/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>7630269
got me some tie guanyin, some white peony, long jing (dragonwell) and some goddamn green snail (bi lo chun) never had green snail before and boy is it one of my favorite greens. would like some buddhas hand but can't find any atm

>>7630344
I really wanted to like long jing but to me don't taste that different from cheap sencha, probably i just bought some shitty one.

>>7630356
From my experience, long jing goes bad quicker than sencha. Sencha gets a bit more astringent, but actually develops some flavor over a year. Long jing just turns to ass after a few months.

>>7630269
>drinking tea

Sorry, but I'm not a liberal arts fag

>>7630356
You probably bought some shitty one. As the other Anon said, it goes 'bad' quickly (doesn't spoil but oxidises and loses its long jing flavour). It should have some nutty and slightly smoky notes and a light flavour.

>>7630569
Liberal arts fags can't afford good tea.

>>7630269
I have no tea left. I'm waiting for my order. Matcha, Gaoshan green tea, ~10 sampler packs for green and black tea. I've been drinking coffee meanwhile and I really want my tea to arrive.

>>7630269
>such a shame what happen over there with the plantations
What's happening with the plantations?

Drinking camomile and stinging nettle rn
Is pretty good mang

>>7630957
>stinging nettle
doesn't this hurt to drink

>>7630962
nah, when it's boiled beforehand it dissolves the fibers that sting you. Stinging nettle is meant to be an estrogen blocker too, so if you wanna get rid of those man titties it's pretty good.

Are the weird tools for brewing macha important or are they for weeaboos and ceremonies?

I've only had matcha in the form of iced latte like beverages from Asian restaurants. Is the real stuff much different?

>>7630964
Is it actually good?

>>7630966
>Are the weird tools for brewing macha important
No.
>or are they for weeaboos and ceremonies?
Yes.

Use a milk frother.

do you guys do multiple pours with the same leaves, china style? does the flavor change a lot from pour to pour?

>>7630968
it has a pretty odd smell and a lot of people don't like it. It's an acquired taste I guess but I genuinely like it. It's better if you have it in a blend or something, I have one here with peppermint, spearmint, calendula, echinacea, burdock and then nettle.
Would recommend trying it out though friendo

>>7630980
Cool, how long can you store tisanes like that before they go bad? You can only drink so much a day and I want to drink as much tea as possible, so I wont be able to drink tisanes that often.

Has anyone tried Yerba Mate? Its great for digestion.

>>7630985
pfffffff I honestly have no idea how long they last, maybe years? Also, is that a thing? I drink as much herbal tea as I want, I didn't know that was bad.

i have some old pu'er in my pantry from when a mate went to china

should i brew it up?
how should i do it with regards to water temp/brew length?

>>7630993
Bought it once. Wont buy it again.
>>7630994
I meant, I can't drink more stuff I will die from water intoxication.

Is Harney & Sons a good brand?

Why don't tea farmers sell directly instead of using these new-age themed middle-men?
>Get children to learn english and computing at school
>set up a web shop
Both ends would save money surely?

What's a good online store to purchase tea from?

>>7631050
Yes but it's a lot more work for the tea farmer than that. For one, what's to say that their children aren't already too busy working on the tea farms? Or that they go to a good enough school? Or that they even want to be shackled to their parents' business? And even if they were able to set up a web shop, how are they going to market and compete?

>>7631056
>what's to say that their children aren't already too busy working on the tea farms?
have more children.
>Or that they go to a good enough school?
learn online
>Or that they even want to be shackled to their parents' business?
disown them. have more children.
>how are they going to market and compete?
cutting out middle-men would save a lot on the product cost I'm guessing. that alone would be a marketable image, some people wouldn't want their money going towards anything other than the production and transport.

>>7631050
>>7631064
>chinese tea farmers
>having the know how of running a western audience sales business
Thanks for the giggle. Made my day. Why don't Africans just be millionaires and stop being so damn poor?

>>7631069
>what is ebay, amazon, paypal

>buying shitty loose leaf teas that don't break the bank
>not realizing that even the fannings of expensive tea are better
poorfags, when will they learn?

>>7630973
Personally I usually do not.

The flavour generally gets stronger and more bitter. I'm not big on bitter.

>>7631081
>so I had this groundbreaking revelation the other day, why don't we just sell the shit ourselves on ebay or amazon?
>fuck the middle men, gramps you take care of marketing and granny you're in charge of trademarks and intellectual property rights

>>7631109
>marketing, trademarks, intellectual property rights
>necessary for selling an ancient agricultural product
I better tell my local market about your groundbreaking revelation, the vegetable baskets should have speakers playing each farmers own theme tune, and a logo should be engraved on each carrot!

>>7631109
>IMG_0778.jpg
>watermark
anon, please.

>>7631128
You are so incredible stupid you should actually kill yourself. You don't know anything about sales, trade or business. Or even agriculture. I want you to kill yourself tonight.
>I better tell my local market about your groundbreaking revelation, the vegetable baskets should have speakers playing each farmers own theme tune, and a logo should be engraved on each carrot!
Your local market is the exact same counterpart for the vegetable farmer as the online tea shop is for the tea farmer. Please try to make one rational thought before you type next time.

>>7631137
>;_________________; :@@@@@@@@@@
My local farm sells the exact same produce online as they do at the weekly market. Please try to keep up.

>>7631150
>my local farm sells the exact same produce online as they do at the weekly market
Why don't you give me the link to his online shop and I can go and order some of his produce.

>>7631154
http://manorfarmcatthorpe.co.uk/farm-shop/

As you can see they use tripadvisor to gain consumer trust.

>>7630968
I like nettle on it's own, tastes green and a little bit earthy.

>>7630269
>Where are my fellow tea bros at?


Twinings of London, Earl Grey Tea.

pic related.

>tfw you forget your infuser at home and have to drink shitty coffee at work

I really need to buy a second infuser to keep at the office.

>>7631184
But you didn't actually prove anything with this. Manor Farm is a brand just like Dole or Del Monte, they're just incredibly small and local oriented. When you're buying carrots from Manor Farm you're buying brand carrots. Asking Chinese farmers to do the same, in a foreign/international market furthermore, is absolutely ridiculous. A handful of Japanese or Taiwanese farmers could possibly be able to start their own brands and pull this off. But what you're asking for by the majority of any farmer and particularly by Chinese farmers is so naive I hope you realize that. You know many Chinese famers are illiterate, right? They have never seen a computer in their life.

>>7630995

Standard grade cooked pu-erhs are pretty low maintenance. The taste and texture can typically hold up to excessive heat or steeping time.

For the first cup, brew it like you would a black tea, see what you like about it and then experiment from there.

>>7631199

You can put the loose tea in a coffee filter and steep it that way.

>>7630269
gooks

>>7631201
>A handful of Japanese or Taiwanese farmers could possibly be able to start their own brands and pull this off.
Finally, you concede to my modest argument. I never actually specified anything about the majority doing so, in fact I naturally assume only select groups can achieve the most sensible things. In this case it's no surprise that you choose the yayoi and han (well, the han who didn't get their culture obliterated by materialism).

>>7631255
I heard Turkey is the biggest tea nation of all. Africa, Britain and South Asia probably outdrink East Asia when combined, too.

Iced sweet jasmine tea is best tea.
No tea gets better than this.

>>7631331
What is "jasmine tea"?

>>7631340
Google it.

I'm just plebing it out with orange pekoe ice tea i brewed that i'm using to make sweet tea and honey milk tea. After I finish off all my OP i'll be back to [iced] irish breakfast tea until I get more.

(someone help I'm going through at least 1.5L a day of it)

>>7631340
Good aroma, mild taste.

>>7631251
Holy fuck why didn't I think of this. I've done it with a paper towel and it turn out kinda shitty, I will definitely use the filter. Man I am dumb. Thanks anon.

>>7630903
taiwanese gov destroyed them

>>7631570
>>7630269
For good reason.

>>7631570
Why?

>>7631598
The tea production is damaging the environment.

>>7631598
Here's a short article about it
https://munchies.vice.com/en/articles/taiwan-is-destroying-its-high-mountain-oolong-tea-farms

>>7631274
You didn't specify because you thought it would work universally. Now kill yourself.

>>7630966

>Are the weird tools for brewing macha important

no

>or are they for weeaboos

no

>and ceremonies?

party yes

it's just fun mate.

>>7630973

are you being serious? maybe i am misunderstand "pour"?

you can brew your leaves (high quality) from anywhere between four to eight times depending on how strong the tea is..

it shouldn't get more bitter (as theother guy said) but rather more nuanced, lighter, less intensive, to the point where it's essentially just water (8th brew).

you should always brew more than once. it takes some time for the leaves to open up.

a lot of people even refuse to drink the first brew. the chinese generally regard the third one as the best one.

if you're not brewing at least 3 times you're wasting good tea.

>>7631761
>You didn't specify because you thought it would work universally
So you're saying I thought a mentally challenged, xenophobic 'slave' farmer would be able to sell directly to a western market? If that's your stance, to each their own. I'll let everyone else make their judgements.

>>7631109

lmao

for real tho that other guy is a complete retard

>>7630966
It's a bit harder to froth properly with a wooden implement but you don't get that artificial roasting that a mechanical tool imparts to the powder.

>>7631791
I'll refrain from guessing samefag, but read the whole response thread.

>>7631783
>sencha after the 2nd steep
no thanks m8

it's all preference. you should experiment when you first get the tea with what tastes good, and you may find that you only really enjoy the first steep. drinking 5 steeps in a few hours, especially in the late afternoon, makes it difficult for me to fall asleep.

you're right about washing the leaves. not enough people wash their leaves and for oolong and puerh it's pretty much essential.

>>7631797

i did read the whole thread. it's just that i have friends (and s.o) working in marketing and (food) economics and that your posts are so incredibly gullibe they cheer me up. it's not even that your proposed solution is impossible, it isn't. i know people that have done it, you know. it's just the fact that you think it's "that easy" that's incredibly cringey. it needs months of work, it needs personnel et cetera pp.

setting up an online shop is easy peasy, hell my fucking fifteen year old sister got can sell her amulets via dawanda, but actually making a living off of it, finding customers, making enough money to feed a whole family, finance your plantation, your workers and so much more is hard. very hard.

not even to begin that the company you previously had a trade agreement with probably won't like the idea of you selling your tea for a higher price, so there is a risk of completely losing one's business involved.

>>7631817

>>sencha after the 2nd steep

what's the problem here? i honestly don't fucking get it.

is it too bitter for you or something? use 80c* water and steep it for less than a minute.

japanese tea is literally the only tea in the world where you would prefer the first brew to the others. it's their mentality actually that the first one is the best one.

sencha often has dust which adds to the flavour, but is gone with the second steep. that's why the first one is the supposed best one.

like, my gf is jap, she orders premium tea from japan, she's been served proper green tea for her entire life and she still steeps her sencha three times until she throws it out. you're just wasting tea my good friend.

>>7631872
If you read it properly then you'd know that I made no claims for it being universally possible or "that easy" (hilariously, despite your use of speech marks, your post is the only one featuring "easy" ITT)

>i have friends (and s.o) working in marketing and (food) economics
My condolences.

>>7631872
>wasting good tea
stop with this shit
you're acting like there's an objective use for tea when there's not. It's not a problem of bitterness for me, but even if it was, so what? you've admitted yourself that tea develops in flavor over steeps, so why is it wrong that some people prefer some flavors over others. just because I don't steep 8 times and rub the leaves on my nipples doesn't mean I'm "wasting" it. On the contrary, drinking 8 cups of tea, half of which are worse than the last, and getting the jitters is probably more "wasteful" because I've just ruined my tea drinking experience.

>>7631783
these must be super small cups/portions though, right? or do people do subsequent brews hours later?

>>7631906
>western style is just as good as gong-fu
Absolutely not, with a small variety of exceptions.

>>7631995
>implying implications
I'll give you that never experimenting with your tea is bad, as you should probably brew new tea gong-fu style to get an understanding of the flavor. But from there it's just taste. Tea has a large variety of tastes. You can't expect one person to enjoy every single one of them.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/06/best-water-for-tea-tap-spring-bottled-filtered.html

>not brewing with bottled water
>2016
This test should be done with more participants and bottled variants though.

>>7632057
I always brew with bottled water because the tap water of my country is shit.
Good to know i suppose.

>>7631900

tx friend

>>7631906

> so why is it wrong that some people prefer some flavors over others

it ain't wrong my friend, not at all. i'm just really fucking curious. your behaviour baffles me. i honest to god want to know why.

so please, tell me what makes you dislike the second/third brew. i'm not some kind of authority on tea, my tastebuds probably aren't even all that developed. i just don't see it and i want your input.

>>7631959

i do my brews hours apart, yes. in order for my tea to not continue brewing after i take it out i rinse it with ice cold water. if you don't do that it'll lose it's taste after two or three sessions.

i don't really do small session to be honest with you, i just drink loads of tea. my guess would be 2l to 3l a day, three or four brews in total.

>>7631995

this guy is NOT me by the way. you can brew tea "western style" and still do it three to four times, you just have to adjust brewing time, temperature and be okay with tea that tastes a little less intense.

>>7632057

i like filtered better, actually. but you are right, it improves quality by a huge leap.

>>7631900
Read your posts again you flaming faggot.
>>7631050
>>7631064
>>7631081
>>7631128
You clearly lost the argument and you realized how incredibly stupid and naive you were but you can't admit defeat so now you claim that "I never said it was easy LOL" "I didn't mean Chinese farmers LOL" "I never meant that the majority should do it LOL"

You're cringeworthy as hell.

>>7631046
Yeah, love their Paris and Tokyo blends

>>7632103
The original anon conceded that I was right. I never claimed any of the other things you say. The fact that quotation marks were used for things no one ITT said at all shows the levels of delusion here. People got mad that I said something is possible, just because it's not possible for the majority. That's sheeple assumptions at its finest.

>>7631046
for flavored teas they seem okay. for unflavored you can do better given their prices
i have their choco nut ambessa blend and I like it a lot, on my second tin. i have vanilla comoro too and its "okay." want to try florence and soho

>>7632083
You're misunderstanding me. I don't absolutely dislike multiple steeps. For puerh it's nearly essential. For more floral teas like tieguanyin? Sometimes I'll get lazy or am in the mood for just a single longer steep. This of course does not account for washing your tea, which you should almost always do.

If I don't enjoy the flavor of the tea very much it makes no sense to spend an hour drinking it. I have a lot of dahongpao, so I tend to reach for that first. However some days I'll take a sniff after brewing it and think "ugh, too sour" or something similar. In situations like that I know the tea is going to change that much with subsequent steeps, so why bother? Just drink what I've made and move on.

This is of course not accounting for the practical reasons for drinking a single cup. In the morning I'm limited by how little time I have. In the evening I don't like drinking a lot of tea or I have trouble falling asleep. Sometimes one cup is better than none.

>>7631665
>High mountain agriculture can be quite destructive; it erodes the landscape and causes harmful pesticides and fertilizers to contaminate water sources and the land. The additives also strip the soil of moisture, rendering it completely useless in a matter of decades. It’s a toxic industry; for every one pound of tea, roughly $9 USD is spent on pesticides and fertilizers.
Why not just grow organic? Or is that not possible in those altitudes?

>>7632138
>This of course does not account for washing your tea, which you should almost always do.
ayy lmao

>>7632138

ah i see you now

>This is of course not accounting for the practical reasons for drinking a single cup. In the morning I'm limited by how little time I have. In the evening I don't like drinking a lot of tea or I have trouble falling asleep. Sometimes one cup is better than none.

yeah sadly this happens to me all the time.

>If I don't enjoy the flavor of the tea very much it makes no sense to spend an hour drinking it.

when i do multiple steeps i always shock it with cold water so i can use it hours later. sometimes ill do one in the morning, then one in the evening.

>>7632144

some of them did grow organic, no one gave a fuck. it' in that vice article, which is, as always, very badly written.

>>7632148

for some it is true, for some it isn't. if you want to make a point then make a fucking point.

example: no one would ever do a rinse with sencha. with pu erh it's totally legitimate.

>shocking with cold water
I hope you at least drink that. leaves generally flavour fast on the 2nd steep.

>>7632158

what? all i do is pour a little bit of cold water over the leaves to drop their temp to room temperature instantly, then i get rid of the water. it's just a very minor step to stop them from steeping once they're outside my teapot. don't really get what you're trying to tell me. of course they're going to flavour the fastest on the 2nd steep, because the leaves will have opened up by then.

>>7632154
You don't rinse green tea at all.

>>7632154
Typical chinks with these black-and-white government mafia methods.

>>7632218
You should rinse with bleach everything you get from china

>>7632229
Because?

Where do you guy tea from?

>>7632218

i don't, some people do. i'm largely indifferent.

>>7632224

welp.

>>7632232

he's just memeing, ignore him.

>>7632292
*buy

TITTING FUCK

>>7632292
i like what-cha.com and yunnansourcing.com (yunnansourcing.us if you are in the us)

>>7632292
Aliexpress.
I live on the edge.

>>7630973
I do multiple pour depending of the tea. I tasted an very old pu'er and each pour the savor changed drastically.

>>7630993
I drink it because it taste good and it's very cheap. Beware, if you drink alot of it, it act as an aphrodisiac.

>>7631053
>>7632292
>teabox.com for good Darjeeling, chaï and designated tea
>aliexpress : ''Green Sailing Trading Co.'' and ''Health Tea House''

>>7632884
>aphrodisiacs
my favorite meme

>>7632920
>I have unexplainable long lasting boners after each time I drink it.

>>7632926
the same thing happens when I take a really big shit for some reason

>>7632937
your shit stimulated your prostate.

>>7631050
The Chinese gov't makes it very, very difficult to get export permissions.

>>7632884
>Green Sailing Trading Co.

Any in depth comment about them? im interested in some of their oolong but seeing that they also sell carpets make me wonder, at least in my experience when a store on ali sell different kind of items none are of good quality.

Lipton English Breakfast

>>7632292
Chinalifeweb.com

>2016
>not mixing dried blue water lily flowers into your sleepy time tea

bruh

>>7633394
See pic related

>>7634697
Thanks, i was gonna order some of their 2 $ oolong just for the keks but i should get some ginseng from Health Tea House.

Brewing a batch ATM. A favorite blend of mine: English Breakfast, Russian Earl Grey and a mango Green Tea. Fruity, smooth but with a slight acidity.

I have never had a different tea... then when I was at the market with my girlfriend I saw a lapsang souchong, maaaaaan what I trip! I first drank it sitting near my window looking to a tree... fuck i felt I was in a forest in china! since then this is my favourite tea

This was always my favorite but it ran out years ago and I have no idea what kind it was

Is there a buying guide that's actually logical instead of "these guys are nice, lets all improve the world"?

e.g. it would say that the darker teas are better value because they usually stay fresher, it would point out which retailers benefit from sheer economies of scale and quick turnover (ostensibly fresher products), which actually have daily interaction with the farms, roasters, etc.

Seems more like a pseudo-science from the limited guides I've seen. I just want a general idea of how to gauge value. The plebbit tea guide is useless in this regard yet /ck/ often recommends it.

>>7635577
Also there would be pros/cons by country too, considering the different regulations, climate, economies, etc.

>>7630269

I just bought some japanese sencha and gyokuro yamashiro.

They both sorta taste like spinach :/

I kinda like it, but is that normal?

>>7632292
for super-dank black tea, check out Canton Tea Co. for real

>>7635332
what the unholy fuck

>>7635332
Some real fucking heresy going on here.

>>7630993
I like mate. I have noticed any real digestive effects from it though. I'll be in need of digestive assistance soon, maybe I should break out one of my gourds. That's another sing I'll say about it. If you like it and plan on drinking it with any regularity or just have the money to waste, you really need to get a gourd and filtered straw to drink it properly. My local tea shop has a nice drink they make in a mate gourd with the yerba mate, a little bit of local maple syrup, and I think a little bit of cocoa powder.

On the note of tea shops, do you guys have nice independent shops you go to? I'm really glad my town has one, especially because we aren't large enough to attract a chain. But I'd rather have something local than some chain anyway.

They also ship teas online for what I think are alright prices. If someone here bought from them, that would make me happy.

http://www.stoneleaftea.com

>>7630356
that's what i'm thinking. good long jing tastes kinda like sweet asparagus water, while sencha tastes like grass. i like both but they are pretty different.

>>7636187
Do they ship worldwide?

>>7635610
Yes its normal , but it shouldn't be that strong of a taste, maybe youre brewing for too long or too hot, try 80 degrees celsius for 2 minutes

>>7630269
Having some Oolong from an Asian market here in town. I might have lead poisoning now, but the leaves are quality. I'm having a little bread pudding with it and they go together really well.

>>7630973
>do you guys do multiple pours with the same leaves, china style?
Hell, yes! At least if you do chinese or japanese tea. I use pic related type of traditional chinese teaware, but mainly because i am used to it. Steeping in pot works just as well.

Indian (Sri Lankan, Kenyan, ..) black teas are usually not good for that. (With possible exception of new Darjeeling)
>does the flavor change a lot from pour to pour?
I wouldnt say a lot, but its certainly distinct, especially if you experiment with steeping times and temperatures.

>>7631340
Usually green tea with.... jasmine petals and scent. Smells like perfume, taste like mediocre tea.

(Well, Frankly, its also possible i just cant prepare it right.)

>>7631331
Normaly i'd say "eww" to any sweet tea, but with jasmine, it almost sounds reasonably.

>>7632057
I usually use tap water, but we have dedicated well, so the water is reasonably good. When i lived in capital, water was shit, though.

>>7636150
>>7636156

It tastes good, fuck more do you want?

>m-muh ritualistic bullshit

Please

>>7637334
Have you actually tried the ritual?
Its actually very nice, it forces you to focus only on the flavour instead of just sipping on a mug while you watch some bullshit on your computer or some other activity

Anyone have recomendations on some specific teas, preferably that ship to yuruland, like yunnan sourcing, I feel like i've exausted most possibilities the local tea stores and asian markets in my area offer.
Anything is fine but if you have trouble narrowing it down id really like to try some young puerh, and some nice quality oolong more on the woody earthy side of the spectrum

What do you recommend for tea pot? Also can I use a regular $2 strainer or do I need a special tea strainer?

>>7637465
For western style just get something that has a nice strainer before the beak of the pot, those that have a spiral strainer seem nice (the style they use at chinalife yt channel look nice), for a gaiwan get something cheap from aliexpress, for gong fu many people dont use strainers at all, the decanting made by the lid is enough if a little leaf doesnt bother you

Sorted.

>>7635577
This is essential. No point in making an investment when you could get even better quality for the same price by understanding how the market actually works.

>>7637750
Most tea enthusiasts don't care though. Instead they want nice shops to sit in with their laptop, packaging, blog stories, hippie credentials, etc. No different from mainstream coffee in that regard, though coffee is more corporate imagery of course.

In fact with coffee you can avoid it more easily since the market is much more developed. Tea doesn't even get roasted within the importing country.

>>7637761
>importing
kek. I buy it from the only producer in my region (and for that reason I won't disclose who they are). FRESH

>>7637465
world market sells really cheap tea pots that go on sale a lot

>>7632057
Man I can't afford to brew my tea with bottled water.

>>7637890
I wonder what it would be like to brew an old pu'er using San Pellegrino.

>bought some cheap-ish ginseng oolong from a local store that sells in bulk
>it actually tastes pretty decent
Have to brew it in boiling water though, the leaves don't seem to uncurl at low temps.

>>7637890
It's not really worth it unless you do a blind test for yourself. In a bigger UK survey I remember it saying most participants preferred the taste of tap water to most bottled.

Ffs you pretentious gits
>not drinking PG tips

>>7637944
>enjoying nice tea makes you a pretentious git
ok friend

>>7637334
pleb

>>7637334