/tea/

it's Afghan Green. quite hard to obtain (albeit not really expensive, as these things go)
a strong, funky and complex aroma reminiscent of hops and lemongrass, with a hint of cinnamon spice
your son has good taste, but you might want to have a refresher talk on the concept of "sharing" with him

ITT white people.
Joking though tea in any form is nice

>ITT white people.
Yes, Veeky Forums is primarily made up of white people. Pic related.

It has a quite odd smell and looks like it's already dipped in sugar. I'll brew some up and get back to everyone

Might as well use this as a tea general. I recently started making loose leaf tea and was wondering, would one sweeten properly made, decent quality black tea? Not looking for a "do what you want lol" answer, more or less the prevailing sentiment

Is it because you associate white people with forming coherent sentences?

Prevailing sentiment would be no. I would tend to agree.

>do what you want lol
Is correct though. If it's not a Chinese style tea I might put some milk in it. I also genuinely enjoy some strong cheap CTC Assam with milk in it, because it's a different kind of tea. Add some spices and you have masala chai.

I hate to be that guy, but sometimes it's just better to listen to others. I used to load my coffee up with milk and sugar, started drinking it black because that was what people who were "into" coffee seemed to be doing and now I can't go back,

I will say that spice blends such as chais are best sweetened regardless

note that it will look milky-white when brewed up
this is normal

Tetely's Elaichi and Masala chai are my go to cheap teas and both do really well straight black
Maybe half milk, but certainly no sugar

>I hate to be that guy
I should clarify that I rarely use sugar or milk and I've imported hundreds of dollars worth of good quality tea.

I wouldn't recommend adulterating an expensive tea. It's just that it's possible to enjoy different things.

>not your wife's son
Missed opportunity desu

I just picked up some of the stuff that Peet's is stocking, Might Leaf Longjing. I've tried it western style and gongfu, but I think i'm not doing it right. It's pretty alright, like you said, nice grassy and nuttiness, but i think im using too much water. And I don't even know if it's "real" dragon well or not.

Got together with friends during Christmas Eve and drank some tea to friends from w2t.

Generally people like 2015 Old Reliable, someone mentioned 2009 Yiwu has a piss like aftertaste (maybe honey?). 2015 Milk, Cream, & Alcohol starts off tasting like celery but gradually getting sweeter after the fifth infusion or so.

I'd say avoid T2 teas. The leaves smell really strong before infusion but not much after adding the hot water and the taste is subpar.

I can't get enough of this Dragon Well, this definitely has the greatest aroma I've ever experienced in tea.

how can i into tea snobbery? it's not fun to be better than people at coffee anymore

>tfw no tea gifts for Christmas

The first step out of the cave is not using boiling water for every kind of tea

Gong fu brewing makes me feel like Im better than the lowly mortals, so get a gaiwan I guess

how should I do a white tea? I'm a philistine and have used boiling water on everything for the majority of my life up until now

Do you guys prefer to take the water off the heat before it boils or let it boil and then cool before using?

white tea is typically around 175 degrees, if you're eyeing the temperature I'd say wait like ten minutes after it's boiled

Depends on how experienced I am with eyeing that specific temperature, I know when to stop a kettle when it gets to 185 but I'm not sure about 175. I got a temperature control kettle for Christmas so I can control it precisely now

Making good tea within reason: buy a french press and loose leaf, use proper water temperatures and brewing times.
Continuing off the above, white and green tea should be around 160-170f. Even boiling is too high for black tea, for that I'd aim around 200-210f

How can you tell the difference between good quality green tea and bad quality?

imho would feed to dog

I've never tried bad green tea, unless bagged stuff for casual drinking counts

Usually has a big Lipton label on it somewhere

Got some loose green tea with a hint of apple from a local shop and suspecting it of low quality. Not very strong tasting and not really a signature smell like you get from gun powder green tea, mostly just smell the apple.

do you have a brand name or pic?

Nah no pic, its not a brand. I think they buy it from a wholesaler and add the dried flavoring like apple and cranberry. Looks a bit darker and smaller leaves then Op's picture

I got a gaiwan for Christmas and it's opened my eyes on tea brewing. I've never done multiple infusions of full cups of tea, but I was able to do a second infusion of silver needle and it tasted just as good as the first. I feel bad for wasting my tea leaves this entire time, but I was always worried about multiple infusions losing their flavor. The gaiwan is amazing at bringing out the flavors of the tea. Anyone else get a gaiwan and experience this?

I got a box of Wegmans Oolong Just Tea bags on a trip recently, and it's immediately just tons better and more interesting than the bulk bags from Aldi.

If he's using it as a teapot, I'm assuming you put the leaves in, put the little screen in, put the water in, then pour the tea out into a cup when it's done. How else would you use a teapot?

I mean sure. Definitely listen to people's suggestions and try shit that's out of your comfort zone, but "do what you want" still definitely applies. You tried something new and liked it so you kept doing it, if someone doesn't like it they shouldn't force themselves to keep drinking what they don't like because everyone else likes it more.

well if it tastes good when properly brewed then the quality shouldn't matter haha
I'm planning on ordering one soon too

Oh yeah, where did you get yours?

Get some nice oolong to try in it.

You could get over 10 infusions out of some oolong.

Gongfu brewing is essentially highly concentrated shots of tea, each steep unravels the spectrum of flavor. The 2nd to 3rd steep is usually the best of them all.

I'm planning to get a Jin Jun Mei from YS; any suggestions, /teagen/?

Does peppermint tea really suppress appetite? Anyone have any experience with that? Some days I am really sensitive to caffeine so I can only drink peppermint tea on those days and some blogs say it helps them eat less.

My significant other ordered it for me; pretty sure he got it off of Amazon. It was a set that came with cups, a pouring cup, and a strainer. It didn't come with the saucer used to hold the gaiwan though, which makes pouring a bit of a hassle.
I have several oolong tea samples I got as well, I look forward to trying them and seeing how the flavor unfolds.

Depends a lot on the tea, some whites do well at almost boiling temps mostly the less tippy ones(less buds more robust leaves, like bai mu dan)
gunpowder green isnt really a tea to compare in relation to other greens, it's pretty atypical, but the tea you bought is probably isnt very good, probably just shit tea sprayed with apple flavouring
I dont know about that, I drink a ton of tea and skip meals a lot because of it, but I'm a already a skelly to begin with so I'm not sure if it would help someone who overeats on a regular basis

Good luck getting the real shit.

>tfw you started brewing gongfu and now your tea runs out 3 times faster

sippin' some dragon well as well right now

>tfw you started brewing gongfu and now your money runs out 3 times faster
Sucks to be a college poorfag

I had a theory recently about gongfu brewing... sometimes I wonder if gongfu is merely an industry trick to make us use up more tea than necessary so that we need to buy more. There's no doubt that if you use western style brewing methods for loose tea you can get a dank cup of flavor within 3 minutes or more while using less.

The chinese are the jews of the east, wouldnt be surprised

I know green tea suppresses my appetite.

teavana shoppers spotted

That could be solely because of the caffiene, which is an appetite suppresant.

I prefer gong fu and believe it produces a better tea drinking experience, but wouldnt be surprised if the reason for the inception of gong fu brewing was something like that especially since it is a relatively recent practice

worth it?
chinalifeweb.com/shop/product/guru/

Just get a gaiwan a chahai and tea, someone just starting has no business getting into yixing, its a hobby in itself that demands a bit of research.

is yunnan sourcing good for a burger? trying to avoid lead glaze and shit.

There's a U.S version of Yunnan Sourching, however they only carry a fraction of the product from their original website... but the shipping cost is cheaper and faster too.