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I've tried making sweet ice tea with some of my fancier loose leaf blacks but it's just not the same as using the generic Food Lion tea bags my parents would always have on hand. If it doesn't taste vaguely of cardboard, it feels like there's something missing. 
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Jun 3, 2014 04:46
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DontAskKant posted:I'm in Seoul, Korea so tea is crazy expensive. I do have a bunch of bulk tea from Vietnam and Taiwan when I go on vacation. I always feel like I use too many leaves to get sufficient taste when cold brewing. Have you tried getting the cheap green teabags from your supermarket and just shoving a few of the large bags in a 1.5L bottle (I like the samdasoo bottles) to make iced green tea? I mean, I'd love to use real loose-leaf, but as you said, it's real expensive here and I tend to use my loose leafs for hot tea. Also, barley and corn-whisker tea is pretty good chilled.
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Jun 3, 2014 12:55
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Archer2338 posted:Have you tried getting the cheap green teabags from your supermarket and just shoving a few of the large bags in a 1.5L bottle (I like the samdasoo bottles) to make iced green tea? I mean, I'd love to use real loose-leaf, but as you said, it's real expensive here and I tend to use my loose leafs for hot tea. Oh yeah barely tea and corn silk tea is delicious, but when i want Tea tea... Which green tea bags the 현미녹차? 95% brown rice and 5% green tea fannings. Tesco does have some descent tea for that. In Insadong they occasionally have Korean green tea a bit larger than CTC for $5 for 100g which is way better than the $20 for 20g.
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Jun 3, 2014 16:59
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Hummingbirds posted:That reminds me, I recently got some surprisingly decent jasmine green at the local Asian market. It was like $4 for 200 g or something crazy. Was it that yellow tin with french on it? "Thé au jasmin"
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Jun 4, 2014 04:43
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Eeyo posted:Was it that yellow tin with french on it? "Thé au jasmin" the staple tea in any Chinese or Vietnamese household! I can only speak for the cultures that I know.
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Jun 4, 2014 04:49
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Eeyo posted:Was it that yellow tin with french on it? "Thé au jasmin" Yeah it is. I hope I'm not about to be made fun of for thinking it's good.
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Jun 4, 2014 04:51
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Ha no, I bought some a long time ago and enjoyed it. I just like the tin.
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Jun 4, 2014 06:15
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I have bought a lot of super lovely ceylon over the years because I thought it came in a neat tin.
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Jun 4, 2014 06:24
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I also like tins. Which is what made me decide to buy the jasmine tea despite expecting it to suck. 
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Jun 4, 2014 16:19
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I have bought some absurdly cheap ceylon that was actually quite good
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Jun 4, 2014 17:09
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I actually really enjoy some of the teas from San Francisco herb company. Especially at $8 a pound for O.P. Indian teas. Their Rooibos and Honeybush is sometimes amazing.
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Jun 4, 2014 18:15
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Now, I know its not a tea...but I was given a Crio Bru gift pack by my husband. It's a brewed cocoa. It's really nice! I don't think I have had anything like it before. It is made with a French Press. It's a nice change of taste from my tea. With a bit of cream and some sweetener it's got a great (vaguely coffee) taste and various undertones to it, (varies depending on the roast and area the beans are from), that I am quite enjoying. http://www.criobru.com/ in case anyone is interested...
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Jun 5, 2014 05:20
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I haven't been satisfied with any of the hot cups of sencha I've had, so I tried cold brewing some today, and the result is delicious and refreshing. I think I'll cold brew all my delicate greens from now on.
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Jun 8, 2014 00:39
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I gots to have my hot tea in the morning, no matter how hot it is outside.  (91f and climbing here). Speaking of which Upton's Organic After Snow Sprouting is delicious. It's nice and fruity.
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Jun 8, 2014 00:48
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Yeah, hot tea is a necessity in the morning. Urgh, the second cold-brewed cup was completely bitter. I think sencha may not be for me, or at least not the one David's sells.
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Jun 8, 2014 02:01
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Juaguocio posted:Yeah, hot tea is a necessity in the morning. I've ruined quite a bit of good green tea. Enough to almost figure it out. In my experience its usually one of two culprits. The water being too hot is the most common mistake I make. For a long time I just assumed that green tea wasn't really my thing. One day I boiled some water and poured in into a serving pitcher to cool and kind of forgot about it for a while. By the time I remembered, it wasn't even steaming except for a few tiny wisps right on the surface. I steeped the tea anyway assuming it would be week and kinda crappy. It was perfect. I'm still a much bigger fan of oolongs and yellow tea than green tea, but I finally understand what people are talking about when they call green tea "sweet". Just let the water cool more, especially for the first steep. If you use the same tea in the same vessel with the same water, you figure it out eventually. Even after that experience, their is quite a bit of variance across varieties. What works for a bolder Chinese green like Lung Ching may ruin a tender first flush Japanese Sencha. Additionally, It could just be bad tea. There is quite a bit of sub-par green tea in fancy tins and packets. There is also quite a bit of average or slightly above average tea priced absurdly high. edit - I know nothing about "cold brewing" tea and consider iced tea abhorrent, both the American tea flavored sugar water and the gross bubble tea they drink in Asia. taters fucked around with this message at 03:29 on Jun 8, 2014 |
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Jun 8, 2014 03:25
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What about the delicious iced teas with no sugar or any sweetener added?
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Jun 8, 2014 04:08
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I don't understand bubble tea, isn't it just a tapioca smoothie? Like does it actually have tea in it
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Jun 8, 2014 04:21
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hope and vaseline posted:I don't understand bubble tea, isn't it just a tapioca smoothie? Like does it actually have tea in it Yeah. It's tea with tapioca pearls (boba), not tapioca flour or whatever it is you're thinking of.
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Jun 8, 2014 05:00
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DontAskKant posted:What about the delicious iced teas with no sugar or any sweetener added? There is a Chinese restaurant that serves a Iced Tea version of a Wuyi Yancha Oolong. It was different. They still serve it with a bowl of sugar and a spoon on the table. Most people add a lump of sugar the size of a babby's fist. I've had it unsweetened a few times and its ok.
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Jun 8, 2014 07:43
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taters posted:There is a Chinese restaurant that serves a Iced Tea version of a Wuyi Yancha Oolong. It was different. Here in Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan there is cold unsweetened green, black, oolong, puerh, and jasmine tea in bottles at convenience stores that is one of my favorite drinks. Nothing like downing a liter of iced green tea on a hot day.
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Jun 8, 2014 07:51
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I like to make quick cheater iced tea with a Takeya Flash Chill. I think it's pretty great, although I haven't done a side-by-side comparison with cold brewing. But it's similarly good for using up large quantities of so-so teas. Just get the tall 2 quart one if you're interested, it's surprisingly compact for how much it holds. The short 1 quart doesn't look like it'd have much room when you take into account the ice and any additions you might want to make (cut up fruit and citrus is neat). Plus on amazon it's literally a 3 buck difference.
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Jun 8, 2014 08:16
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DontAskKant posted:Oh yeah barely tea and corn silk tea is delicious, but when i want Tea tea... Well yeah that's more barley tea than green. I remember seeing 보성녹차(the part of Korea that is known for its green tea) in similar packaging but I have yet to try it. Give the tea section of your supermarket a look?
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Jun 8, 2014 13:08
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Archer2338 posted:Well yeah that's more barley tea than green. I remember seeing 보성녹차(the part of Korea that is known for its green tea) in similar packaging but I have yet to try it. Give the tea section of your supermarket a look? Most of the mass market green tea is dustings and fannings stored in a hot warehouse. Ordering online or at 경동시장 has always been my best bet aside from sales at insadong.
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Jun 8, 2014 17:13
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DontAskKant posted:Here in Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan there is cold unsweetened green, black, oolong, puerh, and jasmine tea in bottles at convenience stores that is one of my favorite drinks. Nothing like downing a liter of iced green tea on a hot day. That's gross man. As the far east Asia food goon master, this is sacrilege to your title. There's more sugar and water in that stuff. I'm just judging kant for liking convenience store stuff. caberham fucked around with this message at 07:24 on Jun 9, 2014 |
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Jun 9, 2014 07:10
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Was that last post some kind of meta joke I"m not getting? Cold tea is delicious.
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Jun 9, 2014 07:22
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caberham posted:That's gross man. As the far east Asia food goon master, this is sacrilege to your title. Look on the labels. There are ones with no sugar or other sweeteners. A lot of them actually. Also yeah probably a bit of an inside joke.
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Jun 9, 2014 09:28
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For that matter, there is such a thing as good bubble tea. For the flavoured stuff, places that use syrups are way better than the ones that use powders (I don't think I've liked any powder based ones). Otherwise, I've run into one where just pick from a list of tea varieties (some flavored and some unflavored semi fancy stuff), choose if you want milk or not, and they actually served it hot (the tapioca bubbles still hold up the same texture). It was a bit unusual, but pretty good. At another place I regularly get bubble iced coffee 
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Jun 11, 2014 23:46
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I've never even gotten an actual tea from my local boba place because the fruit slushes are so goddamn delicious I can't convince myself to order anything else when I'm there.
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Jun 12, 2014 01:12
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The yerba mate thing is definetly worht a shot if you like drinks like coffee and green tea. I got the gourd, the metal straw, and the 5 pound bag of EcoTeas. I wouldn't get the ecoteas again, I'd rather have some of the dust to pack the gourd better. But it gives you a jolt.
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Jun 13, 2014 16:51
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Starting my day with a bold cuppa rooibos to kick my hippie rear end into gear, will later relax into the aether with a nice pot of jasmine and get my tea chi on. Oh and the other day, the cool, old guy at my local chinese gave me a free pot of Jasmine for my table when he heard it was my birthday; because he knows it's my favourite.   
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Jun 15, 2014 13:40
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If I was going to drink yerba mate cold, I'd probably experiment with a rooibos/yerba mix. I'm so glad to have a midnight pick me up without feeling coffee wired. I've had the same lb of Davidson's for the past year in the pantry.
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Jun 16, 2014 06:45
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After reading this entire thread, I ordered some samples from Adagio and Life in Teacup recently. The Teacup ones arrived today, and they included one I didn't recognize but looks wonderful. Has anyone tried the Taiwan Sweet Summer Oolong? The package looks like this.
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Jun 28, 2014 04:37
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I'd hazard a guess at that being a green style Dong-Ding, being from Nantou County, maybe a lower grade one that they sell cheaper than their other offerings. I overpaid for some Yunnan Gold from an Adagio storefront today. Tasted a few of their chinese blacks and this had some wonderful complexities and a slightly malty, thick mouthfeel. Been on a shu puerh kick lately but sometimes I want a little more of a caffeine kick. hope and vaseline fucked around with this message at 04:50 on Jun 28, 2014 |
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Jun 28, 2014 04:47
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I'm really confused about the appeal of pu-erh. I've had decent pu-erh, or so I thought, from my local tea store, and it wasn't life-changing. It was just an intense flavor. It had ginger in it, so maybe that had something to do with it. I've also had really, really bad pu-erh that smelled and tasted like manure. It was horrifying. Also, I want to recommend Butiki Teas. They have high scores for some of their teas on Steepster, and I think it's pretty well deserved for their flavored teas. Their unflavored teas, I have no idea. I've tried them and liked them, but I don't have an advanced palate. I liked Verdant Teas too for their unflavored teas, especially the greens. They were sort of... juicy? And had a really nice mellow taste to them. I'm trying to figure out where I should order from next to experience some good unflavored tea. Upton?
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Jul 2, 2014 20:16
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I've found puerh to be an acquired taste. I guess (specifically for shu/ripe) that it's most akin to black coffee, some people like it or hate it. I'm guessing you've had shu, and it's the kind that has the most crappy stuff floating around, mostly because the pile-fermentation process if done badly will end up smelling fishy, and even properly done usually requires about a year to mellow out. The good stuff is smooth as hell, the first infusions will be dark and intense and earthy and will mellow out to sweet caramel or dark chocolate notes. Sheng/raw is a completely different market. Young shengs are more akin to green tea or green oolongs, with a smoky character, floral notes, and usually a harsh bitterness. This stuff mellows out into something really deeply woodsy and can vary in flavor as much as wine does. Properly aged sheng is really expensive thanks to a speculator's market, I've only had a few different samples and it is something to taste. Teadb has a neat introductory article on puerh if you're interested in more. It's one hell of a rabbit hole once you get hooked though... Also yeah, upton is great for trying a boatload of samples, and once you find you like a specific kind of tea you can branch out into more specific vendors. Teavivre and Yunnan Sourcing are my go-to chinese vendors. hope and vaseline fucked around with this message at 21:39 on Jul 2, 2014 |
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Jul 2, 2014 21:37
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I've bought some of those rolled up spheres of green tea with jasmin inside. Dragon pearls or something. And it is excellent. It's really worth the extra cost.
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Jul 4, 2014 19:03
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Cold-brewed some leftover Tazo black iced tea bags the other night. Holy poo poo, it tastes so much better this way; the flavor is a lot less tannin-ish than hot brewed and diluted with cold water. I'll have to remember this. Also Adagio genmaicha is really good, but I still like Yamamotoyama better. It's probably the association I have with the little Japanese cafe I usually get it from though. gamingCaffeinator fucked around with this message at 01:21 on Jul 5, 2014 |
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Jul 5, 2014 01:03
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I don't think Murchie's was mentioned yet. They've been around for over a century, and are best known for their blended teas. I'm drinking a cup of the Library Blend right now, which is a nice mix of lighter blacks and jasmine greens. I'm not sure if ordering from their online store is a good deal for non-Canadians, but their retail locations are worth a visit if you happen to live in or near BC.
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Jul 11, 2014 22:46
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Is it just me or is Twinings Lapsang Souchong a bit on the weak side? I mean, yeah, Twinings. But really. Also, I love pu-erh, even if I can only regularly get the Tao of Tea brand name stuff. It's roasty and smooth. As you can tell I do most of my tea shopping at grocery stores.
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Jul 12, 2014 23:39
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