|
Hello tea thread: Recommend me your favorite black tea blends and Earl Grays inside USA  I've bought samples from Adagio Teas, Harney's Teas and Upton teas in the past.
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2016 01:23
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 21, 2024 09:47 |
|
|
Alder posted:Hello tea thread: Recommend me your favorite black tea blends and Earl Grays inside USA I'm really liking the Victorian Brew from Upton these days. I used to drink tons of their Samovar Blend, but they don't carry it anymore, and the Victorian Brew is the closest to it I've found.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2016 12:00
|
|
|
Similarly, I'd love recommendations for earl greys from Canadian retailers. Cream of and lady greys would also be fine.
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2016 22:21
|
|
|
subpar anachronism posted:Similarly, I'd love recommendations for earl greys from Canadian retailers. Cream of and lady greys would also be fine. I'm not a big Earl Grey fan, but I remember enjoying Murchie's: http://www.murchies.com/store/review/product/list/id/800/category/4/ They have a number of other interesting blended teas too, if that's your thing.
|
|
#
?
Apr 12, 2016 04:24
|
|
|
So I got these kinds of green tea at home but I'm a total n00b in brewing the right way. Not sure how much it does change the taste. I usually boil the water in a kettle and pour in a teapot with a stainless steel filter, then let it steep for a minute or two. Is that ok or there's a lot to improve about my humble tea brewing abilities? Kakegawa fukamushi sencha, a bit more bitter than the usual green tea teabags I was used to.  Lu Zhenghao Longjing tea, softer than the above, almost sweet-like in comparison.  Please help me become a proper tea buff so I can show off to my visiting friends. 
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2016 00:37
|
|
|
For the sencha you have there you should keep the temp around 170F and steep it for 1 minute. You can do a second steep for 30 seconds or less and a third one for 45 seconds or so. I don't usually like to do more than 3 with sencha, and sometimes only 2 if it brews out really quickly, which fukamushi style sencha is more likely to. The temp and numbers can vary a bit depending on the tea but anyway that should be a decent starting point. I'd also recommend pre-heating whatever you are brewing in, just pour some hot water in and let it sit to warm up the whatever, then pour it out, put in your tea, and pour in the water you are going to brew with. It's usually convenient to do while you are waiting for the water to cool down anyway. Don't worry about it for the later steeps if you do more than one. A lot of sencha is on the brisk side, but fukamushi especially should generally be more umami/rich/"grass candy" flavored than bitter. It depends on a lot of things though! breaks fucked around with this message at 01:36 on Apr 13, 2016 |
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2016 01:34
|
|
|
Yeah boiling water + sencha is pretty much ruining it, it's one of the more sensitive teas to temp along with gyokuro. Try the longjing at 170-180F at 1m30s/2m/3m steeps. A lot of chinese people will just use a tall glass and pour water and refill when it gets low. Longjing is deeelicious cold brewed too.
hope and vaseline fucked around with this message at 01:46 on Apr 13, 2016 |
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2016 01:41
|
|
|
Thanks a lot! Will follow these instructions from now on.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2016 03:06
|
|
|
What is the best way to come to non-boiling temps? My water boiler doesn't have a temperature gauge on it. Would it be wise to invest in one? Or is there a trick to visually noticing when the water has hit 170 for example?
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2016 17:34
|
|
|
Droid Washington posted:What is the best way to come to non-boiling temps? My water boiler doesn't have a temperature gauge on it. Would it be wise to invest in one? Or is there a trick to visually noticing when the water has hit 170 for example? Get something that let's you dial in the temp, like the Bonavita kettle. That thing is awesome.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2016 17:46
|
|
|
I'm looking for some new Long Jing (Dragonwell) and want to see what else I can get out of that particular style. Anyone have any that they've really liked in the past? I'm not looking to spend $10/1oz or anything super pricey, but I would like something that's got some good leaves. Edit: Never mind, I found some at teavivre.com that suits my needs. It'll just take a month to get here. Jhet fucked around with this message at 20:59 on Apr 15, 2016 |
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2016 18:52
|
|
|
Droid Washington posted:What is the best way to come to non-boiling temps? My water boiler doesn't have a temperature gauge on it. Would it be wise to invest in one? Or is there a trick to visually noticing when the water has hit 170 for example? There are visual differences, practice with an external thermometer until you can get it right. http://www.goldenmoontea.com/library/the-5-different-stages-of-boiling-water-and-how-the-chinese-use-them-for-tea/ But if you make tea on the daily I think getting a temp-controlled kettle is a good investment.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2016 19:56
|
|
|
Is there something wrong with mixing freshly boiled water with some cold water? Like, it's not gonna be exactly 70C, but I don't really care.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2016 21:46
|
|
|
Ras Het posted:Is there something wrong with mixing freshly boiled water with some cold water? Like, it's not gonna be exactly 70C, but I don't really care. Often I do that kind of thing. Need 85C water? Fill my cup/pot 10% full with cold water and then finish with boiling. It seems to work well enough for me. Really, in an otherwise perfect system at sea level, 3 units of 0C ice bath water + 7 units of 100C boiling water will equal 70C water.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2016 21:50
|
|
|
Yeah, I think it's fine. Some people will tell you that there's a taste difference between unboiled vs boiled vs boiled repeatedly but I've never noticed much of one, and I'm reasonably picky about brewing tea. I would try to be relatively precise about it, a +/- 10F difference isn't going to make or break the cup, but there can be pretty noticeable changes in flavor if you're talking about large variations in temp. I find the most important brewing parameters by far are the amount of leaf, length of brew, approximate temperature, the flavor of the water you use, and material of whatever you heated the water and brewed the tea in (I think plastic and porous clay are both awful, though plenty of people disagree with me on the latter). All the other stuff may be nice for presentation or may make some minor difference in taste, but those things are 95% of it. So basically do whatever you want as long as you get that set of stuff right to your satisfaction. breaks fucked around with this message at 22:27 on Apr 15, 2016 |
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2016 22:16
|
|
|
Droid Washington posted:What is the best way to come to non-boiling temps? My water boiler doesn't have a temperature gauge on it. Would it be wise to invest in one? Or is there a trick to visually noticing when the water has hit 170 for example? It isn't the best way but what i have learned to do is if you have boiling water (you always know what temperature boiling water is at) you can decant to something and let it rest for a little or to decant from a high height with a bit of finesse if you have a kettle with a good spout (Bonavita kettle, even if you dial in the temp, you can still do this just by the design of the gooseneck. Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Bonavita-Variable-Temperature-Electric-Gooseneck/dp/B005YR0F40) I've used lovely kettles I've bought for 8 bucks at a tea shop in Oakland Chinatown and they have a fast shutoff pre-boil and a narrow spout for better flow control, too. It really just depends on what you're brewing - ice cube trick works, most reliable way is to get a thermometer and shove it in the kettle while it heats up. If you're trying to brew something specific, I can maybe give you some advice on what I've done for temperature control, since a lot of times before I would just decant from a water dispenser that was fixed to 208F or a kettle i set to manual boil.
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2016 03:56
|
|
|
aldantefax posted:It isn't the best way but what i have learned to do is if you have boiling water (you always know what temperature boiling water is at) you can decant to something and let it rest for a little or to decant from a high height with a bit of finesse if you have a kettle with a good spout (Bonavita kettle, even if you dial in the temp, you can still do this just by the design of the gooseneck. Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Bonavita-Variable-Temperature-Electric-Gooseneck/dp/B005YR0F40) This is how you cool the water if you make a lot of sencha. I usually just use a second cheapo pot, decant the near boiling water into that, wait a second, then pour that into my main pot. (Pic not mine) 
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2016 19:17
|
|
|
Jhet posted:I'm looking for some new Long Jing (Dragonwell) and want to see what else I can get out of that particular style. Anyone have any that they've really liked in the past? I'm not looking to spend $10/1oz or anything super pricey, but I would like something that's got some good leaves. If you're in a country that has epost, consider paying a bit more for epost shipping from teavivre. I get orders via Canadapost epost from teavivre in under a week. It's only like 7 dollars too. Also their dragonwell is pretty good. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2016 11:22
|
|
|
Astrotrain posted:If you're in a country that has epost, consider paying a bit more for epost shipping from teavivre. I get orders via Canadapost epost from teavivre in under a week. It's only like 7 dollars too. Is that the USPS international option? I'd never seen that before and I didn't end up paying for shipping. It helps when I'm not in a rush. I'm finishing off some High Mountain Green from Taiwan and a few ounces of Chun Mee which is also pretty good. I also have a couple of cubes of Hei Cha that are tasting really good right now. I think it's because it's getting warmer and I have less interest in drinking a cup of hot black tea right now.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2016 22:42
|
|
|
Jhet posted:Is that the USPS international option?
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2016 04:40
|
|
|
Has anyone tried the Iced Tea Press from davids tea? It's a tumbler for making iced tea in and I'm very tempted to order one since they have free shipping until this Saturday. If no one here has tried I might just bite the bullet.. I really need to go through all that tea I bought before the new year..... I also might order more tea. 
|
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2016 16:18
|
|
|
What's the maximum amount of tea you'll let yourself drink in a day? In the summer I'll drink 2L or cold brew green or oolong. Apparently not so good for you what with oxalic acid and all. Suppose everything in moderation. I'm forbidden from buying more tea till I at least get trough either my tea vivre stash or the tea I bought at the Chengdu wholesale market. Glad customs didn't care too much about that.
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2016 01:05
|
|
|
2L of iced tea is nothing. I rarely drink more than 2 pints of hot tea. More IdesTea reviews: Honey Oolong - Strong roasted flavor. Like coffee and chocolate. I love this. High Mountain Oolong - Green and fruity. Alishan Four Seasons - Very fragrant leaves. Sweet and fruity. Better than High Mountain. Jin Xuan - Very sweet and light. Overall a very good bundle but none of the greener oolongs have shifted my preference away from well oxidized or roasted oolongs. The honey and TGY were my favorites.
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2016 02:43
|
|
|
Between 2 people we can go through 2-4qts of iced tea a day in the summer. Black, green, sweetened or not, it's yummy and refreshing on a hot day. I can drink hot tea 3-4 times on multiple infusions and I do about 1.5 cups at a time. Without multiple infusions it's maybe twice in a day. I doubt that you can ingest enough oxalic acid in a day or week from drinking tea to really make a large negative impact on your body. Not to mention it'll get passed fairly quickly with all the excreting you'd be doing from drinking so much tea. Considering that many people have been drinking such a very large amount of tea for so very long, I strongly doubt that it'll be a problem. I've known people in the south who drink 4qts a day by themselves. Oxalates are the least of their health concerns.
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2016 03:48
|
|
|
Theres some lady in China which had medical complications after drinking like two gallons of tea every day made with 100 tea bags. Just make yourself just have only water once or twice a day. I only drink water for lunch for example and sometimes when I get thirsty at night after dinner.
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2016 12:40
|
|
|
Yeah you basically have to drink insanely concentrated tea or have a daily consumption of 1-2 gallons of really cheap tea (who actually drinks instant tea? blergh) http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMicm1200995 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21593111 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18179362 Think of all the people in China and Japan that have no problems with daily consumption of tea in moderation. Y'all will be fine.
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2016 13:54
|
|
|
I think there's also a dude in Arkansas that drank 16 cups of iced tea a day (probably cheap black tea too). It took years of this but eventually that got to him (he's also pretty old too I think)
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2016 14:14
|
|
|
Ineffiable posted:I think there's also a dude in Arkansas that drank 16 cups of iced tea a day (probably cheap black tea too). It took years of this but eventually that got to him (he's also pretty old too I think) Ah I didn't hear about that. http://www.foxnews.com/health/2015/04/02/arkansas-man-kidney-failures-stemmed-from-too-much-iced-tea.html A gallon a day of southern sweet tea.
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2016 14:31
|
|
|
hope and vaseline posted:Ah I didn't hear about that. Oh, you mean the super processed and crushed leaves that are done to the point of steeping for 6 minutes in cold water? If there's one thing in common there, it's the low grade tea that's been crushed up and put in tea bags and then drank at high concentration. ...
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2016 16:43
|
|
|
Drinking just 1 (one) sweet tea's worth of sugar is enough to give you the diabetus anyway.
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2016 18:25
|
|
|
Jhet posted:Oh, you mean the super processed and crushed leaves that are done to the point of steeping for 6 minutes in cold water? If there's one thing in common there, it's the low grade tea that's been crushed up and put in tea bags and then drank at high concentration. The bigger thing for southern sweet "tea" is that it's insanely sugary. Like 1 or 2 cups of sugar per gallon.
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2016 23:25
|
|
|
Zelmel posted:The bigger thing for southern sweet "tea" is that it's insanely sugary. Like 1 or 2 cups of sugar per gallon. It's why I'm surprised it wasn't something else that got him. I lived in the south. I never knew anyone to put more than a cup of sugar in, but cheap tea never really was my thing. My octogenarian neighbor made real southern sweet tea, but it was wonderful and not those cheap bags and she didn't over-sweeten either. Sometimes we even got mint. It was wonderful. Also, everyone's grandmother apparently does it differently.
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2016 08:34
|
|
|
subpar anachronism posted:Similarly, I'd love recommendations for earl greys from Canadian retailers. Cream of and lady greys would also be fine. Way late on this, but World Tea House has a really delicious cream of Earl Grey blend. They're a Nova Scotian tea shop, but they also fill out online orders. They also have a pretty good standard Earl Grey and a lavender Earl Grey. Don't ask me about the latter -- I hate lavender, so I haven't tried it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2016 22:38
|
|
|
Astrotrain posted:If you're in a country that has epost, consider paying a bit more for epost shipping from teavivre. I get orders via Canadapost epost from teavivre in under a week. It's only like 7 dollars too. I just got this package with the Premium Long Jing and the Tie Guan Jin. It took 10 days via China Post and it was the free shipping option. Otherwise it would have been $4. Good deal and I'm looking forward to drinking all of this far too quickly. They're taking preorders for this year's releases last I saw. Should be out soon if it isn't already. Edit: The Premium Long Jing is wonderful too. Jhet fucked around with this message at 19:47 on Apr 27, 2016 |
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2016 18:04
|
|
|
Yeah that's my favorite Dragonwell. I prefer the more roasty Longjings to the greener, early flush ones, which are also much more expensive.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2016 23:18
|
|
|
I've been really enjoying Upton's tie guan yin offerings. All of them have had a strong flavor that stood up to multiple infusions and their tasting notes have been pronounced enough that I can actually say "yeah, that actually tastes a bit like wintergreen/honey/whatever" without needing to swish it around in my mouth and imagine really hard.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2016 19:25
|
|
|
I finally got my Ides box! All the tea still packaged weighed about 270g, not a bad deal. Tried the ali shan starting yesterday and drove myself crazy all night to place the sweet note I was tasting/smelling until it hit me this morning- it's exactly like the cans of sugarcane I used to get at the asian grocer.
|
|
#
?
May 4, 2016 15:29
|
|
|
What temp do you guys steep your oolongs? This Uptons stuff says 190, but is that gospel or should I try it a little higher? edit: Uptons Extra Bergamot Earl Gray is the Earl Gray I've been looking for my whole life.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2016 23:11
|
|
|
180-190 for nuclear green oolongs, 200-212 for fully oxidized, anywhere in between for partially oxidized, you just kind of have to feel it out. I've found dancongs to be particularly sensitive to temp and brew time, its ridiculously easy to make it too light or too bitter. Most other oolongs have more leeway.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2016 23:19
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 21, 2024 09:47 |
|
|
I tend to trust Upton's labels, with their oolongs sometimes I end up lowering the temp a little if anything.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2016 23:24
|
|