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

Hekk: Oct 12, 2012; 'smeper fi

I am looking for a cost effective and tasty loose leaf tea for cold brewing iced tea. I know there are a million and one different types of tea and some are better suited for drinking iced. I've tried drinking the Harney and Sons CTC Assam iced but it's too strong and overpowers everything without heavy sugar. Right now I have been using an inexpensive green tea I bought off of Amazon that's served it's purpose ok. I'd really like just an unblended and unflavored black tea that doesn't cost an arm and a leg and makes a nice traditional iced tea. Any suggestions are appreciated.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2013 08:14

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 08:41

Hekk: Oct 12, 2012; 'smeper fi

DanManIt posted:

Yeah that is a caveat. I keep mine in cupboards so no light hits them anyway but that's very true for people looking to use mason jars as a way to display their tea.

I use the tins from Harney and Sons or David's Tea. Then again, I rarely buy more than 4 oz at a time since my wife and son only drink tea on occasion.

# ¿ Jul 21, 2013 08:48

Hekk: Oct 12, 2012; 'smeper fi

Archer2338 posted:

On the other side of the coin, which tea has enough caffeine for it to be a coffee-substitute in the morning?

I don't know that the caffeine content of black tea is the same as coffee but CTC (Cut, Tear, Curl) Assam is pretty much the strongest tea I've found. A cup in the morning leaves me wide awake and ready for the day.

# ¿ Aug 3, 2013 07:30

Hekk: Oct 12, 2012; 'smeper fi

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?

# ¿ May 13, 2017 08:21

Hekk: Oct 12, 2012; 'smeper fi

Jhet posted:

TeaSource used to have a few Gaiwan cups, and the other US sites probably have something similar to this too https://www.teasource.com/collections/teapots/products/snow-white-gaiwan-teaset They ship USPS ground for what it costs them to send it, but it looks like it's just the one on their website now. SevenCups looks to have a few more, but I've not purchased anything from them before, but at least one other goon has. Check the first post for more links and options.

I know you don't want to wait 4 months to ship from China, so you should use TeaVivre if none of the options are what you want. It only takes a two weeks usually, and a few times it only took a week when I was living on the west coast. Their teas are good quality as well.

I wound up buying the plain white Gaiwan and four cups from TeaVivre. I had it shipped directly to Japan (I have a US Post Office Box here too but a buddy has a Japanese mailing address) since it was free and says it will only take 5 days.

Thanks for the recommendation.

# ¿ May 14, 2017 14:14

Hekk: Oct 12, 2012; 'smeper fi

futurememory posted:

Did you get any tea with it? I also just got a plain white gaiwan from TeaVivee (100ml size) and I'm loving it. As stated here previously, the Premium Long Jing is absolutely delicious. I can't stop smelling the dry leaf, and the chestnut aroma that comes from the tea itself is mouth-watering.

I bought some Huang Shan Mao Feng Green Tea to take the order above 40 dollars and qualify it for free shipping. I know it's probably blasphemy but I have some nice Japanese teas that I am going to use the gaiwan for too. I am particularly fond of Hojicha Roasted Green Tea that I picked up from Yunomi.

# ¿ May 15, 2017 12:58

Hekk: Oct 12, 2012; 'smeper fi

I have had a great deal of success cold brewing both black and green teas. I use these:

http://takeyausa.com/shop/flash-chill-2qt

I use the same ratio of tea to leaves that I use for regular brewing and keep everything in my refrigerator overnight (or 8-12 hours). Once I am finished with the infusion I remove the leaves and cold brew them a second time for 12 hours.

You can get away with using lower quality tea because the cold brewing will mellow any astringency you'd normally see from heating it up. I usually just throw my oldest leaves in the pitchers since I almost always buy more tea than I can drink before it starts to get stale.

Hekk fucked around with this message at 00:57 on May 16, 2017

# ¿ May 16, 2017 00:35

Hekk: Oct 12, 2012; 'smeper fi

taters posted:

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.

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.

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

Yeah I bought the same one but it came to my house broken so I packed it up and returned it to Amazon. I picked up a plain white porcelain Gaiwan and four teacups off of Teavivre for around the same price.

I live right down the road from Arita so I have a TON of Japanese porcelain stuff already but they aren't into Chinese style teaware.

# ¿ May 18, 2017 21:43

Hekk: Oct 12, 2012; 'smeper fi

Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:

I got a whole leaf darjeeling-ceylon blend from upton that I am cold brewing over night tonight.

Also ended up with a cranberry tea and a peach one (both are black teas). Totally forgot to get some green.

Any big differences between cold and hot brew I should be aware of?

The cold brew tea will almost always come out with a more mellow flavor than the same leaves used to brew with hot water. You can also reuse the leaves a second time to very good effect of you lengthen the cold brew time to around twelve hours.

I don't waste money on super expensive stuff if I am using it for iced tea because my palette can't tell the difference. I don't use sawdust or anything but I've gotten away with using CTC Assam tea and less expensive blends to good effect.

# ¿ May 23, 2017 03:25

Hekk: Oct 12, 2012; 'smeper fi

Trabant posted:

Having never cold-brewed tea, here's a rookie question: how do you not overbrew green tea when doing it cold? Is it purely a matter of temperature (compared to hot brewing) rather than how long it sits?

I started out infusing tea leaves for 24 hours and only realized you could get away with less time when my wife invited folks over and I needed to make the tea more quickly. I figured if 24 hours gave a good flavor, 12 hours would be ok but just weaker. Turns out I was wrong and 8-12 hours seems to be the sweet spot because you can re use the same leaves a second time to good effect.

Unless you are leaving the leaves in your container for days at a time I don't think you are going to have any issues with over infusion. Even then you might just find that the leaves lose all their flavor and can't be used a second time.

# ¿ May 28, 2017 03:56

Hekk: Oct 12, 2012; 'smeper fi

UltimoDragonQuest posted:

Teavivre sale started. They split it by type so greens and whites are on sale until tomorrow at 8p Pacific. Black/oolong for 2 days after and then pu-erh. I've had ridiculous problems trying to get my order to go through but YMMV. Most of their greens are very good and worth a try.

e: Finally sorted out. Bought the Lu Shan Yun Wu, Bai Hao, and the cheap Long Jing and Mao Feng.

Thanks for the heads up. I bought some Premium Dragon Well Long Jing , Lu Shan Yun Wu, and Mao Feng too.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2017 08:57

Hekk: Oct 12, 2012; 'smeper fi

RandomPauI posted:

I have a hard time getting it just right with green teas or black teas, better luck with mint teas, and no luck with fruit-based teas.

In general, I either using boiling hot water from a machine, vaguely coffee-tinted water from those big plastic beverage servers, or I'll nuke water at home on the beverage setting.

I spent like 3 years heating water up on the stove in a tea kettle before I finally sprang for an electric kettle. Those things are hands down one of the best purchases you can make. It's so much easier to heat water to whatever temperature you need and in whatever quantity you need. 30 bucks will have you set for many years to come.

Is the tea you are drinking cut up really fine like CTC Assam?

This stuff infuses really quickly and can be oversteeped leading to bitterness. As a general rule for most common types of tea is the bigger the leaves, the longer you can steep without the tea getting bitter. The cut up stuff has way more surface area exposed to the hot water and turns the water a darker shade VERY quickly. Try backing off your steep times in 30 second increments and see where that takes you.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2017 09:08

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 08:41

Hekk: Oct 12, 2012; 'smeper fi

Professor Shark posted:

I heard recently that many teas from China have dangerous levels of lead and chemicals in them, are there any good, common brands that are sourced from different parts of the world and are "bad poo poo" free?

The last thing I read about the subject showed where researchers pulled all their lead laced, chemical infused teas from. Turns out all the bad stuff was at Chinese discount stores on mainland China. The stuff you see for sale on English language websites is very much luxury priced tea that is grown away from the major pollution centers in China.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2017 00:47

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