Can we have a tea thread?

Japanese tea > Chinese tea

...

>Can we have a tea thread?
proceeds to post a picture of mate
>Post your mugs, tea sets, gourds, etc.
so a teaware thread, not a tea thread
Veeky Forums is a food board ffs not a gearfagging board
anyway I'm drinking mate as well because I'm out of tea, I ordered some from dragon tea house and I'm still waiting for it
retrospectively I shouldn't have ordered gyokuro from china, but oh well what can I do now, let's just hope it's good
fucking weebs
the japs almost exclusively make green tea even, and you may argue that for some reasons jap greens are better than chink ones, say because they don't have that astringent, roasted, relatively strong, bitter flavor due to having been steamed instead of roasted, but that's all you could argue
10/10 mug
bagged tea tho...

I miss my Mate gourd. Lost it while moving.

Can anyone make some reccomendations for me?

Currently drinking and like
>Lapsang Souchong
>Blueberry Black (pretty solid for a meme tea) from a local tea store
>Mystic Dragon (Sencha and Dragonwell green tea, mallow flowers, cornflowers, strawberry and rhubarb)
>Jasmine

I'm not usually a big fan of flavored teas. Any help ?

>brewing bagged tea in a teapot

why...

I sincerely hope this thread is still up later today, because I'd love to take all my mugs, cups, tea acessories, and teas out and photograph them individually. That'd be a fun project for a lazy Sunday afternoon. But first, I have some errands to run. It would also give me the opportunity to inventory what I have, which hasn't been done in awhile.

make a thread on reddit

>tfw i bought some freshly packed first flush darjeeling in Nepal for literally a quarter of the price it would cost here

>tfw too scared to open and drink it because that place is a dity polluted shit hole

what do

Oh fuck that. I've never been on reddit, and never will.

kys

Tea comes in bags sometimes and I put it in my teapot. tea patricians know that the really rare flavours aren't available in loose form and must be purchased in bags.

>flavoured tea

Absolutely plebeian.

>hating flavoured tea

that's...all of it user

The only full-leaf tea that has any business with added flavouring is Earl Grey, and even then it's just a bit of bergamot oil to imitate puerh.

Boy, do I have a drink for you!

where'd you get it from? how does it compare to Darjeeling first flush? aka don't be a bitch. drink it.

You're retarded.

>being this jealous of my good taste

>xbox
>box of tea with Inuit imagery
>isn't even Labrador Tea, something the Inuit actually drink

Please die.

if you like black tea I advise you try some raw pu-erh, or possibly maybe some da hong pao
fucking open it, take out the amount you need and then close it
I agree bagged tea is the lowest quality tea one can find, but what's the need to mock others if they like it
you do sound kinda like asuka there, try some good quality ginseng oolong instead of acting cool because you drink higher quality tea than others
you're memeing too hard there
also with your taste in mugs you might want to try out some matcha, or some relatively cheap jap tea like sencha if the fact that it's jap sounds like a good enough excuse to you to try some higher quality tea than the literal dust you're used to

WASH THAT FUCKING TEA POT HOLY SHIT

i have a bunch of loose tea lying around but taking pictures of that is pretty well pointless. I sorta got annoyed with the selection at the tea shop I usually go to, so I went to some chinese corner store and got a bunch of touristy bagged teas and stuff like that. they also sell green tea there for really cheap.

I dunno, the store I went to was silk road but maybe I'll switch to teavana or david's tea or something. Last time I went to teavana though they got mad at me for going behind the counter and opening their cans of tea and they said they do that, not me. I don't want to stand there and ask the tea lady to hand me can after can so I can smell it. They have a hundred flavours, that'd take forever.

why? It's used solely for tea. you don't wash things that aren't dirty, that's just tea residue. I haven't done something stupid like brew coffee in it, although, even washing it wouldn't get the coffee taste out after you've done that.

>Its not grime, its just seasoning.

Confirmed NEET

It just looks dirtier cause the flash is on anyway, I usually keep the lights off and sleep during the day. bed at dawn and I just recently arose and the sun is low in the sky.

And anyway, it's practically solid black on the inside and no one cares about that, so what difference would the outside, that does not contact my tea, make?

>not keeping a whole collection of unwashed yixing clay teapots, one for every tea you have

200% turbo scrub

>not using a single teapot for all flavours to have a special flavour imbued with every cup that is personally tailored to your tastes alone and unreplicatable

I also dump any tea that gets cold in a jar I have, teas of all flavours and when the jar gets full, I can microwave some new cups and get new tea mixtures.

Sounds like it would make good kombucha

I was also thinking of like, selling my jar idea to dumb hippie liberals. I'm much too lazy to be a scammer unfortunately. Oh well. But I still contend that I could sell a jar and call it Tim's amazing tea concocter, draw some artsy fartsy picture on it, and claim that the glass specially oxides the mixture or whatever. Oh, and don't recommend that they microwave, if they ask that when I am selling it, just glare at them and say with derision:

>You don't microwave tea

and then don't offer any follow up instructions. If only I were motivated to implement my ideas...

I've never seen autism this pure in the wild before

It could be done! I see them selling these special tea jugs or whatever at the tea store. They're just jugs, but they cost thirty dollars. It's my jar idea, almost exactly, but the idea they have is you pour tea in the jug in the fridge and you get cold tea in seven hours, and that's what the jug is for.

Where do I get decent Yixing pots?

I'm scared to get a fake.

I've heard good things about these
lifeinteacup.com/
sampletea.com/catalog/teawares/teapot
essenceoftea.com/teaware/clay/yixing.html
jingteashop.com/cat-yixing-teapot-by-jing.cfm
chawangshop.com/index.php/tea-hardware/zisha-teapots.html

do a bit of research on clay types, heini, zini, zhuni, hong ni, duan ni are all pretty different, other factors matter too such as filter type, clay density, thiccness and firing temp. Also dont listen to the mei leaf memes, airtightness, lid fit and spout angle are not necessarily signs of a good pot, a lot of older factory pots have some defects but work fine in the utilitarian point of view even if they leak a bit.

I would also lurk teachat's teaware section and read a few threads as well as marshaln's blog

Dejen de tomar mate gringos del orto, el precio de la yerba sube gracias a sus gustos pretenciosos
*Reeees in spanish*

do you have a dammann freres shop around?
the one I have at hand has an "isle" in the middle with half full 100g tins that are there to be opened and smelled
prices aren't the best but the quality is pretty good, the selection is pretty good and the store is veeery nice
>I usually keep the lights off and sleep during the day. bed at dawn and I just recently arose and the sun is low in the sky.
you sound a lot like you're purposely trying to trigger people
even if it's not the case, please stop, we're kind of trying to have serious/interesting discussions about tea
>mate drinking hipsters made mate prices rise
I don't know it's pretty cheap here, around €7/kg

I really am nocturnal. It's actually been almost exactly twenty four hours since that comment, and the sun is coming back. I might go buy a donut before that happens.

>retrospectively I shouldn't have ordered gyokuro from china, but oh well what can I do now, let's just hope it's good
Gyokuro is just green tea grown in shade, right? It could be good; China really can't compete with all of Japan's cultivars though.

Nice pot, where'd you get it?

Not the user you replied to, but thanks for the links.

I bought that pot at Silk Road tea. blue is a nice colour.

>I really am nocturnal.
still, you including all these details and anime pics and references (as nice as they might be) and obviously troll opinions (tea patricians know that the really rare flavors aren't available in loose form and must be purchased in bags.) are kinda out of place, I'd appreciate if you wrote about tea instead of your life
>Gyokuro is just green tea grown in shade, right?
it's green tea from a particular cultivar (that the chinks don't have) grown in the shade for some 3 weeks and then steamed (which the chinks can but usually don't do)
I mean a good tasting green tea could be grown in china like gyokuro and processed as such, but that wouldn't be exactly gyokuro, and while it would be good enough for me I doubt I'll get something like that
I'll just have to try it when I get it
>all of Japan's cultivars though.
the only noteworthy tea plant cultivar in japan, and the most common there, is yabukita
chinks have a hell of a lot more cultivars than japs

Kombucha counts as tea, I guess? Got a scoby a few weeks back and managed to keep it alive and split it. Currently have two continuous brews going, lung ching and ceylon.
The baby in the lung ching one is getting kind of thick so I might have to set up a new jar eventually.

whats the best way to prepare mate?

Just drink vinegar. Fresh tea is not comparable to that shit.

FTGFOP first flush darjeeling every morning since I've been a kid. Green tea or green jasmine sometimes in the afternoon for variety.

I can't drink cheap or bagged tea. There is literally a world of difference in taste between different tea qualities.

>Kombucha counts as tea, I guess?
yeah pretty much
have you tasted any of those?
did you have to go to the hospital as a result?
>best way
it's up to taste mait
I put a teaspoon in a ∼300ml cup, pour a bit of room temperature water on the mate so it doesn't burn when I pour 85°C water on it, then I pour the water and I wait for it to cool
when it's cool enough I drink it with a bombilla while it steeps

here's the updated pastebin
pastebin.com/4ZEuMwBJ
pastebin.com/4ZEuMwBJ
pastebin.com/4ZEuMwBJ

>7€
Fuck that's expensive. It costs around 4 here, but it was 2-3 a couple years ago before reaching meme drink status. Gee thanks a lot, Hetfield.

>I'll just have to try it when I get it
Hope it's good. How much of it did you get?

>the only noteworthy tea plant cultivar in japan, and the most common there, is yabukita
My mistake, I didn't think all of their green tea was from one cultivar. I also never realized how many kinds of green tea china produced, as I usually drink blacks and oolongs.

Why is jasmine so popular? For the few times I've tried it, it's definitely one of my least favorite infused drinks.

>Hope it's good. How much of it did you get?
Thanks. 50g for a bit less than €7
>I didn't think all of their green tea was from one cultivar.
it's not, gyokuro is often made from other cultivars, tho it's the vastly more common one
>I also never realized how many kinds of green tea china produced, as I usually drink blacks and oolongs.
you may wanna try some maojian if you're down for green teas, in my experience it's fairly stronger and fuller-tasting than lots of other greens

I actually prefer the taste of green rooibos to that of red, though the oxidized stuff is perfectly fine. Grooibos synergyzes really nicely with mint, mate, nettle, and a bunch of other herbals; IMO it's more flexible than rrooibos. And grooibos does seem to be healthier, or at least higher in antioxidants, antiorients, &co.

>I'm not usually a big fan of flavored teas"
>Just about all the teats listed are essentially flavored teas
not judging you but I am amused. Any, I'll second
for DHP and yancha/wuyi area/"rock" tea as a whole. Also recommending pu-erh, but I would start you off with a ripe/shou rather than, or in addition to, a raw/sheng. Shou + Da Hong Pao and its da hong pals can get pretty smoky, while a fair bit more complex than a typical smoky Lapsang. Here's an example of a really roasty shou you can get pretty inexpensively:
yunnansourcing.us/store/index.php?id_product=622&controller=product
Shou is usually cheaper than comparably-good shong.
If you want to try a very different sort of black, go for a Yunnan black e.g.
yunnansourcing.us/store/index.php?id_product=881&controller=product

show me a venue for loose blueberry icewine tea

Literally all of it seems to be from one company.

okay, so, can you show me the loose tea? That was just one example, I could give a dozen, in case you want to throw a hissy fit and claim it's not real tea or something.

Like the updates, I suggest the oolong owl in the blog section, especially since so many people want to get into matcha, she has a ton of reviews of all sorts of pricepoints

Also reccomend pu-erh.sk in the vendor list

>you may wanna try some maojian if you're down for green teas
Cool, thanks for the recommendation. I tried some Long Jing from What-cha recently that was pretty good. It had a sweetcorn, vegetable-like smell, and a great sweet aftertaste. How's the Maojian compare?

Seconding oolong owl. There's a good amount of thorough reviews on their site.

>Also reccomend pu-erh.sk in the vendor list
There's some beautiful teaware on that site. How's their pu-erh?

>Can we have a cuck thread?
Sure, why not?

No, because the flavor doesn't exist outside of that one brand. There's plenty of looseleaf black teas with blueberry flavor though.
I'm not saying it's not a real tea, but it is just a specifically flavored black tea.

so my statement, "certain niche teas only exist in bags" was correct.

Still havent ordered from them, but heard good things from people whose taste I trust, will make an order of some older sheng samples later this week and a few of their younger productions. Love their teaware, especially the andrezj bero stuff, some of his new stuff is supposed to become avaliable soon, some cool shibos.
Dont be retarded, the contents of the bag are some blend, you can recreate it with actually good ingredients instead of some dust and artificial flavorings, takes work but its probably much better.

>Still havent ordered from them, but heard good things from people whose taste I trust
Good to hear. I am kind of wondering about the authenticity of some of their products though. There's a 1998 Shu, 250g for €100. Doesn't that seem a bit low?

>Love their teaware, especially the andrezj bero stuff
Yeah, especially those jars he made. They would be perfect for loose tea too. Personally, I like Stefan Andersson's kyssu's; just look at these aesthetics.

Nans mug. PG tips. Splash of milk. Nice suppa sorted.

Why do americans have to make everything so pretentious you fedora tipping poofs.

Shu doesn't improve in value that much unless it's famous productions, did a quick search of similarly aged stuff and didn't find a big discrepancy, but yeah, I have no way of proving anything, your guess is as good as much
yunnansourcing.com/en/china-native-products-imp-exp/4441-1998-cnnp-lucky-brand-ripe-pu-erh-tea-cake.html
chawangshop.com/index.php/1998-nanjian-tulin-jia-ji-ripe-tuo-cha-100g.html
adventureineverycup.com/product/1996-dayi-ripe-pu-erh-brick/

as good as mine*
need sleep

I'll read some oolong owl reviews thanks for the suggestion, but it's not like you people can't update the pastebin if you want it
just be careful and double check your sources and update it if you think it needs to be updated
>so many people want to get into matcha
fucking weebs can refer to the internet
also I've only tasted two matchas and I didn't like them so I don't know enough to verify the sources, somebody else do that please
>Also reccomend pu-erh.sk
anybody else who ordered from them can agree?
>long jing
>vegetable like smell
I found the smell somewhat sweet but not vegetable-like, and instead I found it tasted like straw and roasted greens/grass
the maojian I tried has a stronger smell, you could hear/feel/smell the roasting more, the flavor was stronger and less complex, like it was almost roasted too much, say for example burnt greens, and the aftertaste wasn't as sweet, tasted somewhat grassy and was more astringent
it's the kind of green tea I would recommend to one who likes black tea, mostly for the strength
>Doesn't that seem a bit low?
on the contrary
it doesn't cost that much money to store big quantities of tea, especially if it's stored in an already available place that doesn't need much/any maintenance €400/kg sounds fair if the leaves were good quality to begin with
are you english?
you sound like you don't care much about how your tea tastes

Where do you anons buy your teaware?
I'm in the market for a gaiwan and a new cup.

>I'm wrong, but I'm too weak to ever admit it.

But it's not really a niche flavor, so much as an exclusive product of the Metropolitan Tea Company, which does make a looseleaf version of the icewine tea and a looseleaf version of the blueberry tea, just not one of them together. Niche implies at least one other source of it.

you said flavour, I didn't say flavour. That's your word. I said tea.

But that's what it is, a black tea with flavoring.
You can get black tea anywhere, it's not a niche tea.

You can't get my tea anywhere, only the metropolitan tea company.

Get some looseleaf icewine tea and add blueberries. There's your tea.

>make it yourself
>or buy it from one place in the whole world

"Not niche" -Veeky Forums

>Maté
You know how I know you're fucking stupid and probably a sudaca or guiri subhuman?

Other than drinking mate, that's it.

I've been enjoying this batch of 上煎茶 (SF+) from O-cha. I enjoy it immensely and it comes highly recommended from yours truly, dōmo arigatōgozaimashita. It is a fantastic mid-day cupping. O-cha are the "real deal", as it were - skilled blenders, tried and true terroir. I'm genuinely impressed and I am happy to announce that I'm preparing for my first o-shiri-o-kayotte steeping - it is that good.

As for my set, everything is custom made, from the 茶碗, 棗 and even the hand-woven 茶巾. I will not take a picture of it and I recommend you follow the same practice as well. It may seem superstitious to you, but there is tamashī in your equipment and a photograph will tarnish it, ruining your chanoyu. If you think this is funny and you don't take it seriously, might as well stick to CTC and teabags.

I like you
Please continue posting

Who has the best loose leaf flavored teas? I have tons of non-flavored teas, but I've been trying to eliminate soda and I want something fruity/fresh to drink instead.

Pic related

Can you be heterosexual and still have a tea set?

depends, how do you feel about sucking cock?

Is that fucking sugar?

...

Pretty sure it's ice.

Try good quality white peony tea (bai mu dan). Fruity, fresh and sweet.

There are a lot of companies to choose from, but I find that Argo and Adagio has a decent selection if you're going commercial and want to shop online (their actual shops sucks by comparison). Some of the fandom blends from Adagio are surprisingly pleasant.

Okay, I will put that on my list of things to order next.
Never heard of Argo, but I have ordered from Adagio before. Their flavored teas are hit or miss. Their fandom blends have always sort of weirded me out because a lot of them seem to have way too many different things crammed into them, but others have looked decent. I may give one a try.

nop. as soon as i bought tea equipment i found myself going under bridges and paying dudes $15 to suck them off

if you're in europe, or better yet in spain, you can get some good one from bbte.es, tho you'll have to write and ask if they can ship it to your location if you're not in spain
yes, but I'm not 100% sure if you can manage that as well
not him but thanks for the recommendation, I might just get some and see how it is

Me too, once I started buying tea at >1$/g I started visiting the local pornshop to use their gloryhole, its a slippery slope

Hi Op Argie here, nice mate, not sure about the bombilla. Is it really mate a trend in the US? i like my cheap as fuck mate, because i'm a lazy piece of shit so i forgot to clean it and it grows molds sometimes. pic related

Probably a crack pipe

what are your favorite yerba brands? I just got into it, ordered a few different bags, tried 3 so far, can't tell much difference. they're all good.