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 BIG TEA SALEFacebook suggested pages actually paid off. Has anyone used Teabox? They are having a sale right now (20-50% off) ends 9/19 so you have a day or two. They are an internet friendly tea company based in India. Kind of like Teavivre. They actually have pretty great prices for the quality grades and variety (certainly better than where I am now in Korea) and the shipping is cheap or free. This is Indian tea so it's mostly black and oolong and chai, but there are some uncommon green and white teas. Wish I had gotten this from someone first, but here's a $25 referral code you can use for the sale. http://fbuy.me/bg3Xs You may remember me posting about my 6kg of tea I have so I'm trying to hold off and hope I can drink vicariously through you guys. I might get the chai sampler so I can be a little more inspired for my winter blending.
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Sep 18, 2014 09:10
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DontAskKant posted:This is Indian tea so it's mostly black and oolong and chai, but there are some uncommon green and white teas. I love and hate you at the same time right now. That's an awesome collection of Darjeelings that I'm going to end up trying. Trying far, far too many of them. Thanks for the referral code!
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Sep 18, 2014 21:01
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DontAskKant posted:This is Indian tea so it's mostly black and oolong and chai, but there are some uncommon green and white teas. Oh, dang, thank you very much. Thanks for the code (although I almost feel guilty for giving you more tea money but eh).
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Sep 18, 2014 21:54
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a penus posted:Oh, dang, thank you very much. Thanks for the code (although I almost feel guilty for giving you more tea money but eh). My partner is going to have an intervention soon. Can I throw you guys under the bus. She's a huge tea person too, so I need to swing it as market research for a future business instead of just curiosity. But, really how can I pass up $4 to try a darjeeling from a region i didn't know existed. Malty backbone with aroma of mango and pineapple sage? I'm only human.
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Sep 19, 2014 02:48
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That Teabox sale ends at midnight West Bengali time.
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Sep 19, 2014 08:29
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Gah drat it, I just cancelled my old credit card to order a new one! Now I gonna miss the deal. 
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Sep 19, 2014 13:17
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Nyaa posted:Gah drat it, I just cancelled my old credit card to order a new one! Now I gonna miss the deal. Always have a spare card in reserve for tea.
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Sep 19, 2014 13:20
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Guess I will have to stick to the tea at fast food restutant until then.  Is there any talks about the unsweetened tea offered at fast food? The tea at Chick Fil A is the only one that tasted right and not oversteeped. I am from the east coast if that matters.
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Sep 19, 2014 13:43
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 I guess it's probably for the best right now that I didn't get the tea. I was waiting to see if I could get any discounts by gift card on Teabox then was going to get some anyway with the free shipping promo code of SHIP10 and I came home from drinking with brewers... Did anyone get anything, would love to see what you think. I chatted with their live chat yesterday and they were so helpful.
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Sep 19, 2014 22:13
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How much tea by weight per liter do you use in cold brew tea, like Japanese style. Everything I see says 2-3 Tbsp per liter but we all know volume is a joke. This jasmine green i just made is super weak. I might try at room temp next.
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Sep 21, 2014 04:47
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aldantefax posted:I used some Hime brand bancha, 5 US bucks for like 4 oz means you can brew roughly 50 liters of tea (like 10 grams for 2 liters). Pack into some type of holding device like a tea sock or disposable open fill tea bag, fill with cold filtered water, let sit in fridge for a few hours. Cheap sencha is also good, and barley (mugicha) is a classic familiar drink. This is from over a year ago (self-quoting woohoo) but it still stands that this is still a valid measurement for tea w/ cold brew by weight. I have used a 3 liter pitcher with that much and added lots of ice and left to steep overnight in the fridge, works like a champ.
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Sep 22, 2014 05:17
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aldantefax posted:This is from over a year ago (self-quoting woohoo) but it still stands that this is still a valid measurement for tea w/ cold brew by weight. I have used a 3 liter pitcher with that much and added lots of ice and left to steep overnight in the fridge, works like a champ. Thanks, I felt dumb for a bit and thought this was recent and I just missed it. In Korea we (me and people i know, not all of Korea) always boil the barley tea, cold would be easier. Do you use puffed buckwheat like for grain drinks or roasted whole for buckwheat tea? I have tons of cheap Vietnamese and Chinese tea that i should have drank by now and I'm getting over the shame of not doing this all summer and drinking as much as i can now.
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Sep 22, 2014 05:54
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DontAskKant posted:Thanks, I felt dumb for a bit and thought this was recent and I just missed it. I think both are equally valid in preparation, but I think whole roast is the traditional method. Maki Itoh from Just Hungry/Just Bento wrote a post about it here that might be useful.
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Sep 22, 2014 06:45
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I got a bunch of samples from Adagio recently, and I've been working my way through. I mostly got herbal tisanes for drinking after work, but I picked up some of their Tiger Eye black tea too and Jesus Christ is it bizarre. It's listed as 'natural caramel, chocolate, and vanilla flavoring'; the reviews in the site said it wasn't very chocolate tasting so I figured it'd be fairly lightly flavored. The moment i opened the bag, it smelled like chocolate chip cookies strongly enough for my near-anosmic boyfriend to notice. The brewed concoction starts out like a normal black tea, then gets overwhelmingly chocolate/caramel flavored. It's ridiculous. I'd thought of mixing it with some plain black tea from Teavana, so we will see. Also, does anyone have a favorite place to get yerba mate? Someone I know gave me a taste of Teavana's MateVana (Sbux employees sharing), and I tried some bottled Guayaki that left me curious.
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Sep 27, 2014 06:31
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Any good tips for preparing matcha without buying all of the hippie matcha poo poo they sell at the store?
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Sep 27, 2014 18:05
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Dump it in water in proportions according to the directions and then stir the ever-loving poo poo out of it. Try using a fork if you don't have a teeny-tiny balloon whisk.
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Sep 27, 2014 19:39
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If you want to be extra lazy or are incapable of stirring it by hand without making a huge mess like I apparently am, use one of those cheap little electric latte whisks.
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Sep 27, 2014 20:34
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Gazetteer posted:If you want to be extra lazy or are incapable of stirring it by hand without making a huge mess like I apparently am, use one of those cheap little electric latte whisks. We used those at Teavana. It's ridiculously effective.
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Sep 28, 2014 04:36
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Yeah but they break so easily, you're almost better off getting the hippie whisk.
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Sep 28, 2014 06:45
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Mine is currently held together with duct tape and literally will not run anymore unless you apply constant pressure to the bottom with your thumb, so I can't really argue with that.
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Sep 28, 2014 19:55
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Just finished reading the whole thread. Happy to see there's teadrinkers here. I used to drink tea pretty heavily and tried a whole bunch of loose leaves, from the same Dutch shop I get my overpriced coffee from, Simon Levelt. Cause of general life and moving about it's been a while since I've had any kind of good brew but I'm getting back into it. Today I ordered 50-100 grams each of the following, from a Belgian online shop called Mingtea.be, just so I can remember which ones I liked better: White Silver Needle Biluochun, or Green Snail Spring tea Chun Mee Jasmine Dragon Pearl Genmaicha Lapsang Souchong Da Hong Pao, or Big Red Robe oolong Tieguanyin, or Iron Buddha Keemun Some kind of chai, I usually make this myself so I'm curious how a store-bought version holds up Forgot to throw in some puerh now that I think about it. Once I get it and I got some time I might write up my experiences. Anyway, what struck me with all of the Dutch/European shops I scouted through was the scarcity of information. Usually you don't get anything outside of the name, like a tieguanyin, if you're lucky they mention the province. I love exploring different tastes of all kinds of stuff. Peaty islander whiskeys, grassy lowlanders, heavily roasted coffee, smoky Lapsang Souchong. But I also love knowing why they all taste the way they taste, where they come from, and how old they are. I don't think I've seen any online shop consistently mention harvest dates, grades, and locations. But while I like all that, it kinda leaves me wondering whether it matters a lot. Best course of action seems to be to just order from a lot of places and then judge the products themselves. Still, wouldn't mind a shop that actually offers different grades so I can make up my own mind of what the differences are and what I prefer. Perhaps I'll go look into importing some from China.
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Oct 6, 2014 21:11
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Fleve, if you're in an expensive tea area like me I'd recommend ordering online as long as you order under tariff limits. I use teavivre for China/Taiwan and teabox for India/Nepal.
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Oct 7, 2014 02:40
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Teavivre looks cool, thanks for the recommendation. The Netherlands has 0% import tariffs on tea, but if I were to buy more than €22 from China, or above €45 if it's marked as a gift, they'll apparently slap me with an additional €10-15 for customs clearance. Gonna look a bit further into importing on a slightly larger scale, since I've got some friends who want some leaf teas as well. Anyway, I got my package of roughly half a kilo of tea. Looks decent, but I'm afraid that some of the cheaper tea I bought to try out is, indeed, cheaper tea. I don't mind, I like trying different grades of quality; I wouldn't have much of a frame of reference without the occasional dud. I tried the Lapsang Souchong first as it's a tea I've loved ever since I started drinking leaves. I'm not a tea expert, but this particular Lapsang doesn't seem very good. The shop, mingtea.be, was selling it as premium, but it looks mostly broken with quite a lot of small grit. Would you call the small stuff fannings or are fannings even finer?  Heated my pots and cups, tried different steeping times, different amounts of Lapsang with different amounts of water, but whatever I did, even with a second steeping duration of 'aw hell just leave it in the pot', after the first steeping the tea just tasted spent. The first steepings taste ok, but to be honest, I remember the Lapsang I used to drink tasting both more heavily of smoke, as well as deeper of tea. I'll probably up the amount of leaves to water greatly next time, the package instructions of 12 grams per litre already seemed way too low for my tastes. Also, looking at the used leaves, I don't remember my Lapsang being filled with this many twigs/stems, or is this normal?  I think I'll try the genmaicha next. They shouldn't have been able to screw that up.
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Oct 9, 2014 19:34
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Niemat posted:Thanks, guys! I was thinking about boiling some vinegar, but I was pretty sure the smell would be horrendous... glad to know that is indeed the case! If you air out the area after boiling water+vinegar for an hour, you won't be able to smell it at all. Boiling vinegar and water will also neutralize/remove other household odors. Not-boiling vinegar and water solution is highly effective for cleaning windows - my parents use it on their beach house' windows every month or so and it's remarkably effective, not to mention easier to use a squeegee with some water+vinegar than window cleaner and towels+squeegees. As for needing multiple boils of clean water etc to remove the vinegar odor - not at all. Just give it a good rinse with clean water a couple times and leave it to air out for a few minutes. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 21:17 on Oct 10, 2014 |
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Oct 10, 2014 21:11
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Someone recommend me a strong as gently caress plain ol black tea? I'm tired of all these subtle flowery blends with fruit and cardamom or whatever I want to assault my taste buds so I wake up faster and I love strong tea in the morning as a complement to fruit and yogurt or whatever. In the US and preferably not too pricey.
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Oct 15, 2014 01:51
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whitey delenda est posted:Someone recommend me a strong as gently caress plain ol black tea? I'm tired of all these subtle flowery blends with fruit and cardamom or whatever I want to assault my taste buds so I wake up faster and I love strong tea in the morning as a complement to fruit and yogurt or whatever. In the US and preferably not too pricey. http://crimsonlotustea.com/products/2008-bulang-imperial-grade-shou-ripe-puerh Shu Puerh is the coffee of the tea world.
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Oct 15, 2014 03:25
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whitey delenda est posted:Someone recommend me a strong as gently caress plain ol black tea? I'm tired of all these subtle flowery blends with fruit and cardamom or whatever I want to assault my taste buds so I wake up faster and I love strong tea in the morning as a complement to fruit and yogurt or whatever. In the US and preferably not too pricey. Poster above me hit the nail on the head. If you can't get hold of it a cheap alt can be Assam, its sometimes sold as breakfast tea but not always.
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Oct 15, 2014 03:28
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Fluo posted:Poster above me hit the nail on the head. If you can't get hold of it a cheap alt can be Assam, its sometimes sold as breakfast tea but not always. A good Keemun or Dian Hong are quite tasty too but can run a bit higher in price.
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Oct 15, 2014 03:39
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Get yourself a tannic as gently caress darjeeling.
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Oct 15, 2014 04:02
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hope and vaseline posted:A good Keemun or Dian Hong are quite tasty too but can run a bit higher in price. Word, thanks everybody. Also hope and vaseline check yo PMs cuz yeah.
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Oct 15, 2014 04:31
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I'll second the Keemun and Dian Hong recommendations. Keemun shouldn't run too expensive, even not-so-great quality keemun works fine and I use it as my run of the mill morning tea. Some English breakfast teas also include keemun in their blends. Dian Hong, especially Yunnan gold and pure gold, are great but can be ridiculously expensive. Lapsang souchong can be pretty strong as well, but it does come with a smoky flavour you might or might not like. On to a different subject, I've placed a sample order for about 10 different teas with a Chinese producer, with some varying grades of quality. Prices diverge enormously depending on quality, from about $2-4 per kilo for high grade fannings, to $100-150 and upwards for standard high grade teas. I'm really looking forward to seeing how they hold up against teas I've commonly bought in Europe.
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Oct 15, 2014 12:01
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Fleve posted:On to a different subject, I've placed a sample order for about 10 different teas with a Chinese producer, with some varying grades of quality. Prices diverge enormously depending on quality, from about $2-4 per kilo for high grade fannings, to $100-150 and upwards for standard high grade teas. I'm really looking forward to seeing how they hold up against teas I've commonly bought in Europe.
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Oct 16, 2014 21:01
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Linan Dayang Tea Industry, or 临安市大洋茶业有限公司. They've been pretty cool to chat with, as far as I understand from my Chinese-speaking friend, but mainly produce green teas like Longjing. Among other stuff, we've ordered some of their third grade and first grade Longjing; the first grade looks like what's being sold here as premium high-end stuff even though it'd only be about $60 per kilo. We've also gotten price lists from a whole bunch of other companies, but of those only a few look promising, like Hunan Tianwang and Menghai Banzhang. It's pretty fun to get into contact with Chinese producers and trading companies, though the trading companies are a mixed batch. Some are just there to ask heavily inflated prices of any foreigner who comes asking, others just seem...weird. One of them basically asked, how much are you willing to pay? Two others we talked to actually showed us the exact same list of goods with slightly varying prices, a slightly different lay-out, and a different company header. I don't doubt that they actually exist, but I'm heavily inclined to believe that they're just resellers of another Chinese business and that they were simply too lazy and largely copied the price list of their own supplier. Made for a fun comparison though. And yes this is going a bit far for just a private batch of imports. My friend had been joking for a while that we should start an import business but we didn't quite know with what. So when I went and ordered a whole bunch of tea in Europe that kinda ignited a spark to go look what's up with the tea market. So far it's been a fun pastime and if nothing else I'll at least end up knowing more about tea. Fleve fucked around with this message at 00:58 on Oct 17, 2014 |
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Oct 17, 2014 00:55
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Fleve posted:Linan Dayang Tea Industry, or 临安市大洋茶业有限公司. They've been pretty cool to chat with, as far as I understand from my Chinese-speaking friend, but mainly produce green teas like Longjing. Among other stuff, we've ordered some of their third grade and first grade Longjing; the first grade looks like what's being sold here as premium high-end stuff even though it'd only be about $60 per kilo. We've also gotten price lists from a whole bunch of other companies, but of those only a few look promising, like Hunan Tianwang and Menghai Banzhang. Do you have a Chinese speaker working with you? Sounds like my bag. I need to do the same with cascara producers too.
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Oct 17, 2014 02:36
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Yeah I've got a friend who has studied Chinese and has been a few years in China/Taiwan. You can communicate in English, but depending on how good the guy in China is he might misunderstand you or write some really broken English back. Talking to them in Chinese is also more fun because it always confuses them (You're Chinese? No we're in the Netherlands. But you're Chinese? No we're Dutch. Whaat, how is that possible) If you want to try importing anything at all, check with your customs office when or if you have to pay any tariffs or tax. If the country you're in doesn't produce tea, you're probably fine, but if you import a large quantity with the intention of selling it there might be additional requirements, like a certificate showing pesticide residues being below the required norm.
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Oct 17, 2014 11:10
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I'm starting to run out of tea and probably will need to get more soonish. I mostly know what I want to get more of, but one thing I have a taste for that I somehow haven't hit on any great sources for is greenish oolongs. I like the Se Chung that Upton sells, but I kind of want to try something else. Does anybody have any suggestions for that kind of tea?
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Oct 19, 2014 06:11
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I drink a variety of teas, from black to green, bagged and loose. I have noticed a lot of the cheaper tea from grocery stores have different bags the tea comes in from normal bagged to this odd pyramid shape. Is there a difference in taste between normal bags and these pyramids?
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Oct 19, 2014 08:32
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Agenta Khaulan posted:I drink a variety of teas, from black to green, bagged and loose. I have noticed a lot of the cheaper tea from grocery stores have different bags the tea comes in from normal bagged to this odd pyramid shape. Is there a difference in taste between normal bags and these pyramids? If I recall correctly, the pyramid bags allow the tea leaves to float around a bit, and aren't as stuffed together as in normal bags, making for better taste. I can't tell you how much of a difference it makes, because I never had pyramid bags. Also, is there a good site online that ships to Germany? Teavivre ships here, but only via the 2 weeks+ option.
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Oct 19, 2014 08:42
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Stopwatch Crash posted:I'm starting to run out of tea and probably will need to get more soonish. I mostly know what I want to get more of, but one thing I have a taste for that I somehow haven't hit on any great sources for is greenish oolongs. I like the Se Chung that Upton sells, but I kind of want to try something else. Does anybody have any suggestions for that kind of tea? A lot of oolong varieties that haven't been oxidized for long fit that bill I think. Most well known is probably Tieguanyin. I've had an Alishan oolong from Taiwan that tasted similar to a high grade Tieguanyin, so you'd probably enjoy that as well. Huangjin Gui or Golden Osmanthus is also similar to Tieguanyin, but it's a scented tea so it comes with a flowery taste. Se Chung is a bit of a grab-all term for a variety of oolong teas, mostly from Fujian, and mostly greener. If you don't like the darker oolongs, stay away from stuff like Da Hong Pao. A lot of other Wuyi oolongs are also darker. Edit: In case you're wondering how some Tieguanyin looks, here's two shots of my last batch:   Edit 2: Also, I really loving love that tea and can't drink enough of it. Fleve fucked around with this message at 16:02 on Oct 19, 2014 |
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Oct 19, 2014 11:57
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VenusInFurries posted:If I recall correctly, the pyramid bags allow the tea leaves to float around a bit, and aren't as stuffed together as in normal bags, making for better taste. I can't tell you how much of a difference it makes, because I never had pyramid bags. Pyramids don't really make a difference I found unless you're talking decent quality tea. Every day teas like PG tips has pyramid bags, some brands don't. They didn't fully kick off when there was a big marketing effort in the 90s here, general public couldn't really tell the difference. If you're getting whole leaf tea bags though, make sure it's pyramid. I'd recommend http://jingtea.com/ it's the high end of the tea market though but does have a good price range. BBC Radio 4 gave them mega cred and their teas are high high quality. Ranges from £1.20 for Lemongrass & Ginger tea, £1.80 Organic Gunpowder Supreme, Taiwan Red Jade £6.50, Dragon Well Gold - West Lake 2014 £14.50, 1970s Raw Puerh Supreme £25, JING Wild Wuyi Gold £90. You get the idea, less extreme price range (but alot less special expensive teas) good go to is http://www.whittard.co.uk/tea [UK to Germany 3-10days].
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Oct 19, 2014 15:41
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