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hope and vaseline posted:I wasn't terribly impressed with their DHP from a few years back. It was waaaay too roasted compared to others I've had. I remember being unimpressed with that one too. This year's is really nice for my taste, but I like roasted oolongs, so YMMV.
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Sep 4, 2016 06:50
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I have a dumb question that isn't really answered or whatever in the OP. I know that it's very popular to add milk and sugar to your tea so that it changes or enhances the flavor or whatever. However, when I try to do this, I end up with a warm little mini-cup of milk and a dried, crusty little mini-thing of sugar on my computer desk because it took me so long to drink my first cup due to it being so hot that I kind of feel like it's best to just keep it all in the fridge. Problem is, though, that it's an awful lot of work going back and forth from one end of the house to the other every single time that I want to refill my cup. Surely I am dumb and doing everything the wrong way, so I wanted to ask about how I'm supposed to organize this stuff here because I suck at drinking tea. I often feel like I'm better off just drinking it straight from the pot, even though it always tastes a lot better with just a little bit of sugar and milk.
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Sep 13, 2016 00:58
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You could put the tea, milk, and sugar all in the pot to start with. Just premix in the kitchen it how you like and keep it at your desk. (I'd recommend a tea cozy or even just a towel wrapped around it to keep it at temperature longer if it takes you a while to get through.)
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Sep 13, 2016 03:29
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Love Stole the Day posted:I have a dumb question that isn't really answered or whatever in the OP. Get a thermal insulated mug like a Contigo West Loop. I have one for coffee and tea and the stainless steel one rinses to odorless and keeps hot drinks hot for 4 hours for 20oz. Zojirushi also makes some solid mugs as well, or if you want to really just make a whole lot of tea, you can use a real big thermos. I would advise to leave a small pot of sugar and maybe a little thing of milk near your desk in a bowl of ice if you want. I dunno how far the other side of your house is, maybe this is a good suggestion for you?
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Sep 13, 2016 03:50
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Anyone have a suggestion for a nice mild smooth black tea (single origin tea or blend, either is fine) with low tannins? I'm not looking for something super complex or interesting, just a simple inoffensive daily drinking tea that doesn't need milk. I have lots of good interesting ones right now, but Upton stopped stocking my old daily one and I haven't found a good replacement tea for in the mornings yet.
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Sep 14, 2016 22:39
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Good tea. Nice house.
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Sep 24, 2016 03:41
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Here's another vendor to take a look at: http://pittsburghcuppa.com/ The Genmaicha had a good price. I tried it and their Cream Earl Grey, and both were quite nice.
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Sep 30, 2016 18:54
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Can you cold brew black tea (as in, no hot water used)? And if so, is there a "too long"?
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Nov 7, 2016 08:23
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Black tea is fine in cold steep. Probably needs a minimum of 24 hours but I've seen some black teas recommended St 48 to 72 hours. That's the longest I've seen though.
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Nov 7, 2016 13:13
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Teavivre Black Friday sale is coming up: http://www.teavivre.com/sale/black-friday-sale.html I've really enjoyed this year's Keemun and Dong Ding, so I might splurge on some of the more expensive varieties. Conversely, I wouldn't recommend the Yunnan Golden Tip. This year's is weak compared to previous harvests.
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Nov 19, 2016 21:56
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On their Singles Day sale the other week, I saw a package of many varieties of pu'er on AliExpress. (phone posting so no link right now) I was curious about whether tea off AliExpress would be safe to drink, so I googled the set for reviews. The consensus I could find was that the package did in fact contain many blocks of pu'er, however some were real, and some were 'fake'. Is this a known term? Would fake pu'er just be normal green tea? Or is it likely to be just a pile of assorted twigs? Not going to buy tea off AliExpress, just curious!
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Nov 23, 2016 19:13
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Fake pu is mislabelled, lower quality puerh, usually sold as the famous factory pressings like the menghai 7542, ancient/old arbor material, or aged anywhere from 10 to 50+ years old (or any combination of these). Aliexpress is notorious for this, you have no idea what you're actually buying. People will do anything to make their tea look aged. https://www.reddit.com/r/tea/comments/31t5jc/caught_a_dude_rubbing_a_puer_brick_on_the_street/ hope and vaseline fucked around with this message at 19:44 on Nov 23, 2016 |
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Nov 23, 2016 19:42
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Killingyouguy! posted:On their Singles Day sale the other week, I saw a package of many varieties of pu'er on AliExpress. (phone posting so no link right now) I was curious about whether tea off AliExpress would be safe to drink, so I googled the set for reviews. The consensus I could find was that the package did in fact contain many blocks of pu'er, however some were real, and some were 'fake'. If I remember right it's fake in the sense they'll press some tea and artificially age it. So it might be advertised as a ten year old pureh, but it's really made last year and the fermentation process is accelerated. Or something like that.
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Nov 23, 2016 19:43
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Sometimes you'll get used tea repressed as the center of the cake, while the outside is regular leaves. That's only for the really cheap cakes, though - $5 for a "1992" or whatever.
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Nov 23, 2016 21:23
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Made my first tea order in a while, and Upton's Jiu Hua Mao Feng is rocking my world atm.
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Nov 23, 2016 21:28
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I'm probably slightly late to the Black Friday/Cyber Monday tea sales but I want to order some tea anyway. Does anyone have a good recommendation for a nice and dark and full bodied puerh with very little astringency? I started drinking tea this year after coffee started giving me heartburn and I got dragged into a Capital Teas store off the street by one of their relentless sales people. Now I have a cupboard full of Capital Teas tins languishing un-drank as I started finding local shops nearby with more interesting selections. I also have some black teas I find almost undrinkably astringent which I have identified as the main obstacle to my enjoyment of a tea. I find the faint fishy/fermenty flavor of the puerhs I've tried very appealing although I've read it may mean they are cheap and/or just bad. I am still just buying random poo poo I find or that sales people tell me is nice, and I would like to at some point feel like I have some idea what I'm doing. Looking around the thread I jumped on puerhshop.com but there isn't really that much information/guidance for an enthusiastic novice. I've also been drinking a lot of mate I guess. A nice shopping cart suggestion from one website of a couple different types (puerh, oolong, green, maybe a good quality black tea with a bitterness/astringency that I might not find repulsive) would really be appreciated if anyone is feeling bored and helpful.
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Nov 29, 2016 20:40
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Schach posted:I'm probably slightly late to the Black Friday/Cyber Monday tea sales but I want to order some tea anyway. Does anyone have a good recommendation for a nice and dark and full bodied puerh with very little astringency? I've heard bitterleaf tea has a good selection. Maybe order some samplers from there?
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Nov 29, 2016 22:16
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I ordered a bunch of samples and a gaiwan from them. Their customer service is great too, I sent them an email before I ordered and they gave me a coupon. Maybe the tea will be garbage but I hope not! Now I just need a Yixing pot. And a really funky shou puerh. And... every... other... tea thing...
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Nov 30, 2016 22:43
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Schach posted:I ordered a bunch of samples and a gaiwan from them. Their customer service is great too, I sent them an email before I ordered and they gave me a coupon. Maybe the tea will be garbage but I hope not! Now I just need a Yixing pot. And a really funky shou puerh. And... every... other... tea thing... I recommended it because I've seen some tea blogs review it and it sounds great. Since I won't be friends with your wallet anyway, I'd like to also say I love Taiwan tea crafts. Huge selection of all the other stuff you don't have (oolongs especially)
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Dec 1, 2016 00:57
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Since you mentioned liking the slightly fishy aspect of some puerh it's worth a mention that some senchas, especially the more heavily steamed ones, can have similar umami/protein/in some cases (and again generally regarded as lesser quality but whatever floats your boat) fishy. They are otherwise QUITE different from puerh though, in fact pretty much as far away as you can get. Just might be something to also look to sample at some point. For TW oolongs (which is almost all I drink anymore) I'd recommend Tea Masters, Stephane finally put up an actual web shop a while back so it's a little more accessible though still often pricey, as my absolute favorite store. Taiwan Sourcing/taiwanoolongs and the aforementioned Taiwan Tea Crafts also sell some pretty solid stuff, though neither is as reliably great (or at least matched to my taste) as Tea Masters in my experience. Especially the roasted ones were of IMO lesser quality, I really can't recommend Stephane's roasted teas enough, he does an amazing job of finding great roasts. And I think such teas might have a bit more appeal to a puerh lover, though you won't get any of the fish/protein stuff. (He is also pretty helpful if you write him and ask for recs, in my experience.)
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Dec 1, 2016 08:20
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Hello tea people. I have a preparation question that had no mention in the OP or last few pages: do you have a go-to way of making tea lattes? Internet points to two approaches: (1) brew a strong cup (twice the tea in half the water) and add steamed milk, or (2) brew directly in milk+water combination (in a saucepan?) and strain. I typically don't like milk in my teas, but dig the Earl Grey lattes I've had. Plus I really want to see how Yerba Mate (I've been drinking Republic of Tea's whole leaf) would work in a latte.
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Dec 12, 2016 03:24
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Trabant posted:Hello tea people. I have a preparation question that had no mention in the OP or last few pages: do you have a go-to way of making tea lattes? Internet points to two approaches: (1) brew a strong cup (twice the tea in half the water) and add steamed milk, or (2) brew directly in milk+water combination (in a saucepan?) and strain. I would brew stronger, and vary the amount of tea I'm starting with based on the amount of liquid I expect to have in the cup or possibly stronger even to balance the milk. I'm not sure how you'd make a latte by steeping it in a saucepan as that's not steamed milk, but the saucepan method is also something you can certainly do (and is often done with chai spiced teas).
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Dec 12, 2016 03:33
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 Making a big batch of cheap green tea from bags + sugar for kombucha. What's this brown layer? Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 08:31 on Dec 12, 2016 |
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Dec 12, 2016 08:27
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I'm thinking about buying some pu-erh from Teavivre to split with a friend - will a cake work well for that? And if so, what's a good one to try?
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Dec 12, 2016 17:17
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I heard about this thing today: using tea to smoke meats, rather than just smoking tea for its own flavor. Does anybody itt have experience with something like that?
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Dec 14, 2016 00:35
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Tea smoked duck is loving amazing.
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Dec 14, 2016 00:44
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CommonShore posted:I'm thinking about buying some pu-erh from Teavivre to split with a friend - will a cake work well for that? And if so, what's a good one to try? Their puerh isn't spectacular but some of it is halfway decent for their price point. http://www.teavivre.com/aged-raw-pu-erh-brick-2005/ was my daily drinker for a while, it's rather tightly compressed and definitely dry stored, doesn't taste as aged as other 10 year old teas I've had but for $27 its pretty good. I'd really recommend going to yunnansourcing though and placing an order on a wide variety of samples. Look for different years and different regions to compare, and buy a full cake if you find one you like a lot. White2tea also has some nice sample sets in the form of 100 gram cakes. hope and vaseline fucked around with this message at 01:03 on Dec 14, 2016 |
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Dec 14, 2016 01:00
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you can also go hog wild with pretty cheap 25g samples on White2Tea
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Dec 14, 2016 11:20
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hope and vaseline posted:Their puerh isn't spectacular but some of it is halfway decent for their price point. http://www.teavivre.com/aged-raw-pu-erh-brick-2005/ was my daily drinker for a while, it's rather tightly compressed and definitely dry stored, doesn't taste as aged as other 10 year old teas I've had but for $27 its pretty good. I'd really recommend going to yunnansourcing though and placing an order on a wide variety of samples. Look for different years and different regions to compare, and buy a full cake if you find one you like a lot. White2tea also has some nice sample sets in the form of 100 gram cakes. Thanks! We ended up ordering some smaller amounts of a few different things, and we're going to bust em up and try em and then order more. For the puerh we went for the top seller - http://www.teavivre.com/ripened-aged-pu-erh-tuocha/ - because it seemed easier for us to share. I'm definitely going to try yours next time.
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Dec 14, 2016 14:56
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CommonShore posted:Thanks! We ended up ordering some smaller amounts of a few different things, and we're going to bust em up and try em and then order more. For the puerh we went for the top seller - http://www.teavivre.com/ripened-aged-pu-erh-tuocha/ - because it seemed easier for us to share. That's somewhat odd timing, because that's what's in my cup this morning. It's not bad, but I've had better. It does have a bit of the funky woody and earthy flavors, but for my tastes, it's a bit tame. It's not bland, but it's single note doesn't leave me really wanting the tea often. It's a good introduction to pu-erh at least, but you'll find some better ones out there without increasing the price range much.
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Dec 14, 2016 15:22
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Jhet posted:but for my tastes, it's a bit tame. It's not bland, but it's single note doesn't leave me really wanting the tea often. that's the exact same experience I have with their raw minituos. if I drink it I usually oversteep it on purpose just to get some sort of flavour out of it
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Dec 14, 2016 15:40
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Jhet posted:That's somewhat odd timing, because that's what's in my cup this morning. It's not bad, but I've had better. It does have a bit of the funky woody and earthy flavors, but for my tastes, it's a bit tame. It's not bland, but it's single note doesn't leave me really wanting the tea often. It's a good introduction to pu-erh at least, but you'll find some better ones out there without increasing the price range much. Yeah it's not my first initial introduction - I've bought poorly-labelled cakes from Chinese grocers before and had samples at tea expos - but it's the first time I've ordered any kind of "proper" puerh. My coworker is a total novice, and she might be turned off by too much funk. When I think puerh I tend to think of mellowed out black tea flavours - doesn't taste like twigs! I'm about to make some decent long jiang for her and for another coworker who claim to dislike green tea, but who also confessed to only ever having tried Lipton bagged green tea.
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Dec 14, 2016 15:45
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CommonShore posted:Yeah it's not my first initial introduction - I've bought poorly-labelled cakes from Chinese grocers before and had samples at tea expos - but it's the first time I've ordered any kind of "proper" puerh. My coworker is a total novice, and she might be turned off by too much funk. When I think puerh I tend to think of mellowed out black tea flavours - doesn't taste like twigs! Yeah, this doesn't taste like twigs, but it's just kind of a mild pu-erh. Makes me wish there was more to it. Multiple infusions, longer steeping, it all doesn't seem to make much of a difference for this one. When I saw woody, it's not a twig flavor either, it's a sort of flavor/aroma that reminds me of a copse of trees that have lost their leaves in autumn. Sort of sweet, sort of mellow, with a hint of the smell of old books. Teavivre had some really awesome long jing this year. It was the Premium Long Jing that was just great. I enjoyed it for 3+ steepings, but they recommend a higher temp for brewing on their label than I used. Their temp was too high and I was getting off flavors because of it.
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Dec 14, 2016 16:25
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I order from Uptons all the time. Any recs from there if I want to try this whole puerh thing? From following this thread, that seems like where everyone ends up. I don't mind a little funky.
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Dec 14, 2016 16:47
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Don't order Pu from western catch-all vendors, even if the regular tea you get from them is fine. Chances are you'll get some fishy smelling stuff. Crimson Lotus Tea has these new region specific puerh tea balls that look like pretty high quality material, for an alternative to mini-tuos, which are basically the teabag equivalent of puerh. They come in shou and sheng and would probably be a nice introduction to puerh in general without splurging on a full cake. Also they seem to be selling anal beads now? Or steeping rosaries. Who knows. hope and vaseline fucked around with this message at 17:09 on Dec 14, 2016 |
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Dec 14, 2016 17:06
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Jhet posted:Yeah, this doesn't taste like twigs, but it's just kind of a mild pu-erh. Makes me wish there was more to it. Multiple infusions, longer steeping, it all doesn't seem to make much of a difference for this one. When I saw woody, it's not a twig flavor either, it's a sort of flavor/aroma that reminds me of a copse of trees that have lost their leaves in autumn. Sort of sweet, sort of mellow, with a hint of the smell of old books.  And I ordered that exact Long Jing.
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Dec 14, 2016 19:28
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Help I am relative tea newbie and I need recs for making sweet iced tea. I'd rather not have to sweeten the tea too much, if possible, so blends or varieties that have a natural sweetness to them would be a+. Please no fruit tisanes, a couple tries at Upton Tea samplers left me really underwhelmed. I'm also ambivalent about herbal blends, I thought I'd like anything that was described as both sweet and tart, but I hated, HATED Hibiscus Ginger from Tao of Tea. Have done some research and been looking at keemun, first flush darjeeling, jade oolong and some white teas at Upton Tea, but nearly all of the teas that sound anything like something I'd enjoy are pretty expensive. As in like $10 for a sample. I don't want to get attached to anything I'd have to spend hundreds on if I wanted to keep a pitcher of it in the fridge most days. Please help  Edit: just to add, the times I've made iced tea, I've tried cold-brewing it, and either ended up with slightly too weak tea or "strong but not really something I'd drink" tea. Should I just be brewing the tea hot and then cooling it down (sticking it in the fridge, or adding ice)? babydonthurtme fucked around with this message at 01:30 on Dec 15, 2016 |
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Dec 15, 2016 01:27
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My teavivre order was so big that I just got a phone call from Hong Kong to confirm it 
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Dec 15, 2016 05:04
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Jhet posted:Teavivre had some really awesome long jing this year. It was the Premium Long Jing that was just great. I enjoyed it for 3+ steepings, but they recommend a higher temp for brewing on their label than I used. Their temp was too high and I was getting off flavors because of it. The Premium Long Jing is consistently great, and I agree, you definitely want to steep it at a lower temperature than the package suggests. I generally ignore the instructions on Teavivre's packets and experiment to find what works best for my taste, because some of their recommendations seem way off. Their Lu Shan Yun Wu is an excellent choice if you like the Long Jing. Similar flavor, but more delicate.
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Dec 15, 2016 08:28
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I just had my second steep of my second cup of the Teavivre Premium Long Jing
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Jan 5, 2017 18:55
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