/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>21342150
I consider myself somehow of a hot drink junkie and tried hundreds of different tea varieties and herbal infusions. I usually drink tea when I try to detox on caffeine. Last attempt I made I was on tea for a month then started drinking black tea then said fuck it and got back into coffee.

To be fair tea is kind of a shit beverage with a pretty bland and uninteresting taste, it takes mixing it with other crap to make it taste good. I'm convinced it's just an excuse for adult people to drink hot sweet drinks.

Japanese don't know how tea works. If you want real tea, go with chinese. All of japan's tea history stems from china anyway. Japan is just another one of the shithole countries that copied china in just about everything.

For me it's cawfee. Best way to cope with crippling insomnia.

i like golden tea that is brewed in the inners of a loli
can be sipped hot and cold

I really like tea anon! Mostly black tea ,usually English or Irish Breakfast, with cream (but no sugar, people who put sugar in tea are awful). I just make it in a metal kettel on the stove, and make sure it's dark by steeping it a long time, so no nothing special. I also almost always have tea from a tea bag, but a friend did give me some very good loose leaf tea from Iran a long time ago now, and I wouldn't be surprised if loose leaf is generally better, sadly it's long gone now. Tea is probably my favorite thing to drink honestly, I do enjoy sweet drinks but I've been trying to be healthier recently and so I've been cutting back on them, and coffee makes me literally sick even if I enjoy how it tastes.
To you OP, I'd suggest trying to let your tea steep longer, as this will make it taste less like flavored water, I hate really light tea because it does indeed taste like lightly flavored water. Having cookies/biscuits/cakes with your tea might also help, I personally think makes a good thing even better. I'd also suggest trying a large variety of teas, for example I hate chai tea, and recently I tired oolong for I think the first time because I wanted to have tea like they serve in a Chinese restaurant, which can apparently be oolong or jasmine, and I didn't like it much, I also have some jasmine I've yet to try because when I want tea I'm usually in the mood for black tea with cream, but hopefully it's closer to what I've had at Chinese places. You could also try iced tea, I talked about hot tea as I assumed that was what you meant. So look for what you like and try different things OP, and hey, maybe after trying a lot you still might not like tea, nothing wrong with that either, sorry for my long and rambling blogpost, and good luck on your tea adventure anon.

>>21342292
meiling, get back your guard duty

I drink green tea sometimes.
No additions.
It tastes strong, maybe even gross, but I feel pretentiously good about it in a kinda "wow this gotta be healthy" way.
I have no idea if it's actually healthy.

>>21342150
I brew tea to wake myself up in the morning before uni and on other days when I need to wake up early. I'll try anything caffeinated but my favorite is earl grey (especially Twining's). I'll make it the night before I drink it, boiling water in an electric kettle then I'll put the mug in the fridge to let it steep overnight. When I wake up, it's a nice cool cup of iced tea and when you let it steep overnight, it is rather potent. I don't understand people who only let their tea steep for a few minutes, it's far too weak to drink. I usually have several different types of tea bags on hand at any given time so I don't drink the same type of tea day in and day out.
>>21342387
Good post
>>21342500
Tea has antioxidants, so that's something at least.

You wanna learn how I make my tea, man? Here's how I make my tea. I take a tea bag of black tea, right? That's a given, you can't make tea without tea bags or tea leaves, but I usually use the former because it's QUICK. Right, right, I put it into a cup. Then I boil some WATER and pour it in, put the kettle back in place real careful, I like to put a lot of water into it before boiling, way more than I need, so I make sure not to spill it. Right, then I grab the cup, take it to my room, and let it sit there for two to three minutes, five if I'm feeling generous (forgetful), then I take a spoon, put the tea bag on it and SQUEEZE the remaining liquid out of it back into the cup. Then I take the tea bag and toss it into the special bowl I have prepared to dispose of them. Right, on board with me so far, yeah? Here's what I do next, I take ONE AND A HALF tea spoons of rhubarb jam and mix it into the cup, and then I start DRINKING it. That's how I make my tea, now you know. The brand I use is usually Greenfield, not really known abroad but people have taken a liking to it here in Russia. Sometimes I use Ahmad tea, the strings almost always tear when I squeeze the bag and it's a pain. I have a silver tray on my table where I put the cup, rhubarb jam and the bowl for tea bags, which allows me to get a near constant 24/7 tea pipeline from the kitchen to my room. Good night,,

Tea tastes like grass. Always. If it's thin, it tastes weakly of grass. If it's strong, it tastes strongly of grass. If it's poorly made, it tastes like bitter grass. I ate a matcha Kit Kat once, and it tasted like a bar of fucking grass. Why do Japanese have a whole ceremony for this shit? Is that the only way they can enjoy it, by hyping it up?

Infusing fruit or something into water is fine, but why would you drink actual tea when you could put anything else into water? Someone introduce cocoa to Japan, stat!

I drink black tea with nothing in it. A.k.a the proper way!

>>21342647
Greenfield and Ahmad used to be good like a decade ago, now they are both bad. Look for tea packaged in Sri Lanka, India, or wherever it comes from, just not here in Russia, I'm convinced they are diluting it with low quality or out of date stuff, or ruining it in some other creative way.

Then again, if you use tea bags it hardly even matters.

>>21342150
Get entry level teas like Earl Grey or English Breakfast, ideally loose leaf for better quality. Make sure the water doesn't go above ~100 C for black teas or else you'll ruin the flavor. Normal steep times are 3 to 7 minutes, but you can go for longer if it's still too weak.
If want to sweeten it, use honey or jam instead of sugar.

>>21342621
For cold brew tea I think you can just use cold water instead of heating it first. Leave it in the fridge for 8 to 12 hours and it should come out fine.

>>21342722
>Why do Japanese have a whole ceremony for this shit? Is that the only way they can enjoy it, by hyping it up?

It's hardly exclusive to the Japanese. The British do this too, well, at least we used to before they turned the country into a 3rd world colony. There are hundreds of different blends and ways to prepare tea and expensive tea sets are an important part of any real British household.

Mint flavoured tea is a pretty big deal in the middle east too from what I understand.

I enjoy tea a ton.
Its great. My current favorites are gunpowder Oolong and chamomile.

>>21342726
So you don't drink earl grey?

>>21342150
>Soda doesn't taste like water at all
>>21342722
I call it the McDonalds taste.
You can't appreciate the flavors and aroma of tea because your tastes are fucked, since you only ate shit since you were a child.

itt: teanoobs

i'll admit i was a teanoob myself but "not for long" i told myself. i then subscribed wholeheartedly into japanese green tea. japanese people are asian and asians do tea right, right? what can go wrong? i'm learning from the masters after all! i even imported an 120 dollar kyusu (japanese teapot) and a 50 dollar authentic yunomi. i even imported a bag of sencha for only 19.99, a steal i thought. now that i had everything i needed it was time to make some real japanese green tea. i purchased a water heater with a digital thermometer to boil water to the perfect steeping temperature. so i painstakingly read through numerous guides on how to prepare authentic japanese green and none of them would agree on anything. perhaps i was looking in the wrong place, after all these articles are all in eigo and eigo speakers are all teanoobs. i would need authentic instructions in japanese! duh, i thought. this followed about 8 months of learning rudimentary japanese so i could read japanese instructions on how to make real green tea. to accelerate the process i even hired a japanese tutor. that wasn't cheap. after finally being able to read japanese i could perhaps finally have the honor of preparing japanese green tea. i decided to read the instructions on the bag of sencha i purchased 8 months ago. being able to read japanese felt very honorable! after following the sacred instructions on the packet i finally produced my first cup. i couldn't begin to consume it without the proper ceremony so i said "itadakimasu" and held the cup full of tea for the first time. tears flowed down my cheeks as i felt truly one with the many japanese who has shared with me the struggle of preparing an authentic cup of green tea. and so, i took a sip...

>>21343632
How was it, Anon?

I drink about 6 cups daily, mostly black tea. I always follow this guide (english method) and have had no issues. Also, loose leaf is cheaper and better than bagged so always go for loose leaf if there is a store near you.

>>21343544
Why should you have to consume only tasteless tripe for a lifetime to appreciate more tasteless tripe?

>>21343853
You shouldn't have to do anything.
Calling things 'tasteless tripe' just because your tastebuds have been demolished by consuming nothing but McDonalds and sugardrinks your whole life is the thing that irks me as dumb.
Its like you lack self-awareness.

>>21344094
Um just so you know, humans were never partial to bland flavors. This is why cuisine exists in every culture.

>>21342882
>Look for tea packaged from wherever it comes from
Yeah, sure, I'll try that, tea is one of the things I'm willing to pay good money for because I drink it so constantly, I'm just a bit resigned at this point because finding anything good in my provincial spot takes so much effort. That being said,
>Then again, if you use tea bags it hardly even matters.
I know what you mean and I know it so bad it actually hurts, I just feel like the margin of quality difference between tea bags and properly brewed leaves in the cases of tea I drink is too low for the extra effort. At any rate, thanks for the advice, maybe I'll finally have to stop nuking the taste with jams, it's a suboptimal solution.

>>21344491
And because tea isn't just tasteless tripe, it is drunk in many cultures all over the world.

>>21345856
nah, only china. the rest just copied them.

>>21345214
Unless you live in a really small town, there should be something like a tea stand on the local market, selling all kinds of packaged tea you don't see in supermarkets. Pic related, for example, is reliably good.

(I'm assuming that going to a tea shop and buying something more expensive by weight is a step too far for now.)

>>21342150
There are different types of tea. Maybe you haven't tried a tea flavor or type that you like. Personally, I don't like black teas and herbal teas. I do like green tea, though, and I could drink that all day. If you didn't like the teas you tried, my only pieces of advice are try a different type of tea and try it with and without sugar and cream/milk. I like my tea with no sugar and no cream, but you might like some other combination.

>>21346852
I managed to find and buy some Twinings in a grocery store like a normal human being. Also, we have exactly one marketplace here and it's the worst sort you could possibly find. It's just people reselling stuff they bought on discount in supermarkets. Strictly speaking, my city isn't that small, but it's a bitch to find anything remotely niche, so I'm relieved that tea doesn't suffer from this issue.

If you do any of the following you are an idiot.

- buy teabags
- put anything other than tea leaves and water in your tea

>>21349930
what about honey though

>>21356426
honey rhymes with cunny so it's okay

>>21349930
But brandy

I began by drinking tea the western way (teabags in a cup, steep for a few minutes, toss out the bag) and I never enjoyed it much. Then I got some good loose-leaf sencha and brewed it in a pot at the proper temperature and it tasted amazing. I've been a tea fan ever since. Sencha is great for re-steeping too, I tend to prefer the 2nd steep the most.

Recently I found out that my local asian market carries "meicha" tea, which I'm pretty sure is just mecha tea, for $5.99 for 85g. This without a doubt reminds me of fukumushi sencha, or just normal mecha. Brews up very bright green and completely opaque. Very grassy flavor but not very astringent. I drink half a gallon each day, iced. I do two one liter infusions at a time with 8g of leaf and put them in a half gallon mason jar and put that in the fridge, and then I fill my glass 1/4 the way with water and put that in the freezer. When I wake up I fill the rest of the glass with the cold tea and wait until the puck of ice at the bottom melts and floats to the top. I used to always drink tea like this in the summer and it feels really good to go back to doing it. Then of course during the nights I'm drinking mugicha. I get really excited about tea in the summer. Winter time not so much.

what if i want to make only one(1) cup of tea. how many leaves do i use bros

>>21342476
She's right tho

>>21364331
2

>>21342300
Good taste anon

Coffee was invented by arabs.
All arabs are terrorists.
Therefore Chihaya must be worshiped.

>>21342150
If you drink anything other than greentea you're drinking trash.

>>21360108
Which brands are good for loose leaf sencha?

This and popcorn tea

>>21382880
wrong, and gay. I bet you drink bagged tea as well, homo man.

Where the FR*CK do you get your loose leaf tea? I ran out of my genmaicha and nobody local sells it

>>21388740
i import mine from ebay, china. since they take a long time to ship i usually order early once my tea reserves start running low.

>>21389069
I see, who do you buy it from? Does it taste right? I was going to do the same before I asked, but I don't know what you can expect from ebay, or China.

Aren't you afraid of eating the leaves if you drink loose leaf tea?

>>21389312
I put the leaves in a basket like pic related, and take it out when the tea is ready.

>>21389312
>Doesn't know what matcha is

>>21389312
Why would you be "afraid" of eating tea leaves? Do you think they're poisonous or going to tear up your throat or something?

>>21395083
Who are you quoting?

>>21396101
>implying

>>21342150
I like to drink tea and I'm starting to try some common loose leaf after drinking mostly from bags.

>>21389312
I wait for the leaves to decant. However, I tasted them once and it wasn't bad...

>>21342150
Sweet tea from the grocery

>>21387871
>popcorn tea
that sounds interesting

cum tea

>>21407009
Imagine

I like all kinds of tea. Chinese or Japanese. From pu'er to sencha. I don't have any favorite, but I'm really liking houjicha.

>My tea tastes watery
- Discard the first serving
- Steep the leaves longer. 30 seconds is usually sufficient.
- The leaves have already lost its flavor
>My tea tastes bitter
- The leaves are burnt. Green tea must be boiled at 80C, black tea at 90C.

>>21410193
>Discard the first serving
Wouldn't this be the most flavorful serving? You extract most of the actual compounds on the first steep don't you?

Also, do you steep the second serving longer or shorter than the first?

>>21414024
>Wouldn't this be the most flavorful serving? You extract most of the actual compounds on the first steep don't you?
No, the first serving is the most watery. The leaves have to soak first before the flavor is released. Hence why you discard the first serving.
Below is the proper way to brew tea (specifically pu'er tea), but it's extremely cumbersome. I just boil water in a kettle, put the leaves in a strainer and fill up my thermos bottle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3tA3fFCP34
>Also, do you steep the second serving longer or shorter than the first?
Yes, you should. After each serving, let it steep slightly longer (e.g. 5 seconds). Eventually the leaves lose most of their flavor regardless of how long you steep. Depending on the type of tea and the quantity, you can get 4 proper servings out of them.

Note that this only applies for tea leaves. Matcha is a whole different game.

>>21342150
I like tea, but it makes want to puke sometimes

>>21342300
do you like gween twee?

>>21405122
It's also known as brown rice tea. I recommend it.

I make teabags on my own, with leaves quantity depending on how strong I want it. My ex gf offered me some tea from Kyoto, a cute little box exactly like the one on the left of pic related and it's the one that I enjoy the most as it feels the most "authentic". I also bought the box on the right of https://ichikawaencha.ocnk.net/product/400 when I went back to Japan and it's fine but not amazing.
I'm wondering what are some great Chinese teas and if Korean people have their own brews too.