/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>20059854
Finally find pine and crane motif gaiwan
Its 200ml
Fine i will go teaware shopping on taobao

>>20059854
More like pee and pissanes

>>20059897
Uh... teasisters? Our response?

Russian Caravan tea. Is this the overall best balance between standard black tea and the smoove oxidized flavour of oolong and souchong?

This reporter thinks so, but this reporter doesn't really know much about tea.

>>20060044
what brand of russian caravan are you reffering to?

>>20060055
Well I've only tried Twinings so far and I like itq

>>20060057
thanks for confessing, in light of this your review still makes me want to try russian caravan in a gaiwan

Drinking the rest of my spring shincha in the Big Bizen Yunomi (BBY)

>>20059897
seethe, coffeenigger

>>20060089
My ex left me for BBY

>>20059859
dedicated Xiaguan brewing vessel?

>>20060093
Before the Battle of Yavin?

>>20060032
It's true. My body is a machine that turns tea into pee. I piss at least three to four times after a session. It's the tea drinker equivalent of coffee drinkers having their morning cuppa then violently shitting into the nearest toilet/empty folgers can

breaking out dat 12$ Fuhai ripe cake from Awazon
much like a Dayi, but with a more earthy, forest-floory aroma

anyone regularly drink tea on empty stomach, and is it bad for you?

>>20060640
It's an individual thing. I think light black tea should be fine for the vast majority of people, while powerful raw puerh is not.

>>20060640
i do
don't know, why would it be? it's just leaf water

what did Scott mean by this?

finishing some of my leftover Taiwanese Sanxia Bi Luo Chun
this is probably my favorite non-Japanese green tea right now. decently complex for a Chinese-style green tea. has some light oolong florality, spiciness and an interesting lime facet, aside from the usual vegetal broth type green tea flavor. it's less sweet than your longjings and whatnot

I'll have to get more of this stuff next year. though I hear the autumn green tea harvest in Taiwan is also pretty good, so I guess I could buy that too

I just sorted my pumidors for new years. My hope is that over the next year I will accumulate enough new tea that I will have to rethink my tea storage (and my life) again. After all what is man but a collection of tea leaves? and I intend to be a great man!

What are your goals for tea this tea this year?
What genres do you want to explore, what terroirs do you want to stack?
For me i think im going all in on young raw for another year at least, enjoyed the hell out of it last year and ive been bored as fuck drinking nothing but factory ripes this winter. All sheng all the time, maybe i can drink some nice examples of yiwu this year but i will be pretty content if i just drink Menghai and Lincang all year. I wouldn't mind getting one of these fancy liuan baskets all the western facing vendors have been commissioning in recent years.

I drank a cup of tea for the first time recently, bought it from walmart and put hot tap water in a plastic cup to make it, but it was pretty alright, said it was ginger-tumeric flavour I think
Whats the next step if I want to try more tea

>>20061036
a bit similar here, I also want more young raws, preferably Menghai area
I've also drunk a ton of factory ripe this year. I've been enjoying Lumber Slut, so I will probably buy another one along with the Peak Vulture if I get the chance, to take a break from factory productions
I'd also like to explore fu brick. I got a sample of some premium one from KTM and it was very nice

>>20061063
the next step is 1.25 kg tibetan flame brick chaqi maxxing
http://www.pu-erhtea.com/TeaDetails.aspx?TeaID=796

>>20061063
Check the pastebin

>>20060841
looks zesty. citrusy (lime) you say though? damn.

lately I've been drinking Yun wu green tea because it has a subtle roasting flavor.

My $2 worth of tea is here.

>>20061412
lol
I hope its several cakes

>jasmine infused tea

>>20061416
I reupped on some shit I really liked and bought tongs of fermented shit made out of the same shit. And only got 2 measly free samples.

Which tong should I crack first?

>>20061435
I also fucked up and ordered the 2021 Earth instead of the 2022 which I really liked the sample of. I hope they're comparable.

>>20061412
Based vendor. I might finally receive my cspuerh order tomorrow, let's see if they mark it down too

>>20061435
Earth it is.

>>20061465
They almost always do, which is a pain in the dick when something goes wrong.

>>20061435
Lmao I gotta order from EoT sometime and see if stating 2$ per gram puerh as worth 2$ for a kilo flies by EU customs
I understand you recommend the stuff in the order?

>>20061496
The 2022 Earth is one of the better ripes I've had, although a little fishy on the nose. Some aging would take care of that. I haven't tried the Beyond the Clouds puerh, but the red tea version is really damn good for 14¢ a gram. The wild white is pretty good but you have to like white.

>>20061521
Nice
I like that you are using the 1000 times folded Japanese schoolchildren pencil sharpener as a tea knife

What tea companies give you free tote bags when you order tea? I like using them for storage, but don't want to buy them specifically. Currently have a bag from CS Puerh and Red Blossom.

>>20061554
Go on taobo during one of the Chinese holiday season like new years.
When you buy a factory tea with from an official vendors the listing will usually show you the box and gift bag that's included. Usually they are plastic but im sure some are nicer.
When the vendor opens a case of tea intended for gifting it actually will have the accessory gift bags tucked inside with the tea.
I know ive gotten some recent xiaguan cakes from ktm that each came with a xiaguan branded mylar bag.

>>20061070
Have you tried the 2023 lumber slut? Is it drinkable already or does it need some aging?

>>20057911
>>20057930
>>20057943
>>20058056
If I ever do make a custom blend I will take the flavor profile seriously. I were to do it I was thinking of making a smokey forward mixed tea blend. In witch case I would probably use smokey semi aged sheng as a base, preferably something not too bitter. Then I would augment it with various types of smokey hunan heicha as well as a bit of lapsang souchong and/or roasted oolong. If I need to cut it to reduce harshness and round out mouthfeel I would add some cheap aged yiwu and/or aged huang pian. Finally perhaps I would add just a pinch of wet stored or wet piled tea if I think the blend could use some earthiness.

>>20061521
First steep is nutty and honeyed on the nose. Slightly mineral and in the territory of fresh soil, something like bamboo or chestnut.

Second steep is loaded with huigan and some kelp. Third is taking me somewhere, like riding an ox backwards.

>>20061547
I should probably use forded 5 times by a guy named Anti puukko because that cake was pretty tough. Tougher than cocobolo? I'd rather not find out.

>>20061630
I don't think ive see you post about your storage setup, have you rigged up a big cooler or a fridge or something to use as a pumidor?

>>20061638
Humidity in the house is at 45% right now, may drop lower in the spring. Otherwise it's around 65% or higher. Not that it matters, I'm probably going to drink most of this shit by the time the spring teas drop. I probably average ~11 grams a day.

>>20061601
I went with the 2021. I don't buy same year ripe unless it's Dayi. Peak vulture peaked my interest though, I guess I can just store it for a year or two
Some anon here complained about 2023 being too in your face with notes of "rotting tree stump" and liked a more aged Slut more. I'll buy the 2022 one next time

>>20061630
Sounds interesting for a ripe

>>20061685
>We've kept some of this batch to form part of a shu puerh production we plan to ferment later this year and pressed some into these 100g cakes.
I'm like 90% sure it's the same stuff they use to make Beyond the Clouds, which is a damn good red tea and a raw I should really crack open after I knock down all these samples and balls. I'm noticing a lot of similarities.

This shit is hitting pretty hard.

>>20060640
It's never bad for you, but it may make you feel very unwell. I've found ripe puerh is the easiest on the stomach. Zero issues drinking that while fasted.

>>20061677
ah damn, I ordered the 2023 a while ago. I don't feel like aging it though so I'll just hope it's drinkable for me. It's just 200g anyway.

In the middle of a session with Yee On Tea's "Iron Buddha II" oolong (a TGY). Not sure if I like it or not due to the astringency, but I wrote a little about it.
____
5g/195F/5s

Dry leaf has notes of a sweet, perhaps just barely-roasted wood and some vague floral note. Wet leaf brings the floral note more forward (without being pungent)...perhaps some kind of mum/chrysanthemum? It also has a clear wet wood note (that shifts a bit tangy) below this.

Medium thickness, low bitterness, medium-high astringency. Mild floral sweetness that matches the wet leaf notes, with an equal roasty wood note tucked below. Somewhat juicy, and though a bit astringent for my preferences, has a well-prolonged floral aftertaste. I also feel oddly warm after drinking this. Pushing it muddies up the notes, though I don't sense astringency becoming any more severe as a result. Pleasant aroma and not bitter, although just a bit drying. Best when infused rapidly many times.

Iron Buddha II dry leaf nuggies.

>>20061966
Could use a bit more fermentation and a bit more reast for my tastes. I bet that would probably knock the astringency down some.
Its probably worth trying it with cooler water, that might help some with the astringent notes.
You ordered a couple oolongs from yot right?

currently enjoying tea to help with a cold:
dried longan and goji berries, date, ginseng and caterpillar fungus

why is medicinal Chinese/Tibetan tea so top tier?

>>20061978
>Cooler water
I was considering if it would make good coldbrew. Not sure if the balls would unravel properly or not, or if the floral quality might become too potent, but I'd like to try it. That said, I usually prefer lighter infusions across the board, but I don't know if that will help too much with the astringency. Whether I went lighter or pushed it, astringency seemed pretty similar. I can experiment another time, anyway.
>Roast
I would like to try this too, though I don't really have experience with it. Some people just roast on a dry saucepan, don't they? I suppose I could just let it all ferment/oxidize too, but I don't really have much experience with aging oolongs. I have 295g more of this to go either way, so I'll try something if you have an idea in mind.
>You ordered a couple oolongs from yot right?
Just Iron Buddha II and the shui xian. I haven't tried any of the pu'er yet, but they smelled great from the few quick whiffs I took before.

>>20062001
I honestly haven't messed around with roasting but i bet it would work. Just look up instructions for toasting seeds in a dry pan and copy whatever they do.
As far as oxidation i have no idea how to do that at home. I was more commenting that i prefer my TGY with more oxidation when its being processed. But greener is that standard these days and good quality 60%+ oxidized tgy is hard to find.

>>20061881
I hear many people like it young for maximum rotting stump, so YMMV. Shouldn't be too bad wo DUI wise anyhow
the 2021 is nice, nothing too challenging for a ripe fan, nice classic vanilla woody flavor with just a bit of campfire and basement

>>20061989
>why is medicinal Chinese/Tibetan tea so top tier?
Once you get past all the Ancient Chinese Secret mysticism, it's just wholesome ingredients with enough stuff in it to make it palatable and not as medicine tasting.

>>20061214
yeah, when it's brewed strongly it totally tastes lime-like. the lime and the savory vegatable broth and slight spice makes me think of some south east asian soups

>>20061554
I hear white2tea includes free tote bags sometimes in promos

>>20061754
cha qi got you sweatin?

>>20061966
>Best when infused rapidly many times.
I feel like this with most lightly oxidized oolong. I also like to brew it western style

All the Tibetan and Japanese incense all stems from traditional medicine stuff.
Its too bad that clove was worth it's weight in gold in ancient japan, you end up with these traditional incense recipies that are like 50/50 aloeswood and clove. Seems kinda silly nowadays to mix a common spice with oud wood chips that can cost thousands of dollars a gram.
But yeah good Tibetan medicinal incense has shit like deer musk and sandalwood and all kindnof other good shit in it. Even the cheap stuff is mostly berries and wood pulp which is a huge improvement over cheap incense from india. Only downside is that Tibetans use spoiled milk in some traditional incense products which can be a bit shocking.

>>20062106
Man it smells good when they get it right.

>>20062180
Hell yes.
In case you missed the last time i was shilling it try out some of this.
https://incense-traditions.ca/shop/tibet/holy-land-incense/
This is the good a stuff from tibet proper and not the expats in india.

>>20059854
How good is Whittard? I'm staying in the UK for the next 3 years of my life and I've heard some good things about their loose tea leaves but they're a little steep in price.

Whay are zoomer Christians so attracted to 4chan?

>>20059854
I have the single of The Trooper on a 45 with Cross Eyed Mary on the b-side, very good record. Anyway I'm drinking a glass of Earl Grey from Davidson's Organics that I made in a French Press. I went to sleep after drinking a glass of it so it's a few hours old and now tastes like iced tea because it's been sitting in my cold kitchen. I like Davidson's Organics, their stuff's good and cheap for it's quality.

>>20062287
Posh AF but they're usually fine, I do like they provide samples but I usually just get my loose tea from Tea Makers of London which is mainly because I sometimes meet with the bloke who runs it. Whittard ain't bad if it's accessible to you.

>>20061036
Thanks for asking, promptanon.
I've been building up my collection and studying what I can with the intention of starting a business trading tea. I've been selling puerh out of a trench coat to friends and coworkers for a year now, soliciting feedback. This year I'm going to take it up a notch and start vending at the usual downtown joints and events. It probably won't go anywhere, but it has encouraged me to learn as much as I can. It's not going to replace my day job, but hopefully it will introduce me to some cool teas and people. I'm excited about it. If things go well, I'll have an online storefront too.
As for teas specifically, I'd like to explore more aged raw puerh. I'm ready to drop some pretty serious cash to try some things I wouldn't have a few years ago. For vendors, I'm expecting to buy cakes from Yunnan Sourcing, Farmer Leaf, maybe dip my toes in Awazon and Taobao, if anons keep sharing know-how. I also really need to experiment more with oolongs, especially Taiwanese and yancha.
It's going to be a great year. I hope all your tea dreams come true.

>>20061966
>Yee On Tea's "Iron Buddha II"
Interesting, I don't remember it being astringent, at least not compared to young sheng. However I bought mine a couple years back so it could have changed since then. I thought it was a nice cheap mid roast TGY but I don't really have much experience with the genre. I recommend trying to grandpa style brew it. I don't normally make tea grandpa style but I really liked the "Iron Buddha II" that way when I was busy. When grandpa style brewing it I used a slightly lower temp water (185F) less for flavor reasons (besides over steeping) and more so it did not take so long to cool.
>>20062001
>Not sure if the balls would unravel properly or not
I am pretty sure they do if you leave it for a day but I only cold brewed it a couple times.
>the shui xian
Works pretty well grandpa style as well. My other "busy day" tea.

>>20059854
Any suggestions for daily cold sips? I want to cold brew nightly and take tea with me to work. Most likely stevia or a mix of stevia and sugar. I drink a lot of soda and want to kick the habit.
Is turkish tea worth it?

>>20062548
Buy a bucket of this
https://www.amazon.com/Alwazah-Tea-Swan-Brand-400g/dp/B07FYVQ461/
Coldbrew recipie in the pastebin

>>20062514
Thanks for your advice. I'll try being more gentle with it in the future. Was just uncomfortably astringent (even if not the worse I've had), enough to the point that my voice was affected for a while after the session. Though, I think I'm more sensitive to that sort of thing than most. I'm going to make a mini portion of pan-roasted Iron Buddha II as well to see how it goes this week.

>>20062578
>I'm going to make a mini portion of pan-roasted Iron Buddha II
Sounds like fun. I want to try roasting some tea sometime too.

>>20062575
Thanks and checked the pastebin.

>>20059854
>how to brew tea
peak amerifat, fucking idiot cant even brew or find tea your neanderthal ancestor would kill himself knowing that you would be the end result of a thousand generations of his offspring

First time tea poster here... something crazy happened. Some background, I've been dirnking tea all my life, usually 3 cups a day, just buy the big boxed of teabags from walmart, whatever is on sale. My tea is always bitter and I have to put milk and a bit of sugar in it to make it drinkable... it's not the water because I use a good water filter and the water tastes great by itself. But whenever I drink black tea it tastes like bitter ass, even if I steep it for not even 1 minute.

Anyway on the weekend I went to a taiwanese restaraunt. They gave me a cup of black tea and holy shit... it actually tasted GOOD. Zero bitterness, a pleasant aftertaste. The stuff was delicious. Needed no sugar or milk at all. So I have an epiphany. Is this the real tea that I've been missing out on my entire life? How do I replicate this?

>>20062848
Considering that you've been buying discount tea it's probably the quality. Store brand and Lipton black tea is bad but higher quality teas aren't much more expensive. For cheap stuff I go with Red Rose, for higher quality black tea available at most grocery stores check out Twinings and Yorkshire Gold. Twinings has a bunch of different kinds of black tea so you can try a variety of them. I like their Darjeeling. Also, buy a tea infuser for loose leaf tea, they're reusable metal tea bags. I use a French press but that will probably make it too bitter for you.
That being said, most black tea in Western stores are South Asian or Indian preparations of black tea, which taste different from East Asian black tea varieties.

>>20062848
I remember that first cup. You go through the pastebin and order a few hundred bucks of tea sight unseen so the shipping doesn't kill you. Pretty much all of it is going to be better than what you get in a bag. If you like cheap black tea (called red tea in china), you're in for an easy time because restaurant tea is still cheap shit that doesn't taste very good. Most websites that aren't purely hardcore autism focused are going to have some good cheap red tea options.

Aim for like 10 to 25 cents a gram and you usually end up with a decent, bordering on superlative red. I shilll essence of tea a little hard but they have some good stuff, that sub moon lake sounds good.

>>20062848
yeah that's bc they know how to make tea and aren't letting the pot sit and become bitter all day long like some godforsaken scot

jfc this shit is expensive.
https://essenceoftea.com/collections/red-tea/products/2020-wudi-zhengyan-wuyi-hongcha

>>20062896
>For cheap stuff I go with Red Rose
Actually this has been my daily driver for years but like I said it always tastes like bitter ass when drinking it black. I used to follow the direcitons on the box but now I usually steep it even less. Am I doing something wrong or is it just bad tea?

>>20062911
Read my post... I dont do that. I typically steep the bag 2 -3 mins, sometimes only 1 min. And it still tastes bad

>>20062848
That's how it is for a lot of people. Great experience, right? Now, imagine having that kind of experience every day. Welcome to the club, anon. Hit the pastebin for more info, or ask the thread if you need specific info/advice/recs.

Ah, they brought out the moderately priced guns thinking I'm anything other than a cheap bastard at heart. Praying to the Immortals ultra heavy 2 year roast wuyi yancha. .44 cents a gram.

>>20062848
Buy some good quality Chinese or Taiwanese black tea from an online vendor who specializes in Chinese or Taiwanese teas. They are intended to be drunk plain. Cheap African and Indian teabag teas are rough and even most of the nicer African and Indian teas are really meant to be drunk with milk and sugar.

>>20061989
Fresh ginger tea with some honey is pretty good when you're sick, especially for your throat.
>>20062289
They think it actually is a Christian site.

Is it safe to order tea yet? I heard that December is bad for ordering tea from China. I still haven't tried the Chinese black gold tea that you anons recommended.

Post your teapets

I like blue skullcap.

Had W2T's 2023 Snoozefest earlier. Nice whole leaves and some good aroma qualities. Somewhat reminds me of FL's Cang Yuan for some reason.
____
4.6g/195F/5s

Dry leaf smells of acai and/or some other light berry. Wet leaf opens up a raspberry note. Just a hint of peppermint on the gong dao bei. Chewed the dry leaf out of interest, and detect something liquorice-like. Strange.

Medium texture, low-medium bitterness and astringency. Light fruitiness on the palate, reminiscent of the aforementioned wet leaf notes. Some light, bitter cruciferous aftertaste (maybe spinach?) that returns with a subtle huigan. Qualities remind me a bit of a Jingmai sheng I've had before. Not especially sweet, but has a nice aroma overall.

The Snoozefest leaves. Good integrity overall, not too compact (so not a pain to gather pieces), nice aroma, etc.

>>20063593
So after one sesh how do you feel? Worth snagging a few more next nov? I might have to crack open one of mine in the morning.

>>20059854
tea is gay coffe

>>20063614
I think the value is pretty good overall since I like the aroma notes, and it isn't some cruddy shred-material cake. I may consider getting more of the next one, though I would be disappointed if it's more of the same, so I'd hope it isn't. I don't know how relatable my notes will be, but I do put some effort into them. I think these Snoozefests may take well to a bit of aging if someone really wanted to do so.

>>20063624
>though I would be disappointed if it's more of the same
Last few brews of the 2021 have been all apricot but its been a few months. I'm looking forward to some berries in the mix. Skipped the 22 so I can't comment.
>may take well to a bit of aging
Thats how I've felt with a single cake of the 21 and now 3 of the 23. Cheap, decent enough right off the truck, but better to forget about for a while.

>>20062848
I wonder what they gave you. for basic good chinese black tea, try some dianhong from yunnan. the taiwanese have some great black tea too, but most of it is a bit pricy

>>20062920
that's core Wuyi for ya. expensive-ass growing area

>>20063593
>>20063624
yeah I'm not super impressed with mine, but can't really complain for the price. sure is better than other similarily priced raws I've had, like the Autumn Mengku Flavor cake from KTM
I think I'll keep it around for a year or so. if the jammy fruit notes become more pronounced, it will be quite a bit nicer. right now it feels a bit bland

I'm sad I wanted to drink some yingpan shan today but it's a bit too new to my taste, it has the really sweet and sun taste of fresh black and not the fragrance the previous one I had. I guess I have to wait a bit.

>try out https://kingteamall.com/collections/dayi/products/2023-dayi-7572-cake-1st-batch-357g-puerh-shou-shu-cha-ripe-tea
>it has a fishy smell
>it goes down really easy but the taste is a bit like dishwasher
I don't really like it. I saw some other anons liked this one a lot, so maybe its not to my taste or there was some other issue with it.

is there any tea that will make me feel intoxicated

>>20060640
I get serious nausea from drinking black tea in the morning before breakfast.
Have not tried that with other teas and it's so bad that I'm not keen to find out.

>>20062951
That ultra roast stuff was quite something

>>20063181
Yeah, nows a good time to order, Christmas rush is over and you will beat Chinese new year delays

The cspuerh order is here!
No freebies, but nice branded mylar bags.

Fun window on the other side. Anyone know what the text says?

And the goods are out of the bags. I'll try the Naka brick first. The other is a blend described as having classic Menghai character.

>>20063783
I haven't opened my 23 bag yet, might do a comparison to the 21 before I run out.

>>20064080
Noice.

>>20064076
"Chen Sheng Hao, the taste of big tea trees..."
Seems it's their slogan.

>>20063651
>2021 have been all apricot
My 2021 cake was apricoty as well. Still kind of disappointed I missed this year's Snoozefest.

>>20064080
>I'll try the Naka brick first.
Interested in hearing your thoughts on it. I have the 2023 cake but I have not written about it properly yet. Mine definitely has a punchy bitterness to it.

>>20064080
Hell yeah the mail service finally got their shit together and delivered this.

>>20061489
>ortho
oh no no no

Babe, are you okay?

You're not wearing your tea shirt.

>>20064082
I hope it will evolved the way the previous ones did. It taste really "generic" right now instead of the very fragant and distinct taste the other ones had. Maybe few weeks at home, I hope I won't have to wait months. The 2 jingmai ones I have don't have this "issue" as much.

I got the xiaguan black that everyone was raving about
https://dragonteahouse.biz/xiaguan-brand-dian-hong-yunnan-black-tea-300g/
$15, free shipping, and no VAT (I'm EU).
It's... ok. Maybe good even. At $0.05/g it is tough to say anything bad about it.
That being said, when it comes to cheap black teas I have also had this one that costs the same and I would say I prefer it
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/2019-chinese-tea-dianhong-honey-rhyme-gold-screw-black-tea-red-teas-200g-box
It's a bit sweeter which I like.

>>20064253
It's to prevent fucking up my wrists and trooning. The two seem to be related, if not causal.

>>20064151
>Mine definitely has a punchy bitterness to it.
Yeah in the first impressions I'm getting a bit of that, but a fun playful sharp bitterness that doesn't last too long. It's leaving a strong refreshing menthol effect behind. Strong floral and fruity aroma.
This would be great in the summer.

>>20064266
>that shirt is $497.00 USD
https://yatpit.com/en-us/products/tea-shirt
I hate designer fashion, not only is it overpriced its also ugly and pretentious. However I am pretty sure that's the point, the buyers of it want to create the image that they can afford blow cash on garbage without second thought in hopes of making you jealous.

I will give them credit that the idea of dyeing your own clothes with tea is fun at least.

>>20064082
Post about it when you try your 2023 please.

>>20062848
Try a cheap chinese black to start. If you want zero bitterness don't go for an Indian or a store brand looseleaf. If you're in American and in a hurry, buy this, it ships from the US.
https://yunnansourcing.us/collections/yunnan-black-tea/products/yunnan-black-gold-black-tea
If you're elsewhere and not in a hurry, I'm drinking this right now.
https://yunnansourcing.us/collections/yunnan-black-tea/products/yunnan-black-gold-black-tea

>>20064355
You know I feel I missed the opportunity to include a puerh lesbian joke. There has got to be a good one in there somewhere. Designer fashion certainly succeeds in invoking feelings in me but they are more akin to disgust than jealousy.

>>20064325
>The two seem to be related, if not causal.
I am pretty sure posting pictures of mechanical keybords on the internet is already a significant risk factor. Heck, even knowing what a "mechanical keyboard" is probably correlates.

>>20064432
forgot pic

>>20062848
Congrats on the tea awakening. Try this for a good but cheap black tea, https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/-499

>>20064383
>>20064468
Looks like there are a bunch of specialty asian tea shops in Richmond BC Canada, I'll check them out. Hopefully they speak english lol

What do you guys think, is this place legit? Overpriced?
https://www.bestteaonline.com/store/catalog/

>>20064563
vesper chan is a very famous tea master, most well-known for popularizing dry-stored pu-erh. the site is legit, though idk if the prices are worth it or you're paying a lot for his name

>>20064550
Like my father used to say about Quebeckers, they have better english when they're selling you stuff.

>>20059854
What's a good cheap matcha I can use for lattes? Not gonna drink the shit straight, so I don't wanna waste high quality stuff. Also I'm gonna ice it down. It's barely gonna be matcha by the time I'm done with it desu

>>20064619
I've never tried this but I know ito en's more premium matcha is really good so I'll vouch for their cheap shit too
https://itoen.com/products/matcha-love-culinary

>>20064619
I think they sell on Amazon too
https://www.sugimotousa.com/catalog/product/all-tea/organic-daily-matcha/
They also sell it in giant bags but try the smaller one first
https://www.sugimotousa.com/catalog/product/all-tea/organic-culinary-matcha/

>>20064619
I think it doesn't matter much for lattes, just make sure it's from Japan and organic

>>20064550
>Looks like there are a bunch of specialty asian tea shops in Richmond BC Canada,
Yes, there are actually good tea shops in western Canada due to all the Asian immigrants who moved there. If I were in the area I would check them out.

>>20064563
>is this place legit?
Yes, vesper chan is one of the old names in the puerh industry
http://www.puerh.fr/en/article/vesper_chan.htm
>Overpriced?
Probably at least somewhat but I have not tired much of their tea personalty. You are buying a prestigious name and teashops in big western cities tend to have higher prices then the Chinese market. I would expect it to at least to be of high quality. Not sure how the Canadian Best Tea House compares in price to the main Hong Kong store. I would still check them out however. Being able to visit nice authentic teashops in person is a worthwhile experience. Most people in North America don't have that option locally.

>>20064563
From
https://teadb.org/puerh-vendor-guide/

>>20064619
For lattes it doesn't really matter, but if you're picky about the appearance, stuff labeled "culinary" gives a more dull yellow-y tint to the milk and also tastes a bit flat, but that's probably not noticeable if you're sweetening the drink.

Vesper Chan is a treasure.

I'm a 45 min drive away from Vesper Chan's shop but I feel like II'm unworthy. I'm an unsophisticated philistine used to drinking Tetley teabags with too much milk and sugar... but I want to learn the ways of good tea

>>20064720
Just show up with time to spare be friendly and ask questions, if they serve you some tea then buy a sample or two out of courtesy. Trust me guys working at shops like that usually love an excuse to break out some tea and shoot the shit for a while. They aren't going to go all hipster snob on you.

This debasement of cake currency is getting ridiculous.

>>20064744
Yo that's that sheng/shu mix right? I hope its good i wouldn't mind getting some

>>20064744
I await the inevitable 5gram single use bings

>>20064749
I was up until 2 last night from that Earth, some young sheng is going to make this a qi bomb.

>>20064755
W2T already does 10g ones perforated down the middle

>>20061063
Try an Earl Grey.

>>20064755
Wait no further.

>>20064770
i forgot the cup is tiny

>>20064770
>>20064790
oh yeah, I guess that's one of those 20ml 19th century cups, isn't it?
I thought that was more of a 20 gram minicake

>>20063651
>>20063712
It's too bad that it wasn't too favorable for you, but I agree overall. Good value for the price, but better for aging than rapid consumption now. I would have felt differently if it had a more pronounced fruity character on the palate (the leaf aromas are great). Just leans too 'Jingmai' in my view, though it's not like I know the leaf origin since it's a mystery blend.
>>20064325
Don't listen to him anon; embrace ortho and drink good tea.
>t. ortho split user while drinking tea in the middle.
It's pretty convenient. I think both coffee gen ans /tea/ anons would benefit from it.

>tfw accidentally turned on my electric kettle without any water in it
feelsbadman

>>20064912
what happened to your kettle, anon?

>>20064870
You best start believing in ortho threads. You're in one.

>>20064993
WASD is the least ortho direction key arrangement possible, ironic.

>>20064991
Hopefully nothing, most kettles will shut themselves off pretty quickly if you turn them on with no water inside

>>20061412
>DEATAILD

>>20064998
I had to mix sets to hit that funky layout without buying new caps. Taihao cubic arrows stick out but I mind it less than I thought for frags.

>>20064993
Nice. If you end up wanting to change up your kit, Drop has some seasonal MT3 sales. I use KAT now, but both feel comfortable for my use case. The space saved and the split design makes it pretty convenient to just have a tray with tea stuff in the middle. Means I can have a session and still use my PC without uncomfortable reach-arounds.
>>20064912
>Tfw my kettle is possessed and sometimes turns itself on and off or hard-locks for a temperature to hit
I have to leave it off the stand as a result. It's kind of spooky. Just a cheap Mr. Coffee kettle anyway; may be cool to get a fine one that isn't so huge and heavy instead (this is rated for 1.7L, hits maybe 2L).

>>20064991
>>20065007
>turn on kettle
>get distracted by opening bag of yerba
>hear crackles and pops like the sounds of a campfire
>huh wonder where that's coming from
>realize there's no water in kettle
>oh fug
>take kettle off heating element and dump water in
>had water pitcher literally next to kettle the whole time and didn't think to add any water until now like a dumbass
>kettle makes the sizzling noise when you add water to a hot pan

It seems to still be working fine. It was only heating for a minute/minute and a half and the temp gauge was only around 70ish degrees Fahrenheit. Still paranoid that there's damage though.

>>20065121
>wanting to change up your kit
I will eventually. It just feels like shit buying a set to use 35 keys so I scrapped some that'll work for now. I try not to give drop money anymore after the fucked over input.club.

Chinkshit gaiwan and gongdaobei from AliExpress, yea or nay?
The only tea stuff I have is an adjustable kettle and a plastic infuser, I would like to try gongfu without spending too much, while still using the right equipment.

>>20065320
>Chinkshit gaiwan and gongdaobei from AliExpress, yea or nay?
Yay
>chinkshit unglazed clay gaiwan from aliexpress
Nay
That will mute the flavor of your tea and make it taste weird. Stick with glazed ceramic or porcelain.

>>20065320
Also shoot for about 120-130ml for the gaiwan, they usually list the volume as the gaiwan filled to the brim and not the actual usable volume, you want around 100-110ml for your daily use gaiwan.
Something like this is perfect but feel free to digg around and pick one that appeals to you.
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805357714241.html?
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804359140253.html?

>>20065328
>>20065339
Will do, thank you for the recommendations!

wtf is a gaiwan and does it actually serve any practical purpose or is it just an aesthetic / ceremonial thing?

Best way to keep your tea warm? I make a big 500 ml mug of lipton tea to sip while I work but my room is cold and I keep having to go zap it in the microwave every 15 mins.

>>20065366
It's a sort of lidded bowl that is used to quickly and easily infuse loose tea. It's both very practical and aesthetically pleasing to many people. A basic porcelain or glass one works basically the same as more expensive glazed clay works, so it doesn't even cost a lot. I almost exclusively use my gaiwan, and I find it gives me excellent results while being very convenient to use and clean.
>>20065372
Thermos, or try multiple infusions with a gaiwan and an electric kettle. There are also mug warmers out there if you just want to be extra casual with it.

>>20065372
Big thermos or big double walled insulated mug

>>20065366
It turns 6g of leaf from ditchwater into rocket fuel.

>>20065366
Cup with a lid. Leaves go in, water goes in, lid keeps leaves in while you pour tea out. Plate gives you something to hold onto if the cup is too hot.

>>20065366
Its just a bowl with a lid for brewing tea.
It's used typically for gongfu brewing which is nice and practical for some kinds of teas and hilariously overkill for others. I use one to brew puer and some other Chinese teas but i absolutely refuse to use one to brew black tea

>>20061608
Does anyone else have any interesting tea blends they want to make?

Sipping on Yee On Tea's 2008 Taste of HK right now. Was pretty interesting seeing it in person, with what looks like a bug-bitten wrapping, really pleasant soil aroma on the cake, and good leaf integrity. Was easy to wrangle some portions off from it as well. My notes:
____
4.6g/195F/5s

Dry leaf smells of sweet, fresh soil and smooth syrup. Wet leaf digs the soil note deeper, shifts the syrup note to a sort of malt sugar, and picks up a mild rice-like quality.

Medium thickness, low bitterness, medium astringency. Soil note comes through clearly with a gentle sweetness, and it tastes very 'balanced' to put it lightly. Zingy texture on the tongue while also being somewhat milky in body. Maybe a small hint of a herbaceous bitterness in the aftertaste, but it's subtle. The flavor is a bit one-note, but I find it very comforting. Great longevity too.

2008 Taste of HK dry leaf shot. Whole session felt closer to having soil note-heavy liu bao than what I'd anticipate from an aged sheng, but I liked it precisely because of that, so pretty neat.

>>20065408
ive heard this sentiment quite a bit. why? what makes some teas better for gongfu brewing and others not? id figure if anything black tea would be the best to gongfu since it wont get as bitter with short steeps but i suppose not?
also whats the best way to western brew? my kettle came with a strainer but it condenses the tea leaves far too much.

>>20065492
>also whats the best way to western brew?
One of these big mesh baskets in a mug, you can find em on amazon or whatever search mesh tea basket. The finum ones are great if you don't mind that they use food safe plastic.

>>20065492
>ive heard this sentiment quite a bit. why? what makes some teas better for gongfu brewing and others not?
Well for me i typically brew young raw puer in a gaiwan, it would be quite bitter if western brewed, at least the stuff i drink. For black tea i usually drink Chinese black teas so they don't tend to get bitter.

Do any of these Chinese teas have any nootropic properties, other than caffeine? Like actual nootropic effects, not ancient chinese medicine voodoo shit
Out of curiosity how much caffeine do these teas have? Anything more than 100mg messes me up

>>20065408
>but i absolutely refuse to use one to brew black tea
I still like to gongfu my Chinese black teas.

>>20065556
Ive got some more of that cheap fall black tea with my new years farmer leaf order, maybe i will give it a shot

>>20065536
Yeah, the synergy between the caffeine l-theanine and whatever else is in there gives it a totally different buzz then coffee, way more calm and focused, way less jittery and jumpy. Very rarely i will get a tea that gets me wound up like coffee but its extremely uncommon. Would recommended.

>>20065536
>>20065591
I will also say ive experimented with just taking 250mg of l-theanine with a cup of coffee and it didn't feel quite the same, though another poster has reported noticeable effects with larger doses.

I got one of these tea roasting pans.

What other tea can I roast other than old Japanese greens into hojicha?

>>20065536
Negligible. There is L-theanine in tea, but it's not exactly a lot. I personally supplement L-theanine with most of my sessions, and I find it to be both pleasant and synergistic. You are unlikely to have caffeine issues unless you just ramp it up too much with the material and/or infusion time. Only thing I'd maybe warn you about would be drinking too much young sheng at once.

>>20065579
>Ive got some more of that cheap fall black tea with my new years farmer leaf order, maybe i will give it a shot
I probably have the same tea. I have only made it a few times but it seemed to work well gongfu style. Not sure if it is better this way or not but it did taste good. However, I also make my tea gongfu style 95% of the time so I may be biased.

Got some nice tea from puerh.uk
The rest of the vendors that are being pushed on this thread, are heavy on pesticide use.

>>20065617
>What other tea can I roast
Oolong, any other green tea, black tea (probably)

Looking around here, on facebook, on discord there are so many armchairs experts that make grand theories on teas they never drank. And they never tried real gushu or real old puerh, never been to asia, never drank with more experts drinkers. They think the modern productions full of pesticide are gushu and that 1980s cakes should cost $20 and that loose tea is definitely "puerh from the 1950s".
Typical of today's society, a lot of noise and extremely little substance. So many wrong views and the more confidently stated, usually the more wrong they are.

If one wants to learn puerh there's no other way than trying for oneself various teas, ways of brewing, teaware, and ideally drink with others that have some experience

All the companies mentioned on this thread are heavy on tea with tons of pesticides, or when its organic/clean it's cheap plantation stuff.
farmer leaf and essence of tea are one small step above, but there's still much better around.
however the best tea vendors are either controversial and/or too small for most people to know about

my main point is there are a lot of "armchair experts" that are so sure about what they say, and they spew all sort of crazy opinions about tea they haven't even tried (at best, they've tried it but haven't tried anything similar so they still very little idea what they're talking about)

the point is not you must go to asia or even drink that much premium puerh.
It's that if you don't, stop shouting your baseless opinions regurgitating text you've read before without really understanding the subject. Otherwise it's just an echo chamber of meaninglessness.

>>20065769

>>20065804

>>20059897
LOOOL rekt

>>20065769
https://www.reddit.com/r/puer/comments/18lksyq/magical_haul_from_puerhuk/
Fuck off back
No one cares

>>20059854
is that supposed to be a short sword, a long dagger or a broken off saber? the round finger guard makes me think it's probably not a bayonet, is it?

was getting worried maybe I just didn't like tea, but my gaiwan arrived and so did my sample pack
just tried the King of Duck Shit oolong and this shit is soooooo good, it reminds me just of a coffee creamer in it

>>20065366
Two nice things about a gaiwan that is often overlooked and not mentioned in comments
1) A gaiwan is very easy to rinse out and remove loose leaves from compared to a teapot
2) It is not possible for a gaiwan to have a spout clog in the middle of your session

>>20065966
Its some guy that's only seen a cavalry saber once drawing something that vaguely looks like what they remember.

>>20065887
You sound like a bitch gossiping honestly

behead all redditors

>>20066099
>>20066111
witnessed.

>>20065769
>>20065802
>>20065804
>>20066099
Do you want a cum tribute Paolo?

>>20066131
Do you want a diaper change?

>>20065887
Hey, there's the diaper who got r/puer locked!

So what do you think /tea/ will this $99 125g sampler titled "the unbearable lightness of modern puer" convince me that are new friends favorite tea guru is the real deal?
https://puerh.uk/product/the-unbearable-lightness-of-modern-puerh/
Or will it be a bunch (well 125g worth) of medicore rough tea?
I gotta say as obnoxious as are new socially retarded kraut friend is this tea merchant is speaking my language.
What do you say?

>>20066209
Buy it, diapers will flood when they know your not on w2t, liquidproust, EoT and Lipton.
They think you're a gatekeeper, its funny how immature they are

>>20066209
A shrinkflation tong is a sample.

What's the deal with tea, anyway? how do you get into it? I only drink sleepytime tea and lots of coffee, where should I begin if I want to have a really good tea?
Willing to invest like $30 on a tea experience. Dunno if that's brewing it myself or going to a nice tea shop, you tell me.

>>20066209
Contd
>Modern puerh sucks, it’s either way too astringent (too rough) or without much flavour and depth (too light).
>Puerh.uk was originally set up as a reaction to the unbearable lightness of modern Puerh: we wish to offer a heavier, more traditional alternative to the current “Pulong” (puerh-oolong) trend. Pulongs are palatable when low quality and therefore easier to sell without aging, but ultimately we personally find them empty of meaning and purpose (unbearably light).
Well i can see why this guy doesn't make friends in the tea industry.

>>20066209
Hey, maybe you shouldn't, the package will get washed away with a monsoon of diarrhea

Why are krauts so autistic?

>>20066255
I can see that your diaper is leaking, you also have no arguments

So is it actually paolo or just someone reposting comments from his reddit alts from 6 months ago?

>>20066232
Only choice is flying to china

>>20066255
puerh makes me want to eat shrimp so i can have an allergic reaction and pulong in the bathroom so i don't have to drink anymore

>>20066275
Its Paolo, he has quite shady advertisements, he ripped off teaswelikes sources to sell them for cheaper!

>buy expensive teapot
>never use it because I don't want to break it

>>20066275
Not everyone is this "Paolo" character you retard. Don't tell me your one of those logposters

>>20066232
What makes a good tea experience is a very individual thing.
If you have some kind of local shop that serves tea that doesn't have all the flavored stuff, just tea then i really recommended you stop in, order some tea, ask the clerk for some suggestions. If you can try stuff locally by ordering a pot or a cup its a lot easier then ordering stuff in the mail and hoping you like it.
That said, since this shop offers free shipping if you spend $30.
To try a few teas you could get 100g of this
https://www.farmer-leaf.com/collections/yunnan-black-tea/products/autumn-2023-yingpan-shan-black
A sample of this
https://www.farmer-leaf.com/collections/yunnan-white-tea/products/spring-2023-jingmai-moonlight-white?variant=44685356859579
A sample of this
https://www.farmer-leaf.com/collections/yunnan-pu-erh-tea/products/spring-2023-bangwai-big-trees?variant=44640863682747
And maybe some of this
https://www.farmer-leaf.com/collections/ripe-pu-erh-tea/products/2022-da-long-shan-ripe?variant=44832636993723
That will give you a nice portion of some really enjoyable black tea, and samples of a few different kinds you can try.
Ive had all of them except that last one and they were all really nice teas.

>>20066291
Here comes the product shilling!

>>20066232
I get blackout drunk and order shit by the kilo sight unseen and it seems to work out. There's nothing like bamboo roasted 20 year old mulch with fungus growing in it.

>>20066291
You're not going to get a whole haul with 30 dollars idiot, buy something that is 30 for closer to 7 grams, don't listen to this idiot, he thinks there is no difference in tea quality because he's never had good tea. Everything's gotta be Lipton with this idiot.

>>20066309
>I get blackout drunk and order shit by the kilo sight unseen and it seems to work out. There's nothing like bamboo roasted 20 year old mulch with fungus growing in it.
If you know nothing about tea, don't be an armchair expert and spread your disinfo, thanks.

tuos are the new tong (shrinkflation)
Maybe they will start wrapping single cakes in bamboo

>>20066309
Woah, your grand theory totally knocked out my decades of experience... Until you realize you really are poisoning yourself.

>>20066319
>>20066324
Get a trip so I can filter you.

>>20064325
just take some fucking estrogen

>>20066289
Just an anon who stumbled into your(?) copypasta from june in a few clicks.

>>20066336
Yeah, we don't do that here.

>>20066342
Who are you again?

>>20066336
You think the text has no value for people reading, well I guess you've done a great job proving your idiocracy if so.

>>20066232
>Willing to invest like $30 on a tea experience

Get one of these teas >>20064289 and a porcelain gaiwan & cup from AliExpress.

>>20066352
Yeah, this thread is packed full of these inexperienced armchair autists, keep your mouth shut if you know nothing about tea.

>>20064289
I still can't belive dragon tea hose has reasonable prices again for at least some of their stock.

>>20066362
Quite expensive garbage. Can't compare to Lipton, with quality or price

What is wrong with germans?

>tfw ordered my first puer
>realized i have nothing to break it with
i have a needle on the way tomorrow but i hate how you need a fucking specialized tool to not damage these things

>>20066392
see >>20061521
Just don't slip and stab your hand. The idea is to damage it, that's why it's called breaking it.

>>20066392
Just use a butterknife or an awl or a flathead screwdriver, its just leaves

>>20066392
Hey, why didn't you just get a sample of something better?

Don't buy cheap Tea, live and learn

>>20066399
Just bash it next Sissy fit you have over puerh.uk

It has arrived. Let's see if this Mengku Bo Jun was worth it

>>20066392
You can improvise, I use a flat head screwdriver. Some people use oyster knives, letter openers, or scratch awls.

>>20066437
That brand is full of pesticides. You should by quality tea instead. /s

Seriously that looks like a nice haul. I remember a couple of anons gushing about that product line.

>>20066437
Its a good'n. Real jelly.

>>20066453
Look! We caught him! He used "/s" which is reddit lingo, he's the troll we've been after

Or maybe there is no troll and he's a autistic neckbeard from reddit clogging up the thread with his crappy tea

Hey I just lurked this convo, seems like puerh.uk is my choice.

>>20066275
It's paolo

>>20066375
das poopen und farten! krauts are obsessed with scat and diapers for some reason.

>>20066550
do your wranglere know you're on the internet unsupervised?

>>20059854
Yo wtf I took that picture back on September 17th 2022 to mourn the Queen's death and somebody not only saved it but used it as the pic of a threat a year and a half later.
If you got that picture you might remember I was the cancer anon. Beat that shit, just stopped coming to the threads often

>>20066648
Nice glad to hear it

>>20061412
Basado vendero, my 210 dollar teapot also came taxfree from china

>>20066648
Holy shit I was wondering about you. Do you have some time for teaposting again?

just about the end of this 803 "wild" liubao from YS. Ive had this tea for ages, drink it like once a year, not sure if i would recommend it, it's some really rustic farmer liubao.

>>20066687
I don't have much time currently, after beating cancer I got a job at the postal service and they work you like a slave on a salary pay which is sucking hard right now. By the time I get off its like 6 pm and I don't have time to do gongfu without staying up all night which I don't want to because I get up at 4 am. I'm also running low on everything besides a few puerh cakes waiting for the spring harvest. Might post more when I get my haul and if I get a better job.

>>20065372
I might buy a yeti cup because this winter has been especially cold in the house. My tea was cold after finishing my morning routine.

>oriental beauty
>second flush darjeeling
Are there other teas with that natural sweet flavor? I know both are caused by leaves being bitten by bugs. These are the only kinds of tea that everyone in my house can agree on liking.

>>20066760
anything grown in soil with high lead contamination is very sweet. I've had some white teas like Gong Mei that taste like honey as well

>>20066763
>caffeine to give you energy
>l-theanine to calm the nerves
>lead to dull you to the cruelty of life
Truly the drink of 天

>>20066792
If only China went into hyper growth mode a decade earlier when lead gasoline was legal, then all our tea would be sweet

>>20066741
I know the yeti brand is kind of a meme but the insulated bottle i have from them is built like a tank

>>20066833
I didn't realize it was a meme until I had people laugh a few years ago when I mentioned I had one. I've dropped the tumbler on the tile and the top metal bit looks like it was bitten due to that but it works fine. I want a smaller one though for tea or something. This giant one I use for water. I think it's 40 oz? It's way too big and I don't know if they make this size anymore.

>>20066730
Cancer is fake, glowie.

>>20066707
Nothing ys offers is good

Okay hear me out, puer coin
Its a maocha backed eth contract. The holder of puer coin can redeem their coin for maocha at anytime, or they can hold their coin while the maocha appreciates.

>>20066909
You could probably pull off something like whiskey barrel investing but with puer desu

Oh no, have we acquired a schizo?

>>20067028
Just don't engage the posts. Post about tea.

>>20067085
fuck tea, it's for faggots

Had some nice Sept 2023 "Premium Ise Boucha" from Sazen Tea yesterday. Notes:
____
4.1g/195F/5s

Dry stems smell nutty; somewhat like barley and pinto beans. Wet stems smell of barley and pinto beans again, perhaps malt, and a subtle woodsiness below.

Medium thickness, low-medium bitterness, low astringency. Flavor is fairly representative of the wet stems aroma. Sweet, yet somehow a touch salty and savory as well. Takes very well to pushing it with high temperatures and infusion durations, though endurance isn't the best. Very easy to infuse and comforting to sip on.

Dry boucha.

Bonus shot of the soaked stems for fun. It foamed up so much each time that you could scoop a fat line of it with ease.

Bonus shot of the soaked stems for fun. It foamed up so much each time that you could scoop a fat line of it with ease.

For this morning's brew I'll do a comparison of the 23 and 21 Yingpan Shans.
For dry leaf, the 23 is noticeably grassier and milk-ish(like it should have milk added?) than the 21, which has a more rounded and muted smell. I guess it's what you expect, the high notes are gone.
The material itself looks very similar to my eye but it's kinda dark in here.
I'm drinking them now but my gaiwans are big enough I'm getting whole mug's worth of tea with each round, so it'll take a while. I gotta get some tiny tasting gaiwans already

>>20067095
Seems pretty interesting, I've never tried any of those stem-only teas.

>>20066392
I've just used a thick table knife for months. now I have a dedicated pu-erh knife and it's a bit better, but it's hardly necessary or anything
and if you have an oyster knife, I hear those work better than many dedicated pu-erh knives

>>20066437
damn, a whole bing? can't wait to see what you think, anon

>>20066760
white teas and roasted oolongs can also be quite sweet. and some raw pu-erhs, though it's usually countered by bitterness or astringency

>>20060422
I once took one of those massive snake shits into an empty Folger's plastic tub, duct taped the lid, and mailed it the J.M. Smucker Company's office address. I never received a reply back. I was doing a lot of oxy at that time.

>>20067249
I disagree with you, so that means you are Paolo

>>20067220
interested in the comparison. I thought the 2021 was alright, but didn't really transcend the pricepoint for me

>>20063972
Ya

>>20067277
It'll never, from these vendors who don't give a squat about the tea they sell.

Now take a look at some real tea, you're not going to see that in your sad life, living in your mother's basement.

>>20067283
it's fucking leaf twig water. stop taking leaf twig water so seriously fag

>>20063972
strong raw puerh

>>20067286
Its just a bag of your lipton, clogging up a tea thread.

>>20067287
They spray that with thc

>he's still begging for (you)s
the general thread schizo troll is the saddest type of person on this site. do something productive with your time, man. it's depressing to think you spend whole days like this
>>20067098
looks exactly like yerba mate stems. funny.

How come tea drinkers are pretentious?

>>20067220
I'll wait to drink my 2023, the jingmai gushu and normal black taste nice and have depth, the 2023 doesn't have it yet at least for me. The 2021 had a lot more depth and "herbal" taste than the average black the 2023 is much closer to a good classic yunnan black but that's not why I enjoyed the previous years of it. I want to have the similar smell and fragrance from the fen shui ling oolong black, old herbal wood smell but not as much because it's mixed with the classic gentle and round sweet taste of black.

If you are like me and enjoyed the yingpan shan before I would recommend to wait, the storage in yunnan is better than anything we can have in europe or us so let it rest and age a bit there before ordering. It will loose the fresh black taste with time at home but I'm not sure about getting the smell and taste the 2021 had 2 years later.

>>20067327
sounds like I would actually enjoy the 2023 more if it's closer to a classic dianhong

>>20067315
to be fair, shitting up dumb autism generals and bumping threads from page 10 is basic shit for any non newfag

>>20067327
are you chinese? if not, you're a white man larping as chinese. larping as chinese is beyond pathetic and tea is fucking gay

>>20067331
If you like more classic smell and taste 2023 is better for you I think yes.
>>20067337
Why am I larping? because i'm drinking tea not made in my country?

>>20067345
do you wear a chinese silk shirt and slippers, ken-sama? do you habe a ponytail, silk skull cap and fake buck teeth? may as well you fucking caricature of a man

>>20067345
stop replying to low-effort bait

>>20067350
shut up faggot, go brew a gay little pot of tea

>>20067347
No to all of it, maybe you are closer to what you are depicting in your post than me and i'm sorry for you. You are here typing in the thread what kind of tea are you drinking?
>>20067350
I'm fine with it i'm drinking tea on the side.

>>20067095
thinking about getting this, ive never seen a tea anything like that. anything else youd reccomend from sazen tea?

>>20067095
Quit fucking with me. that's just cigarette butts in some dirty pond water.

CSH Naka. Will use more material next time. Some stems and strong compression but it tastes damn good.

>>20067355
you may as well jabe the buck teeth and ME SO SOLLI routine. chinese people laugh at white people who behave like you

bought a cheap large 500g green loose leaf pack from a supermarket
has some twigs but doesn't taste bad

Is this a good selection of oolongs to try?
I only have experience with green TGYs, and I'm not looking at the roasted stuff, since I already have black teas for that.

>>20067478
Dong ding is roasted. Not as highly as wuyi oolongs though generally.
This should be a good sampler for Taiwanese oolong, but dancong and wuyi oolong is distinct and also nice to try.
Also, good Bai hao tends to be expensive and there is some trash out there too.

I understand you're buying some more shit from dragon tea house and just want to throw some samples in? Cause for Taiwanese oolongs, you could do a Taiwan Tea Crafts order, they have a good reputation

>>20066392
I'm going to be real with you, I never use a tool and just break cakes apart with my ogre hands. Might upgrade to a hammer one day

>>20067545
I also use my hands for low compression cakes, your Farmerleafs and whatnot. it's the fastest method and can often give you a nice chunk with not a lot of leaf breakage. even William does it on stream
for more highly compressed stuff though, it's not really viable. especially for tuos.

>>20067327
Fair enough. For my part I am thoroughly savouring my 2023 yingpan right now, I doubt it will last long anyway.
>>20067331
It tastes good right now, a nutty sort of fruit flavour. With production so low in Yunnan this fall there might not be much of it.

My 2023 snoozefest just arrived. Can I drink it straight away? I don't really feel like waiting a year and don't want to mess with humidity and storage?

>>20067665
It's not bad at all I drinked some of it too I just enjoy the jingmai blacks more for now and was hoping to get similar taste as the 2021 as soon as I received them.

>>20067674
Regarding the jingmai blacks, don't underestimate the power of 'dry aging'. I got them when they were accidentally posted in early November, and when I received them (before the black friday sale had begun) they were the most astringent teas I've ever had. Only four or five weeks rest in my 40% humidity house and the astringency was mostly gone. I'd give the Yingpan a month to rest maybe.

>>20067688
I do flash brews I don't get astrigency right now, but yes I'll keep them and wait too for sure. I have a lot of other teas to drink anyway. My storage is 55% 22c i'll see in few weeks how they evolved.

>>20067448
>Some stems and strong compression but it tastes damn good.
Nice

>>20067673
Drink it.

Are these good?
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32745901417.html
Looks good for office drinking when you don't want to bother with spill water and gaiwan

>>20067673
try it and see if you like it
if you don't like it too much, just keep it in the bag it came in for a few months or a year. you don't really need to fuck around with humidity just for short term storage for one cake, people overstate that shit

>>20065475
>>20065489
Good to hear that you like HK cellar storage. I figured you would with all your talk of liu bao
>The flavor is a bit one-note
That is my biggest complaint with heavy cellar stored stuff as well.

>>20066648
Glad that you are doing better.
>>20066730
>I don't have time to do gongfu
Been there at times. Kinda worried that as my career progresses I will no longer have time to properly drink tea except on days off.

>>20066909
Not quite the same but I am pretty sure their are some companies in asia that you can pay to warehouse your puerh stash.

>>20067327
>black tea
>I would recommend to wait, the storage in yunnan is better than anything we can have in europe or us so let it rest and age a bit there before ordering.
FL probably just stores their black tea in mylar bags. I don't think the where really maters much in this case. I think most people treat aging black teas like aging oolongs (dry, sealed, low ventilation) but is still somewhat a matter of debate because large scale intentional aging of black tea is a new thing. Pretty sure most the progression in dianhong over the first couple years is just oxidation.

>>20067673
>My 2023 snoozefest just arrived. Can I drink it straight away?
Yes I would, some people claim that tea needs a couple weeks to rest after shipping but I don't think it makes a huge difference especially when you have a whole cake available. If it is slightly different in a few weeks, no big deal you have plenty.

>>20067764
>>20067842
>>20067866
Thanks bros, I tried it and I think it's drinkable. I really like the smell of the dry and wet leaves.
It's not as harsh as the 2023 dayi 8582 sample that I got a while ago.

>>20067890
yeah, 8582 is a classic factory cake made more for long term aging than immediate drinking and it has quite the punch if you try it young
Snoozefest is definitely much more immediately drinkable. I hear it ages well short-term though, so I'm going to wait a year with mine. hoping the really fruity leaf smell becomes more pronounced in the taste

Bo Jun here, had a cup this morning. Heavy cherry scent on the wet leaves. Syrupy consistency, strong chocolate with a faint cherry flavor appearing in some infusions. Great cake, honestly my favorite shou i've ever had. Will have another when I get home.

>>20068091
I get chocolate and red fruit out of many ripes. I'm guessing the notes are much more defined and life-like in this case?

drinking an aged ripe, getting a characteristic herbal-smoky bitterness. is that what ginseng tastes like?

>>20068119
Ginseng ehhh, tastes like ginseng.
Its definitely somewhere in the herbal/green woody spectrum. Not really smokey, at least american ginseng isint

>>20068099
Yeah, it might just be how smooth and syrupy it is that allows me to notice the flavors more. I notice a fruity flavor in many ripes too, but this one is clearly cherry. However, I will say I have never has such a strong cherry scent in a shou before(not medicinal, smells just like a high quality cherry scented tobacco)

>>20068091
Hell yeah, mengku rongshi really knows what the fuck they are doing with that ripe

>>20066232
I came to /ck/ for info on whisky and read /tea/ threads. I then bought tea which was not in a teabag. I am a beginner, but I like tea and I’m learning more about it.

2023 CSH Naka cake
Strong upfront bitterness, hits hard at first then lingers on the palate softly, some sweetness, slightly numbing, drying astringent finish, prominent floral tones but not quite as distinct as something like a flower, some fruity notes, firm apricots, maybe a dash of something lightly savory and cooked that is hard to place, Perhaps a hint of lightly steamed veggies, a rather complex tea overall, good nuance and depth, leaves a multifaceted aftertaste

Hi /tsg/, this was gifted to me for new years. Does anyone know anything about it?

>>20061428
jasmine is nice honestly. if I have to drink random pleb tea, I'll pick Jasmine infused green over something like "bongistani" black or whatever other stupid shit they sell usually.

Verification status: unnecessary.

>>20064355
this is exactly what I wanted, wtf?
too bad christmas is over and I can't buy this absolute meme as a gift.

yerba bros? what do I need to get Yerba? can I just buy whatever or is there like cool kid sources of it?

>>20068324
Hell yeah, its a cnnp ripe brick of some sort, probably from the mid 2000s.
There might be a date on the back of the brick, there might not be.
From a hongkong tea shop so it probably has several years or more of traditional humid hong kong storage on it.
Probably has some wet storage notes in the first brew and then turns into a smooth and easy drinking ripe.

>>20068324
It is a brick of low to mid grade puerh made by one of the big puerh factories and sold by a tea shop in hong kong (this style of tea is popular there). Probably shou puerh which is fermented (as opposed to sheng) but I would need to see the tea leaves (or more of the label) to say for sure. It likely also has a date of production somewhere the wrapper (in this case a bit of age is a good thing). Shou puer typically tastes quite earthy. I would expect it to be a good tea to someone who likes shou. To make it, you break off chunks of tea the brick before brewing it up like you would other loose leaf tea. If it is shou puerh you should be able to brew it very long/strong without it getting bitter.

>>20068241
Thanks for the write-up. I'll review the 2022 brick once I get a few more sessions in. I didn't get that much bitterness from it so far, will push it more tomorrow. I agree with the prominent florals and apricots, this stuff has quite the aroma. A lot to explore in the mouthfeel and aftertaste, nice stuff.
I wonder if this is from old trees like they claim. Price seems kind of low for that, then again maybe the long-term cooperation agreement lowers the maocha costs enough to make this possible.

Just a little evening shou won't ruin my sleep, right? God I want some tea

>>20068361
Buy the cheapest prepackaged south American brand you can find, in half kilo or one kilo bags. And get a bombilla / tea straw (stainless steel, for filter the disk shaped ones are good if you don't mind drinking some dust sometimes, or triple filter spring looking ones if you prefer no dust but some risk of clogging). I've been drinking yerba mate for many years, sticking by this approach.
A thermal flask for hot water is handy too, but not necessary.

>>20068383
>I wonder if this is from old trees like they claim. Price seems kind of low for that
Who knows, however the quality seems quite good for the price, at least when you get it on sale. I am in no way qualified to judge "gushu" but this tea seems to have some of the extra depth that the old tea heads claim old tree tea should have. It will take time to fully make up my mind about it but at this point I would say I am quite happy with the tea.

>>20068421
you don't need any gay ass gourd or whatever, right? just any container that can handle hot water?

>>20068427
Yeah on sale and with a 20$ off coupon an anon kindly provided it only cost 30$ for 250 grams for me which is pretty damn worth it. So far it seems so much better than the white2tea raws in this price range I've recently tried.

>>20068361
Buy it on amazon, get some of those cheep stainless straws and a bag of some south American brand
A kilo of cruz de malata should be a good start
https://www.amazon.com/Yerba-Mate-Cruz-Malta-2-2/dp/B00E3UI0SC/
Its a bit on the more mild side without being bland

>>20068456
Yes, a teacup works fine.

>>20060089
You know me.

>>20068456
No gourd, a small like 6-8oz mug is ideal, bigger is fine just dont fill it to the brim with leaves.
You do need the little staws, you don't want to just brew it like tea its a hassle and you probably wont like it that way.
Watch some YouTube video on how to prepare yerba mate, its really easy, don't worry if you can't get a nice mound its not essential

Don't buy too much yerba mate, you might not like it. I definitely didn't.

what BOMBILLA do I want? flathead or the weird springy ones?

>>20068473
Spring triple filter for minimum dust but occasional clogging, flat for no clogging but occasional dust.
The flat ones are also good for scooping yerba out of the cup.

>>20068473
If you don't care about sipping a little dust and want the minimum cleaning effort possible get pic related.
If you want an absolute minimum dust and you don't mind taking apart and cleaning the straw frequently get one of the springly ones or other designs that have more filtering.
I just use the one from my pic and its fine

>>20067103
My stems are green :3

NEW THREAD:
>>20068601
>>20068601
>>20068601