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I usually place a large tea order from China this time of year, and this years just arrived. Its mostly stuff I get every year like first harvest Bi Lo Chun, some more Ti Guan Yin, and an assortment of shou pu erhs. I seldom get a new tea that is remarkable enough that I would actually post about it, but there is one this time. This stuff: https://yunnansourcing.us/collections/ripe-pu-erh-tea/products/12-years-aged-golden-melon-ripe-pu-erh-tea-tuo Its till a shou, if you don't like those you probably wont like this, but if you are into the real dirt-flavor pu erhs this one is pretty good. Its got all the fresh potting soil and dark liquor flavors with much less of the bitter sharp-on-the-tongue overtones so common in shou pu erh. I tastes 'soft', if thats even a flavor. I got a menghai bing from 1999 too that I haven't broken into yet, but am excited about. edit - for the folks upthread detailing their adventures with pu erh, try longer initial washes. I usually wash for at least 15 seconds, it gets a lot of the bitter tannins out that are responsible for a lot of the bad flavor in the first steep. taters fucked around with this message at 14:30 on May 10, 2024 |
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May 10, 2024 14:27
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| # ? May 24, 2024 19:42 |
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taters posted:I usually place a large tea order from China this time of year, and this years just arrived. Its mostly stuff I get every year like first harvest Bi Lo Chun, some more Ti Guan Yin, and an assortment of shou pu erhs. I seldom get a new tea that is remarkable enough that I would actually post about it, but there is one this time. This stuff: I have one of those from the sampler pack I ordered. While I can't say I like the cooked pu-erhs I've tried, I still want to try that one. Not really sure how to crack it open though, it's hard as a rock. I don't have a knife for breaking cakes apart yet, but it looks so densely packed and old that I just get little crumbles no matter what I try. Today's payday, so I'm hoping to put an order in on some stuff. I think I want to pick up some fukamushi sencha to try (and get a teapot that actually works for such fine tea; I found some sencha and hojicha locally but the teapot I have doesn't have a good enough filter), and re-up my stock of oolongs. I still haven't tried raw pu-erh yet, so I want to get in on that too. Framboise fucked around with this message at 15:13 on May 10, 2024 |
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May 10, 2024 15:11
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Any of you know what this thing is called? It's neat and I want to get some more. I got it with a tea-order but they don't sell it seperately. It's 4"-ish long. Yellow part is locked inside the orange.    E: Could have just checked Aliexpress for 2 min. instead of posting. It's called a Seal/Sealer Stick Pondex fucked around with this message at 22:51 on May 11, 2024 |
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May 11, 2024 22:38
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taters posted:edit - for the folks upthread detailing their adventures with pu erh, try longer initial washes. I usually wash for at least 15 seconds, it gets a lot of the bitter tannins out that are responsible for a lot of the bad flavor in the first steep. Currently trying this with one of my samplers I mentioned before. I think the longer wash was good. I can actually taste tea in this-- it was never the dirt/soil flavor that ruined my experience before, it was that it was all I could taste, and it was intense. Granted, this is different from the others I'd tried so far, but for a shou pu-erh, what I've got right now is not bad. Rather than being reminiscent of getting faceplanted into fresh mulch on the playground, this tastes like stepping outside on a cool morning after a long rain. Petrichor-y, but not offensive. Granted, I'm only on my second steep after the initial wash (first steep was 5 seconds, this one was 10ish), so we'll see how I feel about it as I continue. Got a bit of a pleasant sweetness in the back of my throat, but that may be because I didn't rinse out the teapot I'm using as a gong dao bei after having some Da Hong Pao earlier. Ah well.
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May 19, 2024 03:29
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Pondex posted:E: Could have just checked Aliexpress for 2 min. instead of posting. It's called a Seal/Sealer Stick Grocers sometimes have these next to the potato chips.
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May 19, 2024 04:10
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Framboise posted:Currently trying this with one of my samplers I mentioned before. Return report: While it's not my favorite, this was pleasant and a much better experience than my last few rounds of pu-erh. A shame I only had a 10g packet of this one, but maybe the 250g one I got as a bonus will taste better if I give it a longer wash too. I definitely prefer the more floral, stone fruit-like flavors of oolongs to it, but the pu-erh is nice as an evening pick-me-up (though still probably too much caffeine for me to be drinking it after 10pm, it's 1am now oops. Edit: it's 5am, still wide awake. I thought pu-erh was supposed to have lower caffeine and the initial wash was supposed to remove most of that. What the hell. Framboise fucked around with this message at 10:00 on May 19, 2024 |
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May 19, 2024 06:02
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Pu erh is some of the highest caffeine tea, especially shou. Have a nice evening.
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May 19, 2024 10:36
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Framboise posted:
Have you tried Zi Juan Cha? It's a sheng pu-erh that has a really nice juicy nectarine-flavor. It's not for the nighttime though, made me pretty buzzy from the caffeine.
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May 19, 2024 14:15
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taters posted:Pu erh is some of the highest caffeine tea, especially shou. Have a nice evening. It's 10 now. I managed to get a bit of sleep. I'm STILL feeling a bit of buzz even after that. What the gently caress. I read that people will drink pu-erh as an after-dinner tea as it helps with digestion and isn't very strong on the caffeine. Then again, I also read that white/green tea also has the most caffeine since it's the least processed, but another source that says they have the least. Is this a contentious subject or something? Are there any teas that are low in caffeine? I haven't found an herbal blend I like yet, I guess. Pondex posted:Have you tried Zi Juan Cha? It's a sheng pu-erh that has a really nice juicy nectarine-flavor. It's not for the nighttime though, made me pretty buzzy from the caffeine. I haven't tried sheng pu-erh yet! I've been wanting to. I'll add that one to my list.
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May 19, 2024 15:07
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Tea is not naturally low in caffeine. It has what it has and while processing affects it a bit, does not remove the caffeine from the plant. If you’re sensitive to caffeine you might try white tea and see how it works for you. It and green tea tend toward having the least caffeine, but can contain as much as a black tea. There are decaffeinated teas, but they taste like trash. The only real decaf options are infusions made with other plants.
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May 19, 2024 16:44
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I love ginger drinks but they often give me a bit of a headache and feel a bit weird, not sure why.
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May 19, 2024 17:04
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I'll just have to do some research on herbals or something then. It's nice to drink tea while I'm working at my computer at night. Being awake until 5, less so. I can try doing a green tea instead, too. I've got a kyusu and sampler of a bunch of Japanese green teas coming this week, so I can try that, perhaps. Gonna give another thanks for mentioning a longer initial wash with cooked pu-erh, as well. I was a bit concerned that I was gonna be stuck with 250g of this stuff that I got as a bonus that I wouldn't like drinking, and turns out it's much better after giving it a longer rinse.
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May 20, 2024 13:48
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hard to go wrong with a big sack of chamomile for herbals if you're after stuff for later on in the evening.
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May 20, 2024 17:46
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Also rooibos, a thing that isn't technically Tea.
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May 20, 2024 17:47
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Pondex posted:Any of you know what this thing is called? It's neat and I want to get some more.
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May 20, 2024 18:08
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Trabant posted:Also rooibos, a thing that isn't technically Tea. That one and its relative honeybush are strong diuretics though, so watch out before bed. I’ve learned I can’t have any after 8 pm or I’ll be getting up in the middle of the night
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May 20, 2024 19:37
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neongrey posted:hard to go wrong with a big sack of chamomile for herbals if you're after stuff for later on in the evening. Can't stand chamomile, sorry. Even the smell of it makes me nauseous. I might try rooibos again though. Haven't had it in a long time, not since the Teavana days lol
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May 20, 2024 19:41
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Stuporstar posted:That one and its relative honeybush are strong diuretics though, so watch out before bed. I’ve learned I can’t have any after 8 pm or I’ll be getting up in the middle of the night Huh, I don't think it does that to me. Or at least I never made the connection. Hmm. Framboise posted:I might try rooibos again though. Haven't had it in a long time, not since the Teavana days lol My all-time favourite is:  I'm sure there are great many more easily accessible (and cheaper) options out there though.
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May 20, 2024 20:01
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Chamomile is not great for everyone. It's a straight up migraine trigger for me. Roiboos is okay as a base sometimes, but it really needs a good supporting cast. If you're really caffeine sensitive but want tea still, I'd cut the quantity of the tea in the cup in half at least and replace it with other things. There's a ton of herbs that steep well that you can replace things with, but most tea blends use a lot of dried fruits and flowers. Then you still get some of the tea flavor in the base, but you don't get all the caffeine that you don't want.
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May 20, 2024 20:02
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| # ? May 24, 2024 19:42 |
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My Japanese green tea sampler arrived today. I heard that kukicha is generally lower in caffeine as it is mostly stems, so I decided to try that. Here's the one I tried, for those interested: https://nioteas.com/products/kukicha-chanoka-100g?variant=40110784118868 It's quite nice. I did 3 steeps, and while there's a little caffeine buzz to it, I feel like I could still go to bed and sleep pretty well. The initial smell as I opened the packet was really really nice. It smelled like strawberries and fresh grass. The tea itself was a bit dry on the tongue but had a really nice sweet aftertaste to it. It's quite nice. I'm really looking forward to trying the gyokuro varieties and the fukamushi sencha that came with it, too.
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May 24, 2024 04:42
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