New tea thread: guess how many fucks I give edition

There's a shop where I'm at that has a couple blooming teas. They're pretty good. They have a really wide selection of loose leaf as well. All really good stuff.

>it's literally just fermented cabbage
sauerkraut is the end product

If you need sugar in your tea, it's shit tea.

Sorry, a typo of sorts. Long day.

There's nothing wrong with bacterial-fermented, raw vegetable product. Quite a bit of effort can go into the massive varieties of true tea without even including the drinks containing extracts of grasses or chemically ripened.

Where are you? Can you recommend an online shop?

So eventful, I love it. The glass pot is the best touch ever. Feels like something you would serve a person to let them know you took care of an issue for them.

How do you people keep your tea hot? I like to keep it there to sip on for a long time but after a while it's just cold.

yep.

fucking retard owo

Sorry man. I try to buy all of my stuff local. I've heard good things about art of tea. But I'm not sure how their selection is. And yeah I really like clear glass teaware. It's so nice to look at and the flowering tea let's you make at like 4 pots of tea. It's great. I hope you find some for yourself.

My pot does a pretty good job of keeping tea hot. How long are we talking here?

Dang, okay. I'll have to look for some local stuff

channel your ki into your cup

Buying local is pretty fun. The people who run the shops in around me are really nice and they all get new and different blends in stock all the time.

Lots of small infusions.

>How do you people keep your tea hot?
I used to own an enameled iron kettle, by the time the water was hot enough that pot was also blazing and would retain heat.

I currently only own an iron tea-cup, but it too can remain extremely hot.

Why'd you stop using the iron kettle?
Did you like it when you used it?

I loved it, but moving between states I stayed with my family for a little and lost a fuck-ton of my possessions.

I hate to insult my family, but they're kind of trashy even when they have money to burn. They'll destroy anything you get near them without thought of consequence.

Aw man, that's a shame..
Do you remember what brand it was or where it was from?
Or was it just one of those generic enameled cast iron pots like they sell on Amazon?

It was a tetsubin, more of a kettle, black, and very similar to the one from 'the republic of tea'. Aside from the handle getting hot as hell (use a towel), I saw no downsides after years of use.

It was kind of generic around below 50 USD, but functioned perfectly for tea, and other water-heating purposes when a microwave or electric kettle wasn't around.

Looks neat. I never use a kettle. I just pour water from a pot into the teapot.

Can anyone recommend a smoky tea? I’ve tried a smoky earl grey from NMteaco that was good and would like to try more and send some as gifts.

I've never heard of smokey tea. Sounds interesting.

how to make a good tea? boil water, milk, dump leafs in it, sugar?

Pu-erh seems to be a smoky dark tea, never tried though

Well depending on the tea you want different amounts of tea per cup of water and different temperatures. There are also some teas which you wouldn't want to put milk or sugar into. Or if you don't give a shit you can just boil water, buy bags of tea and do whatever with it.

I disagree, I think adding milk and sugar to some black teas can bring out more flavors. I love a good Irish Breakfast with milk in the morning.
When I'm out and about I use a normal insulated thermos, which keeps my tea hot for hours. It also holds 32oz which is nice considering it stays warm all day.

I have that same keyboard, great for browsing on my desktop pc while in bed.

also jasmine tea best tea

jasmine =/= tea

It is good though.

I see where you're coming from but I'll have to disagree. I think black tea with a hint a sugar enhances the flavor by a lot.

oof, it may be, I haven't tried it

Nah man, honey. Raw honey.
Stuff's good for you too.

lapsang

The base tea is called Lapsang Souchong. It’s a smoky black tea. I’ve only tried it as an Earl Grey and it tasted like a campfire with citronella, in a good way. Most people that asked to try it liked it, except some women. I would like to try more, flavored or unflavored, from other companies but there’s so many to choose from.

Thanks, haven’t tried any pu-erh teas yet. That’s next on my list to get into. I’ve heard a lot of great things about it.

When I find the fated blooming tea site I'm gonna get some, make sure to let me know how it goes

hi fellow tea girls itt, gonna have some green tea with lemon and honey tomorrow for breakfast

post the pastebins anyone? dont have them :^(

Honey is good as well. Depends on how I'm feeling whether I use it or sugar.

this

What's everybody drinking tonight? Just had some of Yunnan Sourcing's white tea, it's not as good as I hoped but I don't know what I was expecting when I ordered white tea from a puerh specialist. Great for the price though.

Forgot to even say what it was. It was their 2017 pekoe silver needles.

>What's everybody drinking tonight?
Whiskey.
But I'll have some terrible instant tea later because sometimes I like the flavor; especially with whiskey.

Or I'll brew some 2010 green peurh. Googling why the hell this one is called American Hao other than trying to market local and overseas is beyond me.

Jasmine tea is tea with jasmine in it. It is not a straight tisane like peppermint.

Jasmine tea is usually shoddy stuff when it comes to the tea leaves, but high quality jasmine pearls are fantastic.

Drinking some earl grey.

YES Jasmine Pearls are actually good but jasmine w/ tea is a shit

I want to start getting into tea, is there a beginner's guide pastebin somewhere?

The first thing that comes to my mind hearing smokey tea is lapsang souchong, but I've also gotten kyobancha from ippodo a couple times. It was like drinking a cigar.

I'd be cautious looking for puerh if you want a smokey tea. Whenever I've had puerh that were smokey it was usually an aftertaste or something subtle. Not to mention that most puerh won't really be smokey at all.

you've inspired me to try some white tea and gin as soon as I wake up tomorrow.

I don't have the pastebin but feel free to ask me anything. I'll use a name for convenience

How do I move from microwaving a mug with a teabag in it and adding sugar to not being a pleb? What should my first step be

Buy good loose leaf tea.

Try out looseleaf tea as the user above recommended. Teabags are filled with the leftover sediment from processed looseleaf. Also, cooking your tea would make it taste quite nasty.
Enjoying tea is all about the magic of the leaf itself, which is why quality tea doesn't need sugar.

As for teaware, you don't need a whole fancy gongfu set to actually brew good tea. In fact, a lot of Chinese people just throw some leaves in a cup and pour water over it. However, if you are looking to buy some teaware then either get a good teapot or a gaiwan if you want to brew Chinese style.

so I should heat the water and then pour it in with loose leaves already in? I can't believe this is a real life question I am asking.

Also any recommendations for beginner teas?

Yeah, exactly. Some teas will want lower temperatures than others but just as a beginner guideline don't use fully boiling water unless you're drinking pu-erh.

As for beginner teas, I recommend Dragonwell green tea, a good Chinese black such as Laoshan or Golden Buds, Silver Needles white tea, and maybe a Wuyi oolong such as Shui Xian.

>It was like drinking a cigar
That’s a good way to describe it. I’ll make an order for kyobancha in the next few weeks.

I started last year with an electric tea kettle and a big purchase of only samples from Harney and Sons, then branched out from there. It was a good way to try a variety and their teas are affordable.

Ah, lastly, any tips on buying teastuff?

If you want to taste something with a lot of wet wood, tobacco, and smoke then try Yunnan Sourcing's 2003 Bulang brick puerh.

For looseleaf tea, I like Teavivre as they generally have great variety and quality. Yunnan Sourcing is my go-to for puerh and Chinese black teas. What-cha is also good but a bit more expensive for the quality. You can also get teaware from the first two.

Kill me for triple posting but make sure to get sample sizes for teas you haven't tried yet. It's a much better investment than buying 50-100g of a tea you didn't enjoy much.

Added to my list, thanks

This. Most places have sample sizes or sample packs, and while you're learning what you like, it's best to not commit too much to any one thing. I recommend Upton Tea for sampling, they have a little bit of everything and most of their samples are only a dollar or two, but do beware, they aren't the greatest quality out there.

Tips for brewing puerh? Do you just have a pot of hot water you keep adding to your cup/teapot of puerh? I don't want to keep running my kettle over and over

If you don't want a teapot straight up you could get yourself a mug strainer to start (the open ones that hang along the rim of your mug) to give the leaves enough room to unfurl and you won't have to keep ingesting leaves lmao
Alternatively those tea for one teapots are pretty convenient too, but eventually you'll want a decently sized teapot

Russian Caravan
Fuck the leaves smell like a freshly doused camp fire, just thinking about the smell makes me want some, my next office stash will be Caravan

I put a dash in most except for oolong

pastebin.com/4ZEuMwBJ

Bai Lin Jinzhen , fucking great black tea.

There's a difference between you simply preferring sugar and/or milk in your tea and the tea needing it to cover up the base flavor being bad. Most bagged shit is just nasty when drunk black.

Why is tea so fucking expensive? 5oz of imported black for $20.
I can buy 3lbs of coffee for that price.

Because you're looking at high-end premium product when you're looking at quality loose leaf tea. Good tea has to be picked and processed by hand by skilled workers and then it's shipped halfway across the world to you.

Also, consider that it doesn't take much tea leaves to make a cup of tea and you can infuse the leaves multiple times, so that 5oz will take you much further than 5oz of coffee would.

What is this supposed to mean? The last word looks like tea but the first word is unrecognizable.

Good looking out.

Irish Breakfast, one of my favorite morning teas.

Coffee beans are heavier than tea leaves so you get more volume if comparing by weight. 5oz of tea is a lot and would last you over a month. It’s about 10-15 cups per ounce, not including multiple steeps. So 5 ounces of tea would mean about 50-75 cups of tea or if you steep your leaves twice like I do, that means 100-150 cups of tea per 5 ounces. You only need a teaspoon or 2 for tea, compared to around 1 tablespoon per cup of coffee. It’s around the same price when comparing good quality tea to good quality coffee.

Are you using an electric or stovetop kettle?
Electric kettles can have settings where they keep the water at just below boiling. I use an electric kettle (pic related) so I am always adding nearly boiling water when I want to and I can't imagine any tricks to keep the water warmer for longer.

Otherwise if you're gong-fu'ing you might want to try smaller infusions so you can get to later steeps faster before the water cools off. You can also pre-heat your cup or invest in cast iron.

By the way, what type of puerh are you making?

Picked up some Gyokuro. How do I properly brew this? I don't have a fancy tea set or anything, just one of those gravity steeps and some teaballs.

I just finished a big mug of pic related. It's probably my favorite cheap tea besides generic CTC black.

is it premium stuff? for your first steep brew it in room temperature for 12 minutes, then 2-3 minute steeps at 120F

tea friends i am looking for a rose black tea anyone have any recs?

patrician tea incoming

It's historically plebeian because rice is cheaper than tea. Tastes good though.

premium genmaicha is absolutely amazing, cheap is still a pleasant economy tea

>When I'm out and about I use a normal insulated thermos, which keeps my tea hot for hours. It also holds 32oz which is nice considering it stays warm all day.
Ditto, so much better off dosing myself with tea throughout the day than when I used to slam coffees a few times per day

Idk if it's the same everywhere but 7-11 has the best jasmine tea I've ever tried. All of their tea is surprisingly good whole leaf stuff.

...

That's just Two Leaves and a Bud. They're pretty damn good, you can get em at Walmart, 30-50 cents a bag I think

1-2 minutes is what user means. Please do not brew your tea for twelve minutes, way too long for anything.

Has anyone had tea from a samovar before? Is it good/worth it?

i would honestly love the chance to try out some czar nicholas in a samovar. they dont look super expensive but i dont know if the links online are real or not

Thinking of getting some more tea, but not sure what to get. Kind of want to get a green, a darker oolong, and maybe black or perhaps even pu'er, but I have zero experience with pu'er. Ordering online looking at sites like teavivre, ynnan sourcing, and verdant tea. Kinda wanna try a dragonwell for green, maybe get a cheap gunpowder for the early mornings coming up.

Genmaicha smells and tastes like a mix of fish and poop. Maybe it’s the brand I had? It turned me away from that kind of tea but I’m open to trying it again if someone can recommend a good place to buy it.

Looking at pu'er, should I go for loose or one of the cake type ones. How about ripe or raw?