/ck/ - Food & Cooking

Suprisingly crumbly. But since its aged thats prolly a good sign.

>meme foods

Awww yisss.
Post pics of the soup in your cup.
Also what manufacturer is this?

>>6502465
Pu Erh tea is great, and you can steep it so fucking often that it's also really cheap. I have only had raw ones yet, though. Gotta try some ripe Pu Erh next time.

Pu-erh is good, the smell reminds me of old parchment/books, if that makes any sense.

The taste is kind of woodsy, but after trying it a few times I grew to like it.

I like it helps me shit. Recently I've been eating foods to make my stool better.

>>6502465
Sorry to ask, but wtf is this?

>>6503007
Pu Erh.
It's a kind of tea, usually formed into bricks or cakes.

>>6503007

Basically moldy tea, but it doesn't taste bad. Just strange at first.

>>6503012
Sounds like some overpriced hipster shit. Did you stand in line to buy it?

>>6503007
Fermented tea, formed into blocks. It's pretty cheap for good quality and you can re-steep repeatedly.

>>6503025
>i can't find it in the grocery store so it's hipster shit

Go to bed, you have school in the morning.

>>6503025
Not him, but the main point is not that it is pressed into a form, but that the tea is left for some years to age after it is dried. It tastes different from other tea varieties, so it's not just for show.

>>6503025

It's not that expensive, good matcha powder is way more expensive because japs.

>>6503025
>Expensive
>Costs about 5 - 10 Cent per liter
Okay, anon.

>>6503083
>not just using sencha

>>6503083
Depends how old it is.
Normal puerh is decently priced but it can get into the thousands, this 1914 jar sold for $12'000

>>6503097
>normal puerh
天桥土地

>>6503097
You can by almost anything for extremely high prices if it's just old enough that doesn't say much. If you don't want some special rarities for the sake of it, even very good Pu Erh isn't too expensive.
Also do you know how much tea was in that jar?

>>6502465
Looks like something an owl puked up.

Hipster faggot tea detected.

>>6503012
>>6503024
>>6503055
Thanks! Neato

>>6503140
Better go back drinking tea bags faggot

>>6503140
>It's all about looks
Child detected.

>>6503140

Cool. I haven't had pu-erh tea in ages. I'm sad to be reminded that a Chinese tea shop had closed and it's now another bike shop. I can't remember which cake it was, but I recall it being pretty broth-like and a little smokey - gunpowder maybe? How did you brew and for how long did you steep it, op? (Thinking bout hunting for a cake at some nearby Asian grocery - never actually brewed myself pu-erh but I know it's different from western practices)

Ugh. The replies in this thread is a reminder that summer is quickly upon us. I could have sworn we had a good quality tea thread a few weeks ago.

post your gaiwan faggot

>>6502465
>>6502469
This looks like something they'd put in a "Eat This, Never Diet Again!" or "You can lose 25 lbs fast with This Weird Food!" ads, if they haven't used it already.

>>6503619
>gunpowder maybe?
Gunpowder isn't a puerh cake, it's whole leaves rolled up into individual balls.

>>6503662
Oh, OK, I believe I've tried that and a few samples of Chinese teas (memory's a little foggy).

Tieguanyin is my favorite tea of choice but pu er isnt bad. Chrysanthemum and pu er tea combo is common for drinking and/or dimsum too.

>>6502465
>>6502469
>>6503140
>>6503662


That literally looks like owl shit you dissect in middle school.

>>6503317
But every /ck/ cringe thread is filled with people expressing disgust at unidentifiable muck that they've never tasted. They can't all be children.

>>6503755

You have good taste, if I knew where you lived I would attempt to steal your tea.

>>6504140
Please no steal, very feelings hurt, many salty tea tears

I am scared of drinking chinese tea.
Maybe if its washed once or twice it can be drunk with less risk.

>>6504324
The fluorine and heavy metals are in the leaves.

Same as the case with tobacco. Root system has an affinity for certain things, and lower quality crops are apt to have more of it.

>>6504324
Fun fact: you actually do wash pu-erh in a way! You need to rinse the leaves once or twice by doing a 3-5 second steep in hot/sometimes boiling water

>>6504324
If there is one single thing the Chinese can be trusted to make genuinely with clean, safe, contaminant and heavy metal free, or even organic in mind it is tea. China has been growing tea for thousands of years. It is an important part of life, history, and culture. If you get your tea from a reputable, small farmer, you can be sure your tea is safer and cleaner than tea from anywhere else.

Although it is true that much of China is horribly polluted, including most water sources, the places where good tea is grown, typically very, very far and high into the mountainous areas in the south and southeast, are so isolated and out of the way that they maintain a pristine level of purity and traditional, scenic, ideal Chinese geography.

Of course there is also mass produced shit tea produced in China, but it is so easy to avoid, at least if you know what stores/websites to use. I am sure it is much harder to discern a difference in say, a big tea market in China.

>>6504619
Greenpeace test >>6504619
chinese tea and say it was toxic.
Only african grown tea is suitable for safe consumption.

>>6503767
What kind of flyover state do you live in that disects owl shit.

When I tried pu I almost fainted. Got scary hallucinstions and felt like I was floating in the air observing myself. Maybe it was the caffeine.

>>6505102
no, that's...
someone slipped acid into your tea.

Bought some puer, plum tea, and jasmine tea from the nearby asian food store. All well priced and good quality. The puer is cooling off, but the jasmine tasted very good, as did the plum.
The puer smells rather woody, and... odd. Should be fun to try.

>>6505424
Pics?

>>6505515
Of the tea, or the box? I don't have a camera but the puer is Golden Dragon brand. The rest is in ching chong moonrunes.

>>6505424
How did the brew the pu-erh? Western style doesn't suit it, so longer brews often make it taste off.

If you want to get into it you should see if your local asian market has a gaiwan and learn to brew gongfu style

>>6505529
I brewed it like I would regular tea. Used slightly under boiling water because I wasn't sure which tea was best for it. Do you have a site that shows the best way to brew it?
It tastes pretty good as is, but if there's a better way to make it, I want to know how.

>>6505536
Which temperature was best*

>>6505529
>Implying there is one "western style" and one "gongfu style"
>Implying a gaiwan is better than for example a cast iron tea pot + kettle
>Implying a "beginner" will even be able to taste the difference
The fact that a tea can be brewed more often if you reduce the steeping time is a valid point, though. The best idea is usually to just ask the supplier how a respective tea should be brewed. The 4 important factors are: Steeping time
Steeping temperature
Number of steepings
Ratio of tea per water
Others such as in what you brew it are secondary and really matter only for "experienced" drinkers who can actually taste the difference (and honestly I suspect that even among them, it's just a placebo for many) or people who care about the ceremonial aspect of tea brewing.

>>6505611
Gaiwan is just easier for resteeps once you get used to it, I also doubt the equipment changes the taste.

That said, doing more leaf + shorter steeps does change the flavor, with a gaiwan/pu-erh you only do like 10 second steeps but a lot of them

>>6505536
http://www.wikihow.com/Brew-Gaiwan-Tea
Just go straight to #5, the rest is pretty optional. Pic attached is the gaiwan I use, it's pretty easy to get the hang of/easy to clean/quick to use

>>6505611
>Others such as in what you brew it
No, it is important. As you said, ratio of tea per water if really important, that's why brewing into a gaiwan or a small yixing pot won't yield the same results as throwing leaves into one huge "western" teapot.

As for the material of the infusing vessel itself, there's also a few things to consider. Its thickness, for instance, and heat retention capabilities will affect the tea.
Porous material such as clay will effectively "absorb" tea you infuse in the teapot or gaiwan, and will grow a patina changing (improving in some cases) the taste of the subsequent infusions. The very same principle has been applied in western cuisine for the longest time with cast iron pans, for instance.

Some claim the kettle the water is boiled in influence the taste of the tea (silver vs iron) but I haven't been able to really test that.

>>6502465
get help.

>>6505694
>that's why brewing into a gaiwan or a small yixing pot won't yield the same results as throwing leaves into one huge "western" teapot.
That's a shitty comparison. Obviously if you use the gaiwan correctly and the teapot randomly the results will be different. How about just using the right amount of leafs in the teapot as well?

>As for the material of the infusing vessel itself, there's also a few things to consider. Its thickness, for instance, and heat retention capabilities will affect the tea.
You can always heat your teapot. I for one put mine into a waterboth when I make tea that is brewd below 80C°.

>Porous material such as clay will effectively "absorb" tea you infuse in the teapot or gaiwan, and will grow a patina changing (improving in some cases) the taste of the subsequent infusions.
Which also means that you will need different teapots for different tea sorts in the long run, though.

>>6505954
>How about just using the right amount of leafs in the teapot as well?
Well, i guess you could. Usually it's a bigger leaves/water ratio with gaiwan, and way shorter infusion times. But you would be using A LOT of tea if you were to keep that ratio that in a teapot. That's why you usually put less leaves, way more water, and make the whole thing infuse longer. It is just more practical to use a gaiwan, in my opinion, and the results are different.

>You can always heat your teapot.
Of course, and that's what you do with most smaller ones, traditionally. They're small so it works well, and you infuse the tea for such a short time too. For a large teapot I'd consider thicker materials, however. That part was actually aimed at a lot of meme glass teapots that can't really retain heat for shit. Thicker glass can manage it, but you should still choose carefully.

>Which also means that you will need different teapots for different tea sorts in the long run, though.
Is that a problem? No such thing as "too many teapots"!

>>6505524
Both.

>>6506067
>But you would be using A LOT of tea if you were to keep that ratio that in a teapot.
Or less water, which also leads us to your second point of retaining the heat, that obviously gets worse the less water you use. I found that for tea brewd at (almost) 100C° this is basically never a problem, the water is simply hot enough. As I said before for lower temperatures I use waterbaths which solve the problem no matter the thickness of the pot as well. You might argue that a gaiwan is more practical since you wouldn't need to do that, and that'd be a valid point. However since chinese tea ceremonies tend to be long and complex anyway I think it doesn't really matter.

>Is that a problem? No such thing as "too many teapots"!
I wouldn't want to buy a new one every time I try some new tea. That'd simply get to expensive over the time. You can probably make similiar ones in the same pot, so that might be a good compromise.

>>6507066
>However since chinese tea ceremonies tend to be long and complex anyway
Frankly... it depends how you wanna do it. You certainly have to pay more attention to infusions, and to pour water all the time, but that doesn't really make it "complex". It's best if you are not doing something demanding while drinking your tea, though. I prefer to take some time off for just enjoying the tea, and maybe music or a book at the same time, but of course not everyone can take that time. However I insist, gongfu infusions are by no mean "complex".

The waterbath thing makes sense for lower temperatures indeed. I'd try it but i guess it would kinda ruin my cast iron teapot...

>I wouldn't want to buy a new one every time I try some new tea.
You don't need to do that, don't worry. A pot per type of tea is enough, though I admit it is still a big investment. That's why I use ceramic, myself. I'm considering a yixing for only shou pu-erh.

Does washing the tea and throwing away the first steeping batch remove pestocides and other bad stuff?

How long should it stay in this washing bath? I still want my caffeine and the slimming oxidants.

>>6507078
Don't know about pesticides, but if their are heavy metals or other toxins in the tea it will rather be accumulated within the tea and presteeping does not help. Most people rather do this for the taste, not the health aspect. A much better protection is probably to just buy quality stuff and check where it is from and how it was cultivated.

>>6507078
>slimming oxidants.

what

tea has anti-oxidants.
oxidants give you cancer, not weight-loss.

also washing tea removes the caffeine, that's why people do it.

>>6507089
>also washing tea removes the caffeine, that's why people do it.
Common myth. It only removes some.

>>6507078
You might wanna buy organic tea. The chinese are actually pretty decent on that part, and buying from reliable sources is essential.

http://chadao.blogspot.hk/2008/02/caffeine-and-tea-myth-and-reality.html
Rinsing the tea won't remove caffeine much, it depends on the type of tea you're dealing with.
For darker oolongs i rinse 5 secconds, 10 for pu-erhs. It helps soften the leaves before infusing, and remove some impurities too. Don't worry about the main substances contained in the tea though, they're safe.

Found some images off of google. Is this shit going to give me cancer?
>Read a greenpeace study that found that all 13 samples of Chinese tea they collected harbored 3-17 different kinds of pesticides

>>6507106
Yeah yeah, tea is chock full of fluoride and our water is totally full of fluoride and people who drink tea have brittle bones and yadda yadda the world is controlled by six fingered shape shifting lizard creatures from outer space.

If you really believe one of these things you may as well believe the others because they are just as dumb.

>>6507297
But some teas from China HAVE been shown to have pesticides on them. What about this is incorrect?

if you bought some cheap off ebay and realize its fake, can you still drink it? like, what would it be? decent low grade tea, still drinkable, or could it be tampered with in a bad way? could you get liver failure and start bleeding from your eyes?

>>6508551
I tried to buy a bit of ebay once, it smelled foul and tasted worse. I couldn't drink it and needed to throw it away.

Just get pu-erh from respected shops online or somewhere you can see/smell it first

>>6507321
>What about this is incorrect?

the conclusion you drew. Just because a lab was able to find traces of pesticides doesn't meant that they are present in the amount needed to harm you.

>>6508577
>I have no idea what I'm talking about but I have an opinion.
Cao J., Zhao Y., Liu J., (1997), "Brick tea consumption as the cause of dental fluorosis among children from Mongol, Kazak and Yugu populations in China" Food Chem. Toxicol. 35(8):827–833
Pu Erh tea has lead to fluorosis among people who drink it commonly. There have also been found high concentrations of pesticides. If you want to be sure buy high quality tea from ecological cultivation not some cheap $2/500g stuff from a random asian market where you don't even know where it's from and don't drink like 2l per day.

>>6503104
Puer is a dark tea, it has been prepared in a way which preserves a live culture of bacteria and stuff on it and so it ages and slowly ferments, turns darker, as the years pass. That's why aged puer is very expensive.
I've heard it's a traditional wedding gift and that those cakes are to be saved for retirement.

>>6508577
Fair enough, but I do drink a lot of tea. Plus banned pesticides were found in various samples (though the worst they do is cause infertility or birth defects, and I don't want kids). The report doesn't say how much pesticides were in the samples of tea, but it does mention there were up to 17 types on one sample at most.
Do they test well before importing to the US? I would hope so, but I wouldn't trust US food regulation for shit.

>>6504619
How would one really know if their tea source is reputable? What sources do you use?
I tend to order from upton. Hope they're not poisoning me.

>>6509036
>Do they test well before importing to the US?

Only if you get it through a reputable distributor. If you get it an grandma mings tea shop for 2$ then no.

Anyone tried flavored puer?
I saw banana toffee puer at my local coffee and tea shop.

>>6510262
That's retarded, friend.

>>6510345
Once I ask for recomnendations at our tea shop.
The owner proudly recommended the exotic forest, the mango papaya and the fairtrade green heaven with vanilla cream flavour.

99.9% of tea drinkers neither know or care which continent the is from, even less which type. The artificial flavoring, branding and feel good certs are all that matter.

>>6510364
Yes. Any warm water is pretty good to drink, add some flavoring and whoa! Plebs. Anyway, good chinese tea is very nice, and it does not have any added flavorings beside smoke which is imparted on it during processing, sometimes.

>>6510498
Some of the big online tea sellers have lemon puerh tou cha balls.
Are those all bad?

>>6510573
Dunno bro but they sound expensive and gimmicky. Try to find a vendor that sell bricks of the stuff, that's how it's usually sold in china.

>>6510613
Half kilo size, round or square, and one brick might be about 200 chibby money over there; for reference. Puer is very "in" right now, I hear the prices are skyrocketing. There are so many good Chinese teas, be they green, red (black), dark, white or what have you.

>>6502465
Meme tea

>>6510573
Flavored pu-erh is ridiculous, it doesn't lend itself to that at all.