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woodenchicken posted:You were the one who told me about them in the first place, and I should have purchased from them from the start. My experience with other sellers has been mixed. Well, so it is. My memory is full of holes! I want to try that Liu An Gua Pian, it sounds pretty delicious.
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Aug 9, 2013 21:48
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Placid Marmot posted:They may be "thoughts" about the importance of water, but they should perhaps not be seen as recommendations, given the level of pseudoscience and self-contradiction. What is actually true is that Spring Water, followed by Natural Mineral Water, is generally the best type of water for teas with subtle flavor. Generally, distilled water is not good for tea due to the lack of minerals, which are needed to enhance flavor. You generally want the water to be at a pH of 7.5 to 8.5 for these types of tea.
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Aug 10, 2013 03:28
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Anyone in the DC area (or that's visited the DC area) have experience with Teaism? On a recent excursion to DC, we visited, and I really enjoyed the restaurant section, so I picked up two teas (the Mind & Body and the Ginger Zing--I was in a ginger mood at the time) to try from the tea shop section. I just got herbal blends, because I was unfamiliar with the shop, so I wasn't sure what the quality would be like on their actual tea leaves.
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Aug 10, 2013 04:20
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Niemat posted:Anyone in the DC area (or that's visited the DC area) have experience with Teaism? On a recent excursion to DC, we visited, and I really enjoyed the restaurant section, so I picked up two teas (the Mind & Body and the Ginger Zing--I was in a ginger mood at the time) to try from the tea shop section. I just got herbal blends, because I was unfamiliar with the shop, so I wasn't sure what the quality would be like on their actual tea leaves. Yep, I've bought several of their teas in the past. They have a really nice pu-erh that's inexpensive and approachable, and the other black teas I've had from there are good as well. Their prices are alright, nothing to write home about but not terrible, and they have some interesting herbals (it's the only place I've managed to find buckwheat tea so far).
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Aug 10, 2013 14:17
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The buckwheat, roasted corn or barley,and corn silk as well as any number of leaves not from a tea plant like persimmon, mulberry, and hydrangea leaf are all common in Korea.
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Aug 11, 2013 11:59
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I was gonna ask if buckwheat/barley tea was something rare after reading Zelmel's post, considering I'm drinking a cold-brewed version of it right now  Better bring those leaves/bags when I go to the states, then! I know any Korean supermarket will carry some (probably bagged, but still good) if you need a cheap fix.
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Aug 12, 2013 15:19
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Archer2338 posted:I was gonna ask if buckwheat/barley tea was something rare after reading Zelmel's post, considering I'm drinking a cold-brewed version of it right now You could just old school it and make it loose ... grain. Doing it in bags is the modern Korean way to.do it. And like most modern Korean cooking is awful.
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Aug 12, 2013 15:29
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Am only one who thinks Peet's green tea tastes terrible? They said they seep it at the proper temperature, but when I tried it, it tasted bitter to the point where it felt like it was just put in boiling water? Is this an isolated incident?
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Aug 12, 2013 17:50
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I've never been to a Peet's (looks like it's mostly a California/West Coast thing?) but they do sell the coffee out in Virginia. I checked out the steeping instructions for some of their green teas on their website and the home brew instructions do look a little bit odd. They all say to boil the water, then let it cool down to a specified temperature (never heard of that technique before and quite a few of the temperatures seem too warm for greens) and to steep anywhere from 3-5 minutes (!!!!). If you're getting your tea at a store/cafe or whatever, I wouldn't be surprised if they do just use boiling or pretty near boiling water to steep it in. That's a big reason almost I never get anything but black tea at coffee shops (and sometimes even self-proclaimed tea houses  ) because they always use the stupid boiling water tap! To be fair, there's a good chance they just don't have a slightly cooler tap for greens and since most coffee places don't sell much tea anyway it's just not a priority.
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Aug 13, 2013 12:25
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I've never seen anything but Peet's coffee for sale in Virginia. Didn't have a clue that they sell tea. I don't think we have a lot of tea shops around here in general - there's Rostov's and Carytown Teas in Richmond, and a Teavana in Short Pump, but besides that, it seems they're few and far between. I wish we had more actual tea houses and tea rooms, too. I've only ever been to one in my life. Does anyone have a rooibos/red tea they can recommend? Plain or flavored is OK with me. I'm trying to get more into it, but all I have is a caramel blend from Capital Teas. Also, I'm really interested in Butiki Teas, since they seem to have a lot of good reviews on Steepster (although Steepster reviews are frequently prefaced by what the reviewer happens to be feeling that day/life story/quotes from Shakespeare, so I don't know how credible they are). Does anyone have experience with them?
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Aug 25, 2013 01:42
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Hey Richmond-area tea friend  I wish we had some actual tea places out here too. You'd think the local hipsters would be all over that kind of thing. There was that rather short-lived Realitea place on Cary St. For a while (toward VCU campus) but I never got a chance to go there before it shut down The only place I know of around Richmond that seems to still exist is called Feathernesters but they seem to be more of a home-decor place than an actual tea house.There are actually a good amount of tea rooms/houses in the Shenandoah Valley area, oddly enough. There were two really great ones within about 10 miles of where I grew up for a few years, but they've both since shut down. One of them was what got me into loose-leaf tea in the first place, too!
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Aug 25, 2013 02:47
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Tea friends!  I never thought of the hipsters thing. Maybe they're more into coffee? I heard about that Realitea place, but I never went either. And I think Feathernesters is where I went for tea that one time! There was all kinds of interior decorating crap with kittens and other stuff that had nothing to do with the tea. A lot of the tea rooms here are like that, if their websites are anything to go by. This one for "Camella's Remember When" has clothes and baby stuff for sale... I guess it doesn't matter what they sell as long as the tea is good.
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Aug 25, 2013 16:52
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Hipsters do like their coffee, that's a good point. I know mate has gotten hipster-popular lately though, you'd think that would bring some in to the tea fold. What's the deal with so many tea places multi-tasking their businesses? The really good ones that I mentioned before that are closed now, one was also sort of an antique shop, but it was mostly stuff like fine china and tea pots which at least made sense. The other place was in a house (turned commercial property) that was also an amazing yarn shop. Anybody know if this a common thing outside of Virginia at all? I've been to a few other tea places there were seriously just tea and food, but that was in Delaware or Maryland or something.
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Aug 25, 2013 20:40
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There's a great tea-centric place near me, it's called Kaleisia Tea Lounge. It serves a few different (~10-15) mainly vegan food items and might possibly serve coffee but I've never seen anyone order it. But their foremost focus is tea and they do great business and the tea is really really good, and you can purchase leaves as well as cups/pots of tea. I'm right next to the university though so that's likely why it does so well. However back in my hometown there's a tea house that doubles as an antiques store. I doubt they'll last the year.
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Aug 25, 2013 21:26
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Hummingbirds posted:There's a great tea-centric place near me, it's called Kaleisia Tea Lounge. It serves a few different (~10-15) mainly vegan food items and might possibly serve coffee but I've never seen anyone order it. But their foremost focus is tea and they do great business and the tea is really really good, and you can purchase leaves as well as cups/pots of tea. I'm right next to the university though so that's likely why it does so well. That's really similar to a place here in Chicago called Looseleaf Lounge. I think vegan food items and specialty teas just go really well together. Most of their teas are organic or fair trade as well, and I've never had a cup of tea there that was brewed incorrectly at the wrong temperature or too long.
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Aug 25, 2013 21:46
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DurianGray posted:Anybody know if this a common thing outside of Virginia at all? I've been to a few other tea places there were seriously just tea and food, but that was in Delaware or Maryland or something. There's a place nearby called Tea Treasures, or something like that. I've never been inside, but they have tea services and sell a bunch of kitschy junk. The store windows are piled high with knickknacks that look like they were stolen from my grandma's house. Lots of little porcelain figure and doilies and things. I think they also have actual tea wares, but it would be hard to spot it between all the other crap. I've also seen several tea shops that were just tea and tea wares, but those tend to be Chinese tea shops. Maybe the tea and junk shop fad is just a western thing.
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Aug 25, 2013 23:23
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I'm in Louisiana and there was this tea shop that also sold wine, tea ware, and other gifts and decor. They also served breakfast and lunch, as well as coffee. Didn't last a year.
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Aug 25, 2013 23:28
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Lady Truck Driver posted:Does anyone have a rooibos/red tea they can recommend? Plain or flavored is OK with me. I'm trying to get more into it, but all I have is a caramel blend from Capital Teas. Also, I'm really interested in Butiki Teas, since they seem to have a lot of good reviews on Steepster (although Steepster reviews are frequently prefaced by what the reviewer happens to be feeling that day/life story/quotes from Shakespeare, so I don't know how credible they are). Does anyone have experience with them? Try rooibos with milk. It is how my mom had it in South Africa before it was widely popular. I like the vanilla rooibos from Adagio with vanilla soy milk. Also, I'm same username on Steepster. Rooibos orange mixed with peppermint is super yum, similar to Adagio's Foxtrot blend.
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Aug 26, 2013 13:28
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I'm kind of new to the serious tea brewing. I've always enjoyed "standard" grocery store tea, but never really got into brewing my own loose leaf. I recently had someone I know that works at Teavana get me some teas with their employee discount and I'm really enjoying my experience so far. I wanted to chime in on the water discussion from the last page. I live in an area of Ohio that has lovely tap water, so I needed an alternative. I picked up a gallon jug of Target's in-house brand (Market Pantry) purified water for like $.89 one day and it seems to make fantastic tea. Are teas (as a general rule) supposed to be clear, cloudy, or does it greatly depend on the type of tea? I ask because all of the water I had tried before made cloudy tea that didn't taste very good. Since using that water, all of my tea has been very clear and tastes great!
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Aug 27, 2013 03:50
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Yeah tea is almost always pretty clear, though there are a very few that will get cloudy. Heavily steamed sencha is all I can really think of off the top of my head... and I guess matcha if you want to count that. Of course black teas especially can get rather dark, but generally not cloudy. I'm not too sure I want to know what is in the water where you live. Here in Austin, we do have fairly frequent issues with algae and other taste problems, so I just have a Pur filter attached to my faucet. If you find yourself buying bottled water often you might look into some kind of filter like that, it can pay for itself pretty quickly depending on how much you go through.
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Aug 27, 2013 04:05
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Can't remember what they are off the top but I think someone in here posted a video showing how some kinds of tea (I think they were different varieties of green) are clear when first brewed but become cloudy after a period of time, 15-30 mins I think. Anyone know what I'm talking about?
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Aug 27, 2013 04:20
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My guess is Ravenna. They put crazy in the water there.  Seriously, though, city water is usually fine and well water... not so much. If you like your water, your tea will be fine. If you prefer to drink it filtered, filter your tea water. My rule of thumb.
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Aug 27, 2013 05:21
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Hey guys I like to brew my tea in a French press. I had a large bodum press, but it was made of glass and I took it camping and well, it didn't survive. I'm looking for a French press with a metal filter that is not made of glass. Anyone got any recommendations?
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Sep 4, 2013 21:43
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platedlizard posted:Hey guys I like to brew my tea in a French press. I had a large bodum press, but it was made of glass and I took it camping and well, it didn't survive. I'm looking for a French press with a metal filter that is not made of glass. Anyone got any recommendations? My fiancé has a Bodum travel mug french press for drinking his yerba mate at work. Not exactly what you asked for, but it might work for camping. Amazon link
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Sep 9, 2013 18:03
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Thanks for this thread! I just ordered various black teas from adagio so my well-intentioned girlfriend will maybe stop gifting me the expensive-rear end, cloying dried-fruit potpourri stuff they sell at the mall. ("it smells like Christmas!") I'm excited to try tea made from leaves.
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Sep 10, 2013 04:35
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I have this tea blog on Tumblr that I'm just starting out and some friends have been asking me to try hops tea and do a trip report. I feel rather unqualified to do this, as I absolutely HATE beer so I was wondering if any of y'all have tried it and what your impressions were. How did I never know this thread was here before now?  Edit: Shameless self-promotion of my lovely blog: http://teaaddictedblog.tumblr.com/ Blackish Sheep fucked around with this message at 19:26 on Sep 12, 2013 |
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Sep 12, 2013 19:21
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Blackish Sheep posted:I have this tea blog on Tumblr that I'm just starting out and some friends have been asking me to try hops tea and do a trip report. I feel rather unqualified to do this, as I absolutely HATE beer so I was wondering if any of y'all have tried it and what your impressions were. How did I never know this thread was here before now? Can't say I have, but I would imagine that the taste is probably going to be a bit different from actual tea. It appears to fall into the tisane/herbal tea category of "yep, we use hot water with this, so it must be a tea" - the suggested brewing time per serving is 5-8 minutes for a full extraction. I would imagine that since it's just hops without addition of any kind of malt or other flavoring agents you could probably just do a small cupping and check for aroma, color, and general taste impressions (dislike for beer aside). If anything, I would say that you're about as qualified as anybody else in this thread to try it out. It looks like this Buddha brand hops tea is 6 bucks plus shipping and you can get a 10% off discount. If you have an apothecary type of person in your town you may wish to discuss with them the potential side effects of consuming it. Hops taken by itself appears to have some sedative effects.
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Sep 12, 2013 19:42
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I found a place in the East Village that sells hops so I'll head down there tomorrow I guess. Ugh I'm not looking forward to this. This herb shop seems pretty neat though: http://www.flowerpower.net/ Expect a full report, probably with photos of me looking distressed, sometime in the next couple days.
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Sep 12, 2013 20:29
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You may wish to use a conservative amount. You can probably get away with paying for a sample satchet from the herb shop if you are keen on not trying a lot of it!
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Sep 12, 2013 21:26
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Yeah no joke, I don't want to try any more than I have to. Luckily this place will sell by the ounce.
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Sep 13, 2013 01:21
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So uh why are you even bothering to do this when you obviously already have your mind made up that you'll hate it and probably can't even be unbiased in a review? And one ounce of whole cone hops is going to be a fairly good sized bag. You should probably seek out a homebrew store because they'll have fresher product (hop harvest just happened), and it will be a lot cheaper. You shouldn't have to pay more than $3/oz for something like Centennial or Cascade. Hop tea will probably smell amazing but not have much body outside of a grassy flavor. I've heard it's great if you need help getting to sleep. Hops are just one component of beer, a lot of commercially produced beer (Bud/Miller/Coors) aren't heavy on the hops at all so even if you hate poo poo beer you might like hoppy beer or sour beers or stouts. Keep an open mind and give it a try again sometime. 
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Sep 13, 2013 02:26
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Does anyone else have that one tea they hope they can try before they kick the bucket? Their tea white whale? Ignore if getting is "possible" or "rational." Da Hong Pao is probably mine. An oolong made from the legendary leaves of four very specific plants from a very specific county in China. And all that's available to us mere mortals are cuttings from further down the grade scale. Genetically identical... ...but not the original plants. Brewing the leaves from one of those would be a major win on the bucket list.
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Sep 14, 2013 17:44
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What up. I've been working and chilling in general here in central China for a little over 14 months. I'm lucky that I get to experience the most fresh tea straight from the source. I've got some good friends who are also friends with a young woman who opened her own little hole-in-the-wall tea shop. I regularly go there and have become good friends with this tea girl. That's what they're called here, "tea girls." She had been preparing tea in the traditional way for over 6 years, and she's got it down. Her performance is really elegant and the tea is straight up incredible. She has enormous bags of tea just strewn about in her shop, in giant pottery jars. She's got a few refrigerators jam-packed full of tea also. Oh my god the smell of the shop is amazing, as you can imagine. Smells like tea, expensive and delicious tea. Anyone can go and sit down and the tea girl (or man, or whoever) will just constantly prepare tea for you. You don't pay for anything. You just chill out for hours at a time while shooting the poo poo, sippin' mad leaves, and making friends. These types of teashops make money from selling tea, but you aren't really expected to buy the tea the first time you visit. We regularly treat the tea girl to fancy dinners as thanks, since we're all friends now. Teashops are, in three words, chill as gently caress. edit: photos removed because, well, whatever. Woodsy Owl fucked around with this message at 15:54 on Sep 22, 2013 |
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Sep 16, 2013 13:41
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Woodsy Owl posted:china tea shops In San Francisco there has been a trend over the last few years of this style of "as you like" preparation for tea. Two of the shops I tend to go to most frequently to spend the bulk of my tea money these days are Aroma Tea Shop and Golden Tea Shop - in fact, the husband and wife team at Aroma helped the lady at Golden set her business up, which explains a lot, if you go to either of the two. Sadly, I do not go to those shops nearly as often as I'd like, if only because I would go flat broke. In other news, I've started doing a monthly tea presentation at my workplace where the bulk of my tea things are these days due to space reasons. Last month I did a general crash course on different ways of preparing loose leaf tea, but tomorrow I'll be doing a crash course on the history of tea! I get to expense things that we're going to give away as prizes, too - 1oz Yunnan Gold Noir, 1oz Monkey Pick TGY, 1oz of some green or another that I can't remember, and a Kamjove presspot (the kind you push the button and it filters down into a serving vessel, great for tea beginners or lazy people). I had to pay for all of that, but the silver lining is the money will boomerang back to me when I expense the lot of it under a 'company culture' expenditure. Yes!  I also have a review satchet of Kenyan Royal Purple black tea that I got from Stylish Teas a couple of months ago and I owe the lady a full review of that, so sit tight and I'll share my findings on that some time in the future as well.
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Sep 17, 2013 06:25
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Don't throw things at me. Teavana has a new apple cider tea made with rooibos that is fabulous. I love apple cider teas, but most have a strong cinnamon extract/chemically taste. This one doesn't, and I will buy a pound of it as soon as I can afford it. It's $9/2 oz. It's seriously delicious, and supposed to be a part if their regular tea wall, but I wouldn't be surprised if they retired it before next summer to make way for more seasonal drinks. They have samples in the store of it, and it's $3 for a hot cup to go. I know, most of Teavana is meh or crap, but try this. Better than a PSL (Starbucks pumpkin spice latte) any day! Note: It does have artificial flavoring, but I'm pretty sure that's mostly for apple flavor. The cinnamon isn't too strong or awful or artificial-tasting like cheap spiced teas. Teavana.com posted:Ingredients:Cinnamon, red rooibos, chicory root, plum pieces (plum, rice flour), apple slices, carob pieces, hibiscus flowers, artificial flavoring, apple pieces, orange peels
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Sep 22, 2013 22:22
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milpreve posted:Don't throw things at me. Teavana has a new apple cider tea made with rooibos that is fabulous. I love apple cider teas, but most have a strong cinnamon extract/chemically taste. This one doesn't, and I will buy a pound of it as soon as I can afford it. It's $9/2 oz. It's seriously delicious, and supposed to be a part if their regular tea wall, but I wouldn't be surprised if they retired it before next summer to make way for more seasonal drinks. They have samples in the store of it, and it's $3 for a hot cup to go. I know, most of Teavana is meh or crap, but try this. Better than a PSL (Starbucks pumpkin spice latte) any day! There's nothing wrong with liking something Teavana has. The bad part is when you buy into them and insist on a hojillion dollar tea pot otherwise your tea will taste like crap and 3 monks will come personally down the side of a mountain to pour the tea over your head.
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Sep 23, 2013 11:01
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Aerofallosov posted:There's nothing wrong with liking something Teavana has. The bad part is when you buy into them and insist on a hojillion dollar tea pot otherwise your tea will taste like crap and 3 monks will come personally down the side of a mountain to pour the tea over your head. Truth. Fortunately, they don't try to sell me add-ons anymore. 1) They know I'm grad student poor, and 2) I am too busy chatting comfortably with them and they forget. Also, they sell the Aladdin cup with the lever and the infuser basket that drops down. It's pretty slick. This gal might be buying one, eventually. Because I need more mugs... I bought the T-Free a while ago, but this one seems more functional.
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Sep 23, 2013 13:43
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Is there somewhere online I can order dried seedless rosehips with reasonable shipping to Canada? I really like tisanes and am experimenting with mixing my own blends. I'm also using them reconstituted in smoothies for added vitamin c. I found some organic options on amazon for about $15/lb, but am having some issues finding something similar that doesn't gouge on shipping. I miss living in the states- it's so much harder to shop online here.  On the upside, Canada has David's Tea, which I love. It's so nice to be able to go to almost any mall in the city and smell (and sample!) a huge wall of different teas, plus get recommendations. The staff is always super friendly and helpful, and has never once tried to upsell me on another product. Right now I really like Queen of Tarts (a tisane that is like 80% hibiscus), but as the weather gets colder I'm moving more into Saigon Chai, which is nice and spicy. It's also very visually appealing- glossy pink peppercorns, whole cardamom pods, and bits of clove stud the leaves. I would probably not serve the hibiscus blend hot, it definitely makes a better iced drink. I have a question about a tea (or possibly tisane) I tried at, of all places, Starbucks. It's very similar to the Queen of Tarts I already drink, but there is some other ingredient(s) I can taste that I really like but am having trouble identifying. It's kind of like, a rounded zingy tartness that just fills out the blend and gives it good body. Does anyone with more experience know what this could be? (If it's the rosehips, even better since I'll be using them anyway!)
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Sep 23, 2013 17:24
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Grrl Anachronism posted:I have a question about a tea (or possibly tisane) I tried at, of all places, Starbucks. It's very similar to the Queen of Tarts I already drink, but there is some other ingredient(s) I can taste that I really like but am having trouble identifying. It's kind of like, a rounded zingy tartness that just fills out the blend and gives it good body. Does anyone with more experience know what this could be? (If it's the rosehips, even better since I'll be using them anyway!) Is it this? If so there's an ingredients list. http://www.starbucksstore.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Starbucks-Site/default/Product-Show?pid=000149903&start=21&cgid=tea Sorry if that's the mobile site. E: it's probably not the lemongrass. I bet it's the rose hips but if not it might be the orange peels or the added citric acid. e2: fixed link to not be mobile Hummingbirds fucked around with this message at 18:37 on Sep 23, 2013 |
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Sep 23, 2013 17:37
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Aerofallosov posted:There's nothing wrong with liking something Teavana has. The bad part is when you buy into them and insist on a hojillion dollar tea pot otherwise your tea will taste like crap and 3 monks will come personally down the side of a mountain to pour the tea over your head. Bring it on - I'll have a firing wok ready and they can finish fire some of this dragon well I have into not-hojicha. Speaking of which, Roy at Imperial Tea Court announced that he's doing that - a roasted Imperial Long Jing similar to hojicha but more gentle in the roasting approach. Am I going to try it at all costs? Well, yeah I am. I'll trip report whenever I do get to try it!
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Sep 23, 2013 18:14
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