/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>18088761
Is this the tea thread?

2nd for PooBong

>>18089053
Oh yeah we got the turtle, haven't seen that guy in a while.
Im guessing that is some kind of puer your a brewing up anon

Some anons here like to talk about hot tea during hot weather, but for some reason, it's coldbrew during temperate or nippy mornings for me. Anyone else? Just had a mixed coldbrew (jasmine green, shou, and chai black blend) shaken with almond milk and liquified red bean paste. I almost always get an abundance of foam and a smooth texture when making drinks like this, which is pleasant to wake up to sometimes. Then I can switch over to a nice counterpoint of something like an earthy liu bao or mellow white made normally in my gaiwan. Finishing some Anhua baishaxi I left in my gaiwan yesterday now. There really is nothing like some deep heicha to set you in the mood to read and relax.

>>18088761
i went camping today but i forgot to bring tea, 2nd time this happens :(

>>18089315
Yeah it's been a minute. This is the last of a bing of 2011 Mengku Rongshi Qiao Mu Xiao Sheng.

What kind of black tea would I probably like if I *don't* like smooth flavor? I tried two nicer black teas and they were both kind of monotonous.

>>18089520
dan cong, its a little sour or more oxidized oolongs like da hong pao. have you tried earl grey? its black tea with bergamot oil or Darjeeling

>>18089520
https://mountainstreamteas.com/collections/black-teas/products/sun-moon-ruby-18
This one is weird and fucked up while still being enjoyable. One of the most memorable teas I've tasted.

>>18089458
>Yeah it's been a minute.
welcome back wiener-turtle anon

>This is the last of a bing of 2011 Mengku Rongshi Qiao Mu Xiao Sheng.
you went though that tong pretty quick. is it one of your main daily drinker teas or something?

>>18089520
probably ctc assam or ceylon

>>18089577
>have you tried earl grey?
Yes I forgot about that, good call anon.
>>18089586
>>18089599
Will give those a try when I can.

what are winter taiwan oolongs like?

>>18089753
well i'll just try one winter oolong atleast, how does this order from taiwanteacraft look? I tried getting one of each varietal shown in https://teadb.org/taiwanese-tea-cultivars/
Anything repetitive i can cut out to reduce cost?

>>18089753
They cost much less
Iirc they are supposed to be less sweet and less intese overall flavorwise.
But you might find that you are totally happy with them. In taiwan a massive amout of focus is put on a handfull of farmable high altitude locations and they are treated as the be all end all of tea quality. Unfortunately because of their extremely elevated value farmers will aggressively use herbicides and pesticides to maximize yield as much as possible on their expensive land, which you may or may not view as a negative factor.
Always what im trying to say is just because low altitude winter Taiwan oolongs are 90% cheaper than high altitude spring doesn't mean they are also 90% worse. It's good to try lots of teas and find what you like. Especially with the way the taiwan market works it's good to find tea sellers who whave similar tastes as you since they will frequently buy from different farmers in the same regions each year.

>>18089818
one of each cultivar*

>>18089818
I can't see anyth i can obviously tell you to drop, i would like to see something that's charcoal roasted but that's my own personal preference, it seems like you have a decently balanced selection. Taiwan red teas get really expensive but it wont hurt to try two, if you don't go nuts for either you can skip them in the future. Im far from an expert on Taiwan oolongs but i have had a few here and there

>>18089878
Thank you, i lowered the amounts of some teas to reduce the price a bit and got one charcoal roasted tea, never been a massive fan of highly roasted oolongs though but ill try it though.

https://www.uptontea.com/tea-samplers/loose-leaf-breakfast-blend-black-tea/p/V01072/
Is this good? Trying to get some black tea blends to help me quit coffee.

>>18090094
It's fine, it's probably cheaper to just get some breakfast blends from https://www.vahdam.com/
There two would probably be a decent start
https://www.vahdamteas.com/products/classic-english-breakfast-black-tea?variant=13092202774571
https://www.vahdamteas.com/products/daily-assam-black-tea?variant=39452771024939

I'm loving this "Golden needle, year of the tiger" ripe puerh. It was a small cake but really good. I went from not liking ripe puerh to wanting only it. Anyone have a ripe puerh recommendation from Yunnan Sourcing? I'll take any at face value and bite the bullet with it in my bi-monthly order.

>>18090276
.us or .com?

>>18090356
.com because I'm fine with the shipping and waiting.

>>18090276
This is starting to get really expensive so if its not in your budget don't bother, but this is a cake made with pretty premium material and he is selling tea from the same fermentation batch under another brand for 3x the price
https://yunnansourcing.us/collections/big-classic-gu-ming-xiang/products/2014-gu-ming-xiang-bu-lang-tribute-cake-ripe-pu-erh-tea
So yeah fucking ys with his price hikes, that was $45 a few years ago.
Anyway if you like ripe you owe it to yourself to get a sample of some well stored liubao,
This one is in a very good price range with lots of the good humid storage it needs.
https://yunnansourcing.us/collections/guangxi-liu-bao-tea/products/2011-three-cranes-15010-liu-bao-tea
Here is a somewhat cheaper ripe cake that sounds interesting
https://yunnansourcing.us/collections/ripe-pu-erh-tea/products/2008-xiang-ming-elephant-and-lotus-ripe-pu-erh-tea-cake

>>18090365
Okay one sec

>>18090365
https://yunnansourcing.com/products/2014-gu-ming-xiang-bu-lang-tribute-cake-ripe-pu-erh-tea?_pos=5&_sid=b8e2cd670&_ss=r
Same text from my other post applies
Ya gotta try at least a bit of liubao
https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/guangxi-liu-bao-tea/products/2011-three-cranes-15010-liu-bao-tea
One of these tuo wouldn't hurt, thry tend to be on the darker kind of almost burt Belgian waffle end of ripe flavor
https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/ripe-pu-erh/products/2019-menghai-dayi-v93-premium-ripe-pu-erh-tea-tuo
Still think this cake sounds interesting
https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/ripe-pu-erh/products/2008-xiang-ming-elephant-and-lotus-ripe-pu-erh-tea-cake
Anyway not sure what to suggest beyond that, if after another order or two you decide you really like ripes it might be worth checking out white 2 tea or yee on tea if you really like that wet storage mellow flavor.
If nothing else try the liubao.

>>18090448
You had me at Belgian waffle. Lol. Thank you. My tea backlog is getting bigger than my game one now. I'm glad that 2019 Menghai is a good price.

One interesting difference between mainland Chinese and Taiwanese tea culture is their taste in teapots.
In Taiwan, new Yixing pots are not as popular, with most tea enthusiasts being obsessed with pre-77 Factory 1 and ROC productions.
In China, people prefer cheaper new productions and are picky about shape and clay type. When people want to spend a lot of money, they like to buy handmade pieces by living masters. Old teapots that would cost a lot of money in Taiwan are often undervalued in the mainland.
Western tastes are a mix of the two, except westerners will buy 80s/90s Factory 1 pots that Taiwanese people think are trash.

>>18090531
Yee menghai makes good ripes

>>18090276
i have heard people say good things about YS's house brand's "Peerless" series of ripe cakes but they are expensive enough that they better be good. I would not recommend blind buying a whole cake unless you have deep pockets but you could get a sample if you want.
https://yunnansourcing.com/search?q=Peerless

>>18090588
I haven't tried it myself but if i was going to spend $80 or whatever it is on ahouse brand ripe i would much rather get one from W2T

>>18090535
>In China, people prefer cheaper new productions and are picky about shape and clay type. When people want to spend a lot of money, they like to buy handmade pieces by living masters.
This has been my outlook towards teaware as I've come to drink and appreciate tea more. I started off with a typical white porcelain and glass setup, but I ended up getting nice handmade pieces to use daily. There is something to be said for the repeat experience of drinking out of something beautiful in every session. If only I had a proper kiln to try my hand at this myself.

>>18089384
That sounds like a really nice routine anon

>>18089384
I put some cold brew green tea in the fridge at work. It's an absolutely kino refresher. Only problem is it doesn't last the whole day and I don't have room for more than one.

>>18090718
Buy some of those half gallon glass mason jars and use those

>>18090657
It is a pleasant, convenient way to shake things up while promoting the formation of other desired habits. Almost like a mental 'cue'; it is working well for me. Smooth coldbrew just expedites the process and offers room to experiment between regular sessions.
>>18090718
If you have a cup and source of water, you can simply carry a higher concentration of coldbrew (so more leaf and/or time) and simply dilute it before consumption. I usually dilute my tea with either more water or almond milk anyway. Assuming your workplace has a source of drinking water, you owe it to yourself to give it a try.

>>18090987
>you can simply carry a higher concentration of coldbrew (so more leaf and/or time) and simply dilute it before consumption.
>cold brew zavarka

how long do you let rolled up, pellet black tea leaves infuse? I've heard they should sit longer

>>18091063
Are the full rolled leaves or those little tiny bits of shredded leaf (crush tear curl processing) for the forment maybe 4-5 minutes for western style for the latter ctc is strong as fuck so you can keep it pretty short. As always you should brew to taste, any brewing directions are just a starting point and you should experiment with go longer or shorter to get the taste you want.

The Black Gold Bi Lou Chun has a darker, hearty-er taste, almost earthy. Not as sweet or smooth as the High Mountain. I brewed it for about 180 seconds but I think I should try 120 next time. Or maybe a longer time at a lower temperature. It reminds me of regular tea bags but not as bitter and more refreshing. I'd say it's a nice morning tea
>>18091091
>This has been picked as 1 leaf to 1 bud sets and processed carefully by rolling the tea into pellets
Is what the website mentions. They look rolled up to me

>>18091161
Oh yeah those a full leafs, but more of a traditional malty tea flavor. You can mess around with brew times untill you are happy with how it tastes, you said you were doing like 2.5g of tea in mug?

Is there a good pu-erh vendor that ships from within Canada? The ones in the OP link are either shipping from outside Canada or don't stock pu-erh teas.

>>18091789
There is the official xiaguan factory store. Which apparently has absolutely nothing in stock https://xgtea.shop/
Puerhshop.com has a Canadian website that ships within canada
https://www.puerhshop.com/canada/
I thought this guy is in canada but it's not clear now
https://www.puerhjunky.com/
There is some old tea shop in Vancouver but they are expensive and have a very controversial reputation so i would avoid them
So i guess it's puershop Canada unless you can find somone else. I can try and make some recommendations for you

>>18091789
>>18091844
So anyway puerhshop is a little weird, but he has some great bargans, his storage is very dry, so teas don't age a ton once he gets them also his house brand teas, zenpuer and american hao don't seem to be all that great.
Anyway here are some good teas to focus on from the Canada shop, place is like a time capsule with prices frozen a decade ago.
Can't go wrong with dayi ripe cakes
https://www.puerhshop.com/canada/index.php?route=product/product&path=61_62&product_id=72
These bricks look good
https://www.puerhshop.com/canada/index.php?route=product/product&path=59_60&product_id=53
Ive had these dragon eggs before, very good chocolaty ripe
https://www.puerhshop.com/canada/index.php?route=product/product&path=69_71&product_id=94
For raws
These look good
https://www.puerhshop.com/canada/index.php?route=product/product&path=69_70&product_id=91
You will never find a 10 year old 7542 this cheap again
https://www.puerhshop.com/canada/index.php?route=product/product&path=61_63&product_id=83
I like border teas and this one looks pretty nice, i bet its good
https://www.puerhshop.com/canada/index.php?route=product/product&manufacturer_id=15&product_id=76
Also buy some Tibetan intense since Canada has the best Tibetan inscese store in the west
This one rules and its affordable too
https://incense-traditions.ca/shop/tibet/tibetan-therapeutic-and-relaxation-incense/holy-land-incense/

>>18091844
>>18091876
Thanks. I think I will order from puerhshop.

>>18091906
Weird i know that puerh junky guy used to be in Canada, maybe he still is?
Puershop canada isn't much of an inventory to explore and you should get a taste of different kinds of storage. Hopefully the international shipping to Canada situation will get better soon so i can yell at you and tell you to order from china

Longjing a best

I just got my tea. The Rougui smells like cannabis brownies with cherries.

I need help, today in my dream i saw a pot that was posted in one of these threads and i can't recall what was it's name. It looked like a water jug, the size of yxing pot, and was also made of clay, but with a very simplistic and crude look to it.

>>18092956
https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/gaiwans/easy-gaiwan

>>18092903
It's funny. I know what you mean. It smells to me like weed while it's burning as you smoke it. Some charred herb scent.

>>18093074
yes exactly. It took me back to my weed phase, it's the taste in your mouth while smoking cannabis, not necessarily what it smells like when someone is smoking next to you, but when you smoke it yourself

>>18093139
Haha yeah it's the nostalgic flavor of a bong rip. Chinamen have NO clue. And I got lots of fruit too but that's less of a novelty.

>>18093297
tfw will never have the authentic yiwu bong rip

I love eating a can of sardines after a tea session, for some odd reason they fits really well together.

>>18093691
I do it the other way around to rinse the oily feeling out of my mouth. It has to be green tea.

>>18093691
How do you find this to pair together? Even a roasty tea will be overpowered by the sardines, and if you have the sardines after, you will be left with a aftertaste of sardine remnants. I eat absurd combinations all the time, but this is confusing.

>>18092903
wow after drinking this tea some hours ago I'm now eating cherries and I'm getting the exact same aftertaste. It's crazy how two completely different plants can lead to the same flavor

>>18092956
A hohin maybe

>>18094056
God those things are cute, i need to remember to get one

Im so glad some more anons are trying wuyi oolong, truly the tea of the gods
Vid almost related
https://youtube.com/watch?v=r1wcZqanp_w

>>18094056
>>18093058
I guess it was a hohin, this is the closest design i could find to the one i saw. Im still looking for one with even sharper edges

>>18094420
Another think that was bothering me was that in that dream there was a large water jug just with tea freely submerged in it, but what was intresting is that there were these pieces of dead dried white branches, lying on the bottom of it. It made a fine contrast with fresh leaves swimming on top. Thus i was thinking if this is doable, could i theoretically get some dried branches that wouldn't change the taste of tea, or could they add a layer to the tea ?

>>18094496
For stems, you could try Malawi antlers or Japanese suzume kikucha. The antlers are pretty expensive, suzume kikucha is cheap but hard to find.

Besides Margaret's Hope, what are some good second flush darjeelings to try?

>>18094706
What kind of money are you looking to spend, do you know what specific characteristics you are looking for? If you just want to try something different maybe give this one a a shot, it's pretty economial.
https://www.vahdamteas.com/products/ringtong-classic-darjeeling-second-flush-black-tea?variant=40170698211371
I'm pretty sure an anon recommended Puttabong estate before and this proce is decent as long as thry don't gouge for shipping
https://www.thunderbolttea.com/teas/puttabong-kakra-musk-organic/

>>18091370
Yeah, my mug holds about 300ml so I try to use about 2.5

>>18094940
Yeah that's reasonable, you could use more if you wanted it stronger, up to maybe 3.5 grams. im sorry the western brewing directions in the pastebin are kind of mediocre i need to redo them.
But you are in a reasonable range it sounds like, how has it been going?

>>18095215
the picture that saved /tea/

>>18095215
Tell me about Dilmah. Why does she brew the bag? Would it hurt if I took it out?

>>18094706
The top estates are Arya (AV2 clonal) and Castleton (chinary muscatel)

I'm not normally a fan of Chinese greens, but Anji Bai Cha is amazing. Anyone else here try it before?

>>18095654
Havent tried it but im interested, what's it like?

>>18095695
It's a very light flavor, slightly more vegetal than it is floral. It kinda tastes like a cross between a white and a green to be honest. Smooth too- with sencha, even at the same temps and times I'll wind up with a bit of bitterness now and then, but not with anji
Resteeps well, I can usually get about 5 or 6 western style steeps with it

more tea drink

>>18094951
Good. I've been enjoying a cup or two everyday now. I just tried brewing the High Mountain on a pre-boil for about 3 minutes and it really brought out a more tangy flavor, almost fruity. I'm saving the green tea for my day off. What have you been brewing lately?
And for second infusions, are you reusing the leaves with a new cup of water? Does it matter how long you wait before another infusion?

>>18096545
>And for second infusions, are you reusing the leaves with a new cup of water? Does it matter how long you wait before another infusion?
Yeah after you finish the first cup you can brew the leaves again, you usually add an extra 50% to the brew time. That's the issue with the current western brewing directions, they keep the first brew short so that you can do three brews with the same leaves, but that's silly and nobody does it. Even doing a second brew with the same leaves, it works but it won't be as rich and concentrated as the first cup, some people like to do a second brew, some don't bother, it's really up to you and what you want to do.

Protip: if you drank astringent tea, eat some dry crackers for immediate relief

>>18096753
>Anon drinks rather harsh, astringent tea.
>Throat becomes uncomfortably tingly, nose is stuffy.
>Eats dry crackers as an associate recommended to relieve his symptoms.
>The cracker edges scrape against his already-inflamed throat, riding about his larynx, and sending him into a wheezing mess.
>He starts hemorrhaging profusely, and blood seeps out from his mouth rhythmically until he shakes, stirs, and ultimately submits to the vacuum.
>He is no longer with us.
Reject the cracker menace, embrace the nuts and legumes.

>>18096791
True story, this is a top tier snack with tea

>>18088761
Enjoying some black tea + 9 grams brown sugar + 25% milk on this Tuesday morning working from home.

Drinking from a budget yue guang bai cake I blind-bought last year from Fullchea. Only had it a few times, but it is an impressive value (especially if caught on sale). Prominent florals (slightly herbal aftertaste) in the mouth, bit cooling, jammy/fruity in the leaves, plenty of nice buds and whole parts, etc. Yet, I remember when a few anons laughed at my random buy for this saying it looked terrible. Don't know how many are looking for bang/buck whites right now, but I thought I'd post a link:
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/2018-moonlight-white-beauty-whiet-chinese-tea-ancient-arbors-of-jingmai-mountain-white-raw-pu-erh-tea-357g-p0751.html
I don't think the cakes valued below this which I bought were especially great, but this one is a good performer. Just pleasant, and I usually don't care much for floral notes. Makes me miss my old shou mei that tasted of buttery crackers.

I bought 15 different samples of Chinese black tea.
It's kind of crazy that so far I've had 4 and all of them tasted different.

I'm in love with this. I grandpa style all morning to afternoon. 10 grams of this in my large (25 ounce) mug and it last me half the day. I finish to about a third and refresh with just boiled water. It really has a good dark chocolate/cocoa sensation to it after a little while of sitting. It's oaky and strong at first, only to be dark and creamy with that chocolate taste. I'm buying a tong for sure.

https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/ripe-pu-erh/products/golden-needle-year-of-the-tiger-ripe-pu-erh-tea-cake?variant=41561591447751

もっとお茶を飲む

I like big bings and I can not lie.

Imagine the raw violence a puer dyke equipped with a tuo strapon could unleash

What's the three-penis wine of Chinese tea?

>>18098915
probably picrel

also unrelated kek i found well searching for my pic
https://www.aliexpress.com/i/2251832660104526.html?gatewayAdapt=4itemAdapt

>>18098986
Hell yeah tiddymilk tea pets

When I lived and taught in Japan I got to pick, roll and dry local tea leaves with some of my students. It was really fun and it tasted delicious.

>>18099411
Did you heat or steam them at all or just roll and air dry? Just air drying would get you a sort of white tea which would be pretty interesting.

>>18099425
Ah I had to think about it but they heated them.
What was really interesting was sometimes they ate some as tempura. That was actually pretty good.

>>18099455
Yeah they like eating tea leaves over there, they occasionally use them in cold salads as well.

>Room is temperate, mini desk fan blowing napeward, soft colored lighting above and about.
>Mild, natural 'library' ambients playing on the room speakers.
>Grab little throw blanket, drape casually over, loosen clothing.
>Kick on kettle, place leaves into gaiwan, beep-beep, pour in.
>A moment of silence before pouring off, full exhalation, and very slow inhalation from the resulting steam.
>Tfw experiencing the full breadth of the tea's aroma notes; brain gently fondled, nose tickled, the atmosphere leading into a mild, half-asleep trance.
Do you feel it, anons? This was me a few hours ago. Had so many perfect circumstances in line for a great session. Spend the time to make the ideal ambience for your sessions, anons. Every little bit helps move it up from just "tea time" to a meditation on its own.

>>18099755
Next time put on music for airports, brian eno

>>18099755
>>18099765
10:30pm espresso. Might be heavy tea sesh night.
https://youtu.be/yBP_Re9r9MI

Im glad you appreciate tea culture. My english is getting better, I lurk and learn. You are drinking safe tea I don't see scary tea anymore.

>>18099821
define scary tea

>>18099821
thanks china anon

Just some cheap xiaguan tuo this morning, gets the job done

>>18089053
Is that a turtle infuser?
Where can I get one?

>>18100990
Its a lil teapet, swimming in the rinse water

>>18099821
You can't just mention scary tea and not tell us more.

>>18101653
IIRC he was talking about when people were buying really questionable teas from fullchea like those bags of random weird flavored mini puers. He was tellig people not to drink weird shitty Chinese tea that the Chinese wouldn't touch.
Pic related

is there any reason why i'd have nausea when i drink tea with lemon?

Started drinking matcha, it is quite nice and relaxes me

>>18102320
Did you drink it on an empty stomach?

>>18102268
I remember trying all of those. Haven't thought about them in some time. There were maybe one or two that were barely acceptable, but otherwise, they were rather unpleasant. I sometimes think about using them, but I don't want to get sick. Sad part is someone could just get a budget offering that isn't terrible for around the same price. Even potentially great leaf equaling a similar price ratio, if you spend just a little higher.
>>18102320
Are you making it with bagged tea, small tea shreds, or similar? High temp water for long periods of time? Assuming you don't have issues with acids like lemon/lime, orange, vinegar, and so on, you're probably over-extracting the leaf while trying to bring out more 'lemon'. That can result in a harsh infusion which some may find to be nauseating.

>>18102345
Well you tasting them did make for good content

>>18102335
i supposed that could be the reason why it always happens
>>18102345
>Are you making it with bagged tea, small tea shreds, or similar
bagged tea
>High temp water for long periods of time?
i suppose? it's tea
>extracting the leaf while trying to bring out more 'lemon'
a literal leaf? i'm esl, so just to be sure my lemon has no leaves if by that you mean picrel

>>18102385
>Bagged tea
Try lowering the temperature of your water, and/or infusing the tea for less time. It may take a few tries to find the best balance, but it should become lighter in flavor, less bitter, and cause less stomach upset. You can also try, as the other anon suggested, drinking your tea some time after eating food.
>a literal leaf? i'm esl, so just to be sure my lemon has no leaves...
I mean camelia sinensis; the tea plant.

>>18102399
>Try lowering the temperature of your water, and/or infusing the tea for less time
shouldn't tea be drunk boiled?
i usually leave the teabag for 5 minutes and then start drinking without removing it
>but it should become lighter in flavor, less bitter, and cause less stomach upset.
i'll try that then, i'm not a tea lover like you, it's just that it's a good way of passing time
>I mean camelia sinensis; the tea plant.
thanks for clarifying
thanks anon, you two were really useful, i'll try your recommendations and see what happens

>>18102633
>shouldn't tea be drunk boiled?
It depends on the type of tea and method. That said, most bagged teas contain tiny fannings (also called 'dust'), which extract very quickly. When you use very hot water with this kind of tea for a very long time, it extracts too quickly. It may become very bitter or harsh otherwise, and even cause stomach upset. That is why it is common in many societies that drink tea like this to compensate with milk and sugar.

If you want to see what it is like to have way less harshness from temperature alone, try coldbrewing your tea. Put some tea bags in a glass jar, fill with (non-hot) water, shake gently, and put it in the refrigerator overnight or longer. You may likely find it to be smoother, less harsh, and maybe even sweet. It is typically less likely to cause stomach upset, and rather refreshing too.

>2022-07-06 The plane entered the port
why won't my tea get in the plane anons?

>>18102793
Probably departed and just not tracked as such. Many tracking services only go up to departure or so and then go radio silent until it just randomly appears on your doorstep. Not the rule, just seems likely for many carriers.

>>18102793
Mine may or may not have been put on a boat on june 1st. No word since

>can't afford to order nice teas anymore because of the recession

>>18102871
Like whites? Can you afford a ~$16 (less if during a sale) cake? I posted this yesterday:
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/2018-moonlight-white-beauty-whiet-chinese-tea-ancient-arbors-of-jingmai-mountain-white-raw-pu-erh-tea-357g-p0751.html
Little bit for shipping and you're set for plenty of sessions.

>>18101653
someone post the terrifying liu bao, I know one of you fucks has it

>>18102871
I know that feel, bro. At least cheap tea is really really cheap.

>>18102994
The poop tea?

>>18102871
Guess one of the silver linings of being a broke grad student is that my income has not changed due to covid-19. I still spend entirely too much on tea but it is my only hobby I actually spend cash on right now. Hope whatever you do for a living picks up soon anon.

luckily the members of /tea/ have become pretty adept at finding good deals on tea. Im broke too right now but i can still find decent puers for less than 10¢ per gram, at least sometimes. I have been priced out of fancy wuyi yancha this year

i keep thinking of starting my own garden for things to put into my teas but i dont know what to grow. ideas?

>>18103398
Sage, mint, lemongrass, lavender.

>>18103295
/tea/'s puerh lesbians are a frugal breed except that one cranky euro.

>>18103398
mint and chamomile are always nice.

>>18103448
>except that one cranky euro.
He may be grumpy but he has damn good taste
>>18103398
Chamomile, lavender, opium poppies

anyone cook with tea? i got too much to drink.

>>18103915
You can put some spent green tea leaves in a salad or a pickle. I've never actually cooked with tea. I see all those matcha baked good recipies. I guess you could make a cake and steep black tea leaves in whatever liquid you were adding. But i cant think of anything where you would just add dry tea leaves to some meal you were cooking

>fucked up the black tea not once but twice
At least this cup is drinkable

There must be some shady teahouses in China that just redry used tea leafs and sell them online to oblivious westerners, right?

>>18104773
Nice thing about tea is you can always dilute it afterwards if it oversteeps.

>>18103915
make bara brith

>>18104974
doubtful, most westerners that are actually in china would know better and i doubt its worth the effort to save just to save a few yuan. if you want to be underhanded and your shop does not have price tags on everything you can always just charge foreigners and wealthy looking people more. alternatively just direct them to your more overpriced wares. people with more money aren't as likely to try to haggle or fret over a few extra yuan. re-drying tea leaves sounds more like something super frugal elderly people may try to do.

I want to try this Dragon Well green tea but I don't have a thermometer. What's a good tell for when the water is hot enough without scorching it?
>>18105175
I didn't even think of that

>>18105408
You could try boiling water first since you know how hot that is. Then pour it into a mug, then pour the mug into your tea pot. Wait for the mug to get warm before pouring and it'll cool off enough.

>>18099755
>Kick on kettle, place leaves into gaiwan, beep-beep, pour in.
If you're trying to get uber cozy and you're not preheating your gaiwan, throwing the leaves in, and smelling them dry as they warm up, you're missing out. Really really missing out, I'd give it a shot.

>>18105408
I would humbly suggest that good dragon well can be brewed fairly hot. If you want to brew it more traditionally, pour the water off the boil into some glass container, and brew with it when the class is still uncomfortably hot to hold, but not painful.

>>18105408
If you have a stovetop kettle you can use the water the second it starts making noise.
t. lazy brewing enjoyer

>scale can't even weigh green tea leaves

>>18106055
You just need to sneak up on it

>>18105431
>>18105995
>>18106045
I kinda winged it and it turned out good. Not very strong or bitter but it has a nutty flavor to it. Not what I was expecting.
>>18106062
Huh

>>18106137
Hell yeah it has that nutty aspect from the way it's processed, i really like it. Still should also give you a decent dose of savory green tea brothy flavors as well but not as pronounced as ypu would find in say Japanese greens

>>18103525
appreciate it anon. hope you're having a good day.

>>18103448
watch it sister, I was bargain hunting and sharing my findings here while you had scissoring sessions with other mutilated degenerates, hopped up on earl grey enemas. have a nice day too.

nothing exciting on the tea front these days. had some points accumulated on the ktm account so I ordered picrel. my tea library is full, this was just to spend the virtual money. I can retire for a while from purchasing and leisurely rotate through my stock of slowly maturing leaves. don't let them fool you, life can be good in some moments. you just need to slow the fuck down and create them.
in my quest for flavour I'm on the single malt whisky train right now. similar thing - I'm catching up while the prices rise steadily and alarmingly. just so you know.

Grandpa brewing some roasted oolong, not my favourite but has some nice notes.
How should i store roasted oolongs for aging? do i just put it into my puer humidor or is there a special way to age these teas?

Cooler's broken and it's 32C, traditional Chinese medicine says not to drink cold things so I'm drinking hot sencha. My body is one with fire, thank you traditional Chinese medicine

>>18106484
did you really spend $2740 at KTM? or was there some other way you racked up that many KTM Points.

>>18106484
Not a big scotch guy but i used to quite enjoy Bourbon, if you can find bottles of buffalo trace over in Europe, and i wouldn't de surprised if you can't since i can barely find any here, you can safety skip just about all the upmarket american Bourbon. The single barrel version just has an orange sticker on the side of the bottle which sometimes goes unnoticed.

>>18102793
my tea has made it state side. now i just got to wait for the USPS to get it here.

>>18107318
Nice, that resolved itself quickly. What's in the haul?

>>18107380
https://www.chawangshop.com/pu-erh-tea/raw-sheng-puerh/2006-myanmar-kokang-mei-hua-bing-raw-puerh-tea-100g.html
https://www.chawangshop.com/other-tea/2022-chawangpu-white-tea-cake-200g.html
https://www.chawangshop.com/pu-erh-tea/species/deang-sour-tea-tasting-set-20g.html

>>18107503
Damn that sour tea looks interesting, it reminds me of that barrel fermented Japanese sour bancha

>>18107503
Nice, I didn't realize this was the Chawangshop haul. Interesting selections too. I really like the Bada whites he's sourced, though I just tried the other 100g offering. That Myanmar sheng is vicious to open up; may want to get a hammer and pick ready. Would be interesting to read your notes on any of these. Chawangshop's stock is solid, just wish shipping was more favorable.

>>18107525
>that Myanmar sheng is vicious to open up; may want to get a hammer and pick ready.
kek, i hate it when iron cakes are that hard; i will make do though. i'm hoping it comes in the bamboo sleeve pictured because i did buy a tongs worth of them.

>Would be interesting to read your notes on any of these.
i will post notes on all of them when i can.

>drink pu-erh for the first time
>it's really earthy
>it also tastes not very strong yet I'm drinking ten cups of tea at the same time

Did I brew it right? It's ripe pu-erh.

>>18108596
>it also tastes not very strong
Do you mean 'strong' as in "concentrated" or "bitter"? If the latter, not all tea becomes repulsively bitter even if you boil the sin out of it. Also, how long are you infusing it, and at what temperature? How much tea for how much water?

>>18108638
off boil temp, probably around 98°C
2.5g tea
rinse for 10 sec and discard
250g water
2 min first steep
2.5 min second steep
water squeezed out from tea leaves and saved in a container for tomorrow

>>18108708
Use more leaf; that is not much even for western infusion in my opinion. You can leave it to infuse well longer, too. Will just become thicker and more concentrated.

>>18108747
What about the earthy tastes? Is it just a characteristic of ripe pu-erh?

>>18108770
Sometimes (not exactly uncommon), but not exclusively. I'd say liu bao is perhaps closer to that than shou in general. I'm having some Haiwan 9978 shou right now; it's smooth and prominently syrup-note sweet. You may need a bit of time with it to "figure it out" and learn how to infuse it, but earthy pu'er/heicha can be really grounding and relaxing. Don't be afraid to use plenty more leaf for more time when it comes to shou. Being aggressive with it is often fine and even something to be encouraged.

I put ice cubes in my tea. Call me based.

>>18109400
Never scalding your tongue is based

The black gold bi luo chun leaves are really nice when you don't over brew them. But it's still a tad under brewed. So far it's been the most difficult to brew right

Post /tea/ gore

>>18110220

>>18110239
Thicker than i expected it to be

>>18110220
I've bought two yixing pots over the years and managed to break both within a week or two. Have had my jianshui for years and it's just fine. I think it's a curse.

More cheap xiaguan tuo this morning, really sweet today for some reason, must be rhat single bud that's in there lol

I like to eat an orange then squeeze the peel over my tea.

>>18107209
there was a refund somewhere too.
>>18107226
picrel comes highly recommended, it's 70eur a bottle while the buffalo trace single barrel is 25eur and 40% instead of cask strength 60% abv. both readily available here. I have to say that after drinking single malts with cornucopia of flavours and aromas, american corn whiskey feels a little two dimensional. good for some cocktails though. or shots. wild turkey 101 is my go to (25eur 50,5% abv).

>>18110391
Agree with wild turkey, i also agree that expensive bourbons are a meme and once you reach a certain price point you really aren't getting anything more interesting out of american bourbon. I guess i preferred buffalo trace because i never was really that big on cask strength. That and the single barrel is pretty damn good for the money

>>18110501
cask strength is THE meme right now. you get to play with amount of added water to find the sweet spot. you have to be in the mood for it. there's no comparable feeling you get on your tongue when >60% spirit hits. you can feel it almost evaporate on the front of your palate as your tongue gets anesthetized by the ethanol and then the torrents of sweet sweet saliva immediately flood your mouth and carry the flavour compounds from the mouth through the throat down to a warming release in the chest. nothing like it.
good tea has a huigan, right.
I was going to recommend the OG glenfarclas 105 1litre bottle based on EU prices but it seems like you ameribros have to pay double the price (43eur with free amazon shipping here) so instead try for some cask strength bourbon if you're interested in aforementioned experiences.

back to regular programming. any new boba tea places open near you? :)

>>18110597
>back to regular programming. any new boba tea places open near you? :)
I actually have a real tea shop near me that even sells mediocre puer, i think they had loose leaf liubao one year. Anyway decent selection but the kids who work their don't know anything about the tea. Last i heard the owner is trying to sell the shop. It was nice to have around but i barely ever shopped there because their prices were high, but it will be kind of a bummer if it leaves. I got a few ounces of heavily roasted dancong out of their clearance basket once and after ignoring it for two years while the roast subsided it was pretty damn decent tea.

>>18110627
seems like a time to negotiate some clearance bargains on unwanted leaves. get some clean black tea even and prepare to be making masala chai in the winter. best energy drink for my money, pack of bargain bin cardamom, star anise, cinnamon bark, ginger powder and optional cloves will get you flying high and warm when the need arises.

>>18110663
>>18110663
>pack of bargain bin cardamom, star anise, cinnamon bark, ginger powder and optional cloves will get you flying high
I really need to do this. I get too snobby about high quality spices but is silly to buy super premium stuff for chai, i should just be getting the cheap whole stuff at the azn market.

>>18110673
I think you should. watch out for the cloves, they are very assertive spice. use full fat milk. after the water with the tea and spices comes to a boil, add milk and sugar. boil again until the milky mixture almost escapes the pot. repeat two times for a touch of pajeet hoodoo, or not. strain through a sieve into a prewarmed container/pot/jar and pour from a height into the highball like glass for an aesthetic foam to form on top.
that's the method I find the most satisfying after some trial and error, of course tweak to your liking. it produces sweet energizing medicinal drink that is very moreish so you drink it until first little birdie of heart palpitations suddenly scatters from a branch and settles in your chest. don't say I didn't warn you.

>>18110699
Awesome, thanks anon
So what's the deal with chenshenghao anyway? Have you tried their tea before? Is it good? I was always a bit dubious because their claim to fame if buying an exclusivity contract with a bunch of LBZ farmers to buy all their tea.i wonder what their other productions are like.

>>18110391
I've really been enjoying Limousin rye cask strength this summer. Probably going to be unobtainable overseas :/ Figure out the logistics and I'll trade you a bottle or two and you can clear out a little space.

/tea/ - whiskey general

Any Polish anons here? What tea do you recommend?

>>18111168
I think Polish people prefer vodka to whiskey.

My cha hai cracked :(

>>18111046
I've been trying to foster a barter economy here with coffee infusing anon for months now lol. Just expanding the pool of goods on offer.
>>18111226
Rip :(

>>18111226
Your tea now has microscopic fragments of glass in it. If you drank any you're a goner.

dis nigga lowkey drinkin microglasstics lmao

I started brushing my teeth in the morning (cheapest toothpaste and toothbrush (blue) i could find), will this affect my gathering of cha qi energy?

>>18111303
You have to use green tea instead of water like a true Taoist sage.

>>18110220
>buy a cheap gaiwan in case it breaks
>it doesn't
>still using it years later

>>18111046
>/tea/ - whiskey general
begone this is a teatotaler thread now

>>18111303
>You will never be her

>>18111366
I want teeth like this, but I keep sucking on squid ink sacs to speed it up. I'm afraid a real Chinese person will see that I'm a fraud.

what tea goes well with tea

>>18111900
I'm partial to tea (sometimes tea), but you can also try tea, tea, or if you're a really silly goose, even tea. Just don't try tea, that's fucked and not cool. Only tea and tea.

>>18111900
i drink Lipton with my bingdao gushu. it is a perfect combination of yin and yang cha Qi made possible only through the marriage of modern industrialism and ancient tradition. taoism has become too powerful to ignore. I believe my mastery of radical centrism and retrograde ejaculation will allow me to achieve immortality. my experiments have already yielded promising results: i can no longer feel one of my feet, sometimes i can hear them, and my left testicle has swollen to three times its prior size. if I can do this from my desk it won't lead me to suicide, because that would require so many hours of exercise and no special training. the monk was wrong i knew it would work. Unfortunately it has come to my attention that the true owner of Arizona seeks to thwart my ascension. the book of "The God of Air" may be taken into consideration in the investigation of this alleged incident. he has gained favor of the queen of the west and has great skill with the I Ching. a curse upon him, may his hat ever be green. yet i shall prevail and hope to meet you all in the great room under the river where the baiji live.

What are your favorite infusions? I'm looking for something decaf that I can drink whenever I'm bored with plain water.

>>18112481
Buckwheat is good

>>18112309
I do this too

>>18112481
hibiscus, mint, roasted corn, and roasted barley all make nice sips.

>>18112481
Rooibos and honeybush are classics. Nettle, tulsi, and dandelion are underrated for sure- something like a nettle/mint/dandelion root/eleuthero blend is divine. Moringa is also pretty nifty- super cheap, sustainable and (supposedly) healthy- but the taste isn't for everyone.
I drink herbal teas every day; usually I'll just brew up a blend a liter at a time Western-style, but some work well gongfu as well. Try jujube leaf tea or jiaogulan for that. Another one that works well with both brewing styles is ironwort; Western-style it's quite sweet, but gongfu it's buttery and herbaceous and more akin to tequila than anything. Not everyone's thing but it's worth trying.

its been slow here lately so here are some tea tasting notes (though i am pretty sure i have posed this tea before).
Tea:
2005 Mengban, Shuangxiong Tea Factory aged sheng from LP
https://www.liquidproust.com/listing/984860088/2005-mengban-shuangxiong-tea-factory

Appearance:
somewhat fragmentary small to mid sized leaves, moderate compression level, nicer leaves than a lot of cheap tuos or bricks but not super fancy, color a dark orange brown as shown in pic, leaves remain orange brown after brewing.

Storage:
moderate humidity, clean storage, semi aged, clearly not green anymore but also does not have any wet storage taste to it.

Brewing:
gongfu style, 12g of mostly chucks plus a bit of fragments, ≈100ml gaiwan with 212f water, brew times to taste, short pre-steep/extended first steep to help the chunks open, ran 1 L though it so far and it still has flavor left in it.

Taste:
prominent tart apple with perhaps a bit of sour plum, backdrop of "old leather" or "tobacco", fruit focused semi aged sheng, perhaps some subtle hints of florals and smoke, pleasantly tart and sour, moderately astringent, nice puckery fruit aftertaste, not biter nor overly harsh, stimulating, good energy, good longevity, aged to the point it is pleasant to drink but not to the point where it has lost all edge.

Conclusion:
a good example of moderately aged sheng, quite tasty but not particularly exceptional or unusual, the price is fair by typical western standards ($40/250g) but not really a bargain, i paid a bit less than that on black friday, i am willing to give it a causal recommendation but its also not something you all need to run out and buy.

>>18114472
Did you try any fairly short infusions to taste, or go with low temps? Curious if the fruit notes might prevail over the tobacco/leather notes more if so. Also, was there much minerality to speak of? Haven't heard of this factory before, but it is interesting when I do learn of a new one. Nice leaves.

>>18114472
Thanks for the review i was thinking of picking that up for a while but never pulled the trigger because the price was a bit high

>>18114528
>Did you try any fairly short infusions to taste
once the tea opened up my infusions were pretty short but i don't time them precisely (too lazy to do it most the time). in any case you need to use quick infusions at the tea/water ratios i use.

>or go with low temps?
the kettle was set at 212f the whole time. i typically only pull out the lower temps for green teas, delicate green white teas, and maybe new style ultra green oolongs.

>Curious if the fruit notes might prevail over the tobacco/leather notes more if so.
not sure if that would happen but the tart fruit flavor is already the dominant one in this tea.

>Also, was there much minerality to speak of?
i have a hard time quantifying "minerality" it tea so i don't usually note it. i tend to associate it more with yancha than sheng as well. additionally, i use soft water for my tea right now so its never going to be super minerally.

>Haven't heard of this factory before, but it is interesting when I do learn of a new one.
this one is a practically a no name as far as i can tell. this is the only tea i have seen from them. the factory may not even exist anymore or it may be owned under a different brand these days. many of the smaller brands went out of business or changed hand after the puerh market crash of 2007 and even some big brands lost much of their prominence. Changtai and "6 famous tea mountain" brand were big players back in the day but i hardly see anything new from them anymore.

>Nice leaves.
its definitely a step above the typical cheap brick. i wounder how they would look if the brick was less tightly pressed. compression ends of breaking the leaves both when making the tea and especially when you pry it apart. this is a tea where you want to brew chunks because if you try to really separate the leaves you will end up with a bunch of bitter tasting dust.

>>18114472
Look at that thing, man. It's got big sticks in it!

Give me one for an aged sheng that you highly recommend

>>18114585
>because the price was a bit high
that's really my only criticism of it (and its not really a critique of the tea itself). as it stands its not particularly unfair or overpriced especially considering you don't have to pay international shipping from LP but at the same time it has a lot of competition at this price point from other western vendors. i suspect that is why he has had it in stock for quite a while. again its a decent tea and if it sounds up your alley you will probably not be disappointed but at the same time its hard to give it a strong recommendation over everything else out there if there was something else that caught your fancy. if you are patient it will probably go on sale for 10-20% off around the holidays if it does not sell out before then.

i bought it as part of this two brick set. think i paid fifty something dollars for both on sale which makes it a significantly better price per gram.
https://www.liquidproust.com/listing/1027597628/2005-brick-squad-shengshou-500g
the "2005 Nannou shou" that comes in that set is fascinating. i will review it properly sometime. the short description is the last time i had it it tasted intensely of mothballs and aromatic cedar wood (on top of the typical shou earthy undertones). i suspect it to be a very divisive tea. if you like aggressive camphor in your shou you will probably like it but i don't think it is for everyone. i am happy to have it but i don't drink it often. then again i don't drink any shou very often.

>>18114674
>Look at that thing, man. It's got big sticks in it!
my brick doesn't nor do the the pictures on puercn show many stems. i would have mentioned it if it was particularly stemy. mine has a limited number of small tender stem fragments that looks like they were attached to the leaves before pressing. a limited quantity of small stems does not necessarily low quality. yiwu teas for example often seem to have them even in relatively expensive cakes.

>Give me one for an aged sheng that you highly recommend
I don't have i have a tea that has wowed me enough in both taste and price that i feel comfortable telling people to run out there in buy it now. its not that i have not had good tea its that there is a lot of good tea out there and taste is subjective enough that i try to be moderate in my recommendations. I have not found there to be a lot of truly bad sheng out on the market unless you buy obvious fake stuff, dirt cheap low quality looking mystery tea, or grossly overpay for otherwise decent tea. perhaps i have just had good luck. i genuinely like most of my tea collection.

Brewed a concentrated roasted barley shot, added cocoa powder then topped with steamed milk. Made a nice mocha alternative.

>>18114884
fuck off with your tissaness. it's not a tea. get a clue.

>>18114884
Sounds decent. I only infused barley once, but it encroached into that coffee itch territory just a bit while of course not being so stimulating, which is convenient. Feel compelled to just eat it, though. Have you thought of adding any other spices? Cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, etc?

>>18114925
This is a tisane respecting general

>>18115050
no it's not. what led you to believe that? same goes for al/ck/os. gtfo. this is sencha, white2tea and vadham general. all cold brewed. go fuck a gaiwan gongfu style.

tfw no puerh cakes made by Christian missionaries in china in my pumidor

>>18115294
i would almost consider buying from them for the fun of it if they gave proper info on what they are selling. i ain't paying $60 for a mystery sheng cake if you can't even bother to take a picture of it and tell me when and where its from. maybe i will email them one day and try to get some information out of them. this is one of those funny examples of truth is stranger than fiction. the premise and execution is so outlandish that i am inclined to believe they are at least at some level legitimate. no scammer would have come up with such a goofy premise.

>>18115414
its actually listed as only $40 at their main site but my point still stands. they don't seem keep their prices consistent across multiple platforms.

http://www.johnleemushroom.com/

>>18115414
>the premise and execution is so outlandish that i am inclined to believe they are at least at some level legitimate. no scammer would have come up with such a goofy premise.
Yeah it's a bit surreal, i cant imagine they are selling a lot of them unless some church group is buying into it or something but i cant imagine shilling puer to random westerners being very successful.
I would guess the entire market of puer buyers in the US is less than 10,000 people

>>18115438
>i cant imagine they are selling a lot of them
I don't think they do either. their Amazon and eBay stores have both been around for awhile but don't have much feedback. again this makes them look more legitimate. scammers would probably have mixed things up by now.

>unless some church group is buying into it
maybe but it would have to be something like an Chinese expat church because i cant imagine most other people would feel interested or comfortable in buying bulk dried seafood and mushrooms from some tiny unknown Chinese vendor christian or not.

maybe they do most of their business domestically or as a middleman for other exporters and their direct to customer international export business is just a side gig. alternatively, they could just be drop shipping which would explain the seemingly high prices but in any case it still seems strange.

>>18115490
Okay i looked at his store again, very weird, pic related plus the number of teas he has makes me think he is drop shipping, its all a bit weird but I'm pretty sure yunnan sourcing and maybe fullchea have these same booming black tea things and at much lower prices.
Yeah i double checked and fulchea has them for $10 per 100g

>>18115550
if that's the case then there is still room in this market segment for a competitor. just imagine a 4chan X Christianity X puerh crossover. our flagship blend could be "Jesus loves shou". what should should our brand name be?

>>18115584
Four changs

>>18115294
>>18115436
Anon, where did you even find this? Really strange to look at. Even his icon, being an MS Paint bucket tool-tier mushroom, and the website looking like an earlier web profile. His cakes supposedly ship for $40 flat.
>>18115584
Luck-Leaf/Lucky Leaf (misprinted between batches for true Chinese machine translation feeling).

>>18115550
Okay i found something i recognized, these puer stuffed tangerines are the golden horse brand, pretty standard i think they make more of them than anyone else. I think thia price is reasonable for 350g, its roughly 1 orange = 10g iirc
Anyway this makes me think he just has sone random white label puer cakes, eh too bad. I had visions of a Christian ministry taking over some rural village and making every farm mushrooms and pick tea leaves for them.
His pricing on amazon seems to be automated and hasn't been tended too recently
But then they have weird things like kilo baskets of loose puer, stuff that they could have actually produced, and their ebay store says
>With more than 20 years living in the mountainous region, we are professional in picking and processing fresh tea leaves, truffle and wild mushroom, our CEO John Lee, with many years of trading experience in Europe. Our workers are specialized in preparing and processing tea, wild edible mushrooms and truffle. We have a strict quality control traceability system from the harvesting, management, processing, packing to shipping.
I guees you are right, you would have to email them and try and suss out if they knew anything about puer. To see if there was any change they were actually involved in production or not

>>18115623
>Anon, where did you even find this?
i originally found it on either eBay or amazon i cant remember which as it was awhile back.

>>18115638
>I had visions of a Christian ministry taking over some rural village and making every farm mushrooms and pick tea leaves for them.
kek, your fedora is showing. you feeling euphoric today?

i kind of doubt they are too involved with production of most of their wares but i could be wrong. if they are it is probably be more along the lines of trying to help sell the local farmers products for a better margin on the broader market. alternatively they could just be using their familiarity with the area to do business in order to fund their ministry.

>>18115614
>>18115623
and the clover needs to be arranged like a cross. remember this is a christian tea enterprise.

>>18115584
not quite what i was looking for.

>>18115791
Try "Four Chinese Christian missionaries wrapping lucky leaf tea for international brothers in Christ with gaiety".

>>18115791
i cant seem to get AI to generate a suitable logo. depending on what terms i put in my query either the "anonymous", the "clover", or the "cross" will dominate the image. the AI has a hard time combining these concepts. this is the best one i got buts its still not 4chan enough or particularly funny.

>>18115813
looks like something happened to their faces. did they browse 4chan for too long?

>>18115829
Make it say "Tea is Risen" with the crucifix as the T

This is really going places
Call it four leaves and have to logo be a dove caring a 3 leafs one bud pluck

>>18115859
>Make it say "Tea is Risen"
best suggestion yet. someone needs to make a "Carlos AI" to generate puns.

>>18115847
You mean you guys don't twist and invert your mouth and eyes when the good tea hits? Funny how it just looks like they're packaging huge leaves of lettuce.

oh god

>>18115909
In the top left he's having some tea with our youngest poster.

one last one for now.

So is lapsanh souchong actually an oolong? Or was it at one point? I know the cheap smoked stuff i get is processed as black tea but ive seen several premium offerings from completely different vendors where its made and processed as an oolong. Is the oolong processing some modern trend or what? I know the higher end lapsang souchong is usually not smoked and is treated as a more premium tea but i thought it was still a black tea.

>>18115979
>So is lapsanh souchong actually an oolong?
no its a black tea

>seen several premium offerings from completely different vendors where its made and processed as an oolong.
links? do they actually call it an oolong?

>>18115979
I think it's debated, but most consider it a red/black tea. I believe we had a discussion about this some threads ago.
>>18115967
Nice query terms. Looks like a glum face.

>>18116085
>Nice query terms.
yeah, i really like how the ai combined the search terms here. i think i cracked the code and got some pretty good pictures but i will post them later because i don't want to shit up the thread any further right now.

>>18116021
>links? do they actually call it an oolong?
Okay i looked and i guess they dont actually call it an oolong, i think it's because its a wuyi tea varietal that im getting confused. The processing of some of them does remind me more of oolong than black tea. But looking at this guys site they don't actually call it oolong.
https://www.wuyiorigin.com/products/old-bush-lapsangsouchong-老枞小种-2022

>>18116104
>i think it's because its a wuyi tea varietal that im getting confused. The processing of some of them does remind me more of oolong than black tea.
yes, lapsang souchong is from the same area as yancha and has some processing similarities so i can see where the confusion came from.

Caffeine in tea is of course a stimulant, but do any anons here feel they become sleepier and more drowsy when drinking tea (or any other caffeinated beverages)? I can pick up some of the typical cognitive processing effects, but most teas cause me to feel ready to knock out. The sensory elements of a good tea session may certainly contribute to some pacification or relaxation otherwise, but I can pack on the infusions or even coldbrew heavily, and it just leads to me being more and more ready to knock out. Maybe it's associated with another health condition, I don't know. The L-theanine in tea isn't enough to cause this; I take it by itself anyway. At least my tea is pleasant.

>>18115174
>feeling threatened by tisane posters

>>18116495
>but do any anons here feel they become sleepier and more drowsy when drinking tea
Yeah i find tea very relaxing which is totally unlike coffee or other caffeine beverages which make me excited an jittery

>>18089408
>i went camping today but i forgot to bring tea, 2nd time this happens :(
trip ruined

>>18089599
>ctc assam
seconded

>>18093310
based, hope he stays safe from auth-chinaman

>>18112309
>picrel
is that from crowley?

how do you flavor green tea?
sugar makes it yucky

>>18117190
have you ever had a green milk tea? shit's good

>>18117190
Honey

More cheap tuo this morning

>>18116495
Tea after 6pm keeps me awake an extra 4 hours and matcha makes me more jittery for a longer time than decaf coffee, I hate caffeine I just want to drink tea

I add significant milk to my tea. about a 1:3 milk to water ratio. I heat the milk separately. would I be okay to add the tea bag to the milk+water or should I let the tea infuse in the boiled water, remove the bag then add the milk?

>>18117502
I heard that something in green tea (might be l theanine) sort of takes the edge off tea. like counter acts the jitteriness that the caffeine causes.

>>18117787
Plain water is mainly for the sake of the milk. It scalds near the temperature tea should steep at.
>Scalded milk is dairy milk that has been heated to 83 °C (181 °F).[1]
You should be steeping black tea at 86-90 C so it would gain a cooked milk flavor with a mixture.

>>18117787
milk tea is tea steeped in milk/water mix. common in asian countries, some just use milk others use condensed or evaporated milk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn_XpOYgUi8

>>18117186
no its the Taijitu shuo

Is this an acceptable way to make loose leaf earl Grey?

>>18118031
Hell yes, that's a classic /tea/ brewing technique

>>18118034
T-ty I was worried this was doing it wrong
Hehe the cup runneth over

>>18118031
That's how I make tea. One tip,though: put something over the cup while it steeps to prevent it cooling too much.

here are some more tea tasting notes (though again this is a tea i am pretty sure i have posed this tea before).
Tea:
2021 Naka, MingXingHao i got from LP
https://www.liquidproust.com/listing/1041627243/2021-naka-mingxinghao-400g

Appearance:
thick 400g moderate to loosely pressed cake, easy to separate, leaves are medium sized with small buds, not gushu but not planted yesterday either, no foreign debris or notable stems, dry color is a dark brownish off green with some silver trichomes, wet color yellow green, golden yellow liquor, overall still a very young looking cake as would be expected considering its age.

Storage:
too young to matter much, i keep it at approximately 65% RH and room temperature.

Brewing:
gongfu style, 12g of lose leaves and a few lose clusters, ≈100ml gaiwan with 212f water, brew times to taste, generally short steeps, ran ≈1L though it so far and it still has good flavor left in it, i'm going to cold brew the rest.

Taste:
dominant fruity flavor, tart raspberries and apricots, some subtle sweetness, background is spicy herbaceous and a bit grassy, very "bright" tasting, a bit green tea like, pleasant astringency, not overly bitter or harsh, a hint of syrupy texture, dry finish, long tart fruit aftertaste, stimulating, good Qi.

Conclusion:
its more or less everything i would expect from a budget sheng, especially one i intend to drink now, its pleasant tasting, good looking, and well priced. it was less than $40 dollars for 400 grams when i got it. i am not a puerh expert yet but it is at least as good as any of the other young sheng i have had at this price point. on the flip side it does not stand out terrifically either but that's true for most teas of a given type and price. i cant guarantee its a top candidate for aging, or that its as good as more premium (and more expensive) offerings but i think it makes a great daily drinker young sheng and am happy with it. additionally besides gongfu cha it makes good cold brew tea as well.

Does anyone know anything about samovars? Specifically, what materials are the least toxic for them? I think the traditional ones are made with copper but I would like to avoid that.

>>18096805
Those are so good but have a million fucking calories per handful

>>18118444
>Does anyone know anything about samovars?
doubt we have any experts on them here but i could be wrong.

>I think the traditional ones are made with copper but I would like to avoid that.
the new manufactured ones are probably made of stainless steel because its cheaper. outside of sketchy hand made stuff from the third world or antiques leaded solder shouldn't be a problem anymore either. any well made modern manufacture should probably be fine from a safety standpoint. the bigger problem is that it can be hard to find good samovars. they aren't particularly popular these days especially outside of eastern europe. even there i would guess they are increasingly becoming more of a decorative item than a functional one.

Does anyone know anything about jin cha?
like in the link:
https://www.chawangshop.com/pu-erh-tea/jin-cha-mushrooms.html

>>18118509
It's just puer cakes but formed in the shape of mushrooms, i think is an older design that was very popular in the 50 and 60s but isint made too often anymore. But yeah, no difference from any other puer shape.
He says correctly in the listing that the mushrooms used to be made for tibet, but mushrooms made these days are usually just a slightly different presentation for tea collectors and not the kind of extremely liw quality tea product that was produced for tibet under the government mandates (during state ownership tea producers were order to make a certain amout of tea for the tibetan peoples each year)

>>18118509
what do you want to know about them? they are just another traditional shape that puerh is somtimes pressed into. a popular shape for tea sent to Tibet. sometimes they are referred to as ox hearts instead of mushrooms.

how they are made
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lf4MmzbM5zY

>>18118438
whats everyone sipping? anyone else have some tasting notes to share?

Might be pleb but I really like Yunnan sourcing brand ripe puers lately. Especially the Wu yi year of the tiger red one.

>>18118702
Having some charcoal roasted lapsang this afternoon. Posted my cheap xiagun tuo this morning. Still waiting for me tea to got off the boat, hopefully it arrives by Christmas.
I will try and post notes for something tomorrow, probability one of my hei chas.

>>18118438
>gongfu style, 12g of lose leaves and a few lose clusters, ≈100ml gaiwan
Hell yeah
Ive actually been going in the oppositite direction recently. I used to frequently do 7.5g or even a bit more in a 100ml gaiwan, and push it with 30 second plus infusions. But lately i have dialed way back to barely six grams and lots of 10 second infusions. It might just be that my caffeine tolerance is lower right now but with a couple of my puers it seemed like i had to cut how much leaf i wss using to get the best flavor out of it.

>>18118718
Nice, i don't think ive had any ys ripes but they seem to be popular

>>18118741
The three I have are interesting yet easy, endurant and comfy af. I suspect they are tailored to westerners taste but I don't care, I'm considering getting 10-15 cakes a year.

About to place a big O-Cha order- along with my usual gyok and sench I want to finally dive into nice matcha. Some of the matcha that get my attention were 2021 harvests; are they worth buying? I don't know a lot about them and I've heard mixed opinions on whether it matters for gyokuro so idk.

>>18116495
I've never felt any effect from caffeine whatsoever, be it in tea, coffee, mate, etc. I drink those things because I like them but even a double espresso or gyokuro session leaves me unmolested.

>>18118718
>Wu yi year of the tiger red one.
i presume you mean yiwu?
if it is this cake you are talking about then its not actually YS's house brand.
https://yunnansourcing.com/products/yi-wu-mountain-year-of-the-tiger-ripe-pu-erh-tea-cake
that's not to say YS does not make good ripe under its own name as well. their "cozy" ripe series has a good reputation for example. i am surprised he managed to sell out the 2020 batch already.

>>18118727
>I will try and post notes for something tomorrow, probability one of my hei chas.
I look forward to reading it.
>Still waiting for me tea to got off the boat
hopefully your package gets to you in a reasonable amount of time. believe me i know the pain. curious to hear what you think about HK tea dungeon storage (you are the anon getting yee on tea right?).

>>18118738
10-12g is my typical, though i often don't fully finish the tea. i cold brew the leftovers to minimize waste however.

>>18118813
>The three I have are interesting yet easy, endurant and comfy af
what are the three if you don't mind me asking?

>>18118813
>I suspect they are tailored to westerners taste but I don't care
i doubt they are really all that different then whats on the Chinese market. the western market is too small to really be catered to much and YS buys shu maocha from the same factories and likely often the same fermentation batches that are used by the domestic market. i am not sure what "western style" shu would even taste like.

>>18119090
>Some of the matcha that get my attention were 2021 harvests; are they worth buying?
the popular opinion is that fresher is typicality considered better but i don't have a lot of personal experience with Japanese greens.

O-Cha does claim to store their tea refrigerated (not uncommon for Japanese tea) so it should still be at least reasonably fresh.
https://www.o-cha.com/about.html
>Our green teas are packaged within a very short time frame (days) of any customer's order, offering the freshest green tea one can purchase online. O-Cha.com always keeps low, constantly moving inventories and maintains most of it's stock under refrigeration until shipment.

>go to boba place
>get tea
>worst tea ever had
how do you fuck up tea it tastes like watery cardboard

>>18116495
Tea still acts like normal caffeine to me but it feels "cleaner" somehow. Maybe because it's anti-oxidant instead of acidic? Less caffeine?

>>18117190
Y tho? Just get one that tastes good. Some are sweet on their own.
I'm not some kind of purist, I've enjoyed the occasional matcha latte, but if you're drinking green tea that needs flavoring, maybe something else is wrong.
You're not using boiling water are you?

>>18118444
https://web.archive.org/web/20061127175621/http://home.fazekas.hu/~nagydani/rth/Russian-tea-HOWTO-v3.pdf
This might have some good info for you.

>>18119450
Allegedly it's the l-theanine, but i don't think that's enough on it's own to explain it

>>18119481
NTA
awesome thanks added to the teabin

>>18119515
I wish I could claim to be some kind of tea wizard but it was on the wikipedia page for Russian tea culture.
All of the national tea culture pages are fun reads.

>>18119528
Hey i don't care how you found it it's good info. Better than anything else i have found about Russian tea culture

It can be a real pain searching the Chinese internet in order to find info on obscure tea brands. the entire process is a struggle because i don't know any Chinese. first you got to figure out how to type the moonrunes so you can search them. OCR helps but you often have to fix characters manually and i am out of luck if they are using a stylized or archaic font. translating pinyin is not really possible. QS/SC codes are helpful but the factory is not always the brand and you don't always have them in the first place. even after getting the correct characters trying to find info can be a difficult because some brands have taobao shops but no website and others have no website at all. for whatever reason i have seen a number of brands that let their website listed on older wrappers expire even if they are still in business. using mixed language search terms does not work well so you have to convert all your searches into Chinese. well useful google and yandex website translate tends to break websites so its often better to view original pages and copy and paste over any text you want translated. then you need to use OCR again because there is often important text in photos. additionally you will encounter a good number of Chinese websites that require a login or just flat out don't work outside of china. I hate it when i spend an hour and cant find what i am looking for.

>>18119655
>i have seen a number of brands that let their website listed on older wrappers expire even if they are still in business
Yeah i was surprised how common this is, even with larger brands, totally baffling. Three cranes liubao let their website expire in like 2011 and got a new one afterwards iirc, just mind boggling.
And yes all the advertising is set up for tabao/tmall which means loads of text on images all the time.
I think three cranes is my favorite brand website because they have these hilarious communist era press releases that they put up constantly.
>today the second minister of the inferior for guangao provence visited the factory to oversea the 10 year pan for improvement of the peoples agricultural goods. Awards were granted to several leaders of the workers of the factory in honor of their achievements in tea production efficiency.
Its hilarious stuff
I used to post it in the threads occasionally
There are a handful of factory websites in the second pastebin if it helps any. And im assuming you know about babelcarp for translating individual tea terms.
https://pastebin.com/twK4E6AM
http://www.babelcarp.org/babelcarp

>>18119655
While their actual translation function is absolute trash that shouldn't be used, Google Translate does have fairly good OCR functionality. Barring that, you may be able to perform a dictionary lookup function akin to Japanese kanji radicals search. That is, a kanji like 語 has 言 (seven strokes), 五 (four strokes), and 口 (three strokes). So, you would use a digital dictionary checking by stroke count for each one. This is is just using my knowledge of Japanese kanji for reference, but they're historically derived from Chinese hanzi anyway (barring some historical revisions), so it may work similarly.

>Zong Yi, Deputy Director of the Supervisory Committee of the All-China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives, inspected the Sanhe Liubao Tea Exhibition Hall
http://wz-tea.com/news/758.html
>On the morning of December 16, the 2021 China (Hainan) International Tropical Agricultural Products Winter Fair was grandly opened at the Hainan International Convention and Exhibition Center. During the event, Zong Yi, deputy director of the Supervisory Committee of the All-China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives, accompanied by the director of the Autonomous Region Supply and Marketing Cooperative Council for the management year, inspected the Sanhe Liubao tea exhibition area.
>Deputy Director Zong Yi listened to the situation report of Guangxi Wuzhou Tea Factory Co., Ltd. in the Sanhe Liubao tea exhibition area, and learned about the production history, technology and quality characteristics of Sanhe Liubao tea. After tasting Sanhe Liubao tea, Deputy Director Zong Yi fully affirmed Sanhe Liubao tea, pointing out that Sanhe Liubao tea has a unique flavor and rich taste, which is a good tea with endless aftertaste, and encourages enterprises to Give full play to its own advantages and further become stronger, better and bigger.

>>18088761
recently got into tea, ordered loose leaf from harney and sons. did i fuck up?

>>18119871
no

>>18118500
Thank you. I have a Russian market in my city that has a few samovars for sale but I am a bit suspicious of their quality so I think I'll go for something certified steel online

>>18119481
Wow, this is a great resource. Thank you

Has anyone had Davidson's genmaicha? I've only had Harney & Sons and was about to reorder it until I saw Davidson's is half the price.

>ywn be a Chinese communist official that gets bribed with rare puer and oolongs

>>18117190
Sugar doesn't make it yucky. Not putting enough makes it yucky. You have to put a substantial amount if you ever want sweetened tea to taste good. Otherwise it just tastes sour and nasty. Which is why boba shops use fructose.
That said though green teas have always tasted good unsweetened. Maybe you're burning it.

>>18120668
i would cave so quick... anything for a good 'long

>>18119170
>what are the three
You're right, I only have one: year of the ox ripe. To me it's almost on par with the red yiwu one.

>opening up a tea shop
y/n?

>>18119871
What did you pick?

>>18121111
My long term dream is to open up a traditional teahouse in a small village deep into the mountains in my country, im lacking many years of experience but in 20 years im certain i will have it, then i can finally live the rest of my life in chink larp harmony.
So yes, do it anon.

2004 xiaguan four fortunes brick this morning. This is strong stuff so only 6g in my 100ml gaiwan.

>>18119979
Pic rel + hot spice cinnamon from Amazon along with a 450ml hario pot…

Whoops Meant
>>18121757 for
>>18121204

>>18121757
im guessing mango will be the best one

tea

Tea

lovely teapots

>>18121839
Good pot

>>18088761
new
>>18121846
>>18121846
>>18121846