/ck/ - Food & Cooking

Sure, I've got some time to burn before my next exam.

What coffee would you recommend for the purpose of delivering caffeine? I'm aware that in general tea has more caffeine per serving than coffee, but are there any especially perky types?

I'm trying to like tea but it all tastes like dirt/nasty. Earl Grey, black, green, fruity. I've yet to find ONE tea that I considered to be tolerable. I've tried infusions too like mint, licorice.. Help me out broskis

>>5029780
>What coffee would you recommend

Haaa~?

I know very little about coffee, other than I quite enjoy Turkish coffee. If you are in need of stimulation, you should know that there can be more to it than just caffeine. I would direct you to tea for this purpose, which has caffeine, as well as an amino acid called L-Theanine.

L-Theanine is an amino acid coffee does not have, which regulates the breakdown of caffeine to be more gradual. Whereas with coffee, you will experience a jolt and then a crash, theanine in sufficient quantities softens this blow. Teas particularly rich in green tea and white tea.

>>5029773
>Oriental tea in particular, and I am happy to answer questions from beginners and aficionados alike.

What does Korean tea taste like?

>>5029787

Before I can answer that question, I have to ask: have any of these hogwater teas you've partaken of all been made from teabags?

>>5029797
Most of them. The first time I tried green tea it was from some cafe or whatever. Had nasty green flecks floating in it. My boyfriend said it was delicious, so apparently it was good quality

>>5029794

It tastes like over-the-top jingoism and requires hours of grindingly repetitive preparation to start brewing properly.

Nah, it tastes somewhere in between Japanese and Chinese tea. It's quite difficult to find high-quality Korean tea from Camellia Sinensis, which is what I am assuming you are asking about. Domestic production is low and domestic consumption is high, which means very little quality Korean tea makes it out of the country for export. Korean tea is very notable for its tremendous variety of herbal teas, however.

have you become a tea sommelier yet heian

>>5029807
>nasty green flecks floating in it

Assuming it wasn't just poorly filtered, that would be the phenolic content of the tea. That's the stuff that fights cancer, improves insulin sensitivity, burns fat, etc.

Plus it was delicious. You missed out on something delicious because you were prejudiced against it for being green. Open your mind to a world of tea pluralism.

Okay, I've got a few questions.

1.What is the main difference between regular tea in teabags that we can buy in the supermarket and tea that we can buy in specialized stores ?
Other than the latter being 10 times more expensive.

2.Lemon in tea ? Yes/no ? And why ?

3.I've been drinking about 0.5l of tea every day for at least 10 years. Should I stop ?

>>5029835
Taste and usually those come loose so you inherently get more tea than bags
Lemon's nice
A cup a day? Try switching up types of tea but that's like nothing

>>5029835
>1.What is the main difference between regular tea in teabags that we can buy in the supermarket and tea that we can buy in specialized stores ? Other than the latter being 10 times more expensive.
Bagged tea to good loose leaf tea is about like frozen mystery meat to good cuts from a trustworthy butcher.

>2.Lemon in tea ? Yes/no ? And why ?
I add it when I drink cheap, bagged black tea because I'm lazy or because my pleb parents made some

>>5029833
Uh, no? Green is my favorite color, and I have no issue with green food. I said they were nasty because, to me, they tasted nasty or had a strange texture. It's been a few years

>>5029835

>
1.What is the main difference between regular tea in teabags that we can buy in the supermarket and tea that we can buy in specialized stores ?
Other than the latter being 10 times more expensive.

Well, the most effective way to show someone the difference is for them to taste them, when it becomes immediately apparent. Barring that however, the stuff on the supermarket shelves has probably been sitting there for years. Before it sat there for years, it was processed from the remnants of what was sorted to make loose leaf tea, and even then, it was probably from a later-harvest. Tea is most commonly valued according to how early it was harvested, and the loose leaf tea you can buy from specialist retailers is usually either first or second flush, which is much richer in phytonutrients.Tea that finds its way into bags is generally harvested from July to whenever it starts getting too chilly in the autumn, which in the Orient is regarded as peasant fare, little better than grass.

>2.Lemon in tea ? Yes/no ? And why ?

You tell us. There is no right or wrong answer with tea; only what tastes good.

>3.I've been drinking about 0.5l of tea every day for at least 10 years. Should I stop ?

Yes. Stop it right now.

I've been drinking tea all my life. But, (as a "Murrican), I drank mostly iced black tea with lemon (no sugar) from the time I was a little kid. I only drank hot tea in the winter to go with morning or afternoon snacks. Ofcourse, once I became an adult (well, more like an older teen), I started drinking hot tea all day every day, and iced tea was just what I drank with meals. I'm a tea addict. Blacks, greens, whites, it's all good. The only thing I can't stand is tea bags. After all this time, there's such a disparaging difference in quality between loose and bagged tea, I can't stand it. Anyway, I'm drinking some gunpowder green right now.

As someone who is looking into venturing into the world of Pu Erh, where would you recommend I start? I typically enjoy the less oxidized teas, ranging from sencha, matcha, gyokuro, and more floral, and sweeter flavored oolongs, but usually shy away from black teas.

>>5029867

>>5029839
>>5029844
>>5029862
I've probably tasted every bagged tea there is, but the only time I've tasted non bagged tea was when my grandma made it with herbs that she picked herself. The taste was much much stronger.
>which in the Orient is regarded as peasant fare, little better than grass.
Now that you've said that I'm inclined to buy some tea from a specialized store asap.
Any recomendations for a fruit lover ?

I asked about lemon because some people claim lemon juice and tea don't mix well together and the lemon juice loses its attributes.

>>5029879

Forgot my trip again, damn.

>>5029874

Unfortunately, I can't help with pu-erh, as I know little about it. I spent several weeks tasting some of the finest pu-erhs with a Chinese friend who owns a tea shop, and I could not find anything I liked about a single one of them. They usually tasted kind of like... the way boots smell after walking through woodlands. It tasted to me like geosmin smells.

>>5029880

Instead of suggesting an actual flavoured tea, I would suggest some teas which are naturally fruity in flavour. For a less oxidized tea, try Taiwanese oolong. It's lightly oxidized and has a smell that can be somewhat like pineapples and cream. For a more oxidized tea, try Phoenix oolong, which is a tea renown for mimicking the flavours of lychee, mango and other sweet fruits. The flavours come from natural oxidization by way of expert craftsmanship of excellent raw materials.

>>5029897
Thank you for the advice, I'll look them up in my local specialized stores.

>>5029897

Do you make any "home made" teas by doing stuff like boiling apple skins? Log Horizon got me curios.

Also, are there any teas known for their aftertaste?

>>5029947

You're welcome.

>>5029948

I haven't watched Log Horizon, but I have no idea what that would taste like. I know that apple bits are added to some flavoured teas, but just by themselves? If you want to boil fruit, I'd say just make compote...

Many teas are known for their aftertaste, especially Phoenix oolong.

>>5029773
I like tea, but I've only had it from teabags. (pleb, I know)
There aren't any stores near me that sell the leaves themselves, do you of any place that's good to order them online? Or is that not a good idea?

Ah, I remember seeing a patchy figure on a tea tray a few times...

Do you know a good way to buy small amounts (~1oz) of a variety of quality Chinese green teas, like a sampler or something? I did the Den's tea sampler for Japanese tea a while ago, wonder if some other site has something similar for Chinese tea.
This maybe looks OK but dunno if you know something else: http://www.teavivre.com/green-tea-sample-packs/

>>5029808

Tell me about Taiwanese tea. Specifically the ones used as giveaways.

>>5029773
When I visited London at age 16 and splurged on high end loose leaf lapsang souchang and first flush darjeeling. Also there was a japanese market near me as a kid and my dad would take me there for lunch and we'd always get matcha to take home. In college there was a Korean restaurant that served delicious barley tea with all meals and there is an Izakaya that opened down the street recently that I am usually too poor to afford but has authentic food prepared by actual Japanese chefs and has pitchers of iced green tea all along the bar.

>>5029981

That's a good question. I am currently looking for some myself and haven't found much. In the past, I have recommended various different businesses in the past, as I'm sure people have seen from the old FAQ.When I wrote those FAQs, I was a customer of those businesses, and since then, I've become personally acquainted with the owners of those and several other tea shops. I was very disappointed in what I found on a personal level, to the point where I did not want to give them my business anymore, and on that basis, I would not recommend them to anyone else. There are two other shops I can think of, which I will not name, that have decidedly unethical business practices, one of which with the assistance of the Mail Tracing department of the Hong Kong Post, I was able to catch in a bareface lie. This isn't the sort of way people tend to be accustomed to thinking about the world of tea, but there it is. I was surprised too.

Right now I'm drinking mostly low-end chain tea, precisely because I can't find anywhere decent I feel is worthy of giving business to. All I have that's decent is a custom sencha blend made to my specification by a farm in Kagoshima I ordered through an interpreter.

Jasmine is my go to. Oolong reminds me of the smell of a card game booster pack.

>>5029999

Judging by the appearance of the leaves, I would guess the quality to be low. I cannot say for certain without actually tasting them, because that is of course the only real measure of tea, but appearance can sometimes offer clues. For example, the Long Jing in that picture: Long Jing looks nothing like that. There is literally tea by the ton of fake Long Jing, and much of it isn't even a convincing copy of the original West Lake tea.

>>5030006

>Specifically the ones used as giveaways.

I do not know what you mean by this.

>>5030015

Barley tea is particularly good. It's paired even better with Korean food than with Japanese.

>>5030037
Don't just say something without going into detail at least a little bit.
I assume you don't advise to import with SAL?

They finally kicked you faggots out of /jp/ once and for all, did they?

>>5030146

I'm not sure which details you are interested to know. Mail carriers aren't the problem...

I have never used SAL, personally.

>>5030208
I thought they withheld uninsured packages or something and then pretended they got lost along the way.

>>5030226

Dig in, this is a meaty one.

Here are a few examples.

There is one vendor operating out of Japan who has knowingly sold irradiated tea from one of the parts of Japan contaminated by the Fukushima Daiichi disaster, yet vehemently makes claims about the purity of his tea.

Another was a shop run by someone who had been a friend of mine online for several years. He was planning to open a shop for a long time, and when he actually did it, I decided to fly out for the grand opening. As it turns out, it was not even his shop. He gave me the impression that he was the owner, and when I got there, I learned that he was in fact something more like the store manager, and he was disingenuous and passive-aggressive in person. He's quite suave, but it wears through fast and I got a good look at what was underneath. I also know that some of the information about their teas have been falsified, that for example, aged tea labelled to be of a specific vintage was merely guessed at, which I don't think I have to explain to anyone why that is unethical. I also know that at least one of the GPS co-ordinates they list for demonstrating tea origin are incorrect, which correspond not to the particular village, but to the nearest major city.

One particular Japanese vendor would seem to be prejudiced against Westerners.He has a website with both English and Japanese versions, and I know that his operating procedure is that if his stock of a tea is beginning to run low, he labels it as out of stock on his English website and reserves it exclusively for his Japanese customers. Now, some people might say that is his right, but it is an insult to his Western customers. Is our money not as good? This same vendor also tended to take a week or more to fill an order. The last order I made, for some high end Phoenix Oolong, was going on two weeks before I canceled it and asked for my money back.

>>5030051
>I do not know what you mean by this.

Well, I have a shitload of Oolong tea from Taiwan that came packed in neat cardboard boxes with magnetic locks that had little metal boxes inside with pretty, shiny preportioned tea stuffed into the boxes.

Like no. 807 King of Tikuanyin.

I have a shitload of those.... and I'm honestly sick of its floral fragrances.

But hey, while we're at it - do you know a tea that's sold in flat, finger-long and maybe five to seven milimeter broad dried leafs? Me and my mum liked that one best, but my godfather's wife was absolutely shocked when we told her so. She's pretty much exclusively drinking white teas.

>>5029773

I fucking hate 4chan for whatever you are mentioning some asian cuckold assholes come and keep on talking about their asian shit.

>>5030362

>packed in neat cardboard boxes with magnetic locks that had little metal boxes

Sounds neat.

>I'm honestly sick of its floral fragrances

Even the most delicious tea is not something you will want to drink every day. Tea is best enjoyed in rotation... this is why I never buy huge amounts like that. You might find relief from switching to a drastically different flavour, like a roasted green tea or a Wuyi oolong.

A few weeks after I discovered tea, I also discovered I have a caffeine intolerance that leads to prostate infections.

Life has been hell ever since.

>>5030408

Oh, believe me, my most basic tea is Nepal Himalayan View, which tastes nothing like that.

>>5030415

That sounds very... odd. Did a doctor make this diagnosis for you?

>>5030436
Proctologist.

>>5030439

I have never heard of anything like that. If you can tell us anything else about it, I am quite curious. I am not aware of any direct contact between the digestive tract and the prostate, and I'd be interested if you could shed some light how caffeine could have that kind of effect on your body.

My tap water tastes bad. Should i use bottled water? Distilled water?

I have a question about loose leaf tea.

1. I bought this loose leaf tea from an asian store and I love the taste however there's one problem; I've tried splitting up the paper bags into thirds for each cup I drink because I can only fit so much in my tea strainer (pic related.) I assume each bag is for one serving, IE: use all of it at once and then split that up into cups for so many people. However, I'm the only person that drinks it. So the main problem here is that the first two cups I make (drink one cup every other day or so) tastes very weak compared to the last cup I get out of each bag. I believe it's because of the fine powder at the bottom of them which gives the strongest steep.

So, how do I distribute the tea correctly for each cup I make? Or should I make it all at once and store it? How?

>>5030459
Use a filter

>>5030320
Anything in particular you want to say about yuuki-cha?

>>5030320
Any chance you could give us the names/sites of these vendors?
I only know a small handful of websites that operate in Japan and ship to the States. I'd hate to be patronizing one of them.

>>5030504
>>5030508

As I've said, I won't name names, but suffice to say I am no longer a customer of Yuuki-cha.

>>5030459

Bottled soft water is an option. Don't used distilled water, because without minerals, tea is tasteless. I am experimenting right now with bamboo charcoal for improving tap water quality... no definitive results yet.

>>5030533
>As I've said, I won't name names
Why not?

>>5030533
It would be helpful if you were a little more outspoken about this. Some of the things that offended you might not be a big deal to other people and other things that you thought were fine might be a bigger concern.

Any of you enjoy russian tea? I just use some random blends from Upton. Mixing it with vodka or rum, it's heavenly.

>>5030553

>Some of the things that offended you might not be a big deal to other people and other things that you thought were fine might be a bigger concern.

That is possible, yes. Everyone is free to make their own judgements and decide if what I have experienced might also apply to them.

>>5030592

>I just use some random blends

That's very characteristically Russian... it's more about the style of preparation than any specific kind of tea. The Persian style of tea is also quite unique: strong black teas served with rock sugar and medjool dates.

>>5029773
whats with all the rumors of people getting fluoride poisoning from green tea?

I really love green tea and I try to get good stuff.

also about the lead poisoning?

are any of these things real?

>>5030592
Try Turkish, and no, I am not trolling. Don't put stuff in it though, maybe some sugar. If you are feeling daring, throw a few cloves in it, but never powdered.

>>5029773
Every morning in winter I have a teabag of lipton green tea that I refill about 6-7 times a day, by the end it's just mildly flavoured water

>>5030692

There is fluoride naturally present in tea, yes, but there is in most first-world regulated water supplies. Literally billions of people drink tea every day, and some of the heaviest consumers of tea are also some of the longest lived.

As for lead, I have just looked into this. Apparently there was a recent study which linked bagged tea bought from grocery stores to have enough lead to recommend pregnant and nursing women not consume it. For reference:

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/01/many-teas-contain-enough-lead-to-be-dangerous-for-pregnant-and-nursing-women-new-canadian-study/

There are two issues I can see here. The first is that the test parameters used do not reflect the way someone could be reasonably expected to brew tea. To quote the article:

>They found that 73% of teas brewed for three minutes and 83% of those brewed for 15 minutes had lead levels well above .5 micrograms (.005 milligrams) per litre. That is the limit deemed safe for pregnant and lactating women by Proposition 65, the State of California’s toxic-chemicals program.

I am not sure who could bear to drink bagged supermarket tea brewed for three minutes, let alone fifteen. That is the first issue.

The second issue is where this bagged tea is coming from. The tea you find in supermarkets will almost inevitably have come from large-scale industrial-type farms, which I suspect are substantially more likely to be in areas with more developed infrastructure for practical reasons. Thus tea coming from a farm perhaps an hour away from Shanghai's city limits may run a greater risk of pollution of any kind than some remote village hours away from civilization, which is where some of the best tea comes from.

>>5030786
uhhh oh...

i blend my green tea in a spice grinder and then i brew it for 15-20 minutes and drink ALOT almost every day....


uhh... help.... please tell me... uhh... stuff

About a year ago I got deep into teas.

I was a pleb though. I bought boxed teas or ones in bags. Sometimes getting the boxed 'half' leaf ones. I thought those were good as shit.

Then a friend took me to a real tea house and I have the highest quality white tea they had their. It was fucking awesome, I've never looked back since then for tea.

My favorite tea is dragon green teas, or hojicha tea. Silver needle white tea is my 2nd favorite.

>>5030840
how would you describe those teas?

>>5030826
REALLY NEED SOME ADVICE ON THIS ONE D:

don't send me to /advice/ the tea expert is HERE

>>5029851
>Tea
>Strange Texture

Seriously? I bet you put sugar in your tea when you try to drink it too huh?

>>5030826

Okay, here's some stuff.

One study isn't necessarily conclusive. I wasn't even able to find the study itself... the article simply cites data from the study, which we don't know for sure would be interpreted correctly by the person writing the article. I'm assuming it would, I'm sure a paper like NP has fact-checkers in the editorial department. Has the study been peer-reviewed? Are the State of California's 'Prositition 65' correct in the limits it sets? There are a ton of questions one could ask about it.

But the tl;dr is that I doubt it's anything to worry about. I wonder if you would get far more lead in a serving of certain fish higher on the food chain (i.e. tuna, swordfish, etc) than in a serving of any supermarket tea.

>>5030858
What do you mean?

>what is a good brand of tea?
>where is a good site to buy good tea products?
>is there a place where i can get a subscription of tea?

>>5031311
Adagio

>>5030496
>how do I distribute tea correctly
There are tea scoops or tea measuring spoons, and it is for each teapot, using the type of strainer that you hang over the top of the teacup.

You don't make this sort of tea in a mug with an infuser.

>>5030875

I'm interested in learning more about teas in general, like I don't have a specific question but I want to learn as much as I can.

Do you have any links to FAQ's you might've made in the past or something of the like?

>>5031311
upton tea

cheap samples of everything

you literally cannot go wrong

>>5031333

This might be a good opportunity to create a new one. I made the old one by compiling questions from the threads and adding to it as time went by. If people ask good questions, I will try to give good answers.

How much does mugicha quality vary?

>>5030756
my bagged green tea is just mildly flavoured water at the first cup

>>5032192
>my bagged green tea is just mildly flavoured water
FIFY.

>>5032192

Welcome to bagged teas.

>>5032220
glad ive got loose leaf darjeeling here too. the comparison is intense

Hey, I have a question.

I like strong tasting teas, I usually steep my tea for a long time in near boiling water, and for a 16oz cup I'll put a tablespoon of sugar in it

Just wondering if there is anything added to the experience for following the directions rather than following your dreams.

>>5032192

Some loose leaf teas are like that too, particularly sencha grown with traditional farming practices. You may enjoy it more by discarding the first brew if it's consistently weak. Make it a rinse infusion.

>>5032881

Reminds me of chifir. comrade. Well, as for following your dreams, you might find that it's quite bitter starting out, but surely it will get better if you persevere.

>>5030747

Wow, it looks almost the same as Russian tea. I'm not sure how I'd go about making some any differently from how I make it Russian. Also I usually don't put things in my tea except alcohol.

>>5031546
this

I've been drinking loose leaf teas for about two years now, but lately I'm finding that it all just tastes like bathwater even though I'm brewing themthe same way I've always been.

What does it all mean, mister weeaboo?

>>5034988
Is your nose clear? Tea doesn't taste like anything if you can't smell it.

>>5034988

Did you move to another place recently?

>>5034988

There could be any number of reasons why. Brewing tea is something like tech support... there are so many things that could go wrong that without any information, the most anyone who wants to help can do is guess.

Also, I'm not a weeb just because I have impeccable taste in waifus.

>>5035035
>>5035046

These are good guesses though.

>>5031546

Does have decent shipping rates to Europe?

Black Tea for life.

bump

Recommend me some patchy porn.

>>5037073
the patchy anal education one is great

>>5029773
Is oolong the nutty flavoured one? I love that shit

I'm getting my dad a green tea for Christmas, any general kinds you'd recommend? Gunpowder fore example, just something you can find in an average tea store

I drink an assload of tea. Hot in the winter. Iced in the summer. Straight up. No lemon, sugar, or milk. I buy "Salada". Its some Grocery Store brand that has a decent enough flavor to prefer it.

There isn't too much I won't drink. Black is a staple. Green tea once in a great while. Oolong is good. I can't get into any flavored teas. They all gave me a headache from the taste. Other than Lemon, Mint, and Peppermint I won't bother. I've also got these weird Spanish herbal Teas. Damiana and Passion Flower. Is Pine Needle tea any good?

I've been interested in getting into "premium" Tea for a while now. Got a few questions.

Do I need any special equipment like Coffee? Whats the price on an entry level Tea setup?

I drink too much tea to be spending a serious amount on it. Will premium tea ruin grocery store Tea for me?

>>5037226
>pine needle tea
it's an excellent source of vitamin c, i'll tell you that much. Premium teas will break your bank, but depending on your preferences and tastes you may not be drinking the good stuff as much as you drink your normal teabags; it's more hassle and more of an experience than the quick boil water wait 3 minutes drink tea routine.

>>5037288
You don't know what you're talking about

>>5037226
You don't need more than $20 to start drinking tea. $15 for a teapot and $5 for a strainer. That's it.
Personally, I have a thing where I use my kyusu for Jap tea, gaiwan/yixing clay teapot for chinese, ect. ect. but that's pretty far down the line.
And yes, premium tea will make you think grocery store tea is shit.

>>5037217
Depends what you mean by "average", because where I live "average tea store" equates to more-fruit-than-tea store. But I like Pi Lo Chun and Longjing.

>>5037324
I hate those stores so much and the false impression of what tea is supposed to be they're implanting on the people that buy there

>>5037217
>Gunpowder fore example

Eh, not really. Gunpowder can be good, but the stuff you can get your hands on anywhere isn't really worth it. Like I bought a pack of some run-off-the-mill stuff and laughed and threw out the first cup.

I found Mao Feng, Green Monkey and Wuyuan Jasmin tea to be pretty okay. I wouldn't suggest japanese ones for a total beginner. They have some... unusually fresh and grassy to fishy aromas.

>>5037226
>>5037309
I should also add that in the long run, a thermos is really helpful. High quality teas can be steeped multiple times, and you probably don't want to boil water 6-7 times a day. I got myself a 40 ounce Thermos brand.. Thermos, and I just fill it with boiling water in the morning and use it through out the day. (I don't preheat it because it takes enough heat away from the water so that it's perfect for green tea.)

>>5037073

Too lewd. Please do not sexualize Patchouli-san.

>>5037209

Nutty is more of a green thing for the Chinese varieties. Oolong tends more toward the flowery.

>>5037217

Something easy to brew. White tea or black tea would be the best choices for this. If you are going to buy black tea, Chinese is easier to brew than the Indic types.

>>5037226

Special equipment is preferable, yes. As another Anon mentioned, you can get a teapot for quite cheap. I recommend beginners go to their local Chinatown and pick up a cheap teapot or two, which can run as cheap as a few bucks. Skip their tea though. You can get a cheap gaiwan set this way too, although I would recommend practicing learning how to brew with it using cold water 'dry' runs first.

>Will premium tea ruin grocery store Tea for me?

Yes. Don't you think life is too short to drink lousy tea?

Yo dude, I'm in NYC, where do I buy or order some good Sencha that's not jacked in price?

I really like tea but sadly I'm ignorant to the many flavors and types there are to consume.

I'm used to drinking iced sweet tea being the Texan that I am, but I'm really trying to branch out.

I'm also looking for a tea that I can consume that still tastes sweet without the use of sugar since I am currently watching my weight and sugar consumption.

Any recommendations?

>>5037209
addiitonal request for verification of oolong tea. a local chinese restaurant sells a whole pot of what i assume to be that for $1, and it's obscenely good. is it hard to obtain/grow oolong? i suppose bagged would do, but i feel like i need the good shit now.

>>5038733

I actually do know of a place in NYC to buy sencha, but it's so expensive, you could probably order some online and pay for shipping and it would still be cheaper. Where though, I'm not sure. Den's isn't bad, and I hear their shipping within the US is cheap.

>>5038751

I replied to that. >>5038148 As I said, oolong is more of a flowery flavour. The 'typical' Chinese restaurant tea is Shui Xian, a strong-roasted Wuyi oolong. That might have been what you tasted.

>>5038743

That's a good question, actually, and I may have some good answers for it.

Oolong and black tea tend to be the sweet flavours. Roasted Chinese oolong and Taiwanese lightly-oxidized oolong. Roasted Chinese oolong should be much easier to get, though. It all depends on where you would get the tea, really. You will need to be sure to brew it with soft water though, or it will probably be too bitter to taste the natural sweetness.