Let's boil leaves: Tea and things that aren't technically Tea

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons with Spoons > Let's boil leaves: Tea and things that aren't technically Tea

taters: Jun 13, 2005

areyoucontagious posted:

I started drinking english breakfast tea and earl grey with a coworker, and now I can't get enough. I see people put milk in their tea- how does that change the taste? I'm curious to try it, but really I'm afraid of change.

Many of the English black teas are blended assuming that milk will be added. Without milk they are very bitter. Yorkshire Gold is a good example of this.

http://www.amazon.com/Taylors-Harrogate-Yorkshire-Gold-160-Count/dp/B000XEV9YE/

Its outstanding with a bit of milk, almost undrinkable without it. I'm sure there are people who don't mind it straight, I'm not one of them.

I also don't drink much black tea. I drink mostly oolong out of a gaiwan at my desk at work.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2014 03:19

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# ¿ May 11, 2024 06:30

taters: Jun 13, 2005

AreYouStillThere posted:

I've recently discovered Pu'erh, and I'm intrigued. I thought it was delicious, but I'm a little wary of buying things grown in China. Should I be worried? Is there a brand that I can be less worried about? I bought one of these and though it does say USDA organic on it, I'm almost positive it was still grown in China.

I prefer loose tea, not bags.

Quite a few traditional Chinese Tea varieties are produced in Taiwan. The climate is suitable and they have the expertise. I'm not sure how much of their production is available for export. If you happen to know any Taiwanese personally, that would be a good place to start.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2014 03:03

taters: Jun 13, 2005

Teavana products always struck me as being intended for people who don't really like tea. It seems like they make an concerted effort to hide the flavor of the Camellia sinensis leaves.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2014 21:54

taters: Jun 13, 2005

Boris Galerkin posted:

I'm really liking black tea and I'd like to try more. The only one I know for sure I've had is this English breakfast, but I've had others too that I don't remember the names of. What are other black teas (don't have to be similar) for me to try and where do I order them online?

Yorkshire Gold
http://smile.amazon.com/Taylors-Harrogate-Yorkshire-Gold-160-Count/dp/B000XEV9YE/

This is about the best English blend black tea you can get in bags. No flavorings or other adulterants. Hard to beat without getting into full-leaf brewing. Best with a bit of milk.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2014 18:40

taters: Jun 13, 2005

Juaguocio posted:

Yeah, hot tea is a necessity in the morning.

Urgh, the second cold-brewed cup was completely bitter. I think sencha may not be for me, or at least not the one David's sells.

I've ruined quite a bit of good green tea. Enough to almost figure it out. In my experience its usually one of two culprits.

The water being too hot is the most common mistake I make. For a long time I just assumed that green tea wasn't really my thing. One day I boiled some water and poured in into a serving pitcher to cool and kind of forgot about it for a while. By the time I remembered, it wasn't even steaming except for a few tiny wisps right on the surface. I steeped the tea anyway assuming it would be week and kinda crappy. It was perfect.

I'm still a much bigger fan of oolongs and yellow tea than green tea, but I finally understand what people are talking about when they call green tea "sweet". Just let the water cool more, especially for the first steep. If you use the same tea in the same vessel with the same water, you figure it out eventually.

Even after that experience, their is quite a bit of variance across varieties. What works for a bolder Chinese green like Lung Ching may ruin a tender first flush Japanese Sencha.

Additionally, It could just be bad tea. There is quite a bit of sub-par green tea in fancy tins and packets. There is also quite a bit of average or slightly above average tea priced absurdly high.

edit - I know nothing about "cold brewing" tea and consider iced tea abhorrent, both the American tea flavored sugar water and the gross bubble tea they drink in Asia.

taters fucked around with this message at 03:29 on Jun 8, 2014

# ¿ Jun 8, 2014 03:25

taters: Jun 13, 2005

DontAskKant posted:

What about the delicious iced teas with no sugar or any sweetener added?

There is a Chinese restaurant that serves a Iced Tea version of a Wuyi Yancha Oolong. It was different.

They still serve it with a bowl of sugar and a spoon on the table. Most people add a lump of sugar the size of a babby's fist. I've had it unsweetened a few times and its ok.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2014 07:43

taters: Jun 13, 2005

Silk Road recently stocked a high quality Yancha.

http://www.silkroadteas.com/wuyi-yan-cha/

Any more per pound then this and you're getting into rare collector's teas that aren't worth the cost.

Their top shelf Ti Kuan Yin is very good as well.

http://www.silkroadteas.com/drunken-concubine-zui-gui/

Also tried some yellow tea recently

http://www.silkroadteas.com/fragrant-sprout-xiang-ya/

I've been hesitant to try this with my history of destroying delicate tea. If I take the trouble to brew it carefully its been very good, like a Chinese green but a bit more earthy, less grassy.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2014 03:45

taters: Jun 13, 2005

hope and vaseline posted:

Yancha's really gone up in price lately Teavivre still stocks a pretty competitively priced da hong pao though. I've had some of Silk Road's ma liu me TGY and wasn't terribly impressed, how do you like their drunken concubine? Though to be honest it's probably because I just really prefer my TGY heavily roasted.

It is the best TGY I've ever had. It is light, maybe not the lightest, but pretty light.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2014 22:37

taters: Jun 13, 2005

I said come in! posted:

I'm new to making tea, and I wanted to play it safe first and try tea bags. I was thinking of trying the tea bags from adagio.com and I was wondering if anyone had any opinions on those?

I was thinking of either trying Irish Breakfast; https://www.adagio.com/black/irish_breakfast.html or Early Grey: https://www.adagio.com/black/earl_grey_bravo.html

If you prefer british style tea w/ milk get this.

http://smile.amazon.com/Taylors-Harrogate-Yorkshire-Gold-160-Count/dp/B000XEV9YE/

# ¿ Jul 20, 2014 05:30

taters: Jun 13, 2005

PG Tips is pretty good and fairly widely available. Esp if you live in north america, any of these british teas will blow away Lipton or other american bagged black teas.

# ¿ Jul 21, 2014 05:37

taters: Jun 13, 2005

I like the Twinning's first flush darjeeling. Don't really care for the other twinning's stuff.

# ¿ Jul 23, 2014 06:00

taters: Jun 13, 2005

VenusInFurries posted:

I just visited a friend, and through a conversation eventually walked home with this bag:

He says he bought it on a vacation to China, the tea looks like this:

Now sadly I don't know exactly much about Chinese tea, so does anyone have pointers for not loving this up?

That's an Anxi oolong of some sort, TiKuanYin is the most likely but there are all kinds of smaller varieties. If brought back from China there is a chance it has a flavor in it like jasmine or osmanthus, as those are much more popular domestically then they are for export.

Get a little teapot and dump it in loose, about 1 teaspoon per person you are serving. Boil some water and let it cool to about 90c or so. Fill the pot till the leaves are just covered, swirl gently then wait a few seconds then dump that water out (or drink it, it will taste bad though). Then fill the pot with water and wait .5 to 1.5 minutes or so. Every oolong is a bit different on times and temperature. Many prefer to err on the side of weakness for the first steep. You can get 4-5 good steeps out of a quality Anxi oolong. After the 2nd steep you can up the temp and the steep times, its pretty hard to hurt these later pots. You will need a strainer of some sort for pouring to catch the leaves, which will expand considerably. If serving more then two, it is normal to pour into a serving cup or pitcher first, then into the drinking vessels to mix the weaker tea from the top of the pot with the stronger tea at the bottom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1hjky2glaA

This lady is preparing the same sort of tea in a ceremonial way, in a gaiwan though, not a teapot. She uses the first wash of water to heat the serving cups, which is traditional. She also does the weak first steep, also traditional. Neither of these practices are common for everyday drinking. Most folks who drink oolong alone, myself included, just drink it out of the gaiwan.

# ¿ Aug 25, 2014 05:56

taters: Jun 13, 2005

Eeyo posted:

I bought a big thing of Alokozay "Vietnam Loose" green tea a while back. I've really grown to like it a lot, it's got a chocolatey flavor, it was very evident when I put some honey in it once. Are other teas grown in vietnam like that? Maybe there are a bunch of twigs in it or something, or maybe it's roasted. I just want to get something similar when this runs out/gets stale.

I've never heard any green tea described as 'chocolatey' before. Usually green tea has a very grassy/vegetative flavor. Some Chinese ones are very slightly malty.

The tea I would most describe as chocolatey is Wuyi Tea from China, a sub-type and darkest of the oolongs. Its also called yancha.

Here is a relatively low cost offering in bags.

http://smile.amazon.com/Natural-Vintage-Wuyi-Oolong-Long/dp/B000G1PAC6/

If you've ever had hot tea at a Chinese restaurant, you've probably had it. Although, like the food, it is steeped weakly to accommodate a western palate.

I have a good amount of this stuff...

http://smile.amazon.com/Hong-Pao-Tea-Cake-Competitive/dp/B00EK3IS52/

that I drink from time to time. At that price there is no chance this is actually Da Hong Pao, but is probably descended from a DHP bush, likely 5+ generations removed from the original plants. It is darker and stronger then the bagged stuff above.

# ¿ Sep 14, 2014 05:21

taters: Jun 13, 2005

Fleve posted:

When I was first steeping it, I was sceptic of the quality. The leaves didn't seem to be very whole but fragmented. That was actually just the leaves taking longer to unfurl, most of them turning into proper leaves, and with hardly any stalks. If I'm going to go through with ordering larger quantities, this is definitely a keeper.

This is not an unusual reaction to quality oolong. Looking at your first photo you can tell that these leaves have been hand twisted in the traditional manner, an expensive and labor intensive process compared to the machine rolled 'pellets' of lower quality tea. The fragmented appearance is actually because the leaves are significantly smaller then lower quality oolong, as they are probably first flush leaves taken from the top of the tea bush, as opposed to the later larger leaves from the lower branches. Without tasting it, just based on your photos, it looks like pretty good tikuanyin. Another indicator of quality to look out for are small amounts of 'singeing' on the very edges of the leaves. This is another sign of the traditional, manual curing process not found in the mass produced oolongs.

Here is what the beginning of that process looks like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5lXf0AW-MY

# ¿ Oct 25, 2014 18:41

taters: Jun 13, 2005

milpreve posted:

Yeah, that was the plan. I just didn't know if there was a better bulk source than Upton.

The frontier herb company sells large bags of teas and herbs. You wont find any very special tea with them, but they have a wide variety of herbs and non-tea substances that are ofter steeped, like sage and mint.

You can get basic chinese tea flavors like yancha and dragonwell too.

http://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr...9&rnid=16310231

giant link, sorry

# ¿ Nov 8, 2014 00:47

taters: Jun 13, 2005

nwin posted:

Just started gettin some actual tea leaves instead of the bags.

This one girl at work is into tea and she said she can usually take the same tea and get up to 8 steeps or cups out of the same tsp or tbsp of leaves in her diffuser. She also said that some tea requires a steep of only seconds.

Everything I read (at least about steeping) says completely opposite of that.

Well?

This is oolong tea, thats how it works. Most people use a single small cup called a gaiwan and just leave the leaves in while they drink. I drink tea this way mostly.

Sometimes they steep the tea in the gaiwan and then pour it into tiny cups.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2014 06:17

taters: Jun 13, 2005

glomkettle posted:

I recently ordered some milk oolong from Teavivre and I finally got it today. They also sent me a sample of phoenix dan cong oolong. I haven't actually tried the milk oolong I ordered, but holy poo poo the dan cong oolong is quite possibly the best thing I've ever drunk. Has anyone tried this and can they recommend something similar?

I drink mostly anxi and wuyi oolongs. From time to time I will get a small amount of dan cong. I dont hate it, I just prefer the other types.

Try this
http://www.silkroadteas.com/one-bush-phoenix-bird-dan-cong-oolong/

# ¿ Nov 13, 2014 06:13

taters: Jun 13, 2005

hope and vaseline posted:

Teavivre Black Friday is up! Though I think I'm gonna be spending on some White2Tea cakes instead for this weekend.

I've seen a few white cakes around lately and priced similar to the good quality loose whites. I've had black and wuyi cakes but not whites, which I assumed were too fragile to cake the good ones.

Have you had any? How to they compare to loose whites?

White tea can go bitter very quickly and I worry that the the dust and crumbs created by breaking up a tea cake will exacerbate this issue.

# ¿ Nov 29, 2014 05:28

taters: Jun 13, 2005

hope and vaseline posted:

I actually meant from the White2Tea vendor, they've got an ok black friday sale going on and I really want to try some of their lower-end stuff.

I haven't had white cakes yet actually. From what I've read it isn't actually white tea just compressed into cake form, but maocha entirely from early spring buds (usually labelled silver buds/white buds/silver needle). It sounds super interesting though! http://ancientteahorseroad.blogspot.com/2008/02/2005-yi-pin-gong-tuo-yin-hao-100gm.html

This is a white pu-reh. The white cakes Ive seen are more similar to this offering:

http://www.silkroadteas.com/emperors-cake/

I should probably just buy one of these and report on it. I am tempted.

Give me a month or two. I may report back. I have ruined a lot of white tea.

Wish me luck...

# ¿ Nov 30, 2014 09:05

taters: Jun 13, 2005

XBenedict posted:

I hate giving Teavana money (especially a lot of it), but I've not found an Oolong that I like as well as their Monkey Picked Oolong. I've tried many different Oolong options from Upton, and the usual suspects, but I can't find anything quite like it.

Any suggestions?

Here are a few different price point options.

Lowest Acceptable Quality (in my opinion, also it varies by lot/year)
http://smile.amazon.com/Numi-Organic-Loose-Kuan-Ounce/dp/B00FOLTIQW/ approx $30/lb

Pretty Good
http://www.silkroadteas.com/golden-jade-oolong-huang-guan-yin/ $60 ish
http://www.silkroadteas.com/snow-pear-oolong-xue-li/ $60 ish

Good High Elevation (monkey picked, not actually picked by monkeys though)
http://www.silkroadteas.com/monkey-picked-ma-liu-mie/ $100 ish

The Good poo poo
http://www.silkroadteas.com/drunken-concubine-zui-gui/ between $140 to $180/lb depending on season. I drink this one personally, its outstanding.

I would start with the cheaper stuff until you have the preparation method down. TGY is a pretty durable tea compared to other chinese tea but you can still easily ruin it with to hot or too long steeps. When in doubt, colder and shorter.

# ¿ Dec 6, 2014 05:03

taters: Jun 13, 2005

hope and vaseline posted:

And wow, I've never seen a TGY that wasn't rolled up into pellets. That's a weird find.

"pellets" in Chinese tea are a fairly new (last 40 years) innovation possible by powered machinery assisting in the processing and final rolling of the leaves. In modern tea, the traditional 'twist' shape is usually a sign of quality as it indicates the tea is at least partially hand processed, If you browse a reputable tea seller who carries a good spread of prices, the top shelf stuff will be almost uniformly twisted, not pelleted. This is for the Anxi teas mostly. Wuyi and Dancong varieties are generally not pelleted as it damages the more fragile leaves and quickly leads to a container of tea dust.

# ¿ Dec 14, 2014 02:07

taters: Jun 13, 2005

Sephiroth_IRA posted:

Yeah I figured it was a overblown flavor of the month thing. unless you bastards are just keeping the secret to immortality to yourselves!

Anyway, I've been drinking A LOT of tea lately (Chinese green, jasmine, oolong) and besides being a little more focused from the caffeine I haven't had any of the stomach issues I had with coffee. I'm starting to wonder if the creamer was just bad�

Coffee has much more acid in it then even the most acidic teas.

# ¿ Dec 15, 2014 20:00

taters: Jun 13, 2005

Zelmel posted:

Another thing as a side note is that the whole idea of black teas having more caffeine than green and such is mostly BS, as other things like growing conditions and when the tea is harvested often have more to do with it than how oxidized the tea is.

On average, all green tea has slightly less caffeine then the average of all black tea. Whites, again on average, have less then greens. Oolong is a huge category of teas and is all over the place. Generally speaking there is more variation in caffeine content within a tea type then there is between tea types, meaning there are many greens that are stronger then the average black and vice versa. Another factor effecting caffeine content is the age of the tea, how long it has been since it was picked. Good quality greens and oolongs have a stunningly short shelf life, often less then 1 year. Blacks can last 5+ years, explaining their popularity with the nations that mostly import their tea (Europe and the Americas). In the olde tyme of sailing ships, when white people were first discovering tea, the greens would have experienced a significant drop in quality by the time they arrived in London/New York/Brussels/Moscow.

# ¿ Dec 16, 2014 02:38

taters: Jun 13, 2005

Butch Cassidy posted:

While I'm ready to order the Scottish breakfast from Upton, how is their broken leaf orthodox darjeeling?

Also, finally tried Taylors Yorkshire gold and it is thoroughly Makes good iced tea though to use it up and get it gone.

Do you take it with milk? Yorkshire tea is blended assuming it will be taken with milk. If you drink it black it will be too bitter.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2015 07:02

taters: Jun 13, 2005

Ghost of Reagan Past posted:

Heh, the local Chinese grocery has a bag of "Iron Goddess" tea for $4/8oz, never knew that.

I imagine it's not actually Tie Guan Yin, but I should get a bag and see how it tastes.

Ti Kuan Yin is an extremely popular tea in China with a huge variety of qualities from garbage dust in bags to hand processed luxury batch full leaf tea.

Generally, anything less then @ $40/lb is suspect. Anything not loose full leaf can be discounted immediately. Be wary of anything in the US/Europe with fanciful or ethnicy marketing like Republic of Tea or Teavanna. You will get charged top shelf prices for lower-mid range tea. It's also likely to be old. Good TKY starts to loose flavor after a year or so.

I mostly drink this sort of tea. I've slowly crept up to the $150/lb varieties somehow. It very difficult to go back to the cheap stuff now.

If you want to try it, here is a good mid-market offering. Please research making it correctly first. When in doubt cooler water/shorter steeps.

http://www.silkroadteas.com/jade-oolong-huan-jin-gui/

They have a cheaper variety I don't recommend.

Generally, this is not a super time of year (March) to source Chinese tea. The best tea comes up in the Spring, with a lower quality Summer harvest and a slight improvement for the Fall harvest. The expensive versions will have the year and season listed if the seller is at all reputable. Look for the good stuff to roll in around May.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2015 00:01

taters: Jun 13, 2005

Comb Your Beard posted:

Wow the Da Hong Pao (Big Red Robe) Wuyi rock tea oolong is amazing. I've had bagged oolong before that was really meh. This stuff brought me back to when I did a summer internship with this Chinese professor and her grad students, the tea we'd drink at meetings. Amazing to find that same taste that again, I wasn't even looking for it.

Looking forward to digging through the rest of my samples.

There is a huge variety of quality with DHP. The majority of what is marketed as DHP in the west in either a generic Wuyi yancha labeled as DHP or a 5th generation+ clone, sometimes called "Little Red Robe". I always keep a bit of it on hand as the high level of oxidation helps it keep longer than green tea and light oolongs. It is even suitable for making cakes, although this damages the final product and produces dust. As with most Chinese tea, if you are using a reputable dealer (I don't personally consider Teavana, Upton or Republic of Tea to be reputable dealers in Chinese Tea. Teavivre seems acceptable.) you can tell what you are getting by price. Anything less than $200/lb is likely not authentic DHP. That being said, Wuyi yancha, of which DHP is the most famous cultivar, has many outstanding varieties for more reasonable prices. The prices of DHP in China are artificially elevated as the tea is considered a sign of social status.

Here is a good yancha from a trustworthy dealer.
http://www.silkroadteas.com/wuyi-yan-cha/

For those of you buying loose Green/White/Yellow/Oolong tea in December, if you are spending a good amount of money (more than say $100/lb), inquire from your vendor the year and time it was picked. I've not seen it mentioned in this thread, but high quality tea (not black/pu-erh) goes bad and the higher quality stuff tends to go stale pretty fast. If it wasn't picked in 2015 and they are still asking full price, they can get hosed and are not a reputable vendor. The best tea is picked in the spring, next best is fall, then summer for most varieties. Green and Yellow tea can retain acceptable flavor for about 15 months. White stays good for about a year. Oolongs are too variable for a good rule here, but generally the more oxidized the longer they last. So anywhere from 12 to 30 months. Black tea, if stored properly can last up to 5 years. Pu-Erh even longer.

I would also like to apologize for forgetting about this thread for so long because 2015 was one of the best years for the Chinese Tea crop in a long time, allowing cultivars that normally never make it out of China to be available for export. I'm about 1/2 way through a pound of the following varieties, all spring harvest 2015. Hopefully I won't run out again this year before the next spring harvest like I did last year.

http://www.silkroadteas.com/drunken-concubine-zui-gui/ <- this is hands down the best tea I have ever had, and pretty forgiving of mistakes with temperature and time. 5+ steeps

http://www.silkroadteas.com/green-snail-spring-bi-luo-chun-first-grade/ <-high end green tea, not at all forgiving of mistakes in preparation. 2 good steeps, 1 weak one.

http://www.silkroadteas.com/fragrant-sprout-xiang-ya/ <- a delicious yellow that can provide 3+ steeps and keep flavor.

http://www.silkroadteas.com/wuyi-green-wu-yi-qing-cha/ <- a very curious green I took a chance on as it was inexpensive. It has a more plant-like flavor than more common greens like Dragon-Well, very mellow and earthy. Made from the same cultivar as the yancha, but pan fired like all Chinese greens.

As far as teaware, I've mostly used pyrex gaiwans except for the Zui Gui which has a "married" yixing pot. However this year I got one of these on amazon.
http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QOOCGRQ

Its a gaiwan+cups set that closes up for steeping then comes apart to serve. Works great for one or two people. Pot is easy to clean and enameled so it doesn't absorb flavors of previous teas. I'm pretty much converted to this for almost all of my Chinese Teas now.

As far as bagged British teas are concerned, I've yet to find one that can tempt me away from Yorkshire Gold. It really sets that standard for me w/r/t blended teas from England.

fake edit - I'd like to add, if you are interested in exploring the higher end green teas, please ignore every steeping instruction for green tea you have ever read in the internet or box of tea bags. The competition grade Bi Lou Chun I've linked above steeps at about 74c for about 40-50 seconds. Any hotter and longer and you get a cup of nasty astringent yellow water. When in doubt, cooler and shorter. You can increase the time and temp a little bit for subsequent steepings.

# ¿ Dec 25, 2015 01:45

taters: Jun 13, 2005

The green, white and some Chinese reds from the spring harvest are starting to be available. We'll have to wait a bit for the oolongs I'm afraid. I'm down to about 50 grams of Zui Gui from last spring and its really showing its age. My greens and yellows from last year have been gone since the holidays. I'm looking forward to the fresh tea hiatus to be over.

Concerning the temperature for oolongs referenced previously, there are so many factors involved that its impossible to simply say "190 for oolongs". Most of the oolongs I drink would be absolutely ruined by water that hot; un-drinkably bitter. Factors include oxidation levels, wseason they were picked and the specific cultivar.

taters fucked around with this message at 00:29 on May 10, 2016

# ¿ May 10, 2016 00:26

taters: Jun 13, 2005

Its a good time of year for tea snobs, the first flush darjeelings are on the market and the Spring cutting of Chinese greens and oolongs are available as well. I'm about to drop $400+ on an order from China; it should last till winter if I take my time. The weather was good this year, I'm looking forward to the Bi Lo Chun in particular. I've been out of it for a while and drinking summer harvest Lung Jing, which is ok.

DontAskKant posted:

Does anyone work in tea education for a tea company? I just moved back to the US (Seattle) and I'm finding lots of coffee shops don't know how to make their expensive tea. I helped a Stumptown affiliate develop their program and am thinking this might be an opportunity to sneak in the business.

I just have them give me the leaves and water separate and do it myself. They often give you way to much leaf for the water too, so I take the excess home.

Nostalgia4Ass posted:

I'd like to buy my first Gaiwan set. I drink mostly Japanese teas but I prefer the Gaiwan to Japanese teaware. Does anyone have recommendation for a place to buy teaware online that isn't going to take 4 months to ship to the US from China?

Amazon has tons of gaiwans and other tea ware. I've been using one of these https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QOOCGRQ/

On the subject of storage, the best container I've found yet is this https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MHR9R5I/

# ¿ May 18, 2017 19:05

taters: Jun 13, 2005

A few concerns in the last couple pages:

Tea Reusability.

Black Tea - Most bagged blacks, even good quality ones, are shot in one steep. Loose Chinese blacks can get away with 2.

Green Tea - Green tea varies. Some of the better quality bagged greens can do 2, but most are one. Loose greens vary even more. The Chinese greens tend toward more steeps, maybe even 4 if you don't mind it pretty weak. The Japanese are usually 1 maybe 2 steeps.

Oolongs.- This is the category where you can really lay on the same leaves. I have little experience with bagged Oolongs outside of Chinese restaurants, they seem to be good for two or so. Loose Oolongs are highly variable with the darker ones having fewer steeps. A dark like a Wuyi Yancha is usually good for about 4 steeps. Lighter Oolongs like Ti Kuan Yin you can often get 5+. With the same leaves and the same gaiwan I'll frequently go up to 7 steeps with good quality TKY. A bag of loose Oolong leaves from a cafe are usually good for 2-3 steeps, if the barista hasn't already ruined them by dropping them into boiling water and boiling out all the oils.

The person asking after better quality bagged black tea and didn't want to order online, it really depends what country you live in. I'm assuming you aren't in the UK entirely based on the question. You can sometimes find Yorkshire Tea in American grocery stores, I've seen it at Whole Foods and Kroger in upscale neighborhoods; Yorkshire Gold is probably one of the best mass produced bagged black teas. If not most Kroger's have PG Tips, which is a cut above the drek brands. Tazo's English breakfast isn't terrible either. Even Twinnings if everything else is Lipton/Celestial Seasonings.

The story about boiling multiple bags of Lipton or whatever low end tea was revolting.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2017 23:29

taters: Jun 13, 2005

EKDS5k posted:

That's what I would do. With the added step that if your water is already 80 degrees then I would warm the mug up with it first. I've been told that the "correct" way to do it is to boil the water once, and then let it cool, so if you're doing that then it'll be a matter of experimentation to find out how long to let it sit in your mug before adding the tea leaves.

Now I have a name for it, thanks! Googling that does indeed bring up some results.

Gong Fu preparation ranges from extremely formal ceremonies to two cups with a strainer and everything in between. If you are just preparing it for yourself, something like this is pretty useful.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01JVYOSIK/

You brew in the bottom and the cup is also the lid. I use a simlar one at work with an electric kettle at my desk.

You don't really need to do a wash on green teas, the first steep can be drank just fine. You should on Oolongs tho, especially the darker ones; the first steep can taste pretty bad.

Also Poo Erh is gross.

# ¿ Nov 23, 2017 01:52

taters: Jun 13, 2005

thotsky posted:

China is by far the easiest country to shop from, as they routinely lie on their customs declaration and for some reason it's the only type of package that the post is willing to cram into my mailbox.

I've had $200+ parcels of tea from China labeled as a free sample gift worth less than $5 more than once.

# ¿ May 28, 2019 17:31

taters: Jun 13, 2005

Every year I order some first-flush Darjeeling. This year I went with Vadham, who seem to mostly sell on Amazon.

They ship directly from India to Amazon's fulfillment network; its definitely the freshest black I've ever had.

It was probably the best Darjeeling I've had since I started ordering them, and will likely use them for most/all of my loose black teas. I'll still get Yorkshire Gold in bags.

https://www.amazon.com/stores/node/14139201011?_encoding=UTF8&field-lbr_brands_browse-bin=VAHDAM

# ¿ Oct 15, 2019 18:48

taters: Jun 13, 2005

The Postman posted:

I'm guessing it's fair game in this thread because tea is involved. Anybody have some good recipes/ratios/tips for chai? My girlfriend likes to get some concentrate at the store and heats it up with milk. I figured it'd be fun to make it at home sometime and see how it compares.

Not a recipe, just tips. Your herbs need to steep hotter and longer than the tea. You can really lay on the herbs and not hurt but final product but the tea will go bitter after much more than 4-5 minutes if its any good. I do it the way they do it at the Thai restaurant near work. They boil the herbs spices for a few minutes then strain it and use that water to make the tea with. Milk goes in at the end, usually when its put in the pitcher to serve. If this is something you enjoy, spend a couple bucks on decent loose black tea. Vadham is pretty good and reasonably priced.

# ¿ Dec 18, 2020 06:49

taters: Jun 13, 2005

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.

# ¿ Jan 7, 2023 03:52

taters: Jun 13, 2005

Some of my favorite Chinese tea is knock off Da Hong Pao. Apparently Wuyi Yancha as a catergory doesn't have enough market clout? How many generations from the original plants counts as authentic anyway, its still roughly the same tea. It is a genetic descendant of those famous bushes after all.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2024 21:21

taters: Jun 13, 2005

Mostly my point is that there I've had a lot of very good Wuyi Yancha, that was grown in Wuyi, processed correctly, stored correctly etc, that isn't authentic DHP but still feels the need to be labeled as such anyway. I don' t know enough about the Chinese tea market to understand why these very good quality teas in their own right still have to misrepresent their origins, often in very transparent ways.

This is a decent example: https://www.amazon.com/Sea-Dyke-Classic-Fujian-Oolong/dp/B07QQQXKJN

This isn't DHP, at all. Its a decent quality, reasonably priced (sometimes), yancha. Yet still the makers go through the trouble of misrepresenting the tea in ways that are very obvious to anyone that actually knows what DHP is, and for people who don't know what DHP is it's just a name and not a selling point.

# ¿ Feb 23, 2024 18:00

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# ¿ May 11, 2024 06:30

taters: Jun 13, 2005

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

# ¿ May 10, 2024 14:27

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons with Spoons > Let's boil leaves: Tea and things that aren't technically Tea