/ck/ - Food & Cooking

Found a tea ive never hear of before, Suan Cha
>The rolled tea leaves are rolled or squeezed into a bamboo tube or a big clay jar, layer by layer, and covered with banana leaves to create a relatively lower temperature and humid environment. The leaves are sealed with fresh banana leaves, then placed in a pit dug into the ground. Plantain leaves cover the bottom of the pit, the jars of tea are put on top of the plantain leaves, covered with more plantain leaves and finally soil. During fermentation, beneficial microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi, interact with the tea leaves, resulting in the unique tangy and burnt suger taste. The fermenting time is around 9 months.
https://www.intergalactictea.com/products/life-in-a-vacuum-2022-dean-suan-cha
I found a brief description here too
https://www.fondazioneslowfood.com/en/ark-of-taste-slow-food/suancha/
And this is a half decent article talking about it
https://wildchina.com/2010/11/eating-tea-with-the-bulang-people/
There is also some Chinese medicine preparation called Yi-Suan-Cha that makes this annoying to google.

>>20583093
>intergalactictea
Their website sucks. On Firefox it automatically redirects to google.com. Not sure if it shitty coding or some sort of poorly though out security feature.
>Suan Cha
The tea sounds really interesting however. Sounds a bit like deang sour tea.

>>20583159
>Sounds a bit like deang sour tea.
Yeah, also kind of reminds me of the japanese lacto-fermented teas.

>>20583159
>The tea sounds really interesting however. Sounds a bit like deang sour tea.
Actually I am pretty sure it is the same thing. It even says "Deang Sour Tea" (德昂酸茶) right on the package.

i make tea also

>>20583224
Lol

>>20583224
If anyone wants to hunt down the supplier on Taobao it looks like it should be possible. See picrel for reference. It is actually one of the things I intend to get from there because no western tea vendor stocks it in bulk sizes.

Also here is the Baidu Baike (Chinese wiki) page on it:
https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E9%85%B8%E8%8C%B6/4563648

>>20583247
Nice find

>>20583241
I should have caught the connection between "De'an" and "Deang" immediately but I was too preoccupied trying to figure out why intergalactictea.com keeps redirecting me to google.com.

>>20583249
My quest for weird Chinese teas has made me pretty savvy with multilingual googling.

As a side note there is an obscure Indian tea that is also packed into bamboo tubes that I still got to try called "Khalap/Phalap". Again it's one of those things that is hard to find from western vendors and I think I can get a better price by ordering from the producing country. I also still need to try some of the Japanese fermented teas as well as the Korean dark teas.

>>20583315
>Again it's one of those things that is hard to find from western vendors and I think
I looked a litte into buying directly from India but didn't care enough to figure it out. I guess using a forwarding service or finding a tea shop that has it and asking them to mail it to you would be the way to go. I don't know if india has a taobao equivalent and if it does it's probably a shit show.

>>20583070
threads have been going by so fast since the summer. last thread lasted like 3 days, but earlier in the year we would have threads that would last like a few weeks lol.

>>20583321
saaar do not buy the indian tea

>>20583247
Wish any brave souls who'd try random ass teas on taobao the best.

>>20583489
Taobao SHOULD be okay, no?
Heard some guy say when chinks fuck up a batch, they sell it outside of china because they can't sell it in china so it appears on amazon or other cheap sites. Since Taobao is aimed at selling to the chinese I imagine it should be okay?

>>20583535
Taobao has everything good and bad
It's fine to buy tea on there if you aren't stupid about it
but im sure if you look there is plenty of garbage tea and fake teas on there.

>>20583542
just saw primarch Guilliman with an Eldar witch
the Imperium has fallen...
trillions must be purged

can a stainless steel infuser leave an aftertaste in the tea?

Do you think a cheap scale that's more accurate is worth buying? Was planning to just use kitchen scale but I don't know how accurate that is other than the fact it's limited to 1g increments

>>20583803
Some people say it does, but personally I've never experienced any weird tastes from stainless (if it's clean). Maybe there's different types of it..

>>20583835
I have a little jewellery scale, cheap on ebay and more than sufficient. It's worth getting if you want to brew more precisely.

>>20583803
No. Stainless pots also don't leave any taste when cooking soup.

>>20583070
Speaking of Japanese fermentation, has anyone tried their fermented soybean tea? Sounds like it has lots of healthy compounds but could really mess with hormones if you drink too much. I love natto so I might blind buy some anyway.

My small package of fresh sencha has arrived!
Might start with the Aoi from Tsuen.

>>20583803
No I have never had a problem with them.
>>20584099
>Some people say it does, but personally I've never experienced any weird tastes from stainless (if it's clean). Maybe there's different types of it..
I think people leaving hot tea in a steel thermos is where the complaints come from.

>>20583489
>Wish any brave souls who'd try random ass teas on taobao the best.
If you are buying from known brands you are not worse off than buying from a western vendor who also got it from the same source. Just use some common sense when ordering.

>>20583535
>Heard some guy say when chinks fuck up a batch, they sell it outside of china because they can't sell it in china so it appears on amazon or other cheap sites.
Sounds like cope to me. China's cheapest sketchiest products are consumed by the domestic poor or exported to the third world.

My 2023 Huey Wa is pretty bland. I still have half a cake of this stuff, and it's mostly flavorless at this point. It vaguely tastes like raw sheng but that's it. Any ideas on what I can do?

>>20584506
brew stronger

>>20584506
When in doubt, push the shit out of it
You could also use it for an ageing experiment and see if it's better after 10 years in the dungeon

>>20584540
>>20584544
What do you mean by push? More tea per water or higher temperature?

>>20584560
Both

>>20584560
higher brew times too. just blast the shit out of it. and if you're not using 100 degrees already (which I use for sheng anyway), do it
honestly I didn't sample that cake cause I was afraid of blandness, I heard it's quite mild. I tend to prefer agressive raws

>>20584560
Use boiling water, more tea, longer time. I would start with boiling water if you're not already like >>20584583 suggests and then start upping tea dose and then if none of that works you can always brew longer, but I wouldn't expect the greatest flavor if it needs that much push

>>20584506
I agree. It was nice fresh but really didn't age well. I'll try cranking up the leaf but I think it'll just make the bit I don't like stronger.

>>20584628
Try grampa brewing it i guess
I avoided that tea because the listing was honest enough to tell me i probably wouldn't like it.
Is the processing super green? That might explain why it's running out of gas so quickly

This was crazy good

2016 Fuding "gong mei" white tea

>>20584675
Tastes like straight up quince jam, super silky and great mouthfeel

>>20584583
>>20584628
I think the fault was due to low compression. Some super high compression sheng bricks I had preserve that sharp spring taste much longer than FL. All the oils must've evaporated, idk.

>>20583315
>need to try some of the Japanese fermented teas
If you want a rec, I really like this one. https://yunomi.life/products/furyu-awa-bancha It's sour, and a little sweet. I've never had anything like it. Also the dry leaves smell like pickles.

>>20584639
I've had way more green-tasting sheng, I felt it was roughly in line with FL's usual processing. Though I'm hardly an expert. Grandpa might do the trick actually.

>>20584639
I think it was supposed to be on the redder side according to the listing? someone even commented he thought it was too reddened and that's what made it too soft
>>20584675
where did you get that one?

>>20584682
nah I really doubt i would make a difference with only a year. it's probably just the material or processing ageing poorly, these laotian teas can be a gamble
I actually think my cake of Fa Zhan He improved over the year I've had it. it had more of the honey undertones by the end

>>20584775
Local french store called pao cha

My Tea Expert and Nannuoshan order came in. Turns out I accidentally bought two of the Burmese cakes. Oh well, it was cheap.

>>20584868
what's the frogger

I recently tried some tea from Thailand
(I've been sampling teas from around the world as a change to teas from the big tea producing regions)

I tried a very nice Thailand oolong 'fragrant rice'
Very enjoyable and a really lovely aroma

I did some reading, and it's scented with Nuo Mi Xiang (糯米香) / Semnostachya menglaensis
Any one familiar with it? I'm keen to try similar
From searching I can see that there is pu-erh from China which uses it
Is it popular in China?

I like my tea how I like my women:
Incredibly green and sent directly from Japan.

>>20584889
It's a mustachioed toad.
https://tea-expert.net/qita-hong-cha/40071-ni-zi-chan

I admit I mainly got it so I could keep the tin after.

>>20584905
You like aliens?

>>20584868
I remember quite enjoying Zhangping shuixian when I was starting out, maybe I should revisit. I remember it was pretty similar to a green tie guan yin

>>20584890
Yeah it's a popular additive to ripe pu-erh, most vendors with a bigger puerh selection will have some.

>>20584905
Right on, brother.
First impressions of the Uji Aoi from O-cha: it's very classic, mellow, forgiving with brewing. Might push it more next time. No real fireworks in aroma or intensity, just mellow grassy floral, very clean, sheer and precise. Good refreshing aftertaste like cool mountain air and nice sweetness. Maybe a bit too subtle and clean for me, we'll see tomorrow if additional pushing fixes that.
Would be a good introduction to the classic, prim and proper traditional by the book yabukita asamushi, the baseline default sencha.

>>20584868
Tell us how they are! In particular I am curious about the burma shou and the black tea in the tin.

>>20584890
You mostly see sticky rice herb added to shou puer. I know at least one vendor has black tea scented with it.

>>20584919
Those yunnan oolongs that tea expert sources are pretty good. I bet the yunnan blacks are nice too

>>20584933
>>20584985
Thanks
I will have to try some, however, I'm not a big fan of pu-erh tea.
I was hoping maybe the Chinese added it to oolong too.
I'd also be curious to try to get some on it's own and taste it as a herbal tea
I normally can't stand any scented tea, but this stuff is really very nice.

>>20584961
Sounds good. I find that asamushi can be a little too subtle sometimes as well. I usually have to dial in the right amount of leaf to use without making it overly bitter.

I'm drinking some Chiran sencha I had stored, while I wait for a package of new stuff to arrive. It might not be as bright as it should be, but it still has enough umami funk to make up for it. For less fresh ones like this I tend to push things hotter on the later steeps to end it more astringent and clean. Still really nice.

>>20585071
Chiran really is a no brainer at its pricepoint, maybe I should have grabbed a pack of that one again. But I went for some asamushis instead cause my kyusu struggles with deep steamed stuff.
I'm hoping that saemidori asamushi has more of the fruity and sweet profile I remember from saemidori fukamushi. That was my favorite from last year's order.

first order from Yunomi, I'm supposed to drink these throughout the year and save some for winter, but oh man I just want to taste everything now. So I'm now thinking which ones to refrigerate and which ones to drink during the summer. About half of them are not vacuum bags, I wonder how does that affect things? Do the non-vacuum packages still safe from odors? Could they be still packed in protective atmosphere? If not, then I could take out half from of each, seal thoroughly and then refrigerate? Or does the unopenedness matter?

>>20585100
The non vac packaged bags still look sealed so they should still be fridge safe.
Obviously the most efficient thing to do is keep em all in the fridge exept for one bags that you open and drink but that can get boring so figure out what balance works for you

>>20585111
These are mostly shinchas and in my experience it's not the same after being refrigerated so I'm hesitant to put them straight in. But I should refrigerate the ones I'm saving for longer.

>>20585100
Those bags are pretty much always nice thick mylar, so they're really good. I think a nitrogen flush is common, and many will have an oxygen absorber inside. I trust them to be packaged as well as they can be.

If I can't decide which to open first I'll often go with whatever was most expensive.

>>20584905
I like my women the way I like my tea. Locked up in a Hong Kong basement for years.

>>20585130
>>20585100
Time to buy a bunch of double lid canisters.

>>20584905
I like my women like my tea:
Smelling fishy and decomposing back to dirt.

>>20585199
do people actually drink this?

>>20585199
>Is this mold.jpg

>>20585142
I went with expensive but classic

>>20585203
The bravest of the souls definitely do

>>20585203
I hope not, that's actual half rotten moldy tea, the bad kind

>>20585203
I would think most puerh drinkers would call that cake a loss, If it were just a few small patches I would scrape them off and salvage the cake. I try to avoid visibly moldy tea however. I am more of a fan of dry to moderate storage than wet storage.

At this point, why not just go to a forest during autumn and collect some brown material from the bottom of a leaf pile? Apparently birch leaf tea is a thing, so why not a have some nicely oxidized and fermented birch tea? Why let a billion dollar industry rip you off for some decomposed leaves when you have the most natural, earthy biodiverse puerh treasure trove right in your backyard?

>>20585318
If you have birch Forests you should be collecting chaga and making tea with that.

>>20585150
>double lid canisters.
are those really any better than a ziplock?

>>20585397
Ziplock kitchen bags aren't really airtight at all.
The ones vendors shit tea in are usually much less air permeable

>>20585111
>>20585100
w-wait you're supposed to put your loose leaf tea in the fridge?

>>20585477
No, you should not put your loose leaf tea in the fridge.
If you buy fresh spring green tea in small individually sealed bags from vendors then you can store the still factory sealed bags in the fridge.
With any other tea absolutely do not put it in the fridge it will just fuck it up

>>20585498
>small individually sealed bags from vendors
From Japanese vendors

>>20585498
>>20585502
I bought a bunch of samples to get started on my tea journey, should I put the green tea samples in fridge until I try them or is it best to just put nothing in, in that case?
>go check store pages
>different teas have different storage methods (cool and dark but airtight, refridgerated and airtight or ventilated)
what the hell

>>20585538
If you'll drink them within a few months I wouldn't really worry about it. Really I've only seen japanese green nerds fridging their teas for longer term storage.

>>20585559
Do I need to worry about ventilating those teas if I'll drink them in 2-3 months anyway, or would the samples simply not come shipped in airtight bags?

>>20585564
Nah I wouldn't worry about it. They most likely come in airtight bags, a lot of vendors ship samples in mylar ziplock things, they can just stay in the bags.
I've never heard of ventilating anything but puer cakes, it can be a consideration for long term storage. But for oolong for instance air is usually considered a bad thing.

>>20585538
No, just don't put tea in the fridge unless you are buying japanese green teas and they come in factory sealed packaging. Putting yea in the refrigerator is most likely to fuck up your tea and make it taste shitty
Tea should be stored in a cool dry place away from strong odors. I just keep my bags of tea in a cardboard box on a shelf in my living room.

>>20585581
>>20585597
not very promising for my expectations of how accurate the brewing instructions will be then.
I guess I'll just keep them all in the pouches & put them in a box in my cupboard
Thanks, I was about to start freaking out about this shit too

>>20585608
>how accurate the brewing instructions will be
When in doubt, check the rentry

>>20585629
I guess I'll try both and see what comes out better, each sample should have enough for multiple brews
At a glance, at least the temperatures seem to be close but a bit higher in some cases (and 10C higher in case of the Dragon Well green tea, 75C in rentry vs 85C on site)

>>20585676
>75C in rentry vs 85C on site
To some extent differences like that come down to preference both should be low enough to not be too hot for brewing dragonswell. I wouldn't sweat it too much. As you drink more tea you will develop your own preferences for how you want to brew teas like that.

Autumn 22 Sunset Oolong from Viet Sun
It has quite a novel taste. Some nice floral fragrance and a sweet note that reminds me of some aged white teas. There's a bit of the lingering tannin "assamica taste" but it's in balance. And in the later steeps a certain minerality like hot sauna rocks.
If it's still around when I next make a viet sun order I'll pick up a bag for sure.

mods are asleep post sheng

>>20585750
Seems like you have had pretty good results with your viet sun order. It's cool that /tea/ found some interesting Vietnamese shops

Viet Sun Y Tý H’Mông Village Spring 2024
Not entirely sure if this is the same as the cake, it's maocha. Maybe it is the unblended tea.
I'm a bit shit at describing sheng. Good but not exceptional. Some bitter and astringency. Mouthfeel is a little flat. Nice little bit of huigan. I think some people will consider it too soft, for me, it's fine but a little boring.

>>20585788
It's been a fun experience so far. It's nice they have an option for all the major categories (even if that oolong is nothing like you imagine oolong). I see they listed a ripe cake, hopefully someone will check it out.

>>20583535
>Heard some guy say when chinks fuck up a batch, they sell it outside of china because they can't sell it in china
that jew Jesse's Teahouse?

>>20585100
Tried out each of these teas two times in a row:

Kuma Saemidori Imperial (expensive): premium sweet aroma as expected from saemidori, fairly dark and umami while not fukamushi. Clean and not much of an aftertaste. I prefer Furusato no Hana Saemidori for its grassy aftertaste which I've had on previous years.

Murakami sample (expensive), yabukita, kabusecha, near-fukamushi: strong, even pungent aroma with mix of seaweed (just what I've been looking for) and farm/barn/hay that fuels your imagination. Resilient for many steeps without tasting overcooked. I love this, please recommend me your most seaweedy aromatic yabukita like this.

Wazuka sample, yabukita, kabusecha: sweet and mild for yabukita, and higher temp only makes it taste wet and overcooked, disappointing/not for me, surprised by the huge difference to the Murakami one.

Fucking hell, you 'cake is the sample' teaheads might be onto something. The cakes I want keep going out of stock.
Anyone know if the US site for Yunnan Sourcing would have similar tasting older cakes or could the aging taste differently? I wanted a 2014 Impression cake but the Chinese site ran out while my sample was in the mail...

yeah the texas warehouse is probably as dry and boring as their china one, much less variety on the us site though.

I just submitted my superbuy taobao order for shipping.
150 bucks just on shipping Jesus.

>>20586089
what did you get?

>>20586131
A bunch of factory shengs and some shous.
CSH 24 Naka, 23 #1
Xiaguan 18 Blue Mark, 19 Jingmai, 05 T8653
Mengku Rongshi Bojun combo, 21 Ben Wei Da Cheng
Dayi 2020 01 7542, 2301 Yi Yuan Su

>>20585100
Lol that sample
>>20586040
Finally some jap green reviews, took them long enough to get teas made this spring
>>20586173
>Xiaguan 18 Blue Mark
Oh nice ive been wondering about that thing.
I really need to start ordering from taobo, the prices are better and the selection is massive

>>20586173
You probably already know this but if the teas come in big gift packaging boxes you can ask the procy shipper to take them out of the boxes to save some money on shipping. They don't weigh anything but they take up space and denser boxes are cheaper to ship

>>20586173
>21 Ben Wei Da Cheng
How much did you pay for this?

>>20586205
nta but this is helpful, ill try this out on orders whenever i happen to order through a proxy

>>20586189
Yeah, the blue mark has been on my radar for a while, but seeing $200 on ktm was too much. I paid 900 yuan, so it was about $70 cheaper. Jingami was like 30 dollars lol while ktm was asking 80
>>20586210
560 yuan so $80
>>20586205
Yeah its a good trick to save some money on shipping. Just gotta remind them not to unwrap the teas though.

Now I wait TM

thank you google translate

>>20584675
local tea guy has a fuding gongmei white tea cake from 2013. Was hesitating on the buy. Guess I'll rip the bandaid.

>>20586173
nice, how much did you pay for the CSH Naka? I love that tea
I gotta try something from Mengku Rongshi at some point

>>20586053
"a cake is a sample" unironically makes more sense than 10 or 20 gram samples to me. I think realistically the perfect sample size is around 100 grams though - Awazon got it right

>>20585944
Yeah, guessing you guys don't like him then? Kek

>>20586789
He would know, since a lot of his tea is just tao bao buys he resells for 10x the price

How many of you replaced some or even all of the morning coffee you used to have with high caffeine tea?

>>20587007
I don't drink coffee anymore but I don't pick my morning tea based on how caffeinated it is

>>20587007
I used to drink yerba mate in the morning, nowadays it's usually young sheng pu-erh or sencha
if I'm in a hurry / busy and want something lazy and functional to hammer away, I still drink yerba mate
when it gets hot again, I'm sure I will be drinking a lot more terere (cold brew yerba mate) and less tea. terere has a great mental effect on me too for some reason, it's a bit stimulating but also very relaxing. I'm guessing there's less caffeine in it and more l-theanine or whatever else is in mate

>>20586040
Cheers, drinking the Shincha Aoi from O-cha again.
Still mellow, vegetal, sweet corn, algae, savory, refreshingly airy. Not bad but I'm not blown away so far. I think I tend to prefer sencha with more fruity elements. I wonder if that saemidori asamushi will deliver that.

>>20586829
which is weird when hes showing off his friends tea shops in beijing, can he not set up some kinda supply of good shit?

>>20587309
He claims that his tea comes from people he often meets & that he tries out a lot of different teas to choose what to sell
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9ywHNSOU-SA
https://youtu.be/-FQiOoLhmVg

>>20583803
>>20584099
>>20584425
I've had this problem with a metal infuser. I'm not 100% sure if it's stainless - but I'm not sure what else it could be; it was a cheapo random listing off of amazon

>>20585940
The 'Sunrise' oolong is (was? It might be sold out) much more typical of a green-style oolong. I wish I had gotten the Sunset with my order, sounds interesting.

Does anyone have experience with these budget haiwan cakes?
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/2020-haiwan-quotthe-gathering-of-plant-spiritquot-raw-puer-excellent-tea-series-quotling-qiquot-premium-raw-puer-400g
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/2019-haiwan-raw-pu-erh-tea-quotliang-yuan-liang-yunquot-premium-tea-series-sheng-pu-erh-tea-400g

>>20587534
I don't think ive seen anyone post about trying them. They are probably nice teas, the leaves look well processed gently handled.
Don't forget about the 500g dong guo village cake
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/2022-haiwan-dong-guo-village-ancient-tree-raw-puer-chinese-tea-famous-mountain-tree-sheng-puer-chinese-tea-500g-850

>>20587550
I've had samples of dong guo from FL and didn't like it.

>>20587331
>He claims that his tea comes from people he often meets & that he tries out a lot of different teas to choose what to sell
There is something to be said for curation but I don't buy the premise that the Chinese intentionally sell us the bad stuff. First off most of the fancy tea that reaches us is through third party grey market channels. These resellers have an incentive to get the western customers hooked and keep them happy as that is their line of business. The few premium Chinese tea brands that do direct sales in the west like CSH and Dayi also have incentive to serve their customers because they are trying to enter into a new market. Also a lot of the fancy brand outlet sales go to Chinese expats who know what to expect and are not going to be fooled by subpar substitutions. Finally the western market for Chinese tea disproportionately consist of enthusiasts who are going to be more selective. The average westerner who just wants caffeine will go with coffee, soda, or energy drinks. Conversely there is a large market in Asia (and globally) for cheap commodity teas for daily consumption. See the ubiquity of sunflower brand jasmine tea as an example. China does not need to deceptively offload a bunch of cheap tea to the west because there is already a market that wants it.

>>20587619
The idea that china exports all the worst shit is hilarious. If you know about china's intenral markets at all all the absolute worst shit like exploding office chairs and baby food filled with melamine is sold domestically. Most of the worst offenders in terms of dangerous and deadly stuff never leaves the country.
Even if you buy the cheapest green tea on fullchea or dragon tea house or something you aren't going to get the shit that's dyed green with industrial pigments that are straight up poisonous yet it gets sold by sketchy domestic chinese shops every year

>>20587550
>500g
I like big bings and I cannot lie. Seeing large cakes makes my kettle leak if you know what I mean.

>>20587632
>shit that's dyed green with industrial pigments
Funnily enough there was a time where that used to be thing. I almost got an antique tea tin at a store that advertised that the tea was undyed. I am not sure if the coloring was added to deceive western merchants or at their behest.

>>20587619
I think the idea was that they're not sold in like reputable tea markets but just a cheap result on say amazon if you google "puerh tea" or "chinese tea"
Like he mentions happening here https://www.youtube.com/shorts/i4LYeIcqvt0
Basically preying on the people who don't know shit about tea

>>20587693
Fair enough, I was not criticizing Jesse's Teahouse (as I don't know what he actually said) so much as the idea presented here. Also cheapo sketchy tea is not unique to western sites. You can totally buy it on Taobao to if you want. I do hate it when I see off-brand mystery shou cakes marked up and sold as a premium tea. It is not really all that predatory if they are sold at a fair price (dirt cheap) but they are still a noob trap. Tuition tea if you want to call it that.

All this shit from Jesse just reeks of a grift

Does anyone have a sample of the the new jingmai miyun on their way?
Back to back dry years and supposedly better material... could be good.

>>20587742
>All this shit from Jesse just reeks of a grift
well yeah, have you seen his necklace? check the chinese bath house video

>>20587659
Tea dyeing usually happened in two different ways;
>Before initial sale of leaves to European merchants;
>After initial consumption of tea, spent tea leaves could be collected, dyed, and resold by unscrupulous Europeans.

>>20587637
https://yunnansourcing.com/products/2007-cnnp-8891-red-label-raw-pu-erh-tea-cake

>>20587345
I had similar issue with my chink made amazon stainless steel infuser. It was giving off paper like smell when I poured boiling water on it.

https://toirokitchen.com/products/stainless-steel-tea-strainer
Expensive but it's real stainless steel. You're probably better off with glass infuser though.
>>20587550
They have a bunch of those villages like Bulang mountain 500g. It's probably a poor man's Lao Man E

>>20587760
I've been wondering if it's any better too. the 2022 I got as a free sample twice was boring IMO, I enjoyed both Bangwai and Fa Zhan He more from Lancang and they are cheaper too

>>20587876
https://www.banateacompany.com/pages/The-Kings-Seal-Raw-Pu-erh-Tea.html

>>20588103
10g is only $48? Damn that's worth buying

>>20588103
god damn, now that's a big bing

>>20588103
https://kingteamall.com/en-se/products/2010-mengku-rongshi-bing-dao-chun-bing-bingdao-spring-cake-1000g-puerh-raw-tea-sheng-cha

>>20588129
https://kingteamall.com/products/2009-dayi-jin-gua-golden-melon-cake-1300g-puerh-sheng-cha-raw-tea

King tea mall added more liubao
This three cranes looks like a banger. Factory aged for 8 years.
http://kingteamall.com/collections/home-page/products/2021-sanhe-liu-bao-gang-ao-yun-liubao-hong-kong-macao-rhyme-loose-leaf-200g-tin-dark-tea-wuzhou-gua
This white label naka bamboo stuffed puer looks good too, 2005 for 45¢ a gram
http://kingteamall.com/collections/home-page/products/2005-kingteamall-na-ka-zhu-tong-cha-naka-bamboo-tube-tea-cyliner-puerh-raw-tea-sheng-cha

>>20588129
Five years ago ktm had 2012 kilo brinks of mengku rongshi big dao for like $80 for the whole brick. Still kicking myself for not buying a few.
https://kingteamall.com/collections/2012-mengku-rongshi/products/2012-mengku-rongshi-bing-dao-jin-zhuan-bingdao-golden-brick-1000g-puerh-raw-tea-sheng-cha

2022 Burmese Shou Puerh from Tea Expert.

Smooth drinking, pretty typical shu taste profile. For a hair under 7 cents a gram, it'd be a good daily drinker.

>>20588168
Back when KTM wasn't jewish with their pricing

>>20588141
https://kingteamall.com/products/2012-xiaguan-kai-men-hong-lucky-cake-1500g-puerh-sheng-cha-raw-tea

>>20588317
https://kingteamall.com/products/2015-chenshenghao-jiao-yang-zodiac-sheep-year-cake-3000g-puerh-raw-tea-sheng-cha?_pos=1&_sid=1624b31fd&_ss=r

3000g
holy

>>20588342
https://dragonteahouse.biz/xin-yi-hao-ba-wang-beeng-giant-pu-erh-tea-cake-2018-raw-5000g/

>>20588351
No someone just needs to find a gaint shou melon like they use for display purposes available for sale. I am sure 10kg+ ones must exist.

>>20588528
The closest I've found is chunks of melon from crimson lotus

>>20588351

>>20588216
Excessively kino tea set anon

>>20588528
There's some big ones out there. 9.8 kg is the largest I've seen anywhere

>>20588606
ok I found something even larger
apparently 300kg according to deepl but I have my doubts
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=pc_detail.29232929/evo401271b517998.guessitem.d1.393a7dd67Tfvex&id=610211920471&skuId=4879751655645

>>20587637
>>20587876
>>20588103
>>20588129
>>20588141
>>20588317
>>20588342
>>20588351
>>20588606
It' s working guys my tea rod is getting harder. Keep it coming.

>>20588752
yeah that taobao store sells tea rod too, but only 120kg compared to the melon tower I just posted.

>>20587990
He said that they aren't processing the tea for the fragrance. I thought the entire point of jingmai was the fragrance so if you kill it then what's the point? Might as well try some other region where you don't pay premium for something that isn't there.

>>20588817
What are they processing it for then?

Thought it was interesting to see some green tea discards I had the other day looking like dry white tea when I left it aside.

>>20588750
god damn kek
I wonder if people actually buy those, and if anyone has ever finished one

>>20588112
unironically less than I would expect for Vesper Chan's take on a pure LBZ cake

Which chamomile seed should I plant? Roman? German?

>>20587534
How dumb is blind buying one of these instead of 2024 FL?

>>20589352
Yeah it seems cheaper then a CSH or other big factory LBZ offering
>>20588954
Im convinced they are mostly used for decoration and made with cheap plantation tea. I also wonder if they would end up weird because the huge dense mass of tea would take too long to dry after pressing. Might end up with golden flowers or half fermented tea in the middle of the big ones
>>20589366
German i think
>Roman chamomile also may be used in tea, though its soothing properties are weaker and its flavor bitterer than German chamomile.
Comparison of the two plants growth habits and cultivation
https://howtoculinaryherbgarden.com/german-vs-roman-chamomile/

>>20588663
>guy opens melon to show everyone

>>20589382
That's up to you i guess.
The haiwan tea is going to come from larger tea farms but it does look well processed.
Farmer leaf talks about these differences in one of his listings.
https://www.farmer-leaf.com/collections/yunnan-pu-erh-tea/products/spring-2023-dong-guo
Talking about the larger plantations that supply the bigger factories.
And you can see the difference in price
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/2021-haiwan-dong-guo-village-ancient-tree-raw-pur-er-chinese-tea-famous-mountain-tree-sheng-pur-er-chinese-tea-500g
That said, i didn't try the 2020 dong guo from farmer leaf, but other posters didn't love it it seemd divisive. But i did buy a 2020 dong guo cake from xiaguan. Which presumably comes from those larger plantations, and i thought it was a really good tea.
https://kingteamall.com/collections/2020-xiaguan/products/2020-xiaguan-dong-guo-lao-shu-yuan-cha-dongguo-old-tree-round-cake-357g-puerh-raw-tea-sheng-cha
Which is to say just because the haiwan offering is cheaper or more mass produced doesn't mean it is not good tea.
With the two haiwan teas in the post you quoted they are blends of teas from many regions,or at least the gathering of plant spirit one is, these complex blends are one of the big advantages of the bigger factories as long as they are done well, they offer an interesting counterpoint to single village productions.
TLDR
Bigger factories offer a different proposition to small boutique producers, i think both types of productions have their place and enjoy drinking both.

>>20589406
I heard a lot of good about that xiaguan dong guo. the FL dong guo sample I had was pretty good desu. very tart and astringent, not unpleasantly so but I can see why it would be divisive. not everyone wants tart lemonade sheng

>>20589420
I have 2 major problems with the FL dong guo:
1) "Strong upfront and long-lasting sweetness" there is almost no sweetness. Fa zhan he was sweeter than this. Yellow flakes are sweeter than this. Almost everything is desu
2) lemon notes. There are none. Astringency != lemon. Citruses have so much more to offer then being astringent when you bite the rind

Speaking of yellow flakes, I'm giving them another try this morning.
Still don't like them. I know it's the cheapest cake from FL so it will be popular, but still...
Until recently I was poor student and even then I would say just spend few dollars more and get something else.

>>20589420
>1) "Strong upfront and long-lasting sweetness" there is almost no sweetness
yeah I also didn't get much of that. it did taste like lemon to me though. but I still enjoyed Fa Zhan He more and it's half the price
>>20589430
I thought yellow flakes was lame when I was drinking it grandpa style, but when I pushed them hard gong fu, they were actually pretty good with plenty of sweetness. still probabaly better to go for a Bangwai or something for most people

I recently made unexpected bux. I think I'm gonna make a big haul of ripe, liu bao and lao cha tou on KTM. Never tried this vendor yet.

>>20589459
Not to shit on you or anything. As someone who's new here, it's funny to see people so excited and into tea that they get some unexpected cash flow and the first thing they think of is new tea they can get.

>>20589468
Actually I've considered synths and controllers before tea. You know, things I'd like to buy but can't justify.

>>20589477
I mean, you could put this unexpected cash flow towards it, that's the most likely thing to allow you to purchase things you feel like you can't justify. I imagine if you get a second hand one, it won't lose that much value so you can sell it on if you need the money or feel like it's not worth it or don't like it as well, you know

>>20589459
KTM has really upgraded their liu bao collection recently. they used to just have low grade aged stuff, now they have a lot of higher quality more modern liu bao too
for lao cha tou I'd go for the 2021 Dayi brick or maaaybe the 2018 Haiwan, that one is less common
adda a good old Haiwan 9978 and this cheapo Dayi ripe, I wonder if it's good:
https://kingteamall.com/en-pl/collections/2023-dayi/products/2023-dayi-hong-yu-red-jade-357g-cake-puerh-shou-cha-ripe-tea

>>20589493
Thank

Am I a bad person for rooting for Chinese crisis so my leaves are cheaper?
I mean $130 for hekai... cmon, surely we can go lower.

>>20589468
I think about winning the lottery or some shit and buying insanely expensive tea with alarming frequency

>>20589622
Morals aside, it's more likely that a Chinese crisis would make your tea prohibitively expensive via trade embargoes than making it cheaper. That said, there is some evidence that puerh prices are dropping. That may or may not reflect in Western market prices.

>>20589865
if their economy gets fucked, wouldn't they want to export more? Usually you want to have trade embargoes for IMPORTS so people spend their money inside the country itself, but they also want to sell to other countries so there's more money flowing into the country

>>20589865
>That said, there is some evidence that puerh prices are dropping.
You can already see it a little bit. Recent year Dayi productions are more reasonably priced on KTM than they have been in a long time. Some of the 2024 cakes on Farmerleaf are slightly cheaper than older versions. Let's hope we see more of that next year.

Is mint water tea?

>>20589885

>>20589885
Tea is exclusively an infusion of Camellia sinensis

Thoughts on this?
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/2021-haiwan-zhang-jia-san-dui-village-raw-pur-er-chinese-tea-bulang-mountain-aged-tree-sheng-pur-er-chinese-tea-500g
I can't find much info except the 2 short reviews in russian.

>>20589874
I was a little imprecise. What I mean is that it's more likely a Chinese crisis is defined by aggressive posturing or military action rather than an internal economic collapse. Further, the latter may result in the former. In that case, trade sanctions and war seem possible. It is hard to envision a world with meaningful Chinese trade restrictions, however. Who knows. Keeping on topic, I believe it would result in higher priced tea. I've been gradually accumulating as a result.
>>20589879
Dayi commands an inflated price in part due to speculators. They're an oddball factory for that reason. I'm a little reluctant to make extrapolations about the greater puerh market based on what Dayi is doing. I wholeheartedly align with the hope for cheaper tea, though.
>>20589885
A tisane.

how should i store japanese greens? ive heard of people putting them in the fridge but id imagine that exposes them to odors? should i just try to seal them like a bag of chips?

>>20589967
If they're factory sealed (the kind of bags you need to cut), put them in the fridge
If you've opened them already or they came in non-factory sealed ziplock type bags, don't put them in the fridge! Just zip them up, keep airtight etc. Like you would with other teas. It's good to drink them a bit quicker than others

>>20588892
>>20588817
mouthfeel and returning fragrance, I guess.

>>20588750
>>20588752
>>20588760
Thanks anons, my marathon bangdong gonfu session is finished. It delivered many pleasurable rounds of hot juice but it finally ran out of steam. Now I just need to clean the gushu soup off my tea pet. It is better to not just abandon her while she's still dripping wet.

>>20590115
I sensed the qi from here

>>20588606
I still want to know how that 1991 fangcha is but I'm not $50 curious. Has anyone here ordered from the phoenix collection?

>>20589692
You are not the only one here who has fantasized about that.

>>20589692
When I win the lottery I will send everyone here a giant puerh melon along with other teas.

>>20590295
Please don't buy lottery tickets

>>20590295
Picking up some 80s cakes and dishing out a bunch of samples would be really fun.

>>20590371
Anon I want my melon ok hush

>>20590482
Ask anon to save up the lottery ticket money so he can buy you one :)

>>20589907
>Thoughts on this?
It's a bulang blend, it's probably fairly punchy with some prominent bitterness.
Here is the listing for that cake on puercn, you can see the factory description and a few chinese reviews. Sounds good to me
https://puercn.com/puercha/25915/

>>20590529
I can't open this link, it just takes me to puercn.com

>>20590598
https://m.puercn.com/puercha/25915/

anybody here use a silver teapot?
I've been really considering this one
https://yunnansourcing.com/en-ca/products/mini-dragon-egg-teapot-pure-silver-999-50ml?variant=43159012376775

Drinking on the first 2024 puerh I picked up this season. Came from the W2T tea club delivery for last month, I believe. 2024 Spring harvest old arbor puer. It's so good. I love young puerh. Dumped a bunch of material in the gaiwan and have been having a great afternoon session after a long run. It's a little sweet and citric, with plenty of punchy bitterness. Some metallic notes, iron or copper. Still very green. I think it was only a 50g cake or something. Tiny thing.
Anybody else get their hands on Spring harvest yet?

>>20589907
YS sourced material from the same village, their cake is around twice the price. Dunno how the quality compares, no reviews that I could find

>>20590710
that looks cool but... 50ml?

>>20586829
>>20590754
>50 gram cake
Don't let 200g cake hater see this one, it could kill him

>>20590655
>https://m.puercn.com/puercha/25915/
thanks it seem like it's a poor man's lbz

>>20590759
Yeah I saw the YS listing too but in my limited experience, YS branded teas are kinda mid for the price. I might pick this up, the Chinese reviews seem pretty good.

How do /tea/ anons like to keep track of tasting notes and inventory?

>>20590898
I refuse to do either
it's liberating

>>20590710
I'd worry about it being very hot on the handle part
Is it just for style?

>>20590903
I'd be worried to forget about something. Though maybe if I do it's just not a tea I need to remember.

>>20590898
I'll be honest, I'm autistic, so I spent the time throwing this together, I didn't want to leave anons without my impressions after they put in so much work putting together recommendations for me, plus I imagine it'll make it easier for me to find teas I enjoy the most in the future (or ask for more recommendations)

>>20590939
Damn dude this is nice, do you want to share the template?

>>20590939
Impressive.

Can someone tell me why puer has become so massively popular? I used to go to tea cafes in the late 2000s and puer was hardly a blip on anyones radar. What happened?

>>20590910
I've heard that pot's handle can get hot, though I heard from someone who owned it that you can just wrap it a bit yourself and it'll be fine

>>20590911
Tea is ephemeral, an experience to be enjoyed in the moment, i rarely rebuy teas and im mostly fine with that.
Not taking notes has been annoying a few times when someone in the thread is asking about a tea i drank years ago.
Anyway to answer your question lots of people keep spreadsheets with columns for notes and a stock of how much is on hand. Another popular choice is using notebooks to keep more detailed tasting notes.

>>20590939
Western style brewing is nowhere near gongfu level for results. Almost 50% "floral", almost 25% "fruity" almost 25% "honey". I don't know how it look impressive for people... Nothing against you but that looks really average notes for a bad way to brew tea in general... "Teaspoons" for weight calculation is really, really bad too, not sure why you list it that why since you also put the grams next to it. Depending on the tea you can do 1-6g within 1 i'm sure.

>>20590949
Not that I suspect anything nefarious from a tea anon, but I would recommend never opening excel or any microsoft formats from unknown sources.

>>20590954
It all started with 2000s chinese forms about tea creating hype about certin productions. At the same time were various chinese cultural shifts where chinese consumers became more interested in traditional chinese goods like tea. Then the increasing size of the chinese middle class and their increased purchasing power led to demands for higher quality puer and the price of the raw material increased enough to justify harvesting these rare old trees in the woods that had been ignored in favor of modern large scale tea plantations. Demand for puer skyrocketed in the mid 2000s which led to the first puer bubble and the resulting crash in 2007.
Etc etc

>>20590898
Here's what I keep track of. I'm not super autistic about it, though. Plenty of automated bits. Notes are translations or additional info from the vendor. Writeup are my /tea/ reviews. The link are URIs to my tea directory where I save each page from the vendor's site.
I do not keep track of how I brew and when. That always is a gut feel. This isn't /ctg/
>>20590939
This is nice anon, well done.

>>20590949
There is no template, I made it from scratch (I'm embarrassed to admit it took 2.5h)
If you want to make a copy to use it yourself, here you go
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DCbYoz4wissXCMXdjaAPmzBqgwq1LXG9KvNuzfrQLGs/edit?usp=sharing
You probably want to add a "Any Left?" column like this anon did >>20591017


>>20590954
Might have to do with the world becoming more homogenized due to the internet. I feel like in the 2000s people were just getting used to the ability to talk easily across the world.
>>20590970
All the instructions, notes & description were taken directly off the store. The "Alternate: Click here" above the instructions links to the rentry.
The Score (and Notes, to the right of it which I cut off) are the parts that will be filled in later. I thought it was odd they added teaspoons to the tea measurements as well but hey who am I to judge them

The reason most of them are western is because western is the style most familiar. I simply added the Gongfu as the main method to the teas anons said it would excel at.
(Also I'll be honest, it's not even for me but for my gf lol, just wanted to make it easier to check things since the site is often slow to load or even down)

>>20591017
Yours looks nice too, might change my "price" column to "price/g" when orders switch from samples to actual orders. Is there a reason you separate the link from the name? Seemed a lot more intuitive to simply hyperlink it.
Also out of pure autism I'd definitely go for alternating row colours. Makes things a lot more readable

the puer lesbians are getting riled up again

It was my dumbass fault for not making the instructions clear enough for my buying agents but my warehouse guy just tossed in those boveda packs in the box without opening the plastic packaging. He was reading the instructions several times, as it must've been confusing. FUCK. $7 wasted. ugh...
Hopefully my teas don't arrive dried out. fuuuck

>>20591042
>Hopefully my teas don't arrive dried out
is this really an issue? I've never seen tea ship with a humidity pack before.

>>20591042
wtf you can watch the guy do it? lmao

>>20590989
Thanks for the history, but when did westerners become obsessed with it? I’m pretty sure the people sperging about puer ITT are white folks.

>>20591050
I started drinking it last year sometime, but didn't really become a puer sperg until this year

>>20591048
No, but I bought 12 cakes so I wanted to take precautions. For samples in mylar bags, it doesn't matter.
>>20591047
it's an add in service for 70 cents

>>20591050
>but when did westerners become obsessed with it?
Puer really isn't popular in the west. But that started with nerds that were into orientalism and second gen children of chinese immigrants living in the west.
The western puer market is tiny and low volume.

>>20591064
>For samples in mylar bags, it doesn't matter
I've never seen a cake ship with a humidity pack either, though they also come in mylar or at least a ziplock usually

>>20591042
Honestly I would be much more afraid of tea getting too humid and moldy due to dew point shenanigans than it being dry for a month or two.

>>20591028
>Is there a reason you separate the link from the name?
Names from stores can be lengthy. For some vendors, the distinction between name and description is blurry. I try to keep it concise and elaborate elsewhere if I have to.
>simply hyperlink it
This reminds me, if you're hyperlinking to a given tea's store page from a vendor, you should be expecting them to disappear eventually. My spreadsheet is more of an archive I desire to exist long term. As I mentioned I download the pages using FOSS plugin SingleFile and link to those.
>alternating row colours
It's more of an archive for lookup or filtering table than it is for frequent reading. As such I haven't yet found it necessary to alternate colors. However I do alternate colors on dates, which is to visualize separate purchases. It helps me remember teas better.
>>20591042
It will definitely be fine. It takes a long time to fuck up a cake. Rad that you get a video of your packing. This was a Taobao buying agent? Which one?

>>20590898
When I started I used a very detailed spreadsheet but I gave up after 100 or so entries. It felt like too much work to me but I still like the concept.

>>20591073
I think I understand now. Puer is what super serious tea autists drink to signal to other tea hipsters that they know what’s up and aren’t like all the other surface level, ignorant tea drinkers. Puerians are the craft beer drinkers of the tea world.

>>20590710
fwiw some guy on reddit bought one and said that it made his tea taste worse. Liquidproust also comments as well if his word means more to you than some random redditor.
https://old.reddit.com/r/tea/comments/1d5pnwf/retiring_my_silver_teapot_and_my_final_review/
(Also that retard bought his on a payment plan. Please don't do that.)

>>20591089
>This reminds me, if you're hyperlinking to a given tea's store page from a vendor, you should be expecting them to disappear eventually. My spreadsheet is more of an archive I desire to exist long term. As I mentioned I download the pages using FOSS plugin SingleFile and link to those.
Oh I missed that part, but I can imagine you can still hyperlink it right?
>>20591093
you can always simplify it down the further you go

>>20591105
Good god.
>Japanese tin for shou
Get me outta here

>>20590939
Cool. Il have to some black teas from China.

>>20591112
>you can still hyperlink it right?
I can, at least. I'm using LibreOffice Calc rather than Google Sheets.

>>20591042
>>20591064
I'm the guy who recently got a Tea Expert order in. Took about 3 weeks to make it here from China to the my door in the US. I put the 2 Burmese cakes in my puerh pumidor and the humidity (which normally sits around 60-62%) jumped to 68%. Assuming my cheap Govee sensor isn't malfunctioning, the cakes retained a good deal of their moisture after the overseas journey here.

>>20591095
I genuinely drink puer because it tastes good and is completely different then most other teas. But it hard to deny there is some hipster aspect to it when you look at brands like white 2 tea.

>>20591112
>>20591128
Now that I think about it, I doubt Google Sheets can hyperlink to local files. Seems like surface area for something risky to go on.

>>20591162
I only drink puer because it has pretty wrappers

>>20591084
I'm also worried about getting this shipment seized. I know someone who had their kilobux+ order yoinked by the customs so If that happens I'm boned. Since the items fell under perishables, they weren't eligible for the superbuy insurance.
>>20591089
superbuy
>>20591133
My Awazon ripe cakes were pretty moist when I bought them. They were bagged in the cheapest plastic bags too, the paranoia is mostly due to value.

>>20591193
Why not make several smaller orders?

>>20590898
For the most part I don't. When I was first starting out I kept a notebook of all the teas I drank, and it definitely helped to keep track of things and understand my tastes better before I knew much about tea. It grew to be kind of a chore though.
Now I mostly only write down notes for anons here. I think pretty much what >>20590911
said, if I don't remember a tea then it wasn't worth remembering.
>>20590966
>Tea is ephemeral, an experience to be enjoyed in the moment
Also agree with this. When I think about the really exceptional meals I've eaten, or scotches or teas I've drank, they left an impression on me despite being one off experiences. If I wrote down notes while I was living through those experiences it wouldn't have made the experience any better or added to my memory, it probably would have only taken away from the moment.
Other experiences that were good or even great that I don't remember as well, be them tea or food or whatever, also wouldn't have been any better if I wrote down notes. And since they weren't memorable in the first place, having notes to look back on isn't worth anything to me. I would rather try something new than buy something that was only "pretty good" again. There's plenty of pretty good tea out there.
As far as remembering what I've tried that isn't worth trying again, I'll seach my email inbox for past orders if a certain tea sounds familiar I'm not sure if I've had it before.
Inventory isn't something I've ever felt the need to keep track of beyond noting that I'm running low on a certain tea when I go to drink some and don't have much left.

>>20591162
What got you to try puer in the first place?

>>20591162
yuh puerh good, white2tea bad

>>20591323
Was thinking about tea, watched some video of some YouTuber shilling puer, not even sure how i found the video. Was at my local teashop and they by some miracle had a half decent sheng. Got totally hooked on it.

>>20591329
white2tea good
you trying to catch these puer lesbian hands?

>>20591347
thats the tea sis you tell em

>>20591323
Not that anon but when I was looking to get into tea more seriously I thought puerh sounded neat so I grabded some samples and the rest is history. Also helping was puerh being reasonable priced (vs things like fancy oolongs or legit matcha) and all the community discussion and information around puerh making it seem a particularly interesting style of tea to explore. Mind you I drink other tea too I am not a dedicated puerh lesbian.

I don’t believe any of you saying you got into puer organically. You’re all following a trend you found out about through internet tea discourse.

>>20591406
What makes you think that?

>>20591406
What if I told you I got into puerh before W2T did?

>>20591406
yep i was psyop'd into it but you need good tea to actually make it work if the first puer i tried sucked i prob would have dropped the hobby

>>20590754
that gaiwan and lid combination is so beautiful.

>>20591406
What exactly does getting into puer "organically" look like?
>>20591546
Thanks mate!

>>20591556
>What exactly does getting into puer "organically" look like?
You must trek through an abandoned forest comprised of long forgotten tea gardens and sample tea from a pile of decomposing fallen leaves.

>>20591556
Ignore her, shes just mad that her girlfriend hit her again after drinking puerh.

>>20590754
>2024 Spring harvest old arbor puer
Ooh this sounds tasty, I'll have to get a sample.
I just got my order of sheng samples from them today, but it's all 2023 or older since I of course ordered like a day before they released 2024 cakes...

>>20591042
>$7 wasted
bohoho

>>20591073
> and second gen children of chinese immigrants living in the west.
Am vietnamese, but damn do I feel called out

Is there a way to counter the horribly bitter taste of hop cones? Sugar and sweeteners are out of question.

>>20592131
malt. make some beer to go along with the hops

>>20589901
What about Camelia Taliensis?

This one sounds really good.
Does anyone have any Taobao link, or more info?
I can't find anything.
https://www.puercn.com/puercha/24331/

>>20592163
>Does anyone have any Taobao link
Just grab the Chinese characters from the puercn page and search them on taobao
2020年老同志 天下 生茶

>>20592174
I did and that finds nothing, so I'm not sure if the search is fucked or this is some super rare cake that nobody sells.

Help me Anons, I'm getting desperate: how to get rid of black tea residue from an aluminium mug?

>>20591406
You didn't get into tea organically, you didn't stumble across some plants in your yard and decided to dry and steep them then drink the result.
You heard people go "hey this plant stuff is yumyum yummy!" and decided to try it

>>20592210
Magic eraser aka melamine sponge
Barkeeper's friend

>>20592157
>Taliensissies try to inject themselves into the discussion
you will never be a tea drinker
>b-but
cope

>>20592233

>>20592233
*dabs on you*

How do puer, black and green tea compare to each other? Puer doesn't seem to be strong, caffeine-wise.

>>20592248
you are picking extremely wide ranges of tea. black and greens could compare in that they are juicy in a sweet way but they are not really similar flavor wise. puerh is not similar to black and greens at all, and the two kinds (raws and ripes) are also not even similar to each other. it would be easier to compare greens and whites and oolongs and blacks.

>>20592248
One is a liquid meme lesbians drink to impress each other. The other two are very good teas.

>>20592248
I don't think caffeine content is related to the way the leaves are processed. It's more about the tree itself.
Taste wise it's again very diverse, you need to try it out yourself.
>black tea
If you ever drank any cheap black tea bag, you get the general idea.
Lose leafed tea is much better tho.
>green tea
Tastes like grass can be sweet or can taste like seaweed
>puer
Again extremely wide category.
It's usually bitter, but sort of sweet and nice grass. But it depends on age, raw vs ripe, region...
It's the most complex/interesting type of tea, but also something that you shouldn't start with

can i make cold tea just by steeping it in a tiny amount of boiling water and then mixing in a lot of cold water?

>>20592261
>>20592277
>>20592302
Ah, I see. Thanks!
I usually found black tea to be pretty bitter even with cooler water, same with green(the ones with fruit scent were even worse, somehow). Granted, it was the cheap stuff.

>>20592315
Pasta in OP mentions a method of making concentrated essence, so I guess this is what you're looking for.

>>20592315
>can i make cold tea just by steeping it in a tiny amount of boiling water and then mixing in a lot of cold water?
Eh, you can make tea that way but it's not going to taste the same

>>20592367
NTA but any tips specific for iced tea other than what's in the pasta? ( https://www.seriouseats.com/how-to-make-the-best-cold-brew-iced-tea )
I'm just getting started with tea, but I'm also interested in making my own iced tea as a refreshing alternative to buying other beverages and I'm not really sure what to look for when it comes to specific tea variants. I've noticed a lot of packs targeted at iced tea you can buy seem to be heavily mixed with things like flowers or dried fruits, is just pure iced tea not as suited for iced applications due to the tastes likely being dulled down by the lower temperature?

>>20592248
>How do puer, black and green tea compare to each other
>black tea
you know what it tastes like already
>green tea
vegetable broth, grass, often sweet and floral. usually mellow
>pu-erh
young raw pu-erh is often like a stronger, fruitier, more astringent, bitter and generally intense green tea. ripe pu-erh is woody earthy chocolaty doughy, thick and blacker than black tea. aged raw pu-erh tends to be in-between the two

>>20592376
If you wanna make iced black tea buy this stuff
http://amazon.com/Alwazah-Triple-Traders-Loose-Ceylon/dp/B07DZ4M75Z/
https://tripletraders.com/collections/tea-and-coffee/products/alwazah-tea-pure-ceylon-14-1-oz
Or this
https://tripletraders.com/collections/tea-and-coffee/products/copy-of-alghazaleen-tea-finest-ceylon-premium-quality-tea-454-gm
Both cheap and good black tea no need to spend tons of money on tea to make iced tea, keep it simple.
As far as flavors for me it's a few slices of lemon added while it's brewing.

>>20592376
>I've noticed a lot of packs targeted at iced tea you can buy seem to be heavily mixed with things like flowers or dried fruits, is just pure iced tea not as suited for iced applications due to the tastes likely being dulled down by the lower temperature?
Nah it's just that flavored tea with pretty flowers in it sells so it's a popular way to market tea. Good old black tea makes good iced tea, you can mess around with flavors and other additives if you want but you can diy that sort of thing and save shitloads vs buying those flavoured tea blends.
For example you want peach iced tea, just buy peach flavoring, you only need a small amount, maybe as little as a few drops for a big batch of iced tea. These are the same food safe flavorings that these companies spray on their tea leaves to make these flavored teas.
Because the people that DIY flavored liquid for ecigarettes use the same food flavorings it's now really easy to buy them in smaller quantities so you don't have to buy a full liter at a time.
https://flavourstogo.ca/product/peach-by-flavour-art/
https://flavourstogo.ca/product/juicy-peach-by-capella/

>>20592421
Oh that's really interesting, especially since it's a Canadian site. Might experiment a bit after getting a feel for how to make decent iced tea to see if I can improve it with some flavorings.
>>20592406
Tripletraders doesn't seem to ship to CA and the Alwazah I can only find on amazon for like 28CAD for that same box which feels like too much of a ripoff, which is why I was asking how to find them rather than specific ones. If it's just "decently rated, decently cheap, mass market black tea" I imagine some of these would do okay then, right?
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B077GC6VFV/
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0742BRY81
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B074RV292B
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B000RJ55WM/
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07C9J243Y
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00S1PVVMC/

Would you recommend cold brewing and then simply refridgerating & adding ice or do you think it's still better to simply do a hot brew and then cool it down gradually before refridgerating and icing?

>>20592443
>Canada
Shakes fist
This should do nicely
http://amazon.ca/AHMAD-Barooti-Assam-Loose-Tea/dp/B004XTDE1G
This too
http://amazon.ca/Dilmah-Premium-Ceylon-Tea-Loose/dp/B00B2PK0NE

>>20592443
>Would you recommend cold brewing and then simply refridgerating & adding ice or do you think it's still better to simply do a hot brew and then cool it down gradually before refridgerating and icing?
I would cold brew in the fridge overnight (8-12 hours) experiment with how much tea you add to get the desired strength, that link in the rentry is a good starting point and should be concentrated enough to serve over ice.

>>20592464
>Shakes fist
Sorry, eh?

I found some tea for you anons to try!

>>20592575
why does it look like a coaster

>>20592583
Because daddy like likes em tight. They even claim it yields "a hefty umami sensation".

Recommend me a good temperature controlled kettle. I found this one on Amazon. I used to have the Epica, but it's quite old.
https://www.amazon.com/Veken-Electric-Temperature-Automatic-Protection/dp/B0CBBMM6ZM/
Don't know if it's any good.

Also, had the 2014 Impression again, and it's no longer "flat" tasting. I don't know what is "reviving" all of my teas, but the flavor notes are beautiful. Orange, apricot, flowers, and honey.

>>20592842
maybe it's starting to get some good ageing past the awkward middle stages

storm outside
drinking dirt-cheap ripe (12$ Fuhai from Awazon)
listening to black metal

>>20592210
citric acid or vinegar may help
be careful with what you use to wash that, aluminum reacts with some cleaners to make nasty gasses

>>20592471
Ignore this Yankee, you brew it hot so you can dissolve all the sugar into it and then cool it down for serving

what stores do people like for chinese oolongs? have been buying nearly exclusively taiwanese oolongs lately

>>20592315
>>20592376
Brew a strong batch at half the volume you want to end up with and then dilute it with an equal amount of water/ice. Room temp water makes it less likely to get cloudy, but obviously won't be cold right away.

>>20593072
here's my list of places with nice looking selections. I haven't ordered from any of them but they have good reviews
https://www.teahong.com/
https://www.wuyiorigin.com/
https://oldwaystea.com/
https://txs-tea.com/

>>20592969
I already used a citric acid and got a fine layer of calcium citrate instead. (Sadly, I live in a shitholeville and the water in my house is so hard I might as well bottle it and sell it as mineral water.)

anyone else do coldbrews? been really enjoying just making a jug for two or three days and drinking it ice cold. used some fine 'yunnan noir' wot i got from that overpriced shitshow adagio something like 7 years ago and by golly it tastes just like honey after a cold brew and half a tablespoon of sugar.

any recommendations for coldbrews?

>>20593175
cold brew yerba mate is the best. great relaxing-stimulating combo. made some tragui tropical maracuya today, shit was so cash

>>20593199
that does sound nice. i do use a green tea blend, so maybe oughta try mate. i think i have an old bag of it somewhere.

>>20593215
check out terere brewing if you have a straw. just pop some ice cubes in there, add cold water and enjoy

>>20593287
yeah, i don't have a bombilla, but i'm sure i'll manage!

Was drinking this very fruity lychee like white tea. After I was done with it I decided to boil it for an hour on the stove, because I read somewhere you can do that with leftover white tea. I don't know what kind of sorcery happened, but it now tastes like liquified roasted walnuts.

>>20593350
damn that sounds delicious, what tea??

>>20590754
based

>>20592883
are you the same anon i listened to paysage d'hiver to? listen to transylvanian hunger or excerises in futility by mgwa. i listen to mgwa in the heat drinking raws outside all day.

>>20593562
It took me a while to parse this post

>>20593602
lol. i just woke up sorry.
>are you the same anon i RECCOMENDED paysage d'hiver to? listen to transylvanian hunger or excerises in futility by mgwa. i listen to mgwa in the heat drinking raws outside all day.

what is it that always makes white tea so impossible to break apart? it's impossible to break up a cake and then when you steep it it never breaks up? how do you usually handle this problem? this chunk ive steeped maybe two dozen times or more now and it basically hasn't broken apart at all. often i'll just end up tearing it up with my hands.

>>20584358
Both of those are really good, I bought that Asamushi Sae Midori again this year, I got the Aoi last year. This year I also got the Mio, Haruna, and Kirameki. All good, I would actually say the Kirameki is worth trying, it's really good. Comparing the Haruna and Mio teas was fun but not especially worthwhile, they're both good so I won't complain though. I'll probably buy more in mid July after I get through this, I can't quite decide yet though. I got some Gyokuro last year, but I don't think I will this year.

>>20593562
yep. luv me some paysage d'hiver too, but that's snowstorm type shit
for raw I would listen to something less atmospheric and more going haaaard. I like Immortal and Inquisition

>>20593881
immortal is great but i agree, thats why i listen to mgwa for raws.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvGPAVTYfXI

>>20593832
I always end up turning white tea to dust trying to get it off the cake

>>20593832
Yeah I like my white teas as loose leaf for this reason.

>>20593887
yeah more melodic fast stuff makes sense for that morning raw caffeine rush
for Inquisition I like either Ominous Doctrines for more polished or Infernal Regions for a bit rawer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1aibhqNcvU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URn23By6RWE

>>20593832
If you are really feeling autistic you can take a chunk of the cake and steam it in a vegetable steamer for 5 minutes to hydrate the leaves so you can sperate them. Tremendous amount of hassle tho

>>20593832
smack the whole thing with a hammer in a sock, then just live with the chunks you're given, if they're large chunks, you're going to be drinking copious amounts of many many tea

>>20593832
Have you got it in that chocolate shape? I've never had trouble with normal white cakes.

>>20594032
Yeah, with normal white tea cakes if you flake it thin it brews just fine. Sometimes the leaves don't all fully separate but the tea is still good. Try to go in from the side with a thin flat wedge shaped pick like a small flat head screwdriver or similar.

>>20593985
If you are going to steam it, might as well steam the whole cake and be set for a month.

>>20593937
danke

>>20594238
Steaming and then redrying the leaves may mess with the flavor though.

breaking apart cakes with my bare hands and no tools

>>20594690
thats nothing. i bite into cakes and eat the chunks.

>>20594690
the best way to do it for less compressed cakes tbqh. even William does it

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>>20594887
>>20594887
>>20594887