/ck/ - Food & Cooking

I cant help but wonder what goes on in the mind of moychay's wrapper artist. picrel is so strange Russian artist, pop culture cat picture, Japanese iconography, Chinese tea. I cant say that i am particularly a fan of their packaging art-style but i will give it credit for being novel and immediately recognizable. i like this one's art though: https://moychay.com/catalog/chaj_proizvodstva_moychay/hua-bay-cha-belyy-chay-iz-fudina-s-chaynymi-tsvetami-345-g

I could pull out some 2018 bxz tonight. Thats real fun in the tea pf.

>>17434720
I found this cutie of a teapet there yeaterday, many of their designs are very "unique"
The wood fired gaiwans are cool though

>>17434764
i agree, i really love their teaware selection. its wonderfully off-kilter. they have something for just about everyone in there.

i bought some Moomin branded tea and to my surprise it was loose leaf

>>17434831
Chamomile, blue flowers, black tea
What does it smell/taste like?

>>17434610
Thanks for making a new thread, i keep forgetting to watch the thread

>>17434839
"Black loose tea in a beautiful metal jar. Taste of rye and chamomile flowers, peach, orange and pineapple aroma."
havent got to taste any yet but the smell is quite nice and fruity

>>17434849
Sounds nice, probably would make a good iced tea

>>17434839
>blue flowers
those are probably blue cornflower petals. they are commonly added as a decorative element to Earl Grey tea.

>>17434856
Yeah, i always forget the name of those guys but i recognize them as mostly being decorative

Anyone bought anything from d:matcha? Are there similar places where I can buy direct-ish from farms (for Japanese tea)? I generally prefer this to large retailers.

>>17434610
Is upton still good? They don't list years
I just want some western tea this year

>>17434982
Most of the Japanese shops in the pastebin are buying directly from farmers and then selling the tea. They don't always give you a paragraph blurb about the farmers but it's not going through a bunch of middlemen first.

>>17434993
Upton is usually good for western style teas, they will have ages for the years Indian teas usually. Anyway their english tea blends and stuff like that are usually good, i just would look elsewhere for Chinese or Japanese teas

>>17434993
river shannon is good for traditional breakfast style tea

How long do I have to reuse steeped leaves for another cup? Can I just let it sit out for days or will they go bad in a few hours?

I want to try a wide assortment of teas in order to find the one(s) I like. Should I go with the Yunnan sourcing tea box? Or is there another that offers more choices?

>>17435296
Its tough because there are lots of teas from lots of places. Yunan sourcing has good teas but i here complaints here and there about their oolongs or some of their other looseleaf.
As far as trying a lot of Chinese teas they are probably a pretty safe bet. But don't rule out a tea completely if you get a batch you don't like.
I don't think any other shop is going to have a larger variety of teas.

>>17435324
Thank you. I've decided to make the purchase and try them without any hurry.

>>17435252
put them in your freezer

>>17435356
Cheers, post your experiences when you try some stuff or ask if you have questions about brewing

>>17435252
>>17435359
Does this apply to herbal tea too? I feel like I'm wasting a lot of tea by only making 2 or sometimes 3 infusions, but at the same time it makes sense to keep it moving in terms of making new tea and not obsessing over the waste and ending up with no tea.

Does it make sense to have a bowl of water in the fridge and put them all in there for days, collecting the tea once a week? Idk why I'm asking permission, but I don't want to poison myself. Would the tea bowl just breed bold?

>>17435523
Different anon
I wouldn't keep leftovers for more then a day personally.
I think with herbal teas if you want to get more out of them you can simmer them in some water on the stove after you have finished you other brews, then you can strain out the herbs and keep the liquid in your fidge for a day or two

does anyone else brew tea really dark and pretend like they're drinking rum

dropped my kyusu while cleaning it, it is fucked now. I also have an order of tea coming in a few days. Any US sellers that sell actual Japanese kyusu, not chinese factory made shit? Ordering one from Japan again will take too long

>>17435721
Ive never shopped here before but they seem okay
https://www.sugimotousa.com/catalog/category/teaware/

>>17435721
These guys have a few somewhat expensive pieces
https://ippodotea.com/collections/utensils

>>17435017
well yes I know not to get chinese and jap from them, hence I pointed out I want western this year.
Seems on almost everything I want there is no dates. Feels sketchy but I'm craving blended tea and earl grey, too many years of gong fu, need to get away from it for a while

>>17435324
problem is YS is curated by Scott and he has awfully specific taste in Oolong, and if you don't like that modern Taiwanese style you aren't going to like his selection.

>>17436060
What are you talking about? If you mean how he has only super green tieguanyin, yeah but he has roasted tieguanyin too at least. And then there's all the other oolongs and I don't see what's Taiwanese about them.

>>17436060
>tfw your tastes are hasbeen

“Linden star” is not from the linden tree at all, it is from an unrelated Mexican shrub in an unstudied family. I have no clue which is in the local bodega teabags that reign over all, but considering how red, dark, and bitter they get, it is probably the shrub. I love both lindens, tilo and tila. This discovery is great news because I can now seek them out separately. Elementary school spanish is failing me as I go deeper into the rainforest.

Rooibos tastes like honey and pine needles

Nothing beats a delicious morning cup of strong black tea, friends.

It's time for my daily 1.5L of tea. I decant all my brews into a chemex and it's almost overflowing.

>>17435356
>>17435324
What did you get? The First Steps sampler? That's what I was looking at.

>>17436994
Damn right
I usually do western style in the morning, but recently switched to gong fu because it tastes so much better. I stopped caring so much about being ceremonious about it. 3 infusions fits perfectly in my mug. This is infusion 4-6. The first cup was way darker. There's no going back when you start your mornings with a thick oily cuppa. Plus it's more fun to be messing around infusing rather than sitting and waiting 2 mins for my tea to brew western style.

>>17436765
>it is from an unrelated Mexican shrub in an unstudied family
whats your source for that? everything my googling came up with suggests that it is some kind of linden.

>>17437209
This is all new to me. By infusion do you mean steeping? And what do you mean by 4-6 infusions?

i personally just boil the water and put some tea leaves in, but if there's a better way than my western technique (??) then I'm here for it.

>>17437364
It is Ternstroemia lineata. Aka, tilia estrella. The tea looks like bunch of the red blossom in picrel

>>17437375
He's pouring multiple short steeps into a larger mug. Short steeps get you many small flavorful cups since you're not "over"brewing your your leaves. Check out the pastebin.

>>17437375
>By infusion do you mean steeping?
Yeah pretty much.

Gong fu is basically more leaves, less water with shorter steeps/infusions. It gives a more flavorful and robust brew. So instead of taking 2g~ of leaves and steeping a whole serving for 2+ mins, I use 5gs~ of leaves and do multiple 100ml infusions. The infusions start at 10-30 seconds and you progressively add a few seconds for each subsequent infusion.

It sounds a little confusing at first but it's actually very simple, relaxing and kind of fun. Traditionally, you would drink each infusion individually to taste the difference and evolution of the brew, but you can also just pour a few into a mug and drink it normally. I got shit to do so I can't have a kettle and gaiwan sitting at my desk, but gong fu is much more flavorful so I do it the way I described above.

There's a section on gong-fu in the pastebin, or you can just google it as well. I would recommend picking up a gaiwan or Chinese teapot and giving it a try someday. It really is the best way to brew tea.

Milk or no milk

>>17437470
>>17437474
Ohhhhh, so it's like a really strong cup of tea then? Is that tasty? I love the malty and roasted taste of my black tea but I wonder if I could handle that. And how's the caffeine content? About the same?

>I would recommend picking up a gaiwan or Chinese teapot and giving it a try someday. It really is the best way to brew tea.
Cheers! I'll check the pastebin again. And yeah, it's probably better than my single-cup brewing thing.

>>17437712
gaiwans are usually incredibly cheap, but consider buying a chaihai/pitcher at the same time tho since you might want one later

>>17434720
Do these actually taste decent?

>>17437724
Mmm awesome. Thanks a ton.
>Drinks his 5th cup of tea this morning

>>17437462
thanks, what an unfortunate vernacular name mix up. even some of the shops that were in Spanish list it as being linden. this is why i would prefer herbal vendors to list the scientific names of whatever plants they are selling to avoid ambiguity.

>>17436386
He doesn't carry much super smokey oldschool oolong

>>17437741
i have yet to sample moychay myself but most of the limited number of english reviews online seem generally positive. if you like generly like shou i imagine it should be ok. I think i remember reading that their shou tends to be woodsy side of things.

>>17437209
Nice,
I keep having long stretches where im to lazy to do anything but grampa style. But i always regret it slightly when i get back into gongfu. I should try being more lazy with gongfu like what you are doing and see how it goes

>>17437375
you've just taken your first step into a larger world. the world of autism.

>>17437994
i bought one of their (but not their namebrand) loose leaf ripe puers and it was wayy too woody, the liquor was insanely opaque and it tasted like the outside shell of walnuts when brewed with 5g per 100ml. I'm brewing it again with 1g per 100ml and its actually quite nice now though.

>>17438310
There are certainly worse things to be autistic about, honestly.

>>17437920
>this is why i would prefer herbal vendors to list the scientific names of whatever plants they are selling to avoid ambiguity.
A lot of vendors are even calling it tilia cordata. I even discovered it irl in between bags of real linden. Confusion all the way to the shelves. Excited for more to come because I didn't really appreciate it, I just used it the way I'd use normal linden in an herbal mix thinking it was from the same plant.

can i make tea with the petals of roses i got from some gas station? how?

>>17438292
Lazy gongfu is certainly an option, you can also just drink from the gaiwan if you're not hyperfocused on brew times, and I'd argue you don't need to be. All you need is a gaiwan, hot water, and tea.

>>17434610
My tea order from Yunomi arrived. Fucking love fast shipping. I'm gonna pre bag the sakura sencha for my roommates. Looking forward to making some ochazuke abs testing that one fermented green tea.
>>17434811
This hurts my brain to look at.
>>17434831
Looks tasty. Chamomile can be really nice in caffeine blends.

>>17438831
I'm pumped for your thoughts on that fermented tea.

>7th cup of tea today
Bros...

>>17438845
I'll try to post in this thread or another. Should I brew it in a giawan? My current tea pot is still broken.

>>17438853
>only 7
That's only an issue if its always using new leaves. I think most caffeine is extracted the first steep.

>>17438867
>That's only an issue if its always using new leaves. I think most caffeine is extracted the first steep

I'VE BEEN WASTING SO MANY LEAVES GODDAMNIT

>>17438875
Anon, I....

>>17438890
I was making so much tea every day and was like, "Wow I really am going through these leaves fast" because I WAS FUCKING DUMPING THEM AFTER EACH STEEP

>>17438867
>I think most caffeine is extracted the first steep.
I thought the same. Apparently tea and coffee extract much differently. Resteeps have plenty of caffeine.

>>17438896
>He's only ever drank the rinse, the stuff I throw out
I almost feel bad laughing at you anon, but holy fuck.

>>17438856
I found mixed information on how to brew it, one site said you simmer it on the stove.
I think a gaiwan is probably a good way to do it, but go with what feels right to you.

>>17438908
Wtf is the rinse goddamnit

>>17438936
Depending on the type of tea you're brewing, you rinse it for different lengths of time. It's not going to extract properly at first. It also gets rid of little bits of broken leaves. Black tea you either don't rinse or rinse for the ABSOLUTE MINIMUM time possible, because of the way it's processed, the oils have leached from the leaves, and most of the flavor is just on the outside, and very easily washes into your brew water. No rinse or as short as possible for black tea, then very short brews (or significantly reduce your amount of tea per amount of water). You also pour the rinse water into your cups and stuff to warm them up but that isn't too critically important.

White tea is simply dried, so if you do a short rinse, then brew, not much is really going to happen. I do a thirty second rinse, then wait for the leaves to open up, then do longer brews transitioning into shorter ones as the leaves become fully saturated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIsS1iNIFeE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ5bjBxPbts
These are pretty good, follow this at first, but you'll eventually just do it by taste. Every tea is different, what tastes best to you is the right way.

The way the guide says to do short brews with continually longer ones is pretty much wrong, in my opinion. You want a rinse, of whatever length, long brews, brews of the same or very similar length in the middle, and longer brews at the end.
Rinse > open up and saturate the tea > peak extraction > extract what is left
0-40s depending on tea > 10-60s > 5-30s > 30-180s

>>17438983
OHHHH! Okay good. I've only been fucking up with black tea leaves then, which isn't super bad.

Thanks for the links Anon-kun. I really really need to educate myself. It's kind of like letting coffee "bloom" if you're familiar?

>>17439001
just binge watch all of farmer leaf's videos

>>17439001
Yeah, it's the same concept, your coffee isn't going to extract until the air inside the grounds is exchanged with water, you bloom until the grounds are saturated / have given off all their gas, then move to your main volume of brew water. Tea isn't exactly the same because it's processed in very different ways and has many styles. White leaf buds, for example, take absolutely forever to fully extract, because they're a whole, dense bud of tea which isn't very permeable. Black tea extracts very quickly because the juices have largely been brought to the outside of the tea already (and then oxidized). Puer tea is somewhere in between, and oolong is pretty much a wild west, completely depends on the specific tea you have imo.

>>17438983
These videos are comfy

>>17435252
>Can I just let it sit out for days or will they go bad in a few hours?
i will re-steep tea from the same day but i would not leave it out over night. if you really wanted you could put it in the fridge overnight. what i do with leftover unfinished tea leaves is stick them in the fridge and cold brew it.

>>17435296
>want to try a wide assortment of teas in order to find the one(s) I like.
Yunnan sourcing is a good all around vendor for Chinese tea. you could go with one of the samplers or just pick out a variety of things that sound interesting to you. for other regions https://yunomi.life/ is great for Japanese tea, and https://www.teabox.com/ has a good selection of Indian tea. you can also check https://pastebin.com/80GeeXJV for more options.

>>17436049
>Seems on almost everything I want there is no dates. Feels sketchy but I'm craving blended tea and earl grey
if its stored well i don't think things like breakfast blends are going to be significantly worse even if they are a couple of years old. even fancy black teas generally fare well for that long. i doubt they are peddling any super old stuff.

>>17437186
The First Steps sampler? That's what I was looking at.
https://yunnansourcing.com/products/starter-pack
not the same anon and i have not ordered it myself but it looks like a good starter pack. if you want to expand it a bit further i would get some of each of these:
https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/dan-cong-oolong-tea/products/king-of-duck-shit-aroma-dan-cong-oolong-tea
https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/white-tea-spring-2021/products/silver-needles-white-tea-of-feng-qing
i would get i a gaiwan as well if you don't already own one. if you get the three things i listed (or otherwise spend >$50) then you can get this one for free.
https://yunnansourcing.com/pages/free-classic-white-porcelain-gaiwan-with-yunnan-sourcing-logo-85ml-with-an-order-of-50-or-more

Since we are talking re-steeping, how do you approach it with chamomile? If you steeped bodega-tier chamomile for 10 hours to make a pitcher of tea, would you bother to re-steep with the same flowers for a similar amount of time? It makes tea, but it is decidedly less oily, to the point where the flavors of the regional tap water shine through. I am considering abandoning my principles/autism about reusing things and using new herbal leaves every time after such long steeps. I have enjoyed many 2nd and 3rd infusions of chamomile, but those memories are not of leaves that were already steeped all night or all day. It's a retarded thing to get hung up over, but I am very hung up. I do not want to waste God's gifts and cringe even when remove the second infusion and not making a third but, at the same time, brewing those used up leaves for so long is not the best use of that block of time and kettle when I have become accustomed to long steeps. I know there is perfect routine. The 2nd infusion of tea isn't bad, I'm drinking it right now, but it pisses me off during the day knowing that new leaves could be in there, waiting for me when I get back but instead the tea has a definite cap on how good it will be, especially when the chamomile was pretty low tier to begin with. I think I will follow through with making fresh tea tomorrow morning.

>>17437474
someone should probably add that Gongfu style brewing tends to be most applicable to Chinese teas. its not how i would make "breakfast blends" for example, and I don't think it works nearly as well for most Indian teas (except for some of the higher end Darjeelings), and most Japanese teas are traditionally brewed closer to "western" style but they tend to use a little more tea and a little less water and time. that's not to say that you should not experiment and find out what works for you though, just don't expect Gongfu to be the best solution in every scenario.

>>17437474
someone should probably add that Gongfu style brewing tends to be most applicable to Chinese teas. its not how i would make "breakfast blends" for example, and I don't think it works nearly as well for most Indian teas (except for some of the higher end Darjeelings), and most Japanese teas are traditionally brewed closer to "western" style but they tend to use a little more tea and a little less water and time. that's not to say that you should not experiment and find out what works for you though, just don't assume Gongfu style to necessarily be the best solution in every scenario.

>>17439411
>If you steeped bodega-tier chamomile for 10 hours to make a pitcher of tea, would you bother to re-steep with the same flowers for a similar amount of time
I would toss them, or simmer them in water on the stove for 20 minutes or so. The simmering will be a more efficient extraction and help squeeze out whatever the first brew mises.
For more info you can read up about making herbal decoctions.

>>17438983
i know i have mentioned it before but my technique is to just make the first steep slightly extra long to compensate for the tea opening up. i hate wasting perfectly good tea. on the other hand i also tend to use aggressive enough tea to water ratios that my first steep is not generally going to be weak in the first place. as an aside i have this one tea brick (some Qing Zhuan) that has some absolutely crazy compression on it and i have to let it open up by pouring just a little water on it and waiting like 20-30 minutes so that i can gongfu it. i presume its really meant for simmering on the stove but it works gongfu as well if you are patient.

>>17439503
>simmer them in water
I might try to simmer them right now. I didn't know that you could do that except with the remains of alcohol infusions, to make a type of ancient resin. I wonder what the simmering will yield, do you mean in a big pot or a flatter pot like a frying pat? I'm rarted in terms of actual /ck/ing, but I'm willing to try right now. If I had honey to mask the taste I'd throw some valerian in too. Good idea, anon. Thanks.

>>17439705
I would do something like 2-3 cups of water
Simmer, don't boil hard

>>17439735
Oh, start with something like 10-20 minutes

What's the maximum amount of time I should wait for an order before I get worried?
It's been three months and the green tea in my order is no doubt completely fucking stale (if it ever shows up at my doorstep)

>>17439987
what website? i want to make a YS order this spring and i'm hoping it's no more than 45 days or so at most

>Some anons toss out leaves before even a few hours of holding in the gaiwan.
>Some anons toss out after rinsing.
>Tfw I sometimes infuse tea from over two nights ago, and am drinking 1-night and 2-night-old tea left in my cheap gaiwans.
Does increase the dankness as you might expect, but it isn't terrible. I wonder how much it might ferment in this way, if much. Warmth and dampness can help promote some bacterial growth, though I've seen no mold hairs whenever I've done this, and never been ill from it.

>>17440005
90 days from Yee.

>>17439987
It depends on where you are and how it was shipped. Im in the USA and have gotten EMS from china taking 2-3 weeks in the last couple months.
If it's getting shipped sea freight then i think there are still long delays at the ports and stuff is moving slower than it used to be. It used to take 1 - 2 months from China to the US, no idea what the actual times are right now.
Do you have some tracking number you can check?

>>17440032
I usually leave my tea in a covered Gaiwan overnight if I don't finish the session, some hold their flavors better than others.
I've had some that have no real noticeable difference after being left for hours, and some that are basically not even worth steeping if they're left overnight.
I found an oolong, for example, tasted almost exactly the same before bed as it did when I woke up.

aprox how much grams is a tablespoon of tea?

>>17440059
It completely depends on the tea, which is why you do it by weight. It's genuinely not a conversion you can make.

>>17440059
2-3 but it varies a lot depending on the tea.

>>17440078
Oh a tablespoon, 3-4 grams but again it varies a lot

>>17440077
>>17440083
Thanks, yeah I should have specified it, for example a tablespoon of loose green tea

>>17437573
Milk
>B-but MUH PURE FLAVOR!!!!
Milk enhances it.

Have you ever mix different type of tea leaves together?

>>17440236
black tea blends are popular, personally i like lapsang souchong with keemun and earl grey with a bit of milk. green tea+lighter oolong and rose buds is nice as well

>>17440229
If it's a black tea, especially Ceylon/Indian, absolutely.
If you drink milk with something like green tea you're a fucking animal though.

>>17440236
Yes, but not often. I like to mix my mellow whites sometimes. Can add a bit of extra complexity to an inexpensive bunch of tea cakes. I think lighter teas tend to nix best together rather than heavy stuff, just because you can perceive more notes without one covering the other through sheer intensity. So, like compliments like. That has been my experience, anyway.

>>17440236
I keep all my puer tea crumbs from breaking up cakes in a cardboard tube in my humidor.
When i feel like it i brew a few scoops in my mug.
It's at least 20+ different teas at this point.
It's good, usually smooth and easy to drink.

>>17434811
hahaha fucking why russia

>>17440396
There are even cuter and more wild things than what anon showed you:
https://moychay.com/catalog/posuda/eramics-wood-firing-hand-painting-made-in-russia/chaynik-36492-drovyanoy-obzhig-keramika-ruchnaya-rospis-192-ml
https://moychay.com/catalog/posuda/ceramic_handmade_russia/piala-34390-drovyanoy-obzhig-keramika-ruchnaya-rospis-103-ml
https://moychay.com/catalog/posuda/eramics-wood-firing-hand-painting-made-in-russia/vazochka-37080-drovyanoy-obzhig-keramika-ruchnaya-rospis
https://moychay.com/catalog/posuda/eramics-wood-firing-hand-painting-made-in-russia/piala-29786-drovyanoy-obzhig-keramika-ruchnaya-rospis-140-ml
https://moychay.com/catalog/posuda/eramics-wood-firing-hand-painting-made-in-russia/piala-37043-drovyanoy-obzhig-keramika-ruchnaya-rospis-52-ml
https://moychay.com/catalog/posuda/eramics-wood-firing-hand-painting-made-in-russia/piala-tyavan-chavan-37065-drovyanoy-obzhig-keramika-ruchnaya-rospis-254-ml
https://moychay.com/catalog/posuda/eramics-wood-firing-hand-painting-made-in-russia/blyudo-dlya-ukrasheniya-chaynogo-stola-chaynaya-tarelka-37081-ruchnaya-rospis-farfor
So much variety from their artisans. Hundreds of individually-crafted and photographed works. I have never used their goods or purchased from them, but they definitely caught my eye, and may have won my funds if not for prior investments in teaware and the somewhat high costs. It is fun to peruse their wares even if you jave no real intention of buying anything, even if just for the artwork. Wish I could make such teaware at home too.

>usual oolong is yellow when i'd make it western
>try gong fu, it comes out deep red after a few steeps and tastes way different

well i'll be damned

does anyone here filter water for tea? if so does it make any noticeable quality difference from tap?

>>17440914
I do it. It makes a noticeable difference if your tap water is hard. Mine is hard af and it mutes most of the teas I have.

i wanna try these two samplers (unless theres something better maybe?), how is shipping from ys to europe? they have a bunch of shipping companies so not sure what to use
https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/samplers/products/ripe-pu-erh-regional-sampler-jingmai
https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/samplers/products/ripe-pu-erh-regional-sampler-menghai

>>17441824
surface will take around 3 months, fastest air will get there in 2 weeks. or at least thats how long it took for my last 2 ~2kg shipments

>>17440914
Yes filtering water makes a huge difference, especially if you have hard water and you get a filer system that does a decent job softening the water.

>>17441824
Get EMS
Also consider getting a whole cake of something affordable, it just majes sense to make larger orders when getting stuff from halfway across the world.
Something from dayi tae tea is almost always a safe bet, pick the one that sounds best to you.
https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/menghai-tea-factory-pu-erh/products/2016-menghai-7752-ripe-pu-erh-tea-cake
https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/menghai-tea-factory-pu-erh/products/2017-menghai-tea-factory-8592-ripe-pu-erh-tea-cake
https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/menghai-tea-factory-pu-erh/products/2016-menghai-ba-ji-pu-bing-ripe-pu-erh-tea-cake

God I fucking love some good tea in the morning

>>17442223
It's beautiful innit?

>>17440914
Bottled only. My locale has hard water and I don’t want to screw up my water heater.

Sixty ounces of blueberry tea -lemonade mix for the day. I’m trying to cut down on sodas. Wish me luck, lads.

>>17440914
Take the zeropill

>>17442693
First of all, this pitcher does not create chemically pure water. Second of all, you don't want entirely purified water to make tea. You want the correct amount and type of minerals or it won't extract properly.

>>17442693
Zero pitchers filter out too much.

what did you all sip today?
I tapped into my W2T 2020 snooze fest. it seems to have lost a bit of the its jamminess it had when fresh but its still a nice tea. i am about halfway though the cake at this point.

>>17443238
See >>17442632
About halfway thru my 60oz jug full of it.

>>17443238
I'm just sniffing some glue. I love this tea. What other herbal teas I should try?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7ZxRs45tTg

>>17443238
Just more xiaguan today
Tomorrow I'm going to try brewing up one of the younger teas i have and post about it.

Okay okay, is tea drunk an actual thing bros?

>>17443356
Yes, its most likely the effects of L-theanine, i always get it with one of my raw puers.

>>17443356
Maybe

i mostly drink japanese greens (sencha and gyukuro) but want to get more seriously into chinese teas

am i better off doing an order from yunnan sourcing, white2tea, or another source?
what are some people's favourites

i'll most be after sheng (not a fan of ripe puer), whites, and chinese greens - but i'm still open to any standouts people suggest

what's a good vendor for taiwanese oolongs? are there any mainland oolongs that compete?

>>17438896
You stupid inbred son of a bitch.

>>17443356
>tea drunk
I concur people are probably talking about L-theanine when talking about tea drunkness. Or rather the mix of caffeine, L-theanine, and everything else in C. sinensis. Funny, because there are many herbal teas that are way more drunk-like in their effects and I really find the "tea drunkness" to be more psychedelic and refreshing, similar to citrus fruit. I guess drinking kind of feels like that too, but there is a lot else associated with drunkness that applies more to drinks made with nearly every other herb with polyphenols and such. Herbal teas are very literally like slow slow slow release alcohol, whereas green tea is a high.

>>17443530
I was just thinking about how cool tea is -- it's a delicious drink with actual effects on you. Like a potion. Very cool

>>17443530
I've never been tea drunk, but from what people describe, there's absolutely no way L-theanine alone can do it. I'm curious if anyone here who has is willing to consume something like 30x the amount of L-theanine present in tea and see if that does anything, because I've done that and noticed little beyond being noticeably more calm.

>>17438845
>>17438918
Holy shit it does. What the actual fuck is this brewing method?! Obit other tea I know toy bottom like this is Tibetan yak milk tea soup.

>>17443537
Definitely. It is literally magic, the original understanding of the word even. The ritual aspect of tea is incredibly strong and every cup is unique and made by you with your own intent. I also love that is has no sugar.

>>17438905
yeah unless you're boiling the tea leaves for 15 minutes you won't extract the full amount of caffeine

>>17443550
>I also love that is has no sugar.
Loose leaf by itself doesn't need sugar. The natural sweetness of teas is super understated.

But fuck me, I love some mint tea with honey in it, bros...

>>17438905
This explains a lot.
>>17438896
>>17438936
Anon, the whole point of buying good leaves is so you get more resteeps; more for what you pay. Though I only ever really rinse puer; maybe a rolled tea like Tieguanyin(roasted and unroasted). Its to help open it up and get the tea going.

>>17443559
I'm just trying to stay away from sugary drinks for the most part. Instead of drinking mango juice, I am drinking tea with mango leaves. I will still drink mango juice, but for sure less.
>mint tea with honey
That is a combination I'll have to try. Both of those have legendary aftertastes.

>>17443440
>what's a good vendor for taiwanese oolongs?
Ive used tea masters before and been really hapy with them, they usually offer an introductory sampler
https://www.tea-masters.com/en/samplers/1556-teamasters-sampler-for-beginners-december-2021.html
>are there any mainland oolongs that compete?
Personally i love deep roasted wuyi oolongs but they tend to get pretry pricey.
Chawangshop has a nicle selection of more affordable wuyi oolongs, essence of tea has some really premium ones. oldwaystea is us based and seems nice but i haven't used them personally.
Oolongs from Dancong are the other more famous mainland oolong region, i haven't had enough of them to weigh in on how good they are, but they are typically more lightly roasted and focused on fragrance.

>>17443356
It's a meme. Tea tastes good but I still want to kill myself

>>17443440
>am i better off doing an order from yunnan sourcing, white2tea, or another source?
I would say look at YS if you want to try a wide variety of Chinese teas because they have the best selection. W2T is more focused on puerh but they still have a selection of other stuff.

>>17443440
>what's a good vendor for taiwanese oolongs?
i cant tell you who's the best but here are some of the more well known vendors:
https://www.taiwanteacrafts.com/
https://www.tea-masters.com/en/
https://taiwanoolongs.com/ (also a few at https://yunnansourcing.us/collections/taiwan-sourcing-teas))
https://floatingleaves.com/
https://mountainstreamteas.com/
https://beautifultaiwantea.com/

>are there any mainland oolongs that compete?
yes, but that is a bit of an apples to oranges comparison. while there are some pretty comparable styles both regions make a number of unique types such as dancongs on the mainland or oriental beauty on Taiwan.

>>17443539
I have never tried pure L-theanine, but it's always an entourage effect between all the plant's constituents. Added citrus plays a role too. I feel like in terms of the food we eat and drink, recipes and ingredients were originally selected not only for flavor. Some cultures still acknowledge this, but our love of expensive studies to prove everything means that we, in practice, know very little about how to use plants and have forgotten a lot. It's fun to try and figure out why things do things, but it can be a red herring considering how science actually operates. There is no money involved in solving tea drunk, so we haven't. We probably never will, not before society is reborn and they start speaking a whole different language.
>>17443617
Chamomile is antidepressant, but you need to be very consistent and trust that it will kick in after a week or so. Real tea is about as good for long term mental health as coffee, soda, and cigarettes. Caffeine is a strong drug, unfortunately...

>>17443440
Do you know what kinds of sheng you are looking for? Young or old? Smokey? Bitter or more mellow?
If you want boutique sheng w2t is probably better, if you want older puers or stuff from the big factories than yunnan sourcing is probably better, if you want older stuff kingteamall is pretty good but totally overwhelming and hard to shop untill you get a feel for different brands and terroirs.
Anyway if you just want to order from one place w2t probably is the least likely to have any real duds amoung their green teas, dunno about their oolongs, and people seem to really like their young puers. But you will pay more for a more tightly curated selection.

>>17443543
I bet it works well. I have had good luck with simmering Chinese fermented teas.
You can just pour some into your mug through a strainer and toss the leaves back in the pot, maybe even heat it back up a big before you draw another cup.

I want to try and buy an oolong (I mainly drink green and sometimes black teas) should I start with a normal oolong or buy a milk oolong ?

>>17442703
>You want the correct amount and type of minerals or it won't extract properly.

What's the science behind that? Which minerals improve extraction?

>>17443680
>What's the science behind that?
Water's effectiveness as a solvent depends a relatively significant amount on what it has already dissolved.
>Which minerals improve extraction?
This is subjective so it's less known, but here.
https://www.teacurious.com/water-recipe/#recipe
From a coffee perspective, but the fundamentals carry over.
https://www.jameshoffmann.co.uk/weird-coffee-science/water-for-coffee-resources
https://www.baristahustle.com/blog/diy-water-recipes-the-world-in-two-bottles/

>>17443543
>Obit other tea I know toy bottom like this
eye sea ewe halve eh spelling chequer two.
you can boil it like the directions say but i am pretty sure that if you want to you could make it work gongfu style as well. just be sure to accommodate for the compression of the tea like you would for compressed puerh.

>>17443677
Milk oolong is frequently flavored sometimes even when it says it isint. I would probably start out with a tiegyuanyin. They are sort of thw standard oolong in the west, good examples usually have some of that miljy flavor aspect to them naturally anyways.

>>17443550
>Definitely. It is literally magic, the original understanding of the word even.

Maybe tea is the answer to all of life's questions?

>>17443585
>Has never had mint tea with a little bit of honey
Haven't lived

>>17434610
this tea looks like it was pooped out of something

Opinions?

>>17444514
>tea bags
Probably passable if they're cheap and you're just looking for something quick but I'd never put much stock in flashy branded tea bags.

>>17444781
>loose leaf tea
Poof

Mango leaf tea is the shit. I will routinely consume these leaves as many creatures of all shapes before me have.
>>17444480
I have tried them separately... I drink my mint with linden which has similar mucilage as honey. It's transcendental. It's called we do a little living.

>>17444514
Why the caution tape? Why do I have to be careful?

>>17444840
yeah sorry m8 my bad I forgot enjoying things was for faggots.

>>17444878
Tea was originally for eunuchs, no?

>>17444886
It was originally for the Emperor of China, the man with the biggest dick in the country.

>>17444853
Think it’s meant to imply it’s for the ‘working class’. Builder’s Tea, and all that

>>17444878
If what you enjoy is counting individual leafs and grading them by colour and texture, yes you are a poof

>>17444905
Someone else does that for you, retard.

>>17444901
Same energy as this mug

Why do I always have little black dust in the bottom of my cup every time I make tea?

>>17445192
It's from the teafairy.

>>17444886
>>17444894
Don't forget European royalty as well. It took a long time until it was something available to the common folk.

>>17444905
lol imagine being this insecure
it tastes better fag. simple as

Imagine having any of the following as home general instead of /tea/
>sip, fastfood, tobacco/vape, liquor, celeb chefs and so on

My daily comfiness gets me called a fag? At least it doesn't make me an unhealthy fat fuck.

>>17445772
Just ignore the occasional shitposters like the rest of us. The end goal for most should be a meditative comfort state. Discuss your autistic micro-managing of tea-related orders, why [type] tea is the best, and how your tea smells, tastes, and feels to experience. There is no better alternative.

>>17443620
>taiwanese oolongs
got some good shit from teafromtaiwan.com last year, but the best one "Dong Ding Ming Xiang" sold out before i ordered more. do you know if all "bug bitten" varieties have a kind of honey essence, or does it vary?

This is definitely a "micro-managing future orders" post, but I decided I really like cheap factory puerh and I would like to several puerh in pretty large quantities for not a lot of money, mostly semi-aged shengs but throwing in other things. A shop that's looking good for my purposes is puershop. What do we think of them?
>>17434610
I love them mushrooms, I bought one and it's already one of my favorite

>>17446157
> I decided I really like cheap factory puerh
aka the puerh, welcome

kingteamall should be enough for your needs. it's guangzhou storage warehouses so a hot and humid sweetspot and birthplace of stored/aged puerh cakes.
yeeontea for your hongkong cellared special needs
tuochatea for your mummified kunming storage with intact fragrance and 10yo green leaves.

what is puershop? what tea are you looking at?

I bought some cheap silver needles from my local tea shop, how poor quality are they?

>>17446246
very poor quality, look at all the fuzzy mold on the buds, I presume you use a mesh strainer in your pitcher but still... toss them in the trash lest you get the salmonella or omicron.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMKLify42SM

>>17446256
Where are the people of Babilon (worshippers of Satan)going ?

op pic looks like jabba the hut
i drink king cole tea

>>17446225
>what is puershop? what tea are you looking at?
It's some US-based vendor I've seen. I was wanting tea like this
https://www.puerhshop.com/new/index.php?route=product/product&path=9_21&product_id=436
They have so many tea like this and at really low prices. I read somewhere that they sell fakes and store stuff really dry though.

>>17446157
if you give us a bit more info we would be better able to give a recommendation.
>I really like cheap factory puerh
what factories? dayi, XG, haiwan, or are we talking no name stuff?
>pretty large quantities for not a lot of money
how large? how much?
>mostly semi-aged shengs
what kind of storage do you like?
>What do we think of them?
their ok if you are fine with dry storage but it really depends on what you are looking for.

another shop you should check out for cheap stuff is:
https://www.fullchea-tea.com

>>17446365
>https://www.puerhshop.com/new/index.php?route=product/product&path=9_21&product_id=436
i have that exact toucha from them. its good but still on the greener side for its age.

>that they sell fakes
that was never really proven and i would not worry about the cheaper stuff being fake anyways. not worth the time to fake.

I can maybe give some more specific recommendations later but i got to go right now.

>>17446369
All the big shot factories, probably a few kilograms, no preference when it comes to storage. I'm mostly shooting for stuff on the fresher side but with a few years on it, in particular I might get sleeves of them 100 gram tuos. Also looking to try one of these
https://www.puerhshop.com/new/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=2&search=flame
>Fullchea
Yeah I already bought from them too
>>17446380
>i have that exact toucha from them. its good
Yay

>>17434610
>/tea/ Anonymous 02/16/22(Wed)12:11:21 No.17
>be me, aus bro
>trying to get some tea white tea
>only really basic black tea around here
>find online tea shop with good prices
>buy some buddhas tears
>$154 shipping

>>17444886
>>17445458
Yes, I'm actually confusing it with how coffee was for Islamic monks and tea was for Tibetan monks. I don't know if either were eunuchs like Christian monks, but I don't think so.

>>17444925
...and god bless the tea grading poofs. Thanks to them I don’t drink shitty tea.

>>17446527
Christian monks weren't generally eunuchs (in the sense of being castrated). Islam doesn't have "monks" per se, but they do have Sufis who are a kind of ascetic. Generally, Buddhist monks in most traditions are celibate with the exception of Japanese Buddhist priests (mostly Pure Land, Nichiren, etc) who can get married. Buddhist priests marrying is exclusively a Japanese thing, iirc.

>>17446400
>https://www.puerhshop.com/new/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=2&search=flame
i have not had that one myself but it should be fine. you can get a stack of it (or many other XG tuochas) with wetter storage on it from KTM for a better price/g but with the added shipping costs from China it would probably be about the same (besides the very different storage).
https://kingteamall.com/collections/2007-xiaguan/products/2007-xiaguan-bian-xiao-zhuan-brick-250g-puerh-sheng-cha-raw-tea?variant=31348646445159

Tuocha recommendations that i own:
2010 Dayi Green
https://www.puerhshop.com/new/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=436
is nice if you want a lightly aged but still green sheng. its not overly bitter despite being kind of green. as far as i am aware its legit dayi. based on your description of what you like it sounds like a good candidate to buy a sleeve of.

2008 XG FT
https://www.puerhshop.com/new/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=58
if you are looking something with a bit more of a rustic edge this tuocha is good too. i also love the box art (which was half the reason i got it).

if you want to get a cheap ripe tuogha or two both of these are ok.
2010 Dayi V93
https://www.puerhshop.com/new/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1026
and
2011 XG Xiaofa
https://www.puerhshop.com/new/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=252
both are decent inexpensive shu and both are famous recipes. if i recall the dayi is perhaps a bit cleaner and more refined whereas the XG is a bit more rustic and gamey.

stuff i have not tried yet:
a more aged XG tuocha if that interests you
https://www.puerhshop.com/new/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=258

some XG tibetan flame Mushrooms
https://www.puerhshop.com/new/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=60

some cheap young XG tuos
https://www.puerhshop.com/new/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=254
https://www.puerhshop.com/new/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=253

has anyone's orders from farmer-leaf.fr shipped yet? might be cuz i dont like in an EU country or im just very unpatient

>>17447720
two minutes after your post it has been shipped. you work for them?

>>17446077
Cute pot

i got some slightly moldy sheng from a vendor (who i wont name and shame because they made things right) and i am trying to decide what to do with it. fortunately the mold is dry, mostly on the surface, and only covers a limited portion of the tea. it looks like it grew mold because some water got on it at some point in the past. today i broke off and tossed the affected area and tried some tea from the non affected area which seemed fine. now i am trying to decide how to store it, i don't want to put it in my pumidor out of concern of the mold spreading to my other teas but i also don't want it to dry out too much. mold spores are everywhere so it may not matter anyways but i am still a bit fearful. anyone else here have experience with moldy tea? what do you think i should do?

>>17446157
Ive made a few orders from puershop, i think that fake rumors are generally wrong. There was one actually fake batchof dayi he had and he refunded everyone when he discovered it. There are some problems with his shop
His storage ia bone dry, completely, so once he gets a tea it stops aging completely.
He also has a preference for buying tea with very dry Kunming storage, so he will have 15 year old teas that are still bright green.
His house brand teas are not good, none of them, including the zentea ones and whatever other names he used.
That saiad i think he has so.e excellent bargains and somebody that knows what they are doing could get more tea for their money their than just about any other western facing store, but as someone who loves to dig through factory teas with limited information and has some experience with it even I'm hesitant to dive in.
Kingteamall isint as cheap as it used to be but they are still my goto for cheap factory teas, if you look through the recently added tab you will see lots of 2004-2007 teas at $30-$60 per cake, i think that, with the moderate storage in his area, is the sweetspot for cheap old tea right now.

>>17447777
name them or get fucked, this is not reddit or discord

if it was hairy mold I would really toss the whole cake, god forbid you keep it neer your good cakes, even in ziplock, the spores are everywhere. keep it outside and drink fast or bin it.

>>17447777
I almost guarantee you the mold has spread throughout your whole cake, whether or not it's visible is irrelevant. A few things
1. The majority of mold is safe
2. The majority of mold that is not safe is pretty bad
3. Some of those toxins will kill you painfully even in relatively small quantities
4. Most of the toxins that mold produces are soluble
5. They are not necessarily acute symptoms
If it was less than fifty dollars I'd throw it out. You could drink your way halfway through the cake and then find out that you're a dead man walking as your organs and CNS begin to die and rot while you're still alive. Most mold is fine though.

>>17447777
>>17447833

6. ???
7. PROFIT

dump eet

>>17447777
Well what kind of mold? It kind of depends on the vendor and the storage. Stuff coming out of wet ass HK storage can have a pretty good dusting of white mold on the surface and i don't think anyone gives a shit about it. I can think of at least one vendor that is selling visibly moldy puer right now and even mentions it in the description.
If it came from kunming of something and obviously just got some water spilled in it or it happened during shipping or something i would toss it. Especially if it's a color other than white.
Basically if it came from some old tea dealer in HK i wouldn't worry about it, if it didn't i probably would be hesitant to drink it

Mexican cough herbs are awesome. Tastes nostalgic even though it is my first time and it is real medicine for cough, settles the chest area down. Some of these might make the team long term, like borage. Pliny the Elder liked it.

when did /tea/ become such sissy's? if you're all really that afraid then I sure hope none of you drink any wet stored or wet piled tea (spoiler alert it has mold and mycotoxins!). I know a bunch of you love your liu bao or drink stuff from yeeontea, don't pretend like that stuff is not full of it. and lets not even get started on the potential pesticide, pollution, and heavy metal contamination...

I not saying you should not be careful (I try to be) but i am just a bit shocked at the response and find it strange seeing people freak out while at the same time doing stuff i see as being just as risky.

>>17447800
>the spores are everywhere.
spores are everywhere anyways. tea is not sanitary. i just wanted to keep my tea separate out of an abundance of caution and wanted to hear other anons experiences with moldy tea.

>>17448189
>Well what kind of mold?
its several patches of dried out white mold on the surface. you cant reliably tell the safety of mold by its color anyways. even amoung the same group of mold it may or may not be expressing mycotoxins.
>obviously just got some water spilled in it
as i had said in the original post it looks like it had gotten slightly wet in one corner. the ink on the wrapper showed the wet spot but the tea did not obviously look like it had gotten wet besides the fact there was mold there. it clearly hadn't gotten soaked or anything.

I removed the moldy area and what i tried drinking from the clean part of the cake tastes fine. it tastes far less moldy and dank than any of the stuff i have that came out of a Hong Kong tea dungeon.

What's a good company that can provide subscription based shipping of a variety of caffeine and caffeine-free teas in USA?

>>17448388
Loose-leaf btw

>>17448388
>>17448392
There are no good companies in this world.

>>17448392
fuck off Yolanda, back to facebook
>>17448398
what the commie said

>>17448451
Then where is the best place to order teas

>>17448460
google top 10 best places to order teas, scroll past the obvious adds, pick a shop with the most flower petals per gram of tea and romantic names for blends and you should be satisfied Monica.
anything particular we can help with?

>>17448468
any personal recommendations?

>>17448474
it's straight to personal with you, innit Caroline? you cheeky cunt.
this one https://kingteamall.com/collections/2021-xiaguan/products/2021-xiaguan-hong-cha-black-tea-300g-yunnan-fengqing-dianhong

>>17448474
I dunno if they do monthy boxed but they only place that sells flavored tea worth drinking is Mariage Frères, it's easy to order from their website or they have authorized dealers in the us if you don't want to deal with international shipping

>>17448601
Seconding Mariage Freres, absolutely worth the price. Their most famous one is probably Marco Polo, but you can't go wrong. I just buy from amazon or a local import shop in the US (about 35 dollars/100g)

>>17448474
People here shill mountainroseherbs for herbal tea. For more exotic herbals, etsy and amazon

>>17449213
Etsy is pretty good, just amke sure when you are getting herbs the people selling them grew or collected them themselves, esty also just has people buying bulk herbs and reselling them in pretty packages.

The tannins in tea fuck my mouth so I have to make it really light for it to be drinkable

>>17449338
Drink different tea.
Maybe white, or Chinese loose leaf blacks instead of western teabaga

>>17434610
how pastebin guy, can you add tshopny? They have some better oolongs then what I seen on the bin, and american based

>>17449715
>$40 for an oz of da hong pao
I know yancha gets expensive quick but that is pretty expensive for a blended wuyi tea. They don't even say what varietals are in it.
https://www.tshopny.com/shop/da-hong-pao-2
They have a summer oriental beauty that is more than $1 per gram
https://www.tshopny.com/shop/premium-oriental-beauty
Maybe I'm out of my league here but this place is very expensive.
Can you post a little about other oolong shops you have tried and your experiences with them?

>>17449338
Ask me how I know that you drink teabags.

>>17449986
ouch, pastebin anon v. shills or clueless enthusiasts. nice.

>>17449715
>They have some better oolongs then what I seen on the bin
substantiate the claim

>>17449986
stop being an autist, stop larping as chinese and drink normal tea like a non autistic faggot

>>17449986
by the by pasteanon, please remove the line about teavana, no need to mention them and it's an old meme
also please add
UK: https://tea-encounter.com
EU: https://www.chenshi-chinatee.de
CHINA: https://yeeonteaco.com/ (Hong Kong)
https://hayslontea.com/store (Hong Kong)
https://www.wuyiorigin.com/ (premium oolong)

in the teapot section you added http://tokoname.or.jp/teapot/ twice, I got excited few days ago and asked you to add it while it was already there, you didn't notice you wanker ;)

also in the tea subscription we have ys and w2t, any other subscription services out there lads? some people may look for that kind of info.

>>17450666
hotsoup.nl has a subscription service but its in the netherlands only
https://www.hotsoup.nl/en/hifi-theeclub-abonnement.html

I want esoteric chamomile knowledge. Why are the higher end flowers physically smaller than cheap flower heads? The cheap chamomile has many flower heads on each stalk, suggesting that it is the fabled double flowering variety bred by medieval growers. The small ones, I have never seen two on a stalk.

Do any of you have experience gongfu brewing tisanes? Wondering particularly about Chinese herbs like jujube, jiaogulan, and kuding. If you have non-gongfu experience with those I'd be happy to hear about it, too.

>>17450821
>Do any of you have experience gongfu brewing tisanes?
i know i have shilled it before but verdanttea has some interesting herbal teas that are produced a bit like regular tea and can be brewed up nicely gongfu. they are bit low on variety on their website right now but i expect they will bring in more things this spring. i actually have a number of their tisanes on my shelf right now from a previous year that i should use up. i will crack into one later today and post some notes.
https://verdanttea.com/tea/by-tea-type/herbal
the internet archive shows some stuff that they don't currently have (click show out of stock).
https://web.archive.org/web/20210618195217/https://verdanttea.com/tea/by-tea-type/herbal

>>17439503
I am doing it now, with cough herbs. Some of them are bark so they should have been decocted to begin with. I hope I forgot about it for as long as possible for the best decoction.

Just ordered this! Super excited to try some
https://yunnansourcing.us/collections/spring-2021-loose-leaf-teas/products/orchid-aroma-zheng-shan-xiao-zhong-black-tea

Why does tea cake artwork give me this comfy nostalgic feeling? kinda like what cyberpunk stuff gives me. I didn't even drink tea as a child

>>17450821
I brew kuding gongfu style, but really just because my gaiwan is already iut. It doesn't taste great but it's not disgusting either. I think it really does calm me down more than most other herbs but it can always be placebo, hard to say.

Where do UK anons buy their tea? I usually use MeiLeaf and I am pretty happy but I would like to try some other shops for comparison.

>>17446246
There is nothing wrong with the loiks, they are pretty fat and furry, which is good. How's the taste?

>>17451752
yunnansourcing you just have to decide if you want to wait 3 months or pay ~£75 for shipping

>>17451752
https://what-cha.com has a good reputation though i have not tried them myself.

>>17450666
Thanks anon, i will take care of this later

>>17451434
Nice, it's a fun process, i used to make them with that birch tree fungus (chaga)

>>17451666
God i love roasted oolongs. Careful anon, wuyi oolongs are an expensive tea to get into... But fuck me they are so good.

>>17451998
I've never had one so I'm really excited to try it. Though this is pure black, no?

>>17451696
The Chinese tea cake artwork all looks super cool to me. Probably because i know nothing about Chinese culture and don't recognize all the design tropes and callbacks. It's kind of the Chinese version of old timey sears catalogs from the 40s.

>>17452000
Oh i misread the listing, yeah it's a black tea it's just made from the area they make wuyi oolongs. Also has a bit of a roast on it, should be really cozy tea anon, make sure to appreciate the aromatics, I'm guessing its going to smell really nice

>>17452010
Mmm nice. I'm really looking forward to trying it. I've never actually had a roasted black tea before, at least to the best of my knowledge. What does roasting bring to the flavor profile?

>>17452014
Lighter roasts tend to enchance the aromatics and emphasize some floral flavors / aromas, darker roasts give the tea a hint of charcoal character and emphasize sort of darker toasted flavors

>>17452056
Sounds delicious desu. I've got some honey black right now and I guess I can tell it's been slightly roasted because I can taste some floral notes on it as well.

/tea/ bros, I have a question. I just made some loose leaf black tea. I kind of want to save the leaves for tomorrow -- can I just let them sit in the kitchen all wet?

>>17452498
Sure, leave the cover off whatever you brewed them in and ONLY SAVE THEM TILL TOMORROW . if you leave em for a few days they will grow mold and make a big nasty mess, but overnight is fine

>>17452509
Perfect, thank you!

>>17451949
I will check them out
>>17451888
>3 months
I thought you were kidding before I checked the site. That might be a better option for me though, because I really have enough tea for my daily drinking, so I am not in a rush.
They have a huge selection, I will see if I can find a good ripe puer there.

>>17452986
>I will see if I can find a good ripe puer there.
If you are feeling brave
https://yunnansourcing.com/products/2014-gu-ming-xiang-bu-lang-tribute-cake-ripe-pu-erh-tea?_pos=5&_sid=e4bce4dc0&_ss=r

>>17450626
Some dude from the communitea discord was shilling them hard yesterday, probably came from that

>>17452986
Get a small sample of this while you are at it
https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/guangxi-liu-bao-tea/products/2011-three-cranes-15010-liu-bao-tea?variant=12207332229188
This is also a well priced black tea if you want an affordable one,
https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/xiaguan-tea-factory-1/products/2021-xiaguan-hong-cha-feng-qing-black-tea

>>17451666
Jelly, that looks good. I've been drinking this one(link) and I love it dearly, and its only the first loose leaf black tea I've tried. I'm excited to order way more varieties soon.

https://yunnansourcing.com/products/high-mountain-tu-cha-black-tea-from-wu-yi-mountains

Probably have had 10 cups today lol

i bought teaware from amazon im sorry bros....

>>17450666
Okay thats all set, thanks anon
I cant believe i hadn't put yee in there already

>>17453496
>ordering directly from China

I fail to see the problem

>>17452498
>I just made some loose leaf black tea. I kind of want to save the leaves for tomorrow -- can I just let them sit in the kitchen all wet?
i personally would either put your teapot/gaiwan with the leaves in the fridge (after pouring out any leftover liquid) or cold brew the leftover leaves but leaving it out one night is probably ok as well.

>>17452509
>leave the cover off
why?

>>17453421
>Some dude from the communitea discord was shilling them hard yesterday
We have discord users among us? Eww

Do you use fine china for your tea drinking? If so, what type? For me, it’s Lenox bone china.

>>17453688
communitea is hopelessly snobby, same guy who shilled that website was saying if you are content with loose leaf then you dont like tea

>>17434610
why are you all such dudeweedlmao faggots? i hate tea fags irl.

>haha woooahhh dude i just got this epic white zingbilly snapper in my gay butthole all the way from chinkland i cant wait for the brew dude hahahah duuuuuuuudeeee tea lmao

just kys

I think my favorites so far are Jasmin and white tea (White moonlight)

>>17453886
I will admit that I kekd. Fuck you though.

>>17453886
>>17454036
Also keked albeit begrudgingly. Anon is still a gay faggot

The Ternstroemia lineata/pringlei rabbit hole is deep… it WILL give you alzheimers. It increases gaba release in the brain, a unique mechanism among gladdening herbs. The most effective extraction is an aqueous extraction, aka tea; that’s actually pretty rare, coffee tier rare. The lethal dose is only ten times the effective dose for sedation. I’m not trying to bring heat to it, I’m just pointing out that it’s badass. Been buying tea bags if it for months thinking it was linden but I know those red bags were just different. It doesn’t taste as smooth as real linden, but the bitter bite is nice when its iced.

>>17454084

>>17454118
Normalize guzzling obscure Latin American herbs

>>17454126
no you complete fucking faggot

>>17454139
I was born on the wrong half of the New World…

>>17453647
>why?
Darkness + humidity = mold
Leaving the cover off lets moisture escape
It also makes you less likely to forget about it for several days and have it turn into a science experiment

>>17453886
>coping over tea

>>17454231
>over tea
Wars have been fought over tea, lad.

>>17440539
>that bunny butt

>buy mom some tea
>she puts splenda/stevia in it
I mean, it's her tea now but still feel like it's being wasted

>>17440914
I use a Britta filter. It's already much better but I'm sure there are even better solutions.

>>17437209
How long do you steep black tea for gong fu? I'm new to this and the information is all over the place online

>>17454336
I like the mouse girl personally

>>17454349
I start around 15-20 seconds and then add around 5 seconds for each consecutive steep, which is pretty much what the sticky recommends. It's okay to experiment and figure out what you like as well. Over or understeeping for a little bit won't ruin your tea, just like experimenting with amount of leaves.

>>17454465
>sticky

Pastebin, I mean. The little charts are pretty handy when you're trying to brew new tea.

>>17454349
There is a table in the pastebin, you really have to figure out how you like it, you could go 15 seconds and add 15 each time, or go 30 and add 30 each time.

>>17454465
>>17454469
I really recommend brewing it "correctly" if you're just starting out, so you can get a baseline for what it "should" taste like. Eventually you'll just do everything to taste, but it's good to start with a guide.
15+15 is way too long, frankly, 20+5 is too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ5bjBxPbts
This is the best guide I've seen, but I'd probably start off with a longer brew and do more of the shorter brews. The guide here is really inadequate to brew nearly all kinds of tea, imo.

Anybody know of good teas used in Chinese Traditional Medicine?

>>17454528
>The guide here is really inadequate to brew nearly all kinds of tea, imo.
Yeah it sucks i need to fix it but i don't even really know where to start. I will try working on it next week

>>17454707
Tea tea or herbal tea?

>>17454707
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/anhua-baishaxi-2013-yr-classic-1953-fucha-dark-tea-yu-pin-fu-tea-brick-tea-royal-fucha-318g-p0397.html
And this
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/zhongcha-liupao-tea-dark-2019-dark-tea-loose-leaf-8003-areca-aroma-250g-p0674.html
First one is smokey, and mellow, second tastes like a root celler, fresh loamy soil type thing.
Both are actually good tasting teas imo but not for everyone.
These are considered warming unlike some other teas like green teas which are considered cooling, i don't really know too much else about the specifics of TCM.

>>17454742
That top link tea also has a special beneficial fungus grown inside the brick that is supposed to have all kinds of health benefits. The one caveat is that if you have celacs disease it might be inoculated with some some sort of gluten containg flour.

sipping on some of this on lazy sunday morning
http://www.tuochatea.com/haiwan-7578-ripe-pu-erh-p283/
just finishing up the session with longer steeps, it really hit the spot. very mellow, slides off the tongue into the throat leaving balsamy coating in the mouth. calms down the stomach after weekend nights of debauchery. I'm a sucker for haiwan shous, very glad to have it in the collection.

what are you drinking?

>>17455566
Having the remainder of my 2014 gong ting from Verdant. Originally a fairly dank 100g cake, but it has mellowed out and become more palatable as I've stored and consumed it over a year's time. This last portion is a touch flat since it includes some shreddings, and I am ill, so my combined perception of flavour and aroma is rather weak. That said, the texture of modestly-aged shous like these feel quite nice on my sore throat right now. I have some Haiwan 9978 I'll probably sip on later today, too. The 2018 9978 I've had has a nice liquor aroma and retronasal sweetness. Nice digits, sip well, anon.

How do I make pulled tea without accidentally burning my hands

I tried practicing with tap water and I decided that it's too dangerous to just do it from my 2 mugs

>>17455925
>pulled tea
Is this just for fun? it looks fun

>>17455999
Look it up
It's supposed to be frothier and changes the taste from what I've heard

>>17456033
it also cools the tea faster.

>>17453872
a mod gave me a lifelong ban because I posted an album on the music channel he thought was offensive
Nothing really worthwhile comes out of a setting like that

>>17455925
>>17456033
You can get the same with an electric stirrer or throw the mix in a blender for a few seconds.

But anyway what they do is to start with the mugs held literally right next to each then pull them apart as they pour, following the stream.

>>17454715
Happy to give input if you want it, just post in the thread.

I recently bought this, does anyone have any tips? Trying green tea for the first time and I don't wanna fuck it up and ruin it forever for myself.

>>17456626
Brew at a lower temperature than you expect, and not too long. Greens don't need nearly as high temps and arguably not as long as most labels suggest. If you go too hot or too long, it will probably be bitter and too 'drying'. So, experiment with it to find th3 sweet spot. There are resources for "western brewing" in the Pastebin which you can use to get started, since you have teabags. I recommend trying whole leaf tea in the future if yoy don't hate it but want a more nuanced experience.

>>17447777
Bin it. Not worth the risk. Just like with bread, once you see mold its already sprouted in and spread even if you can't see it. You can't just remove the affected piece and have it be fine.

>>17456626
70°c brew for 1:30 try it and adjust from there. You can probably rebrew the same teabag once at the same temp for 3:00 or so.

>>17456626
>does anyone have any tips?
i would try sticking relatively close to the directions on the box (see picrel) to start off with and then adjust from there. don't over-steep the tea (longer is not always better) and don't use too hot of water (most green teas do better with water that's a bit less than boiling).
>don't wanna fuck it up and ruin it forever for myself.
learning is part of the process. tea making is as much of an art as a science. every tea is different and peoples tastes are different. there is no consistent on size fits all approach to tea.

if you really want to get into Japanese green tea i would recommend looking into trying loose-leaf tea. it is generally better quality than teabags and its really not that much more work to make or even necessarily more expensive. this years fresh spring greens should start becoming available in just a month or two. the link in the OP has some good stores listed (https://pastebin.com/80GeeXJV).).

what did everyone sip today?
i has some fall Jingmai sheng from Farmerleaf:
https://www.farmer-leaf.com/collections/jingmai-tea/products/autumn-2021-jingmai-shengtai

>>17457692
How do you like his fall teas? Was thinking about ordering some this year but never really got around to it.

>>17456791
Why does it need to steep less if it’s in cold water?

>>17457756
>How do you like his fall teas?
its the only tea i have from him so i cant compare. i am also not an expert on spring vs fall teas in the first place. as for my option on the tea i think its a nice daily drinker sort of young sheng. its got a kind of a spicy herbaceous character to it in contrast with the tart fruit character i get from my other young shengs. it is a pleasant strength for drinking right now at least how i make it (Chaozhou Gong Fu Cha), not too strong or weak. i got it on sale over black friday and i am perfectly with it at the price i payed and even at full price it would be fair. perhaps it wont satisfy the gushu snobs but as someone who mostly drinks affordable teas i can recommend it.

>>17457781
Water is a more powerful solvent at higher temperatures, same reason you cold brew coffee overnight but can brew with near boiling water in a few minutes.

>>17457692
2007 8891 from YS; nice mix of woodiness, savoriness and camphor. Later steeps tasted a bit like capers. It's becoming one of my favorite shengs.

>>17458593
Nice, i really need to grab some more Dayi shengs

>>17457692
I finally brought my travel gong fu set to work with me and sipped on some 2020 ripe "Cozy" from YS. Unfortunately I only got a few steeps in before I felt like any more would do me in, caffeine sensitivity be damned. I think I'll bring a green or an oolong next time and save the pu for at home.

>>17458854
I thought poos generally had less caffeine. Or is that only after they age a few years

>t. poo noob

>>17458900
Nah puerh is up there with the most high octane teas ive had, not always but many of them are rocket fuel tier, the only thing ive had that goes harder is various hei cha, especially fu bricks. Age doesn't seem to make much of a difference, someone posted a study at some point and a 10 year old puerh didn't seem to have any less caffeine the a fresh tea.
That said i can't really name a tea that i think is noticeably more mild than the others.

>>17457973
I just read it wrong, thought it said 3-4min on the hot, 2 on the cold

>>17458726
>Nice, i really need to grab some more Dayi shengs
that ones a CNNP/Kunming recipe.
https://teadb.org/reading-drinking-numbers/

>>17458922
>the only thing ive had that goes harder is various hei cha, especially fu bricks
i had some liu an that really kicks.

>That said i can't really name a tea that i think is noticeably more mild than the others.
i would agree with that sentiment. every type of tea can pack a punch but not every specific tea does.

>>17458900
I read that newer pu's can have more caffeine than more aged ones, but I haven't looked much more into it. The Cozy was really nice though for what few steeps I got to enjoy of it.
>>17458922
Interesting, I'll have to see if I can dig up that study. I only learned recently that white teas can sometimes have more caffeine than greens. I was under the assumption for the longest time that most white teas were low in caffeine until I did a gong fu session with some silver needle before bed one night and fucked up my sleep.

>>17459024
the buds regardless of how the tea is processed often contain more caffeine. my guess would be early spring picking are likely stronger as well. heavy roasting can reduce caffeine. aging or fermentation may reduce it somewhat but not as much or as fast as one might think. how the tea is brewed can effect how much caffeine is ingested which is where some of the black tea vs green tea caffeine myth comes in. also different tea varietals and growing conditions will affect caffeine levels as well.

>>17459024
>Interesting, I'll have to see if I can dig up that study
This isn't the exact one i found before but still interesting.
From a blog post on the subject from Hojo tea
https://hojotea.com/en/posts-154/

I want to be enlightened on gong fu, where should I look for which one to get?

>>17459212
all you need is a cheap gaiwan ~100ml or small teapot. gong fu is just more leaf vs water (~5g/100ml) and multiple short steeps (so first being 10-20seconds and adding more time each time)

>>17459212
You should but a cheap white porcelain gaiwan and cup. About 100-120ml, don't get a 200ml because sometimes you might have guests. I can pul some links off aliexpress

>>17434610
What to people mean by oily tea/cup?

I would like a nice stout tea try made of a nice smelling wood like walnut or whatever is standard. The kind with the little drip tray. Could anyone recommend anything?

How can I drink gallons of tea and not stay awake all night? What teas have less caffeine? I want to drink it right before bed.

>>17459212
Here is a cheap gaiwan, get the 100 or 130ml, the 130 is probably 100ml of actual usable capacity
https://aliexpress.com/item/4000766008390.html

>>17459212
Here is another good cheap gaiwan, nice wide rim.
https://aliexpress.com/item/32860463309.html
You could just get both gaiwans and use one as a cup.

Why are these cups so expensive. I like how they look but $200 is too much for a cup

>>17459243
They are usually made of bamboo, make sure you get one that has an inner plastic tub to hold water instead of holding it in the wood itself.
Something like this is a decent choice.
https://kingteamall.com/collections/tea-tray/products/bamboo-tea-tray-with-plastic-water-tank-l37-w26-h7cm
Here is another one with a tank
https://kingteamall.com/collections/tea-tray/products/bamboo-tea-tray-xi-shang-mei-shao-lucky-sparrow-board-saucer-with-water-tank
You can look through the rest of his store or check other vendors but there isn't really anything western facing that are selling tea tables that are more fancy than these pretty standard ones.

>>17459275
I blame the Japanese
Check out this shop, they also have some pretty expensive stuff but also some more reasonably priced cups
https://mudandleaves.com/collections/teacups?page=1

>>17459275
This shop also has some cool stuff at more reasonable prices
https://www.etsy.com/shop/TreasureTeawares

>>17459300
>>17459306
Who the fuck buys 300 dollar cups

>>17459329
People who can afford to buy $300 cups (not me)
At that point you are typically buying a nice piece from a particular studio whos work has some kind of reputation. It's as much about collecting fancy teaware as it is just buying a cup to use. Most of those expensive pieces on mud and leaves are painstaking reproductions of Chinese porcelain work from hundreds of years ago, done using the exact same old techniques and materials that were used back then.

>>17459275
Just a grift for teaboos. You can find similar stuff on Etsy for 1/10 the price. Unless there is some clay/glaze magic I'm unaware of.

>>17459474
I can appreciate a wide range of different stylea of porcelain and ceramics but that Japanese stuff where the style is
>we made it look like shit on purpose
does nothing for me

>>17459562
I don't mind a little wabi-sabi, and I do prefer the Japanese style teaware overall, but it should be more subtle and not look like something you dug out of the ground IMO.

>>17459580
for such a conformist culture they sure do love unique aesthetics

>take a leak
>whole bathroom reeks of osmanthus

some herbs really go thru ya i guess

>>17459877
kek

i can drink any tea i dont even care anymore

new thread!
>>17460663
>>17460663
>>17460663