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neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

.Z. posted:

The bottles of American Ito En I've tried have uniformly been overbrewed. They all had that bitter taste that comes from too long of a brew. Which was irritating because I like their Japanese market versions.

Gonna second this. I think the only flavor I like of that stuff is the blueberry, which is only because the sweetness helps to drown out the bitter.

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neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

While I know how overpriced Teavana can be, I have to say I really like their samples of the mix of strawberry lemonade and blueberry bliss. It's like drinking fruit juice, but without all the weird chemicals or concentrates. I asked them how much their smallest size would be and they quoted me at $35, which is absolutely ridiculous, considering you get about as much as tea as you would in a box of Twinnings tea bags.

Can anyone recommend a comparable set of teas that aren't as expensive?

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

DurianGray posted:

Also, what the gently caress is SUPERFRUIT ENHANCED supposed to be (besides a marketing gimmick)?

I have no clue, but it sounds like it's riding on the hyped up "superfruits" of the moment. It probably means it's got some extract of(or in Teavana's case, probably just the same chemical/nutrients as) acai or pomegranate or something. Hell, it could just mean that it's flavored like them.

I know when I was browsing through the store, they had these large jars of GERMAN ROCK SUGAR! Made from BEET ROOT EXTRACT!! The only way to sweeten your tea WITHOUT CHANGING THE FLAVOR!!

The jar was around $30. I wouldn't buy a $30 thing of sweetener unless it cooked all the foods it would also be sweetening, while it was sweetening my tea and cooking my food.

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

I had taken a trip to Niagara Falls Ontario for New Years Eve(I live in buffalo), and one of the stores there had ice wine tea. I couldn't afford it, but my one friend's mom could and she gave me a couple bags to take home. I wish I could remember the name of the company because holy poo poo, is it ever good. I know it's ceylon tea and I think pieces of the grapes used in ice wine, but I'm not sure. Anyone ever come across anything like this? All I remember is that it was in a red box.

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

It's getting to be hot on the regular now, and I'd like to make some iced tea that isn't the "traditional" orange pekoe steeped to death and sweetened to hell variety. However, I'm also not looking to spend a ton of money on quailty loose leaf because I'm poor. What would you guys recommend in the way of either cheap-as-hell loose leaf or bagged brands to make a decent sweet iced tea?

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

I recently went to on vacation and brought back some very delicious loose leaf tea. I don't have a ton of it, and I'd like to keep it going as long as possible. Since it's summer time, I'm basically only using it to make iced tea by brewing hot, doubling the amount used, the time steeped, and then chilling and adding water and sugar to taste. I've heard of people keeping loose leaf after steeping and reusing it. What's the procedure for that? Obviously I don't want anything bad growing in the tea between uses. What do I need to know to not die and/or not steep the tea to death?

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

DurianGray posted:

One exception would be flavored teas, at least in my experience (both artificial like chocolate orange or blueberry or whatever and the more 'natural' processes like the smokiness in a Lapsang Souchong). Those are usually only good for one steep unless you don't mind subsequent cups being super bland/weak in comparison.

I think this is what I ended up with, yeah. I resteeped the tea a second time and it was extremely weak compared to the first time. I'm wondering if I shouldn't just cut the first steep into the second, or even brew double water, to even it out some.

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

Currently, I make iced tea in bulk using these paper filter bag things, but they always open up midway through steeping and I end up having to filter all the leaves out. My wife mentioned wanting to get me one of these tea makers for my birthday. Does anyone know anything about them? Teavana has these in a gift pack with some sugar and a tea tin for $35, which seem OK given that that thing's $30 on it's own. However, I see reviews saying the seals leak. I found a similar one from Adagio that has much better reviews, but it's the same price as the Teavana one and listed as 28 oz instead of the 32 oz. Does anyone have any opinions on these? Or maybe a better recommendation?

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

Thanks, that's good advice. I don't put any stock at all in Teavana as a company, but hey, a sale's a sale. I'll take another look at the Adagio one and think it over.

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

Yeah, probably my favorite Teavana tea is the Blueberry Lemonade mix they make with Blueberry Bliss and... I think Pineapple Kona Pop? I don't shop them for "actual" teas, but their fruit teas can be really good.

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

Over the weekend, I stopped at a Bulk Barn while on a day trip to Ikea and picked up a couple small bags of loose leaf pomegranate lavender green and hibiscus rosehip black teas. I'm sure they're not great, but I ended up spending less than $5 on tea that would have cost me nearly $15 for the same quantity back home, so I'm not complaining. Can someone refresh my memory on the best practices for making iced herbal green tea? I know you either use twice the amount or steep twice as long, steep in... hot water, or cold? Hot then pour into an equal amount of ice water, right? And sweeten while it's still hot, right?

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

You guys'll recall me asking about brewing iced green tea a few days ago. I forgot to post about it, but i tried both brewing hot and chilling, and brewing cold overnight in the fridge. Between the two, brewing hot produced a stronger, slightly bitter tea(almost definitely slightly over-steeped), and the cold brew produced a much milder, floral tea that was overall better, but didn't take to sweetening via simple syrup as well for some reason.

Anyway, I've got a few sample size bags of loose leaf black, rooibos, oolong, and white to try as well. Do the same general rules for cold brewing apply as well to all of those, or are they different between the different types?

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

Cold brewing is great. It's what I've been doing for the last couple months for drinks at work. I haven't been using anything special or fancy, either. I've just been heading to Bulk Barn once a month and buying some of whatever smells good. So far, I've tried and loved a pomegranate lavender green, a tropical coconut oolong, and a pink lemonade rooibos, among others. Method's the same for all teas, I do half a gallon at a time, so ~8tsp of leaves in a strainer, into half a gallon of cold water for 8 hours, drain into another container, refill, and steep for an additional 8-12/whenever I remember tog et it out of the fridge. Mix the two steepings and sweeten to taste with a simple syrup made from the tea, so as not to dilute it further.

Actually, this is a good opportunity to ask if there's any faster way to cold brew. I love the results, but it literally takes me 2 days to prep a gallon of the stuff between work. I kinda wonder if I could, say, use very warm tap water or something to start the steep and possibly pull out more of the flavor more quickly. If I could get the whole thing done in a day, that'd be much better.

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

coyo7e posted:

I often start my sun tea with hot tap water, doesn't hurt anything. Just be sure to refrigerate after it cools.

I can't imagine trying to cold steep herbal teas though.

But how much does that shorten the steeping time? Cold steeping herbal seems to work just fine. Or at least, the more heavily herbal teas I've done have been fine. First steep tends to be very fruit/herb forward, second tends to be mostly the tea flavor, which makes it perfectly fine to combine the two steepings.

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

AmericanBarbarian posted:

https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/dan-cong-oolong-tea?sort_by=price-ascending

Yunnan Sourcing has a oolong tea sale going, I'm going to pick up some greener oolongs and see what they are like. I've never drunk oolongs before, any recommendations for what I should look for?

I have mixed feelings about the first tea listed on that page.

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

So now that Teavana's finally closed up shop, I've got a small problem. I bought a small bag of their Weight To go tea when it was on sale, and I really liked it. Looking it up, it seemed to be a huge mix of various teas, with hints of strawberry, mint, berry, sweet chocolate, etc etc. Anyone know of anything comparable?

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

So, a few months ago, a new asian supermarket opened up on the other side of town. I only got around to visiting it this past weekend, and ended up buying this to try:





Now, a quick google tells me this is probably not actually prestigious, high quality tea that wikipedia tells me it should be, so what did I buy? I mean, it smells really good, and I'm still gonna drink it, I'm just curious on what exactly I got here.

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

It doesn't smell smoky at all, but I'm used to Twinnings' lapsang souchong, which yeah, is like drinking a campfire. I like that on a nice cold fall day, or toward the end of a long winter, but this ain't that. This stuff smells... sweet, almost like chocolate, but more sweet than cocoa. Definitely no smoky smell at all. I guess lemme try brewing up a quick cup and seeing what I've got here.

EDIT: Went the fast route. Steeped 1tbsp of tea in ~1 cup of water for 30 seconds, tossed that, then did a second steep for 45. Sweetened with a bit of sugar. Here's a quick pic for the color:



As for taste, I don't consider myself anywhere near enough of a connoisseur to pick out the delicate flavor notes or any of that poo poo. What I taste tastes kind of like a slightly better quality generic black tea. Admittedly, this could be due to a number of things; I didn't steep it correctly, I over/undersweetened it, I'm not good at tea yet, or, and this is probably the most likely, it's just regular old tea that I got for $7.50 for the jar. :shrug:

neogeo0823 fucked around with this message at 01:58 on May 23, 2018

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

Kilometers Davis posted:

Trying my first cold brews today. I’m excited. Not sure what to expect. One bottle has Gunpowder and the other Citrus Mint Green. I used 2 tsp for each 16 oz of water. Wish me luck! I’ll try them in about 12 hours.

I can't speak for the matcha, as I've never had matcha, but any loose leaf will do best at around 24 hours, I find. Sure, you can test at 12, but I've only ever been disappointed when I forgot that I had tea cold brewing and left it in the fridge for over 36 hours. Protip: if you like your tea sweet, instead of adding sugar to the cold tea, just use some of the freshly steeped tea to make a simple syrup and pour that back into your pitcher or whatever you're using. This way you won't water down your tea or overflow your pitcher.

Love Stole the Day posted:

There you are! I remember playing a game with you a few years ago and you said that that was your favorite tea. I remember the line about "drinking a campfire." Never saw you again after that, but that line resonated with me. Forgot the name of the tea, so now that I know what it is again I'll definitely give it a try sometime soon hopefully.

Oh hey, which game was this? If I had to guess, I'd say... amaranthine?

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

Kilometers Davis posted:

No matcha, just standard greens. This and this. I think I’ll take your advice and stretch it to at least 20 hours. (I’m impatient and excited! lol) I do prefer my tea on the strong side so maybe it will be exactly what I want out of cold brew.

Thanks for the sweetness tip. I’m glad though, I’ve been drinking tea, uh, “black” since I got into it properly. Never thought I could do that before.

Update: I decided to try the citrus mint green at 21 hours. After my first sip I knew I was going to drink it all. Two glasses later I’m pleasantly surprised how well that turned out. Less aroma but such nice flavor. Zero bitterness and an amount of natural sweetness I never expected. I’m not a good enough taster to pick out precisely how it differed from a hot cup but there was a lot going on. Smoother, more subtle. I admittedly drank those cups much faster than I should have but the experience was so beautiful.

I put the leaves back into a bottle for a second steeping. I’ve never resteeped tea in general so this should be a fun test. Again, thanks for the advice on the 24 hour mark.

I’m starting to understand how tea as a hobby works. There are so many different ways to enjoy it.

For some reason, whenever I read 'gunpowder', my mind instantly travels to matcha powder. I don't know why. But, I'm glad it worked out well for you. :) I've never tried resteeping a cold brewed tea. I suppose I should try it out, but I typically make a gallon of tea and that lasts me for at least a few days, so I don't know how well the leaves would keep in between. My typical method is: saturday mid/late day: begin steeping tea. Sunday same-ish time, take out leaves, make simple syrup. By monday morning, its cold again and ready to drink for the week.

My experience making a tea both hot and cold is that the hot tea tends be to stronger, but less sweet, all things equal, while the cold brew tends to be lighter, and more floral. I chalk it up to the different parts of your tongue that work better at different temperatures, allowing you to pick up different nuances of the tea at those temperatures.

One other thing I can recommend is to find a local tea shop, if there are any, and just buy an ounce of whatever smells good. I go to mine every month or so and walk out with usually 2-4 ounces of things for less than $15, and they're all great. Hell, if you're in Canada, go to Bulk Barn if you've got one. It's obviously lower quality tea, but that means it's just that much easier and cheaper for experimentation. Their tropical coconut mango oolong is amazing cold brewed. I'm on a huge lavender kick right now, and one of my favorites is a lavender earl grey. I saw the link that david_a posted up the page for an earl grey oolong, and I am salivating waiting for my next paycheck to go buy some.

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

Kilometers Davis posted:

Alright tea babby question time. I’m learning the notes and aromas etc pretty well considering I’ve never been “good” at figuring that kind of thing out. It’s quite fun. Something I’m picking up on lately in the Irish Breakfast and Earl Grey is a certain punchy smell and flavor. I’m assuming it’s the bready malty notes in the assam even though the earl gray is made with ceylon. Would that be correct? It’s not my favorite smell or taste lately and I’m wondering what black teas would have less of that. I’m grabbing some Chinese black tea very soon. update: bought


Thanks! Resteeping didn’t really work. Just produced some seemingly super weak tea. Oh well! I’m in Florida and it’s getting into daily 90f high humidity weather so it looks like I’ll be cold brewing quite a bit. I’m excited to perfect it.

That seems accurate, yeah. I’ll throw some blacks into the water today and see how that turns out just for fun. I’m hoping the earl grey comes out how I’m expecting.

Unfortunately there’s nothing like that around here that I know of. I’m happy with Adagio’s offerings for my basics though. It works. The points system is already paying off (holy poo poo I’m buying a lot of tea) and I’ll have to check out their subscription system.

Huh. Good to know on the resteeping front. I had assumed, apparently correctly, that 24 hours in the drink would basically take everything the leaves could give. For me, the main draw for earl grey is the slightly citrus note from the bergamot, backed with that strong black tea background. I can't speak much for irish breakfast, as I never really took to that variety. I guess I just had way too much of it while first learning to brew tea, and that soured my taste for it. If you wanna try something that's not black teas, I recommend any sweeter or tropically flavored oolong. Oolongs tend to be sweeter in general than black teas, and the more golden ones tend to have a sort of honey aftertaste that's just amazing. Definitely one of my favorite cold brewed teas was the previously mentioned tropical coconut mango oolong from Bulk Barn.

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

T-... Try lighting it on fire. With one of those long BBQ lighters. Outdoors, with some sort of shielding between you and it.

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

Hey goons. Does anyone know anything about making a good London Fog? I've been hunting for the perfect process for a while now, and since it's getting warmer out I'm looking for an iced version. Most of the recipes I've been seeing online produce a tea that's either too tannic or too diluted to taste anything other than generic sweetness, with pretty much nothing in the middle that I've been able to find so far. Hilariously, the best I've had so far, and the one that turned me on to the whole thing, was the LF concentrate that Aldi sold. But it was a seasonal item, and the season's over now.

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

Reiterpallasch posted:

try upping the leaf-to-water ratio and cutting the steep time? that's usually what you do when you want to beat down astringency while still making the tea taste like tea.

Some recipes did suggest that, yeah. But most ended up calling for like 3X the normal tea-to-water ratio, which gets really expensive when you upscale. The other issue is that hot steeping that way seems to transfer the flavor of the bergamot and lavender, but not the taste of the tea itself. It's really loving odd, honestly. I was almost to the point of steeping a large quantity of normal strength tea, then finding a way to evaporate off half of it in a way that won't gently caress up the tea essence, but that's a lot more work than I wanted to put in if I could avoid it.

Jhet posted:

I've never made one, but if I were going to I would make the tea in hot milk prior to steaming as well as the other tea you’d be making. Probably somewhere in the range of 50/50 tea/milk? Then there’s something for the syrup to mix with before you add the steamed milk.

I did try hot steeping in milk, but accidentally scalded the milk. I also tried cold steeping the tea/lavender directly in milk, which produced a very nicely london fog flavored milk, but now I just need to figure out how to cut it successfully with tea. I'm thinking of cold brewing earl grey and lavendar and mixing with the milk, but that'll take me till the day after tomorrow at best to report back on.

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

I just got done with my first experiment on a cold London Fog. I don't have fancy equipment or premium ingredients, so I feel kinda bad bringing up the topic and then sharing lackluster results.

For the milk component, I'm currently burning through the cold steeped milk I made a couple days ago. The recipe for that is:

per 1 cup of milk:

0.5 tbsp loose leaf earl grey
0.5 tsp lavender
1 cup milk(I used 2%)
0.5 tsp vanilla extract
~3 drops of liquid Stevia or to taste.

Steeped the tea and lavender in the milk in the fridge for 24 hours, then strained and added the vanilla and the Stevia. If you were gonna do sugar or a powdered sweetener, I'd recommend gently heating a tiny amount of milk and dissolving the sweetener in that before returning it to the cold milk and steeping. This recipe also scales up decently. I bought a half gallon and did the remaining 7 cups of milk as follows:

0.25 cup loose leaf earl grey
3.5 tsp lavender
7 cups milk
3.5 tsp vanilla extract
~0.5 tsp liquid stevia

The resulted in a really tasty, cold, london fog flavored milk. Only issue was it was kinda thick for me, since I'm used to skim milk. So, I figured I'd cut it with earl grey tea. So, when I got home today, I made a quick 1 cup of Twinnings earl grey with lavender, steeped normal time and strength, and tried some various ratios of it and the milk. I found anything with more tea than milk was too thin, and approaching a 1:1 ratio, the drink was still too weak. Currently, I've got 1 cup of water cold steeping with two tea bags in it for tomorrow. I'll report back then and we'll see how it turns out.

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

So, day 2 of some general experimentation yielded mixed results. On the one hand, I can say that I prefer a ratio of 2:1 milk to tea for a cold london fog. Also, the double strength cold steeped tea was definitely needed over the regular strength. But on the other hand, I can also say that after a couple of days, the pre-steeped LF milk ended up with muddled flavors that were still ok, but not nearly as pronounced as the day I steeped it. This means I'm either gonna have to find a way to know a day ahead of time when I want a london fog, or I'll have to find a way to distill the flavors into something that I can just add to either the tea or the milk as needed.

Progress in one direction, setbacks in another.

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

gamingCaffeinator posted:

I think it's about time to start making iced tea for the summertime. Do you guys have a preferred type of tea, or method for making it?

Personally, I like herbal iced teas, but cold-brewing them in the fridge doesn't always work. Cold-brewed black tea is so smooth and clean-tasting though.

Anything oolong is good, and most black teas. Earl grey for some reason, doesn't work for me. I don't know why. If you happen to be in or near Canada, they have a store called Bulk Barn that has a fantastic and cheap Tropical Coconut Mango Oolong that cold brews amazingly well. I've also had good luck with a Mon's Blend style of tea that some of the cheaper places sell. Near as I can tell, it's just black tea with a couple different yellow flowers in it, but I never remember the flower names. But it's smooth and mellow and slightly sweet and perfect on a hot day.

In general, I tend to shy away from green or white teas when cold brewing, unless I'm blending them with black teas. Stay away from hibiscus, since it tends to brew very bitter, imo. Anything sweet, so fruit teas or most floral teas, should be pretty good.

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

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

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

Hey goons, I'm looking for something cheap to drink at work in the mornings. The problem I'm having is three-fold though. 1.) The only source of water I have at work is a Kuerig that I can't adjust the temperature on. It works great for making hot water for tea, but if I get something that's super temperature sensitive, then I'll likely just ruin it by making it at work. 2.) I'm on a keto diet for the next few months, so no sugars for me. I've got liquid stevia, but I'm really not a huge fan of it. It could very well be because I've been bringing lovely bagged black tea to work, and the flavors don't mesh well. That said though, if I could find teas that trend toward the sweeter side of things, then I could use less/none of the liquid stevia, which would be great. And 3.) I'm kinda really loving broke, all the time. So the cheaper the tea, the better.

Taste-wise, I just discovered that I can apparently enjoy matcha teas over the summer. I also like sweeter oolongs and black teas. A while back in the thread, I posted about a tea that I found at a local Asian grocery store that purported to be Jin Jun Mei, but clearly it wasn't. My lovely bagged teas that I've been bringing are Twinnings English breakfast, Prince of Wales, Earl Grey with lavender, and the remains of a box of Mad Hatter Tea Party blend from a trip to Disney a while back, which is black tea flavored with apricot, peach, and ginger. Oh, and the place my wife works at has this herbal tea by Aveda that's apparently got sweet fennel in it that's really good. They add no sugar, but it tastes like it's loaded with it. Mostly though, I'm just looking for the caffeine kick to get me awake in the mornings, without it being too strong and bitter after brewing. If I can find something that doesn't force me to drown it in artificial sweeteners just to swallow it, then all the better. Yes, I'm trying to kick the sweet tooth. It's tough when it comes to drinks.

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

Stuporstar posted:

Of the bagged teas Yorkshire Gold is definitely better than most, but its price depends on how accessible it is since it’s imported from England. How hot does the kuerig make the water? Because if I’m using boiling water with a bagged tea, I only steep it for 30-90 seconds. 3-5 min is too much for anything other than piss-warm water (or one teabag in a huge pot), since teabags have been redesigned for barbarians XD

Are you opposed to putting milk in your tea? Because I’ve been drinking cheap chai with whipping cream (or half-and-half if I have no other option), and the higher fat dairy has completely eliminated my need to add sugar to it.

As for sweeter blacks, good Yunnan or Keemun are so delicious they don’t need anything added to them, but I keep the temperature down to 85C for a good Keemun, so it’s probably a better home tea unless you bring your own setup to work.

I don't know what temperature the Kuerig gets the water to, but after a quick google, I'd say it's likely 192F. I typically find that for most of my lovely bagged teas, steeping for around 30 seconds less than the suggested time works "best", per se. Going on your suggestion, it seems if I let the water sit for a minute or two before I steep, I'll likely have about the best temperature for what you're recommending.

As for milk in tea, I can only have heavy cream or half and half on keto, due to the fat/sugar ratio of other milks not being quite right. I'm opposed to keeping milk at work though, because while we do have refrigerators, they're overfull, and the chances of your stuff being unmolested are greater than zero, and I'd rather not have an open carton of milk laying around in there.

So, given that, does anyone have any links to decent, cheap Yunnan or Keemun teas I could grab samples of?

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

Heath posted:

On a personal note, it says something about the power of scent to elicit memories that every time I smell this tea I am suddenly four years old again and remembering a very particular scent that I loved when I was very young. I had a scratch 'n' sniff Disney book featuring the DuckTales characters, and on one of the pages there had been a recently extinguished fire. Scratching the page gave off an aroma very similar to that of the smokey lapsang scent, and smelling this tea sends me into a Proustian reverie of my very early childhood centered around a book I haven't thought about in three decades. What a strange sensation that is.

I'm not a huge tea snob by most standards. I'm just enough of a tea snob to make me look like a tea snob to people who've only ever drank Lipton or Pure Leaf teas. So that in mind, the only lapsang I've ever had is Twinnings. So it's not super high-end, authentic, and only-available-sometimes, but just like you, the smell instantly transports me back to my scouting days, right to the side of a camp fire on warm spring evening. It strikes me as really weird that that's really one of the few really good memories I have of my childhood that's so strongly tied to a specific scent.

Also, on this note:

Heath posted:

I wrote this a couple of days ago, but I am really loving this tea lately:

Today's tea is a matcha-infused genmaicha, or brown rice tea. Matcha, or fine-ground green tea powder, is added to the tea, enhancing the green coloration, flavor, and caffeine content. It is also available without. Here is the tea before brewing...

I dunno where you live, but if you're anywhere around Western New York, the local huge grocery chain, Wegmans, sells their own loose leaf version of this, which I picked up over the weekend after reading this post. I have yet to try it, but it smells delicious. I also picked up a couple ounces of a lavendar sencha that I did actually try yesterday and loved, so I'll likely be getting more of that once I run out of the sample. Price-wise, I'm getting these for around $1.19 to $1.49/ounce, which isn't horrible, all things considered.

I ended up getting these teas to try after I followed this post:

Stuporstar posted:

I get all my Chinese blacks from Teavivre these days: https://www.teavivre.com/tea.html?cat=10

The Dian Hong Golden Snail is one of the lower priced Yunnan teas and it’s delicious: https://www.teavivre.com/dian-hong-golden-snail-black-tea.html It tastes a bit like chocolate and caramel.

Golden monkey is also always a great pick, but they currently only have the premium in stock. You’ll have to wait a few months for the next harvest to get the regular kind. But if you can find an inexpensive golden monkey elsewhere, you really can’t go wrong with that one.

The Keemun’s are all extremely different (I’m preferential to their superfine mao feng because the later infusions taste almost like dark chocolate covered cherries, but it’s expensive so I’m waiting for a big sale to stock up). I suggest ordering a bunch of samples to figure out which ones you like.

And was incredibly disappointed to find out that Teavivre wasn't shipping orders till the end of the month due to the lunar new year. Further, my wife got all squicked out at the idea due to the recent illnesses on that side of the world, so... I guess I'm stuck waiting on that magnificent looking golden snail till things clear up.

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

Heath posted:

I'm at work so all I've got to dispense hot water is a Keurig and a plastic cup from a pizza place :shrug: I'd guess it's 4 oz?

do you know which model Keurig it is? Typically, Keurigs will pour in even numbers ounce measurements that can vary by model number. For example, my home Keurig has options for 6,oz 8oz, and 10oz popurs, while the ones at work have options for 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12oz. I did get around to measuring my Keurig's brew temp earlier, and it's solidly 172F right out of the gate. A bit low for some of the teas I've got, but it works well enough. Still not sure about the ones at work though, but I'd wager it's pretty similar.

EDIT: Ah poo poo, this is a crappy page snipe. For more content, I've bought a bunch of sample sizes of various loose leaf teas from the local Wegmans, and so far have tried their Dragon Well green, Holiday Spirit herbal, lavender sencha, masala chai, and Genmaimatcha. Of those, I really love the lavender sencha. Bright, sweet, floral, and just good. But then again, I love lavender in tea. The Holiday Spirit is made of peppermint, cranberry, safflower, and corn flower, with "natural flavors", whatever those are. Overall, it's also pretty good. Minty sweet, as you'd expect, with a hint of floral and fruity notes. The nice thing about it is that it's dirt cheap and not very dense, so I got a ton of it in one ounce. I'll probably make iced tea out of it, honestly.

The masala chai is weird. I've already said I don't tend to like chais, and this is no exception. I bought it for the wife, because she said she likes chai tea, but she won't try it because she's "gotta be in the mood for chai". :shrug: I dunno. Anyway, I tolerate this one more than others because it's not incredibly cinnamon forward like past chais. The full ingredient list is black tea, cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, clove, and black pepper.

The Dragon Well tea, I don't think it's actually Dragon Well tea. It's almost definitely tea that's been processed like Dragon Well tea, but I don't think it's the same thing. It's... very light. I followed the instructions for steep time, but admittedly, I didn't heat the water up to boiling as it said to, instead just using the water from the Keurig. Again, I dunno. It certainly wasn't life changing or anything. It was mostly an ok cup of lightly green tea. The Genmaimatcha as well was not incredibly impressive to me. It wasn't bad, it was more that it was a bit too... I dunno the right word, dark tasting? Heavily roasted-tasting? I guess I'm more used to green teas being light and bright, and this was almost like drinking a dark, robust, black tea. Kinda jarring, given what I was initially expecting.

neogeo0823 fucked around with this message at 01:58 on Feb 4, 2020

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

Heath posted:

It just has 3 buttons marked with a teacup, a coffee cup and a bigger mug.

Then it's probably 6, 8, and 10 ounces. My advice would be to bring in a cup of known size and see how much you can fill it with the Keurig. Like, my workplace provided travel mugs that I know are 12 ounces, for example, so I could use that to estimate the pour of the different options.

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

Rabbit Hill posted:

Two herbal teas I really like are Harney & Sons' Indigo Punch and Wissotzky Tea's Fruit Galore (Wegmans sells this in their kosher food section).

Indigo Punch really does brew that deep blue color, and it turns purple if you squeeze a little lemon juice into it. :3:

Hey, Rabbit, whereabouts do you hail from? Buffalo goon here, and yeah, Wegmans has some good selection for a giant grocery store owned by white people. I like, and posted about, their loose lavender sencha a couple pages ago. Same with their holiday spirit, if you want an herbal you can drink before bed. It's kinda minty, kinda fruity, and it's cheap as hell.

Tom Tucker posted:

I've been a big iced coffee drinker for a while but the caffeine is combining with a new medication in a bad way, so I'm going to try to stop drinking it. I was thinking of replacing my usual morning habit with a nice decaf tea, and ideally one that's served well cold. I've always like Earl Grey, green tea, peppermint, and other herbal teas, just not enough to make a habit of them. What would be the best options for decaf teas I could plop into ice water and still have my morning routine with something tasty, or would I be better off making something in advance or pouring hot before chilling? Thanks all! Big transition for me.

Gonna Nth experimentation for you. just try everything. A coworker of mine gifted me a box of decaf ginko green a couple months back. I never had it iced, but it was pretty dang good hot. Sadly, I finished it and tossed the box, so I don't know the brand name. For iced teas, I like something fruit mixed with a mellow, sweeter tea, like a golden oolong. Unfortunately, I don't really drink decaf tea myself, or else I'd give you some specific recommendations. Your best bet is going to be to find a decaf tea you like and just ice it. Either do the 24 hour cold infusion, or steep and chill.

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

anyone got any links to a good Thai iced tea? We've got a couple Thai places around here that serve an amazing cup of the stuff, but it's like $5-$7 for a 12oz, and hoo boy does my wallet hate that. I know this stuff usually comes as a powdered mix like matcha, is that what I should be looking for? Or is there some loose leaf blend I should be using and then adding condensed sweetened milk to?

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

Anonymous Robot posted:

The price of thai tea is a vice tax to keep you from getting type 2 diabetes.

Well, I can't honestly argue with that, I suppose.

Heath posted:

I'm a big fan of gyokuro personally. If you like genmaicha, mugicha (barley tea) is also quite good

Unrelated to living in Japan, but Trader Joes recently started carrying barley tea. I tried some a couple days ago, and it was definitely unique. Kinda smokey, definitely a different sort of sweetness to it. The wife, who hates tea, only smelled it, but commented that it smells like beer. The stuff was unsweetened, so I tried adding some lavender syrup I had taking up space in the fridge. It completely turned the drink around in an amazing way.

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

Anonymous Robot posted:

Nice, I hope she enjoys it!

If you’re a drinker, here’s a pro tip: put a quarter cup of that tea in a 750ml bottle of gin and wait four hours, and you’ll end up with delicious earl grey gin. Shake 1.5oz of that over ice with .75 oz of lemon juice, 1oz sugar syrup, and an egg white for a real treat.

You watched that How To Drink video as well, huh? I made it. I used Twinnings as he suggested, because consistency, and also test batch, don't use the good stuff. While I definitely enjoyed it, I agree it needed a more bergamot forward tea. Honestly, maybe something like Trader Joe's earl grey. I wouldn't use good quality loose leaf in an infusion unless it was for something I was trying to perfect, instead of a neat drink to whip out at fancy parties.

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

For my loose leaf tea I bought a french press. Granted, I got it on a trip to Disneyworld last year, but if you want a cheap one, Walmart sells them for like $18, and if you're lucky you can find them at discount stores like TJMaxx, Home Goods, or Marshals in the US for under $15 depending on the size. I definitely saw one around 8oz for about $8 a couple weeks ago. They're easy to maintain, just rinse out the loose leaf, and they take about as much room as a mug.

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

I think more of the concern was directed towards how the plastic satchels would impact the environment, rather than the human drinking the tea.

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neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

Any good tea sales going on right now or in the near future that anyone knows about? Since it's getting warmer out, I'm looking for new samplers to try for iced teas and morning drinking.

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