it in later

>>19324036
by that definition then the whole plate of ochazuke would be tea

>>19324054
ok fine ochazuke is a tisane, happy?

>>19324054
for ochazuke you're adding the tea later, after the rice though

>>19324026
17oz for $40.

Anyone tried this before?

I'm thinking about getting some.

>>19324375
forgot picture

>>19314166

I am trying my luck with taobao for the first time since I want to try dayi shous.
Ordered just under 2.2kg, I'm using pandabuy and I only stuck with tmall and one gold merchant. I got goldern fruit, v93, 7572, 7562, 8592 and 7262. All at least a few years old. I'm very confident that all my teas are authentic, but now I'm worried that they could have wack storage. Even though they do have good reviews should I be concerned?

>>19324378
>>19324375
yes, I've had it
it's a popular recipe and worth a try as a reference point because it's often brought up as a classic lighter fermented ripe. personally not my favorite ripe, but solid and dependable. a little more on the bitter / charred side than most ripes, some people compare it to burnt waffles, which I can see. it has a nice doughy quality to it
you can just buy a single tuo though if you're unsure

>>19324506
>a classic lighter fermented ripe

See I much prefer the rich, dark, malty ripe Puerhs, with a higher steep cycles.

I'm going to purchase a kyusu, what sort of kyusu does /tsg/ own? Photographs and criticism would be nice. I am so far against non-clay sasame, and would probably rather the sasame be optimized for medium and lightly steamed teas, I don't mind small pieces of the deeper steamed tea in my cup.

>>19324556
I have this kyusu >>19314173, which I bought at a thrift store for dirt cheap
turns out it's by a fairly prolific local potter who specializes in teapots and sells his work at pu-erh.sk and other tea sites. it's glazed on the inside, which I think is preferable since I don't know what clay he made it from
it has a simple clay filter that works well for medium and lightly steamed teas, but does struggle with the fukamushi sencha I'm drinking recently. I would also prefer if the teapot was a bit smaller, but other than that it's nice and functional, the lid fits almost perfectly and the pot is easy to handle

>>19323208
I'm not sure what opinions you're looking for. It's nice to have certain ubiquitous puerhs that we can all get our hands on to compare notes and develop a similar vocabulary, especially within a relatively static community. It's a good idea to pick up a cake of each and consume it slowly, revisiting it once or twice a month to keep it fresh in your head. If you can't, that's honestly fine too. Not a huge loss. It just amounts to a little speed boost on the road to learning an aspect of puerh.
Nothing wrong with using the classics as a daily driver, but cost is a primary issue to some. Even if you're well enough off that you can drink it all day every day, there's still better value you could be getting and more to try and more to learn. I haven't had either DaYi in years, I should remedy that.
>>19324026
>>19324375
>>19324378
V93 at least is mentioned at least every other thread. (Rightfully so, imo. It's not my favorite ripe, but it's not far away from it.) That alone makes it reason to try. Trying the same teas as anon is a good idea. As for the Jia Ji tuo, I have one coming!
As long as anons are recommending in good faith, picking something up based on a passing comment might be worth it.
>>19324520
I've always thought the endurance of the V93 is pretty darn good.

>>19317012
Besides the fact that powdered isn't the best geometrical shape for steeping, bagged tea also uses the junk leaves left over that they can't sell loose to more discerning drinkers. You're getting shop floor sweepings and stems.

Most teabags are not literally floor sweepings, bagged tea is by far more popular and there is simply just not that much tea dumped on the floor. Fannings and dust which are both waste products in tea production go into teabags, but tea is also ground to teabag size intentionally. The actual, material, unfixable problem with teabags is that they don't let the leaves expand to interact with all of the water, and therefor do not infuse properly. If you use higher quality ground tea in a teabag it will make mediocre tea. If you put top tier whole leaf yancha in a teabag, it will make mediocre tea. I have seen things like giant whole pot teabags which in theory do not have this problem, but then you're dependent on whoever is manufacturing the teabags to select tea for you. There's honestly just no reason to use teabags, if you like tea move away from them as fast as possible, and you can move on to enjoy a much wider variety of cheaper and more flavorful tea.

>>19324556
I really like mine but it's too big for one person, i use my gaiwan a lot more. I almost don't drink japanese green either so the filter is not needed for what i drink.

>>19317964
>>19318434
This. It's seal script, which tends to be used for fancy applications (like seals). They're the forerunners of traditional chinese script (which was simplified in mainland China under Mao). Idk if there's decent translation/OCR software for seal script

>2011 dayi 7572 cake 19.99 from awazon
>2016 dayi 7572 cake 61 from yunnan sourcing
Is it just ys being more expensive or is the 2016 batch better?

>>19324375
You can get a single tuo of it instead of the whole stack
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/taetea-yunnan-puer-tuo-tea-2018-v93-shu-puer-tuocha-100g

>>19325136
the 2011 batch is also 68$ on Kingteamall. Awazon just has this cake for an exceedingly good price, maybe because they just haven't updated the price in 10 years and the prices for Dayi's more famous cakes have skyrocketed since then
I just bought that cake from Awazon by the way, I'll report back when I try it, though the shipping will probably take a while

>>19325136
See
>>19318384

>>19324752
Trying to explain gongfu tea brewing to sceptics (which is 99.99% of people) is rather difficult. They often look confused, and often feeling petty for the person who's brewing. They see gongfu brewing as inconvenient, and a waste of time for something that does nothing. They cannot comprehend that tea leaves are very sensitive to how they're brewed, and the subtle flavors change from different growing regions, all the way down to how we add water.

We have to keep in mind that the average person in public has fried taste buds from all that high fructose corn syrup; highly synthetic chemical induced drinks and food. They cannot taste subtleties of tea and aroma, because all the foods they consume overpower tea.

>>19325207
I don't know if i would go quite that far, but ive cut most sugar out of my diet and i notice so many foods that taste naturally sweet that i didn't notice when i used to drink soda.

green tea

>>19325832
nice cup. I always thought this type of glaze looked like a brain, a bit freaky

>>19325832
I love it when the tea soup is neon green

>>19325843
thanks, i still dont see the brain look but everyone says that kek, i wanna get a full hagi set one day but i can only find max 100ml kyusus in this style while i prefer to use 200ml
>>19325886
same its nice to see, tea is Yutaka Midori Sencha Madoka from o-cha, good balance between sweetness and grassyness without the sweetness taking over like from what i've tasted in other midori cultivars, also quite astringent. I think i prefer even more vegetal greens still though

>>19325923
there's a 300ml one in this style on Artistic Nippon if you're interested: https://www.artisticnippon.com/product/hagi/kashun/kairagi_kyusu.html

>>19325923
Yes im stoaked o-cha has an $8 shipping option again this year.

i love tea, and have drunk it since i was a young child. i appreciate its flavor, and seek out nice offerings whenever the time comes to purchase.
but with all of that said, is there any non-autistic reason you guys are laying your post-brew leaves out and taking photos of them?
i need to know, because its kind of grossing me out.

>>19325972
it's intended to show the quality of the leaves used to make the tea i think. but yes it's autism

>>19325972
you can sometimes tell something about the quality or processing of the tea from the brewed leaves
for an easy example, quality tie guan yin in the modern style shouldn't really contain stems. if the leaves are kind of broken and fucked up that's also a bad sign for most tea

>>19325981
i figured. im almost like that with brweing coffee, but ill never start lining up my spent pucks/beans, from left to right, by size.
>>19325993
cool, thank you. and also, stop that immediately, if it was you doing it.

>>19325972
Seeing the wet leaves tells you quite a bit about how they were processed, how well they were processed and gives you some information about what varietal/s of tea were used. Plus it's /ck/ you gotta expect at least a little autism here

>>19326002
the dry leaves can literally look like anything and tell you almost nothing about the tea from appearance, after theyve expanded in water you get to know what the other guy said. also seeing the size of the leaves can help you determine if its able to steep properly with your gaiwan and if you may need a strainer for the tea

which one for easy chai lattes?

>>19326242
Left will be stronger and more malty, righ will be smoother and less strong, for lattes i would probably go left, that's similar to the blend i have right now

>>19326250
left it is. thanks fren. Maybe I'll get a TINY sample of the right, but if I'm paying for shipping then I want to bundle everything together and do this once. I ordered quite a bit of teas back in Feb and I'm still going through them all.

can someone give a review of 2022 New Arrival Jin Jun Mei High Mountain Organic Black Tea (Batch: BE05#) on Awazon?

>>19326250
why would one be stronger than the other? arent they both using the same black teas? or is masala chai a different blend?

>>19326297
The left one is a CTC (crush tear curl) process black tea, the leave are mechaniclly shredded with little metal fingers, it's a way of processing that makes the tea infuse stronger. Right is fullish leaves, the are processed more lightly so they wont infuse as strongly.

>>19326325
this is the kind of high functioning autism I come here for.
based.

>>19326325
ty. impressed ngl

>>19326250
when i think of malt, i think of assam (?). The most malty tea i drank was twinnings irish breakfast which i assume is a blend with assam in it.

>>19326422
Yeah i think the ctc process was used a lot for things like English breakfast blends and other hearty cuppas that coild stand up to milk. Im not sure how common it is today, i don't think it's typically used for teabag tea but i don't really know that much about the commodity tea market.

>>19316547
Oh hey, I've tried this tea before. It's really good but unfortunately way too expensive for me to justify a repeat purchase. I always brewed it at 185. FYI it's made by a gay couple. Enjoy ;)

>>19326459
Most teabag stuff comes from Africa and it's all CTC mainly because they can't realistically teach Africans how to orthodox process tea consistently. Skill issue. The only non CTC teabag material is Ceylon.

ever since I started drinking pu erh tea I haven't touched my normal tea much at all..

>>19326847
I could hear the gay in one of their processing videos. The video itself was somewhat interesting. It was also the first time I ever heard "one bud, three leaf" picking grade. Couldn't bring myself to watch a second. Good green tea, though.
Did you try any others?
>>19326992
You're here forever.

>>19327083
Yes, I tried their oolong also. Very floral without anything else to say. I preferred the green tea by far.

what's the difference?

>>19327284
Different batches.
>Sometimes there is also a three digit number standing after the original 4 digit recipe. The first digit represents the year it was produced, while the other two represent the production number within that year.
https://pathofcha.com/blogs/all-about-tea/pu-erh-recipes-what-the-4-numbers-on-pu-erh-wrappers-stand-fo

>>19326992
Don't let your green tea go stale, bro.

>>19327284
606 is the sixth batch from that year, 612 is the 12th batch from that year.
Note that that was the height of the puer bubble, dayi doesn't usually make 12 batches of the same tea in a year

>>19327702
yeah I wonder if the quality might actually be worse than the cheaper 2011 version they have?

>>19327717
It's hard to say, is the 2011 is cheaper? i would probably get that.

>>19327741
yes, it's only $19.99

I want to buy a new tea cup post your favorite that you use for inspiration please. I'm looking for a small one.

New to tea here; I wanted to ask if there's any strong minty teas, like Santa beat the shit out of you type of minty.

Any Honey like green teas picks are also welcomed!

>>19327857
Kong mountain tea has a great selection of cups and they are always getting new ones in.
This is mine, it's about 140-150ml
https://www.kongmountaintea.com/teacups
They have more in the preorder section, lots of it is already in stock they are just slow to create listings
https://www.kongmountaintea.com/newteawarepreorder

>>19327866
>Minty tea
Something with peppermint oil added to it.
You can just buy a small bottle of peppermint oil/flavoring and add a few drops to whatever tea to reach your desired strength.

>>19327869
25+ for shipping and all the cups are expensive too but thanks for the rec i liked the one on your pic.

>>19327857
I usually just use this basic white Rosenthal teacup. you can pick up vintage porcelain cups for really cheap if you're in Europe. I also have a painted version from the 1940s, but I don't usually use it because it has some decorations inside and IDK what they put in paint back then
>>19327869
damn that site has some really nice pottery

>>19327958
I am in europe but i like tea cups without handles something more "asian-like" so not too much choice in the vintage porcelain for it.

>>19328005
>I am in europe
Store is in china but shipping should be somewhat reasonable
https://www.etsy.com/shop/GraceTeawares

>>19328005
>EU
These guys have a somewhat eclectic selection, you may or may not like it
https://togo.moychay.nl/collections/our-tea-cups
Also on etsy you can set the custom location filter to europe, so if you search wood fired teacup and then type Europe for the location you will still find a little bit of spam but lots of small artists.
https://www.etsy.com/search?q=wood+fired+tea+cup&explicit=1&locationQuery=Europe

>>19328181
>>19328195
Thanks for your links, the moychay shop isn't for me but thanks.

>>19327083
could you taste the gay? now i think i want myself a faggy tea. i want myself something..... faggoted....

>>19328251
It honestly was a little appalling to learn. It's nice to study tea cultivation and production due to its significant distance to caustic Western ideals such as pickle smooching. I suppose I deserve it, trying an American tea company at random.

Any raw puerhs worth getting from awazon?
I was thinking of grabbing some xiaguan toucha

>>19328479
Haven't tried any raws from them yet, if i was going to i would probably grab one of those xiaguan tea horse or te je tuos (not the mini tuos) or one of the tuos cakes or bricks from Long Yuan Hao, ive had some of their ripe before and it was nice.

Drink more fu brick
2009 Gao Jia Shan "Wild Fu Zhuan"

>>19328479
yes, note that their warehouse is in Kunming though so quite dry storage conditions. so expect those semi-aged xiaguans tuos to still pack a punch

>>19328518
I got my first fu brick sample from KTM some time ago, but have yet to try it
any brewing tips? it's a more premium brick, from 2017 or so I think

To the oldheads out there, you know who you are.
If you aren't picking up several kilos of fu cha and tian jain from YS this year while its still cheap you are missing out. Shit it going to go up as fast as liubao did in the last few years.
Also be careful storing tian jian if you don't want your puer to taste smokey.
Also mojun brand can fuck right off and Qian Liang tea can kiss my ass.

>>19328542
just follow gong fu style. i myself like to do 30 sec first steep. and like 2-3 minutes second steep or a 5 minute steep and add milk for a milk tea.

>>19328542
>any brewing tips?
Works well gongfu or grampa style, if its super dense split the chunk into a few thinner layers before brewing. You want the water to be nice and hot. Untill you get a feel for the particular batch treat it more like raw than ripe, don't leaf it too aggressively and don't push gongfu brew times too hard. Great after a heavy or greasy meal.

>>19328553
>tian jain
>Shit it going to go up as fast
I kind of doubt it, at least not for the recent production stuff. I do plan to grab a basket or two at some point though.

>>19328553
What brand and vintage do you recommend?

>>19328687
Hate to be like this but you need to try it and see what you are into. That said im fond of Gao Jia Shan brand and don't necessarily go al in on their most super duper premium offerings. 2017 Yun Tai Mountain "Sentinel Mountain" is also worth sampling. Bai Sha Xi is good too,

>>19328634
>I kind of doubt it
Fair enough, it's mostly the fu brick that i think is going to climb fairly quickly

>>19328742
The aged fu bricks definitely have the potential to shoot up in price. I still don't see why young stuff is likely to shoot up dramatically. For semi aged liubao bricks/cakes going up in price I am not sure how much of it is a true price increase there is vs the fact that only a few western western vendors carry it so the price may not be reflective of the market. Anyone checked the prices on Taobao? Semi aged loose leaf liubao can still be had reasonably cheap if you shop around. The 20+ year old liubao is typically expensive at this point but that is to be expected.

>>19328783
>Anyone checked the prices on Taobao?
I checked three cranes store and cnnp store last year and it was pricey. I didn't digg too much into independent vendors with older stock because finding good vendors on taobao is an undertaking.

>>19328783
>>19328814
Kingteamall has some decently priced 2006 CNNP liu bao. it's nice and smooth
didn't liu bao kind of have to increase in price because the market stopped being oversaturated with dirt cheap liu bao from Malaysian mining companies selling their leftover stock? I recall someone saying that back in the 90s it was hilariously cheap

>>19328872
Yes, there was a bunch of old stock in Malaysia that ran out but that was a long time ago. Probably due to heicha becoming trendy because of puerh. I don't think the loss of old liu bao stock plays a big role in younger liu bao prices but it does mean you cant get fully aged liubao for cheap anymore. As a side note Malaysian tea stores still often have good prices on younger liu bao because they like it over there and they probably have less markup than western vendors.

>>19328948
Good post, any Malaysian shops that ship to the west? I looked a bit a few years ago but not too deeply.

brainlet here, have i understood the pastebin correctly that i can just shove my puerh wrapped in its paper into a plastic tub with some boveda 58% packs and that's all i need to do for storage? thanks

>>19329055
In a nutshell yeah. Western puerh storage is a very deep yet not fully understood subject. There's plenty of conflicting information and dogma on top of a fairly long list of fundamentals.
If you have just one cake or two that you're actually going through, a tub and boveda pack are fine.

>>19329055
Yeah basically don't let it get dry or wet and keep it away from smelly shit and it's fine

>>19329133
yeah no intention of super long term storage right now just they seem quite dry.

>>19329149
thanks.

>>19328999
https://www.kgtea.com/collections/dark-tea
Been meaning to try them at some point but I don't drink much liubao so I have not gotten around to it yet. Not sure why they always list their house brand 15 YO liubao as "pre order" as I know they at least used to stock it. If you want that you should probably email them first to find out whats up. Could be they just never updated their website.

https://www.legend-of-tea.com/collections/liu-bao-tea
Is another option though not as cheap.

I think both those shops will ship internationally but I have not tested them. Obviously shipping will probably cost a bit.

I have a number of other Malaysian shops buried in my massive tea bookmarks folder but unfortunately that is going to take some time to sort through. I am in the processes of slowly recognizing the links into a spreadsheet so that it is actually usable.

>>19329224
Awesome thanks

>>19329330
If someone orders from them please tell me how it goes. Half the fun of /tea/ is living vicariously though the other anons here.

I did a quick price check and kgtea (before shipping) has some Zhong Cha Liubao productions for about half the cost of purplecloudteahouse.

https://www.kgtea.com/collections/dark-tea/products/%E6%A2%A7%E5%B7%9E%E4%B8%AD%E8%8C%B6%E7%AA%96%E8%97%8F%E5%85%AD%E5%A0%A1%E8%8C%B6-%E9%99%88%E7%B3%BB%E5%88%97-250g-%E5%80%BC%E5%BE%97%E4%BD%A0%E6%94%B6%E8%97%8F%E7%9A%84%E4%B8%80%E6%AC%BE%E9%99%88%E5%B9%B4%E5%85%AD%E5%A0%A1%E8%8C%B6
vs.
https://purplecloudteahouse.com/collections/liu-bao/products/2020-zhong-cha-chen-liu-bao-tea-250g-box (same batch as kgtea)

https://www.kgtea.com/collections/dark-tea/products/%E6%A2%A7%E5%B7%9E%E4%B8%AD%E8%8C%B6%E7%AA%96%E8%97%8F%E5%85%AD%E5%A0%A1%E8%8C%B6-%E9%BB%91%E8%8C%B6%E5%85%AD%E5%A0%A1%E8%8C%B62018-200g-
vs
https://purplecloudteahouse.com/collections/liu-bao/products/2015-2008-200g-black-box-liu-bao (3 years older batch than kgtea)

>>19329417
I will definitely post about it if i make an order.that black box liubao from purple cloud is one of the best liubao teas ive had btw, strongly recommended. Clean and smooth

>>19328553
>>19328742
>>19328783
What's the idea behind the fu zhuan price increase hypothesis?

>>19329213
A hygrometer can be a helpful tool. Cakes can dry out and need to be reconditioned. At some level of abstraction, you can think of them like moisture batteries. If you put them in a bin with a boveda pack, they can absorb a significant amount of moisture from that pack until it reaches an equilibrium and then it will stay there. A hygrometer can help you keep track of that happening in real time.
Said another way, if you stick a dry cake and a 65% boveda pack in there, you may notice the hygrometer read 58% for a good while. Then the cake becomes conditioned, then the hygrometer will read 65%.
For one a cake or two, you don't need to measure anything, but it is interesting and will help you understand what's happening with you puerh.

>>19329501
>What's the idea behind the fu zhuan price increase hypothesis?
I am the second anon who is more skeptical but the theory is probably that as puerh prices continue to go up speculators will mass buy up the available stock of aged and perhaps even nicer semi-aged fu zuan as a substitute in hopes that it will be the next big thing. The puerh bubble caused the prices of other aged heicha to go up because it made collecting them much more popular. I think I remember hearing about old kang bricks being shipped out of Tibet and back to china because the value had gone up so much and there was suddenly demand for them in the mainland. Personally I don't think we will ever see as dramatic prices increases again because I don't see demand spiking as much again (its popular now so it cant be made popular for the first time again) and the supply for most heicha has increased since then as well (except perhaps for gushu which is still supply constrained). Some of the aged fu zhuan bricks can still be had for surprisingly good prices but they tend to look like lawn clippings (less marketable) and they can't make the same clams to exclusive Terroirs as puerh can so I think they are less likely to spike in price as a whole. I kinda figure if it were going to happen it would have already. Still 20+ YO tea is uncommon as a whole and tends to become unavailable or is prone to go rapidly up in price just due to scarcity so if there is something you like it is worth buying now.

>>19329501
Well the other poster covered it pretty thoroughly so i will just say it's not going to get any cheaper.

>>19329624
>so i will just say it's not going to get any cheaper.
I fully agree with that. Prices will continue to go up at some rate or another. I suppose the other angles I did not cover in my first post are that the rising Chinese middle class will continue to slowly drive up prices. Also, I suspect that Hunnan heicha production lends itself to mechanization which may help keep prices more grounded (same reason Japanese tea is still available at sane prices despite them having a high standard of living).

is the 150g 7542 full chea a good deal?

>>19329937
7542 from full chea*

>>19329937
Yeah its a good way to try that tea without spending a bunch of money

i like barley tea. anyone else?
where do you like to buy it?

i have spearmint growing is it worth trying to dry it or just put it in hot water for tea

it's good for sleep aid right?

Do you guys like that kind of tea that they inoculate with the "golden flower" mold? Is it any good?

>>19330674
yeh, its real good after eating some greasy bacon or something

drinking CBSe guarana yerba mate at the right temperature this time. i poured at 140F, didn't check afterward, probably 120F in the end
it actually tastes like how it smells now, but it also has a menthol-y numbing/sensitive feel to it. weird

anyone bought anything from teaswelike? want to get some traditional stores puerh again but most of yeeon's stuff is kinda expensive and teaswelike has a few cheapish tuochas

I am thinking of tossing in some green tea to my yerba mate mix. I am sure I am not the first person to think of this idea. My idea would be to add green tea into the 3rd wash. Has anybody else experimented with blending them?

I have a bunch of nettles that have been cooked, how do i make tea out of it? Dry it in the oven and then grind into powder?

New tea cup from today. Will try it later.

>>19331455
1 to 1 ratio with my gaiwan perfect for me and doesn't heat up too quickly either to hold it pretty happy about it. (drinking High mountain red Ai Lao)

is loose earl grey supposed to be ""powdery""?
It's in bits and not long leaves like the chines black tea I have

>>19332291
Yeah it's usually broken leaf. Shouldn't have much actual powder though

>>19330674
Hell yeah, im not convinced that the mold adds much to the tea but it tastes good.

>>19330674
Fu zuan is great, I really like it. The "golden flowers" changes the taste less than you may think however. It is not an earthy tea like shou is.

>>19331170
>anyone bought anything from teaswelike?
While I have not personally purchased from them yet they do have a great reputation and I would not hesitate using them. I intend to grab some stuff from them myself. Those XG tuochas look like a good starting place for aged tea.

>want to get some traditional stores puerh
you should probably specify what type of storage you are looking for a bit more directly. "traditional storage" can be ambiguous. Yeeon sells both some HK cellar stored puerh (very high humidity storage, sometimes called HK traditional storage) as well as teas in lightly climate controlled warehouses (moderate to high humidity). Teaswelike sells teas with natural Taiwanese or Malaysian storage which typically ranges from moderate to high humidity. Think of storage being a range. It is also to note that some of the terms get used relatively "dry" HK storage is still generally going to be wetter than natural Kunming storage.

>>19331170
Yeah ive bought from teas we like. its expensive but you are paying for them to have a pretty well curated selection. Ive been happy with the different teas ive picked up from them. The 30¢ brick is mild but tasty, very smooth pleasing drink.

>>19321465
>>19321529
>>19321940
thanks for the input

>>19329543
that makes sense thank you. i actually have a hygrometer/thermometer i keep with the plant seedlings so i will shove it in there for funsies.

>>19332291
not idea about the earl grey, is it in tea bag?
Chinese black tea can be in bits i guess, but the one i have is in broken cake form as a sampler.

The ripe 7572 sold on Amazon, does anyone know the year? Im not buying, just curious.

>>19333026
Idk, but the really cheap one on Amazon is from 2011

>>19333026
Mine I just bought is from 2021

>>19333056
>>19333063
well, ok. thanks. and im not sure if u know its a 150 gram cake, so its not a full cake.
>>19333063
how is it?

Thoughts on heated pumidors?
https://mgualt.com/tealog/2021/10/30/2016-w2t-tuhao-af-5-years-heated-storage/

>>19333026
>>19333056
>>19333063
>>19333088
are you anons mixing up Amazon with Awazon?

>>19333138
Trying to age tea if you don't live in sothern china is a meme, your goals for home storage should be keeping it from drying out and keeping it from picking up bad smells.
Repurposed old cooler + humidity packs is the way to go.
Teadb.org has some pretty autistic articles about tea storage if you haven't read them already.

>>19333056
shit sorry my phone autocorrected lmao. I meant the 2011 cake that's on Awazon for 19.99$

What is the cheapest source of bulk matcha? I don't care if you guys think it tastes like shit, I'm just using it for iced lattes. Amazon seems expensive as hell.

>>19333259
Search "culinary green tea powder" and find someone selling it in bulk

>>19333259
Here $7 per pound
https://www.herbco.com/p-1020-green-tea-powder.aspx

>>19333306
Bro that shit is brown.

>>19332861
I wouldn't be a friend if I didn't make sure you have calibrated yet recently. Those things can drift 10% in a year.

>>19333317
You said you didn't care if it tastes like shit. Actual matcha costs like 50¢ per gram

>>19333138
it works with a high risk for mold but have you ever heard anyone say their favorite storage is from a heated pumidor?

>>19333138
>>19333248
I think it's not a meme and it's worth experimenting with. It's been done so very little that hardly anyone has any experience with it or even drinking teas stored in that way. I'm thinking about starting a cooler as a heated pumidor this summer and even selling the tea.
Sure it's a hassle, but it's interesting and it's a project in need of more data point. I don't think it should be an objective for a primary pumidor, but rather a disjoint experiment along side it.
What I'm debating currently is if I want to condition + seal the cakes or have an active humidity solution in the heated pumidor with it. If I'm not mistaken, MGault only does the condition + seal technique, which I feel like doesn't happen often in the West relative to people doing the cooler and humidity packs. I'm wondering if it isn't better to ensure humidity is kept up with an active solution in the heated pumidor as well.
>>19333347
I'm not convinced mold is a problem at the moisture levels we're talking here. For a given RH%, mold risk decreases as temperature increases. My gut says most people who have dealt with significant mold are people who have frequent, significant temperature changes inside their pumidor. It can't be any body's favorite because you can't even get your hands on the stuff unless you're friends with somebody blogging about it.

>>19333378
consider reading this guy's blog about heated storage, he has a tea aged for 5 years using his system which he said had good results
https://mgualt.com/tealog/2018/08/04/temp-control-experiment-w2t-bosch/
https://mgualt.com/tealog/2022/09/24/dayi-7542-1203-5-year-storage-comparison/

>>19333396
Yep! I've read all of it. I should give it another go since I'm pretty close to pulling the trigger and putting it together.

>>19333248
Yeah I understand that trying to simulate a city literally half way across the world is difficult and there are challenges but my tea collection is starting to outgrow my airtight food storage bins so I'm looking to build my pumidor. And yes, I've read teadb articles and bunch of others on this topic.

>>19333347
No but most people don't even A/B test their storage variables either and with the long time component involved it's hard to find anything except the conventional "just buy already aged tea" or "don't try to age your own tea" and it's frustrating.

>>19333378
My understanding is that all puerhs have mold, yeast and bacteria in them. Some are harmful and produce toxins as they metabolize but some are good and even beneficial to us. It all boils down to specific storage condition favoring certain microbes to thrive in that environment and hopefully allow them to out compete the bad.

I've only read just a couple of papers on microbes in puerh tea but seems like the certain strains are aerobes... meaning they require oxygen to grow. Since western tea drinkers mostly do sealed air tight containers for puerh my worry is that this slows down the growth of aerobes and allows other microbes to grow, taking the tea fermentation to a different path then teas stored conventionally in warehouse.

>>19333467
please post if you decide to do it, i was planning on making a heated storage setup at the start of this year but couldnt find the type of insulation i wanted in the local stores here and i cant be fucked buying that online, i was planning on using the super cheap young haiwan raw cakes so even if it molded it wouldnt be that big of a deal to me

>>19333467
It's important that we're specific about what we mean by air tight. A cooler, wine cooler, or minifridge is not air tight, it's just mostly air tight. Oxygen can still get in at some amount. The only way I can see a tea being stored completely air tight is with a heat-sealed mylar bag. Even those pinch sealed ones have some amount of passage, although one might run into oxygen supply issues there too.
That said, I don't think people do that. I believe the natural exchange between outside a cooler and inside is satisfactory. If that isn't, simply opening the pumidor periodically, say to grab a tea for the week or month, is definitely satisfactory.
Would you say you agree with that? What is your pumidor experience and your opinions on how it's gone?

anybody here still /teapots/?

>>19333502
Ive got a few clay ones, they haven't gotten much love lately, ive been in cheap porcelain gaiwan lazymode

>>19333536
i went on a bit of a shopping binge lately and picked up a dozen

>>19333502
somewhat want a duanni shui ping but right now japanese clays for green tea interests me a little more, also i dont have a need for a duanni pot anymore since i very rarely gongfu ripes and heicha nowadays

>>19333547
>i went on a bit of a shopping binge lately and picked up a dozen
Just a few lol, where have you been getting them from? I like that piece

>>19333347
>have you ever heard anyone say their favorite storage is from a heated pumidor?
No, but only a few people have experimented with heated storage and mostly only short term. There is not the data to say it does not work. People don't generally drink HK cellar stored tea after only a few years either but many still like how it turns out long term.

>>19333378
>MGault only does the condition + seal technique, which I feel like doesn't happen often in the West relative to people doing the cooler and humidity packs.
I think part of leaving out the bovedas is a practical measure because the sealing method is convenient and cost effective as your collection gets big. Most people don't have collections big enough to really worry about long term aging. Also it may be a bad idea to leave bovedas in for many years unattended because they could possibly leak. I currently do Mylar + boveda + cooler (to blunt temp swings) but as my collection grows to the point where there are bags I no longer open regularly I will start rotating the bovedas out. In the long term (over many years) I do think it is probably worth opening bags every once in a while in order to exchange oxygen. Just taking the cake out to get tea once in a while should be enough.

>For a given RH%, mold risk decreases as temperature increases.
I an not convinced that that holds consistently true. As temperature increases at a fixed RH absolute humidity will go up. Mold thrives in hot and humid environments. A lot of the concept that mold is a winter thing indoors comes from condensation due to the temperature differential between indoors and outside. I remember a tea blogger (in Taiwan I think) mention they had tea rapidly begin to mildew just sitting on their shelf because it it was so hot and humid at the time. You see a lot of aged tea sold shrink wrapped over there because of that. I would still keep the RH% at a safe level even with heated storage unless you are willing to risk mold.

>>19333579
desu? ebay a lot, but i wouldn't recommend it for other people, it's a absolute landmine unless you know exactly what to look for. i've managed to score some decent pieces off of it for cheap(er) though.

that one's a cultural revolution piece, this one's jiangponi

>>19333606
Oh yeah ebay is crazy, good on you for being able to navigate it. I can recommend checking out yahoo auctions japan if you haven't already. Plenty of proxy services you can work with and there are some really nice pieces that end up for sale on there.

>>19333624
yahoo auctions are cool too, though the shipping fee undercuts a lot of the 'deal' you get out of it sadly

>>19333769
this one's an LQER piece but it's pretty underfired sadly, i use it mostly for shu as a result

>>19333776
How can you date a teapot like that. A lot of those old teapots end up looking a lot like cheapo tourist pots (and other way around).

>>19333808
a lot of tiny things usually, clay texture and coarseness, style of the stamps, general shape and how it compares to other shapes of the period. cheap garbage can have one or two characteristics, but it never has everything.

it's also hard to artificially age something without it being obvious (like with shoe polish or w/e) so a lot of the 'better' fakes look really new in practice.

also, older stuff usually has shittier construction and more obvious signs of hand-make in practice.

here's some vintage nixing i picked up. i think japanese and nixing stuff has the best value proposition when it comes to buying off auction sites nowadays, there's a lot that's going for super cheap atm and it's less of a minefield compared to yixing.

i spotted an NIB vintage nixing the other day that went for $22 shipped

>>19333832
Fucking A nice
How about Japanese stuff? What kinds specifically are you interested in? I got a lil woodfired Japanese shupingish post a while ago. It's interesting, makes tea extremely sweet

>>19333898
i only have a couple japanese pieces atm, both hon-shudei, but i like what i've gotten out of them
want to pick up a mumyoi pot down the line I think

>>19333934
>mumyoi
I keep considering grabbing one of those pots that hojo commissioned.
He at seems like he is having fun trying different clays. But im concerned he is a bit off the beaten path.
https://hojotea.com/item_e/available.htm

>>19333591
You make an interesting point about absolute humidity. I don't know how well boveda packs or humidity beads do at high temperatures. There's probably documentation out there.
It seems to me that the trade off is being able to routinely inspect the tea, but added humidity may prove to be dangerous at that level anyway. From my current understanding, I would consider 65% to be a safe level.
And for what it's worth, I am willing to risk mold to lose some cakes over this experiment.

>>19333972
>And for what it's worth, I am willing to risk mold to lose some cakes over this experiment.
Not him but this is part of the issue, not losing cakes from mold but that you are looking at a 5+ year experiment. So you buy tea, you create this hot storage, you leave the tea in it for 5 years. Then you taste the tea, and if its a success? You put more tea in heated storage, and wait another five years. Much simpler to just buy aged tea that tastes good and drink it.

>>19314166
NEW
>>19334037
>>19334037
>>19334037

>>19333990
MGault had significantly improved taste to his first experiments in a single year. The color of the leaves and the soup all looked better. I'd like to see what could be done, too.

>>19334047
I suppose i should actually read the blogpost you linked

>>19334078
It's worth a read! MGault isn't an authority, but he's got the spine to try something and report on it. I like a lot of what he has to say.

>>19334084
Pretty interesting, especially the more dramatic resuts with the young w2t then the dayi.

>>19333495
Fridges and food containers (those with a seal) aren't 100% airtight but they're pretty close. I guess what I meant by air tight is more colloquial than being 100% sealed. Now, does this have an impact on metabolism and ultimately the taste of our teas? I'm not sure, it's just a guess.
>I believe the natural exchange between outside a cooler and inside is satisfactory. If that isn't, simply opening the pumidor periodically, say to grab a tea for the week or month, is definitely satisfactory.
I do hear this a lot so it'd be interesting to test this. I ordered a ppm meter and gas sensor so I'll try measuring the conditions inside my storage.

>>19333493
Sure. but I'm still learning and researching so I'd be a while before I get to it fully.

>>19331555
You bought the tea at ys? What did you think of it? I was a bit disappointed as the tea lost its flavor after two steeps. What temperature did you use?