/tea/ - Artistic Nippon edition

[Anonymous No.19143189]

/tea/ - /tsg/
tea general

This thread is for discussing teas, tisanes, and other herbal infusions.
info: types of tea, where to get tea, how to brew tea
https://pastebin.com/80GeeXJV
Previous thread: >>19126942

[Anonymous No.19143242]

sipping on some 2009 tulin tuocha

[Anonymous No.19143246]

>>19143242
how is it? and where did you get it from? was considering grabbing one from fullchea

[Anonymous No.19143250]

>>19143242
>>19143246
Why do you guys like tea? Like how did you even get into drinking tea? I’m extremely handsome and based but I’m thinking of maybe expanding my horizons a little..

[Anonymous No.19143277]

>>19143250
I've always liked black tea and always wanted to try some other types. supermarket green tea hasn't impressed me, so I thought that was all there was to tea for a while. but then I've stumbled upon the world of specialist tea stores and realised that there is a whole world of flavors out there
would recommend tea, it's the best consooming based interest I've found so far. much more variety than coffee, more healthy than whiskey or beer or whatever and it's not even all that expensive all things considered

[Anonymous No.19143293]

>>19143277
That does sound pretty based wow, you’ve opened my eyes and I will have to visit some tea specialist stores as well. Anon, wasn’t it? I’ll remember the name.. may the gods keep the tea in our tea cups and the women in our bed!!!

[Anonymous No.19143373]

>>19143246
bomber for the price, it has the tulin taste which is a hit or miss for people but i love it, also somewhat camphory and it had a honey huigan at first but that taste has degraded over time in my pumi, have drank about half of the cake so far:
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/tulin-2009-tuocha-tea-yunnan-tuo-cha-raw-puerh-250g-p0490.html

[Anonymous No.19143553]

>>19143189
Who here is learning Chinese to bring your tea experience further beyond?

[Anonymous No.19143632]

>>19143553
I did a year in high school, but without regular practice and immersion all that knowledge was lost a decade ago.

[Anonymous No.19143674]

>>19143553
>not drinking tea to improve your qi flow to help you learn Chinese

[Anonymous No.19143706]

>>19143553
Are we weeaboos but for china?

[Anonymous No.19143712]

>>19143674
t. frog in a well

[Anonymous No.19143762]

>>19143706
That's called a Sinophile, anon.
>>19143674
That's what I'm doing though

[Anonymous No.19143797]

>>19143632
That's weird. I tried learning Russian over a decade ago and although I failed to become fluent, I can still read/write Cyrillic and remember basic vocab.

[Anonymous No.19143851]

>TFW traveling again and will probably not have access to proper tea
Anyone know of good tea places in Asheville, North Carolina or am I fucked in the ass and should bring my own tea?

[Anonymous No.19143858]

>>19143797
I could muddle along with some basic pinyin to an extent, but if you wanted me to read or write characters even with a gun to my head I doubt id manage to write more than 5 or 6 characters. And pronunciation would be dogshit.

[Anonymous No.19143861]

>>19143706
No. I have no respect for TCM or Chinese ways. I just like tea. If the pajeets can make tea Chinese style, I'd probably buy more Indian tea honestly. Hell if GOOD sencha wasn't so expensive, I'd be senchaing it up almost exclusively.

[Anonymous No.19143863]

>>19143706
I am really only in to a few things from china. Smelly stuff like oud and deer musk, Tibetan incense etc , the growing Chinese market of "amerikanji wear" (reproductions of classic American clothing) and tea. I have never really consumed any Chinese media or comics or whatever and i don't really have any interest in doing so.

[Anonymous No.19143865]

>>19143858
As a non chink, I honestly prefer wade-guiles but it's got a lot of problems.

[Anonymous No.19143866]

>>19143851
They have a dobra tea, it should get the job done.
https://www.dobrateanc.com

[Anonymous No.19143869]

Spoopy.... Asheville must be more hip than Cleveland. A lot more tea choices that don't look like straight up boba bullshit.

>>19143866
Based... I will make my company pay for all of my tea.

[Anonymous No.19143875]

>>19143863
>the growing Chinese market of "amerikanji wear" (reproductions of classic American clothing)
sounds interesting. what's the deal with it, is it like japanese americana streetwear styles?

[Anonymous No.19143884]

>>19143250
People who genuinely enjoy tea are usually introverted types, who often prefer their alone time. If you're a social creature like most, then chances are your interest of tea will probably fade as quickly as it began.

There's a deep sense of ambiance when brewing gongfu tea, a sense of tranquility and peacefulness. Tasting all the nuances of the tea, and then learning where it's grown, and why there are subtle notes of floral, chocolate, or fruit. It's also often very affordable, and teaware can be found for dirt cheap off of Amazon.

[Anonymous No.19143891]

>>19143875
It's basically the same thing as all those Japanese brands that make 50s American clothes but the brands are Chinese and cheaper.
https://bronsonshop.com
Also bob dong on taobao has some great stuff, nice jeans and super heavy flannel shirts

[Anonymous No.19143905]

>>19143891
China by the end of this decade will be the new gold standard for modern civilization. Do you ever watch those 4K streetwalk videos of their major downtown cities? Absolutely no homeless people anywhere. No cultural degeneracy, no piercings or tattoos, no multi-colored haired whores. Everyone dresses very moderately and practically.

People trash talk China, but eventually they will be the leaders of design and technology, make no mistake. They are the new frontrunners to lead the way for Earth.

[Anonymous No.19143919]

Are the Japanese greens up for sale yet? Haven't seen people posting about ordering.

[Anonymous No.19143928]

>>19143250
It tastes good. Really that's it. I don't give a shit about caffeine or ancient Chinese secret health bullshit. It's got flavor, isn't sugary sweet, not hard to make and it just works. The only other contender is coffee and honestly coffee tastes very samish and heavy to me now.

[Anonymous No.19143956]

what's your favourite non-caffeinated tea/tisane bros? i drink decaff coffee in the evenings since decaff tea sucks but i want to try something else

[Anonymous No.19143957]

>>19143553
I literally started duolingo yesterday

[Anonymous No.19143967]

>>19143956
Idk. I hate them all honestly and I tried so many different ones.

[Anonymous No.19143979]

>>19143957
>duolingo
C'mon anon you're smarter than this

[Anonymous No.19143992]

>>19143979
Much smarter, but I want to start here anyway.

[Anonymous No.19144005]

>>19143957
The fastest gains I ever made in learning Chinese came from using an Anki deck of sentences ripped from a grammar wiki. Take that as you will.

[Anonymous No.19144040]

>>19143706
>>19143762
>Sinophile
its chinkaboo
>>19143861
>No. I have no respect for TCM or Chinese ways. I just like tea.
this is correct. hell if Welsh and Scottish tea production increased and wasn't insanely expensive id just drink that

[Anonymous No.19144065]

>>19143905
what a grim future we're heading for. im not sure what's worse, endless diversity and its crime or corpo-communism disappearing people for wrongthink memes

[Anonymous No.19144068]

>>19143861
>She doesn't want to haggle with peasants in Kunming to get their secret puerh stacks

[Anonymous No.19144072]

>>19143865
In my opinion pinyin looks better

[Anonymous No.19144136]

>>19144072
Honestly, pinyin makes little sense, the vowels it choses to use in transliteration are all over the place

[Anonymous No.19144163]

>>19144136
I meant it aesthetically looks better. I hate the dashes and apostrophes all over the place, looks so bad. I can’t tolerate reading WG.
>the vowels it choses to use in transliteration are all over the place
Just like my native language, English. It’s nothing I haven’t dealt with all my life.

[Anonymous No.19144165]

>>19144072
Better? Sure, but I honestly don't understand how one gets chi from shit like qi desu or Peking vs Beijing. I don't really know any of them though and mispronounce shit all the time, even English words so whatever.

[Anonymous No.19144187]

>>19144165
Chinese phonology is far too different from any European language for a romanization to be intuitive. The choices are either repurpose unused consonants (pinyin), add typically non-vocalized characters to distinguish sounds (WG) or invent completely new characters (insanity).

[Anonymous No.19144196]

>>19143250
>Like how did you even get into drinking tea?
I was out for groceries one day when i was like 14 and the trees told me to get some tea.

[Anonymous No.19144321]

how many grams should I put in a gaiwan for earl grey/black teas?
if I put the full 4 it feels like a third of the volume is tea and i barely fit water

[Anonymous No.19144363]

>>19144321
Have you considered experimenting and finding your personal preferences?

[Anonymous No.19144372]

>>19144321
Imo I just do western style new for black(ed) tea. For a typical 100ml gaiwan, I'd say 2g. But that's me. If you're die hard on gong fu, I'd probably do 7g and like 20sec+ infusions.

[Anonymous No.19144374]

>>19143250
Lunch-room at one of my workplaces offered free tea of many kinds, so I spent my breaks teaching myself to brew and experimenting to pass the time, and eventually found stuff I really liked.

[Anonymous No.19144389]

>>19144321
2-3g/100ml for western brewing. 5g/100ml for gongfu
>>19144372
7g is crazy, honestly 5g is pushing it

[Anonymous No.19144395]

>>19144163
It's pretty annoying with pinyin because its new enough that they could have not messed it up
Swear sometimes the pinyin is like "de" but it sounds like "da" and it makes me wonder why tf they didn't just write da

[Anonymous No.19144398]

>>19143956
Try some "chai" masala blends. Cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and ginger are a hell of a combination.

[Anonymous No.19144404]

>>19143956
Buckwheat, if you like toasty flavors

[Anonymous No.19144415]

>>19144389
I guess. My problem with black tea is depending on how curled and rolled it is, you'll dump all your flavor too fast which is why I mega pack my gaiwan. For other stuff if do like 5g.

[Anonymous No.19144437]

>>19144415
farmerleaf did some videos about how the tea is crushed to make it blakc so all the flavour compounds are on top of the leaf, he recommends flash infusions instead of longish steeps. i've tried it and you do get a surprising about of flavours from the flash brews but i cant say if it was a big difference

[Anonymous No.19144467]

>>19144437
Ya I watched it before and usually share it with my friends who don't know how to gong fu. It's a good video. I'm still not a huge gong fu black tea believer. Some Chinese stuff I have, it works well for, but like Indian black, like really black fully oxidized assam or third flush Darjeeling is basically impossible to gong Fu with any semblance of flavor after the first infusion. I've tried.

[Anonymous No.19144510]

>>19144467
Rinse into 30-45 seconds steeping depending on the black tea usually. Doing longer or shorter depending how the tea reacts at first steep

[Anonymous No.19144515]

o shit waddap

[Anonymous No.19144549]

>drink strong coffee
>heart palpitations, anxiety
>drink tons of extra strong tea
>nothing
Why is tea so good bros

[Anonymous No.19144565]

>>19144549
Because it's veggies instead of processed drugs

[Anonymous No.19144575]

>>19144549
the fluoride is disabling your brain to counteract the caffeine

[Anonymous No.19144581]

>>19144575
wtf I love fluoride now

[Anonymous No.19144589]

>>19144581
take more iodine and magnesium for that palpitations and anxiety

[Anonymous No.19144684]

>>19143919
it's the same story every year. bunch of poorfags post shit like
>yeah, this is the year, I will buy ton of fresh jap tea, budget be damned
and nothing comes out of it. sometimes some poor soul will post a pic of two 25g sachets for which he had to suck off punks under the bridge and that's it.
just ignore the japanese tea drinkers here, 3rd world larpers most of them.

https://global.ippodo-tea.co.jp/collections/shincha

[Anonymous No.19144697]

>>19144565
All my homies hate processed tea.

[Anonymous No.19144724]

>>19144697
>after all of that you finally get to dry the tea leaves

[Anonymous No.19144860]

>>19144697
Do the Taiwanese see themselves as white or are tea processors notorious shut-ins?

[Anonymous No.19144902]

am I retarded or is there a trick to pouring from a Gaiwan?

[Anonymous No.19144911]

>>19144902
the former most probably.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIsS1iNIFeE

[Anonymous No.19144923]

>>19144902
occasionally gaiwan gets too hot and i pour it the wrong way

[Anonymous No.19145013]

>>19144902
I am also retarded and keep burning myself

[Anonymous No.19145014]

>>19144902
I remember making this exact post years ago. Stick with it. It's a skill.

[Anonymous No.19145019]

>>19144911
>suggests a towel incase it spills
guess I'm not retarded

[Anonymous No.19145039]

how log will a spill from a gaiwan stay fresh on the table? sometimes I'm too full to finish a gongfu sesion, what should I do with the spills? slurp them right off the table or can I return the next day? do I cover with mylar bag?

[Anonymous No.19145044]

>>19144902
most will have a saucer and a knob on the lid, i grab the whole thing because it helps not to burn myself, doesn't help that every different gaiwan will pour differently

[Anonymous No.19145047]

>>19145013
protip when gaiwan gets hot put it down and try again when hand cools down

[Anonymous No.19145049]

>>19145044
oh yeah, I forgot the Grabber.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4PC8Luqiws
post that picture of your maneuver again bro

[Anonymous No.19145095]

>>19143943
do you not read top to bottom?
or with dates in chronological order?

[Anonymous No.19145099]

>>19145039
Wow a real ruskie poster
You can leave wet leaves in a gaiwan for a dolid 12 hours, probably a day is fine but eventually it will grow mold. The brewd tea (spils) can also be left out for a good 12 hours.

[Anonymous No.19145115]

I got some cheap-ass hojicha from Amazon to get free shipping on something I needed and am shocked by how much I like it. Never had hojicha before to compare it to, but it tastes almost identical to the Gan Zao Ye that used to be my go-to nighttime drink and at half the price.

[Anonymous No.19145121]

[Anonymous No.19145196]

rember to feed your capybara to become big and strong

[Anonymous No.19145197]

>>19145115
>Gan Zao Ye
that seems like a painful procedure. what was it?

[Anonymous No.19145214]

>>19145099
how good are 12 hour spills? no soilage?

[Anonymous No.19145220]

>>19145214
They are fine, they taste normal

[Anonymous No.19145223]

do the sip test
if it's bad throw it out

[Anonymous No.19145231]

>>19145223
with the fucking table? are you high?

[Anonymous No.19145234]

https://www.fullchea-tea.com/laocang-2015-yr-mini-puer-tuocha-glutinous-aroma-rice-ripe-puer-tuo-cha-p0706.html
Last thread I mentioned (>>19139984) that I'd tried the above tea and didn't like it, but realise now that I actually drank the one of the following link instead. I've since tried the above one as well, and this I actually liked. It tastes rather food-y, for lack of a better word.
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/laocang-2015yr-yunnan-tuocha-original-aroma-raw-puer-tea-tuocha-mini-puer-tuo-cha-p0705.html

[Anonymous No.19145281]

get more air circulation in ur house/apartment if u have mold problems
have some window fans blowing out

[Anonymous No.19145286]

>>19145234
How did it smell?

[Anonymous No.19145293]

>>19145281
only open the windows in the morning and evening hours when its colder outside than inside. having the windows continually open or ajar can actually increase humidity inside if its humid outside.

[Anonymous No.19145298]

>>19145293
i could smoke in my kitchen cuz it has mad window fans blowing out all year

[Anonymous No.19145300]

>>19145298
not sure what that has to do with humidity

[Anonymous No.19145303]

>>19145286
I'm terrible with flavour notes, so I don't know how to describe it. Pleasant, mellow, savoury, interesting, vaguest hint of smoke.

[Anonymous No.19145305]

>>19145300
it has to do with air not being stagnant

[Anonymous No.19145306]

>>19145305
stagnant air is not what causes mold. its humidity.

[Anonymous No.19145311]

>>19145306
maybe it's both

[Anonymous No.19145314]

maybe the aerodynamics of the airflow of an enclosed space makes mold not grow fast

[Anonymous No.19145366]

>>19145197
Wild jujube leaf. Has a nice toasty flavor, if you've had Laoshan green tea it's pretty similar.

[Anonymous No.19145507]

sound test before the SA keycaps and PE foam
https://files.catbox.moe/fv7ln4.flac

[Anonymous No.19145941]

>>19145234
i want to buy two puerh tea cakes, got any reccs? I went to "most popular" on fullchea, but the most popular ones dont have the most ratings.

[Anonymous No.19146033]

>>19145941
I' allabout this one アラム・ハチャトゥリアン 組曲《仮面舞踏会》lately, try it

[Anonymous No.19146187]

>>19144902
>>19145013
Use less water so the hot water line is lower, resulting in a cooler lip to hold.
When pouring, tilt it quickly to 90 degrees. Going slowly will make it run down the side

[Anonymous No.19146333]

>>19145941
from fulchea?
fresh sheng/raw
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/shudaizi-2020-bingdao-raw-puer-ba-wai-ancient-tea-tree-sheng-puerh-200g-p0703.html
proper ripe, 2019 only
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/haiwan-2019-yr-pu-er-cha-9978-batch-191-shu-puer-te-357g-p0473.html
you will be missing old sheng, but let yourself live with those first.

[Anonymous No.19146621]

>>19146333
there's no way that's actually made with bigdao gushu, right?
any other reccs from this brand? I remember someone talked about it on here

[Anonymous No.19146855]

>>19146621
>there's no way that's actually made with bigdao gushu, right?
No, but they make very decent cheap tea. It's probably from somwhere in mengku.
They have a couple other cakes on there and a black tea brick that's probably nice
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/yunnan-black-tea-with-honey-sweet-notes-fengqing-dianhong-tea-red-brick-250g-p0700.html
Grandness tea has a few cakes from them too. Not really sure of other good sources for their tea, dragon tea house has a bunch but they are really overpriced. I guess buying on taobao is probably your best bet if you really want to explore the brand.

[Anonymous No.19146887]

Is there any reason most kettles I find only go up to 1.7 liters? Any glaring flaws or issues with a 2 liter kettle?

[Anonymous No.19146922]

>>19146887
You talking about electric or stovetop? If i had to guess it's probably what the heating elements that most electric kettles use are rated for. I don't think larger is a problem, it probably just takes a minute or three longer to boil.

[Anonymous No.19146935]

>>19146922
My bad, I meant stovetop. I just started making tea at home using my mom's old kettle, but it's pretty small and I just wanted something bigger. Don't mind if it takes longer to heat up, just wondered if something was up because I can only find 2 liter kettles online and not in stores. Thanks for the reply.

[Anonymous No.19146940]

>>19145306
Ultimately it is humidity which causes mould growth but there is an important caveat. In areas with low air circulation you can have large variations in humidity, particularly in more enclosed areas such as behind furniture.

[Anonymous No.19146942]

>>19146935
You're drinking more than a liter of tea at a time...?

[Anonymous No.19146949]

>>19146935
Is two litres good? You can find bigger ones but they are really unwieldy.
https://www.amazon.com/Kettle-Stovetop-Whistling-Teakettle-Stainless/dp/B07DFF5WPQ/

[Anonymous No.19146966]

is it okay to leave tea leaves out for the night and reuse them in the morning?

[Anonymous No.19146977]

>>19146966
Less than 12 hours is usually okay assuming it's not too hot.

[Anonymous No.19146988]

>>19146942
Doctors recommend two liters of liquid an hour?

[Anonymous No.19147000]

>>19146988
They recommend less than 1 litre per hour.

> a general rule of thumb for healthy people is to drink two to three cups of water per hour

That's like half a litre.

[Anonymous No.19147102]

>>19146988
they recommend you drink 24 liters EVERY DAY? holy shit! maybe if youre on a sahara expedition.

[Anonymous No.19147370]

>>19146988
>48 liters of water a day
this could actually literally kill you

[Anonymous No.19147509]

>>19147000
>>19147102
>>19147370
balls wont grow proper if you don't overdrink water a lil :\

[Anonymous No.19147658]

I posted a fridge a couple of threads ago I was turning into a pumidor. Update: I can't get this dank, chemically smell out of the fridge. Cleaned it out twice very well, including disassembling panels, let it air out, baking soda. It was sitting in a farmers garage for who knows how long. Inexplicably, they painted it, too. Somewhere along the line it picked up a harsh synthetic smell. I won't risk my collection/inventory with storage like that.
Fortunately there is appliance collection week coming up where people can leave their appliances out and city comes and picks it up. Lots of junkers patrolling the streets. I hope to find some mini fridges.

[Anonymous No.19147662]

>>19147509
theres overdrinking a little and then theres guzzling down three and a half bathtubs of tea every week

[Anonymous No.19147838]

I like earl grey, what's the tastiest earl grey that won't buck break my bank account?

[Anonymous No.19147867]

>>19147838

[Anonymous No.19147915]

>>19147838
Upton, I like the Extra Bergamot one.

[Anonymous No.19147966]

>>19147658
Damn that sucks, yeah once those things pick up some weird smells it can be impossible to get them out

[Anonymous No.19148138]

>>19147658
Hot vinegar mixed with lemon slices supposedly works well against stubborn odors, see if you can make a miracle recovery if you can bother with that.

[Anonymous No.19148312]

Kombucha on day 5, A blob grows on top that i guess is a new scoby. Tastes good, pretty acidic but in a moreish way kinda like home made lemonade
I think I should've brewed the tea stronger.

[Anonymous No.19148375]

>>19148312
Scobypostin. This has been going for long enough. I'll pull out at least a gallon tonight. You'll start to notice when to bottle by scent. That acetic acid smell will start to turn slightly sweeter. It kind of loses its edge.

[Anonymous No.19148392]

>>19148312
>I think I should've brewed the tea stronger.
It can be hard tp get the hang of that. A lot of recipes tell you to boil black tea for like 10 minutes. I was just using a bunch of cheap tea and adding it after i got the suger water mixture up to temp maybe simmering for a minute and then killing the heat and just letting it brew for 3-4 more minutes like i was making a cup of tea

[Anonymous No.19148421]

>>19148392
yeah boiling them for 10 mins sounded way over the top to me but maybe i should've been more aggressive. i just ended up steeping some loose leaf like i normally would.
now i'm wondering about cold brewing for it.

>>19148375
very cool, looks like milk porridge or something. i'll keep on sniffin.

[Anonymous No.19148546]

>>19148138
I think I'm going to call it quits. It doesn't seem like it's coming from any surface, but rather something internal behind the interior and the back panel. Given it also hasn't diminished in odor, it's likely the right call.

[Anonymous No.19148805]

F for the 50g of yerba i dropped on the floor
superior japanese ceramic cup didn't break
another 1kg taragui bag finished

[Anonymous No.19149484]

Show me your kettles /tea/ !

Mine is electric, from Chantal. Been going over 6 years strong with over 2,000 uses. This thing is indestructible. Recently I inserted an anolog food thermometer into one of the top vent holes.

[Anonymous No.19149496]

>>19149484
I got this thing two weeks ago and have been enjoying it.

[Anonymous No.19150016]

>>19149484
this is what I have

[Anonymous No.19150099]

So, I just wanted to share some insights since drinking tea regularily the past year or so.

Pu-er: Prime chemical difference actual, mold-fermentation provides is elimination of theanine, the prime 'mellowing' substance otherwise found in most true tea products. Interrestingly, caffeine is not 'composted', or broken down by fungi. The same one-line sale pitch with amphetamines sold in the 70'ties still hangs on with pu-er tea, the "fat killer".
Price and branding: Trying different teas have led me to wonder if the tea market somewhat retains fair market dynamics. Going by brand goes a long way if you aren't bothering to find a mid-end price 'high-quality blend'. Hipsters, newbies and tea junkies certainly are different, but probably have made the same experiences like I did from buying as fra from the producer directly as logistically possible. Shipping cartel wise, I have had the best experience buying directly from chinese sellers on ebay, without moral scrubles involving how much child labor etc is involved.
Area, region and tea taste: It is hard to want to try something less promising from studying the geographics firstly. Mountainous areas away from dense population and manifacturing ovbiously matters. Yunnan is my favorite area in China, but I still enjoy a simple Assam or Darjeeling.
Tea type: Having drunk black and green tea only I am currently on the look for someone to shill me the best oolong and white tea and region for me. Yunnan white is my next indulgence currently underway but I have read promises of quality on something called "golden snail", and while I find green tea is for social consumption, I might expand with oolong and in private.

I know it is not a black/white matter on especially chinese teas, but I must admit I remain sceptical on the hyper-processed oolongs, compared to what I am expecting to be from enjoying the simple, natural flavor development of the white tea cakes. Meta-question remains, can you even compare? I don't think so.

[Anonymous No.19150111]

So, I just wanted to share some insights since drinking tea regularily the past year or so.

Pu-er: Prime chemical difference actual, mold-fermentation provides is elimination of theanine, the prime 'mellowing' substance otherwise found in most true tea products. Interrestingly, caffeine is not 'composted', or broken down by fungi. The same one-line sale pitch with amphetamines sold in the 70'ties still hangs on with pu-er tea, the "fat killer".
Price and branding: Trying different teas have led me to wonder if the tea market somewhat retains fair market dynamics. Going by brand goes a long way if you aren't bothering to find a mid-end price 'high-quality blend'. Hipsters, newbies and tea junkies certainly are different, but probably have made the same experiences like I did from buying as far from the producer directly as logistically possible. Shipping cartel wise, I have had the best experience buying directly from chinese sellers on ebay, without moral scrubles involving how much child labor etc is involved.
Area, region and tea taste: It is hard to want to try something less promising from studying the geographics firstly. Mountainous areas away from dense population and manifacturing ovbiously matters. Yunnan is my favorite area in China, but I do enjoy a simple Assam or Darjeeling.
Tea type: Having drunk black and green tea only I am currently on the look for someone to shill me the best oolong and white tea and region for me. Yunnan white is my next indulgence currently underway but I have read promises of quality on something called "golden snail", and while I find green tea is for social consumption, I might expand with oolong and in private.

I know it is not a black/white matter on especially chinese teas, but I must admit I remain sceptical on the hyper-processed oolongs, compared to what I am expecting to be from enjoying the simple, natural flavor development of the white tea cakes.

[Anonymous No.19150140]

I tried loose leaf tea and I'm not noticing much difference from tea bags. I have an electric kettle with precise temperature measurements. I pour the water into a teapot which has an infuser built in. I let it steep for the recommended time listed on the container. I pour the tea in and add a little bit of sugar. What am I doing wrong?

[Anonymous No.19150146]

>>19150111
>I must admit I remain sceptical on the hyper-processed oolongs
it's not like the tea is less healthy or less "natural" just because the processing is a bit more involved, it's just a way to get different flavors from the leaves. making good rolled oolong can take quite a bit of skill and expertise too

[Anonymous No.19150157]

>>19150140
not every loose leaf tea is good. you probably just have some mediocre shit
you can experiment with the ratio of leaves to water and the steeping time and you can try not adding sugar. you might also have shitty water (usually too hard or with some weird minerals), in which case you will need a filter or bottled water to make good tea
what tea are you brewing?

[Anonymous No.19150168]

>>19150157
I bought it from Upton. So far I've tried an Earl Grey and an English Breakfast but I have a few others I've yet to try. I do a teaspoon of leaves for each cup and usually prepare 2-3 cups of water in the kettle. I do have well water in my house but I have a cartridge filter system on all of my water. Maybe I'll try the water in my Brita pitcher

[Anonymous No.19150193]

>>19150168
sounds like water is probably not the issue then, but it won't hurt to experiment a bit
I haven't tried any teas from Upton but yeah, cheapish blended black teas like earl grey and english breakfast usually won't blow you away
I'm not all that into black tea, but Chinese and Taiwanese black teas are nice, they tend to be sweeter and more interesting than Indian teas from what I've tried and will definitely be pretty different than what you've had in teabags. not to mention something like a good oolong will also taste nothing like anything you'd get in teabags
maybe someone more knowledgable of black tea can recommend something. my favorite is yuchi shan cha, but it's quite expensive and not super commonly available. I've also seen black gold bi luo chun fro, yunnan sourcing shilled a lot ITT and beyond, I'm sure it's very good

[Anonymous No.19150212]

>>19143189
what's something like hojicha that's not fucking expensive?

[Anonymous No.19150236]

>>19150212
hojicha doesn't have to be expensive. it usually isn't expensive either

[Anonymous No.19150239]

>>19150236
everything from nipponland is expense.

[Anonymous No.19150242]

>>19150236
Where should i buy hojicha thats not too expensive? my budget is $20 a month

[Anonymous No.19150247]

>>19150239
could try some roasted oolong. maybe one of the roasted tie guan yin offerings from Fullchea if you want to go cheapo

[Anonymous No.19150254]

>>19150242
o-cha has some premium organic hojicha for 7 euros per 100 grams

[Anonymous No.19150338]

what does white tea (baimudan) normally taste like? I was gifted a bag of it, never had white tea and I expected it to be a really mild tea but when I tried it just now it had a powerful herbal flavor almost like a tisane. theres no way they would mix other leaves in with their tea to mask the fact that it actually has no flavor at all, right? I didnt see any other leaves in there but it is very low quality tea with stems and shredded leaves so really there could be anything in there.
or maybe this is actually normal for white tea and I'm just fussing over nothing?

[Anonymous No.19150436]

>>19150338
when I tried a cheap baimudan it did have an herbal tisane-like quality, but also a sweet vanilla creamy flavor
maybe you're overbrewing it if it comes out too strong and herbal?

[Anonymous No.19150445]

>>19150436
could be, I've been doing 80°C with about 20 seconds +5 per infusion, maybe I'll try it again with 70°C.

[Anonymous No.19150475]

trying Fullchea Jin Xuan for the first time today. it's pretty delicious, great stuff for the price
the sweet milky-buttery aroma is quite strong, it's almost hard to believe that it's unflavored, as the other Jin Xuan I've tried had more of a standard floral aroma. but Fullchea claims it's unflavored and the flavored "milk oolong" I've had before tasted and smelled much worse and more artificial, so I guess I'll believe them
the flavour supports this too, since it's nice and balanced, with the buttery milky note being strong, but in harmony with the green and floral aspects you'd expect from a lightly oxidized oolong

overall I'm impressed, I like this more than their dancong. seems like a great value taiwanese oolong

[Anonymous No.19150517]

>>19150099
I have serious trust issues with basically 3rd worlders making tea.

>"ya ya no pesticides organic very organic"

Meanwhile they're spraying it with chemicals the United States probably banned 60 years ago.

[Anonymous No.19150531]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnCntK1ks80

I was browsing Youtube for electric kettle reviews, and I came across this channel. Turns out, this guy is the same guy who's house i've been to back in 2017. He had his own business called Teabook, and he turned his nice home into a studio for customers to come in, drink, and buy some tea and teaware.

Of course covid fucked up his entire business, so now he's a financial adviser. His channel is very much worth watching, and hopefully /tea/ will make him 'our guy'.

[Anonymous No.19150580]

>>19150517
then you shouldnt buy low quality non-organic tea. that stuff will be blasted with pesticides (nothing that wont be removed with your wash but I understand its still unwanted).
any certified organic tea will be so but they will only certify teas as organic that are already shit to sell those at a markup to retarded gweilos.
any tea that is really worth its salt in terms of quality will be organic by default because you actually want a certain degree of bug bite as that triggers a stress response in the tea plant which improves flavor (a lot of what we perceive as flavor is actually plant produced insecticide, including caffeine). its a trade off between quality and yield.
obviously they wont bother certifying that kind of tea as organic because the process is a pain in the ass and tea of that grade isnt really made for export anyway.

[Anonymous No.19150609]

>>19150580
>you actually want a certain degree of bug bite
is this really true? I thought it was only true for Bai Hao and not really practiced with other teas

[Anonymous No.19150613]

>>19150609
its true for any tea and goes beyond bugs even. you want kind of shitty soil, not too much sun etc etc all to elicit a stress response from the plant. thats why mountain grown tea is so sought after and why tea with massive yields from sunny, fertilized plantations is turned into tea bags.

[Anonymous No.19150624]

>>19150613
Sure, but just like with Marijuana, you can do the stressing yourself with an extremely high degree of control while also maintaining the exact soil (or nutrient for hydroponic) composition needed for the highest quality end result.

I'm sure naturally stressing tea trees with bugs and poor soil and other environmental conditions is good for the tea, but if you took years to really study and work out a way to artificially stress them while maintaining the best conditions possible in other ways would result in a better end product.

Tea just isn't worth enough to invest that level of time and effort though

[Anonymous No.19150657]

>>19150445
could try shorter infusions or less leaves instead. 70 degrees would be very cold for white tea

[Anonymous No.19150710]

>>19148805
based taraguifag

[Anonymous No.19150793]

>>19150580
So what's a truly good source of tea to buy from? What regions do you aim for? Which companies?

I'm not necessarily looking to spend ultra money for quality, but some sort of middle ground that we can trust.

[Anonymous No.19150860]

>>19150793
not him, but Japan makes a lot of organic certified tea that's actually good. pretty sure most decent Japanese tea is organic
for factory pu-erh, Tulin has quite a few organic certified offerings
for raw pu-erh, Farmerleaf seems trustworthy enough in the "small farmers with no certification, but they pinkie swear to not use pesticides" category and he's certainly transparent about where his tea is made
for oolong you'll have to look around, but it's not that hard to find organic examples

[Anonymous No.19150865]

>>19150860
The Japanese seem to really be the only true Asian culture that still has decency deeply embedded in their society.

[Anonymous No.19150884]

>>19150865
>decency
Rape of Nanking 南京事件 Unit 731 731部隊 Comfort women 日本の慰安婦 Attack on Pearl Harbor 真珠湾攻撃 Tuna Corn Mayonnaise Pizza ツナコーンマヨネーズピザ Anime in general アニメ_ Shirako (eating fish semen) 精巣 Final Fantasy VII remake ファイナルファンタジーVII_リメイクUsed panty vending machines パンティ自動販売機 Sonic the Hedgehog blue curry ソニックシリーズブルーカレー

[Anonymous No.19150887]

>>19150884
lmao

[Anonymous No.19151027]

>>19150111
>look for someone to shill me the best oolong and white tea and region for me
Nothing comes close to wuyi oolongs. They are heavily fermented and roasted and then ideally rested for at least a year after the last roast before drinking. The complex minerality is fantastic along with the roasted flavors. If you want to get sold on yancha (wuyi oolong) try some from essence of tea.
If you want to splurge this is a really fantastic little collection of teas, i had that last version of this sampler and it was some of the best teas ive ever drank.
https://essenceoftea.com/collections/wuyi-yancha/products/wuyi-masters-tasting-set-ii
If you want to keep things more reasonable price wise try some of their house yancha offerings.
https://essenceoftea.com/collections/wuyi-yancha/products/2018-eot-house-lao-cong-shui-xian
https://essenceoftea.com/collections/wuyi-yancha/products/2018-eot-house-rou-gui-wuyi-yancha
I suggest brewing 8-10g in a 100ml vessel, flash steeps.
Old ways tea in the US aslo offers some more affordable sample sets, i haven't tried them but they have reviewed well with other /tea/ anons.
https://oldwaystea.com/t/tea/bundles
If you want to go more in the floral direction of oolongs then dancong oolongs are they way to go, i still recommend going on the more roasted and more heavily fermented side of the spectrum but they do have some much greener offerings.
If you want to stay in yunnan this guy offers an interesting selection of yunnan produced oolongs. This sampler is a nice offering. These teas are respectable performing oolongs but i would say they don't offer quite the highs that more specialized oolong producing regions do.
https://tea-expert.net/magazin-kitajskogo-chaya/ulun/50087-13-yunnan-wu-long-yang-pin-bao

[Anonymous No.19151384]

Do any of you do multiple infusions for first flush Darjeeling teas?

[Anonymous No.19151405]

>>19150884
Carp semen is a proper delicacy in most of the former Roman Empire.

[Anonymous No.19151494]

>>19149484
This was the least shit temperature-controlled kettle I could find that works off of 2400W. It's not very well insulated, but otherwise I have no complaints.

[Anonymous No.19151507]

>>19151027
Thanks. Looks pricey. But, fermented? I thought only puer underwent actual fermentation. Looks super dark post-steep. Might be right about crispiness and mineral profile. Too bad my puer experience was rather caffeinated. Caramel flavor with a black assam is more my cup before it goes fungal. I hope my white tea cakes doesn't grow mould in it even though it had been steam pressed, but I had one reccomendation from a grower himself.
>>19150146
I see. It's just my philosophy of 'simple usually is better' kind of sticks with me, possibly changing the experience. I must admit I was kind of shocked going from a trifle strong darjeeling to the golden tipped yunnan blacks. I actually doubed it was actual tea leaves just from how flowery and non-astingent it tasted. Asking myself, "is this actual tea or jasmin ripoff?"
Before that I had tried, puer, assam, darjeeling and some yunnan black, and now I see this golden snail type - only golden bud rolls - is sold specifically as such. Tea itself has become something completely else to me after going 'back to the home region'. I hope my next parcel with white bud nettle from Fuijan isn't too polluted for my own good or something. Otherwise I'll have to go back to Yunnan if I'll ever try out the whites again.

[Anonymous No.19151518]

>>19149484
I use this secura kettle, $35 on amazon, no temp control but its 100% stainless on the inside
I found this other no name $40 kettle that uses the same heating unit and is all stainless inside but has temp control. I will pick it up eventually.
https://www.amazon.com/JOYHILL-Temperature-Stainless-Thermostat-Protection/dp/B09ZKHXMG1/

[Anonymous No.19151538]

you got me looking at kettles now.
i like the big ass display on this one.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Venga-Stainless-Steel-Temperatures-VG-3003/dp/B0BB3C8TBG

[Anonymous No.19151547]

>>19151507
There are two kinds of fermentation in tea production. Maybe oxidization is a better term in general but for oolong its complicated. First is with the fresh tea during processing, once the leaves are picked they start to oxidize and get broken down by the enzymes in them. Green tea is heated to stop this process. Black tea is allowed to fully oxidize and gets its dark color. Oolong is allowed to semi oxidize. Green oolongs maybe only 10%-20% or so, darker oolongs are allowed to oxidize to 50%-60% sometimes more.
This is different than post fermentation like with puer or other hea cha, where the already processed and dried tea has water added to it and is intentionally basically composted to reach its finshed state.

[Anonymous No.19151548]

>>19151494
Woow. Looks really sweet. Does it smell circuit-boardy when it's fully powered on? Simple so far has been best in terms of expectancy if you don't mind practicing eye-to-weight measurement when mixing hot and cold water is just as fun to me as having one of these, I think.
I won't ever be able to back off from my 2000W kettle unless I want to start some new, akward waiting game when I brew a cup and using other's kettles with anything less feels just wrong.

[Anonymous No.19151632]

>>19151547
Alright. I think the few pictures of wet leaves were underexposed or something because the tea looked super dark, and even fully oxidized didn't match the impression I got from the wuyi oolong.
I believe green tea must be brewed with 70-80c water to avoid all the astingent stuff to be released, but if you can remove this in oolongs I am fully committed to explore some oolongs, even though my first thought was to go the opposite direction from green tea - white, to get the natural profile of the plant, perhaps first, before experiencing the effect of the man-made horrors that accompanies the thousand-times steamrolled dragon.

My puer really made me think I would become a hermit from the change in personal smell I noticed. It was not rancid at all, bit part of it is just nowhere near something the liver wants to work with and your sweat glands take the up the needed work. I'm not sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone once through time had some drastic thange in smell from drinking bad puer, so my advice would be to be cautious with otherwise toxic spores and the like. I admit the pros with mineral profile were very pleasing and interesting, but so is a crisp riesling white wine, and neither seem particularily healthy besides from what the richness of taste they deliver. I do not reccolect anything other than actual fruit and berries that has that exact crispiness like fresh apples or the like has, and tea really has something else inheriently given to it I'd like to explore a bit further.

[Anonymous No.19152018]

>>19149484
I use a random strainer for my earl grey because I think it's not meant for gongfu as some of the pieces are really small and go through the gap

[Anonymous No.19152026]

retard here, how do you guys earl grey?
I can't get it right again, before I had it so it's a light brown almost caramel and it was the perfect flavor and i've only been able to replicate it once more
any tips?

[Anonymous No.19152138]

>>19150884
>Ascending atrocity level

[Anonymous No.19152170]

[Anonymous No.19152237]

W2T order arrived at last! I can't wait to give these a shot. The Boat Captain is so smokey that I had to seal it up to put it in the pumi. That is an outright angry sheng. The shou mini dragon balls are cool. Waffles broke mid transit, but only along one outermost perforation. I had the shipment sent to my work since the first one got jacked. When it showed up over lunch, my coworkers were very interested. I had to pass around some cakes and unwrap one.
Today was a good day.

[Anonymous No.19152285]

>>19152237
Nice, interested to hear your thoughts on the boat captain

[Anonymous No.19152377]

How do I caffeine max with a gaiwan?
nothing too retarded like 500 mg per 100 ml
I think 300 is a nice target, that's what was in the espresso cans I drank

[Anonymous No.19152452]

>>19152377
i find that doing many short steepings works for this purpose

[Anonymous No.19152476]

>>19152452
what black tea do you recommend?
I like english breakfast mostly and earl grey

[Anonymous No.19152488]

>>19152476
maybe this, i like it https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B4JT5QVG
should be above average for energy too

[Anonymous No.19152548]

How can I improve my chai lattes?
>toast 4 cloves & 8 green cardamom pods then crack the pods
>add the spices to 1 1/12 water with 3tbsp of tea leaves
>boil then simmer for 5 minutes adding 2tbsp sugar
>then add 1 1/2 milk and turn to medium heat and let it bubble and take off heat about 5 times
>strain it and it’s ready

[Anonymous No.19152622]

>>19152548
Thats a pretty solid recipe
I don't know when else i would do

[Anonymous No.19152830]

>>19143189
Been drinking mainly black tea; some stuff from YS and some stuff I got from Upton. Cheap but good Darjeeling & Sri Lankan teas. Got a little bit of white tea and shuixian and aged shou from a Hong Kong vendor whose name escapes me at the moment. I find I'm drinking the same kinds of teas over longer periods of time, like a sort of mellowing out. I remember paying a lot of attention to steep times, but now I just eyeball it and pour when I feel it's necessary.

[Anonymous No.19153539]

I just had a dream that I ordered some kind of grilled cheese and chilli con carne sandwich and a cup of fu cha at a fast food place in some asian country
maybe that means it's time to try the fu cha sample I got from KTM

[Anonymous No.19153573]

>go to tea place
>Guy serving me is TCM drop out
>Tea room is full of Chinese themed everything
>Nigga rinses everything religiously (even black tea, albeit fast)
>Health claims about shou's and digestion
I want to make a no nonsense tea place, but I know if I don't feed into eastern mysticism, it will literally fail hard. Where are my non sinobos at?

[Anonymous No.19153577]

>>19150475
Literally bought the same thing. Based.

[Anonymous No.19153578]

>>19153573
gay idea, go drunk your faggy tea at home by yourself

[Anonymous No.19153579]

>>19153573
seems like if you want to succeed you need to feed either into eastern mysticism, british colonialism or middle aged women's love of tissanes and flavored tea
think about it like this: a no-nonsense tea place only attracts tea nerds. but the place you described attracts tea nerds, chinaboos and hippies for a much broader audience
then again, I've been at a decent, seemingly succesful tea place recently that didn't go too hard in either of those directions, so maybe it's just lack of imagination from the business owner

[Anonymous No.19153621]

>>19153577
have you tried it already? thoughts?

[Anonymous No.19153624]

>>19153621
No. It's still in the mail.

[Anonymous No.19153625]

>>19153573
>>19153579
There's a fourth option: Weebs. A Japanese teahouse will get mad customers. Just look at the Manchester tea house which is full even though it's run by the most autistic couple of all time who have a tonne of rules about how you're supposed to respect the tea.
Also flavoured teas are super popular among young women too.

[Anonymous No.19153841]

when the new jap greens start being sold which cultivar and region should i look for if i want a really heavy vegetable taste? mostly just had sweeter tasting greens so far

[Anonymous No.19153928]

>>19153841
I had a really savory one from Kagoshima some time ago, don't remember which cultivar though. it was almost like drinking miso soup

[Anonymous No.19154097]

>>19150140
assuming you have good water and stuff honestly just try lower temp less brew time until you find something that isn't astringent

[Anonymous No.19154695]

>>19151548
Not that I've noticed.

[Anonymous No.19154735]

>>19152548
Remove the chaff (cloves, tea, milk)
Increase the cardamom

[Anonymous No.19154986]

>>19150884
>Sonic the Hedgehog blue curry ソニックシリーズブルーカレー
This part made me snort out loud, top tier pasta

[Anonymous No.19155122]

[Anonymous No.19155127]

[Anonymous No.19155181]

>>19155127
Beautiful, i keep forgetting to go to the south American market the next town over to reup on yerba.

[Anonymous No.19155267]

>>19153573
>shou's and digestion
Of all the dubious health claims around tea, probiotics in shou are definitely not nonsense.
>>19153625
Possibly. I'm a little warry of distinguishing weebs from tea nerds. I'm thinking there's a lot of overlap. There may be reason to discuss them as separate groups, but if we're discussing starting a themed tea house, they're nearly the same audience.
>>19155127
Clean your kitchen.

[Anonymous No.19155287]

Kombucha bottled after 7 day, it's already lightly fizzy. About 750ml I guess, I wanna drink it now but I'll wait a couple days. Next run I'll give it 1.5 litre and stronger brew.

[Anonymous No.19155294]

>>19155267
i hate that people bring the processed = bad thing into tea since it really dosent apply, green tea is much more processed than other teas anyways since it goes through a 100% kill green process

[Anonymous No.19155312]

>>19155287
good stuff. what's in it?

[Anonymous No.19155433]

>>19155312
just some dregs i had laying around since i figured there's a decent chance i'd screw up the first batch.
for the second batch i just brewed up a bunch of this that i received from fullchea this morning so that scoby better make good use of it.though it's not clear to me yet if good tea really makes a difference here or if i should just order in some cheaper stuff for kombucha.
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/2020-dianhong-hhoney-fragrant-golden-bud-black-chinese-tea-red-tea-100g-box-p0727.html

[Anonymous No.19155457]

>>19155433
what sugar for bottle fermentation?

[Anonymous No.19155472]

>>19155457
didn't add any to the bottles. should i have?

[Anonymous No.19155542]

[Anonymous No.19155591]

>>19150475
I bought this because of this post and its very tasty. But for some reason the flavor is very light, even if I steep for 5 minutes. I'm a tea newfaggot am I doing it wrong if I'm using one of those ball infusers meant for single cups? Should I be using a teapot?

[Anonymous No.19155635]

>>19155472
You don't have to if you don't want to post ferment. Its good for drinking as is. If you want some carbonation, give it a little "juice" in the bottle and wait. Literally fruit juice, diced fruits, herbs whatever.
>though it's not clear to me yet if good tea really makes a difference here or if i should just order in some cheaper stuff for kombucha
This is what I'm going through now. You can definitely taste different teas coming through. I bought some cheap stuff so I don't use anything too nice too often. Last bottles were 2017 tibet flame raw, the ones I'm pulling out today will be mostly 2012 cnnp 7851.

[Anonymous No.19155646]

>>19155591
sometimes if those infusers are too small it's too cramped in there for the tea to open and infuse that well. you could also just need to use more leaves or higher temp, you're using boiling water right?
i happen to have this exact tea sitting next to me unopened so i'll give it a try once i finish my pot.

>>19155635
>If you want some carbonation, give it a little "juice" in the bottle and wait
thanks. i will top them up with a little something, i think this would be really good carbonated.
i didn't know people are using puerhs, very cool anon.

[Anonymous No.19155651]

>>19152237
holy shit that's gotta last you two years

[Anonymous No.19155853]

>>19155651
That's something like 1.5 kilos. That's like 4 months worth for some of us.

[Anonymous No.19155929]

Alright /tea/, we know lesbians love puer, and fags prefer green/oolong, so what tea do trans folks prefer? FtM and MtF both. I suspect that a lot of the pushing of puer by “lesbians” is actually being done by MtF folks who are in relationships with other MtF folks which allows them to claim to lesbians even though both lesbians have girlpenises. So do natal women actually LOVE puer like it seems or is there some chicanery going on?

[Anonymous No.19155965]

>>19155929
earl grey

[Anonymous No.19155995]

>>19155965
More like earl gay lolol

[Anonymous No.19156014]

>>19150242
you can make your own with most any tea; green, white, raw puerh, 'green' oolongs, etc.

[Anonymous No.19156041]

>>19155646
All bottled up + I fished out my starter culture for a backup. I'll give these each a shot of raspberry chung.

[Anonymous No.19156655]

>>19155591
>I'm a tea newfaggot am I doing it wrong if I'm using one of those ball infusers meant for single cups?
yeah, this is one of the worst teas to make in a small ball infuser because the leaves need so much room to expand
you can make it in a teapot if you have one, or you could try grandpa style (brewing straight in the cup)
also, you can brew rolled oolongs like this one several times. the second brewing will actually be stronger than the first

[Anonymous No.19157214]

I'm going to drink pu'er grandpa style, and there is nothing you can do to stop me!

[Anonymous No.19157295]

how do you guys brew pheonix and dancong oolongs?

[Anonymous No.19157545]

>>19157295
gongfu is the best method for most tea especially in the case off puerh and oolongs, oolongs because they loose taste when brewed western style and puerh because it gradually releases its flavor with each steep. just put the leaves, like a spoonful and a half or 4-9g, in a cup and add 185° ish water to the cup and cover it with a lid, you can find gaiwans at pretty much any tea place for 10-20 bucks to start out with. then wait a couple minutes and strain the tea. u can use a normal cup with a plate or saucer and a sieve or the plate to do this or just buy a gaiwan. in terms of brewing time i would say start with two minutes then add some time for each next steep depending on how many steeps you're planning on having; say 8 steeps you add 20 sec each time and 3 steeps you add a little over a minute.

[Anonymous No.19157572]

>>19156041
Looks good, hows it taste?

[Anonymous No.19157645]

>>19157545
sorry meant for gongfu, already know how to brew gongfu style just wanted some different brewing parameters because the pastebin parameters feel a bit lacking for roasted oolongs
>in terms of brewing time i would say start with two minutes then add some time for each next steep depending on how many steeps you're planning on having; say 8 steeps you add 20 sec each time and 3 steeps you add a little over a minute.
is this for western brewing or is this how you brew it in a gaiwan?
next time will try it at 185° instead of near boiling, thanks

[Anonymous No.19157648]

Oh me? I drink Earl Grey with milk and splenda.

[Anonymous No.19157656]

>>19157645
>the pastebin parameters feel a bit lacking for roasted oolongs
For dark roasted oolongs, 1g per 10ml, flash steeps. For lighter roasted oolongs .75g per 10ml flash steeps, maybe 90-95°c depending on the particular tea.

[Anonymous No.19157667]

>>19157645
You can also look up instructions for Chaozhou Gongfu for the preferred method for dancongs and wuyi oolongs. Except for the step where they throw the tea out after a handful of brews lol fuck that

[Anonymous No.19158285]

>>19149484
Using for almost a year, instant hot water dispenser for desired temperature (5C intervals, max 99C).
Fills 400mil in ~50 seconds.
Also very useful getting warm water for dry yeast.

[Anonymous No.19158305]

>>19158285
Yeah I bought a Keurig and have never put a K-cup into it. I just use it to dispense hot water and leave a teabag/ball in the cup

[Anonymous No.19158666]

I thought about buying one of those Japanese water boilers a few times but autism about plastic tubing has stopped me

[Anonymous No.19158744]

Which would make the bestest latte :3

[Anonymous No.19158767]

>>19158744
the cheapest one. you don't need good matcha for matcha latte, that's what culinary grade is for

[Anonymous No.19158846]

>>19158767
I dislike too much bitterness, so would wakaki be good? I don't what sharp means for matcha flavor. I've bought this before a few years ago and it was nasty.

[Anonymous No.19158855]

>>19158846
>sweetened
>craft blend
yeah this looks cursed
just buy some normal japanese-made matcha

[Anonymous No.19159620]

[Anonymous No.19159828]

>>19159620
Imagine the smell

[Anonymous No.19160856]

>>19159828
No

[Anonymous No.19161060]

Is it worth it to get a clay pot for just black tea? I'm moving on from my ripe puerh phase, so I wouldn't use it for that.

[Anonymous No.19161078]

>>19161060
For black tea you tend to need only like 2 or so grams for like a liter of liquid, getting a commonly found english teapot makes more sense I think.

[Anonymous No.19161217]

>>19149484
I wish the thermistor had a higher resolution readout but it works

[Anonymous No.19161337]

Can someone post some references on teapot clay-tea pairings? How much does it really matter? I found a pot I want that I really like the shape of, but it is a yellow yixing which I thought were supposed to be muting. I don't really want a muting pot, I would rather have my first teapot be something I can use for all types of tea.

[Anonymous No.19161667]

>>19161337
If you want only one thing for all your teas i would recommend a gaiwan instead. If you buy a "real" yixing teapot i would suggest choosing your favorite kind of tea (if not green) and only use that kind of tea for it, if you buy it "new" it's going to take a lot of time to season it tho.

[Anonymous No.19161846]

>>19161337
I don't have any duanni or other yellow clay yixing but my understanding is that they can be pretty muting. They definitely arent as versatile as other clays.
For general use for many tea types i would probably opt for hong ni clay. Since it tends to have the least muting effects.

[Anonymous No.19161885]

>>19161337
take it with a pinch of salt but heres a guide on clay type vs tea

[Anonymous No.19162064]

>>19161337
Mud and leaves has some blog posts about yixing types and tea pairings

[Anonymous No.19162623]

love drinking tea while playing runescape anyone else

[Anonymous No.19162658]

>>19162623
I love drinking puer at 4 am when i have insomnia and give up on sleeping

[Anonymous No.19162761]

>>19147867
>>19147915
Thanks for the recs they just came. Upton xtra berg>>>>the harney. Wenn Sie sich von meinem Blog abmelden möchten, klicken Sie bitte hier.

[Anonymous No.19162765]

>>19155591
I'm having similar problems with other Fullchea oolongs, and I do brew using larger infusers and gaiwans and such. I got my oolongs recently though, so I assume it's a skill issue on my part.

[Anonymous No.19162801]

>>19162761
It's also massively more expensive

Upton is $40 for 400g
Harney is $20 for 450g

[Anonymous No.19163787]

any recommendations for a nice afternoon tea, which is a bit sweet? not too much though. maybe with something like honey.

[Anonymous No.19163803]

>>19163787
I literally only drink Earl Grey.
I don't really know why I'm here.

[Anonymous No.19164207]

>>19163787
shan cha is a naturally sweet black tea, it can be almost candy-like. the best one I've had was the one from Yuchi

[Anonymous No.19164264]

>>19143189
Does anyone have info about Siberian ginseng and a tea recipe similar to tension tamer tea? I think the flavor is good but I wanna make it at home with higher quality products I can find on etsy or at a local tea shop.

[Anonymous No.19164283]

i have some lapsang souchong still. been meaning to drink more but i feel like i always need to have a piece of caramel with a cup and i ran out.

>>19163787
chilled oolong

[Anonymous No.19164308]

>>19163787
dong fang mei ren

[Anonymous No.19164413]

i moved my ao ne me 2021 cake into a smaller and more enclosed pumidor with space for only 2 cakes and after a few months its rehydrated really well and has some nice flavours now :D i thought it was almost completely dead but i guess my old storage was just dogshit

[Anonymous No.19164620]

Has anyone bought from bitterleaf teas before? im looking for some puers in Simao and they have a lot of puerhs mostly from around north Lancang and south-west Simao
also if you know more sellers for Wuliang/Ailaoshan young puerhs please post im very interested in this area but i've heard they arent good teas for aging

[Anonymous No.19164672]

>>19164620
I haven't ordered from bittereleaf but ive heard good things about them.

[Anonymous No.19164685]

>>19163803
Still happy to have you around.
>>19164413
It makes a difference. If you're going to have more than a bit of tea on hand, it's worth it to have a humid storage solution i.e. a pumidor.

[Anonymous No.19164797]

car boot sale teacup, seems to date to the 1939s assuming the mark is correct, desu I think it might be a counterfeint

[Anonymous No.19164808]

notice how bad the typography is

[Anonymous No.19164855]

>>19164797
>>19164808
idk, old porcelain marks can be a little rough. I don't think too many people fake these as well, I could be wrong though

[Anonymous No.19166757]

bump

[Anonymous No.19166762]

>>19166757
/tea/ needs a 9 hour necro-bump on a weekend. its over. dead hobby.

[Anonymous No.19166818]

>>19166762
It's been a fun millennia while it lasted

[Anonymous No.19166845]

>>19166762
sometimes the threads go very fast, others its like a dead zone

[Anonymous No.19166995]

>>19166762
Sorry, I have not had a lot of time to post to /tea/ recently.

[Anonymous No.19167054]

Tea is always slow on the weekends

[Anonymous No.19167081]

>>19167054
It's a shame. This is when I'm sitting and thinking specifically on tea. I'll post something inspiring tomorrow morning.
Or maybe just some bait.

[Anonymous No.19167102]

>>19167054
You and /smg/ would be a great combo. Those guys could definitely use some better solutions to their stock highs.

[Anonymous No.19167680]

>>19167054
Too busy partying to talk about tea.

[Anonymous No.19167706]

>drink lots of tea at work
>work moves my team to a new office with way more people in it
>random girls around the office keep complimenting my teaset
wut do?

[Anonymous No.19167714]

>>19167706
Put it in their pooper

[Anonymous No.19168004]

>>19167706
stay professional

[Anonymous No.19168021]

>>19167706
pics of teaset so I can replicate your experience and lose my job due to sexual harassment allegations?

[Anonymous No.19168094]

>>19167714
>>19168004
Tough call

[Anonymous No.19168153]

>>19167714
>>19168004
>VN choices

[Anonymous No.19168367]

Got some stuff from farmer leaf, it's pretty good stuff. I am too poor for the puerhs but I did grab a really cheap sample.

[Anonymous No.19168403]

>>19168367
What did you get?

[Anonymous No.19168406]

>>19157656
>>19157667
thanks :) i just ran out of roasted oolongs but ill pick some up on my next order, really want to see why people are hyping them up so much especially wuyi oolongs

[Anonymous No.19168409]

>>19168403
Forgot to grab a pic. I ordered these two and a pretty generous sample of the Jingmai Gushu Black was thrown in too. Would order again

[Anonymous No.19168533]

>>19168409
Farmer leaf rules

[Anonymous No.19168576]

waiting for tea is suffering when you're almost out of good tea to drink

[Anonymous No.19168592]

>>19168576
I swear some of the "shipping parter facilities" that aliexpress is using these days are just an old Chinese man with a 90s toyota and he just drives all the way from flushing to drop off your package

[Anonymous No.19168603]

>>19168592
yeah i'm fully expecting it to sit in NY for another week.

Considering I'm barely 3 and half hours outside of NYC, it's a bit frustrating.

[Anonymous No.19168629]

>>19168603
>>19168592
Could be a mail custom thing, since it's coming from of the country.

[Anonymous No.19168630]

>>19168629
out of the country*

[Anonymous No.19168643]

>>19168629
Usually they'll tell you if it's going through customs, like it'll say accepted by US customs, waiting customs clearance, etc.

[Anonymous No.19168703]

>>19168603
Nah its already through customs. Since the US clamped down on chinas discounted international postage rates aliexpress has been getting really creative with how they ship packages to keep shipping costs down. They are using private shipping agents who pick up the package from customs and then drop it off at your local usps sorting center for last mile delivery. But these services arent some big brand like ups or fedex they are a Chinese guy and his cousins renting a warehouse in flushing NY and driving packages around in private vehicles.

[Anonymous No.19168888]

help im too retarded to brew tea quickly in the morning.
My normal routine is gongfu or grampa style but when i need to get going quickly for whatever reason i don't know what to do. Usually takes me an hour to drink my tea in the morning. Best i can come up with is grampa style ripe in a 20oz thermos. I don't drink black or green tea, just puer and hei cha.

[Anonymous No.19169043]

Gong fu cha is slow tea

[Anonymous No.19169089]

whats the slowest tea possible and inversely whats the FASTEST QUICK tea?

[Anonymous No.19169099]

>>19169089
cold brew in fridge and pic rel

[Anonymous No.19169136]

>>19169089
>slowest tea possible
Growing your own tea busges from seed
Barring that overnight cold brew in the fridge
>fastest tea
If you don't count stuff like machine preheating then those adjustable pressure valve espresso baskets, tea in 20 seconds

[Anonymous No.19169350]

farmer-leaf.com has some spring 2023 sheng maocha up if anyone is interested in seeing what freshly processed sheng is like.
W2T is doing a free shipping sale till the end of today as well.

[Anonymous No.19169418]

Did anyone get the spring green teas from w2t?

[Anonymous No.19169628]

>>19169350
I can't believe that reddened puer is already sold out. Damn. It.

[Anonymous No.19169823]

Am I too late or on-time for Spring greens? I haven't bought new leaf in a while and almost forgot it was time for the season. Any specific shops/sales I should consider this season? Never had Japanese greens, so may like to focus on those and infuse them in my gaiwan.

[Anonymous No.19169921]

Why are most black teas such shit? The only good ones I've had are the Chinese ones.

[Anonymous No.19169945]

>>19169921
arent most black teas chinese?

[Anonymous No.19169955]

>>19169945
I've tried Western ones like Earl Grey, Breakfast Blends, etc. and they're all bland

[Anonymous No.19169962]

>>19169823
>Am I too late or on-time for Spring greens
On time. For Japanese check the vendors in the pastebin, make sure they are this years teas sometimes its lees clear then i would like.

[Anonymous No.19169965]

>>19169955
they sell their worst stock to the west and resellers here just blend it together as best they can, what do you expect? yeah tea blends all suck, thats why they're blended and not sold pure.

[Anonymous No.19169968]

>>19169955
Earl grey is usually a chinese blend (generally black, but can include white/oolong/etc) with bergamot oil.

English breakfast tea is generally a blend of indian/sri lankan/kenyan black teas.

[Anonymous No.19169977]

>>19169968
>English breakfast tea is generally a blend of indian/sri lankan/kenyan black teas.
These days its 99% kenyan for the most part

[Anonymous No.19169989]

>>19169965
>yeah tea blends all suck,
Not necessarily true, there are some high quality da Hong pao blends for example, lots of good blended pu-erh as well

[Anonymous No.19169992]

>>19169977
Yeah I wasn't trying to say it HAD to have all of those, just those are what they use.

[Anonymous No.19169993]

Green tea chads rise up

[Anonymous No.19170001]

>>19169989
alright let me rephrase that: all tea blends people usually buy such as any "breakfast blends" suck. the other anon was definitely not talking about some puerh blend where its actually done because the flavors of the component teas compliment each other. he was talking about supermarket tier blends where the blending is a tool to make subpar tea sellable.

[Anonymous No.19170003]

>>19170001
Fair enough

[Anonymous No.19170008]

Have any anons here made their own tea trays or accessories before? I've shopped around IRL for something, but they've all been kind of inadequate. Don't really want a huge bulky thing. Almost think I'd rather just have one of those plastic trays they use at fast food joints.

[Anonymous No.19170024]

>>19169823
only the midori cultivar is out right now for most vendors because that cultivar grows the fastest, the more standard cultivars will probably be sold later this or next week

[Anonymous No.19170050]

>>19169962
Are there any specific kinds you'd recommend? I believe the shincha may be rather expensive, but not sure what else might be fun besides perhaps some cheap kukicha.
>>19170024
I see, useful info. Will the other cultivars likely be much cheaper? I wonder if they'll be up for preorder too. I just skip Spring greens every year, so I've never had a chance to really get into them. I've dug into the pastebin before, but not sure what types to consider. I guess I could just buy whatever looks/sounds good in the end.

[Anonymous No.19170141]

>>19170008
burgerpunk aesthetics

[Anonymous No.19170150]

>>19170050
>Will the other cultivars likely be much cheaper?
yeah they're usually around half the price. Since not much of the midori cultivars are grown and also since its the first to grow it has a really high price since a lot of people want to buy the new spring teas early.
i keep forgetting which cultivar and steaming has what taste but the Nio teas podcasts has a lot of info on it but i know that sae midori is very sweet so im probably skipping that this year
>I wonder if they'll be up for preorder too
https://yunomi.life/collections/japanese-shincha-green-tea
yunomi.life is selling preorders but they ship in around may so what i said earlier:
>will probably be sold later this or next week
might be a bit wrong im not too sure

[Anonymous No.19170281]

>>19170050
>Are there any specific kinds you'd recommend?
Just get affordable sencha offerings. Even the cheaper stuff for good Japanese vendors will still be pretty solid. Something like the house sencha from o-cha or one of their offerings in that price range. Don't get gyokuro or expensive sincha unless you are already into Japanese greens you want to devlop a good feel for them to be able to appreciate the differences in more premium offerings

[Anonymous No.19170504]

is rose mountain's darjeeling good? I need a tea for nighttime.

[Anonymous No.19170520]

>>19170504
Mountain rose has good herbal teas but i haven't really been happy with their tea teas

[Anonymous No.19170834]

>>19170520
Their chamomile is a narcotic

[Anonymous No.19170843]

someone make the new thread

[Anonymous No.19170860]

>>19170843
On it

[Anonymous No.19170871]

>>19143189
NEW
>>19170868
>>19170868
>>19170868

[Anonymous No.19170884]

>>19170860
>>19170871
thank you