/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>19471763
Tea? More like poop hi hi hi hi hi
;-)

>>19471763
i always pour my gaiwan slightly sideways towards me instead of straight down
is that bad because maybe the chaqi energy gets dissipated into the air instead of into the chahai

i finally cracked my gaiwan, this one lasted a few years, it was just a cheap dayi branded one that i like because it's thin light and well shaped. Im half tempted to just buy another but i also wouldn't mind getting something nicer.

>>19471799
Aliexpress has a quite a big selection of cheap stuff. Yunnan sourcing has some fancier stuff, maybe it's just me but some of that pricier stuff end up looking a bit overcomplicated and tacky.
Anyone have some nice artisan gaiwan?

>>19471763
what should i look out for when buying from awazon?
im wrapping up some sampler packs and ive decided to move up to buying whole cakes so i have more time to figure them out as opposed to two or three servings in a 25g sample
awazon's prices are great but it's worrying that it's so hard to find any info about any of the product on here.
ive read before to avoid awazon branded tea, is that a good idea or should it be just fine?
and should i avoid the SUPER SALE 8$ per 400g CAKE promotions or what?
http://www.pu-erhtea.com/TeaDetails.aspx?TeaID=1072
http://www.pu-erhtea.com/TeaDetails.aspx?TeaID=915
im looking at buying these since i want to stock up on some sheng to go through. the way i see it, tea is tea, so it cant possibly be that bad, but i also dont want to end up in a situaiton where i have a bunch of garbage i end up having to throw out since im not really prepared for aging or anything like that.

>Its All In The Wrist
That's not a TM&WL reference, is it?

>>19471972
this cake is even cheaper and someone claimed it was surprisingly decent: http://www.pu-erhtea.com/TeaDetails.aspx?TeaID=900
only sheng I got from my order was the 2006 dayi spring of menghai and it's pretty good though not insane or anything
I think most people here just buy ripe from trusted factories from them
they're based in kunming, so expect the storage to be dry and the ageing to be slow

>>19471972
Nobody really knows if awazons house teas are any good, nobody has really ordered it and a lot of it is suspiciously cheap. Most people have been using them to buy cheap dayi/fuhai ripe teas. If you want to buy some $8 raw or white tea cake just to see what you get go for it, but i wouldn't buy a bunch of them at once.

Pastebin has no info on Tulsi?!

I'm drinking grandpa style but the leaves keep getting in my mouth

>>19471799
If you've been drinking enough tea to crack a gaiwan, you deserve at least a couple of nice gaiwans.

>>19472293
The leaves should sink to the bottom, sometimes a few stems and bits will float and i just flick those out with a fork before i start drinking, but if the leaves dont sink generally it means your water wasnt hot enough when you poured it. Make sure to add the leaves to the mug before adding the water, if the mug is thick you can also fill it with freshly boiled water about 1/4 of the way for 30 seconds or so to preheat it some. Then empty, add leaves and fill.

>>19472293
I’m drinking lesbian style and never have that problem.

>>19472285
Holy basil doesn't get discussed all that often, what information do you think should be in there?

>>19472063
I'll brew up some more of that tonight. 8 year old daily drinker sheng 357g for $8? Hard to complain about. I've paid more for bad samples.

>>19472321
I was just curious about brewing guidelines but I’m treating it like black tea

>>19472293
Use a bombilla. Problem solved.

>>19472063
is there any place i can go to get info on reputable factories to look out for? it's really hard to keep track of every company, factory, location, village and what to expect
>>19472249
what's the worst that could happen?

>>19472410
Nothing as useful as id like
Yunnan sourcing has an old video going over some of them
https://youtube.com/watch?v=f2QTMvc9rOs

>>19472410
>what's the worst that could happen?
Buying a cake or two? Not much
Buying 5-6 cakes? You might spend $80 on tea you don't really enjoy drinking.

>>19472410
surprisingly, pu erh hasnt gone mainstream yet. you can find reviews for anything online these days but not for pu erh cake you want.

sipping on rooster king and reading up on national IQs.
In the paper he cites Ethiopia's national IQ of 63, the world's lowest, and the fact that men and women are only expected to live until their mid-40s as an example of his finding that intelligence is the main determinant of someone's health.

>>19472597
its insane that when you search up "ethiopian interview" on youtube, the normal ethipion off the street is actually mentally retarded.

>>19472410
>is there any place i can go to get info on reputable factories to look out for?
Not in english. You need to learn that stuff by lurking, window shopping, and drinking more tea. Overtime you will get a feel for things.

This site has a lot of info but is in Chinese and is not comprehensive.
https://www.puercn.com/puercha/pinpai/
Most of the big companies are on the list but there are some I know of that are not and many brands I have never seen that are.

>>19472557
The LGBT (fuck all the other unnecessary letters and numbers) community is often on the forefront of soon-to-be-hot trends. This tracks with puer culture. Based on how these things usually play out culturally, puer should be mainstream popular in 2-3 years.

>>19472617
>often on the forefront of soon-to-be-hot trends.
wtf? really? damn..u better start being nice to us gay folks. or we will make sure ou straight people never develop a vibrant culture.

>>19471763
it took me way too long to realize when you guys were talking about awazon, it wasnt just some weird name for amazon but another online tea shop

i feel so stupid right now

>>19472753
also where are some good places to buy samplers? i feel yunnan sourcing has too little variety in theirs

looking for any puerh or smoky black teas

>>19472637
we straights let you descend into fetish hell so we could retake control. gays in the lcoset were unspeakbly powerful

>>19472637
This has been true in American culture since at least the 1960s. It isn’t some secret or weird faggot attempt at rewriting history. You should know this as a user of this hellsite. Think about how much fringe shit pushed by literal homosexuals you used to only encounter here and on other degenerate sites that has since become completely mainstream.
Remember Linetrap?

For me, it's mengku

http://www.pu-erhtea.com/TeaDetails.aspx?TeaID=915
http://www.pu-erhtea.com/TeaDetails.aspx?TeaID=193
http://www.pu-erhtea.com/TeaDetails.aspx?TeaID=102
thoughts on these cakes? thinking about buying one of them but i have no idea the distinction between them really.
like, what's the differnece between the two "long yuan hao" cakes? and is that menghai cake one of the da yi ones, or what? is that an alright price for that age?

>>19472792
>also where are some good places to buy samplers?
If you want more variety pick the samples yourself. Nobody makes an all in one puerh sampler because it would cost a ton.

Just ordered some of this.

What can I expect?

>>19472949
forgot pic

>>19472792
Bana Tea has samplers

>>19472953
Pesticide residues, mycotoxins and chinese factory worker’s sweat.

>>19472967
its ok, krishnu will protek me

>>19472967
>Pesticide residues, mycotoxins and chinese factory worker’s sweat.

What tea doesn't?

>>19472897
>thoughts on these cakes? thinking about buying one of them but i have no idea the distinction between them really.
Honestly in cases like this where you have no reviews available a lot of it comes down to looking at the pictures and intuition. The pictures all look fine for the price. The difference between the first two cakes is that one of them claims to be made from Yiwu area tea whereas the other does not appear to advertise a specific location. They all claim to be "old tree" but I would take that with a grain of salt. My hunch would be that the "Banzhang Wang" may be a bit nicer but it also costs more. If it is a real Bulang area tea it may also be a bit more bitter. Yiwu tea on the other hand is stereotypical a bit softer and more "soothing". All three cakes are probably fine if you are ok with dry storage. They do sell 100g samples of the "Long Yuan Hao" cakes if you want less commitment.

>and is that menghai cake one of the da yi ones, or what?
No that is Menghai Banzhang Tea Factory/Lao Man'e Brand. A known brand but not as famous as dayi. I have not had many of their teas but I think they have a decent reputation.

The other two I am pretty sure are from Longyuan Hao. A large brand that sells a ton of tea but is mostly known for their budget productions. They make a lot of cheap shou bricks.

>is that an alright price for that age?
Yes it is about typical for fairly priced cheap sheng of that age. Just don't go in expecting that you got a crazy steal or something. None of those cakes were likely super premium in the first place but are more of daily drinker sort of teas.

>>19473048
thank you for the detailed response. i'm pretty much just looking for a daily sheng to build familiarity as a new drinker, and the thing that sticks out to me is just the age of them, really. if it has almost 20 years of age going on it, surely it's got to have developed some complexity or depth even if it's not a premium product, right?
i will probably go for the yiwu marked one of the cheaper two, im looking for a lighter and more astringent kind anyway

>>19472967
>.t

>>19473048
>No that is Menghai Banzhang Tea Factory/Lao Man'e Brand
I will add that like "Menghai" both "Banzhang" and "Lao Man'e" are locations as well. Both "Banzhang" and "Lao Man'e" are famous areas located near each other in Bulang Mountain Township, Menghai County, Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China. As you can see keeping the location names straight can be a bit of a challenge. I believe Lao Man'er brand owns a plantation near Lao Man'e hence the factory name

>>19473080
>surely it's got to have developed some complexity or depth even if it's not a premium product, right?
Some people describe aged puer as more complex but I mostly see it as different and not strictly better or worse. Personally I like both young and aged sheng. I drink a lot of cheap ≈$30 a cake seimiaged tea myself and find it good enough. Some snobs may scoff at it though and insist on more expensive stuff. It is a matter of perspective. Actually, I had my eye on those three cakes but I always have more tea that I want than I can afford so I have not put in an awazon order yet to try them. I cant guarantee that those cakes are great or that you will like them but they look ok to me.

>i will probably go for the yiwu marked one of the cheaper two, im looking for a lighter and more astringent kind anyway
Did you mean "less astringent"?
Stereotypically yiwu is less astringent, less bitter than Bulang though I don't know how much of a difference you will find here. Both areas are respected so there is not a wrong choice between the two regions.

>>19472808
Ive really been enjoying mengku region teas lately. I like that they are a little less bitter then bulang teas but still can be dynamic and occasionally punchy.

>>19472949
A nice ripe puer with a sort of slightly charred edge of a belgian waffle kinda taste

>>19473139
it could just be my habits as a whiskey snob setting in when it comes to age = complexity. i find myself really liking sheng with its light, citrusy, and honestly astringent tang typically. is that more common to young sheng? what usually changes for sheng with age, anyway? i havent tried very much so far

>>19473158
Some interesting things can happen with aged puer. One reason is kind of hard to reference and compare aged to young puer directly is that a lot of the aged stuff that reasonably available and affordable are the large factory blends, the ones from the 2000s were frequently pretty burly when young, bitter, often smokey, and sometimes downright unpleasant before they got some age on them. So comparing them to young shengs which are much more frequently single region or village productions these days, with somewhat different processing isn't really apples to apples.
Anyway aged puer gets what i can best describe as an aged tea taste, the bitterness and astringency gives way to, woody, piney, loam mushroomy kinds of flavors and more sweetness sometimes creeps in.
It's also important to note that where the tea is stored makes a huge difference in how it ages, dry Kunming storage teas retain much more of their youthful chatecter, and ive has 20 year old ones that still had quite a bite to them. Teas aged in more humid environments like hong kong tend to lean much further into the root cellar, aged taste direction where they are really quite different then younger teas.
Both young and aged sheng is quite good. At the end of they day you just have to try teas to figure out what you like.
Bulang region teas tend to be the most punchy and bitter when young, lincang/mengku teas can also have some zing to them. Yiwu is known for more mellow teas with sort of grass and hay flavors.

>>19473158
Here are some grossly oversimplified tasting notes and age ranges.
>young <5 years
A bit green tea like, "fresh" tasting, often has fruity "apricot" or "tart berry" notes, often quite bitter and astringent.

>Semiaged ≈10years
"Fresh" flavor mostly gone, may still have hint of a "green" herbaceous taste to it, earthy notes like "old leather" and "tobacco leaf" may appear, tannins often turn into a "sour plum" or "crab apple" taste, likely mellowed a bit but often still bitter and astringent.

>aged >20 years
"Fresh" and "green" flavors gone, earthy and woody flavors become more prominent, may develop some new notes like "herbal medicine taste", bitterness and astringency have begun to mellow significantly.

>fully aged >30 years
I have not personally had puerh that old. it tends to be very expensive. I would expect it to be more earthy, more mellow.

Wet vs dry storage changes things up as well. Wetter storage will change the tea faster and more dramatically but can also bring in new musty or root cellar notes. Very wet stored tea tends to have the wet storage taste dominate the flavor of the tea. Very dry storage will mellow the tea slower. Fully aged wet and dry stored sheng will turn out different.

>>19473225
>>19473244
i greatly appreciate the detailed descriptions here. as always, the conclusion seems to be "drink more tea."
this is the order im about to send through awazon, most of it is jsut snagging cheap samples because why not. the white tea cake seems like it could be a pleasant intro to white tea, but im mostly shelling out for the semi-aged sheng from longyuan hao which is probably one of those bigger productions.
i will say i grabbed the tibetan mushroom tuongs because man i really loved that taste of chicken brothy mushroom savory shou i got from some of my samplers and i really want more of that. seems like they'd have it in spades.

>>19473283
If it doesn't jack your shipping price up too much, snag that $8 mengku too. I was originally planning on snagging a tong of that white blind a few months ago but ended up with some older xiaguan brick I really like and this surprisingly good cake. Its definitely still green at 8 years, but I would expect it to blow out my tastebuds at 6g/100ml/205f grandpa brewing but it doesn't. Its well rounded, still a bit green and your brain wants to think bitter, but it quickly falls off and leaves a lingering sweetness.
http://www.pu-erhtea.com/TeaDetails.aspx?TeaID=900

I'm a huge black tea fag, should I give the pu erh meme tea a try?
Also, I want a tetsubin style teapot, but would just a regular ass one be better? Price isn't too much of an issue if the pot and cups are high quality and I can use them forever

>>19473386
damn, that's a steal if it's a solid cake. ill throw it in for sure. i can see how people end up with mountains of this stuff

erm is it normal to be redirected to a 404 page after using paypal to place an awazon order

>>19473422
Yeah, you will receive a confirmation email from awazon.

>>19473415
Here's the bricks I like. I've drank more of the 2017 but now that I have these I should probably just switch over. Toss one on the order as well if you can. Old school rough raw puerh straight from xiaguan's floor. Buyer beware, there might be a couple bugs along for the ride but we're talking about shit thats been sitting in a warehouse for a decade.
http://www.pu-erhtea.com/TeaDetails.aspx?TeaID=796

>>19473426
i didnt register an account before ordering, does that fuck anything up or will they just get it through paypal or something
>>19473429
ill keep that in mind for next time, my collection is growing exponentially and ive barely been drinking this stuff a month or two but man is it so good, no tea ive ever had has really come close

>>19473437
nvm i got my confirmation, i am an undisciplined westerner unused to the discipline required to run a 2005 era website

>>19473437
Yes,I think they use the details from paypal. That 404 page made me skip a heartbeat the first time.

>>19473429
Oh well, more tibetbrick for me.
>ive barely been drinking this stuff a month or two but man is it so good, no tea ive ever had has really come close
I started my little "collection" after some anon here rec'd that 2017 brick a couple years ago. It was so good to me at the time I had to order other stuff so I wouldn't drink through it too fast lel. 4 years later I still really like it despite having more expensive teas sitting around. It reminds me of what they used to serve at a chinese restaurant my family used to frequent when I was a child. Pretty sure they were from hong kong and it was a mafia joint.
Here's that mengku opened up. Its a little bit bitter, little astringent, little drying and every time I finish a cup I want more. There is some apricot in that lingering sweetness. I'm not sure I'd be able to place that note without anon's oversimplified age notes and just having some w2t snoozefest not too long ago. Snoozefest is way more upfront with that apricot which makes sense given the age.

>>19473459
honestly i saw your post after i already placed my order or i probably would have thrown it on, it looks pretty great. on the other hand ive only been drinking puerh for a few months now so i really gotta reign it in and focus on drinking the shit i do have lol. if that's that 8$ cake suggested earlier, i did throw that in, and that sounds great. i honestly love hard astringency and bitterness, im a sucker for tang.
btw is it normal for shou/other fermented tea like hei cha to pry off from the cake really crumbly? the tea doesnt end up tasting super bitter or anything but man it almost crumbles into bits by the time it opens up in the gaiwan

>>19473475
Depends on the tea, but its also a skill issue. I am bad at picking apart cakes. Last time I asked about it some kind anon linked me this.
https://youtu.be/th86Ge4fFJs

>>19472949
>>19472953
doughy, charred wood, some vanilla

>>19473422
lol truly a luxury shopping experience.
Honestly im really glad they redirect to paypal for your payment, i dont think i would be comfortable putting any card details into that website.

>>19473475
Shou is definitely more fragile in my experience.
A tip is that you should never try and separate individual leaves like you see in vendor photos. It's better to pry off large chunks. When brewing chunks you do have to keep an eye on them in the gaiwan because right when they open up they will brew a really strong cup if you don't pour pretty quickly but you get the hang of it.
With super heavily compressed teas that take forever to open up in the gaiwan try to split the chunk into a couple thin layers or smaller pieces.
Here is a random pic of some tea i pried off a brick to brew up.

>>19473410
>I'm a huge black tea fag, should I give the pu erh meme tea a try?
I don't see why not. ripe pu-erh can have some similar flavors to black tea. if you like chocolaty, woody flavors, you might enjoy it
tetsubin teapots aren't very practical for tea, they used to be just for heating water. you should get a small normal teapot, or a gaiwan if you want something funky

>>19473475
>gotta reign it in
it's painful. my set of tea bookmark folders is growing too fast.

>>19473410
>Also, I want a tetsubin style teapot, but would just a regular ass one be better?
I suggest against cast iron teapots. They sink a lot of heat and can be kind of fiddly. They often require preheating but then its possible to pre heat them too much which can cause off tasting brews.
Porcelain or some sort of glazed ceramic (or glass) are the lowest maintenance and most versitle pots to brew in. Clay pots can require being segregated to specific teas depending on what teas you drink, ie you would need to use separate ones for ripe puer and green tea
When buying a teapot the main consideration should be how you want to make tea. If you want to brew western style and make multiple mugs worth at once, a western style teapot with a removable basket is probably the best option. If you just want to brew a single mugs worth at a time then any 280ml-~320ml teapot should work fine. For gongfu brewing something in the 100-120ml range is ideal. I also suggest buying a teapot that is the size of the amout of tea you want to brew when drinking alone, buying a bigger pot just in case you eant to brew for guests will complicate things and generally make your life more difficult.

>>19473283
Definitely want to hear about the moonlight white. Last I looked it was awazons only white tea in stock and it's on my taste test list

been cycling through my teas and coldbrewing to see what i get. cheap silver needles from fullchea are pretty tasty, it's one of my favourites so far. it doesn't taste like something is "missing" like some others i tried. a little honey wasn't bad but it kind of overpowers the taste of the tea, it's better plain.
anyone have much success with black tea? i found it's better brewed hot then chilled.

>>19473829
Really enjoyed cold brewed greens. Tried a few different blacks but they came out either unbearably bitter or unbearably astringent. Tried just one cold brewed ripe and it was disgusting as a cold drink

>>19473874
>cold brewed ripe
yeah that sounds horrid

>>19473874
>unbearably bitter or unbearably astringent
surprising, though i've only tried one black so far. was a golden needle though so super smooth. pretty meh compared to hot brew.
i guess i will try a young sheng tomorrow and see how it is

>>19472949
>>19472953
V93 I think is probably the most accessible ripe I can think of. Everybody likes it. It's safe, cheap, a good gift, and delicious. I gave a tuo to everybody on my team this Summer and the response has been very positive.
Fairly rich, sweet doughy notes. Slightly below average endurance. I keep using the term "bassy" to describe it in my head, but that's kind of nonsense.

>>19473283
Is this your order? I've been curious about all of those. Dying to hear your reviews!

Is everyone itt chinaman?

>>19474300
Yes, we’re all Chinese here. You can participate, but you need a Chinese name. You can be 白傻子. Happy posting!

>>19474300
no, China just happens to make most of the best tea and has the biggest variety of tea

>>19473283
>i greatly appreciate the detailed descriptions here. as always, the conclusion seems to be "drink more tea."
Glad to be helpful. I have been drinking puerh for years myself and still feel like I am learing stuff.

>>19473459
>I'm not sure I'd be able to place that note without anon's oversimplified age notes and just having some w2t snoozefest not too long ago.
Funnily enough that is one one of the teas i was thinking of with a very prominent apricot note.

>>19473475
>btw is it normal for shou/other fermented tea like hei cha to pry off from the cake really crumbly?
You will allways get some dust but with practice you can minimize the breakage. Typically lots of dust is considered bad because it brews fast and is prone to over steep. You don't need to fully separate every leaf and most of the time you will be brewing small chunks/clusters of leaves. My technique is to go in from the side edge with my pick (perpendicular to the axis of compression) and try to flake off thin sheets or small chunks of tea. Try to go for fault lines in between leaves where it feels like you can cleanly spit the tea off with minimal breakage. You are always going to get some breakage though. Tighter pressed chopped leaf iron cakes are harder to split without lots of breakage whereas with some loosely pressed big leafed sheng you can in fact separate the leaves almost fully. Chunks, dust, intact leaves, and leaf fragments all brew a bit differently so you may have to adjust your brew times to compensate. It sounds complicated but it really is pretty intuitive once you have done it for a while. Again it is one of those "drink more tea" things.

>>19474427
As a quick addendum I will add that you don't need to break up the whole cake at once like some videos online show. I only chip off what I need for each session. If I take off too much I store the extra chunks in the bing hole (the dent in the middle of many cakes) before rewrapping the cake.

>>19473829
I had good luck with a first flush Darjeeling, but that basically tasted like a green tea anyway, so not really representative of black teas.

>>19474300
FUCK U AMERIMUTT!!

>>19474300
>>19474376
Specifically, we're Chinese lesbians.

Am I overly sensitive or am I the only one getting wet paper/cardboard box smell from some of the ripes? As it cools it dissipates

>>19473533
That's a good intuition. Hopefully you aren't reusing passwords either since their login is not over HTTPS.

>>19474777
you're the only one, not once in these threads or on the internet anybody mentioned getting cardboard box smell off a ripe. wet cellulose ring a bell?

>>19474785
are you kidding? those guys got bugged more than once, if you catch my drift.

>>19474816
>wet cellulose
Eh not really.
Actually it could be my strainer. It's some ss alloy mesh. I just poured boiling water on it and smells faintly like paper.

>>19474300
Nah.

Ive seen farmer leaf mention grampa brewing young sheng several times, has anyone seen if he has mentioned anywhere what kind of leaf ratio he would use for that?

>>19474975
i usually do 5g for 300ml but pretty weak leaf most of the time when i grandpa brew it, i think a bit lower ratio might be better for higher quality tea

>>19474975
beautiful, ready for blending

Can anyone review the Yingpan Shan black from Farmerleaf? I'm thinking of including it in my order, but I tend to find a lot of black tea kind of meh.

how do I know if hair in puer belongs to a fair skinned chink maiden and not some m*le?

>>19475040
the 2021 one? drinking it right now, it's tasty, pretty light and balanced profile. some of those "toasty" notes i like in a black tea. good mouthfeel, no astringency. it won't blow your mind as a tea, but for the price is great value (if you're into black tea).
i chill it and drink cold sometimes also.

Good evening

>>19474998
>beautiful, ready for blending
Good point, thanks for reminding me, some lao man e and maybe a touch of something sweet will do nicely i think

>>19475202
Bowls

>>19475202
beautiful, rustic
>>19475218
or maybe just a similar sheng that you have from the same era.

tomorrow's refreshner

>>19475248
>or maybe just a similar sheng that you have from the same era
Alright i will do this 2010 menku zeng shan from mengku TF
Not that similar but at least somewhat from the same era. This stuff has kind of an apple vibe to it.

Anyone looking to take advantage of yeeonteas 19% off sale?
I am looking at these three cakes and was wondering if anyone had tried them or has thoughts on them.
https://yeeonteaco.com/collections/new-release/products/2011-nanqiao-tea-factory-nanqiao-selection-pu-erh-tea-cake
https://yeeonteaco.com/collections/new-release/products/copy-of-2016-tea-for-connoisseur-purple-bud-ziya-raw-pu-erh-tea-cake
https://yeeonteaco.com/collections/new-release/products/2017-tea-for-connoisseur-purple-bud-raw-pu-erh-tea-cake

>>19475686
Haven tried that nanqiao cake but immediately zeroed in on it as a likely good buy.
Also these bricks are good if you missed me shilling them in the last few threads
https://yeeonteaco.com/collections/puerh/products/2008-ripe-puerh-tea-brick-jinggu-factory
https://yeeonteaco.com/collections/puerh/products/2008-raw-puerh-tea-brick-jiang-cheng

>>19475699
>Also these bricks are good if you missed me shilling them in the last few threads
I'm not a first time customer, I already own those bricks plus the "taste of Hong Kong" and "purple mark" cakes. I just think the purple sheng cakes look interesting and I want to try something new. Not even really looking for HK storage but the prices on them are pretty good.

>>19475686
>yeeonteas 19% off sale
i said i wouldn't buy any more...

>>19475686
how often do they do sales and is this a good time to grab really old puer from them?

>>19475745
I know the feeling. I was originally planing to wait until black friday but I am having second thoughts.

>>19475752
>how often do they do sales
1-3 times a year typically 10-2-% off. Typically they will have a sale around the moon festival and black Friday. Not sure why they are doing one in July this year.

>is this a good time to grab really old puer from them?
It is as good a sale as they ever do so yes. Not being holiday season means shipping is less likely to get delayed as well.

>>19475375
tips on iced tea? want to get into it so i can bring it to work but really worried itll turn out super bland or something.
i have the recent harvest sencha from ippodo so i figure that's a good use of it.

>>19474264
>>19473804
ill be sure to pop back in when my order gets here, price was sus but how bad can it be, it's still tea

>>19474427
man you guys are NOT making it easy to not buy a metric fuckton of tea with how helpful you are. fr fr

>>19475789
>Not sure why they are doing one in July this year.
Slowing economy?
Could this mean puer crash 2.0 is coming and that prices will go back to normal?

>>19475910
It could just be that they don't want to get stuck with 1000s of orders all at once around the holidays.

>>19475910
>Could this mean puer crash 2.0 is coming and that prices will go back to normal?
Never ever
TFW i missed out on buying tongs of factory cakes for $8 a cake in the early 2000s

>>19475926
S-shut up let me dream
>>19475934
>$8 for factory cake
Holy that must sting. Say if we actually get puer crash now what would you grab?

>>19475990
Obviously get the pricier ones right?

>>19475995
Where would you even sell those though. Would a chinese collector even consider buying from a random western tea collector?

>>19475995
i dont know. i was thinking of drinking for enjoyment. cause theres so many tea cakes i wanna try.

>>19476001
you could sell it to someone in this thread.

>>19476037
Did you forget about the anon who jizzed in the brownie he shared at a meet
I wouldn't drink or eat anything from anons, let alone doxx myself for shipping

>>19475990
>Say if we actually get puer crash now what would you grab?
As much old tea as i could find, mid 90s to 2003 or so. Some modern boutique productions

>>19476091
Its been a while but posters have sent each other tea before. This place isint all that scary.
Anyway if there was a price crash i would be buying teas to drink, not to flip. You are right that its pretty hard for private collectors to resell cakes unless they have some sort of established reputation in the tea world.

>>19473489
Chan is a treasure

>>19476091
>Did you forget about the anon who jizzed in the brownie he shared at a meet
oh yeah lmfao.

>>19476091
If you're referring to the /k/ brownies, that was a ruse.

I've starting taking a crack at the Farmer Leaf single tree pack. So far I've only had #4, this is #2. Relative to #4, #2 is better. It has a mean punch but the huigan is worth it. This is an absolutely juicy tea. I'm a honestly a little surprised how much better I'm feeling about it than the other one. Maybe I was grumpy when I was drinking it. Either way, I still have plenty to circle back to later.
I'm not going to say it's a great value unless you value some specific degree of experimentation and young sheng, which I do. What I'm not sure about is my tasting notes and I'd like some validation or humble pie. If anon picked it up, let's sync up on these packs.

>>19475990
I'd pick up a shit ton of factory standards and a lot of storage. If there's a proper crash, I have a feeling Yunnan Sourcing offerings pre-crash would be highly sought after, if prices returning to normal coincided with greater Western adoption.

>>19475896
>price was sus but how bad can it be, it's still tea
Some of the lower grade white teas can be had for pretty cheap and are still quite nice. I think that cake has potential, the leaves look ok, though I don't think it looks like a traditional moonlight white (too green, see picrel for example). I would describe a lot of leafy lower grade white teas as having a "fall leaves" and "sugar cane" thing going on. They tend to be easy on the palate and hard to overbrew.

>man you guys are NOT making it easy to not buy a metric fuckton of tea
Always happy to be helpful.
t. owns too much tea

>>19475990
>Say if we actually get puer crash now what would you grab?
Probably lots of young to semiaged, mid to high end productions from major factories. I think those would be hit the hardest and will be the best value to stock up on. Most western vendors probably will not lower their prices as much/fast as the Chinese market (unless the crash becomes permanent) and pre 2003 aged tea is already rare enough on the open market that I don't think it will be as severely affected. I would totally buy lots of aged tea if it were available for cheap however. Stocking up on cheap low grade tea further discounted by a crash is less appealing because I only need to buy one lifetimes supply of tea and cheap teas will probably remain cheap for longer than the nicer ones if I want some later (see all the cheap tea leftover from the last crash).

>>19476255
>if prices returning to normal coincided with greater Western adoption.
I think western interest in puerh being large enough to dictate prices is even more unlikely than us getting another puerh crash.

>>19476474
You underestimate the market power of white American puer drinking homosexual women.

>>19476474
>mid to high end productions from major factories
Any examples?

>>19476528
>Any examples?
Not that guy, naot saying any of these tea are amazing but here are some examples
https://kingteamall.com/collections/2019-dayi-1/products/2019-dayi-mi-yun-honey-rhythm-cake-357g-150g-puerh-sheng-cha-raw-tea?variant=31606782230631
https://kingteamall.com/collections/2019-dayi-1/products/2019-dayi-cang-hai-blue-ocean-cake-357g-puerh-sheng-cha-raw-tea?variant=31607008428135
https://kingteamall.com/collections/2022-xiaguan/products/2022-xiaguan-fu-bing-gu-shu-blessing-old-tree-357g-puerh-raw-tea-sheng-cha?variant=43648154075366
https://kingteamall.com/collections/2022-xiaguan/products/2022-xiaguan-zheng-shan-yi-wu-mountain-yiwu-tuo-250g-puerh-sheng-cha-raw-tea
https://kingteamall.com/collections/2022-mengku-rongshi/products/2005-xiaguan-xiao-ma-ft7513-sell-to-malaysia-cake-400g-puerh-raw-tea-sheng-cha
https://kingteamall.com/collections/2022-mengku-rongshi/products/2005-liming-0432-2nd-batch-cake-357g-puerh-sheng-cha-raw-tea-的副本

>>19476601
Jesus. Why are all you white weeb /tea/ trannies so extremely autistic?

>>19476601
>https://kingteamall.com/collections/2019-dayi-1/products/2019-dayi-cang-hai-blue-ocean-cake-357g-puerh-sheng-cha-raw-tea?variant=31607008428135
>over a kilobuck without a meme village in the name
Impressive.

Thanks for the links, bookmarking in case we get ze crash

>>19476624
who the fuck else do you think is gonna be talking about tea or coffee in any sort of detail on this board

>>19476624
Why are you so caustic

>>19476528
>Any examples?
I was thinking cakes with prices in the $60-$300/cake range from reputable factories more so than the ultra expensive stuff. Half off a $2000 cake is still more than I would want to pay and is probably well past diminishing returns in terms of tea taste.

>>19476638
>https://kingteamall.com/collections/2019-dayi-1/products/2019-dayi-cang-hai-blue-ocean-cake-357g-puerh-sheng-cha-raw-tea?variant=31607008428135
>over a kilobuck without a meme village in the name
I think the price on KTM is too high right now. That cake has dropped a lot in price.
https://www.donghetea.com/eng/goods.php?id=2197
https://www.donghetea.com/eng/goods.php?id=2181
https://www.puercn.com/puercha/20792/
Seems the market price is more like $415-540 per cake right now. Note that donghetea's prices are not 100% accurate and I they are more reflective of bulk purchasing than single cakes.

some of the comments on the Chinese version of donghetea are pretty funny (perhaps due to translation errors).

Oh man
I gave up
Tried drinking my usual black tea, Assam, with milk because I was upset because my teeth have been permanently stained to shit for the last 10 years but I can't do it man
I hate the taste of milk in tea
Why is bitterness so refreshing? I don't know

>>19477727
just go get them whitened and keep enjoying tea. it's not rocket surgery

>>19477745
They go yellow within a week of drinking tea
I only go once a year

>>19477754
idk, sounds like you're overreacting then. no one has stark white teeth naturally, as long as they aren't piss yellow no one cares

drink more liu bao.

>>19477777
Checked, brother. May our liu bao defeat the puer lesbians that have taken over this general.

Don't think I've ever seen yellow tea mentioned here. Has anyone here tried it?

>>19477882
Yellow tea is quite rare, the stuff thats sold to westerners is typically pretty damn expensive. See
https://sevencups.com/shop-category/yellow-tea/
For example

>>19477882
I've tried a cheap one, sold under the name Huang Xiao
I thought it was quite good, very dessert-like, strongly roasted tea. smells like Nutella, tastes kind of like dark chocolate with orange and a hint of roasty nuttiness. I guess a bit like some chinese greens but sweet and chocolaty?
yellow tea is pretty obscure in general and the ones that anyone knows, like Junshan Yin Zhen are expensive, so I'm not surprised that there isn't that much discussion on them ITT. many vendors don't offer them, and even a site like yunnan sourcing doesn't include them as a separate category

>>19477776
All those people you see on TV with perfectly straight white teeth have ceramic implants. Their actual teeth are ground down to stubs and then fake aftermarket parts are installed. If you've ever seen them without the implants they looks like weird goblins.

my ghetto attempt at a "laobanzang style" blend, some lao man e and fa zhan he from farmer leaf mixed with some i think laos border tea.
its pretty good actually, at least so far

trying the 2008 jiang cheng sheng some anon has been shilling. First time having a wet stored puer with some age on it. Its amazing how much storage can change a tea. Very little astringency, maybe a little bit of bitter. Tastes dark and vegetal, beets and greenbeans. The later brews are a little less vegetal and somewhat more medicinal. almost a little band-aid-ey if that makes any sense lmao. As a whole it reminds me a lot of a nice beetey liu bao.

https://yeeonteaco.com/products/2008-raw-puerh-tea-brick-jiang-cheng

>>19478441
how would you describe those three teas? I'm thinking of making a farmerleaf order

>>19478446
Nice, i think the lighter (for a brick) compression on that plus the broad leaf material help those bricks age pretty quickly.
I wanna hear what you think of that liubao when you get around to it. Ive been interested in trying it

>>19478446
that ripe brick sounds promising too

>>19478473
The lao man e that i got is sold out now, it was a cheaper fall brick. Great tea, stong, bitter, punchy, very enjoyable.
From my recent order i really love the fa zhan he, it's a great tea for the money, dynamic, some bitterness, some fruit, some sweetness.
Also got the bangwei small trees, didn't like the first session, subsequent brews have been better, more subtle, fruity, more emphasis on aroma sort of a honeysuckle smell to it.
Also got a sample of the bangwei big trees, that's pretty solid, nice mothfeel, good body feeling, not as punch as many young teas ive tried but very enjoyable, good endurance.
Also got some of that 2021 black tea he has that's $7/100g, great tea for the money, smooth furity, easy to drink, very little black tea malt/roast flavor.
Fa zhan he is really stands out as something special for $42. The only negative i can say about it is the leaves are totally ungraded or sorted so there are a few yellow leaves and long stems in it, but not enough that it feels like filler or makes it taste watered down or anything like that, just enough to be noticeable.

>>19478492
>The lao man e that i got is sold out now, it was a cheaper fall brick
*fall cake, i got bricks on the brain

>>19478492
thanks. I've also been eyeing the Jingmai Miyun. I think I mostly dislike sheng that is boring or too subtle

>>19478525
>Jingmai Miyun
got a sample of that... about time i tried it actually once i finish up what i'm drinking

>>19478525
>Jingmai Miyun
I got a sample of that too, im not sure how i feel about it.
I should also point out he is getting his menghai/bulang region teas pressed right now and will have them listed in a week or two, so depending on what you are after you might want to hold off to see what those are. That siad most of them will probably be pricey

>>19478306
>>19477776
white teeth looks unnatural and gross

>>19476802
Why are you not a woman?

anyone have experience mixing liquor and tea? got a handle of vodka and don't know what to do with it, i hate soda and i can't drink much with the only mixer i have (coffee, idc about staying up late but it makes my stomach hate me)

>>19478934
Can't you just mix it with fruit juice or make some cocktails? Tea with vodka sounds disgusting

>>19478948
i'm broke and don't have anything to mix it with at home. i've been drinking it with coffee sugar and milk since yesterday and i want something different, i thought since i have honey and a lot of different tea there might be a good combination, could buy a lemon from the store too

2023 jingmai miyun
vegetal bitterness that builds as the leaves open. pleasant in an almost medicinal way, actually i wish i brewed it a little stronger. it creates a nice juicy feeling in your mouth that keeps you sipping. some astringency but nothing unpleasant. not sure i understood huigan correctly, but there's a pleasant feeling in the mouth and throat that stays for some time after drinking. 7th steep and it's starting to peter out, might get 2-3 more.
i am not surprised by anything here. i wonder what someone who knows what they're doing would make of this tea, that's my thoughts anyway. i wouldn't buy a cake but if someone gifted me this i'd be happy.

>>19478934
maybe try sweetened black tea chilled, vodka and lemonade
it's the only thing i can come up with that doesn't seem totally gross

>>19478992
Arguable that i know what im doing but ive drank a lot of puer for 5-6 years now. I agree with your assessment completely. I found it pleasant but unremarkable and i probaby wouldn't buy a cake.
I found it surprising because his write up for this year said the drought and low yeilds this spring made a stronger tea then last years which i didn't try, but i didn't find it very strong at all in terms of flavor or mouthfeel. I don't really drink a lot of jingmai teas so i don't know what to expect from the region. Maybe im just a sucker for loud punchy young sheng and don't appreciate subtlety enough.

>>19478441
>tfw I'm not the only one playing pretend tea master experimenting with blends
Call me retarded but I mix raw and ripe sometimes, I get interesting and good results.

>>19479033
i wouldn't call it very strong either, though i've seen farmer leaf brew on youtube and he really piles the leaf in. i'll try it with around 9g maybe next time. cool to know your thoughts, there's not too much out there on farmerleaf teas in general.

>>19478992
>>19479033
thanks, I'll wait a while and maybe get the Fa Zhan He
the discount at Yeeon is also tempting though... it'd feel weird to make two different orders at once

>>19479369
>it'd feel weird to make two different orders at once
Hahaha yeah, that'd be so weird haha

>>19479391
haha

>>19479391
Yeah, none of us are puerh addicts here...

>>19479369
>it'd feel weird to make two different orders at once
Oh yeah, haha... Imagine making three orders... that would be even weirder... hahaha

>>19471763
I went to a private tea ceremony in Kyoto and that shit was so serious and tense and lowkey kind of erotic as well.
Amazing experience.

You can do this and nobody will notice lol

Just found a little chunk of(what I think is) charcoal in a 2010 YS Yi Dian Hong mini ripe cake. Hit me in the tooth. Very hard but brittle, very "grainy". Don't think it tops the chicken feather in my snoozefest though.

>fresh shincha doesn't taste good to me today
>8$/kg paraguayan yerba mate does
weird how taste works on some days

>>19481425
You have no idea how absurdly sweet those taste.
Even the allegedly "unsugared" ones taste extremely artificial. It's just smooth in a way simply impossible to achieve when making real tea instead of just flavoring water with it.

>>19481741
Maybe the tea you make yourself is just shit.

Good morning sirs I want to dispell worries on our agriculture. Pollution is not real sirs, DDT and heavy metals make our crops resilient to disease, and they add extra flavour.
We are the only country proudcing DDT so we will attain superpower by 2030. All you whites will be our slaves. Big perk drinking our tea is your children will have market advantage with 6 fingers and since 6 is bigger than 5 you will obviously thank me

What sorts of tea trays do you guys have? I've been avoiding buying one for way too long.

>>19481973
I suggest getting one with a plastic liner/bin/whatever that holds the water that spills through, less maintaince, no risk of wood swelling if you accidentally leave water in the base overnight.
If you want to get fancy the ceramic/tin ones are pretty cool.
You can also find stainless steel trays which arent the prettiest but are super practical and can just be tossed in the dishwasher

>>19481510
Nice, yeah i think ive found charcoal before too, always fun when you catch the forein matter with your teeth. My favorite is still a heavily rusted bolt head that was in a tin of loose liubao.

>>19481973
I use a baking pan with a towel on top.

>>19481973
I don’t use tea trays.

>>19482062
>always fun when you catch the forein matter with your teeth.
Hopefully one of us will find a tooth in our tea someday.

>My favorite is still a heavily rusted bolt head that was in a tin of loose liubao
My best finds are a cigarette butt in some fu zhuan and a ≈1 cubic cm chunk of cement in some shou.

>>19471763
New to tea. Why is a gaiwan better/more practical than a regular teapot ? Also how much should I spend and where should I buy one if I don't want alumina in my cup ? Thanks.

>>19482154
A "regular" teapot is meant to brew a lower ratio of tea to water than is the norm for modern tea enthusiasts. A glazed gaiwan is cheaper, easier to find, and easier to keep clean than a small teapot, but you can get the same effect with a small teapot and they're more popular in some places. The critical feature is the tea to water ratio though, for teas like oolong and puer you brew the tea many times with short steeps, so unless you want to drink multiple liters of water in a sitting it's not convenient to use a 300mL teapot.

>>19482154
i use it since i can drink my tea over an afternoon and not worry about it getting cold
also easy to clean, finer control over steeping times
you probably want a larger teapot as well though i use both depending on my mood/the tea

>>19482175
>>19482170
>Easier to clean
>Better ratio
You had me at easier to clean. So how does it work ? I have a small cake of pu erh. What ratio would I use how should I brew it ?

>>19482154
>Why is a gaiwan better/more practical than a regular teapot ?
You can use a small teapot for gongfu brewing too. Gaiwans are nice because they pour fast, they don't clog, and are easy to clean.

>where should I buy one if I don't want alumina in my cup ?
Aluminium oxide is a normal part of porcelain. It is not toxic and does not readily leach (it is generally not soluble). Out of all the things that could taint ceramics alumina really should not be a concern.

>>19482203
>What ratio would I use
assuming your gaiwan has about 100ml volume, start at 5 grams or so but it's pretty variable. i generally use between 5 and 10 grams (or just throw a lump in if you can eyeball it)
give it a quick wash with hot water to loosen up leaves from the compression, longer wash for more heavily compressed leaves
then brew 15-20s increasing time gradually based on how it taste

>>19482154
I wouldn't say a gaiwan is better. Both have their advantages/disadvantages. With a gaiwan you can adjust how the lid strains the leaves to get a quick pour, with a teapot it might take 5-10 seconds to get all the liquid out so it's not as conducive to very high ratio flash steeping, but I've never had a problem with it personally. You can get an entire small tea set on amazon for like $20 including a tray, teapot, cups, etc. There's no reason to spend a lot of money when you are starting out when you just need some cheap porcelain to put hot liquids into.

>>19482220
>With a gaiwan you can adjust how the lid strains the leaves to get a quick pour, with a teapot it might take 5-10 seconds to get all the liquid out so it's not as conducive to very high ratio flash steeping, but I've never had a problem with it personally.
Being able to flash steep is really helpful when you accidentally use a bit too much tea or if you have lots of tea dust/fragments. It gives you more control to adjust the tea.

>>19482217
>>19482220
>>19482210
Thank you very much brehs. I shall experiment.

Choose your weapon
For me its the $3 all metal wedge one, best shape imo

>>19482245
i use a really shitty leather awl
i like that one with the metal rim thing but it also looks like it'd immediately roll off the table

>>19482062
>>19482127
My first thought was ripe stained concrete, then I rinsed it and gave it a smoosh against the table until it cracked.

>>19482259
Finest binchutan charcoal please understand

>>19482245
I use a small flat-head screwdriver.

decided to skip buying from farmerleaf this spring but got some yiwu area teas instead from tea encounter, first time trying better yiwu material and very excited to taste the lao man e bitter varietal since i still think farmerleaf's lao man e autumn was a little light
probably wont post notes for them right now though

>>19482326
Really curious how those ZSL cakes are, that could end up being my autumn order.

>>19482326
Nice, i havent heard much about tea encounter yet

what we drinking? it's hot as FUCK outside bros.

>>19481937
thank u sir
I am currently drinking Singell Spring Chinary black right now, it looks more like grapefruit juice ( see >>19482535 ) though when chilled. not really that "black" (or red) by my standards.

>>19475857
Make tea hot at 2 to 3 times the normal leaf to water "western brew" concentration.
pour over ice.
shrimple as.

>>19482535
not seen such a colour on a black before, but i also don't drink darjeeling often
7572 here, but you make iced look very tempting

>>19482535
Im drinking hot puer and getting my sweat on

>>19482566
ya. a lot of spring indian black tea is basically a lie as far as I'm concerned.
I wonder what iced shou tastes like. lol
>>19482574
damn. do you have AC or what?

I'll try and make iced sheng right now for keks. I got a Da Yi 7542 so let's see how that goes.

>>19482594
damn, tangy while still having that funkadelic flavor.

>>19482591
>damn. do you have AC or what?
Just in the bedroom. Hot drink in hot weather is actually great if you havent tried it. Very comfy

>>19482594
>>19482619
Nice, don't think ive seen iced sheng before

>>19482624
It make-a me sleepy

>>19482619
I will be honest, 7542 is not quite as young and fresh as some of the other stuff I have. I got some free farmer leaf samples still as well, so maybe I'll try those. I just brewed this western for convenience.

>>19482591
>iced shou
if i weren't out of ice right now i'd try it. i've heard cold brewed shou is nasty though.

>>19482245
My hand just werks.
>>19482535
Same hot and humid af, I can't breathe. Too hot to enjoy ripes rip.
Wen Shan Ding for me

>>19482643
it's worth a shot. It's not the worst thing, but it's definitely not the best, but in this god awful weather, it's a fine edition.

you're only as out of ice as you believe yourself to be.
iced shou is not bad, but i did brew it a little weak out of fear. the woodsy taste comes through nice.

>>19482835
based and wood pilled.
little bit of leathery flavor too?

>>19482848
just a touch. i really should've brewed it harder, this is a nice dayi 7562 brick which could've handled it. enjoyable all the same.

Had some more of the farmer leaf Bangwei small trees today. I liked it much more. I think it need to sit in my storage for a few days + i pushed it a little harder, got lots of sweetness, some fruit and a lil bit of that young sheng green bean taste. Lasted longer on the tongue too. Overall a reasonable performing daily drinker. But I'm still in love with mengku mountain teas right now so i will probably buy more of those next.

Is there anything better than Chai with a bunch of cream?

i think the more premium and expensive YS brand ripes are good but very strong specific flavor notes. they dont seem well rounded. i think they are meant for either more experienced drinkers or those looking for specific flavors.

>>19482870
what year is it? Im browsing KMT and the 2022 version is like 25bucks for a brick. Anything wrong with a new riper? I know they age it before packing apparently. But as someone who likes smoothness, are new ripes smooth?

>>19483134
yeah factory ripes tend to have more of a consistent, balanced taste, that's what they're made to be. and they can be had for much cheaper than even the "budget" boutique cakes. I think every newbie getting into ripe should try some classic factory productions before any boutique ripe
>>19483143
fresh ripes from Dayi tend to be fine. differences in ripe due to age are usually not super apparent unless you get some stuff with really a lot of age or humid storage
a fresh Dayi ripe should be decently smooth

>>19483143
2013. yes i've been told the leaves will have a decent amount of age before compression anyway so the funk will be mostly gone. no personal experience though, on my next KTM order i'll be getting a more recent one to do a direct comparison. i'd be surprised if there's anything wrong with the new stuff.
it's my favourite of the factory ripes i've tried, the balance is just right for my taste without too much of that sharp note i don't have a word for. but it is a factory taste at the end of the day.

You niggas gotta try this. Picked some up on a trip to Alaska and my kitchen never smelled nicer

>>19483190
https://kobukcoffee.com/product/samovar-house-blend/
Im a stupid nigger and didnt link

>>19483186
>without too much of that sharp note i don't have a word for
"charred wood"? I also prefer my ripe to have less of those roasty base notes

>>19483194
I posted about considering getting a samovar a while ago, ultimately I didn't do it because it was a little to expensive and niche, I doubt I would ever drink even 10% of my tea that way. I still think they're really cool though.

>>19483265
I've had tea from a samovar once or twice. could be a fun themed way to make some georgian black tea or whatever

>>19483219
possibly. i don't into tasting notes very well. i've been thinking of it as almost sour taste. i'll lick some charred wood and get back to you.

>>19483265
I make it like regular looseleaf tea. Tastes like a shitload of spices

>>19483274
>i've been thinking of it as almost sour taste
like the "cherry fruitiness" some of them have? I enjoy it, it reminds me of the acidity in good coffee sometimes

>>19483032
I understande the Fa Zhan He is still your favorite this year?

>>19483286
i pulled out a 9978 i got from fullchea which i think has this the most of what i've got. it's entirely on the tongue and not in the nose. best i've come up with is "your mouth if you fell asleep drunk and didn't brush" but it's not totally unpleasant like that makes it sound. i should just go with fruity i think

>>19483406
yeah I get a lot of that sour fruitiness from that cake. the 2018, from KTM. the Dayi cakes I've had didn't have that nearly as much

>>19483428
nice, that lends me some confidence i'm not just talking shit. thanks for your assistance

>>19473429
So this one is good, huh? I have been curious about it, but the "often used for making Tibetan Butter Tea" made me suspect it wasn't very drinkable on its own. Might get some myself, then.

>>19483369
Yeah

>>19474300
We're all little chinese girls here, bro.

>>19483456
I like it. All I can tell you. I've bought 5stacks of the 2013 from awazon and 2017 from KTM. Precovid ago you could snag 1.25kg of it for $22 shipped.

>>19481973
I pour tea into my cup.

>>19481973
I use a clay tea boat. Downside is the drainholes are level with the rest of the top, so the rinsewater/leftover tea tends to pool unless I brush it in.

>>19482245
I use a titanium icepick as a tea pick.

>>19482835
That looks yummy. Are you using this >>19482553 recipe?

>>19483585
yes, pretty much

>>19483406
so the 9978 is good? its a ripe with strong fruitness? ok thats good. cause my next order gonna be from full chea and not awazon. not sure if its its a good idea to buy mulitple "cheap" factory ripes.

>>19483428
what? its sour?

>>19483186
>so the funk will be mostly gone.
shit, ive never tasted funk yet. ive tasted too woody flavor and wetness though. i have a 2022 ripe from YS brand but i didnt taste anything off. gonna have to try it again.

>>19483705
Get this one specifically, the 2019 version
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/haiwan-2019-yr-pu-er-cha-9978-batch-191-shu-puer-te-357g

Want to like tea but I love sugar

>>19483743
If you cut back on sugar naturally sweet foods start tasting really sweet.
The tea i was drinking earlier tasted like i put rock sugar in it even though i was drinking in plain

>>19483741
>https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/haiwan-2019-yr-pu-er-cha-9978-batch-191-shu-puer-te-357g
any info on sourness? another anon said "sourness cherriness" or something. --->>>19483274

>>19482154
a billion times quicker to clean

reccommend ME SOME NICE OOLONGS AND 2023 SPRINGS PL0X

>>19483769
I don't think he meant sourness in the way you are thinking, more of a fruit flavor not like a sour kraut flavor

>>19483786
>SOME NICE OOLONGS
Budget?

>>19483794
I'm sorta poor

>>19483769
yeah to be clear i didn't mean it's outright sour, was just trying to describe this sharp fruity note it has. if that's what you're looking for i think you'll like the cake.

>>19483705
>good idea to buy mulitple "cheap" factory ripes
don't go too crazy on them or you'll end up with a lot of tea with similar tastes. but it's worth having a few favourites.

>>19483738
if i understood it correctly the "funk" depend on fermentation, airing, wet storage etc. so won't necessarily be present at all even in new cake.

>>19483769
it's just a nice fruitiness, nothing to worry about. it's not that rare in ripe

>>19483805
>>19483786
the Jin Xuan from fullchea is bretty gud. I bet their higher tier tie guan yins are good too

>>19483805
Check out https://www.taiwanteacrafts.com/
Try some teas like this
https://www.taiwanteacrafts.com/product/baguashan-baked-four-seasons-oolong-tea/?v=7516fd43adaa
https://www.taiwanteacrafts.com/product/gui-fei-oolong-tea/?v=7516fd43adaa
And then maybe an oriental beauty and some other stuff that sounds good to you.

>>19483790
>>19483830
>>19483925
alright thanks. il just ignore the sour comment.

What is some aliexpress gear to get?

>>19484163
Cheap gaiwans, cheap little cups, cheap cha he, cheap tea picks, cheap bamboo matcha scoops for emptying leaves out of a hot teapot.
It can be kind of annoying to find but there are some pretty decent 100ml is porcelain gaiwams for like $10-$15, lots of little porcelain cups, some little travel gaiwan sets that are like $15-$20 with cups and a little serving pitcher.
If there is something in particular you are interested in i might be able to grab some links for you.

>>19484163
a tea set.

The XiaGuan Xiao Fa have proven to be a great office tea for a couple of weeks now. It really grows on you, but it starts tasting normal or flat maybe after a while. It feels like it loses its edge. I need to rotate it out. The woody, earthy XiaGuan note is best experienced relative to standards.
Still has my highest recommendation. You can get them anywhere, def grab one in your next order if you haven't.

>>19484521
how would you compare the Xiao Fa to typical Dayi or Haiwan productions?

FUCK i just found bugs on my w2t ripe cake its so over.
i thought they only came from really sketchy storage but maybe it can happen in the west aswell, im pretty sure they were never there before so i guess the small white dots are signs of eggs, gonna check the other cakes in my pumi, the last ripe cake i added to the pumi was in early 2023 so its wierd that they appear 6 months later

>>19485447
should have bought from Awazon. then you'd have a good 12$ 360 gram ripe cake with bugs instead - more value!
what cake is it?
also don't worry too much, the bugs shouldn't be dangerous. and I have no idea what the storage is like on w2t cakes, for all we know, it could be sussy as fuck. just because the website has clean hipster aesthetic doesn't mean the storage is also clean

>>19485459
was camphornought 2022 cake, was pretty good after a couple months of resting, im just gonna move it to a different container and let it dry for now. i think they are the exact same type of bugs that the other anon found in their cakes a few thread ago.
annoyingly i left my cake brush at home since i didnt think i would need it while at my parents house for the summer...

>>19485487
>they are the exact same type of bugs that the other anon found in their cakes a few thread ago
so like silverfish type beings?
you could try freezing the cake if you want to get rid of them

I'm going on a medical diet that forbids me from drinking green tea and pu-erh
kind of unfortunate since those are my favorites
any reccs for good oolong and black tea to try?

>>19485552
>I'm going on a medical diet that forbids me from drinking green tea and pu-erh
wtf? if that's true, then any tea will likely interfere with whatever medical need forbids you from drinking tea.

>>19485491
just checked my other cakes and there were no bugs on them luckily
>so like silverfish type beings?
not quite, i just saw one on the wrapper and it was brown and somewhat shaped like a beetle
>you could try freezing the cake if you want to get rid of them
ill probably do it if it gets worse but the freezer here is broken right now..
picrel i found a different picture of what they looked like

>>19485559
it's not recommended in general, but apparently oolong and black tea are alright in moderation. I can't just quit tea cold turkey

>>19485447
wtf this is my nightmare
what is happening to you all we just had this thread

oolong tastes like nothing

>>19485764
You have been filtered harder than anyone has ever been or will ever again be filtered.

>>19485562
Mine were pure white and also could have come off a 2023 w2t peak vulture since it was completely wrapped. Not really a big deal. Took me 2 weeks rotating cakes into the freezer.
>>19485650
I assume we're all just getting fucked by heat/humidity spikes.

>>19485764
oolong has puke taste like Hersheys chocolate

>>19485764
Oolong is a whole category of teas. Try a bunch.

>>19485764
Honestly I've had some pretty crap oolong from teabags, but it did taste of something.

>>19484521
The this tea tastes like nothing posts are all people with extremely hard water that don't know better

>>19485987
didn't mean to quote

>>19485764
oolong is the most diverse category of tea

>>19485844
What did you think the ‘white’ in the name referred to?

https://youtu.be/Al6CXuxxH20

>>19486106
god i love limmy

Is more than one infusion just a terrible idea for white tea? Second one always turns out bitter as shit for me.

>>19475857
I'm too lazy to bother adjusting the parameters so I just brew by my regular recipe a little ahead of time and then put in the fridge. Try to drink it within a couple of days or it'll get astringent.

new round of farmer leaf teas are out, anyone planning an order?

>>19486667
>baka
lol
Kinda want to try it but I'm not too fond of softer brewing teas. I'm loving Bulang region lately so definitely will grab both lao man e tho

>>19486537
What do your brew parameters look like? That doesn't really sound normal. Typically with any tea the second brew will use a shorter steep time than the first because the leaves have time to open up but have barely extracted out yet. Definitely adjust each steep to taste.

>>19486755
I thought you're supposed to add 30-60 seconds each steep.

>>19486775
More like 3-6s.

>>19486775
There are no hard and fast rules. Yes, in general you will need to add time to steeps as the leaves lose their potency, but on the 2nd steep they won't have lost any potency yet, and 30-60 seconds of additional time can easily lead to overbrewing. You can visually confirm this with your tea. The first brew is going to change color more slowly, and then after you pour it off you will have hot steaming leaves that will continue to leach out their nutrients. Once you pour hot water on them for a 2nd brew, everything that had leached to the surface of the leaves will immediately rinse itself into the brew, plus however long you brew the leaves for. This will also be affected by the amount of time you wait between steeps 1 and 2. You have to adjust parameters to taste, if you are getting bitterness then you are most likely overbrewing on the second steep.

>>19486788
That's explains it I suppose. I'll try shorter second steep.
I've only ever had this issue with white tea though.

>>19486784
That's for gongfu autism where you do many short steeps with very little water though, isn't it? I don't do that.

>>19486802
That autism keeps you from over brewing your tea.

if i was smart i would just order a bunch of new xiaguan and mengku TF productions on taobao/tmall. I really need to see if i can find abother mengku 88 tribute brick. That stuff was fantastic, like a really premium 7542 blend

bros new farmerleafs out

>>19486824
Seemed to work just fine so far without it apart from this white tea I got recently.

>>19486667
Might get the Tang Fang Liang Zi, these teas are shifting out of my price range though.The Dong Guo looks good too

I had a 2020 xiaguan dong guo that was really nice tea. Cost nearly as much as this years farmer leaf version does. If you want to try a mengku tea and you don't want to just buy this years tea spirit cake from mengku rongshi it might be a good choice

>>19486537
with many teas the second infusion is stronger than the first one and should be shorter. this goes for anything rolled or pressed

>>19487023
i was a little surprised by his note on high astringency, what do you think? he compared it to the jingmai miyun though which had a pleasant amount of astringency imo.

>>19487048
I like puncy teas. I thought the xiaguan was quite enjoyable especially the first few sessions i had with it has a sort of fireworks in the mouth vibe, lots of fruit and yeah probably astringency as opposed to bitterness. Nothing crazy, i thought it was a fun tea that was very drinkable. Of course this was from a different brand and year so i don't know quite how it would map to farmer leafs te but that sounds about right

I am a simple man and just want to buy a large quantity of decent earl grey at a reasonable price. Any recs?

>>19487485
Coffee Bean Direct has bulk loose teas (Tattle Tea), which are perfectly fine if you're looking for standard European bulk teas.

tried kombucha for the first time
this is just a shitty cider

>watched a spider crawl into my tea cabinet
godspeed little buddy

>>19488403
You need spiders to eat all the puer bugs

>>19485987
>>19485990
My man, did you have a stroke?

>>19485286
I had both 2022 and 2009 Xiao Fa so I'm comparing broadly against both.
I haven't yet had Haiwan, though I have some 9978 lao cha tou I've been meaning to get to.
Versus DaYi productions, they're more towards the drier, roasted notes. I said this in one review, but they taste like dirt in the best way possible. Makes me think of fall leaves. DaYi have more of a full bodied baked buns note. And a gamut of sweetness that took me a couple of sessions to find in the Xiao Fa, especially the 2022.
It's weird describing tea that I'm not currently drinking.
>>19486667
>>19486918
Nope. I'm tapped until Autumn at least.

bump limit reached

new thread: >>19488920
>>19488920
>>19488920