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Stuporstar posted:I have a little dish specifically for this because I don’t like throwing tea leaves in my compost when they’re super wet (and also some leaves can be resteeped). They make cute little tea bag dishes that also work for infusers, but I just went to a Chinese import store and bought a nice sauce dish for a dollar I just use a gaiwan and keep the leaves in it until done. For the mess I have a folded tea towel and all is good. I have been enjoying some shou puerhs from a local vendor of late--the one large cake comes from a small organic producer and its a nice smooth tea, whereas the other is like liquid mesquite smoke. The latter comes in 100g bings, and a tong is only like $75 CDN. Lovely to have easy to access options!
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Oct 28, 2022 04:50
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Trabant posted:Awesome! Post a review when you get a chance please +1 for throat coat.
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Oct 28, 2022 15:45
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) I found that the hideously-named
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H110Hawk posted:<<review posts>> Thank you 
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Oct 28, 2022 16:47
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Thoht posted:+1 for throat coat. Seconding throat coat. I forget what the instructions are for it, but ignore them. Steep the tea for 20 minutes, and be sure to wring out as much of the syrup-whatever out of the bag as you can, since that's what actually does the soothing. And sip it slowly.
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Oct 31, 2022 02:36
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PacketCharmer posted:That just seems like it'd be a hopeless cacophony of flavors. Did they clash or somehow harmonize? Pretty good actually. I brew it at 195 F so the green tea doesn't get bitter and honestly the mix of flower and a little fruit is pretty refreshing. It doesn't have that overwhelming flavor that flower petal tisanes can have.
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Nov 6, 2022 02:24
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neogeo0823 posted:Seconding throat coat. I forget what the instructions are for it, but ignore them. Steep the tea for 20 minutes, and be sure to wring out as much of the syrup-whatever out of the bag as you can, since that's what actually does the soothing. And sip it slowly. same Going to have some Tension Tamer now though, because tension needs taming!
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Dec 19, 2022 02:39
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I'll be in Manila for the holidays. Any recommendations for a tea shop in the metro area? I've been to TWG there on a previous trip and they have good stuff, hoping to check out other options too.
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Dec 19, 2022 16:55
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I accidentally ordered the wrong tea from Upton ; I ordered China Yin Zhen Bai Hao Downy White Pekoe when I meant to order Jasmine Yin Zhen. Can I just add dried jasmine flowers to the tea leaves, or is scenting tea with jasmine an involved process? And if I can add jasmine flowers myself, can anybody recommend a good food-safe vendor?
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Jan 3, 2023 00:02
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Arsenic Lupin posted:I accidentally ordered the wrong tea from Upton ; I ordered China Yin Zhen Bai Hao Downy White Pekoe when I meant to order Jasmine Yin Zhen. Can I just add dried jasmine flowers to the tea leaves, or is scenting tea with jasmine an involved process? And if I can add jasmine flowers myself, can anybody recommend a good food-safe vendor? I like bulk herbs and dried things from Starwest Botanicals and Frontier Co-op so far. You can add dried jasmine yourself to the tea pot while steeping.
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Jan 3, 2023 05:27
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Currently I get most of my tea from The Tao of Tea (I live near their shop) and Yunnan Sourcing. What are some other sites that have a large selection of good tea? Yunnan Sourcing has a really impressive variety but I want to shop around.
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Jan 3, 2023 19:22
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I’ve been really happy with TeaVivre for about a year now
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Jan 3, 2023 19:42
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I primarily drink black tea. The most reliable tea merchant I've purchased from so far has been https://what-cha.com/. Every tea I've bought from them, even the "mystery teas", have been just top notch. https://www.uptontea.com/ has also been fairly reliable for me, but I mostly just buy single estate Darjeeling and Assam teas from them.
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Jan 3, 2023 20:02
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I'm new to the thread but not to tea, but I just wanted a quick pulse check from the group. I noticed that Harney and Sons isn't mentioned particularly often - is there a reason? We've discovered that their green teas are pretty bad, but have generally enjoyed their black tea options. Not sure if there are similarly priced but way more recommended places, they're fine by most accounts, or if they kill puppies or something.
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Jan 3, 2023 21:08
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I've been unimpressed with Harney And Sons. Their rooibos had very little flavor, same with the pu-erh I tried. The gunpowder green always tastes bitter no matter how I steep it. The milk oolong didn't impress me either. I like Adagio's stuff much better. I haven't tried any other vendors.
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Jan 3, 2023 21:13
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Alucard posted:I'm new to the thread but not to tea, but I just wanted a quick pulse check from the group. I noticed that Harney and Sons isn't mentioned particularly often - is there a reason? We've discovered that their green teas are pretty bad, but have generally enjoyed their black tea options. Not sure if there are similarly priced but way more recommended places, they're fine by most accounts, or if they kill puppies or something. I've only tried harney's earl grey but I've found it pretty tasty. I mostly get stuff from teavivre though, I haven't gotten a tea from them I haven't loved.
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Jan 3, 2023 21:18
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I'm a big fan of Harney, with the caveat that I only drink their black teas, almost always of Indian origin and flavoured. Couldn't tell you what their other offerings are like.
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Jan 3, 2023 21:32
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I've tried a few unflavored black tea blends from Harney & Sons and found them uninteresting. I did like Brigitte's Blend, though, and I still buy that one. Don't know about their flavored teas, but their Paris blend seems to be very popular and always gets rave reviews. If you are interesting in Darjeeling teas, you can give https://www.thunderbolttea.com/ a try, but don't expect any communication from the company at all, and it might take a couple of months before they ship your order. But so far the single estate Darjeeling teas I've gotten from them have been very nice.
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Jan 3, 2023 23:10
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H&S isn't overpriced, but they cater to the Teavana crowd with their blends mostly. Which can be fine, but they can be really boring because of it. If that's your jam though, drink it up. The prices are pretty good for daily drinking.
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Jan 4, 2023 00:22
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I basically get the Malachi McCormick and my wife digs the Paris - but we're open to other options. We'll probably give Adagio a shot soon, but have a local chinese tea shop that we stocked up on jasmine and genmaicha recently.
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Jan 4, 2023 02:33
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Vivian Darkbloom posted:Currently I get most of my tea from The Tao of Tea (I live near their shop) and Yunnan Sourcing. What are some other sites that have a large selection of good tea? Yunnan Sourcing has a really impressive variety but I want to shop around. https://www.teabox.com/ is great for Indian teas.
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Jan 4, 2023 04:08
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I really like Harney and Sons Paris. For sure give that a try if you like flavored black tea.
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Jan 4, 2023 05:14
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I've gradually stopped sourcing tea from western middlemen companies with the exception of Taylor's. Chinese tea from China, Indian tea from India. Most have a small forwarder/logistics partner here in the US, or have their own NA distro business. Yunnan sourcing has probably got the best Chinese stuff right now. Prices, after crashing in 2020, are back up with a vengeance. Adding in yet another beak to wet on its way to the consumer just makes this worse. I'm mostly talking about the high end here. Tea that was steady around 200 usd/lb from 2015-2020 like a competition Bi Lo Chun, Ti Guan Yin, or Da Hong Pao, dipped to about ~140 in 2020-2021. This year those same teas from the same plantations are 280-330 usd/lb directly from China. I've seen them on western dealers sites for $400+/lb. This mostly applies to greens and oolongs, puerh prices never really dipped or increased over covid except at the lower end of the market. I had my first instance of actual tea fraud last month. A confirmed fake Menghai 7531 2012 Sheng. I even emailed back and forth with dealer and Menghai reps and sent high def photos of the packaging, seals, and leaves. It was absolute trash tea too. It looked correct but I could actually tell by handling the still wrapped cake something was wrong. They (supposedly) shipped me a sampler as a gesture of goodwill.
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Jan 7, 2023 03:52
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I've hit up some tea shops in the area recently and did some tastings in-store. Why do their teas always taste so much better than what I make at home? They could be using better teas; I'm not sure. At home I just have the Oolong sampler and a Jin Jun Mei from Yunnan Sourcing, which I'm assuming means they're not bad but they're not top-tier either. Is it because of the water? At I have a Zojirushi hot water dispenser that I make tea out of, and it's perma set at 195. Are you supposed to brew with distilled water, or is my slightly hard water okay (I mean, I suppose spring water is slightly hard...)? I usually fill my finum filter until it's about 1/2 inch in height. I first rinse the leaves with hot water (but I usually don't bother pre-rinsing the mug or anything else), and then brew for about 3-4 minutes for the first brewing. Then I kinda make it up for subsequent brewings (though by the 3rd infusion it starts tasting like chewed bubble gum water). The tea shops usually do gongfu style -- could that be the reason? When we were visiting NYC we swung by Floating Mountain, and they had some Jin Jun Mei that kept on trucking after like 10 infusions, it was incredible. That one was pretty expensive though. Edit: Oh yeah, I did finally get to try a few Old Tree ones at various tea shops. And oh man, without fail they have all been godly. facepalmolive fucked around with this message at 20:22 on Jan 12, 2023 |
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Jan 12, 2023 20:19
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I usually do something like 1 minute for first flush and about half that for second flush because the leaves are more opened up. Then just keep going more time until I get tired of the tea not having flavor.
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Jan 13, 2023 01:05
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facepalmolive posted:Are you supposed to brew with distilled water, or is my slightly hard water okay (I mean, I suppose spring water is slightly hard...)? Do you have treated water? Chlorine, fluoride, and iron are reactive and no bueno, calcium carbonate hardness is fine.
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Jan 15, 2023 01:22
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facepalmolive posted:I've hit up some tea shops in the area recently and did some tastings in-store. Why do their teas always taste so much better than what I make at home? different teas brew best at varying temperatures, and it's basically impossible to hit these perfect points for all of the different teas unless you have 1) one of those fancy kettles where you can set the temperature or 2) a thermometer and a lot of free time. you'll also see glassware used to serve tea samples in stores, and tea tastes better in glass, as the tannins have less texture to stick to, and thus they stay in the tea, giving it a stronger flavour.
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Jan 15, 2023 21:12
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w4ddl3d33 posted:and tea tastes better in glass, as the tannins have less texture to stick to, and thus they stay in the tea, giving it a stronger flavour. my semi-glazed tea mug is doing me dirty, I see! (it’s also a pain to get fully clean, but I mostly drink black tea clear so I just rinse and go for most of the week)
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Jan 18, 2023 19:34
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humans also let appearance, ambience, mood, whatever affect how much they like things, so like...at least for me, the tea always tastes better in the shop then when it's like 7:51 in the morning and i have a meeting in half an hour and ow ow ow i poured hot water on my hand
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Jan 18, 2023 23:44
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I’m jumping deeper into the world of tea, and ordering a gaiwan and some puehr tea. I checked out Yunnan sourcing as well. Is there a difference between ceramic and porcelain gaiwans? What types of tea should I get? I like pretty much all kinds of tea, though I’m not a fan of ones like white tea. I have an electric hot water heater that I use to prepare tea currently. I think the brand is Zojirushi. It’s able to be set for multiple different temperatures, and it seems very well-insulated.
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Jan 26, 2023 01:22
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Unglazed ceramic is porous and supposedly muting, in that it files off harsh flavors, so people will say it's ideal for stuff like high fire oolongs or really weird puerhs. Porcelain isn't porous and gets you a neutral profile. In practice I genuinely don't think I could tell the difference in a triangle test and you should get whatever you think you'd like to own more.
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Jan 26, 2023 08:41
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Can anyone recommend more teas along the lines of Adagio's Yunnan Noir? I can't go back to English / Scottish breakfast teas any more.
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Jan 26, 2023 19:20
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tokenbrownguy posted:Can anyone recommend more teas along the lines of Adagio's Yunnan Noir? I can't go back to English / Scottish breakfast teas any more. Yunnan Sourcing will have a bunch of options in that type under their Black tea category. https://yunnansourcing.com/collecti..._BoClQQQAvD_BwE Teavivre.com will also have a bunch of options. I’m not sure what that Adagio tea really is, or we might be able to give you more precise advice on which one is closest. Maybe a bi luo chun, or at least that looks to be the shape of it.
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Jan 26, 2023 19:32
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tokenbrownguy posted:Can anyone recommend more teas along the lines of Adagio's Yunnan Noir? I can't go back to English / Scottish breakfast teas any more. That would be golden snail https://www.teavivre.com/dian-hong-golden-snail-black-tea.html Very similar flavor to golden monkey, if you’re looking for more options.
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Jan 26, 2023 20:20
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Jhet posted:Yunnan Sourcing will have a bunch of options in that type under their Black tea category. https://yunnansourcing.com/collecti..._BoClQQQAvD_BwE Stuporstar posted:That would be golden snail https://www.teavivre.com/dian-hong-golden-snail-black-tea.html I've tried Golden Monkey, but it's a bit pricey for everyday drinking. I'll order some samplers and see if I can find something to expand the repertoire. Thanks folks. tokenbrownguy fucked around with this message at 22:18 on Jan 26, 2023 |
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Jan 26, 2023 21:05
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tokenbrownguy posted:I've tried Golden Monkey, but it's a bit pricey for everyday drinking. I'll order some samplers and see if I can find something to expand the repertoire. Thanks folks. Unlike English black tea blends, these will also taste good with multiple steeps. I get 3-5 in a day no problem with a western style steep.
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Jan 26, 2023 23:14
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trying to make a better dr pepper, so i've used two and a half cups of my rooibos starter booch, a third of a cup brewed cinnamon tea, a half tablespoon mixed peppercorns, and a third of a cup crushed lapins cherries. will keep you all posted on my project, which i've affectionately named Dr Pepper, PhD, Microbiologist
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Feb 12, 2023 14:37
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I have a dumb, super-noob question but is there any difference, flavor-wise, between English Breakfast and English Afternoon? A friend of mine brewed some Afternoon tea for me that she got at Buckingham Palace that was super good but my local grocery store seems to only have Breakfast (from brands like Twinings, Stash, etc). I tried looking online but the closest difference I could see is that Breakfast tea is "stronger" but I'm not sure what they mean by that. Sorry, I know grocery store tea bags are probably frowned upon here but I'm on a bit of a budget right now  I really like Twinings' Lady Grey tea and am a big fan of Earl Grey in general. I'm not sure what brand Buckingham Palace sells...I'm willing to bet it's probably Twinings, or something, but I didn't check. In any case, I just really loved the flavor of the Afternoon tea and was wondering if Breakfast tea's flavor was similar.
Happy Landfill fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Feb 13, 2023 |
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Feb 13, 2023 23:08
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Happy Landfill posted:I have a dumb, super-noob question but is there any difference, flavor-wise, between English Breakfast and English Afternoon? A friend of mine brewed some Afternoon tea for me that she got at Buckingham Palace that was super good but my local grocery store seems to only have Breakfast (from brands like Twinings, Stash, etc). I tried looking online but the closest difference I could see is that Breakfast tea is "stronger" but I'm not sure what they mean by that. It will taste different depending on the blend of tea put in the mix. There is no standard recipe across companies or named types, so find one that you like and drink that one. My favorite budget bag tea is Yorkshire Gold. Just try them one box at a time, and keep buying the box that you like the most.
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Feb 13, 2023 23:52
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That's good to know! Thank you! Been really liking Stash and Twinings, so I'll give theirs a try. Unless there's other budget brands that Goons recommend? I started drinking tea again after inheriting an electric kettle from someone and it's been really great! As much as I enjoy coffee, there's just something about tea that makes me feel...better? I guess. Not that coffee makes me feel bad or anything, I just feel like I don't crash from tea the way I did with coffee. tea doesn't seem to go though me as much as coffee does, either
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Feb 14, 2023 00:48
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Not crashing might be because of the l-theanine in tea. I drink a lot of tea and take l-theanine as a supplement for anxiety and to help me sleep. Taking it in a 2:1 ratio to caffeine (I add 200mg to any coffee I drink) helps calm the coffee jitters and prevents the crash. Also, Twinings Oolong bagged tea is one of my favorites. I was disappointed with their loose leaf Earl Grey though.
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Feb 14, 2023 00:58
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