/tea/ general

[Anonymous No.14544695]

/tea/ cozy edition

This thread is for discussing tea tisanes and other herbal infusions.

Pastebin brewing instructions, tea info and sources:
New update! loads of sources added for euro and american tea shops.
https://pastebin.com/auMeT3an

"Suggest tea for me"
>Your country
>What tea have you tried before
>Do you own a teapot, gaiwan etc
Tea bags are OK, but inferior.

previous thread:
>>14492396

[Anonymous No.14544728]

TEA NEWS
Shipping is still slow but it's getting better.
Shipping from Hong Kong seems to be back to normal.
Shipping from mainland China is still somewhat slow but is starting to return to normal.
Shipping from Japan is lighting fast but still requires paying for DHL or FedEx.
The pastebin has been updated with a ton of new shops. Please let me know if you have any favorites you would like me to add or have had any issues with any of the places listed.

[Anonymous No.14545016]

>>14544728
Shills purple cloud. Doesn't even tell you to order liu bao in the pastebin. (add it up)

[Anonymous No.14545085]

>>14545016
Speaking of Liu Bao, it has become my go to morning tea this week. I'm guessing I will end up drinking a lot of it this winter.

[Anonymous No.14545193]

>>14544695
>/tea/ cozy edition
ur so gay lol

Tieguanyin today

[Anonymous No.14545218]

The rest of my tea order finally arrived, should be enough Xiaguan to last me a while.

[Anonymous No.14545221]

>>14545193
Looks good, keep meaning to pick up one of those stainless steel tea trays. Very simple and utilitarian.

[Anonymous No.14545232]

>>14545221
Yeah it's great, I used to use wooden ones but I would always forget to empty the water for a couple of days and they get gross and moldy, doesn't happen with metal trays

[Anonymous No.14545241]

>>14545232
Yeah that's exactly what i was afraid would happen if I got a wooden one.

[Anonymous No.14545255]

If I was smart I would let this tea air out for a week or two before I drink any. But I'm not smart, going right in on this 2009 xiaguan silver pine & crane. This is the most expensive single cake I have purchased @ around $70 for a 357g iron cake. Hopefully it's worth it, I'm pretty sure it's just an 8653 made with nicer materials.

[Anonymous No.14545363]

"Suggest tea for me"
Looking for a good green tea.
>United States
>I have only ever had store bought generic green tea
>I have a tea kettle

[Anonymous No.14545373]

>>14545255
Compression was not awful for an iron cake, i managed to peel that chunk off with minimal breakage and it opened up very quickly in the water. Looks like it has light to moderate storage, humid enough to keep it moist and make some transformation happen, but not wet enough to cause any off smells or funkyness. The aroma is typically Xiaguan. I'm not sure if this is made with aged material or not, i only managed to find one shot description in English that just said it was part of the higher end pine & crane series. In a move pretty typical of Xiaguan it's has a similar name to a popular Dayi cake from a few years earlier.
https://kingteamall.com/products/2007-dayi-yin-se-da-yi-silver-tae-cake-357g-puerh-sheng-cha-raw-tea
Taste is pretty xiaguan as well, smoke, pine, but this has some more bright fruit notes and some dried stonefruit plum kind of flavors, some bitterness but nothing overwhelming. Very solid lasting fruity sweetness.

[Anonymous No.14545411]

>>14545363
https://yunnansourcing.us/collections/green-tea-spring-2020
Teas are sorted by bestsellers, read the desriptions of a few at the top and pick some that sound good.
If you want Japanese green tea there are a few shops listed at the bottom of the USA section that ship domestically.
As far as brewing supplies get a finum brew basket or a stainless steel one like pic related, it's the easiest way to brew in mugs and works for any kind of tea. A lot of them are listed as stainless tea strainer or stainless tea infuser.

[Anonymous No.14545473]

>>14545218
You trust stuff straight from china not to be tainted ?

[Anonymous No.14545609]

>>14545473
I drink a variety of teas from different manufactures and regions of China. At least in theory teas from these large factories like Xiaguan are tested and are subject to some level of food safety standards. The Japanese use just as much pesticides if not more on their tea.

[Anonymous No.14545959]

Any good mug brand recommendations? Looking for something 13 to 16 oz.

[Anonymous No.14546075]

>>14545959
I did a bunch of mug shopping autism recently. Look on eBay for "bone china mug" for the nice English stuff, also "Limoges mug" for the French stuff. I got a few from pillivuyt but I'm not a huge fan of their current offerings and the tea mugs they make were smaller than I wanted.

[Anonymous No.14546083]

>>14546075
There is also a bunch of decent vintage made in Japan ones if you dig around some, not sure if there would be any quite that big. There is some french company that did yearly mugs for decades so if you search your birth year + mug on eBay they might have a cool one.

[Anonymous No.14546121]

>>14545373
that's the tea fresh from shipping. not that it's gonna do 180 in terms of taste, like some uninformed fags would let you believe, but the taste should "stabilize" in a few weeks in your climate.
you are smart, because you want to learn the tea by tasting the tea. nothing wrong with that. if a vendor would say "don't drink for a month after arrival, it produces mustard gas" would you wait? or if a vendor says "brew it in 85c water or your mother dies in her sleep tonight" would you religiously follow every time without trying other temps? some people do this shit. I pity the fools.
70 bucks for a crane though, mmm, risky buy in my opinion, that's boutique or semi aged tea range for me.
30 cent brick and 801 8582 from TWL both are in the range (even lower) and both have a clean storage and rich flavor profiles.

to the anon with weak xiaguan ripe - it's not gonna evolve into new pokemon in a few years. some teas are weaker than others (than others) - just leaf heavy, broseph.

[Anonymous No.14546336]

>>14546121
Kind of what I figured. I've got that order of straight ripes(how the fuck did I manage that) coming from Purple Cloud this week, so its not like I'll be missing it. I actually jammed a gram more in my little 85ml gaiwan to see if that improved it. No mouthfeel, no slickness, slight bit of cool on the inhale, but generally flat and thin(not taste descriptors at all, but this literally tasted like hot water). $17 for 356g on ys.us, so I can't complain, it's just not what I'm going to reach for.

[Anonymous No.14546379]

>>14546121
>70 bucks for a crane though, mmm, risky buy in my opinion
Yeah i knew it was kind of silly. I had some weird autism going on when I made that order. It's good but it probably won't be $70 good.
The Chinese collectors market and they way if effects prices is hard to get a handle on. Lots of "special editons" from the big factories that are 10% better and cost 100% more.

[Anonymous No.14546431]

>>14546379
My favorite are the teas that are really expensive just because they have good Chinese numerology mjojo and they aren't actually good tea or at least not anything special.

[Anonymous No.14546458]

>>14546336
could you post the name of the cake and shop as a warning for good anons?
I'll add dayi's 8592 ripe - 15 bucks cake of almost nothing, money better spent on haiwan's microbial "house taste", which I think I'm very fond of, will confirm when the other cakes arrive (mr chink, hurry up pls).

>>14546379
>I had some weird autism going on when I made that order.
lol. the chinese speculation on cakes is a topic I know next to nothing about and I will probably keep it that way. let me drink my aged tea in peace, mr golden toothed oriental businessman.

>>14546431
in 2013 xq went wild on this also something with number 8 and good fortune, seven cakes in a tong is also connected to some proverb or some shit. the tea itself is a big one in TCM, i'll stick to the Lesser Key of Solomon, thanks

[Anonymous No.14546502]

>>14544728
There's way too many tea shops in the US section. I don't know any of the euro ones so I can't say, but some included in the US section are barely a hair above teavanna which used to be enough of a shitpost to derail the thread into 300 >teavanna replies, particularly Proust. These need a little bit more vetting before going into the paste imo.
The original intent of the OP, before the new generation of threads, was to cut through all the bullshit and overpricing of tea (/ck/ is a penny pinching board after all) and point people towards what they might like while steering them away from shit. While the new OP has a ton of great new info, these new stores are a bit of a step down. Years ago people wanted to purge what-cha just because it dared to have a small selection of scented teas despite being one of the best online stores for round the globe tea with excellent prices and Alistair-kun being your personal tea sommelier.

[Anonymous No.14546530]

Man, I feel like I know next to nothing when it comes to tea, especially this puerh mambo jumbo with the speculation and what not. Is there a discord you guys have to talk about this or share deals on good shit that's cheap for a time?

[Anonymous No.14546591]

>>14546530
I went on the tea discord once, disgraceful display, some known names from western blogosphere, some vendorks, almost no tea talk. never again. to me discord attracts some unsavoury kind of weirdos, ones that you wouldn't want to be standing next to irl. I much prefer channel anons.

those threads here provide you with enough recs for a start or middle road in journey. at least three anons besides me will post recommendations. I wish I had this kind of resources when I was starting, but then again, you learn by buying some duds (tuition).
ask away, but do your due research.

as for weebs, pic rel

[Anonymous No.14546655]

>>14546458
2019 Xiaguan "Sweet Pu-erh" Ripe

https://yunnansourcing.com/products/2019-xiaguan-sweet-pu-erh-ripe-pu-erh-tea-cake?variant=29490444107879

Snagged off their us site. Maybe this dogpile of ripes I have otw will level up my tastes and I can appreciate it more. Probably not. Maybe someone else has tried it and can chime in.

>>14546379
>Lots of "special editons" from the big factories that are 10% better and cost 100% more.

Don't get into cigars. Chasing LEs and unicorns is a quick way to go broke.

[Anonymous No.14546683]

>>14546379
Human perception works logarithmically, you get diminishing returns from an increase of quality pretty fast. This isn't just a tea thing it's an everything thing
Ultra premium products are literally never worth it

[Anonymous No.14546821]

>>14546502
Thanks for the feedback anon, sounds like i have to do some more stringent selection, i was trying to filter out the garage but I will go through everything again later and remove at least half the new stuff.

[Anonymous No.14546871]

>>14546821
*I was trying to filter out the garbage. Not garage kek.

[Anonymous No.14547122]

>>14546821
Thank you, I didn't wanna come across as a dick or anything, but I like the general

[Anonymous No.14547179]

>>14547122
No worries, you are completely right.

[Anonymous No.14547960]

>>14547179
Its even more fun going through all these shops a second time.

[Anonymous No.14548306]

>>14544695
>>14546502
>>14547122
NEW PASTEBIN
less crap edition
https://pastebin.com/1hymyN6E

[Anonymous No.14548327]

Is silver needle tea worth it at $84 CAD for 4oz.?
I must say that I've never tried any and I drink mostly black teas e.g. Ceylon, Earl, Darjeeling. And Oolong from HK
Should I give it a try or should I explore other teas first before dishing out dough?

[Anonymous No.14548339]

>>14548327
Silver needle tea is kind of a meme. If you want to try a white tea check out shou mei or bai mu dan.

[Anonymous No.14548351]

>>14548339
Thanks! I would definitely try those, there's a Taiwanese tea shop in Vancouver CA famous for their Bai mu Dan and that caught my interest before since I like discovering teas to drink!

[Anonymous No.14548362]

yall ever been to David's Tea though? now THAT's tea

[Anonymous No.14548366]

>>14548351
>>14548339
Personally I prefer silver needle over any other white tea, maybe it is a 'meme' but it's popular for a good reason, really sweet and soft
still should try a small sampler before buying 4oz of it though

[Anonymous No.14548426]

>>14548366
Looks tasty. Does it have a lot of vegetal green tea kind of flavors?

[Anonymous No.14548545]

>>14544695
Suggest tea for me
>Your country
USA
>What tea have you tried before
None
>Do you own a teapot, gaiwan etc
No

[Anonymous No.14548561]

>>14548426
Nope. Silver needle is close to a "tastes like water" as you can get. Some slight flowery notes, a little bit of honey. White peony like the other guy suggested is more like a white tea with actual flavor.

[Anonymous No.14548710]

>>14548545
Go buy a gaiwan and some cakes off yunnan sourcing us.

2010 Yunnan Sourcing "Yi Dian Hong" Ripe in a $9 gaiwan off their site.

[Anonymous No.14549154]

At what point did you guys realize that 90% of generals on all boards are started by the same control freak loser who spends literally all his waking hours curating these stupid threads and patrolling the rest of the boards he shits up for stray threads that he insists are supposed to be included in his autistic general because he's a pretend mod and wants to pretend mod his little fiefdom as if this is reddit?

[Anonymous No.14549942]

[Anonymous No.14550267]

>>14549154
For you is /tea/ among those 90%?

[Anonymous No.14550595]

>>14549154
>Wants attention

You're welcome for the (you). Go post in the same cast iron meme threads or find a nice Raguasa thread. I know the loss of Bon Appetit has been real stressful for you.

[Anonymous No.14550639]

>>14550267
>>14550595
t. control freak wannabe mod

[Anonymous No.14550666]

>>14550639
Well, I'm rather greatful to the anons who make the few generals I visit. Whereas your helplessness seems to make you bitter, angry and jealous of their dedication.

[Anonymous No.14550682]

>>14550595
>>14550666
>50 posts
>16 IPs

Pause... Anyways it's a Fukamuschicha morning

[Anonymous No.14550687]

>running low on sencha
>international shipping still a disaster
this is the end lads, it's been nice knowing you

[Anonymous No.14550742]

>>14550687
If you are in America or Europe there are a few domestic vendors in the updated pastebin that sell Japanese tea, i put a really autistic warning that you should buy from Japan but at least a few of them have stuff from the spring harvest.
>>14548306

[Anonymous No.14550745]

>>14550687
Pay the $20 and get express shipping.

[Anonymous No.14550759]

Having some more xiaguan this morning.
>>14550682
I really love that emerald green color, it really pops.

[Anonymous No.14550848]

>>14550639
I post here and /ctg/. I don't make threads. You're obsessing over anon ops. Maybe reddit is the place for you. They put a nice little username next to people so you can sperg out every time they post.

[Anonymous No.14551658]

Having some of this 2011 golden legend this afternoon.

[Anonymous No.14551892]

>>14550687

O-cha is shipping via FedEx and my order from two or three months ago showed up to the US East Coast in 2 days.

[Anonymous No.14551922]

>>14551658
I will do actual tasting notes for this at some point but it's not very impressive. Tastes fine it's just kind of weak. I'm not sure if I'm really sold on pressing cakes out of looseleaf that has been sitting around for half a decade or more, then again the 2013 love forever is fantastic.

[Anonymous No.14552114]

guys i got a red box that says "Refined Chinese Tea", among many other chinese characters.. inside there are golden vacuum sealed bags

anyone know what kind of tea it is? and how do i even brew something like this, never brewed anything that isnt in a tea bag

[Anonymous No.14552280]

>>14548306
Thank you for the changes it looks much much better.

[Anonymous No.14552302]

>>14552114
You have an Android phone? Install the google translate app and use your phones camera to try and translate the text on the box.
Otherwise open one of the packs. If the tea is not green put a spoonful In a mug, add boiling water and then drink it once it cools off. If the tea is really bitter do the same thing but strain it into another mug after 2-3 minutes. If it's green then boil the water the let it cool for 2-3 minutes then do the same thing.

[Anonymous No.14552314]

>>14552280

[Anonymous No.14552337]

>>14552302
yeah i did that, it kinda works but the only thing i'm getting out of it is "Wang Guan"

and ok, it's really that easy? i thought i was going to need special equipment

[Anonymous No.14552374]

>>14552114
>>14552302
>>14552337
also the teabags themself say AAA at the top and also 3 vertical chinese characters, cant translate because that part is all vacuum distorted

[Anonymous No.14552728]

>>14552337
Yeah it's easy friend. All the special equipment just makes it easier but all you need is a mug. It's probably oolong if it's little vacuum sealed pouches. Should be fine to just toss in a mug and cover with boiling water. You can even refill it with freshly boiled water a few times once you drink it about halfway down.

[Anonymous No.14552754]

>>14552374
If the tea is rolled up into little balls it's tieguanyin oolong. Could be green if it's lightly roasted or brown if it's heavily roasted. It's good stuff.

[Anonymous No.14552896]

I had the most disgusting tea I ever tasted. It was apparently a Shui Xian, "charcoal baked" but goddamn it was gross. Tasted like I soaked shit pellets in hot water instead of tea leaves.

It was from the Dutch store Simon Levelt. Usually their stuff is OK but this was terrible.

[Anonymous No.14553094]

My shitty electric kettle has been turning itself off before the water actually comes to a boil recently, anyone know if this is a common problem and how to fix it? or maybe even a cheap alternative replacement

[Anonymous No.14553306]

>>14553094
How long have you had it? It might just be a piece of equipment that doesn't age very well. Planned obsolescence is such a joy, ain't it? :-)

[Anonymous No.14553422]

I had some Laoshan black tea which I got from YS earlier today, and it's remarkably similar to Qimen/Keemun. I could hardly tell the difference between them because they were both so aromatic, smelling of chocolate even after I closed the bag and finished off the leaves. The tea tasted like roasted or toasted corn, very pleasant and light for a hongcha. :-)

[Anonymous No.14553843]

>>14553094
You can find some videos on YouTube it's probably fixable but probably not worth the effort. The temperature sensor that controls the heater is probably broken and needs to be replaced. You would need to be able to solder and figure out what part to buy to replace it but the part probably only costs a few dollars.

[Anonymous No.14553848]

>>14553422
>The tea tasted like roasted or toasted corn
That's great, chocolate smells and flavors are one of my favorites when it comes to tea, it's very relaxing.

[Anonymous No.14554544]

Any good tea sellers on AliExpress?

[Anonymous No.14555625]

>>14554544
Tea sellers on AliExpress is a shitshow. There are a dozen different stores who all have almost the exact same inventory. That being said health tea house is okay, several posters have had luck ordering from them. AliExpress banned selling food on there for a while at some point and the sellers on there jumped ship. Now I guess it's allowed again but the shops that have returned aren't as decent as they used to be.

[Anonymous No.14556096]

I got a free sample of some dragonwell in a recent order. I haven't drank green tea in at least half a decade so I'm excited to try it. The dry leaf smells like roasted nuts.

[Anonymous No.14556100]

>>14556096
Fuck forgot picture

[Anonymous No.14556138]

>>14553848
It is! I normally don't really get into the specifics regarding aroma because my sinuses often prevent me from detecting aroma very well, but this was quite remarkable! :-)

[Anonymous No.14556199]

>>14556100
Tastes pretty good, flavor of roasted soybeans or roasted sunflower seeds alongside some sweetness. Pretty long finish with some other bright notes, just a hint of vegetal flavor.
It's pretty good, i wasn't sure what to expect but i like it. I forgot to mention I got the sample from king tea mall. This is their mid priced "high grade" dragonwell. Or at least that's what the bags says, it looks more like the pictures of the daily drinking grade from their website.

[Anonymous No.14556714]

>>14556199
Second cup is more vegetal and less roasted tasting, like fresh soybeans instead of roasted ones. Still has a nice lasting sweetness and a bit of umami. Maybe I need to give green teas another shot.

[Anonymous No.14556807]

i'm a poor ass motherfucker drinking discount bagged pu-erh tea from the local asian market and eating some candy peanuts how you guys doin

[Anonymous No.14556883]

>>14556714
Finishing this off by dumping the leaves in a tall glass.

[Anonymous No.14556895]

>>14556807
Nice, what brand of teabags? You can get seome really decent teas at asian markets. I have some sea dyke puer teabags that aren't bad at all, mostly woody flavors.

[Anonymous No.14556946]

Fucking ups delayed my purple cloud order till monday. Fuck california.

[Anonymous No.14557988]

>>14556946
I hate ups. They are always a pain in my ass.

[Anonymous No.14558941]

>>14552314
Cute Hamada :3

[Anonymous No.14558949]

>>14558941
fag

[Anonymous No.14558975]

>>14558949
Need to buy a new kettle bros. I want another gooseneck one, but is it a meme? Thinkin the EKG Stagg, but might be too consoomer-y.

[Anonymous No.14558985]

>>14558975
why not purchase a fine cleveland steamer?

https://www.webstaurantstore.com/cleveland-kdt-1-t-80-oz-tilting-2-3-steam-jacketed-direct-steam-tabletop-oyster-kettle/390KDT1T.html

[Anonymous No.14559038]

>>14558975
Thats what Ive got. I love it.

[Anonymous No.14559390]

Oooh boy, just cracked into my purple pig 2019 raw pu-erh from YS, and man is it bitter. brewed it stronger than I usually did, since I broke off a nice meaty chunk of it.
but its not unpleasant, and even on the wash (Which I drink since I am an animal) I'm getting sweet notes under the bitterness. Definitely my kind of tea, always had a soft spot for bitter things. can't wait to see how it evolves through the brews

[Anonymous No.14559397]

>>14559390
I should also note that the taste lingers for a long time, longest after taste I've had for a tea

[Anonymous No.14559449]

>>14559390
>>14559397
ooh its getting a bit smokey now. not like other raws I've had. interesting

[Anonymous No.14559483]

>>14559038
how is it? I've been making do with a mr coffee kettle myself. should I upgrade?

[Anonymous No.14559680]

>>14559483
Ive got zero complaints with it. A little slow pouring but thats perfect for my pourover coffees. Accurate, feels great to pour, holds temp for an hour. Its not a full liter so I end up refilling halfway through sessions, but I had a glass kettle before this and didnt want to hit hot glass with cold water. I snagged mine straight from fellow to avoid any amazon fuckery.

[Anonymous No.14559712]

>>14559680
doesn't seem to have an auto shut off for dry boiling, like my current kettle does. that's kind of a deal breaker

[Anonymous No.14559755]

>>14559712
Its a .9 liter kettle. I don't boil dry at 205. Take off the training wheels.

[Anonymous No.14559764]

>>14559755
Water boils out quick at 100c. its safer to have it as a feature, mostly so it doesn't end up fucking up the kettle

[Anonymous No.14559865]

>>14559390
Oh yeah those purple teas have some kick to them when they are young. I really love smoke in puer, apparently it can be pretty divisive and some people don't like it at all.

[Anonymous No.14559905]

>>14559865
I can enjoy it, also this raw has gotten a lot sweet in its later steeps. it hits like a truck at start, but now its sugar sweet. Good tea all in all. might age it a bit, or keep drinking it, can do both as I have near 400g of it left

[Anonymous No.14559909]

Any word on when o-cha shipping will be back to normal prices? I miss it, lipton is shite in comparison

[Anonymous No.14559951]

One tea brand I like is Smith Tea from Portland. Pic related is a tasting I did at their cafe. My favorite was their herbal Red Nectar and the White Petal.

[Anonymous No.14560007]

>>14549942
Indians do this way better. British "tea" like everything in their cuisine is plain nasty. It's not milky enough nor does it have actual tea flavor. It's just tastes like warm milky water. Indian Chai is the way to go if you want to have tea with milk

[Anonymous No.14560667]

>>14544695

[Anonymous No.14561385]

Drinking some 2019 Golden Pig Sheng from YS. No bitterness at all, more astringent than anything. It's what I call a "wake-up" tea; not bitter or bad-tasting, but bracing enough to wake you up in the morning and give you an extra bit of pep. :-)

[Anonymous No.14561594]

>>14561385
Interesting,i tend to gravitate towards either old sheng, that's had most of the edge taken off, or some kind of post fermented tea in the mornings.

[Anonymous No.14561761]

>>14559951
That's an interesting concept, it kind of styled after beer flights you can get at breweries.

[Anonymous No.14561777]

Everybody wanna be /tea/ until the dykes come

[Anonymous No.14562620]

It's been two weeks since my tea shipment arrived, I have almost finish half of a 1999 Pu'erh brick (the taste of leather and chocolate underneath the tea taste is quite something) and I have started getting through the 2004 Xiaguan Teji Green Tuocha (which is the better tasting green tea I've had). I got also the 2006 Jinggu Ripe Dragon Egg that I want to try but didn't really had time to sit down and break the taste down this week. Thanks again Tea-Anon for the puershop recs!

[Anonymous No.14562653]

>>14562620
Awesome anon. Glad you are enjoying it!

[Anonymous No.14563142]

ok so this is my first tea ever, was the one described here >>14552114 >>14552337
>>14552374

it was in fact in tiny little balls within the bag that opened up into a bunch of leaves after being in the water for a few minutes... i filtered the leaves out with a coffee filter and did 2 "infusions" and the second batch also tastes fine which is cool... it's like the chinese hot tea i get from restaurants/buffets, very good. excited to learn more and get better at making it

[Anonymous No.14563371]

>>14563142
Glad you like it
Might not want to use paper/styrofoam cups though, they can absorb the chemicals that give tea its flavor

[Anonymous No.14563694]

What actually distinguishes sencha as a type of green tea?

[Anonymous No.14563816]

>>14563142
Nice anon, glad you decided to go for it. It's definitely some roasted tieguanyin or some other rolled oolong. Definitely has the classic dim sum tea flavor.

[Anonymous No.14563865]

>>14563142
>>14563816
Oh yrah you can definitely just brew that tea "grampa style" as described in the pastebin. I do it with that kind of tea all the time.

[Anonymous No.14564172]

>>14563142
Many tea varieties come as rolled balls, often oolongs and jasmine pearls. I can read the chinese for you if you send a pic

[Anonymous No.14564595]

Ending the night with some liu bao, been drinking too much puer at night this week and it's fucking up my sleep schedule. No pictures because the lighting sucks in here.

[Anonymous No.14564647]

>>14563865
Is there a more neutral term for that brewing style? Grampa style is a tad patriarchal, don’t you think?

[Anonymous No.14564715]

>>14564647
sit down and drink your tea grandma

[Anonymous No.14564846]

>>14564172
good luck

[Anonymous No.14565532]

One thing I've noticed about Chinese tea packaging is that they say absolutely nothing about the tea inside. In pic related you would think that there would be some information about what the tea tastes like or how it's made or something. Hope it literally just says black tea about 5 times and then says store in away from strong odors and has some factory license numbers and a production date. It's pretty funny.

[Anonymous No.14565541]

One thing I've noticed about Chinese tea packaging is that it says absolutely nothing about the tea inside. In pic related you would think that there would be some information about what the tea tastes like or how it's made or something. Nope, it literally just says black tea about 5 times and then says store away from strong odors and has some factory license numbers and a production date. It's pretty weird, i guess all this information is legally required or they all just use the same formatting for some reason.

[Anonymous No.14565727]

Ordered milk oolong from uptontea
Did i do good?

[Anonymous No.14565769]

How about Georgian tea?

[Anonymous No.14565783]

>>14565769
Never tried it. I think a few of the European stores in the pastebin are selling it and the store in Russia definitely is, alongside some Russian grown tea. They make some pretty standard looking stuff and also some pretty funky looky brick tea.
>>14530803

[Anonymous No.14565789]

>>14565727
It should be tasty anon, please post about it after you get a chance to try it!

[Anonymous No.14565843]

Hey if anyone speaks Chinese. Google translate is translating this region or village name as >Yunnan Dayezhong Ancient Tea Area
The yunnan part makes sense but I haven't heard of Dayezhong. Is that a proper translation? Or is there a more accurate one, it should be the name of a region, mountain or village somewhere in Yunnan.

[Anonymous No.14565856]

i inherited some very small japanese teapot from my grandma... is this a real thing or just meant for decoration? i'm just guessing here because it's still in a box in storage but the thing looks like it will barely hold 2 cups of liquid, maybe could do little tea shots with it but idk, anyone know about these?

[Anonymous No.14565869]

>>14565856
>2 cups
Yeah that sounds about right for a small personal teapot. Lots of Japanese teapots in the 200-400 ml size range.
You should post pictures when you can.

[Anonymous No.14565875]

>>14565843
Nevermind i figured it out. It's says Da Ye Zhong which is a name for Camellia sinensis var. assamica it basically means it's the yunnan large leaf tea varietal that's typically used for puer.

[Anonymous No.14565953]

>>14565843
>>14565875
baka gaijin desu

[Anonymous No.14565985]

>>14565953
Thanks

[Anonymous No.14566082]

>>14565856
little teapots are nice for teas that can be steeped several times like most green teas, so you can make several small cups easily

[Anonymous No.14566767]

>>14565953
https://babelcarp.org/babelcarp/babelcarp.cgi?phrase=dayezhong

If it's not in the pastebin, OP failed as a human being and can go straight to hell.

[Anonymous No.14567279]

>>14566767
Harsh but fair

[Anonymous No.14567327]

>>14564846
冷然一啜烦襟涤,欲御天风弄紫霞
is a line from an ancient chinese poem about a guy drinking tea.
觀音王
is "guan yin wang", a variety of tieguanyin

[Anonymous No.14567565]

>>14567279
iron but FAIR fist.
also bit off topic, but here's a protip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEhptm_kMNk
he utters the word "tea" in hebrew, so there you go, on topic again.
top cooking comedy, if you want to brighten your day.
not a meme yet.

[Anonymous No.14567644]

>>14565541
How do I learn mandarin? I want to be prepared for when Xi becomes president of earth.

[Anonymous No.14568325]

getting my first temperature controlled kettle, gooseneck as well
hope this will improve my tea quality, i was scalding everything and it was pissing me off

[Anonymous No.14568369]

>>14567644
You can probably find someone on italki or something who knows Mandarin and wants to learn English and you can teach each other

[Anonymous No.14568380]

>>14568325
nah, I have a 10 times fancier tea than you've ever seen and still use a simple electric kettle, 1,7 liter, hidden heating element, no "temp. control", wide opening for cleaning (once two years with my tap water). you simply don't need more.
you will get there if you're lucky, but hopefully, you will drop out and leave this fad earlier. so that the prices will go back to reasonable 40 bucks a cake.
have a good one. OP.

[Anonymous No.14568389]

>>14544695
>country
United States
>what tea have you tried before
Sencha in a sachet, am enjoying
Earl Grey, rooisbos, and chamomile are also some of my favorites
>do you own a teapot, gaiwan
willing to get one

[Anonymous No.14568397]

>>14568389
and your question is?
I swear we have the dumbest OP.
wait for his answer then.

[Anonymous No.14568415]

>>14568380
the green tea i've been brewing for years gets very bitter if i don't leave my kettle to sit for 5+ minutes before steeping, and it gets difficult to predict as seasons transition
my mother always used to use a thermometer on a stove, but that takes even longer and isn't really feasible for when i want to entertain guests

[Anonymous No.14568442]

>>14568415
I won't, entertain you.
Procure better green tea, boil water, wait for 2-3 minutes, steep. Steep fast, try, steep longer, try. Equalize to achieve maximum health benefits. Breathe in, breathe out. Entertain guests.

[Anonymous No.14568444]

>>14568380
Prices will never go back down. Nothing is more depressing then reading tea bloggers bitching about insane prices around 2009-2010 and then realizing they were still half of what they are now.

[Anonymous No.14568475]

>>14568397
Yeah the op needs work. I way trying to fix people asking for tea suggestions and then having to ask them what they tried before and what they had to brew with but it's still a pain in the ass.
>>14568389
If you want to try Chinese tea, yunnansourcing.com, get a drunk on red cake, find a 2020 green tea that sounds good, and get a cheap gaiwan around 100ml. Maybe one of the small raw puer squares from Xiaguan or one of the yunnan sourcing brand ripe cakes (get one from 2018)
If you want more Japanese tea order from one of the two usa vendors in the pastebin that specialize in Japanese tea.

[Anonymous No.14568476]

>>14568442
right, sure
or i could just shell out 40 dollars on a second hand kettle as i am doing and make my life a little more convenient for something i do all the time

[Anonymous No.14568493]

>>14568476
second hand kettle, are you kidding me negro? someone else's water stains and fingerprints? temp control chip overused already? gooseneck caked with grime like thumbsticks on ps2 controller? for a price of 15 years old good raw puerh?
second hand kettle, help me jesus.

[Anonymous No.14568518]

>>14568389
If you want to try Chinese tea, yunnansourcing.us not .com, get a drunk on red cake, find a 2020 green tea that sounds good, and get a cheap gaiwan around 100ml. Maybe one of the small raw puer squares from Xiaguan or one of the yunnan sourcing brand ripe cakes (get one from 2018)
If you want more Japanese tea order from one of the two usa vendors in the pastebin that specialize in Japanese tea.

[Anonymous No.14568533]

>>14568389
If you want some fancy earl grey the suff from om Upton tea is pretty nice, fair warning the stuff they say has extra flavor is super strongly flavored, might want to try the lightly flavored versions.

[Anonymous No.14569203]

>>14559951
I like how only one of those can be considered premium grade tea. Really looks like they gouged you. But that's Portland I guess. Still, looks like a fun thing to treat yourself to and feel fancy. I'd prolly do it.

[Anonymous No.14569816]

I know shipping is fucked but I ordered every sample pack from teafromtaiwan. All my favorite teas have been oolongs so I figured it's worth a try. Anyone ordered from this shop before?

[Anonymous No.14570079]

>>14569816
Should be fun. I think shipping from Taiwan will be faster than shipping from Mainland China but no promises.

[Anonymous No.14570129]

>>14544695
Suggest tea for me
>Your country
Australia
>What tea have you tried before
Indian black teas, long jing, bai mu dan, jasmine green, yunnan black tea
>Do you own a teapot, gaiwan etc
Gaiwan

[Anonymous No.14570163]

>>14570129
https://kuura.co/collections/tea/products/tea-basics-sampler-pack
Their vector cake has also gotten some praise ITT if you just want to order a single cake.

[Anonymous No.14570590]

Is getting a samovar worth it if you drink a lot of tea, pic related.

[Anonymous No.14570603]

R8 my glass /tea/

[Anonymous No.14571310]

>>14570603
Turkish/10

[Anonymous No.14572118]

>>14571310
>Turkish/10
It's Russian

[Anonymous No.14572141]

>>14572118
russia and turkey seem to have a bit of overlap with tea, iirc they also both make strong concentrated brews and dilute them down

[Anonymous No.14572211]

>>14572141
>russia and turkey seem to have a bit of overlap with tea, iirc they also both make strong concentrated brews and dilute them down
Yeah, they both use a similar device often to brew it caмoвap (Russia) / semaver (Turkey)
. However Turkish tea glasses look different. I make Russian style tea (unfortunately without a samovar)

[Anonymous No.14572278]

Are there any good stores for teaware on Taobao? Or can someone tell me Chinese searching terms? I'm looking for tea pets specifically, but need to look around for other stuff, too.

[Anonymous No.14572987]

>>14572278
Same anon, I found this shop to have quite a big selection: https://liumuliangci.tmall.com/

Can't say anything about quality, I have zero experience and am just looking for not-too-expensive, cute stuff. I prepared a small order with a shopping service.

[Anonymous No.14573088]

what goes good with rooibos

[Anonymous No.14573216]

>>14573088
I usually just have rooibos plain, i guess you could try something like licorice root or holy basil, maybe lemon verbina.

[Anonymous No.14573225]

I AM superior to you teaware hoarders

Why? because 1 I only eat highly nutritional value tea. And no I dont mean old lady facebook group ladies "this is good for X" I mean tea with actual value. Like chia seeds, do you know they have fiver? I made a big ass mug and did 100 rep squats at the gym and I shit myself thats right a log, massive turd came off my pants and I said FUCK YEAH and thats because it has fiver not like your pussy chink tea leafs and number 2 reason why im superior is because I dont spend 100 dollars in tea sets I just put the leafs in a big ass mug and microwave it and guess what, now my kitchen smells of weed permanently and my moms bf hates me but fuck him

[Anonymous No.14573252]

>>14573088
Cigars and apartheid

[Anonymous No.14573334]

assam is inferior to english/irish breakfast

[Anonymous No.14573338]

Damn, you guys are more serious about tea than even my tea-loving CCP bureaucrat uncle. Most of our tea is just stuff he sends us from "gifts" he gets.

[Anonymous No.14573341]

>>14573334
I thought English / Irish breakfast was assam maybe an assam ceylon blend.

[Anonymous No.14573351]

I want chicory root

[Anonymous No.14573359]

>>14573338
Based, you could probably get the hookup for some really incredible teas if you took an interest and starting talking tea with him. Some of the really expensive stuff doesn't even make it onto the market and is reserved for gifts for CEOs and party officals.

[Anonymous No.14573369]

>>14573351
It's definitely worth trying, might loosen up the bowels if you drink too much. Make sure to get the roasted kind.

[Anonymous No.14573376]

>>14573338
Is it true that in Chinatown only women drink puerh? A China person laughed and spoke in Chinglish to her ChinaLady coworker when I inquired about puerh. I asked a chiman I know and he only woman and old China men queens drink puerh in Chinatown

[Anonymous No.14573386]

>>14573376
This is such a bizarre schtick.

[Anonymous No.14573462]

>>14573341
It is. Most breakfast blends are just some combination of Assam/Ceylon/Kenya black teas. Though maybe that anon just likes the blends better.

[Anonymous No.14573524]

>>14570590
The samovar makes Russian styled tea. You make a very very concentrated liquor and then guests water it down to preference. This was used in parties and large rooms with several people, in a side serving table or gatherings. For one person, the samovar was not used, so I don't think you'll get any real use out of it considering it's huge output. If you have people over all the time and you all drink many cups throughout the evening as you get drunk, play cards and eat caviar while discussing which horse breed should be bred with you arabian stud, then by all means get one.

[Anonymous No.14573537]

>>14573088
Vanilla, caramel, other exceptionally girly things.

[Anonymous No.14573539]

>>14573376
No, but it is considered a "healthy" or "restorative" tea. Plenty of normal people drink it. Last time I was in China, my uncle served it a lot.

[Anonymous No.14573550]

>>14573376
That's not true at all. You probably just have mondo gayface

[Anonymous No.14574709]

Should i spend $500 on this kilo of special edition puer set that Xiaguan made for some tea convention? Made in 2005, stored in Malaysia.

[Anonymous No.14574949]

what kind of cup do i drink tea out of + how many balls do i use for a cup / how do i drink it granpa style without the leaves being annoying and trying to swim into my mouth

[Anonymous No.14574980]

>>14574709
>et Baby Rays) and just smothered the whole thing. I understand thats what he likes, but...
>Its almost like he doesnt deserve good food thats been give
Probably has mildew in the tea, so no.

[Anonymous No.14575142]

>>14574980
The mildew just adds flavor.

[Anonymous No.14575204]

>>14574949
Use a mug, 2-3 grams or a "small spoonful". If you using boiling hot water and pour it over the tea in the mug the tea should all float to the bottom after a few minutes.

[Anonymous No.14575389]

>>14575204
lets say i have little vacuum sealed packets of tea, how long do they last after being opened because i wouldnt need to use an entire pack for just my cup

[Anonymous No.14575421]

>>14548366
based, same with myself. Yunnan silver needle is the daily.

[Anonymous No.14575432]

Sencha with a matcha cookie

[Anonymous No.14576033]

>>14575389
Through them in a zip lock bag once open, they will keep for a long time, like several months at minimum unless they are stored near a strong unpleasant odor and pick it up.

[Anonymous No.14576472]

Is Japanese green tea actually good? Have I been tricked by sinister Chinamen into thinking it sucks?

[Anonymous No.14576885]

What do you do with tea leaves between each use?

[Anonymous No.14577721]

>>14576472
Gyokuro is really weird tasting because and pretty vegetal, even if you brew it at a cold temperature
Sencha is pretty good though

[Anonymous No.14577748]

>>14576885
Dry them with a towel then vacuum seal them and put them in the freezer.

[Anonymous No.14579037]

Coof

[Anonymous No.14579108]

I've never had puerh before. I'm considering buying the ripe basics set from white2tea. Would it be better to just buy some decently rated cakes from yunnan or king tea mall instead?

[Anonymous No.14579157]

I think I have some "fine china" teapot style things but are you actually supposed to use those things regularly or no? I'd be scared of breaking it while washing it even

[Anonymous No.14579176]

I got 6 samplers of black tea from Upton. They all taste good and pretty much the same to me. I guess my palate is shit. Idk which one to even pick for my daily drinker. Guess the cheaper one...

Is there something to eat between them? Maybe I should try them all side by side?

[Anonymous No.14579257]

>>14579157
If it's clay you should be careful since clay absorbs the flavor of tea, which is good if you are using the same type of tea in the clay pot but bad if you are changing it up a lot which would muddy the flavor
If it's porcelain and not like $500 or something I see no problem in using it regularly, but if you are worried about breaking it you can get a cheap pot/gaiwan for under $10 on ebay or something

[Anonymous No.14580142]

>>14579108
Something like the ripe menghai sampler from yunnan sourcing might be good.
A few anons have said the ripe from w2t is good, but it's not super different then just getting a menghai dayi 7572. If you want some dayi ripes just get some reasonably priced cakes that are 1-3 years old preferably the number recipes. They are the kings of ripe for a reason. If you get yunnan sourcing brand ripes make sure they are at least 2 years old or at least one year old and made with aged material, this lets the fermentation funk dissipate. Not as vital with the dayi cakes because they used 1-2 year aged material for pretty much all their ripes.

[Anonymous No.14580153]

>>14579176
You should be getting at least a bit of difference between them. Try picking two of them and trying them side by side.

[Anonymous No.14580933]

Having some ripe puer tonight lads. It's very nice for an after dinner or evening tea.

[Anonymous No.14581554]

What the fuck should i get to store my puer in? My climate is too dry for most of the fall and winter so i want to keep it in sealed tubs with those humidity pouches. I was thinking about getting those cambro bins but they are kind of expensive. Anyone want to share their storage solution? I know at least one of you has a tong or two.

[Anonymous No.14581642]

Masala chai

>>14581554
Shelf

[Anonymous No.14581686]

>>14581642
Do you drink it cold or hot?

[Anonymous No.14581790]

>>14581686
Both but I usually prefer it cold
Cold

[Anonymous No.14581815]

>>14581554
I bought some cloth bags off purple cloud. That order should be in tomorrow so I'll post it up.

[Anonymous No.14581931]

>>14581815
Nice, i definitely want to hear your thoughts on that old boxed xiaguan ripe. It's pretty old and looseleaf, but I think it's in a sealed bag, so it will be interesting to see how it has aged.

[Anonymous No.14581990]

>>14581931
Someone's gotta drink it lel. Might as well be me. Check back tomorrow nightish(now) since its ups and I'll likely get the package later in the day. I'm real excited for the little lao cha tou nuggets, so that might have to be my first brew.

[Anonymous No.14582136]

>>14581990
Nice

[Anonymous No.14582721]

TEA NEWS
>On the afternoon of August 3 , Zeng Xin, member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee of the Autonomous Region, visited Wuzhou Tea Factory to understand the business environment in Wuzhou and encourage enterprises to become stronger and bigger.
>Zeng Xin emphasized that the Wuzhou municipal legal organs should actively create a legal business environment, take the initiative to enter the enterprise, ask questions about the enterprise, and solve its worries, so as to provide better legal protection for the market.
http://www.wz-tea.com/news/651.html

[Anonymous No.14583085]

>>14582721
So THAT is the reason why Chinese tea is crap

[Anonymous No.14583190]

>>14583085
Those articles are just incredible, like some snapshot to late 80s China. So surreal that they are publishing these weird propaganda style press releases in 2020.

[Anonymous No.14583422]

>>14570603
Where'd you get the glass?

[Anonymous No.14583513]

Been addicted to chai recently. I want to make my own instead of constantly using tea bags (which do the trick pretty well) but idk if I should go out and buy cardamom seeds. I already have cardamom powder in my spice rack and since I will end up crushing all the ingredients in a mortar and pestle idk if I should bother buying the seeds. Please feel free to correct my retardation!

[Anonymous No.14583524]

>>14583513
I have been trying to find somewhere that sells a whole spice chai mix without any tea in it, that way I can freshly grind the spice and infuse it for a while before adding my own choice of tea. I haven't had any luck so far.
I would say if you have a jar already you should just use that, especially if you don't use it for cooking often. If you get into making chai regularly you will use it up pretty fast and then you can get some whole pods

[Anonymous No.14583531]

>>14583524
>before adding my own choice of tea.
I've always thought black tea was the go to for chai. Any others you recommend?

[Anonymous No.14583683]

>>14544695
>lists every tea vendor that has a half decent looking website
>this shop is a bit eccentric
>this shop sometimes has very high prices, make sure you are not overpaying
>this shop is pricey, look for reviews
>this shop listed in the japanese section is japanese
>don't buy chink tea from Hojo
This one up here is the worst offense, Hojo's tea is often overpriced but it's fucking good, nip or chink.
>this shop probably isn't 100% truthful about some things
>the tea from this shop may be strange
Come on man, anyone can look up "buy tea online", compiling a comprehensive list isn't the purpose of this pastebin, the purpose is (was supposed to be) to help newfriends navigate the large world of online tea sellers by directing them towards the reliable and trustworthy places, because they themselves wouldn't be able to tell those from the unreliable and untrustworthy ones.

>no mention of heating the teapot before putting the leaves in when brewing tea with the gong-fu method
>nothing about washing any tea other than oolong and pu-erh
>only tightly rolled/compressed tea may need a first infusion longer than about 30s
shaking my head

>nothing about not stirring the mate leaves in the gourd
>mate is going to be bitter anyway
Yeah, if you can't brew it properly
>there's also this other method but I can't be bothered to remember it in detail or look it up
Well why did you include that comment at all then, either leave it out or spend 2 minutes to look it up and publish the updated pastebin a day or an hour later, it's surely going to be easier for since you know, at least superficially, what you're talking about, while the newfriend reading it won't.

>avoid sellers who make extravagant claims about health benefits
>but disregard this if they're chinks or possibly from somewhere else, it depends
Wow, this pastebin version sure is quirky.

[Anonymous No.14583756]

>>14544695
hi everyone, I humbly come to you pu-erh austists for some suggestions
I'm looking to buy some young raw pu-erh, something sweet(ish) with notes of honey and smoke mainly, and then what have you as long as the quality is good, what I've liked about young raw pu-erh in the past is its usual lightness/freshness/herbalness, compared to the more earthy and sapid more fermented pu-erh's.
I've liked yue guang bai but I found it a bit too citrus-y for my taste, and most other pu-erh's I remember getting were more salty than what I'm looking for now.
I can't think of a tea I tried that had the sweet-ish honey flavor I'm thinking about, something close I guess would be a good quality roasted tie guan ying, with maybe a bit more smoke but not as much as the amount you find in the average gunpowder or chun mee.
I live in Italy, whatever that means to you or OP because there's no reason to buy tea from anywhere else than where it's produced, and yes, I own two good quality clay teapots.
Please throw everything you have at me and I'll check it out, small indie taiwanese shop or 2019-2020 Menghai offering; it being available somewhere on ebay would be a plus as I currently have a discount coupon, but anything will be appreciated, thank you kindly and have a nice day.

[Anonymous No.14583833]

>>14583756
ah, and another thing
I can only assume, given the taste, that the yue guang bai I found too citrus-y had been produced from camellia sinensis, so being produced from a different, less lemon/orange/citrus leaning cultivar would be a plus for a suggestion

[Anonymous No.14584051]

>>14583683
Newfren here, the pastebin is a bit strange. Which USA vendor would you suggest?

[Anonymous No.14584215]

>>14584051
Adagio if your new to tea.

[Anonymous No.14584310]

>>14584215
Thank you! Why them if new?

[Anonymous No.14584353]

>>14584310
Wide selection, and most are priced well for the quality. They're not high teir, but you can try flavored or try a bunch of different styles tea for cheap so you can get a better idea what you like before you drop more money on better quality.

[Anonymous No.14584653]

>>14584051
I'm european so I can't really recommend any of those not having tried them myself.
Judging from how reputable their descriptions and info look I'd go with yunnan sourcing and red blossom tea, but ymmv.
You're only going to be paying a premium for whatever SEA gown product you buy from the US though, so unless you're in somewhat of a hurry I'd buy the 35 tea sampler from health tea house for a whopping €12, or however it costs now, or whatever tea you're interested in from a chink shop that ships the tea from there, while maybe getting some loose leaf from a local brick and mortar seller where you can smell the teas and see what you like.

[Anonymous No.14585167]

>>14573537
How are flavors girly you sissy

[Anonymous No.14585172]

Drinking sencha for the first time. Nothing special, just "Japanese Sencha" from Upton. I'm generally not much for greens, but it's nice. I've had ones I like better than this, but never expected to be blown away by 125g for $10.50 anyway. It's certainly good enough to pique my interest. Next spring I'll order some first flush from a more specialized site to really experience what it can be.

[Anonymous No.14585932]

>>14583683
But teas that aren't stored in bricks AND were aged need to be washed. The run of the mill loose leaf tea you can buy anywhere and comes in resealable bags needs no washing, even in gong fu. The wash is to get rid of dirt and unpleasantness from storage and age, like wo dui fishyness.

[Anonymous No.14585956]

>>14583683
Just write your own version, he will paste it lol.
OP of these threads is useless, he came here to post instagram type pics and videos but was shunned away. Typical attention whoring, but some people were giving him "upvotes", so I don't know if I want to hang out here anymore.

[Anonymous No.14586057]

>>14585932
I often find that the blacks I buy, like dian hong and lapsang souchong benefit from being washed, and half of the teas I get in the mail don't come in resealable bags.
Teas that were stored in bricks may well benefit from being washed too - dust will fall of of your cake if you're not veeery careful picking it apart.
>>14585956
I updated the pastebin to the last version that was being posted here for the last couple years before the current OP arrived, and I remember being the second or third person to edit significantly, so I don't think after all the questionable work he did and is still doing to rehault it he wants to go back to that one.

[Anonymous No.14586411]

>>14586057
Right like I said, tea that comes in bricks or cakes should be washed. I dunno about loose-leaf that comes in non ziplocs since, whenever I get one like that, I just transfer them to a tin or even a ziploc from another tea I ran out of and washed, with a new label on top. I also weigh my tea in a silicone pinch bowl I use for baking so almost all dust and broken leaves from picking stay there, though again, anything I pry apart I wash. What I targeted my comment at was that the guy was shitting on the pastebin about wash outside of tea types that normally come in bricks, while saying it should help beginners, when beginners shouldn't be buying and cakes in the first place since those aren't beginner friendly and economically they're better off with loose leaf samplers from those teas. He was very off base.

[Anonymous No.14586466]

Finally here. Filtering some water so I can get rid of 5g of a ys 2010 ripe cake real quick. It was keeping my sick new linen bags from laying flat. LMK what you want pictures of next and I'll dig it out.

[Anonymous No.14586493]

>>14545193
>that rough looking shisa
Okinawan?

[Anonymous No.14586612]

>>14586411
>right like I said
You said "teas that aren't stored in bricks and were aged need to be washed", not that teas that come(are stored in) bricks should be washed, that's the opposite of what you said before.
>I don't know about this thing your comment was about
Then why are you arguing about it still?
>beginners shouldn't buy cakes in the first place
Well that's debatable, but very much not the point; the point was that there are teas that may well benefit from washing even though they're not pu-erh's or oolongs, like those two I mentioned earlier, while the pastebin only states that pu-erh's and oolongs might need to be washed.
Even black teas from a sampler might benefit from being washed, and those most certainly won't come in resealable bags either since they're just 2 or 3 "doses".

[Anonymous No.14586617]

>>14586493
Yes good eye Ishigaki

[Anonymous No.14586815]

Where to get good snacks for tea? Alternatively, easy recipes for making them.

[Anonymous No.14587356]

>>14586612
Wait. Pfft I'm so sorry lmao I was phone posting and I guess I missed a word, I meant cakes and bricks need washing.

Also to your point, it IS a good general guideline that only those types need washing, as even yourself just said, some black teas might benefit. That's very touch and go and very experience driven. You can't expect someone to know when a tea might improve from washing and when it might not. I thought the whole point was to make the learning curve smoother, not steeper by telling them that sometimes maybe your tea might benefit from washing even if it's not in a cake or aged, because of these several reasons, but then again you may just waste a great first steep by always washing. It's just complicated. I'm sure it's correct, even if I don't do it myself, you seem to be very well versed and even convinced me. But I don't think it quite works as a quick, general guideline to someone that thinks tea is already hard to get into,it's daunting. I already think the paste has too much stuff in it as is. Add a link to a more advanced one, I guess.

[Anonymous No.14587488]

>>14583683
I already fixed half of what you are complaining about since another anon pointed out that I fucked up.
>>14548306
>only tightly rolled/compressed tea may need a first infusion longer than about 30s
What would you like it to say instead?
>Mate is going to be bitter
>Yeah, if you can't brew it properly
Some mate is going to be bitter no matter what. I can definitely add something about not stirring, i just asked some south American anon to write up how he brews it and copied his instructions.
>Health claims
Yeah you should generally avoid avoid western vendors going on and on about weight loss and how tea will do x y and z. But there are several decent chink stores that have all this crap in their listings so it's hard to avoid entirely.
>>14585956
Op here, I have nothing to do with the anon you were accusing of being an Instagram poster and you certainly can't accuse me of taking good looking photos. I started posting the threads because they had been dead for at least a week and no one else was doing it. Most of the changes I have made to the pastebin were requested by anons.

[Anonymous No.14587497]

>>14586057
If people want to go back to the old pastebin that's fine i really don't give a shit. I added stuff to it because people were bitching that it sucked but if people think the current version is shit I would be happy to ditch it.

[Anonymous No.14587499]

>>14584051
Tiesta Tea :3 they're my favorite

[Anonymous No.14587626]

okay I removed a bunch of shit from the pastebin and tried to clean it up some. Is this better? worse? If it still sucks please tell me what to change or link the old version so I can just use that.
https://pastebin.com/YNS8mm6m

[Anonymous No.14587949]

>>14587626
Sipping some of the 2006 boxed xiaguan from purplecloud rn. Nice packaging, 50g of sample liu bao and as quick shipping as you can expect during covid. Toss em back in the pbin.

[Anonymous No.14588407]

okay so here is the current state of the pastebin
https://pastebin.com/80GeeXJV
I removed the explanation of tea types because I dont think its usefull.
I switched the order around so that brewing instructions and the faq are at the top.
I removed most of the vendors and my commentary about them. I reordered some other bits.
This is the pastbin before I made any edits. The one that was last modified by
>>14586057
https://pastebin.com/4ZEuMwBJ
If people just want me to use this version let me know.

[Anonymous No.14588586]

Okay so I did some more editing
https://pastebin.com/80GeeXJV
I think this is pretty decent in its current state, the big change that I made to the vendor section is listing them based on where they are located/ship from instead of what type of tea they sell. I think this is more relevant currently due to international shipping still being a mess. I also removed a few vendors (mei leaf and verdant), from the original, mei leaf is expensive for what they sell and verdant sells a bunch of mislabled puer. I also removed some dead links and updated some links where the vendor changed their website.
the other major change I made was rewriting the brewing instructions section, I think it was not very clear before and that my edits have improved it. I also made some minor edits to the storage info and added some more bloggers / youtube channels.
Here is the pastebin as it was before I made any changes at all. I would be happy to use that instead if people think I should.
https://pastebin.com/4ZEuMwBJ

[Anonymous No.14588613]

>>14586057
>so I don't think after all the questionable work he did and is still doing to re-haul it he wants to go back to that one.
I agree that I made a mess of it with the version in the OP of this thread.
Ive linked my current revision along with the previous version you had worked on >>14588586
Let me know what you think of the current state of It.

[Anonymous No.14589018]

>>14588586
Newfriend here who wanted to look through the pastebin to see if a specific vendor is on there - what do you mean, you removed 'a few' vendors? Am I blind or did you remove everyone but 1 for Europe?

I was going to ask about sunday.de (Germany-based). Does anyone have experiences with them?
I'm too new to judge but I recently ordered their large gongfu tea tray because it was the cheapest available. And one tea, just to try it.

[Anonymous No.14589109]

>>14589018
The older version of the pastebin is still in the op of this thread.

[Anonymous No.14589181]

>>14586815
Your local chinatown and/or ethnic shops, if you want something sweet look for mooncakes, red bean buns, and tang yuan, they're not an everyday type snack in chinkland but they're pretty good, and red bean buns are also quite easy to make, they're sweet steamed bread buns with adzuki beans.
Or, you too can be just like a chink and eat fruit and seeds/nuts when drinking your everyday tea.
>>14587356
>it becomes complicated
I see your point, I guess something clear and easy enough would be to explain why tea may need washing then, like "The first infusion of some teas, typically pu-erh and oolong, may contain dust and small debris, so if you think the first infusion of your new tea has a lot of dust floating in it, or is otherwise a lot funkier than the following ones, keep the first infusion short and discard it to remove the dust. This is commonly called washing the tea."
That way the reader is equipped with the knowledge of whether a tea may warrant being washed or not, and that it's always an option.
>>14587488
>what would you like it to say
"Some teas typically work better with very short first infusions, while some work better with longer ones. A number of shops and blogs, like hojotea.com, [...], and what have you, list some good starting points for the length of the first infusion as well, so check them out and go from there."
The karigane genmaicha I have on hand now I like to steep for about 45 seconds the first time, and some time ago I had a li shan that liked about 50 seconds while pouring boiling hot water over the teapot. Conversely, I had a gyokuro for which 5 seconds would be the upper limit for the first infusion, so given this extreme variance I believe it's much more helpful for a beginner to look up a starting point rather than going through 25g of tea before finding a way to make it taste good.

[Anonymous No.14589235]

>>14589181
>"Some teas typically work better with very short first infusions, while some work better with longer ones. A number of shops and blogs, like hojotea.com, [...], and what have you, list some good starting points for the length of the first infusion as well, so check them out and go from there."
Yeah I'm trying to figure out how to best say it without making the instructions 5 paragraphs long.
It's such a broad range of time depending on what tea is being brewed. But general suggestions for time are covered in the infographic linked at the beginning of the brewing directions section
https://meileaf.com/resources/pdf/mei-leaf-tea-brewing-guide.pdf

[Anonymous No.14589244]

>>14589181
>some mate is going to be bitter no matter what
Some 100y/o moldy pu-erh as well, even some low quality teabags, but even though it's technically true I wouldn't go and write "some tea is going to be bitter no matter what".
Good mate, even half decent mate that you can get in a supermarket for €6/kg is unlikely to be that bitter if you brew/steep it properly.
>you should avoid those who make grand health claims
>but some who make grand health claims sell good quality tea at good prices
So wouldn't you say that there is not a strong correlation between grand health claims and tea quality at all?
You can also find nip stores who make such claims and still sell good tea.
>people were bitching
Oh wow, it's been three years and a half since I made that...
In this time I think the amount of bitching I saw was about the same amount that I've seen in this single thread, and pretty much all of it was about dead links.
But more to the point.
>>14588586
You've added and then removed and then added back a number of websites, did you personally buy tea from all, or most of those?
If not, what did you base your choices on?
I'm definitely not saying that che criteria were bad as almost all of the vendors I've had good experiences with are there and almost all of those I've had bad experiences with aren't, but you say you removed mei-leaf because it sells overpriced stuff while you've left white2tea there.
>how to make tea
>no mention of pre-heating the cup
>step 1: get a scale, spoons aren't suited for this
>4 paragraphs later
>to add the appropriate amount of tea, if you don't want to read the infographic, fill a spoon with it
huh
>gong fu style brewing
>steep for only a few seconds
Covered in the quoted post.
>no mention of pre-heating the pot
This is extremely important, as the water's temperature drops when you pour it into a room temperature container.

[Anonymous No.14589295]

>>14589244
>how to prepare mate
>no mention of raising the water temperature as you keep re-using the leaves
>remember not to stir the mate leaves with the bombilla
Oh thank heav
>or it might clog up
It's not hard to look up the reason why it's best not to stir the leaves.
Even better, you could try it yourself and see what difference it makes, because the difference will be very significant unless you poured the water over all of the leaves the first time, which by the way you also don't mention is something to avoid, because it will make the first 5 infusions bitter and the liquor will only get drinkable after a while.
You're doing it for free, there's no prize for writing a new pastebin every day, take a damn week to properly research and try the things you advise.
>new to tea, what to try
>no mention of the mighty health tea house 35 tea sampler
huh
>no mention of pre-heating the cup or pot
I'm writing this again, because as they say, 4th time in two days is a charm.
>>14589235
>without making it 5 paragraphs long
Because, as you note, it's such a broad range of time, and it doesn't only depend on the kind of tea but on the specific tea you have on hand, there's no way to draft a comprehensive list, nor the need to, because such info are already available elsewhere for free.
Directing people towards such info, or explaining what they need to look for so that they can find exact numbers (e.g. steep gyokuro for 90s @ 60 to 70°C, then 15s, then 25s, then 40s, then keep going 15 more seconds at a time and start raising the temperature 5 to 10°C each time) is going to be much clearer than a long but more generic rule of thumb (e.g. green tea usually works well with 20s @ 75°C, but it may need more if it's dry-ish, like a long jing, or less if it's richer in water, like bi luo chun, and it will need at least 10s more if it's tightly packed.)

[Anonymous No.14589550]

>>14589244
the mate brewing section should be okay now
I transcribed the brewing infographic so it's in the pastebin
I have fixed the other issues you have raised except that i need to pull some articles to link for brewing some specific teas, Japanese greens especially.
I have used several of the vendors that I added, some were recommended by places like teadb, some were recommended by anons in the thread, the ones that don't fall under any of the previous categories I added because their selection looked right, and they didn't have any obvious issues.
I'm fine with adding in mei leaf if people want it, a few people have said they like it. I just don't personally, and he also does the weird claims about his puer being made with 600 year old trees that I'm not really fond of.

https://pastebin.com/80GeeXJV

[Anonymous No.14589640]

>>14589295
> Directing people towards such info, or explaining what they need to look for so that they can find exact numbers (e.g. steep gyokuro for 90s @ 60 to 70°C, then 15s, then 25s, then 40s, then keep going 15 more seconds at a time and start raising the temperature 5 to 10°C each time) is going to be much clearer than a long but more generic rule of thumb
This. Am new, agree 100%; this is what I need.

>>14589550
>I'm fine with adding in mei leaf if people want it, a few people have said they like it. I just don't personally, and he also does the weird claims about his puer being made with 600 year old trees that I'm not really fond of
The perfect list of vendors would, imho, include *all* those vendors that sell good, recommendable teas, irrelevant of subjective quirks and opinions (like I've read a few people say about Don; and let's be real, I've watched his videos, people aren't wrong), but adding information like the apparent bs about tree ages.

>Europe/UK
>http://meileaf.com
>Good selection, but tends to be overpriced. Also known to strongly exaggerate the ages of tea trees.

Or something like that. But as long as the tea they sell is good, inform newbs about stuff like that, then let them make their own decisions. I'd rather have a good look at more stores in my area and compare and decide myself, as long as they all sell good tea.

[Anonymous No.14590098]

>>14589640
>Or something like that. But as long as the tea they sell is good, inform newbs about stuff like that, then let them make their own decisions.
I was tending towards that with the version in the op in the thread, but I feel like if I have to add caveats to vendors then maybe i should not include them.
What I might do is have a pretty small selection of vendors listed, and then link to another pastebin that just has a much larger list of vendors for people that want to explore further, that way new people that just want to try some tea won't get overwhelmed and people that are looking for more places to try will have lots of options to check out.

[Anonymous No.14590369]

Can I steep black tea at like 170? If I do it at 212 I can't even drink it until like 3 hours later without burning the shit out of myself. Or will this effect flavor?

[Anonymous No.14590545]

>>14590369
Brewing below boiling will definitely affect the flavor. Once the tea is in a cup or mug it should cool off a lot faster, if you leave it in a teapot or travel mug it will stay hot for much longer.

Cooler temp brewing will taste different but not necessarily worse. You'll have to try it and see what flavors you like more.

[Anonymous No.14590756]

Going through tealyra's Japanese green tea and I found this shit

https://www.tealyra.com/loose-tea/buy-green-tea/japanese-green-tea/superior-miyazaki-hojicha-organic-803/

Anyone ever have this type of stuff? I like adding toasted rice to some of my green teas and I was wondering if this would have a similar kind of effect.

[Anonymous No.14591146]

Am I a pleb if I get no pleasure in drinking plain tea with nothing in it? It's just slightly offensive enough and burned-tasting (regardless of actual brew time and temperature) that I'd rather just drink plain water

[Anonymous No.14591234]

>>14591146
I drink my green tea with either oat milk or whole milk, usually oat, its just good to me. A lot of people who drink tea scoff at that, and because I leave the leaves in for the entire time I drink my tea, but its just how I like it and I definitely drink more tea than them anyway. Drink tea however you enjoy it, fuck the cunts who tell you there is a correct way to put leaves in water and drink it.

[Anonymous No.14591397]

>>14590369
greens are done at 80c so ~175f

[Anonymous No.14592506]

bump

[Anonymous No.14592539]

>>14590756
Hojicha is pretty popular, it's a decent choice for evenings and for people who are sensitive to caffeine, since it's mostly stems it has much less caffeine then many teas. It definitely has a toasty flavor but that varies depending on the specific batch of tea. Some are sort of lightly roasted, some are roasted quite dark.

[Anonymous No.14593681]

Just got some da hong pao today. First time I have tried one. It's pretty good, i will post some pictures and notes tomorrow.

[Anonymous No.14594003]

Does anyone eat their sencha leaves after brewing them? I have seen a few mentions online of people doing it and I was wondering if I should try it maybe as a simple pickle or part of a salad.

[Anonymous No.14594996]

Chinese tea packaging is shit. I have individually vacuum-sealed packets of black tea that my teafag uncle gave me, and I can't for the life of me find what company it's from. All the damn thing says is "wild black tea from ancient tea trees" and "brew at 97 celsius".

How do you feel about herbal teas? Any of you blend your own?

[Anonymous No.14595104]

Stamp at the bottom says harvested in 2020, but description says it's an autumn harvest and has been fermented for 60 days. Newb is confused

[Anonymous No.14595528]

>>14595104
For puer the date on the package is usually when the tea was pressed or packaged and not when it was harvested. In this cas it was probably just a mistake on their part, but I guess it's technically correct since they probably put it in that pouch sometime this year. The website says it was harvested in 2016.

[Anonymous No.14595537]

>>14594996
Big fan of herbal tea. I used to have a local herbalist that made and sold their own blends but they closed last year. Mountain Rose Herbs is pretty good for herbal blends and individual herbs, but their actual tea is pretty lame.
I usually end up making shit that doesn't taste that great, like camomile with licorice root and holy basil, more focused on effects than flavor. Rosehips are really good, they taste spicy.

[Anonymous No.14595625]

>>14595104
You were asking before if this website is any good? I looked at their puer, lots of the raw stuff is chen shang hao brand, the cake I looked up on Kingteamall was priced about the same give or take. So seems reasonable market price wise. Chen shang hao is pretty expensive puer and I'm sure some would argue that it's overpriced, but they are established as an upmarket brand. I'm not sure I would recommend you go out and start getting into puer by buying 150 euro cakes but that's another story.
Their tea has year of harvest listed for each tea. That's very important.
Overall the site looks fine. If you really get into buying lots of tea you should look into ordering from China or Japan or whatever, but they should be fine for you to try some stuff out and figure out what you like.

[Anonymous No.14595713]

>>14594996
Ask him if he knows!

[Anonymous No.14596046]

>>14594996
This anon's answer >>14595537 is almost exactly what I was going to say. I used to drink a lot more tea, but realized the caffeine was really messing with me and I had to cut back; now I have one gongfu session a day and drink a lot more herbal alternatives. MRH is fabulous for herbs but as that anon pointed out, you can definitely skip their proper tea. I find I focus more on taste, though, since most of them are going to be pretty healthy no matter what. Some of my favorites:
>Ironwort (Sideritis) (MRH doesn't carry it but you can easily get some on Amazon)
>Red rooibos/honeybush
>Green rooibos/lemongrass/nettle leaf (nettle is a seriously underrated plant)
>Peppermint/dandelion root
>Lavender/Tulsi
Blending your own is easy, and you can make a pretty tasty blend without needing more than two or three components. I'm not interested in fruity tisanes at all so I can't comment on that stuff.
I'm actually waiting on an MRH order now; will post my findings when the new herbs come in.

[Anonymous No.14596819]

>>14595528
Didn't know that - thank you!

>>14595625
Yes, I'm that same anon. The main reason I ordered from them is that they had a nice tea tray(/table? boat? what's the Chinese term for these things?), and the description of this tea sounded nice enough to try.
I'll keep lurking and look at more sites mentioned & recommended here in the future, thank you!