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The perils of cheap tea and oversteeping. If your jasmine tea tastes like hand soap that's about what I figure, anyway.
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# ? Nov 19, 2011 00:15 |
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# ? May 15, 2024 04:31 |
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Yeah, that's... not supposed to happen. Could be steeping too hot/too long/both, could just be bad quality jasmine tea, because that stuff's supposed to be pretty light as far as flavored teas go.
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# ? Nov 19, 2011 04:22 |
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Scented teas can be kind of a crapshoot, but they're not all terrible. The one you had was probably artificially scented, especially given the price; they tend to have that handsoap taste sometimes. If you get a Jasmine or other 'flower scented' tea, make sure that it's been scented with real flowers. Same can go for some of the flavored teas, the cheaper ones can taste like chemicals sometimes, especially if you oversteep at all.
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# ? Nov 19, 2011 08:30 |
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Are there any good 'decaf' teas? I know the answer is probably no, its just that when it comes to tea I really can't stand things that have an overly flowery or fruity bouquet, so I typically don't drink hearbal 'tea' and haven't tried many rooibos either. I would just like something that tastes like a classic black or green tea that I could drink at 10pm and then not lay awake in bed for 5 hours afterwards because of it.
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# ? Nov 20, 2011 06:16 |
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Sirotan posted:Are there any good 'decaf' teas? I know the answer is probably no, its just that when it comes to tea I really can't stand things that have an overly flowery or fruity bouquet, so I typically don't drink hearbal 'tea' and haven't tried many rooibos either. I would just like something that tastes like a classic black or green tea that I could drink at 10pm and then not lay awake in bed for 5 hours afterwards because of it. Upton and Adagio have some decaffeinated teas, but I swear I read somewhere that the second+ steepings of most teas have much less caffeine than the first. I don't think tea has enough caffeine in it to keep you up for very long, though. It's no cup of coffee or even a can of soda.
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# ? Nov 20, 2011 06:56 |
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I'm not someone who studies how the decaffeination process works but if you're looking for 'decaf' teas then tisane/herbal teas and rooibos should be what you're looking for. Generally speaking, if you want to cut the caffeine in your cup, discard the first steep and steep short. It depends on how your body reacts to the tea though so try different kinds - white teas tend to have a minimal of caffeine, but are also very light on flavor, so it may be a place to start.
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# ? Nov 20, 2011 11:05 |
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Sudoku posted:I don't think tea has enough caffeine in it to keep you up for very long, though. It's no cup of coffee or even a can of soda. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/caffeine/AN01211 Black tea can have as much or more caffeine in it than an espresso, and since all tea leaves are fundamentally identical, all kinds of tea can have the same caffeine content depending on steep times. I was dumb and recently enjoyed a nice second flush assam late at night, and I wasn't joking when I wrote that I laid in bed wide awake until the were hours of the morning because of it. Maybe a better question would have been what are some herbal teas that aren't overly fruity or flowery?
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# ? Nov 20, 2011 14:59 |
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Sirotan posted:Maybe a better question would have been what are some herbal teas that aren't overly fruity or flowery? Honestly since a tisane can be literally anything that's really a broad and impossible question-- you pretty much need to just get your nose in there and give it a sniff and read the ingredients and all that. You're not going to get something that tastes really tea-like out of a tisane since it's not tea, and one of the advantages of a tisane is you can get more overtly different flavours (and often far sweeter)... chammomile is a usual bedtime tisane, that's more grassy than flowery, I find. I tend to like rose hip tisanes too, but that might be straying too sweet for what you're looking for. http://www.davidstea.com/our-teas/herbal-tea shows a decent variety and their stuff is good on the whole.
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# ? Nov 20, 2011 15:10 |
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Have you considered chicory or dandelion "coffee"? Deep roasty flavor and healthy to boot.
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# ? Nov 20, 2011 16:45 |
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If you know someone who deals with non- herbs in town (there are a few places that do!) then you can roll your own tisanes. Really, though, look into white and green teas (not matcha or gyokuro), since the finishing process tends to dictate the level of caffeine. Also note that in the same chart for caffeine you posted that black tea "can" have "as much or more" caffeine than coffee etc. Red rooibos tends to avoid the floral scent altogether. If you're looking to enjoy an actual tea before bedtime, though, I've taken afternoon and evening tea up until I decided to lie down for the night and I've not suffered insomnia from it - these are with multiple steeps of oolong (5 to 7 steeps with approx. 1L worth of water?) - I also ended up drinking more actual water prior to going to sleep. Note, though, that I did not add anything to it, merely just leaves and water. Adagio, like David's Teas, has a fairly beefy section for herbals, which you can find here.
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# ? Nov 20, 2011 19:02 |
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Caffeine really does effect different people differently. I have a friend that can have just one cup of a black tea and she's practically bouncing off the walls. I, on the other hand, can have a whole pot (say, three cups) of the same and fall right asleep. It really just depends on how sensitive you are to it. Sirotan, besides just looking at plain tisanes, you could try blends. Sometimes if you just get the right plants together, their flavors can do some really weird and interesting things you wouldn't expect. Adagio's Foxtrot is sort of like that. It's rooibos, mint, and chamomile, but somehow when those are blended together it turns out almost creamy and you'd probably have a hard time placing what was in it if you didn't know beforehand. I'm pretty sure that I've heard of places that sell good decaf teas, but I honestly can't remember exactly who. You could try looking up reviews either on seller websites or on Steepster or something. I've heard that the method of doing a brief steep, dumping it, then steeping it again is pretty effective, too.
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# ? Nov 20, 2011 20:15 |
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A quick steep actually doesn't do much to decaffeinate the tea. There's a good article about it here: http://chadao.blogspot.com/2008/02/caffeine-and-tea-myth-and-reality.html Also in there is some discussion about how black teas do not necessarily have more caffeine than green teas. Caffeine content is mostly down to the varietal used and the growing conditions. There's some small charts in there showing that oxidation actually lowers the caffeine content. Lots of interesting albeit lengthy articles on Cha Dao, though they haven't updated in quite a while now.
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# ? Nov 20, 2011 20:46 |
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breaks posted:A quick steep actually doesn't do much to decaffeinate the tea. There's a good article about it here: http://chadao.blogspot.com/2008/02/caffeine-and-tea-myth-and-reality.html That was a really interesting read. White tea has the highest amount of caffeine? And it looks like all I've got to do to make decaf tea for myself is to be sure to steep my tea for 15 minutes first. Anyway, thanks for all the suggestions, I think I'm mostly hesitant to try tisanes because I've had so many horrible ones in the past. I like a strong flavored tea, but not when its cinnamon and flowers and fruits and poo poo all thrown together. The chicory or dandelion coffee intrigues me, I may have to hunt some down.
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# ? Nov 21, 2011 17:31 |
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Sirotan posted:That was a really interesting read. White tea has the highest amount of caffeine? And it looks like all I've got to do to make decaf tea for myself is to be sure to steep my tea for 15 minutes first. The mulberry stuff I got at David's is kind of nutty tasting, you might want to look for something like that too. That being said there are a lot of really pleasant tisanes out there but yeah, if you want to avoid ones that are innately sweet you'll have a bit more trouble.
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# ? Nov 21, 2011 19:58 |
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Sirotan posted:Anyway, thanks for all the suggestions, I think I'm mostly hesitant to try tisanes because I've had so many horrible ones in the past. I like a strong flavored tea, but not when its cinnamon and flowers and fruits and poo poo all thrown together. The chicory or dandelion coffee intrigues me, I may have to hunt some down. Do you like mint tea? Mint tea is awesome. There's also a cheap, bagged lemon tea I really like (from HEB if you happen to live in Texas). Just don't get anything with only lemongrass; the one I'm thinking of has I don't even know what else in it and is a dark red.
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# ? Nov 21, 2011 20:58 |
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Probably hibiscus; that's usually what makes tisanes red.
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# ? Nov 21, 2011 21:06 |
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Does tea damage the body or mind in any way?
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# ? Nov 27, 2011 21:24 |
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Nah, it's pretty much the healthiest thing you could be drinking unless you've got some really obscure genetic liver problem that interacts with green tea, really overdo it on the caffeine (i.e. don't replace all of your water intake with strong tea), or drink very large quantities of sub-par leaves that have too much fluoride in them. There might also be a slightly increased risk of cancers from drinking smoked stuff or drinking... well, anything at super hot temperatures regularly, but that's not really significant either. Edit: Oh yeah, it can make you piss more often due to the caffeine, but that's usually a neutral or good thing. Culinary Bears fucked around with this message at 22:57 on Nov 27, 2011 |
# ? Nov 27, 2011 22:52 |
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The only thing it's damaged so far is my finances. Pretty much the only 'danger' I've ever heard of is drinking it when it's too hot which has obvious immediate effects of hurting like a bitch, but in the long term may* cause damage to your mouth and throat. I've heard of people who get stomachaches when they drink darker teas (or sometimes matcha or other green teas), but that's on an individual basis. Otherwise, pretty much what Goddamn said. Oh, and as long as you're not heaping a bunch of sugar or something in it too, it's pretty healthy. Oh yeah, and you might want to be careful with some herbals/tisanes if you've got bad allergies or something. My local tea shop has/had pennyroyal for sale, which can kill almost anyone if you aren't really careful with how much you drink of it *I think I read an article somewhere that said there was possibly some link between some cases of mouth/throat cancer and drinking really hot tea/coffee/whatever too often, but I can't remember where it was or how valid that study might have been. DurianGray fucked around with this message at 05:32 on Nov 28, 2011 |
# ? Nov 28, 2011 05:29 |
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Can anyone recommend a bagged tea that's like Tetley premium blend (Australia), but "better"? So some kind of generic black tea. The supermarket bagged teas here in Switzerland are awful and tasteless in comparison, so I'd like to order something nicer, probably from the UK I guess. Is there a standard/classic UK bagged black tea? edit: looks like Yorkshire or PG Tips are what I'm looking for. network.guy fucked around with this message at 17:54 on Nov 28, 2011 |
# ? Nov 28, 2011 17:31 |
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Right, PG Tips, Yorkshire Gold, maybe Tetley. You might also try Red Rose from Canada.Abel Wingnut posted:Does tea damage the body or mind in any way? If you drink more than a little black tea you can expect to get some staining on your teeth (much like coffee). The dentist may complain a little about having to remove it on every visit, but it's harmless otherwise.
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# ? Nov 28, 2011 18:23 |
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Goddamn posted:Nah, it's pretty much the healthiest thing you could be drinking unless you've got some really obscure genetic liver problem that interacts with green tea, really overdo it on the caffeine (i.e. don't replace all of your water intake with strong tea), or drink very large quantities of sub-par leaves that have too much fluoride in them. There might also be a slightly increased risk of cancers from drinking smoked stuff or drinking... well, anything at super hot temperatures regularly, but that's not really significant either. Actually, my old man has this issue w/ the liver, it has to do with the amount of antioxidants are in the tea (he can drink black teas just fine, but he can't eat dark leafy greens or drink green tea past a cup or two).
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# ? Nov 28, 2011 19:07 |
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Just placed my first order on Upton Teas! Extra bergamot early grey, earl grey supreme, into to fine tea sampler (to expand beyond earl grey), and some filter bags for drinking at the office. It looks like the tea + filter bag combo comes out much cheaper than store-bought bags, too!
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# ? Dec 1, 2011 22:07 |
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New to this thread (and for the most part tea). Starting to drink more tea as a way to lower my overall caffeine consumption and so far (about 2 weeks in) it has worked positive wonders on my day-to-day caffeine-addiction and roller-coaster energy levels. Anyways, real reason I'm posting right now is to say SCREW Teavana. They have the most aggressive, harassing, in-your-face sales people I've dealt with. I went in there for a second time today thinking that my previous visit was a fluke but once again I had the exact same experience with a brand new employee. I will never EVER return to that place again because of the sheer anxiety stepping foot into their establishment causes me
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# ? Dec 5, 2011 02:23 |
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Yeah, there's been some discussion about them and their sales practices already in this thread. Sorry you had to go through that twice You'll probably have a lot better luck if you can find a non-chain* local tea store. Every small tea store that I've been to has had pretty laid back employees. Barring that, there are a ton of online retailers listed in the OP. *I'm pretty sure that Teavana is the only nationwide American tea store chain right now, though.
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# ? Dec 5, 2011 02:58 |
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Teavana's prices are another good reason not to go back. Every other tea shop I've been to has had friendly people who are happy to help out and talk without any pressure at all. I'm pretty much only drinking tea these days. I've had pop a few times and the occasional coffee drink but otherwise it's all tea. At work we have a water dispenser that does hot water but it's in the staff room and I don't like sitting around waiting for tea to brew so I've been using T-Sacs so I can just take them out and toss them wherever I am. Baskets/infusers are too much mess at work. But I haven't been very good about remembering to fill bags ahead of time. Then I saw this wacky thing at Barnes & Noble and I think it's going to solve my problem. The Essential Infuser by Aladdin has a basket in the lid that flips up or down with a lever on the outside. When it's up, the basket is totally contained in the lid and doesn't touch the water. When it's down, it's fully submerged in the water as long as it's filled up. You flip it up when your tea is done brewing. I love this thing because I don't have to worry about removing and getting rid of a hot, drippy bag. Theoretically it'll work for resteeping tea but I've only tried that with rooibus so far and I learned the hard way that that stuff doesn't resteep well at all. Speaking of rooibus--at Adagio I tried the Hazelnut Honeybush and was surprised at how much hazelnut flavor came though. The guy who made it told me that they brew their samples very strong so you get all the flavor. Now I do the same with rooibus and I'm liking it a lot better. It doesn't turn bitter or get too strong like tea can.
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# ? Dec 5, 2011 03:34 |
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I've checked out a few of the sites in the OP and I feel overwhelmed by the amount of options. So far, I really like basic green tea and avoid anything that is "sweet". Is there a good, everyday green tea that is recommended? I drink ~4 cups a day if shelf-life vs. quantity matters.
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# ? Dec 5, 2011 04:41 |
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KarmaticStylee posted:I've checked out a few of the sites in the OP and I feel overwhelmed by the amount of options. So far, I really like basic green tea and avoid anything that is "sweet". Is there a good, everyday green tea that is recommended? Gunpowder! Cheap and delicious, not sweet at all. You can also resteep it several times, so if you're drinking a lot, it's very cost-effective.
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# ? Dec 5, 2011 04:56 |
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quote:Yerba Mate I've glanced through the current thread, and haven't seen much follow-through on yerba maté. I'm going to pull the elder-goon card here and share a few observations based on my NGO work in Paraguay in the mid-1990s, when I was sipping mate and most of y'all were sipping tit-milk. At the time, mate in Paraguay,at least in Caaguazú Department, was generally drunk out of a guampa, a cup made of wood or horn, with a bombilla, a metal drinking-straw with a sieve at the end. You'd kick back with a group of people, they'd pull out a guampa packed with yerba mate, and a pitcher of water, and start filling it up and passing it around. Normally, you'd pour some water into the guampa, suck the now-infused liquid out the bombilla, then fill it and pass it to the next person. Wiki mentions a few variants, and of those I vaguely recall putting a little sugar in the guampa, putting some bitter "medicinal" herbs in the guampa, and using either hot or cold water depending on situation. In the local almacences (rural corner shops) they sold mate packaged in cardboard boxes, either plain or with (as I recall) lemongrass or some kind of lemon-something. I recall the family I was living with mentioning that a lot of people would get aviciado ("addicted", same root-word as "vice") to mate. I also about loving keeled over during that project when I accepted some mate from some locals who swore their pitcher had well-water, when instead it had swamp-water, and I expelled large portions of my drat insides over a 24 hour period and felt like Death personified. But that was 95% due to bacterial issues and only 5% to mate. I generally recall mate tasting like grass and dirt, but not necessarily unpleasant. I clearly recall doing a really huge and long-running (like 12+ passes) yerba mate circle with some other NGO workers during the weekend we were away from our projects, and having absolutely ungodly gastrointestinal repercussions seldom seen since due to the sheer amount of caffeine and whatever other active ingredients. That said, I would strongly recommend trying yerba mate, but mainly if you can get a group of friends and do a proper pass-around in your circle while bullshitting. It's not necessarily a bad beverage by itself, but it's way cooler if you can fill up a cup (either a proper guampa or those gay-rear end gourd things Brazilian dicks use) and keep it passing in a circle and slurping through a metal straw. No other significant observations, just 3rd World horror stories from the brief period where I was trying to help people rather than rain artillery fire down on them. In any case, stop being a limp-dick and do a proper yerba-mate pass around until about 2AM while playing cards or circle-jerking or whatever you kids do. It adds a certain flair to the occasion.
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# ? Dec 5, 2011 05:03 |
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I just bought 250g of gunpowder from upton for $12. Do they have great prices or did I just buy dirt?
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# ? Dec 6, 2011 15:09 |
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KarmaticStylee posted:I just bought 250g of gunpowder from upton for $12. Do they have great prices or did I just buy dirt? The former. I'm yet to be truly disappointed with an Upton tea, but I haven't sampled their entire catalogue or anything.
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# ? Dec 6, 2011 16:41 |
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QuentinCompson posted:The former. I'm yet to be truly disappointed with an Upton tea, but I haven't sampled their entire catalogue or anything. I'm not sure if it's physically possible to sample their entire catalog before you die. There's just unreal amounts of stuff. It's definitely my "main" tea store now (since I have no tea shops anywhere near me physically) since it has good quality at fair prices.
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# ? Dec 6, 2011 18:04 |
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KarmaticStylee posted:Anyways, real reason I'm posting right now is to say SCREW Teavana. They have the most aggressive, harassing, in-your-face sales people I've dealt with. I went in there for a second time today thinking that my previous visit was a fluke but once again I had the exact same experience with a brand new employee. I will never EVER return to that place again because of the sheer anxiety stepping foot into their establishment causes me Along these lines, if stepping into Teavana is anxiety-inducing, but someone in this thread would like honest information on their products (without the pushy bullshit--like I said, there was a reason I left) from a former Teavana employee, I'm more than happy to field questions. I can't promise I know everything, but I can promise I'll share what I do know. Also, sorry, you had to get a new guy, KarmaticStylee... they're always the worst.
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# ? Dec 10, 2011 17:01 |
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Okay, so a friend gave me this pot as a gift yesterday. I've never had a yixing pot before, so I'm both super excited and super nervous I'm going to gently caress up the initial seasoning/subsequent brews... Anyone have any experiences/tips with yixing they'd be willing to share?? edit: I guess I should also throw out there that the pot is a whopping 23 ounces, and everything I found online for seasoning/brewing instructions is for much smaller (6-8 oz) yixing pots. I'm not sure what the best way to season my new pot or brew tea in it would be as a result. Niemat fucked around with this message at 16:58 on Dec 11, 2011 |
# ? Dec 11, 2011 16:56 |
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That thing is freaking awesome. I have a 10 cup yixing pot that I bought years ago and never got around to using. I just can't imagine when I would use it. It sits on our entertainment unit and stores batteries and collects dust now
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# ? Dec 12, 2011 00:19 |
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I only recently got into tea within the last year or so. I was up in Toronto and a friend was getting some tea. I decided to try their Dublin Cream and fell in love. Since then, I've branched out since though, and I love white and black teas the most. I am having a very excellent cup of Princess Earl Grey right now! A friend gave me this red box (my camera is broken or I would take a picture) of some old tea. Does anyone know anything about this? It's called "Brooke Bond Red Label". It confuses me a little, just because the tea are these very tiny little balls, very very small. Finagle fucked around with this message at 03:19 on Dec 13, 2011 |
# ? Dec 13, 2011 03:14 |
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Niemat posted:a former Teavana employee, I'm more than happy to field questions. I can't promise I know everything, but I can promise I'll share what I do know. Any Rooibos you recommend in particular? I think those are the ones with the most caffeine, right? I need to get tea sometime in the future, I started drinking mine again. It's a year or two old, but still good. And it will disappear at some point.
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# ? Dec 13, 2011 03:23 |
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Manuel Calavera posted:Any Rooibos you recommend in particular? I think those are the ones with the most caffeine, right? I need to get tea sometime in the future, I started drinking mine again. It's a year or two old, but still good. And it will disappear at some point. Rooibos has no caffeine, are you thinking of mate?
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# ? Dec 13, 2011 04:08 |
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Manuel Calavera posted:Any Rooibos you recommend in particular? I think those are the ones with the most caffeine, right? I need to get tea sometime in the future, I started drinking mine again. It's a year or two old, but still good. And it will disappear at some point. Hummingbirds posted:Rooibos has no caffeine, are you thinking of mate? Also wondering this... If it is mate you're thinking of, what sorts of tea have you started drinking again? Are you drinking bagged tea or loose leaf? Do you drink coffee at all? If you're a coffee drinker trying to kick the habit through tea, Teavana could hook you up with something like this. The JavaVana mate smells very strongly of cocoa/coffee, but (like all of Teavana's coffee-mimicking mates) is a little weak on taste for what the tea smells like. That being said, it's not a bad tasting tea--just weak. Personally, I never really drank much Teavana mate, as they only carried mate that was supposed to replace coffee or was filled with fruit (although all of my coworkers went NUTS for the Raspberry Riot Lemon Mate, and the Samurai Chai Mate is Teavana's best selling tea). My mate of choice is always a yerba mate, like Guayaki. If you like near a Whole Foods or an organic/local source grocery store, they usually have Guayaki in their tea sections, and Guayaki seems to be on sale quite a bit. A yerba mate has more of a grassy taste to it, though, and can really come on strong. Some acquaintance of mine once told me they thought mate was an acquired taste when prepared correctly, and I definitely agree. But don't let that scare you off! There are few things more satisfying than enjoying a nice mug (or gourd!) of mate to kick the day off right. TapTheForwardAssist had an interesting post about mate about ten posts back talking about some of the cultural aspects of mate I'd check out as well! Also... angor posted:That thing is freaking awesome. I have a 10 cup yixing pot that I bought years ago and never got around to using. I just can't imagine when I would use it. It sits on our entertainment unit and stores batteries and collects dust now TEN CUPS? That must be one hell of a pot! Niemat fucked around with this message at 06:39 on Dec 13, 2011 |
# ? Dec 13, 2011 06:34 |
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# ? May 15, 2024 04:31 |
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Is there a good cheap gaiwan set that anyone knows of? I was making do with a ghetto-gaiwan, a small mug with the lid of an infuser jammed halfway down to just cover the tea and water, but the cup I was using was just broken like 10 minutes ago and I kind of wanted to get a real gaiwan. I was planning on asking for this gaiwan set but it was put on reddit and then they bought all of them up. I don't want to spend too much more than what that set cost, can anyone point me to a good place?
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# ? Dec 13, 2011 07:55 |