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Strange Cares posted:I'm looking to buy a thermos or carafe to keep my water hot when I do gong-fu tea so that I don't have to keep putting the kettle on. Unfortunately, there are a bewildering variety of thermoses and most of them seem to not be very good. Not sure on carafes, but Zojirushi sells thermoses that retain heat very well. Pricy, but worth it.
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Jun 23, 2019 17:49
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Seconding Zojirushi thermoses retaining heat very well. To the point where I can make some tea at night and seal it up and it'll be too hot to drink in the morning still.
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Jun 23, 2019 19:18
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I have an older Thermos brand as well that does the same. It’s the vacuum insulation version, so regardless of the brand you choose, find one that’s built with that in mind. Mine holds 64oz and I once was drinking tea from it on a Sunday morning having filled it on Friday afternoon. It was just in the perfect zone for drinking. Everyone else thought I was crazy.
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Jun 23, 2019 19:28
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Hey tea friends, that Zojirushi thermos looks pretty dope and I'm considering getting one. Those of you who have it, would it be possible to attach some sort of band or ring to it, to attach it to a bag or sling? I like to lash my thermos to my little cross-body bag when I walk around because the bag is too small to put anything inside and I like having my hands free.
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Jul 2, 2019 16:37
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Keret posted:Hey tea friends, that Zojirushi thermos looks pretty dope and I'm considering getting one. Those of you who have it, would it be possible to attach some sort of band or ring to it, to attach it to a bag or sling? I like to lash my thermos to my little cross-body bag when I walk around because the bag is too small to put anything inside and I like having my hands free. You would probably need to get a sleeve with a strap already attached, something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Zojirushi-bottle-straight-stainless-SD-EC10-PV/dp/B01BL929DY/ I don't think you could really safely attach a ring or band otherwise.
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Jul 2, 2019 17:01
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I have burned my mouth too often with my bottle. I also like that it comes apart well for cleaning. But for carrying, my bag has a water bottle holder. Sorry.
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Jul 2, 2019 17:54
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Cold brewing oolong is way easier than I expected, I just left some in a jug of water overnight in the fridge. Added some peach slices in the morning and removed the leaves, perfect peach ice tea in the afternoon.
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Jul 5, 2019 10:20
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cold brew best brew i need to get some standard grade dragonwell though cause cold brewing ali shan is getting a little expensive
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Jul 5, 2019 14:00
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Green teas have started giving me a stomach ache. I just bought a nice mao feng and a mao jian and I can barely drink them. Would cold brewing tone down the acidity or whatever else is getting to me? I don’t have a problem with other teas like white, black, oolong, or pu erh. Why would it just be green tea that bothers me all of a sudden?
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Jul 5, 2019 23:26
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It seems to make it milder for me. Give it a try!
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Jul 6, 2019 03:30
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IIRC cold brewing tea will result in a brew with less tannins and caffeine. On the other hand, I'm continuing my dive down the tea rabbit hole. Picked up yet another clay pot, yet another big batch of tea... and ordered a chaozhou stove and kettle to play around with in my new garden this summer... I'll post a trip report Been revisiting a lot of my earlier purchases and have found a lot of them to be much blander than I remember. The things I got from verdanttea seems especially lackluster...
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Jul 7, 2019 17:07
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Cold-brewed hojicha almost tastes like it was sweetened with some syrup. It owns. I'm so used to guzzling cold mugicha as well nowadays that the discovery that I was down to my last few teabags actually caused me to to stress out a bit.
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Jul 8, 2019 17:31
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Cold Rooibos is my summer go-to. I tend to go through a half gallon to a gallon of it per day, so it's a pretty ideal infusion method for me.
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Jul 8, 2019 17:40
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Does that mean you cold-brew it or just drink it cold? Either way, I'm down to try it. I find rooibos pretty forgiving but I'd appreciate any go-to brewing method you have.
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Jul 8, 2019 18:53
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Cold-brewed honeybush is also fantastic. Also I cold-brewed the mao feng, but 12 hours is far too long to leave it and it ended up going bitter. It’s fine with a bit of honey and lemon, but I think next time I better taste it at 8 hrs and go from there.
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Jul 8, 2019 19:00
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My go-to summer cold brew is Bulk Barn's Tropical Coconut Mango Oolong. Is it fancy? No. Is it high quality? No. But it's cheap, plentiful, and gently caress is it good on a hot day. I get notes of coconut, pineapple, and a honey sweetness from the oolong that's just amazingly good. 1/3rd cup of loose leaves to 1 gallon water, and sweeten to taste afterward. Since we're on the subject, what's everyone using for cold brewing? I use this pitcher by Primula that I found a couple years ago on clearance for half price, and it's been incredibly useful. neogeo0823 fucked around with this message at 02:37 on Jul 9, 2019 |
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Jul 9, 2019 01:29
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Trabant posted:Does that mean you cold-brew it or just drink it cold? Both. I drink it warm during the cold months, and cold during the warm months. I use: This tea infuser: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B075K57B73/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Two of these 1/2 Gallon pitcher: https://smile.amazon.com/Rubbermaid...e-garden&sr=1-4 If I'm doing sun tea, I'll use a 1/2 gallon mason jar with a screw-on lid. More on that in a second. For teas, I've tried and liked both Rooibos Rocks and Davidson's loose rooibos teas. Of the two, I tend to prefer the Davidson's because it's a got a longer cut on the "leaf," which with a rooibos is important because if it's too fine it'll slip right through the infuser sieve and you'll end up with stray bits of rooibos that end up as dregs. Not the worst thing in the world, but sometimes it bums me out on an aesthetic level. I've tried My Red Tea and Anthony's as well, but found them too finely chopped, and often with more "stem" pieces. They're not bad, but they're also just not great. I have a couple of South African friends who tell me that if I'm not drinking FreshPak, then I'm not drinking the real thing, but I've yet to find a source of loose-leaf FreshPak. Golden Moon has really good reviews on their Rooibos, and advertise it as "long cut" which is what I'm looking for, so I'll probably get a bag of them next time I re-order tea. If I'm doing cold-brew rooibos, here's my method. Around 9 pm - I take my infuser, and put 2 tablespoons of tea into it, and then screw the lid on tightly, I hang it by the chain from the edge of the pitcher (it dangles about 1/2 way down). I turn on the tap so it's running a fairly strong stream, and then let the stream play right on top of the infuser. As the water level rises, the infuser will float at first, so I keep the water running across it the entire time until the pitcher is more or less "full." A note: I'm on a well with good water, so I just go straight from the tap, but you might want to use filtered water if it's a concern. Then I let it sit on the counter at room temperature overnight. Before I head to work in the morning (around 8 am), I transfer the pitcher into the fridge and there it rests until I get home around 6pm. Then I get it out, pull out the infuser and dump that batch of leaves down the drain. I'll pour a nice glass of that tea and enjoy it with dinner, have another glass or two during the evening, and then bottle up the rest in a large steel canteen to take to work with me the next day and put the pitcher into the dishwasher. In the meantime, I'll get the infuser washed and ready to go into my other pitcher to start that cycle. If the weather is nice, I'll make sun-tea with it. In that case, I'll use a 1/2 gallon mason jar, and fill it like I would the pitcher. But, once it's filled I just unhook the chain and let the infuser free-float in the jar. I'll screw down the lid, and then put it out on the garden table for the day, since it gets good sunlight from about 9am to 6pm this time of year. Once I get home, I fish the infuser out with a pair of tongs. I tried loose-fitting the lid at one point so the chain could stay hung on the side, and came home to a couple of lady-bugs floating in my tea which was disappointing, so from then on I just screwed on the lid tightly. I find the sun tea is a little bolder, and a little more floral and fruity than the cold brewed, which tends to be more sweet and refreshing. Also the sun-tea method allows for some other really nice adjuncts for added fun flavors. I like chamomile, pineapple-weed (a native wild chamomile that smells strongly of fresh pineapple), mint, and ceylon cinnamon. (Not all together, but rather one at a time.) Depending on the temperature, I may or may not drink it over ice. I really enjoy all sorts of teas, but rooibos has become my "go to" for constant drinking. It's caffeine free, it tastes good both hot and iced, and if you buy into the hype it's loaded with antioxidants and other health benefits. I'm dealing with some mild high blood-pressure, and it can drop me by 10 to 15 points in both systolic an diastolic. I'm generally pretty skeptical about "herbal medicine" but goddamn if this doesn't produce consistent, repeatable results. For kicks, here's my winter-time hot infusion: A glass mason jar The infuser 2TBS of the tea into the infuser, hung from the chain into the jar. Then I bring 1/2 gal of water to boil in my kettle. Once it whistles, I kill the heat, count to 15, then pour the water stream directly onto the tea infuser so that it takes me about 30 seconds to fill the jar. Then I'll wrap a tea-towel around the jar, and set a timer for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, I come back, pull the infuser (dump and rinse), and then transfer the tea to a couple of quart vacuum thermoses. I find that those actually keep it warm for nearly 24 hours as long as you keep them sealed up. One I'll drink that evening, and the other I'll take to work with me the next day.
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Jul 9, 2019 01:56
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I use the following for my cold brewing: Primula Cold Brew 19 oz Travel Bottle w/Insulating Sleeve, Black https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Z4TPQFQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_7Q-iDbVCFZ6WB Primula PCBBK-5351 51 oz Black Pace Cold Brew Iced Coffee Maker, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017KUELI4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_MS-iDbW9TBDNT The biggest drawback is the cleanup of the filters but I'm quite satisfied with how hassle free cold brewing is otherwise using these.
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Jul 9, 2019 02:19
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anakha posted:I use the following for my cold brewing: Thank you both! I'm a fan of Mariage Freres' Rouge Bourbon variety so I think I'll give that a shot with a cold/sun brew.
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Jul 9, 2019 05:02
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In a pinch, I'll add two teabags to a 16 oz bottle of water, then I'll leave it in the fridge for several hours.
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Jul 9, 2019 10:50
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Forgot to mention: my cold brew approach is to put about 2 and a half tbsp of loose leaf tea in the infuser compartment for every 500-600 ml of water, which is normally good enough for 2 good batches of tea. The first batch I leave in the fridge for 9 hours, then I pour that out into a thermos and refill with water for a 24-hour steep in the fridge as my second batch.
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Jul 9, 2019 10:59
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You guys have some fancy equipment. I just save a gallon milk jug, leave tea and water in a gallon pot overnight, and use a fine mesh strainer/funnel. After 24 hours in the fridge it's fine. I go through a lot of milk because I make cheese, so I always have a few extras if I need them.
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Jul 11, 2019 22:01
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I made a big jug of iced tea today and then my tangerine pu erh from Teavivre arrived and I wanna drink it now but there’s no way I can get every good steeping out of it before the end of the day, so I’m just gonna like huff it or something while drinking iced earl gray.
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Jul 11, 2019 22:19
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So I got my charcoal stove and chouzhou kettle yesterday. Fired it up today. Took ages to boil water, but it was a nice experience. Took like an hour to get the olive put charcoal burning and my water boiling... However my tea ended up tasting like rear end. Guess I’ll give it another go tomorrow, probably need to soak and clean the kettle some more.
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Jul 13, 2019 19:59
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at least you’re getting a whole mindfulness kind of experience out of it I jumped on White2tea’s monthly club because they went out and advertised giving away a whole 200g cake of this year’s big green hype in june (I think for $11 less), and forgot to cancel. this month I got five different sorts of Lapsang, both roasted and unroasted. if this is a good experience I might consider staying with it. I assume it’s not going to be super value for the money all the time, but it’d be nice getting a steady flow of different teas every month, at least for a while
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Jul 13, 2019 20:08
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Hmm nice. I picked up some first flush/spring oolong from tea masters recently, but figured I should keep ordering to a minimum until I’ve finished more of the tea I already have. Then again I’ve been disappointed by most of the stuff I haven’t had in a while... I guess I’ll end up doing a big oolong order again soon, to check out some other varieties, if I keep getting disappointed. Really want to taste some Thai oolongs for example. Recently learned that it was a thing/exists. Been checking out the stuff I got from the Norwegian pu vendor too. Only tried the maocha shengs so far, and they seem ok. Young sheng tastes like young sheng I guess. I struggle to differentiate between the different types I’ve had. Bitter with green tea notes etc
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Jul 13, 2019 20:29
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some will have subtle differences, like a bitterness upfront and sweetness as an aftertaste, different balances of floral/bitter/sweet and so on.
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Jul 13, 2019 20:50
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Rooibos cold brew report: used one of these (per anakha's rec) with about 2 tablespoons of this (for "pleasant occasions") to 4 cups of water, brewed for about 12-13 hours. Came out great! No sweetener needed, unlike when hot-brewing the same leaf. I'll experiment with other teas, but this might become my go-to for cold drinks. 
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Jul 14, 2019 15:22
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I've been cold brewing a cheaper Da Hong Pao recently, with excellent results. Cold brewed oolongs seem more forgiving to me than greens; you can steep them for quite a while before they'll get bitter.
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Jul 14, 2019 20:52
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anakha posted:Cold-brewed hojicha almost tastes like it was sweetened with some syrup. It owns. I was surprised by how sweet coldbrews can be, I was expecting to have to add loads of sugar or honey to mine, but most are fine with no additives, or maybe a mild fruit infusion
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Jul 15, 2019 12:22
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pointsofdata posted:I was surprised by how sweet coldbrews can be, I was expecting to have to add loads of sugar or honey to mine, but most are fine with no additives, or maybe a mild fruit infusion I've had good experiences with cold-brewed Chinese black teas. Especially dianhongs--nice, mellow, and malty. I think the only truly bad cold brew I've had was that one young sheng that I frankly should not have been cold-brewing.
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Jul 20, 2019 19:03
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I've tried to get into tea before, especially as a way to cut down on my coffee intake. I told a few people, and ended up with boxes and boxes of supermarket/big brand green teas and fruit teas. I could never develop a taste for them, they always had the same body as water but with the tinge of a taste overlaid on it. Yesterday I bought some loose leaf tea from a proper tea shop and the difference is night and day. No longer do the teas taste like flavoured water, but the tea leaf has actually transformed them into an entirely different, enjoyable substance. I bought three teas, one generic blended black chai, an India Assam FTGFOP1 Mokalbari East, and a China Half-fermented Milky Oolong (from Fujian if that makes a difference.) The black chai was the first I tried. I'd previously liked chais but this one's quality is obvious. At the end of the taste I can discern the black tea flavour, so it has all the cinnamon, ginger, pepper, cloves, etc. but there's still a black tea to it. The milky oolong was like nothing I've ever tasted before. The creaminess of the milk was front and centre, and it just had a wonderful rounded organic, whole taste to it. The Assam was the last I tried, and I was expecting to be disappointed. Irish Breakfast Tea (Barry's) is what I drink normally, with milk and sugar, and after two other, lovely teas I was expecting this to be a bit too boring. It is a simple flavour, but there's depth behind the simplicity. I could imagine drinking it black first thing in the morning quite easily. The shop I went to had a lovely guy there. He wasn't pushy, seemed to care and was far from snobby: very much a "try what interests you, see what you like, no judgment or sales tactics here." I'll be going back to try more, even if it is far more expensive than the 80 teabags I get for €3.50. But it's all interesting, far more than the box of teabags I can get even if it is an expensive indulgence (the chai was €5 for 50gms, the Assam was €5.50 and the Oolong €7, although he let me go beneath his minimum and take only 25gms.) All of what I bought was obviously quality, an impressive level of quality, really. There's nuance and potential to each of them, which I'm willing to pay for. I can see why wars were fought over this stuff.
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Jul 26, 2019 16:25
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You have discovered that drinking real tea is different because the stuff they put in bags is basically dust by the time you get it. The try everything approach is awesome and you’ll find a lot of wonderful flavors along the way. The loose leaf greens are also a world of difference and can be very enjoyable, so don’t be afraid to keep trying. Greens and oolongs (and some others) can be resteeped many times, but things like chai and black tea that you use boiling water to steep won’t last as many steepings and maybe only one before not tasting right. Have fun exploring the world of tea. It’s very fun and delicious.
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Jul 26, 2019 18:08
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Acquired some aged sheng lately (2006). Need some steeping advice. I’ve only had shu and young sheng before, but figured I should step it more or less like my shus. High leaf to water ratio as I tend to do, then a quick rinse, a short first steep in the 5-15s range, before improvising from there on. Was fascinated by how the smell was quite similar to shu. Whatever it is shu is imitating, it seems to get quite close aromawise. However the soup is not as dark as the shus I’ve been drinking (dark as coffee), more similar to a black tea. Golden orange. The first steep ended up quite bitter but with a rounder edge than a young sheng. All in all quite nice, but I was a bit underwhelmed tbh. This was a pricy sample from 2006 I only had 10g of. Spent all of it this first time brewing it (10g/140ml is my usual ratio for oolong and pu), so I can’t try it again. However, the next time I’m steeping some stuff I bought a whole cake of, so I’ll have more chances to experiment. You reckon I’ll get something nice out of it with a 30-60s first steep? How do you steep your aged pu? Also, moved recently and allocated some space for tea and chilling out in my new house:    
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Aug 6, 2019 11:33
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I’d brew it like you would young sheng tbh.
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Aug 6, 2019 12:13
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Truck Stop Daddy posted:Also, moved recently and allocated some space for tea and chilling out in my new house: That setup and view. Choice.
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Aug 6, 2019 21:15
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ulvir posted:I’d brew it like you would young sheng tbh. Yeah more or less what I did then, but with less of a rinse. Guess I’ll figure it out before I’m at the end of the next cake. Resting Lich Face posted:That setup and view. Choice. Tyvm! It’s a very nice spot to space out. Was in Amsterdam with work this week and had some time left yesterday. Found a nice Chinese tea house and hung out for a bit. Tea’s delight in Kinkerstraat. Talkative and knowledgeable owner. Didn’t recognize a lot of the translated English names, but managed to navigate with the Chinese names (even with mangled pronunciations haha). Had a nice huang guanyin while there, picked up a couple of oolongs and a beautiful wood fired chaozhou teapot.
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Aug 10, 2019 12:50
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I tried Huang Guanyin for the first time recently and I really enjoyed it. Makes a killer iced tea.
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Aug 10, 2019 18:05
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Thoht posted:I tried Huang Guanyin for the first time recently and I really enjoyed it. Makes a killer iced tea. Broke in the chaozhou pot and steeped a bunch of stuff. I figured it was around 140 ml in the store, but turns out it’s only around 70ml. Perfect for solo tea sessions. Also, I’m positive this pot is superior to my yixings for oolongs. I’ve been a bit on the fence about the effect of clay pots up until now (love the designs tho and they do seem to take the edge of the pus), but I’m converted. Reproduced brewing conditions I’ve used before and used even more leaf, but with much better results! I’ve not been completely happy with any of my previous attempts with this tie luohan. It has usually turned out very, very astringent in the first couple of steeps and turned bland once the astringency has gone away. This time it was perfect! Filled the pot to the rim with leaf and did short steeps, no off tastes at all... did the same with a dhp I found bland the last time I tried it and it also turned out great.   Very hard to capture the color of the clay, it has a sort of grayish matte texture to it due to wood firing. Apparently/supposedly made by some famous potter, couldn’t catch the exact name when I picked it up, but I think it’s by Zhang Yanming... Truck Stop Daddy fucked around with this message at 21:04 on Aug 14, 2019 |
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Aug 14, 2019 21:01
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So I just noticed that my WinCo has actual bulk tea available(in a seperate weird multi dispensor) in addition to the bulk stash tea bags they've always had. I got an ounce of the 'royal earl grey' tea, and its pretty good. My question for the thread is: what are all these blue, red and green things that probably aren't tea? I've mostly been drinking this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00136MKEO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1 Since its a ton of tea and it tastes good. This stuff has more of a spiced flavor, which I'm sure I'll lean into but I like the sort of vanilla cookie flavor of a milder earl grey.
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Aug 19, 2019 21:22
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