/ck/ - Food & Cooking

First for combining all steepings into one big gulp.

>>19727577
Ripe it is, i just tossed some crumbs drom a few cakes i pick up from Awazon together and grampa brewed it.

>>19727593
Sipping some aged TGY today. Has hints of Cocoa, mulled cider, and plums. I wish there was better availability of cheap aged oolongs because they seem like a nice style of tea.

>>19727743
Aged oolongs are ace but yeah hard to find and even harder to get nice ones without paying out the ass.
Purple cloud has some but they arent cheap
https://purplecloudteahouse.com/products/2013-aged-traditional-roast-tieguanyin-oolong-tea
They have a few more you just have to find them with search because the tea tab doesn't show up in their menu for some reason.
Its not aged but i got this a while ago and it's a great old school processing style TGY. A bit too much broken leaf for the price.
https://purplecloudteahouse.com/products/traditional-roasted-tieguanyin-oolong

>>19727743
I've noticed that fullchea has some very cheap aged TGY. Anyone brave enough to order?

>>19727828
Come to think of it, do we have a list of fullchea stuff that's /tea/ approved? Because we could use one.

>>19727888
Here's a few from memory that I tend to pick up
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/chinese-tea-black-tea-jin-jun-mei-teas-kim-chun-mei-cha pretty ok, brew lightly
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/150g-taiwan-milk-oolong-tea-aaaaa-chinese-food-high-mountain-jin-xuan-oolong-green-tea-milk-flavor-fragrant-and-mellow-taste-best-oolong-tea not bad for a artificially flavoured milk oolong, if you don't mind this it's pretty tasty
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/longjing-green-tea-chinese-organic-food-dragon-well-tea-long-jing-tea-250g-bag-aaa-chinese-beat-green-tea-organic-tea-online
acceptable longjing if you're poor like me
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/silver-needle-white-tea-bai-hao-yin-zhen-anti-old-and-health-care-tea-premium-quality-tea
same situation as the longjing. i primarily cold brew these two.
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/haiwan-2019-yr-pu-er-cha-9978-batch-191-shu-puer-te-357g
nice ripe
anyone tried their fu bricks?

>>19727828
Ive seen it but haven't touched it. For that proce i would feel safer buying a box of sea dyke tgy from some random ebay vendor.
>>19727888
Not really, the advice is generally if the have several different versions of the same tea then don't get the cheapest one. Im not even really convinced that they get fresh teas for all their looseleaf offerings every year and don't just change the date on the listings. But maybe they do, i would have to order some batches of green teas from them for a few years to really know.

>>19727917
>anyone tried their fu bricks?
I got the Baishaxi 2010 yr Hei Zhuan Cha a few years ago and hated it. Straight up brewing random oak leaves from the back yard vibes. I tried the Baishaxi black box fu brick from another vendor, i think it was the 2010 version and it was nice, smooth and smokey with that fu brick flavor. I wouldn't get the youngest one on fullchea but the two older ones are probably reasonably safe buys.

>>19727888
Oh and avoid their """bi luo chun""" it's shit.

>>19727785
>Purple cloud has some but they arent cheap
https://purplecloudteahouse.com/products/2013-aged-traditional-roast-tieguanyin-oolong-tea
20ish cents per gram is not bad. Its not cheap per say but is on the more affordable side of nice tea. Seems reasonable enough for this style of tea considering the age and reroastings.

>>19727828
>I've noticed that fullchea has some very cheap aged TGY.
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/2009-aged-tea-anxi-tieguanyin-roasted-tie-guan-yin-chinese-tiekuanyin-oolong-tea-250g
Interesting, it looks like a pretty low roast however. Traditionally high roast oolongs are preferred for aging. On the other hand it is cheap enough I doubt it is terrible for the price. Likely worst case scenario is you get cheap slightly stale TGY.

>>19727888
>Come to think of it, do we have a list of fullchea stuff that's /tea/ approved?
No, it you stick to reputable brand name stuff you are pretty safe.
>Because we could use one.
Maybe, but I do think it is worth taking some risks and trying tea for yourself. You learn a lot both about teas and your own preferences that way. Not everyone like the same things. I personally try to to get a healthy mix of blind buys vs recommendations. The other problem is we dont have enough people who have ordered fullchea's unbranded stuff to have much information to go on.

>>19727917
>anyone tried their fu bricks?
I have had semi-aged Baishaxi "1953 black box" from a different vendor. I would expect fullchea's aged one to be good as well. The younger ones are probably also ok but personally I would pay the extra $10 or so for the aged one.
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/anhua-baishaxi-2013-yr-classic-1953-fucha-dark-tea-yu-pin-fu-tea-brick-tea-royal-fucha-318g
Not quite fu but their Baishaxi "gold box" Tianjian is good as well.
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/anhua-baishaxi-2017-yr-tribute-tianjian-dark-tea-loose-tea-200g

>>19727978
>Maybe, but I do think it is worth taking some risks and trying tea for yourself
sure, but blind buying 300 grams of something that might be shit can be daunting. for fullchea in particular it's nice to know what's good before buying, because they don't really do samples or smaller portions

>>19728003
>because they don't really do samples or smaller portions
Their teas are cheap enough that the minimum order price is about the same as a lot of other vendors ($6-14 for most teas). I am all for sharing experiences however. I just don't want people to only buy "approved" teas.

>>19727917
Couple more i remembered
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/2021-yunnan-fengqing-big-golden-needle-tea-big-tree-golden-single-bud-black-chinese-tea-100g
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/2021-yunnan-golden-spiral-black-chinese-tea-dianhong-red-single-bud-black-chinese-tea-250g-1
Both not bad for that smooth bud heavy black tea vibe. I preferred the spirals

>>19727978
>>19727927
Thanks fellas, it seems worth a try next time I order

I got a sample of the reddened puerh tea from farmer leaf with my order, it's actually super interesting. Very very strange. It has a really interesting sweetness to it. It has an almost oolongy taste to it, I don't really know how to describe it. Really cool actually, I don't know if I would buy a cake of this buy if he makes it next year and sells one of those 70g or 100g pouches of it I would recommend picking some up.

>>19728054
I will look out for a sample next year. I read that 15 years ago or xiaguan had a habit of making some of their productions on the redder side, i think some other factories did too. I don't think it went over well with consumers but i haven't had a chance try try some examples of those productions to make my own judgment on them.

>>19727978
>stick to reputable brand name stuff
I can recognize a brand on that site, but I'm lost as to which ones would be reputable. I guess big factories for puer, but that's as far as my knowledge goes. Could maybe google each individually.

>Not everyone like the same things.
I don't think anyone here is trying to police taste. Just people inexperienced with the site trying to not get shit teas. Say, if a tea is both overly astringent and flavourless, pretty much everyone would want to avoid it.

>>19728089
To add to this other guy’s point, Fullchea doesn’t provide any tasting notes for most of their black tea lineup. It would be nice to have a general idea of what type of tea it is.

>>19728089
Honestly for a long time the /tea/ advice on fullchea was buy name brand puer cakes and ignore everything else. Since then posters have been tempted by low pricing and cheap shipping to try other stuff with somewhat mixed results.
If i was going to buy loose leaf on fullchea i would feel pretty good about buying these.
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/jibian-high-mountain-black-tea-loose-leaf-from-yunnan-tengchong-dianhong-tea-red-china-cha-168g
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/2019-yunnan-old-tree-black-tea-dianhong-feng-qing-red-tea-cake-357g
Cautiously optimistic about buying this assuming this is actual retail packaging
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/2020-taiwan-sun-moon-lake-black-tea-floral-and-fruity-flavor-top-quality-chinese-health-tea-75g
Beyond that im not sure what i would get there

>>19728103
>https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/jibian-high-mountain-black-tea-loose-leaf-from-yunnan-tengchong-dianhong-tea-red-china-cha-168g
> tastes mellow and smooth, and its tea bottom is temder and flexible.
Topkek.

>>19728082
Drinking it more, it tastes a bit like every other tea kind of blended together. There are definitely some white tea floral notes, there's some oolong roastiness, some very mild black tea malty fermentation notes, and it has puerh style mouthfeel. It's actually also really interesting to taste a deliberately reddened puerh, it makes it much easier to pick out "reddened" notes in other tea. The Huey Wa, for example, withered for too long and should have been processed sooner, in my opinion. As a tea it lacks the endurance and some of the complexity of puerh but it's still quite good and worth drinking as an experience at the very least.

>>19728089
>I guess big factories for puer
Yeah almost all the branded stuff on fullchea is hecha or caked tea.
>Just people inexperienced with the site trying to not get shit teas.
Fair enough, no judgment. Perhaps I make YOLO tea purchases a bit much. Fortunately, I am not too picky and have pretty good tea buying intuition at this point.
>if a tea is both overly astringent and flavourless, pretty much everyone would want to avoid it.
The problem is some people have specific taste preferences. Not everyone likes everything. For example I have met people who consider green tea as a whole "overly astringent and flavorless". Some people go really hard on teas they don't like even if it is something other people do like.

>>19728095
>It would be nice to have a general idea of what type of tea it is.
I guess I take that for granted. It would be a lot more confusing for a beginner. After a while you get a pretty good sense of how things in a category may taste. Not that I am even remotely an expert. For example despite there being many different varieties of green ball oolong they still share a lot of the same range of flavors, just mixed and matched. A Chinese green tea will generally taste like a Chinese green tea, ect. The fine details may shift but the underlying theme remains.

Brewing some Dancong in my Chaozhou teapot.

>>19728172
Nice setup, nice and uncomplicated
How is the dancong? I really need to try more

>>19728201
It's the Ping Keng Tou Dan Cong from Yunnan Sourcing.

Smells like I'm getting punched in the face with flowers and peaches. Been doing 12s steeps at 98°C and they haven't come out bitter.
Empty cup smell of brown sugar alongside a faintly sweet rock sugar aftertaste in my mouth. Began feeling lightheaded after drinking the second steep. At the third steep the tea became more bitter and there were less flowery notes while drinking it. I smelled the leaves in the pot and the flowery smell was almost gone.
At the 4th steep I did it for 9 seconds to recieve less astringency. It tasted surprisingly better, and my mouth had an aftertaste almost like tamarind sweets.
Anyways, yeah, I could get around 4 enjoyable steeps with the 5th having none of what I looked for in a dancong.

>>19728112
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/fullchea-chinese-tea-golden-monkey-fujian-black-tea-loose-leaf-golden-tea-chinese-pleasant-taste-with-malt-and-chocolate-perfect-morning-tea
>The liquor is a vibrant blood red.
>Just 3-5 minutes and you have a great tonic drink for the whole family.

>>19728273
Sounds nice, i was pretty blown away by the fruity notes in the one i tried, the peach notes especially. It does seem like brewing around the bitterness of some dan congs can be tricky sometimes but they can be pretty rewarding when they cooperate.

>>19728283
The very early listings from fullchea are hilarious with the typical ebay vendor chinglish and heath claims. It does seem like they realized they should tone it down and more recent listings seem less sketchy but the older ones like that are pretty funny.

>>19728290
I also really like the images, where they just photoshopped the label onto the brown bag.

>>19728283
>>The liquor is a vibrant blood red.
>>Just 3-5 minutes and you have a great tonic drink for the whole family.
this isnt hilarious.

>>19728286
I'm going to start another session and I'll oversteep this one to drink it with milk and cane sugar. :P

>>19728309
What, you don’t want blood red carbonated tea?

Ooooooooo. Tastes pretty good with sugar. A nice dark red color.

COLONIZED.

Tastes of honeysuckle flowers and apricots. Damn this shit is good.

Yup, a very strong tamarind aftertaste in my mouth.

Thank you, /tea/. Invited a cute Asian twink from work to get some tea yesterday. He was very impressed when I took the initiative and ordered an aged puer for both of us. Led to going back to his place and me smashing his tight brown bussy in. He’s coming over tomorrow and bringing tea for a tasting but we’re not going to tasting much tea lol.

>>19728681
>puer
Stop appropriating lesbian culture

>>19728688
Is that how they pronounce it? I don't get it.

>>19728681
Thank you, OP. Very cool.
>>19728354
Why is it opaque and white?

>>19728324
whats wrong with that description? its fine. so is the next line.

>>19728681
Do any straight people drink puer? I hope it doesn't turn me gay when I try it.

>>19728759
>Why is it opaque and white?
Low fat milk unfortunately.

it just werks

>>19728766
Well first of all it's a black tea, when has a black tea ever been 'blood red'? And wouldn't it be quite disturbing if it was? Additionally the term 'tonic drink' is very unnatural, and also suggests that the resultant beverage is carbonated (upon reflection this might just be my dialect.)
I'm sorry you didn't find it humorous.

>>19728688
No. Lesbians stole tea culture from refined gay tea sipping dandy men. There’s a long queer history of lesbians appropriating aspects of gay male culture and claiming it as their own. Tea is one of those cultural thefts.

>>19728907
It's called hongcha for a reason, a "tonic" is just something that is envigorating.

>>19728688
>>19728730
its pu-erh.

>>19728907
>Additionally the term 'tonic drink'
this means health drink.
what color should black tea be? i usually ceyclon black and english bf and steep it like 5 minutes. I know chinese black tea is short steeps. it could be a bright color. But to me, chinese black tea is still too astringent if drunk without milk.

>>19728789
DON'T DO IT! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN! TEA IS A POWERFUL DRUG! IT MESSED UP MY CHI! IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU!

I a tried drinking silver needle white tea once and it turned me into a furry! OwO *agitated yapping noises* Now I cant stop thinking about touching fluffy tea buds. >w< *ears droop slightly* On the bright side I am still straight at least, no puerh lesbians here. T_T *ears perks up, tail wags* Moral of the story is you need to be careful what tea you drink *Notices your exposed Báichá stash* X///3 *flushing* I am going to pleasure myself with some more tea now. *nuzzles in you direction* Bye Nao ^_^

>>19727593
>use a french press to filter the dust after the matcha has extracted

Perfection.

>>19728789
your perspective is skewed because of puerh lesbians but dont let it fool you.
black tea is definitely the gayest simply from the fact that that is what most fags drink, but its also just the tea that most people drink so that might even it out, but definitely not enough to make it the straightest, i would say aged whites are getting close to the straight part, but non-aged or loose-leaf whites are pretty gay. Talking about style of leaf, ball rolled oolongs are inherently gayer than other types, and especially fragranced ones are gay af. that goes for all types of tea with fragrance to be fair, jasmine is gay and nothing can be done about it. green tea might be gay because of starbucks matcha lattes but i would argue that that hardly counts as tea, and therefore green gets skewed towards the straight side of the spectrum, where it rightfully belongs, not fully straight, but definitely more straight than gay. You are right by putting puer as gayer than green in the big picture though, but its more like 60/40 or 70/30 gay/straight balanced. Heicha would probably be considered fully straight

sipping on that paraguayan mate today. smoky, woody, earthy and pungent. nice stuff.

>>19729319
I would say tea preferences correlate with masculine and feminine cultural identities if anything
consider:
>pu-erh
enjoyed by straight men and butch lesbians. masculine.
>pumpkin spice matcha latte bobapuccino (500 grams of sugar)
enjoyed by straight women and feminine lesbians. feminine

>>19728103
I didn't know Fullchea offered Ruby #18. I wonder if it's any good

>>19728789
I drank pu-erh a few times, but I've become progressively more bisexual since then for some reason so it's up to you whether that counts.
That first time was dreadful because I read on the back of the package to pack a third of the teapot with leaves and proceeded to use an actual full-size teapot instead of a kyusu or gaiwan or whatever.
Maybe I'll go buy some online someday.

I forced myself to drink pu-erh for a time, while on a diet. It stinks. I don't understand people who drink it for pleasure.

>>19730011
> It stinks
Who's going to tell him?

>>19728789
Straight people drink coffee

>>19730011
should have bought good pu-erh. the bad stuff is really bad, more so than with any other tea

>>19730011
>he fell for the "drink tea for health" scam

enjoying some gyokuro

>>19730309
Nice cup. Is that an antique?

>>19730337
yes passed down from ancestors

I am a 220 lbs high test straight male and I like white tea.

>>19729368
>smoky, woody, earthy and pungent.
Okay okay i will try the paraguayan mates, you have sold me on it

Fen Shui Ling Oolong Black from farmer-leaf. A lot better than the Menghaitian. It's really fragrant, amber like color, complexe taste with depth a really good tea.

>>19730011
Like the other poster said, crappy ripe/fermented puerh is probably the most disgusting tea you can buy. It's unfortunate because anyone who wants to try puer has to learn to navigate around the huge amount of disgusting tea that smells like a fish market in order to get the stuff worth drinking.

>>19730409
drinking that right now as well. lovely stuff

>>19730409
What are your brewing parameters?

>>19730508
90c flash brews

>>19730512
too much work.

Can I pronounce puerh as purr if I do not like the way poo ar sounds?

>>19730816
Just call it poopoo.

>>19730792
What do you mean?

what are people talking about when they say orchid fragrance? which orchid should i go and smell?

>>19730947
like constantly pour hot water into the tea cup and then steeping 90s, and i do like 7 grams so this means im gonna be repeating this like 5+ time. And each time i pour from gaiwan into tea cup, i have to wipe the filter or lid to get the tea leaves back in to the gaiwan.

>>19730944
No I want to call it purrh like a nice cat
Someone tried correcting me today and I'm like yeah pooh arhh OK >>19730947

>>19730951
it's not 90 seconds it's 90 degree celsius for the tempearture flash brews means water in water out. So i put water in my gaiwan with the leaves close the lid poor the water out into a cha hai keep the lid open to the side of the gaiwan. Poor into the cup or glass i'm using drink it and repeat until i finish the cha hai. Put hot water in the gaiwan again put the lid on and poor into the cha hai. Do this until the tea doesn't taste anymore. And i try to keep the water around 90 degree celsius or i do longer steeping.

>>19730977
so many many times are you doing that?

>>19730980
Depends on the tea i'm drinking and the gaiwan i'm using, between 5 and 10 maybe on average

>>19730989
>between 5 and 10 maybe on average
holy too much work. are you using one of the those stove top boiler things that keep your temperature at 90c?

>>19730997
No i drink quite fast so these days i just get about 500ml to the temperature drink it down and do 500ml more. Temperature doesn't go down too fast while i drink and i just ajust the steeping time as i go most of the time i just heat water twice if i drink alone.

>>19730997
flash steeping is less work than regular gongfu brewing imo because you dont have to wait for the tea to be brewed just instantly brew it, also you dont need to use a filter for gongfu and dont bother wiping the leaves off the lid they will go under the water when you put the lid back on

>>19730948
I suck at differentiating between floral notes desu. maybe I should go to a flower shop and acquaint myself with some of them

>>19731007
>Temperature doesn't go down too fast

I once measured how fast it goes down. I preheated a thermos with boiling water and then filled it with 90 °C water (I think it was 600 ml in a 1200 ml thermos). It was 80 °C for the last steep with that batch. Now, that might not seem like a huge drop, but that's in a thermos. So, I'd say it goes down quite a bit in whatever non-vacuum sealed pot you'd hold it.

The annoying thing about this is that as the tea gets spent, it starts to make more and more sense to use hotter water for longer. It's why people get temp control kettles with hold functions and shit.

>>19731065
BTW, this is not me trying to be a asshole or something, if it works for you, great. I just wanted to share.

And I ain't shilling those kettles either. It's IKEA thermometer and steel pot for me for the forseeable future.

>>19731009
>dont bother wiping the leaves off the lid they will go under the water when you put the lid back on
true lol you know what im talking about then.

>>19731007
so youre getting a litres worth out of a tea session. sounds about right. im using a cup to steep, and another cup to drink and a filter. its messy. have to sweep leaves in filter after pouring and pouring causes spilling.

>>19731009
>flash steeping is less work than regular gongfu brewing imo because you dont have to wait for the tea to be brewed just instantly brew it,
i drink pu erh which seems to benefit from longer steeping. i do 3 -5 mins steep per 150 ml and it tastes best. rich and thick.

>>19731065
I know it's going down but as i said i'm used to it and i just adjust as i go letting it steep for longer that's why i start with flash steeps and goes up just a bit as the water temp goes down slowly.

>>19731082
Average around a litter yes sometimes it's just 700ml sometimes i can go up to 1.4l it depends a lot. I don't bother with leaves, pushing with the lid serving into my small pitcher then into the cup slowly and i don't have any leaves in my cup at the end.
>>19731088
I do longer steeps depending on the tea i'm drinking i was just answering about the oolong black i was drinking. Again just adjusting temp and time for each tea is best i think.

>>19731088
how much leaf do you use?

Is it possible to be allergic to Earl Grey? I'm trying to get off coffee but the five times I've had Earl Grey recently it made me vomit. I'm not drinking it on an empty stomach or overbrewing or anything like that. What gives?

>>19731129
are you the same guy who said earl grey made him instantly throw up at a tea place like that fat guy from Monty Python?
you could be allergic to bergamot or something.

>>19731129
Its the tannins in cheap black tea. It's like drinking a fucking woody red wine. Shit fucks with some peoples stomachs. Also the citrus flavoring added to earl grey doesn't help.
Stop steeping the teabag for 20 minutes and then squeezing it out into the tea.
Steep the teabag for 3 minutes then remove it, don't squeeze it and throw it away.

>>19731114
7 grams because i realized it makes the tea a lot more flavorful. deep rich and thick pu erh. 5gs was fine too but 7 gs is good.

>>19731129
Honestly, I would first try drinking better tea.
>but the five times I've had Earl Grey recently it made me vomit
It made you vomit five times? You might actually have an allergy. Have you drunk anything other than cheap Earl Grey? Why are you trying to get off coffee?

Dark Roast Tieguanyin from Floating Leaves.
Had a Dark Chocolate/Roasted Coffee/Tobacco aroma. Tasted like dark coffee, but without the bitterness and it has that tobacco aftertaste that evolves into a sort of milk chocolate. Very smooth and buttery.

>>19731147
Yes. But I threw up on the sidewalk outside the tea house, not inside. That would have been grounds for an heroing from embarassment. The other four times I puked from Earl Grey were luckily in the privacy of my home. I have been using the Taylors of Harrogate brand of loose leaf Earl Grey and watched and read a bunch on how to brew it properly so that isn't the issue. Is Taylors of Harrogate a bad brand or something or do I just need to find a different kind of tea? A lot of the Asian teas seem too prissy and hipster which is why I went with Earl Grey btw. It strikes me as a very masculine tea that gentlemen in smoking jackets enjoy

>>19731247
I've been meaning to put in an order with them, their selection looks good but I've just never gotten around to it. Anything you'd recommend specifically?

>>19731249
They don't seem to mention where it's from, which means it's almost certainly African black tea. And, some African black tea is good, but if I was drinking English style tea I would try to buy from India, it's not so much more expensive. I don't think "bad tea" is vomit inducing though, that sounds like an actual digestive issue. While it could be this >>19731172 , you should be able to fix that by eating before hand or having a biscuit or something with tea. British tea usually includes food for this reason, black tea can be especially harsh. If you want to try another British style black tea, I would try and find a loose leaf second flush Darjeeling.

>>19731251
I've actually just brought samples of all their teas and I've been wanting to try them out for the first time. Supposedly the farmers choice baozhong is really good, but I've not tasted it yet.

>>19731249
Well, actually, what I would do is go to the supermarket and buy the cheapest teabags you can get of anything other than Earl Grey and figure out if your problem is the tea or Earl Grey specifically. Maybe even get some green tea teabags, they'll be pretty rank but the goal should be to drink something and not vomit so you can see where you're at.

This tastes like a latte with tobacco. Actually really good.

>>19731262
I'm puzzled because I don't and have never had any digestive issues but drinking Earl Grey is vomit potion for me. I'm not drinking it on an empty stomach or brewing it improperly either. Fuck me, I hope this isn't the first sign of stomach cancer. Going to look into second flush Darjeeling and if that makes me violently ill I might see a doctor

Drinking the second spring jingmai miyun sample i got. It's decent but doesn't have the depth of Nuo Gu Wan that i'm enjoying more. Next session i'm going to compare the Nuo Gu Wan small trees and Nuo Gu Wan to see if i can taste and smell the difference.

>>19731249
>A lot of the Asian teas seem too prissy and hipster which is why I went with Earl Grey btw. It strikes me as a very masculine tea that gentlemen in smoking jackets enjoy

Buy this >>19731247. There are good yanchas if you're looking for roasted flavors.

>>19731310
Forgot the pic...

>>19731280
That's a great idea. I will do this tomorrow morning. Thanks

>>19731304
it's not uncommon at all for tea to upset stomach, it can even make me feel kinda dizzy. but most people are fine if they've eaten. so don't get too worried, it's an extreme reaction but plausible you're just sensitive to something in the tea.

The only type of tea to make my stomach REALLY upset is black tea.
I can tolerate Sheng puerhs and green/oolongs/whites without any issue. But black teas fuck me up on an empty stomach.

>>19731377
you're pretty lucky, i can only drink shou when i haven't eaten. i've been wondering if you can build up a tolerance though

For me its the pwer.
>>19731377
The only sheng that has made me toss was when I brewed some literal dust off some tibet flame bricks before brekkie.

Should've stuck with the reliable Twinings Earl Grey m8s...

>>19731491
tea bags or loose leafs?

I finally found some yixing teapots at an antique store but unfortunately they are CCCI brand (cheap pots for export) and overpriced. I think the shop owner must have assumed they were actually valuable.

Will drinking artificially flavoured milk oolong turn me gay??

>>19731680
You're on this site, that's too gay already.

>>19731512
>unfortunately they are CCCI brand
Yeah those are basically junk. If you can find old export pots from the communist days those can be pretty good but CCCI is good for decoration only at least from what ive seen.

>>19731716
Wouldn't the lead mixed in with the clay get leeched to make the tea sweeter? Sounds like a good time.

>>19731722
Now were talking.
I have no idea lead is a real concern with slipcast clay pots, i think the biggest problem is that its likely to make your tea taste weird and the build quality is pretty lacking.
Then again looking around a lot of the CCCI pots are painted and i would be pretty concerned about lead with those. Also these pots where the clay is blue or green not sure what they add to get the color but it's probably not something i would want to drink.

>>19731716
The pot I liked the most out of those they had looked usable enough besides being a bit large. I doubt the clay is great but It should still work as basic tea pot. It even had tool marks on the inside but perhaps it was just part of there slip cast process? I would have bought it if it were $5 or something and not at $80.

>>19731802
Its hard to say without seeing it. Sometimes they put tool marks on the inside to make it look like its handmade, sometimes its something else.

>>19731868
It looked like someone had used a tool to scrape the insides of the pot but never polished it up. I think it looked both too elaborate and rough if their goal was to fake a high grade pot so I suspect they were real marks but I could be wrong. The strainer holes were also obviously hand punched. Besides it would be odd to put that much effort into fake tells on a pot intended to be sold to foreigners who probably know nothing about.

I got a slice of qian liang! Beautiful chunk of mulch. The backside even has a couple of seedpods loosely rattling within the "cake."
>>19731512
>>19731716
Any recommended reading on CCCI? I haven't heard of that.

>>19731910
>Any recommended reading on CCCI? I haven't heard of that.
Its just some Chinese brand of clay teapots from the early 2000s, they turn up a lot on ebay in thrift stores etc in the US and probably other places and they are cheap low quality slipcast pots, not worth worrying about other then avoiding them.

>>19731910
I love how they just cut those into slices with a bandsaw or something.
Interested to hear what you think of it. I haven't gotten around to trying qian liang yet. Ive read it can have a sort of yeasty/bread flavor which is kind of intriguing and also slightly off putting.

>>19731910
>Any recommended reading on CCCI? I haven't heard of that.
They (used to?) import cheap yixing style teaware into the US. Not much to say but here are some links.
https://web.archive.org/web/20120520145205/http://www.yixingcollection.com/about_us.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20150416033002/http://tryeh.com/aboutus.html
NSFW https://www.etsy.com/shop/tryeh?page=1#items Besides teaware they apparently import lingerie KEK. They still have a few old pots on their etsy store.
https://old.reddit.com/r/tea/comments/sc0qm0/are_ccci_tryeh_yixing_teapots_safe_does_anyone/hu81pyn/
https://www.teaforum.org/viewtopic.php?t=2026

>>19732081
Thanks, good stuff

>>19732088
At least one of the thrift store pots an anon posted in the last thread ( >>19720991 ) is probably one of CCCI's.
https://web.archive.org/web/20130929060227/http://www.yixingcollection.com/0017.jpg

I know that a lot of their pots are replicas of famous pieces. The artists marks on the bottom are copies of what would have been on the real piece. However, they also typically stamped their pieces with "CCCI" and the year of production on the inside of the lid.

>>19732117
>I know that a lot of their pots are replicas of famous pieces
I know that somewone said a lot of their pots are replicas of famous pieces

does anyone even like Hong Cha?

>>19732497
I am the last hong cha drinker, the last of the hongchicans

>>19732620
KEK. Enjoy your Earl Grey.

>>19732620
have you tried any taiwanese black teas? theyre my favourite ones and are very fruity, definitely worth trying but a bit expensive

>>19732627
Not yet I've only ever had Chinese. I also like the fruity ones, especially when they have a chokecherry type flavor. Most of the hong I have now is of the malty & floral type, which I also enjoy

>>19732497
of course. I find myself being drawn to hong cha more and more recently. it never upsets my stomach and can be quite delicious
>>19732627
I love shan cha, it's so sweet. what other taiwanese blacks are there? I know sun moon lake / ruby 18 is a popular one

42 KB JPG
Long Life Tea: Peppermint, Licorice, Cinnamon, Chrysanthemum, Honeysuckle, Ginseng, Poria
"Over the years many students have asked me to advise them on herbs. Most medicinal herbs and teas should be used only to treat diseases or symptoms and are therefore individualized and not for daily use. Here is a tea that can be used every day to benefit everyone at all times. A good herb shop will be able to compound the proportions for you

Starting to get the hang of brewing yiwu plantation young shengs now, turns out you need to brew with 8-9g/100ml and push the brewing times a bit too, probably gonna get a gushu yiwu order one day because this is quite nice. also had to rehumidify the tea for like a month with 69%rh

>>19732782
>Long Life Tea: Peppermint, Licorice, Cinnamon, Chrysanthemum, Honeysuckle, Ginseng, Poria

Does anyone have any brewing tips or conjectures that might help? How long should we brew this and at what temperature? Do we brew these separately and mix the concoction? It's the 'poria' coco fungus that makes me ponder. Does this not usually take much longer to brew in comparison to the other reagents?

>>19732981
>cocos

Opinions on Mugwort tea? I picked and dried some myself and it has a surprisingly "tea-like" flavor. None of the bitterness that people typically say comes with mugwort though (and yes, I am 100% sure it is Mugwort that I picked)

>>19733010
always been curious to try it since it's such a common plant, but never got around to it. i have seen it for sale from herbal tea shops also
how would you rate it?
incidentally, i've heard fireweed (Chamaenerion angustifolium) gets picked, rolled and oxidised just like tea. i'm planning to try that some time.

Opinions on Mugwort tea? I picked and dried some myself and it has a surprisingly "tea-like" flavor. None of the bitterness that people typically say comes with mugwort though (and yes, I am 100% sure >>19733062
> how would you rate it?
if i had to put a number on it maybe a light 8 out of 10

but keep in mind i picked it twice this year. once in spring, once in late summer. both processed the same way (minimal oxidation) and they both had very distinct flavor profiles. i think i'd want to experiment with some more oxidation for the mugwort next year. feels like there's a lot more i can do with it

>>19730816
You can pronounce the ‘er’ as in ‘erm’

drinking the cheapo 2021 Yingpan Shan Black from Farmerleaf
it's alright. maybe I expected a bit too much considering the price. a classic daily-drinker black tea experience, a bit of a dried apple thing going on, a bit of astringency and slight malt. none of the more chocolaty or dark bready notes you sometimes get in hongcha
I'll have to say that the leaves do look quite a bit more expensive than they are though, the processing is very clean

>>19733127
I'll say the dried apple fruitiness is nice though. reminds me of some Georgian black tea I had a while back

doesnt look like I can or should trust amazon for anything tea related and the local tea shops closed during the covid lockdowns so it looks like im going to have to drive to a major city and find the china town there.

>>19731249
I mean drink what you will but earl grey is actual Reddit tea

>>19730406
there's also grain and sweetness
I tend to prefer the paraguayan mates, they're almost always more on the woody, smoky "seasoned" end of the mate spectrum

>>19727929
I think bi luo chun might be the most faked tea out there. it's so common to see any green tea in spirals marekted as bi luo chun.

Nuo Gu Wan and Nuo Gu Wan small trees comparison:
95c one rinse then 30s 40s 45s
Overall very similar, i would say the small trees is a little more wild for bitterness while the other is more tamed. Small trees gets bitter a little earlier and stronger. Nuo gu wan bitterness is less aggressive and jumpy small trees got more character for me. For my taste i prefer the nuo gu wan

>>19732497
hong cha? like black tea?

>>19728897
For me? Typhoo. It's the best mass market bulk tea I've tried to date. I bought some in Bermuda. I'm a burger though and it's really hard to find at markets here

>>19733685
I'm a bong and I've never had typhoo god damn.

>tea supposed to deliver today
>looking forward to it because I waited too long and am down to just earl grey
>it's 4pm and it's not yet out for delivery
it's over

>>19731910
What do you think of the qian liang? I really like that cake but it is probably not for everyone.

I found my first bing loot, in a 9948. It looks like a piece of corn or some kind of berry. Anyone know what this is? My phone camera can't focus very well at this scale.

>>19729111
>white tea turned me into a furry!
Just about to drink some moonlight white tea. Think it is going to turn me into a werewolf or something?

>>19734024
>Anyone know what this is?
Ligma?

>>19734024
Nice tooth.

>>19734024
maybe it's just a tea seed pod?

>>19734024
Probably a tea seed

>>19731129
>>19731249
Can you drink other tea without issue? Some people are just sensitive to theanine in general. My father refuses to touch tea because it supposedly makes him vomit as well.

>>19727593
Have you tried teas from small tea-producing countries/regions?
Is American made tea worth it?

>>19734136
>Is American made tea worth it?
Ive looked into it a few times. Very little USA made tea, most of it is $1 per gram or more. There is Charleston tea garden, they sell a first flush loose leaf in the spring which is somewhat reasonably priced.
If you want to try usa tea i would buy a small amout for the novelty, don't expect any kind of amazing tea for the price

>>19734136
I've had black tea from Java years back. I enjoyed it a the time, it had an apple fruitiness to it, a bit like that FL yingpan shan

>LAO CONG EIGHT IMMORTAL
>$4.20/1g of tea
>$87/25g

Has anybody brought from Treasure Green? The oolongs are fucking expensive.

>>19734058
>moonlight white tea
Tastes like autumn leaves and sugarcane. The perfect tea for the season. I should drink Yue Guang Bai more often.

>>19734181
>hongcouver
Eh, that city has some of the most overpriced tea in north America
Give it a shot if you feel like it but assume you are paying a 300% markup.

>>19733988
My tea isn't going to be here until Wednesday and I'm out of what I had before. I still have some bottled stuff but it's crazy how different even good bottled tea tastes from fresh, not to mention the cheap shit you'd buy at a grocery store.

>>19734224
Godspeed

>>19734224
Wishing you divine protection in this difficult time

Stewing my tea. Hoping for a strong brew. Dark Roast TGY.

>>19734328
God damn.

>>19734181
I would try Tea Habitat first if I were you. I have seen them recommended repeatedly as a high end choice and they are still cheaper then the tea you mentioned.
https://teahabitat.com/collections/single-tree-private-stash/products/2023-lan-yun-ba-xian-eight-immortals-2-oz
While it is true top grade dancongs and yancha can be crazy expensive in China I would still worry about markup when you see super expensive oolongs. Puss you should probably get familiar with cheaper stuff before trying the $4/g stuff so that you have a better perspective of worth.

>>19733990
I'm planning on letting it rest in the humidor for a while. I'll get to it soon, though.

>>19734353
Straight up tastes like a mocha. So fucking good.

>>19734380
Nice oil slick cup or whatever that finish is called

>>19734136
>>19734149
I've had a range of offerings from Great Mississippi Tea Company. At $0.55 USD per gram on average, it was pretty expensive. Two greens, an oolong, and a black tea. I'm going to answer no, it wasn't worth it, but it was interesting to get tea from such an uncommon source.
Here's a photo I took of the leaves of Mississippi Green, their better of the two green productions. Simple production, I believe I heard them say 1 bud 3 leaf grade, so pretty low.

>>19734391
God i love a nice simple thin white gaiwan

>>19732004
>Ive read it can have a sort of yeasty/bread flavor
I did not get that impression from the qian liang I have tried (shou is far more "bready"). If you are on the fence grab a sample or something, no need to commit to a large chunk.

>>19734368
>letting it rest in the humidor
Its probably fine to drink now but you can wait if you like. Tell us how it is when you do. The tea shares some flavor characteristics with other leafy late autumn heicha such lao chapo if you have ever had anything similar. You know maybe I will have some qian liang tomorrow.

I'm getting oaky afterbirth

>>19734579
Im getting slight placenta notes with a touch of sour cherries. slight tart but not overwhelming. Mainly dark fruits with some coffee like notes.

>>19734579
Im getting the taste of mountain goats prancing across the swiss alps

I’ve got some chamomile flowers I’ve harvested over the last few months I’ve let dry out in my bedroom. What’s the best way to brew them? Should I crumble them all up so they’re consistent? I bought some cheap paper teabags to put them in to send to some friends but I’m worried the taste of paper will leach out of it.

>>19735024
just give them a bag of chamomile and tell them add a spoonful to steep themselves.
>>19735024
>What’s the best way to brew them?
Hot water ten mins.

How should I prepare this zhuan hei cha? Gongfu? Or stew it?

Stewing it since it looks very compressed...

>>19735356
How is it?
You can gongfu it for sure, the trick is to use your pick to separate it in to several thin layers so that it will brew more quickly, if you just toss a huge chunk in and gongfu it it will infuse really slowly and the chunk might not even open up fully.

>>19732782
I attempted going to a local tea shop and the Indian woman running the place got visibly outraged that I was interested in Chinese medicine and that she never even heard of poria. Thought I was talking about pu erh, dirty old witch.

>>19735356
If gongfu doesn't work you can always gong fu

>>19735457
Very dark. Reminded me of a mate...

I'm starting to feel like I might not like hei chas and ripe puerhs.

>>19727593

>>19735491
>Reminded me of a mate...
as in yerba mate?

drinking that Fa Zhan He again. always surprised by how much it can change steep to steep

As you probably already know Yunnan had a big drought this year over the spring tea season, which has been responsible for this years delicious tea and reduced yields.
Which has led me wondering what other years has extreme droughts occurred and which one was the worst?
From some googling I found papers on yunnan droughts along side blogposts. From my research It looks like 2010, 2017, 2019, 2023 had very bad droughts. If you were around back then or have sources I would love to know your thoughts on which years have been the worst and how 2023 has stacked up.

>>19735812
Pretty leaves btw

What kind of infusers do you guys use? I'm in the market for my first infuser. I don't wanna spend a shitload on it but I also don't want to get lead in my glass.

>>19736224
Jesus Christ anon, this is a SFW board. Do you have no shame?

>>19733127
>2021 Yingpan Shan Black from Farmerleaf
I am also trying the Yingpan Shan Black tea for the first time. I would describe it as being light and fruity with a long astringent finish but perhaps a bit thin or mellow by black tea standards. The quality of the tea leaves is nice as well. Overall it seems a great tea for the price $7/100g.

>>19736348
Get a steel basket infuser you can use in mugs
Search infuser basket on amazon/ebay/ you cheap shopping site of choice, get something like pic related.
The brand finium makes ones with a really fine mesh but they use a plastic frame, made in Germany out out allegedly heatsafe plastic, up to you how you feel about that sort of thing.
This design is easy, lets the leaves expand and you can just use it in any random mug you own, ive had one for years.

>>19735812
Ive almost finished my cake off, really nice tea. If i had any criticism its that the leaves haven't really been sorted at all, so you end up with some yellow leaves, big stems etc in the mix. But its not enough to matter and i wouldn't want to pay more per cake to have it sorted so its not an issue for me.

can I buy fresh mint leaves and use them for tea?

>>19736547
Sure. At least some people prefer it that way. Lots of directions for brewing online if you search fresh mint tea

>>19736535
maybe the unsorted character is what gives it so much variation between infusions or sessions?

>>19736561
excellent, at least that is one easy to find tea reagent for the long life potion..
Nothing online comes close to the quality of fresh herb mint I can buy for "tea"

>>19736528
Sounds good, thanks anon. I have a tall mug so this seems perfect.

>>19735784
Yeah.

>>19736348
get a gaiwan also

So is there a $10 ~120ml (actual usable capacity) gaiwan on Amazon/ebay i can shill to people who want a cheap easy to obtain gaiwan? Last time i looked on Amazon they were all huge and i don't want to tell people to get one that's larger then ~130ml or so.

THREADLY REMINDER
Change your water filter!

>>19736696
Not $10 but I got this one
https://www.amazon.com/Porcelain-Gaiwan-Classical-Chinese-Auspicious/dp/B08NYQ2FRN
It's 150ml completely full apparently but if you fill it up to where it starts to flare out it's 120ml. I haven't had any problems with my fingers getting burned or anything.

>>19736899
thanks

>>19736927
Thanks

>>19736668
What's the benefit of a gaiwan? I primarily drink a local-made herbal and english loose teas.

>>19737001
It measures your water and strains the leaves. But you have to get good at it.

>>19734024
There's never anything in my cakes. What kinda shit can you find?

I thought I was buying white tea, but this is apparently moonlight white from Pu'er, Yunnan. White leaves, very dark black leaves, some stem. Produces very sweet, thick liquor which tastes like honey, and even is honey coloured. This came in pressed cake form (100g). It is very interesting, anyone else had had the chance to try one?

>>19737062
Yeah, it's a popular style. Often produced from the same trees as pu-erh, usually the less expensive harvests. Some of them can be really affordable, Awazon has some for like 8$ a cake.
What brand is it?

>>19737187
I don't know. Here's a picture of the cake. A tea shop in Helsinki sells this for 16 bucks a 100g cake.

>>19737218
you should compare it with the 3.50$ Awazon cake

>>19737001
>What's the benefit of a gaiwan? I primarily drink a local-made herbal and english loose teas.
For you, maybe not much. Its nice if you want to get into gongfu brewing autism but if you are just going to western brew English style teas and herbal stuff there is no need.

>>19737018
I found a rusted bolt head in a can of liubao once. Mostly its just bits of plastic from those big woven sacks they store the dried loose leaves in. In some of the 2000s era cakes you sometimes find long hairs. Also seeds, random twigs, stuff like that

>>19737062
Tasty stuff. Decent find for the price in a local shop. I don't recognize the brand but the tea looks decent.

>>19737018
Found a piece of charcoal in a cake a few weeks ago.

>>19737062
>I thought I was buying white tea, but this is apparently moonlight white from Pu'er,
It is generally considered a type of white tea (low oxidation, no killgreen) despite the color of the leaves. I think the color partially comes from the variety of tea plant used.

>Produces very sweet, thick liquor which tastes like honey, and even is honey coloured.
Sounds about right. Moonlight white is a personal favorite of mine when I just want a sweet and easygoing tea. It tends to be a pretty cheap tea too.

>>19737018
>>19737481
Oh and how could I forget the feather.

>>19737018
>There's never anything in my cakes. What kinda shit can you find?
Excluding tea twigs and the like I have personally found: pebbles, chunks of cement, pieces of grass, plastic strands from woven plastic bags, human hairs, chicken feathers, and and a cigarette butt. You mostly find more extreme stuff stuff in older more rustic cakes but odds and ends can still end up in more modern productions.

>>19737496
Yep I've found the feather too. It's a rite of passage.

>package loaded on airplane
Mengku coming soon bros

I still havent ordered my ripes for the winter yet
im making a huge mistake

>>19737582
> package loaded on airplane
> coming soon
Kek. This is what it must feel like to have a somewhat competent customs and post. For me the package always spends more time in-country than travelling to it.

>>19737506
>>19737262
What exactly can you do in this case? Can you send it back and have it replaced?

>>19734024
tonsil stone

>>19737978
lol, its just part of the wonders of Chinese tea, i wouldn't worry about stuff like that happening, its not a very common occurrence

>>19737978
I pull it out and keep the tea. I am not getting rid of a whole tea cake over a pebble or hair, its not like they are going to harm me. If i found something truly nasty in my tea I would consider seeking a refund but that has never happened to me.

>>19737627
What batches are you planning on stocking up on?

>>19739416
Some old ripes from awazon. Probably some dayi and fuhai.

>>19739494
Why old? I'm just getting into ripe and I'm not sure what exactly changes with age. Every description I find sound pretty vague to me.

>>19739513
>Why old?
Good question
>I'm just getting into ripe and I'm not sure what exactly changes with age.
So with ripes there is a much less dramatic change with age, the tea can get a bit smoother, more mellow, and maybe air out some fermentation flavor if it had some initially. The biggest difference to me is that the production of ripe teas has changed over time. Ones from the early 2000s and especially before then tended to be less fermented during the initial processing. This made teas that were not as good to drink young, but that benefited a bit more from age by retaining more of the raw characteristics of the tea materials used.
In terms of getting tea that's easily acceptable for consumers modern ripe productions are typically a better choice, they are usually cleaner, processed in a more standardized way and they are typically more consistently pleasant tasting and easy to drink. It kinda depends on what you like about ripe and the best way to understand these differences is to drink these teas yourself.
If you want to get an idea of what some old ripes tasted like, teas like the various 2005 fuhai productions on awazon might be a good introduction, of course those are very dry stored teas and a 20 year old tea stored in hong kong is a whole different story, typically with root cellat, soil loam kind of flavors dominating everything elase.

How true is this?

>>19739611
100% true

>>19739611
>>19739623
Fuck i forgot to add shopping addiction to the /tea/ one

>>19739560
Thanks, anon, very interesting. I'll keep a lookout for them then, that sounds like something I might like.

>>19739696
Sure, i od course should mention the downsides of older teas, there were also a lot more shoddy low quality productions, things were not as clean and you are more likely to find bits of foregin matter in the tea and there are also some teas that are just processed poorly and wont taste great no matter what you do with them. Its good to stick with somewhat reliable vendors, dont go buying random old teas on ebay till you know what you are getting in to. Lots of fakes and just generally bad tea out there.

Am I the only one who wishes the western puerh vendors would include the name of the tea in english on the wrapper? Even small print on the back would be fine. Once you have enough cakes it can be easy to forget which is which after awhile.

Do you guys actually use the saucer that comes with gaiwans? I typically just stick it in a drawer and do without.

>>19739741
Just write on the wrapper yourself.

>>19739560
>>19739696
the 2002 6FTM ripe Tuo on Awazon is also a lower fermentation one that has some aged character already, while still being inexpensive

>>19739744
i do because it catches any spill if i overfill it a little
not necessary if you have a tray i guess.

>>19739744
>Do you guys actually use the saucer that comes with gaiwans? I typically just stick it in a drawer and do without.
Same here. It's one more thing that i have to wash, Also it takes up useful space on my little ceramic tray.
>>19739741
>he didn't memorize the chinese name of every mountain and village in Yunnan.
Fucking casuals

>>19739744
>Just write on the wrapper yourself.
My hand writing is messy, and honestly I don't think I should have to label them myself.

>>19739768
>he doesn't personalise cake wrappers with his sloppy handwriting
Soulless.

>>19739721
Lol, I'm too autistic to spend even 10€ without doing some research so no worries there. Thanks anyway.

>>19739744
>Do you guys actually use the saucer that comes with gaiwans?
If i have the gaiwan on some draining tea tray i don't use the saucer, if i just have it on a table or something i do use it. It does catch at peast some liquid. You can also do that pour that old Chinese women like where you pick the gaiwan up by pinching the saucer and lid when pouring.

>>19739623
Where does this meme come from?

>>19739843
Puer lesbians? Someone was making fun of the thread only talking about puer and the name was funny so it stuck. Plus all the jokes about puer induced lesbian domestic violence are funny.

>>19739836
>pick the gaiwan up by pinching the saucer and lid when pouring.
I use a second gaiwan (minus the lid) as a drinking cup and I use the saucer to help hold it. The saucer is really helpful for holding it while hot. For my brewing gaiwan I use saucer but it does not really serve any purpose besides decoration.

>>19739861
>For my brewing gaiwan I use saucer but it does not really serve any purpose besides decoration.
They do look a bit lonely without the saucer

please don't laugh at me
I ordered pinnacle grade gyokuro

chinese tea feels like such a lonely hobby, none of my english friends have any interest in a gonfucha session and are stuck in their builders mug ways

CAN ANYONE RECCOMEND SOME DECENT RAW PUEHR that they like from yunnansourcing

>>19739899
from mei leaf? let us know how it is, i don't mind paying the pinnacle premium sometimes if it's actually good stuff.

>>19739915
i just say "wanna try some weird tea" and people are usually interested enough to taste it. i'm surprised how often the reaction is positive actually.

>>19739927
Hibiki-An

>>19739932
my bad, still let us know how it is.

>>19739926
Gold impression 2022

Any experiences with Ya Bao?

>>19739957
Its not as exciting as it seems, im not even sure if its actually tea. If you get some, make sure it's fresh buy a little bit and drink it quickly, ive heard it doesn't age well.

>>19739957
I have some and it tastes a little pine-like. Can't say I love it

>>19739915
I suffer as a sinophile

>>19739915
I make tea for my parents and brothers to try. They know I'm autistic about this, and I generally make good-ish tea so they drink it.

>>19739957
>Any experiences with Ya Bao?
Most of it (like the tea you pictured) tends to be light, piney, and floral but there are several other kinds that are somewhat distinct. I like Ya Bao but its not something I go looking for often. It also tends to be on the weak side.

The cheap young Ya Bao cake I would have recommended from liquidproust is unfortunately sold out. He still sells a couple other Ya Bao cakes however. If you are looking for something interesting verdanttea has some interesting (albeit kind of pricey) Camellia Crassicolumna Ya Bao.

>>19739974
>ive heard it doesn't age well.
From whom? The semi aged Ya Bao I have had was fine. It is kind of like a white tea so I don't see why it would not store well. A few years of age should be no problem.The one exception being I think dry storage is better for Ya Bao because wet storage messes with the floral character.

>>19740397
Good. Pick better yellow people to covet

BLACKED

>>19740464
>From whom?
Honestly it was an offhand comment from some blog or something. I think he was talking about the kind of watermelon and other notes that vendors tend to advertise it not lasting very long. Do you know if its actually from a Camellia plant or if its from some other species?

>>19740522
Nevermind you answered my question in the first half of you post, so its a Camellia but not a camellia sinensis, interesting

>>19740499
>random oolong wrappers scattered behind the keyboard
based

>>19739957
the dried kind sucks

>>19740522
>I think he was talking about the kind of watermelon and other notes that vendors tend to advertise it not lasting very long.
Its quite possible that's the case. I guess I should have done a thorough tasting on my young Ya Bao cake wen I got it so I could have made comparisons. However even if loosing the watermelon note is true Ya Bao does not seem to go stale in the same way green tea is widely regarded to. I actually have liquidproust's 2006 aged Ya Bao cake. The pine flavor is still there but is is mixed with aged wet storage taste. Its a very unique tea but I am not entirely sure how I feel about it. Definitely the sort of tea you should grab a sample of before getting a whole cake.

>>19740527
>so its a Camellia but not a camellia sinensis, interesting
Supposedly it is caffeine free too. I believe I still have some of verdant teas Camellia Crassicolumna Ya Bao in my stash. If you would like I can try to post some tasting notes on it.

>>19740499
Even with milk and sugar it still ended up being more astringent than a young Sheng puerh.
No wonder I can't drink them on an empty stomach, I hate the blacks(tea) so much its unreal.

>>19739744
I don't want to mess up the wrappers. There's a beauty in those paper coverings, especially old productions. It's similar to keeping the leaves as whole and unbroken as possible. They've tell a story and lot of effort has been put into keeping the whole thing whole as possible. I don't want to scribble on it. I'm not worthy.
I've kept nearly everyone I've ever had. Some factory tuos I blast through I don't keep any more, but for cakes, I store them until I have enough to put in a frame. I'll eventually hang them in my house or teahouse that I will open one day. Maybe.
I suppose it is possible that I might start forgetting what I have someday, but for now my spreadsheet is fine. I also save the store listing and webpage with each order. Then I can link to it form my spreadsheet. That way I can remember the photos and listing at the time I purchased it.

>>19740959
>I suppose it is possible that I might start forgetting what I have someday, but for now my spreadsheet is fine. I also save the store listing and webpage with each order. Then I can link to it form my spreadsheet. That way I can remember the photos and listing at the time I purchased it.
I have an ultra-autistic setup using org-roam with backlinks and capture templates. When I drink a tea I open a capture template which creates a new node and autofills the date, then I add stuff like brewing parameters etc. Each tea has its own node which has the year it's from, the mountain, etc. so I can easily search the database for things like "Sheng puerh 2009" and it will come up with all of the dates and times I've drunk every sheng puerh that was grown in 2009, how I brewed them, and what I thought of them. What I'm going to work on next is to add another entry to the location nodes (Like Jingmai) with latitude and longitude coordinates, so I can return a list of all the teas that I've drunk within any arbitrary geometric shape, the perimeter of which I can draw on an interactive map.

>>19740984
I respect that kind of record keeping. When I do, it's mostly to keep track of costs and my thoughts on the tea. I also sell tea like a sketchy tea dealer to my friends so I keep track of inventory. I don't keep track of sessions or parameters. I just feel it out.
This is my first time using a spreadsheet since 7th grade, so it's been a slight learning curve. A template/form for inserting data seems handy, but I can't say it's been difficult to enter it in directly to the spreadsheet.
I think we're mostly on the same page. It's handy to search, sort, and filter. I'm not sure I care about exact lat and long. What will you do for blends that come from Lan Cang and Xishuangbanna? Furthermore, only Farmer Leaf really gives you information that specific about terroir. Not to mention how hard it can be to trust the tea you get is truly from where it's advertised as.
Here's a clip of part of my spreadsheet. Includes notes like translations plus I copy what I write up here. Mind sharing yours? I'd welcome anyone else who wanted to share. I'm mostly curious as to what anons are tracking.

Found a place near me that had at least some loose leaf tea. They only had young hyacinth and orange pekoe (though that's a tier and not a specific type of tea, it didn't have any other label) but I wanted something while waiting on the tea I'd ordered last week that won't be here until later this week. The young hyacinth is good so far. I bought enough that I can make some cold brew too so we'll see how that turns out. Also bought some barley I'm going to try to make cold brew out of at some point.

>>19728759
>Why is it opaque and white?
CUM

>>19740959
>>19740984
>>19741048
I originally kept a detailed tea tasting spreadsheet with detailed tasting notes but life got busy and I felt burnt out so I stopped updating. I was at 100 or so entries I think. At this point I probably wont restart it. I will at least try to write more tasting notes occasionally even if I don't save them so my tasting vocabulary improves. As my tea collection grows I intend to make an inventory sheet to keep things organized. Probably also going to makes some miscellaneous tea resource lists: favorite vendors, tea references, wishlists, ect.

I just keep a list of much tea I buy and what I spend on it.

Man, you guys are pretty serious about this. The only thing i have is a folder with links, called "Tea that I liked and would be willing to buy again".

>>19739926
I liked this one
https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/raw-pu-erh-tea/products/2007-nan-qiao-early-spring-tribute-raw-pu-erh-tea-cake

>>19741048
>I'm mostly curious as to what anons are tracking.

There's this app that you can save steep profiles to that I use. It has multiple steeps, temp, tasting notes section etc. for each tea. The profile is then used as a timer for steeping and if you overshoot, it tells you how much you overshot it by so you can adjust in the future; good for experimentation. Also lets you sort tea by shop, manufacturer, grade it etc. Probably not that useful if all you do is gong fu, but I never really got into that. It's called Tea Time, it's for Android. My biggest gripe with it is there's no way it lasts as a long term database; it's an app and there's no way to export the data so when it dies, all my tea notes will be gone. I might manually copy the teas I liked most at some point because of this.

>>19741658
Not being able to export is a big enough reason to stop using it. It doesn't have to die, your phone might just get stolen, then you've lost an archive. That doesn't sound like a useful app. Sounds more like the opposite. If you aren't brewing gong fu, your parameters and timing don't matter as much either.

>>19740920
Brewing temperature?

>>19742285
>Not being able to export is a big enough reason to stop using it.

It's primary purpose isn't to be an archive. For teas I like, I can spend a minute and do it manually as I will. Would be a neat feature to implement, though.

>That doesn't sound like a useful app.

I'm not opening a doc and setting up multiple timers manually every time I brew so until I find a better one with the same function I'm sticking with it.

>If you aren't brewing gong fu, your parameters and timing don't matter as much
Basically everyone who gongfu brews just eyeballs it and when someone asks them how long they just make up a number of seconds on the spot. Small increments of time do matter more in gongfu, but you aren't going to forget about your tea as it's steeping as the steeps aren't long enough for that so a timer is definitely not as useful as with western and jap style brewing.

>your package is out for delivery
hell yeah, its time for more mengku tea
Reminder that the (second) best puer is from Lincaing

>>19727593
The cheap infusers I have keep flooding my cup with silt, what's the finest mesh infuser I can find?

>>19742421
just buy a ceramic teapot / gaiwan / tasting cup. they're better for brewing some teas and you won't have to bother with silt, rust or permanent stains

>>19742421
finum makes some of the finest filters if you don't mind the frame being made of plastic. Honestly you should just get used to a little silt, its hard to avoid entirely.

>>19742572
>teapot / gaiwan / tasting cup
none of those are going to be any better at filtering dust (unless they have a good strainer built in).

>>19742309
Boiling. Steep was 4 minutes.

>>19742421
Finium

Got my cake in from Russian website guy (tea-expert) all the samples he included are those yunnan gabba teas including the gabba sheng. I will post my thoughts on them when i get the chance.

farmer leaf listed a couple of aged shengs. anyone thinking of trying them?

>>19742740
generous samples ey. what cake did you get?

>>19742743
>what cake did you get?
Mengku TF "Tea Spirit" 2021
Fresh out of the mail bag and into my gaiwan

I just made matcha for the first time but it didn't really taste of much except a faint taste of the smell of fresh grass cuttings. Did I fuck it up somehow or is that just what it's like? I did 3/4 teaspoon of matcha, then poured in a little bit of hot water to whisk it together, then added the rest of the water.

>>19742772
Where did you get the matcha? There is a huge difference between the stuff at a grocery store or on Amazon to the stuff that a specialized Japanese tea merchant sells.
I guess you could just have really hard water, but realistically with nice matcha it should be damn strong.

>>19742772
yeah there is a lot of shit matcha out there that's made to bake with or drink it with milk

>>19742761
Yup, thats good alright, mengku domination continues.

>>19742786
It was off Amazon, it's ceremonial grade though so I assume it should still be decent quality. It was from a company called Spring Blossom.

>>19742904
Buy a bottle of spring water and brew it with that, if it suddenly tastes like rich savory soup then your water is the problem. If it's still bland then it's probably old or just not that good. I am as far from an elitist as they get when it comes to tea. I mostly drink rally cheap stuff and i usually encourage people not to overspend on expensive fancy stuff. But matcha is hard, there is a ton of demand in the west and most consumers aren't that discerning so the market is completely flooded by very mediocre tea. To rrally be confident you are getting the real deal you need to buy from specialist western vendors that only sell Japanese tea or order from reputable Japanese tea shops. You can find both in the pastebin in the OP.

Tea

t

>>19727593
NEW
>>19742971
>>19742971
>>19742971