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hope and vaseline posted:Teavivre Black Friday is up! Though I think I'm gonna be spending on some White2Tea cakes instead for this weekend. I've seen a few white cakes around lately and priced similar to the good quality loose whites. I've had black and wuyi cakes but not whites, which I assumed were too fragile to cake the good ones. Have you had any? How to they compare to loose whites? White tea can go bitter very quickly and I worry that the the dust and crumbs created by breaking up a tea cake will exacerbate this issue.
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Nov 29, 2014 05:28
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I actually meant from the White2Tea vendor, they've got an ok black friday sale going on and I really want to try some of their lower-end stuff. I haven't had white cakes yet actually. From what I've read it isn't actually white tea just compressed into cake form, but maocha entirely from early spring buds (usually labelled silver buds/white buds/silver needle). It sounds super interesting though! http://ancientteahorseroad.blogspot.com/2008/02/2005-yi-pin-gong-tuo-yin-hao-100gm.html
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Nov 29, 2014 19:51
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hope and vaseline posted:I actually meant from the White2Tea vendor, they've got an ok black friday sale going on and I really want to try some of their lower-end stuff. This is a white pu-reh. The white cakes Ive seen are more similar to this offering: http://www.silkroadteas.com/emperors-cake/ I should probably just buy one of these and report on it. I am tempted. Give me a month or two. I may report back. I have ruined a lot of white tea. Wish me luck...
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Nov 30, 2014 09:05
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Upton sent me a bonus sample of their Yunnan GFOP that was quite interesting, it tasted quite a bit like a pu-erh tea. Anyone ever have anything like that?
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Dec 1, 2014 05:18
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A friend got gifted a chinese tea, any ideas of what it is or if it's good at all?
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Dec 3, 2014 15:32
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I hate giving Teavana money (especially a lot of it), but I've not found an Oolong that I like as well as their Monkey Picked Oolong. I've tried many different Oolong options from Upton, and the usual suspects, but I can't find anything quite like it. Any suggestions?
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Dec 3, 2014 16:52
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gmq posted:A friend got gifted a chinese tea, any ideas of what it is or if it's good at all?
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Dec 3, 2014 19:51
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Nyaa posted:I can't tell what brand or grade it is, but that is tieguanyin. A premium oolong tea. I would really sometime love to see a guide to the Chinese/Japanese teas that are most commonly found in import shops. Their packaging and labeling is so alien to me that I have no way of evaluating them. Sometimes I get something and it tastes great, others it tastes like dirt, and yet others I'm not sure what to think. At least once a Chinese tea resulted in... uh... gastric irregularities. Maybe next time that I end up in a hardcore Chinese grocery store I'll take a bunch of pictures. e. or maybe I could try doing it myself and posting the results here... Anyone else want to participate? Grab a box of some tea from a sketchy store, take a picture, note the price, and evaluate the contents? I don't feel like I'm too qualified aside from living in an area with shitloads of suitably sketchy stores. CommonShore fucked around with this message at 20:20 on Dec 3, 2014 |
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Dec 3, 2014 20:03
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XBenedict posted:I hate giving Teavana money (especially a lot of it), but I've not found an Oolong that I like as well as their Monkey Picked Oolong. I've tried many different Oolong options from Upton, and the usual suspects, but I can't find anything quite like it. Pretty sure their monkey picked is just a mid-grade low oxidation TGY, there's plenty of offerings out there. Teavivre has a couple of options, Silk Road has a couple of affordable ones too. And another one from Verdant. If you like green TGY, I'd also recommend a high mountain taiwanese oolong, I find them more interesting and the really premium ones get quite heady. Ali Shans are the most common, but you can find some cheaper offerings in 4 seasons or Dong Ding/Tung Ting. Generally the higher the elevation, the larger the price tag. CommonShore posted:e. or maybe I could try doing it myself and posting the results here... Anyone else want to participate? Grab a box of some tea from a sketchy store, take a picture, note the price, and evaluate the contents? I don't feel like I'm too qualified aside from living in an area with shitloads of suitably sketchy stores. If you ever venture into reddit, there's usually a couple of people who will translate chinese packaging for you in the tea forum. Though most of the time, the supermarket stuff is just low grade TGY, DHP, various greens, or a really sketchy puerh. hope and vaseline fucked around with this message at 20:40 on Dec 3, 2014 |
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Dec 3, 2014 20:30
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hope and vaseline posted:Pretty sure their monkey picked is just a mid-grade low oxidation TGY, there's plenty of offerings out there. Teavivre has a couple of options, Silk Road has a couple of affordable ones too. And another one from Verdant. I'll check out the reddit page, maybe. In the meantime, for the sake of managing images, I just made a blog for it. http://guinteapig.blogspot.ca/ CommonShore fucked around with this message at 00:04 on Dec 4, 2014 |
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Dec 4, 2014 00:01
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XBenedict posted:I hate giving Teavana money (especially a lot of it), but I've not found an Oolong that I like as well as their Monkey Picked Oolong. I've tried many different Oolong options from Upton, and the usual suspects, but I can't find anything quite like it. Teavivre has a Monkey Picked oolong as well. It's really nice, and much cheaper than Teavana's: http://www.teavivre.com/monkey-picked-oolong-tea/ The two probably don't taste exactly the same, but I imagine they would be pretty close.
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Dec 5, 2014 01:48
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XBenedict posted:I hate giving Teavana money (especially a lot of it), but I've not found an Oolong that I like as well as their Monkey Picked Oolong. I've tried many different Oolong options from Upton, and the usual suspects, but I can't find anything quite like it. hope and vaseline posted:Pretty sure their monkey picked is just a mid-grade low oxidation TGY, there's plenty of offerings out there. Which Upton oolongs did you try? I recently went through a bunch of oolong samples from them. In case you missed it, the second grade tieguanyin was one of the best, cheapest, and is on the greener side. CommonShore posted:I'll check out the reddit page, maybe. In the meantime, for the sake of managing images, I just made a blog for it. RE: your latest post, Lung Ching is Dragon Well (Longjing), although at that price and considering you found it at a grocer it's not likely to be the real deal. chunkles fucked around with this message at 02:16 on Dec 5, 2014 |
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Dec 5, 2014 02:08
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chunkles posted:RE: your latest post, Lung Ching is Dragon Well (Longjing), although at that price and considering you found it at a grocer it's not likely to be the real deal. Thanks. I updated the post to reflect that.
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Dec 5, 2014 05:28
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XBenedict posted:I hate giving Teavana money (especially a lot of it), but I've not found an Oolong that I like as well as their Monkey Picked Oolong. I've tried many different Oolong options from Upton, and the usual suspects, but I can't find anything quite like it. Here are a few different price point options. Lowest Acceptable Quality (in my opinion, also it varies by lot/year) http://smile.amazon.com/Numi-Organic-Loose-Kuan-Ounce/dp/B00FOLTIQW/ approx $30/lb Pretty Good http://www.silkroadteas.com/golden-jade-oolong-huang-guan-yin/ $60 ish http://www.silkroadteas.com/snow-pear-oolong-xue-li/ $60 ish Good High Elevation (monkey picked, not actually picked by monkeys though) http://www.silkroadteas.com/monkey-picked-ma-liu-mie/ $100 ish The Good poo poo http://www.silkroadteas.com/drunken-concubine-zui-gui/ between $140 to $180/lb depending on season. I drink this one personally, its outstanding. I would start with the cheaper stuff until you have the preparation method down. TGY is a pretty durable tea compared to other chinese tea but you can still easily ruin it with to hot or too long steeps. When in doubt, colder and shorter.
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Dec 6, 2014 05:03
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taters posted:Here are a few different price point options. Thank you for your suggestions. Some of those look quite nice.
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Dec 6, 2014 21:37
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chunkles posted:Which Upton oolongs did you try? I recently went through a bunch of oolong samples from them. In case you missed it, the second grade tieguanyin was one of the best, cheapest, and is on the greener side. I'd have to go through my order history for the others, but this is the one currently in rotation: https://secure.uptontea.com/store/item.asp?itemID=ZO80
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Dec 6, 2014 21:38
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I'm making my way through all the teas I got from Black Friday, and this pu-erh: http://www.teavivre.com/loose-leaf-pu-erh/ is one of the strangest things I've ever tasted. The steeped liquid is almost as dark as coffee, and the taste reminds me of... hay? Leather? I'm not sure if I like it yet, but it's definitely a change from what I usually drink.
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Dec 10, 2014 02:38
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I enjoy Chinese Black Teas, especially Yunnan (Dianhong). I used to get all my stuff from a very good Ebay store, but they've shifted their focus to pu-erh so recently my supplier has been Teavivre. I'm European, but non-EU so Chinese shipping is usually the best. I've also enjoyed their Keemun, Bailin Gongfu and Golden Monkey and I'm looking to branch out a little. I'm not a fan of White Tea, and while Oolong is good with food it does not hit the spot for me as an "all-day" kind of tea. Pu-erh cakes collect dust on my shelf, and little else. Any recommendations? Other good suppliers?
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Dec 10, 2014 10:56
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I grew up on coma inducing sweet tea in the South and I finally managed to develop a taste for unsweetened hot tea. I'd like to move away from the bag stuff is there something inexpensive but nice you guys could recommend?
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Dec 11, 2014 14:58
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:I grew up on coma inducing sweet tea in the South and I finally managed to develop a taste for unsweetened hot tea. I'd like to move away from the bag stuff is there something inexpensive but nice you guys could recommend? What kind of baggies have you been drinking?
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Dec 11, 2014 16:31
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:I grew up on coma inducing sweet tea in the South and I finally managed to develop a taste for unsweetened hot tea. I'd like to move away from the bag stuff is there something inexpensive but nice you guys could recommend? Stepping up without committing too much cost is to look at grocery store loose leaf brands like Twinings. There are many places you can order from online that do small samples such as Adagio Teas and Upton Teas, so that is a great way to cup some new flavors. If price is a concern, oolongs are the most re-usable to drive down your price per cup.
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Dec 11, 2014 17:53
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XBenedict posted:What kind of baggies have you been drinking? Mostly things that I know technically aren't teas like chamomille. I like green/black teas but keep in mind it's supermarket teabag stuff and I probably have been preparing it wrong for all I know. I'm willing to try anything. Part of the reason why I'm switching to hot teas is because coffee has been making me sick in the morning and I'd like to drink something besides water/carbonated water during the day. Sephiroth_IRA fucked around with this message at 18:07 on Dec 11, 2014 |
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Dec 11, 2014 18:03
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Is there a Trader Joe's near you? One of their winter items is a Tasting of Ten Teas. It's a pretty good variety and there's enough of each tea to get a good idea of if you like it or not. TJs also has a decent selection of bagged (and maybe loose) teas. Whole Foods has plenty of bagged and loose tea that's a little better than supermarket stuff. Have you checked to see if there's a tea shop around you? They're usually good about helping people find something and making samples. Starbucks and Teavana don't count. They both have tea but don't sample and going into Teavana as a first tea shop is probably not a good idea. Adagio sells sample sizes as well as sample boxes. They also have reviews so you can see what other people think about the tea.
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Dec 11, 2014 18:17
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Ahhhhhhhhhhh yeahhhhhhhhhhh I decided to walk down to the Vietnamese super market for lunch and not only did I find a large assortment of teas but they also had BLACK loving RICE AND FROZEN SARDINES. I'm looking forward to cooking when I get home. edit: Anyway I grabbed some bagged oolong tea and a canister of Jasmine. It was all pretty cheap. Sephiroth_IRA fucked around with this message at 20:00 on Dec 11, 2014 |
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Dec 11, 2014 19:31
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Someone has recommended me try valerian root (in a tea) to help me get to sleep easier. However the only source of it I've found is David's Tea (The Big Chill and Mother's Little Helper), I haven't bought from before because I always considered it a little bit too pricy. Anyone else have any recommendations on places I could find it? Upton didn't have any as far as I could find.
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Dec 11, 2014 21:17
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:I grew up on coma inducing sweet tea in the South and I finally managed to develop a taste for unsweetened hot tea. I'd like to move away from the bag stuff is there something inexpensive but nice you guys could recommend? I grew up on the same sort of tea down here, and I find I enjoy Adagio's assam the most, as far as unsweetened hot teas go.
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Dec 11, 2014 22:04
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:Ahhhhhhhhhhh yeahhhhhhhhhhh Oolong is fantastic, if it's right. It is, however, probably going to initially taste "weaker" than you're used to. Most people steep the poo poo out of store-bought bags until they almost taste like coffee, so follow the steeping directions with the Oolong carefully, so it doesn't get bitter. I keep these two in fairly standard morning rotation, depending on how I feel. Both are excellent, and should be a pretty easy transition from bagged black teas. Upton Scottish Breakfast Blend Upton Tippy Orthodox GFOP Assam
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Dec 11, 2014 23:39
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Comic posted:Someone has recommended me try valerian root (in a tea) to help me get to sleep easier. However the only source of it I've found is David's Tea (The Big Chill and Mother's Little Helper), I haven't bought from before because I always considered it a little bit too pricy. Anyone else have any recommendations on places I could find it? Upton didn't have any as far as I could find. Mountain Rose Herbs is good for all the herbal stuff and things for blending. Their regular teas are quite good too. Nothing too amazing, but solid and a good price. Though... I'm drinking them really old now, so they were probably pretty great fresh. I would look at blending that valerian root though, it usually smells awful. Like old gym socks. I figure you have two options: smother it in peppermint leaf when steeping or steep and let it cool so you can chug it. It works, it's just foul.
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Dec 12, 2014 02:48
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http://guinteapig.blogspot.ca/ I'm up to 6 teas on my blog. I'm not so much fishing for hits as I am for discussion or fact-checking - it's easier for me to link the blog than it is for me to double-post all of the pics.
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Dec 12, 2014 03:17
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Devi posted:Is there a Trader Joe's near you? One of their winter items is a Tasting of Ten Teas. It's a pretty good variety and there's enough of each tea to get a good idea of if you like it or not. TJs also has a decent selection of bagged (and maybe loose) teas. Welp. I know what I want for Christmas now. I haven't bought new tea in a while and most of those sound great. I'm actually planning on blending my own chai tea to give out as Christmas gifts to some of my friends this year. I've managed pretty good results by just blending whatever black tea I had in the cupboard with whole/broken spices. Now I just need to scale up with better quality leaves and find cute gift tins. Also, be careful with how much clove you add. I love cloves and added a ton, and it made my mouth numb. Not a problem for me, but not something I would gift to people I like, unless they specifically asked.
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Dec 12, 2014 04:26
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DontAskKant posted:Mountain Rose Herbs is good for all the herbal stuff and things for blending. Their regular teas are quite good too. Nothing too amazing, but solid and a good price. Though... I'm drinking them really old now, so they were probably pretty great fresh. Yeah, I wasn't looking for a source of it alone so much as a blend including it (though I could totally make my own blend if I had found it cheap enough), but was also warned it was terrible in smell/taste and you'd need something to mask it. Looks like their sleepy time valerian root tea is out of stock though, alas. I COULD just order valerian root though, but I don't have any potent non-caffeinated looseleaf to blend it with. I'll consider it.
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Dec 12, 2014 05:13
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CommonShore posted:http://guinteapig.blogspot.ca/ Nice to see you found a puerh you kind of like! I'm always super skeptical about the cakes i see at my local asian grocer, though I've found some halfway decent loose leaf greens there. How many grams is that particular one, 100g? It looks fairly small. And yeah, you can't really overbrew ripe puerh, it just gets stronger and thicker the longer you infuse it. And wow, I've never seen a TGY that wasn't rolled up into pellets. That's a weird find. hope and vaseline fucked around with this message at 05:44 on Dec 12, 2014 |
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Dec 12, 2014 05:39
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hope and vaseline posted:Nice to see you found a puerh you kind of like! I'm always super skeptical about the cakes i see at my local asian grocer, though I've found some halfway decent loose leaf greens there. How many grams is that particular one, 100g? It looks fairly small. And yeah, you can't really overbrew ripe puerh, it just gets stronger and thicker the longer you infuse it. I had observed that about the TGY but I failed to remark on it. I will add it. Honestly, it doesn't taste like a TGY. It's darker and more... well, general. There's no weight anywhere on that puerh anywhere that I can find. It hardly has any English aside from a poorly written insert which I'll transcribe next time I have it in hand. The disc is about 7 inches in diameter, and about an inch thick at the most. It's pretty compressed, so I'd be surprised if it was less than 100 grams. e. edited with a shoutout. I wonder now if the can was reused, as that was the tea I found in a cupboard at work. CommonShore fucked around with this message at 06:43 on Dec 12, 2014 |
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Dec 12, 2014 06:28
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Comic posted:Yeah, I wasn't looking for a source of it alone so much as a blend including it (though I could totally make my own blend if I had found it cheap enough), but was also warned it was terrible in smell/taste and you'd need something to mask it. Looks like their sleepy time valerian root tea is out of stock though, alas. I COULD just order valerian root though, but I don't have any potent non-caffeinated looseleaf to blend it with. I'll consider it. I would look at what's in their blend and make your own or look online. Or you could call them and find when it comes back in stock or ask them to please hurry. They're friendly.
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Dec 12, 2014 11:09
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CommonShore posted:http://guinteapig.blogspot.ca/ I like your seeming methodology of "let's find the tea in the coolest tin". At least if the tea sucks, you've got a cool keepsake.
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Dec 12, 2014 14:56
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XBenedict posted:Oolong is fantastic, if it's right. It is, however, probably going to initially taste "weaker" than you're used to. Most people steep the poo poo out of store-bought bags until they almost taste like coffee, so follow the steeping directions with the Oolong carefully, so it doesn't get bitter. Yeah it's definitely weaker than the blacks I've drank in the past but I think that works in my favor since caffeine has been making me sick dry heave lately.
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Dec 12, 2014 21:28
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hope and vaseline posted:
"pellets" in Chinese tea are a fairly new (last 40 years) innovation possible by powered machinery assisting in the processing and final rolling of the leaves. In modern tea, the traditional 'twist' shape is usually a sign of quality as it indicates the tea is at least partially hand processed, If you browse a reputable tea seller who carries a good spread of prices, the top shelf stuff will be almost uniformly twisted, not pelleted. This is for the Anxi teas mostly. Wuyi and Dancong varieties are generally not pelleted as it damages the more fragile leaves and quickly leads to a container of tea dust. 
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Dec 14, 2014 02:07
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:Yeah it's definitely weaker than the blacks I've drank in the past but I think that works in my favor since caffeine has been making me sick dry heave lately. If you can drink the tea but are having issues with stronger caffeinated drinks, it may be the tannin that is causing you problems (or the acid in coffee). I know really tannin-heavy tea can cause me to have an upset stomach if I drink it without having some food as well.
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Dec 15, 2014 12:55
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So my co-workers are going on about "Matcha" green tea. My guess is there are some infomercials about the stuff atm? From what I've read it's definitely healthier but it seems like someone could get a lot of the same benefits by just powdering other teas. 
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Dec 15, 2014 15:49
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:So my co-workers are going on about "Matcha" green tea. My guess is there are some infomercials about the stuff atm? From what I've read it's definitely healthier but it seems like someone could get a lot of the same benefits by just powdering other teas. Green tea/green coffee extracts are a common way of packaging caffeine as a weight-loss supplement. I wouldn't be surprised if someone is doing that with matcha right now. Matcha is the Japanese tea ceremony green tea. It is delicious and pretty convenient. It is definitely not a panacea or a magic health bullet.
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Dec 15, 2014 17:24
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