Veeky Forums tea guide

>Tetley
Opinion discarded
Never post here again

god I can imagine what a sight that must be

There 3 main tea types that all come from same plant, black oolong and green tea. Herbal tea isn't real tea.

Don't use bags, loose leaf. Generally the bigger the leaf, the better the tea quality, I think matcha and gunpowder green is the exception.

Black tea - 5 minutes at boiling
Oolong - 4 minutes at near boiling
Green tea - 3 minutes at simmering?

Cast iron teapots are great since they retain heat, make sure you heat the teapot before adding in the water

I think price doesn't matter, higher price tea doesn't mean better flavor, it's often more rare or harder to gather shit, just got to find a tea that's right for you. Should always buy tea at a place that stores them in canisters.

Time and temp doesn't always apply for all teas of the same type.

Assam CTC: 95-100C
Darjeeling FTGFOP1: 85-95C

>There 3 main tea types that all come from same plant, black oolong and green tea
you're forgetting white tea, pu-erh and a few other, less popular varieties

I like chinese loose leaf, I get it from Teavivre, the products are ok and they wont rape my pockets, also Dragon tea house has good stuff.

Ok, tea facts are going all over the place here. Let me try.

Water temp in tea brew, from lowest to highest:
White 170-189F, green/rooibos/matcha 170-200F, oolong 180-200F, pu erh 170-212F, black 190-212F

There are some outliers, but in general, just follow brew instructions for weirder things (blooms, pu erh, herbal blends).

Brew time is largely experimental. Anywhere from 1 min to 5 min is generally acceptable. It also depends wildly on varietal. Assam? Longer. Darjeeling? Shorter. Nilgiri? In the middle.

The general rules though:
White 1-2 mins, green etc. 2-4 mins, oolong 2-4 mins, pu erh 2-5 mins, black 2 or 3-5 mins

Ratios: 1tsp per 6-8oz water. This is most up to taste. Basically, do what you want.

Remember also to 'brew' pu erh for 20-30s and dump the water. A lot of people are turned away from pu erh by the fishy/fermented/loamy middle notes and this helps in purging those. If you like that though, then gulp it up.

Flavors of teas can vary wildly within types. Is your green roasted, toasted, oven, fire, etc? High grown, low grown, etc. 1st or 2nd or autumn flush? All these things change flavor.

The point is to experiment and make your own guide. Anytime you get a new tea, take 4-5 brews just to figure ratios/time/temp for YOUR ideal cuppa. Tea is astronomically cheap per brewed oz compared to soda/milk/etc. Waste some, taste some, and stop looking online for guides. You know what tastes good.

Here it is:
pastebin.com/SWNA0rLX

We've been over this. From what I can tell from this article, and at the very least, there's no long term danger for those who have a few cups of tea a day.
ec.europa.eu/health/scientific_committees/opinions_layman/fluoridation/en/index.htm#2

Why only black? Greens, oolongs, younger puerhs, white, and most tea in between are all around a similar price range per gram. This is excluding "rare" teas and aged shu/sheng purerh. As for recently harvested tea, shincha is excellent and worth every penny to me.

Also, don't forget you can gongfu more than just puerh.

Both oolong and pu-erh can be black.

I have never drank a good green tea. White teas have good flavor but weak. You can just put some green herbs into a hot water and have similar drink.

what makes those teas better than green for you?
there are many varieties of green.

long jing tastes very nutty, iron goddess tastes just green, gunpowder is smokey

I simply like black teas taste. It's full, very distinctive taste. Something I associate with tea.
I have never tasted those fancy japanese green teas, but I doubt I would like them.

Also price is important factor. I buy for $2-3.5 per 50g, which is lower end and my distributor has a lot of great teas for that price.

Does anyone have the problem with yancha that it tastes overwhelmingly burnt. I brewed it in a gaiwan pretty weak and everytime time all I got was this burnt flavour. 2017 fo shou and shui xian btw

Tea contains calcium fluoride and since it's naturally occurring unlike the industrial waste called sodium fluoride it's perfectly safe for human consumption :^)

I prefer chinese, I assume you are buying English / Indian tea, there are a lot of varieties of the same kind of tea on other cultures, I just like to taste them and get to know the difference, about the price, well pic related is my last order, there are cheaper but I've found this seller to have good products.

you should try samplers of other kind of teas, its a nice thing to direct my autism to.

Yes I mostly drink Indian/African teas.

Where do I get samples?

most online stores will sell you samplers (like 5 different varieties of X tea), they cost more though, some will also offer free samples on you order, for example I got to choose 2 samples because the order was over 20 bucks.

There could be cheaper stores, I'm not really an seasoned expert on this.

I hope you're baiting. Please do yourself a favor and replace the tea bags with loose tea leaves.

Fluoride, just like everything, only poses a threat to your health when consumed in too large amounts. If you live in USA where water fluoridation is commonplace, it might be wise to either take in your water exclusively as tea, drink less tea or obtain non-fluoridated water since the fluoridated water in combination with the fluoride from tea probably can add up to harmful levels quickly.

Local tea shops might work depending on where you live, else there are online shops. Other kind of teas are not necessarily more expensive, even if they can be they (with few exceptions) don't exactly cost a fortune. If you don't like any other kind than pure black that's fine by me but let others decide for their own what they like. I recommend trying everything.

You should get brewing instructions included with the tea or it should be available on the website you buy the tea from. Don't bother with any general rules because I have green teas where temperature for brewing ranges from 40 degree Celsius to 80 degree Celsius and duration from 30 seconds to 3 minutes.

That adds up to 4-7 dollars per 100 grams which is kinda cheap, perhaps why you didn't appreciate the green tea. Try the ones costing $20 per 100 grams and up. Even if you're poor as fuck it's still cheap per cup since the leaves can be reused 3-5 times.

teavivre.com/black-tea-sample-packs/

like this, not trying to shill the site, but I like it, the down side is that you need to order over 30 burgerdolars to get free shipping and china post takes some retarded time to arrive some times

How on earth are the golden bits formed, I have quite a few teas like this abd Ive always wondered where it comes from

>Both oolong and pu-erh can be black.
Can they? Oolongs are fired early on to halt oxidation at anywhere from 5-70%, which is certainly different from a black tea. Not to mention the extra firing(s) oolongs go through at the end of their production. As for puerh, the leaves are picked young and processed as maocha, similarly to a green tea, which again, is very different from black tea.

Where did you get the tea from? I've had some Shui Xian from what-cha awhile back that was ok. Not the best, but it was certainly drinkable.

Not sure
Always thought it happened naturally

Tried that board once.
Never going back. Just happy Veeky Forums found a suitable cage for those fedora-tilting neckbeards.

Could any tea experts give me some advice. I usually drink crappy Lipton iced tea lightly sweetened with a zero calorie sweetener.

I recently bought some loose gunpowder green tea. What's the easiest/best way to make it in bulk so I can chill it and drink it through the day?

Do I need to change the steeping time or temp? How do I do two steeps if working with large amounts?

Current plan is 4 table spoons of tea steeped twice, half gallon water each time for a full gallon of tea. Or should I just go ahead and do the full gallon at one? Or double the amount of tea. I honestly am not sure exactly how it should work out.

I've never made green iced tea, but it doesn't seem to be much different from a standard infusion, based on a few searches:
myjapanesegreentea.com/cold-brewing-green-tea
teachat.com/viewtopic.php?t=9597
reddit.com/r/tea/comments/4e6hbn/cold_brew_gunpowder/
From what I'm gathering, there's no chance of producing a bitter brew at such cold temps. The worst you could do is simply make it too weak or strong. I'd follow something like 1-2tsp per US cup.

Easiest way to do chilled bulk tea is either cold brewing or hot brewing and chill.

Cold brew: double your tea:water ratio (2tsp to 6oz water), add water to tea in large vessel, stir thoroughly but not rough, leave on fridge 12-24-36 hours depending on how strong you want it.

Hot brew: do your normal tea thing, maybe make it a little strong, pour it over ice and leave in fridge.

Simple as that.

I drink like 15-20 cups a day. I know drinking this much tea probably isn't good but I can't fucking stop. I'm wondering if say 10 cups a a day would be the upper safe limit, does this assume that you reuse leaves or use new ones for each cup? I reuse mine three times so it should be the same as 5-7 cups where you use new leaves every time?

Loose leaf green tea is the only tea for me

Fuck that bagged shit, tastes like fucking ass

>literally just tear open a bag of green tea and wala, loose leaf tea

use youre head

I'm trying to drink green tea and macha cuz "muh health" but every fucking time I drink a cup, my stomach gets all fucking bloated & gassy.

Apparently this is normal for green tea?!?!

wtf? Why didn't somebody warn me fucking tea would make your stomach bloated, uncomfortable, and gassy?

I always run into people who say they dont like green tea but when i ask they say theyve only tried the bagged shit and they never know thar the brew temp has to be lower. No wonder they dont like it, theyre drinking poorly made trash green tea

That never happens to me and im literally gongfu-ing greeen tea atm. Idk wtf is wrong with youre body but that shouldnt be happening

> ground loose leaf

So I bought Yerba Mate at the local grocery store. Can it be brewed like a tea?

We're talking around 100 ml per cup and not US cups, right? Depending on the tea I'd say it might not hurt to cut back.
MarshalN wrote an article on a caffine detox from tea awhile back, if you're interested: marshaln.com/2017/05/caffeine-detox/

It's still bag-quality tea. Buy some decent Korean, Chinese, Jap tea and there's a world of difference.

>Apparently this is normal for green tea?!?!
No issues here. The only time I've had a negative experience with ayn tea is when I over-brewed and drank a 4 cup pot's worth of heavy roasted tieguanyin in a half hour.

When I first started drinking tea the only thing I had in the house was a 6 year old box of earl grey teabags. It wasn't terrible, but it's what made me start looking for good tea.

Oh, I just found another interesting article on tea and caffeine:
chadao.blogspot.hk/2008/02/caffeine-and-tea-myth-and-reality.html

Is it bag or loose leaf?

Bag, I can't find any loose leaf where I'm at

Just finished drinking a lightly roasted taiwanese milk oolong. Now I'm gonna cold brew it for tomorrow.

Buy online? There's probably at least one company in your country that imports tea, otherwise you can look for online tea shops that sell internationally.