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Do it do it do it. I've paid more per hour for private music lessons in which I certainly did not receive extremely rare and delicious tea.
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Jan 27, 2012 16:20
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Grav already knows my feelings on the matter but it will probably be a unique and educational experience that will let you try teas you would never be able to afford in reasonable amounts with an expert, yeah. Otherwise wait until next year or some such and then you and be both go to that place, Grav, 
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Jan 27, 2012 17:29
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Just wanted to tell you guys about a discovery I made. I know people have been drinking hot toddys forever, but I had some Kraken spiced rum that is a bit too flavorful for me to stand on its own. Tonight I made some chai with milk and sugar and this vanilla-extract rum actually tastes pretty good with that. Makes sense though, spiced tea and spiced rum. Probably would be even better with a light spiced rum.
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Jan 28, 2012 04:32
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I never thought of spiced rum with a hot toddy. Here, tea with whiskey is really popular as a cold drink but I haven't run into anyone drinking hot toddy. They love some milk tea here as well so i'm sure they have their own spin on them. Good idea with the Kraken! I can't drink rum straight in general as it is, so I'll definitely try this out as a mix.
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Jan 28, 2012 08:58
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GrAviTy84 posted:I cracked a new bingcha last night. Thought I'd write up a picture guide of how to break it up if you plan to use the whole cake roughly right away. The idea here is to loosen the tea cake up while breaking up the leaves as little as possible. Don't do this if you plan on just tasting the tea and want to store it for longer. You can actually steam the cake, as well, if you want to use it all right away, and it will loosen up and come apart in more complete pieces. I've used it on chunks of puerh, and it worked pretty well, but I didn't actually have a steamer and just used a sieve that fit into a larger saucepan half full of water with a lid over it. It's near the bottom of this page, but of course once you steam the tea you have to leave it out to dry.
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Jan 28, 2012 18:21
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I have a question! I have some yerba mate / cocoa tea from Guayaki, and I've noticed that it turns a greenish blue after it sits out for a while. What's up with that?
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Jan 28, 2012 19:19
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axolotl farmer posted:
 The best breakfast tea. Reading this thread has been interesting. I usually drink enough tea a day that my electric water kettle is my most used kitchen appliance, but I've never really bothered with anything other than the sort of loose black tea you can get at supermarkets, and maybe some green tea in the summer. Now I think I'll take a trip to the tea store in town sometime the next week, see what I can find.  One thing though, how much does a gaiwan usually hold? The only one I've seen was much smaller than an ordinary tea mug.
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Jan 28, 2012 19:32
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GrAviTy84 posted:I cracked a new bingcha last night. Pear shaped 180ml Brown-red One big hole for mouth, fast pour.     The stamp, that simply says "Yixing China", was supposedly used by Factory #1 in Yixing starting some time in the 80s(?) Shui ping 220ml Red One big hole for mouth, fast pour.     Unfortunately I can't read this stamp because the character forms are arcane. This one is less dense. It is actually a couple grams lighter than the much smaller 180ml. Both pots have lids that fit slightly imperfectly. Both pots fail the "water flow stops when top is plugged" test and the "lid stays on when pot is tilted to 90°" test. Neither lid is stamped. Anyone care to help me appraise these guys? And what pics post would be complete without some leaves?! These are spring(?) 2003(?) Da hong pao (from Wuyi) I just acquired.  This one is apparently of the more-roasted variety, which I imagine is more conducive to long term storage than the less-roasted kind (my vendor was also selling a less-roasted Da hong pao that is from 2011). On a separate note, it never ceases to amaze me how many vastly different teas can all be in the Oolong family.
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Jan 28, 2012 20:56
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Does anyone have any experience with coca tea? Are they any more stimulating than a cup of coffee? There are a couple different varieties online but I do not know which one to go for.
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Jan 29, 2012 02:16
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Longinus posted:Does anyone have any experience with coca tea? Are they any more stimulating than a cup of coffee? There are a couple different varieties online but I do not know which one to go for. Coca tea is pretty bland. Like a weak Maofeng infusion. It's not stimulating at all and will prompt your body to a more relaxed feeling as you drink more and more. I drank it pretty much all day every day when I was in Peru. It is supposed to help with altitude and maybe it did, because I didn't get any altitude sickness. The strongest infusion I had was prepared like a french press with a ton of leaves and it just tasted like shrubbery from my yard. It takes on acidic qualities and my tongue and throat felt numb. Overall, I recommend it. It's a light refreshing tea with a mild relaxing effect. I don't know about any varieties of it. They weren't really connoisseurs in Peru. They would literally pull it off the bushes and make tea sometimes. I bought the bag tea usually.
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Jan 29, 2012 07:23
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I've been drinking a lot more black tea at work now that I bought a good water heater that can actually get water to boiling, I bought some of this: http://www.adagio.com/black/golden_monkey.html?SID=4ac0b79c00358a4f5a82318691951f35 And it's fantastic. Has anyone tried this tea or have other black teas to recommend based on it?
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Jan 29, 2012 19:08
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Forumpost posted:I've been drinking a lot more black tea at work now that I bought a good water heater that can actually get water to boiling, I bought some of this: I'm not sure how similar it is (looks like it's from a different province), but my favorite black tea is Golden Li Bao. It sounds similar, they at least both start with golden. The guy at Chicago Tea Garden gave me some to try to prove me wrong when I mentioned that I didn't really care for black tea, and he was right, it's great stuff.
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Jan 29, 2012 23:31
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In my experiences "Golden Monkey Tea" typically refers to Keemun black teas, but they also sometimes use it to refer to choice leaf tips used in the process (FGTOP - Finest Golden Tip(py) Orange Pekoe). It's more popular than you might think, and it has a complex flavor that takes things like honey and lemon very well if that's a thing for you. tl;dr look for Keemun Mao Feng, consider trying any darjeeling also.
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Jan 30, 2012 07:26
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Just got my order of Peppermint Rose herbal "tea" to soothe my stomach from Red Blossom tea company in the mail. I don't know why I keep forgetting that in the world of tea, 16 ounces is a lot, but I now have two loaf-of-bread-sized bags of the stuff. Fortunately it is delicious, as I I think I have enough to drink a mug of it every day for the rest of my life.
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Jan 30, 2012 19:54
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Devoyniche posted:You can actually steam the cake, as well, if you want to use it all right away, and it will loosen up and come apart in more complete pieces. I've used it on chunks of puerh, and it worked pretty well, but I didn't actually have a steamer and just used a sieve that fit into a larger saucepan half full of water with a lid over it. The only thing I'd worry about with steaming a cake is the addition of moisture. This can really alter the flavor profile of shengs as moistening and drying is something they do to fake age it or lightly "ripen" it.
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Jan 30, 2012 21:13
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Typically after steaming you will want to spread the leaves out and allow to dry, then store in an earthenware container to absorb any last bits of moisture. The steam process as what was explained to me is reserved for bing that is to be parceled out for immediate (within a few week's worth) consumption, and even then the steaming is extremely brief. If you were to go back and continue the steaming process and keep the leaves covered, you would probably experience the forced fermentation mentioned after a few days.
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Jan 30, 2012 22:51
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Puer cake has it's own form of gong fu and that involves being able to use the tea pick to get pieces of the cake off without compromising the rest of the cake. There's a couple of shops here that sell decorative and collectible puer picks. I've seen people get into lengthy discussions about which pick shape is the 'best' Steaming the cake seems like a really awful idea for reasons other than aesthetics though. That's like pre-washing your tea and then drying it again..you're going to change the flavor of it. Maybe. It's weird and elaborate versus just breaking off a piece of a cake.
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Jan 31, 2012 03:33
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ZombieParts posted:Steaming the cake seems like a really awful idea for reasons other than aesthetics though. That's like pre-washing your tea and then drying it again..you're going to change the flavor of it. Maybe. It's weird and elaborate versus just breaking off a piece of a cake. I actually agree with you here, as I understand it steaming is usually reserved for tuo cha and even then not really worth the effort. Considering how puerh knives are not that expensive (though you could probably get incredibly fancy ones for over 10 dollars), the only reason I could see is if you were using it to break up a significant amount of shou bing cha at once, again for immediate consumption. Gravity brought up the point that shou/ripe puerh is forced into artificial aging by using conditions similar to steaming, so figure that for every minute you steam, that's like adding an extra day and change to the aging process of the puerh. The only way to really demonstrate this and know for sure, though, would be to buy a tong of bing cha for science and then use various steam times and compare them against a normally prepared shucking. Maybe one of these days I'll do that, but it's quite a task and I'd need a lot of people to help drink through those leaves!
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Jan 31, 2012 07:29
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On the off chance someone here is interested and lives in New York, I'll post this. I'm going to be doing the private puer class at the Mandarin's Tea Room this Saturday, and there are 2 more slots available. It is $85pp. PM me if you are interested.
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Jan 31, 2012 22:51
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Forumpost posted:I've been drinking a lot more black tea at work now that I bought a good water heater that can actually get water to boiling, I bought some of this: Sorry for not replying sooner, I have that tea and since you're already buying adagio, their darjeeling #22 (I believe it's a second flush but could be wrong) has that same muscat taste but it's a bit milder than the Golden Monkey. I love this darjeeling but if you are going to buy some, go for Upton, I bet it's better.
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Jan 31, 2012 23:17
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aldantefax posted:I actually agree with you here, as I understand it steaming is usually reserved for tuo cha and even then not really worth the effort. Considering how puerh knives are not that expensive (though you could probably get incredibly fancy ones for over 10 dollars), the only reason I could see is if you were using it to break up a significant amount of shou bing cha at once, again for immediate consumption. I'm actually going to field this cake steaming idea to a couple of local shops to see what the chinese opinion is on that. Chances are they would look confused and wonder why the gently caress we'd do that to a cake, but there's an off chance someone will have experience with it. Or I'll talk one of them into trying it...heheheh.
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Feb 2, 2012 07:36
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My regular tea shop has been closed for Chinese New Year so I picked up some beautifully packaged but inexpensive TieGuanYin. I've had okay to good results with grocery store tea. So I got home and opened up one of the serving sizes. It didn't really have much smell so i just assumed it's old. I put it in my tea pot and did a rinse and then the first brew. Suddenly I was assaulted by this smell. I immediately opened the lid and this poo poo smelled and tasted like some hot garbage. It actually startled me. I immediately dumped the water and started pulling the leaves. The smell was worse as I pulled at the packed leaves. I can only assume that the tea had molded or partially rotted during the drying process. At any rate, it left a sour smell in one of my Yixing pots that didn't just rinse out with the half liter of hot water I had on hand.  I boiled water, filled the pot, and let it sit for a minute before draining. Then repeated. Over the course of 30 minutes I ran about 2 liters of boiling water through the pot and that seems to have neutralized the smell. Then I started brewing good tea again with it. No damage done it seems.
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Feb 6, 2012 02:35
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GrAviTy84 posted:On the off chance someone here is interested and lives in New York, I'll post this. I'm going to be doing the private puer class at the Mandarin's Tea Room this Saturday, and there are 2 more slots available. It is $85pp. PM me if you are interested. )ZombieParts posted:I can only assume that the tea had molded or partially rotted during the drying process. At any rate, it left a sour smell in one of my Yixing pots that didn't just rinse out with the half liter of hot water I had on hand.
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Feb 9, 2012 02:29
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Death Vomit Wizard posted:Can we get a trip report? I hope you took some pictures! (Or are you sworn to secrecy?  I wish I could say I'm sworn to secrecy. I got a cold on thursday night and called to cancel.
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Feb 9, 2012 02:33
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Just get samples whenever possible, with everything. I've run into $4/100g teas that I love and $4/1g teas that I don't care for. Keep in mind that tea, in general, is cheap, and is, in general, consumed heavily by people in pretty poor economic situations. While I'm not saying "don't ever be suspicious of anything", taking the "cheap = dubious" train of thought too far can get you ripped off by people who just up-sell a huge margin on the same leaves with a fancier name/package. Anyway on the China topic, if you're an average American buying average groceries, chances are pretty high that you're already eating lots of cheap Chinese produce - IIRC about 75% of all garlic is Chinese for just one example. Shouldn't be anything to worry about unless there's actual recalls or you're buying unlabeled stuff from some random dude instead of licensed and inspected importers.
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Feb 9, 2012 03:06
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If I want to make iced tea from herbal or rooibos leaves, can I brew it hot and then chill? I mostly want to avoid having to use 2x leaves for cold brewing.
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Feb 12, 2012 22:33
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Yeah, you can make iced tea like that with any tea. It'll taste different compared to cold steeping, but that's just a matter of preference.
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Feb 12, 2012 22:55
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Thanks. I was checking because I seem to remember people in this thread saying "always cold brew black tea if you are icing it."
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Feb 12, 2012 23:04
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I have always made iced tea by hot brewing the amount of tea I want in half the water. Then add cold water after brewing to make it an appropriate amount (alternately, add ice). I believe it is the instructions Adagio teas recommend. It's always worked pretty well for me.
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Feb 13, 2012 02:45
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For some reason I never found this thread until now, but I'm a big tea fan (also chuckled at the title; I've gotten into many hipster battles with what can be considered "tea".) Here's what I'm drinking (a delightful Christmas present):  It's a Pu-erh from '05, labeled Jin Xiang, Tianshi, Lao Lao. Overall pretty delicious; my friends say it has "subtle hints of barnyard". I'm going to go ahead and plug Silk Road Teas as a vendor (even though it's already in the OP). To be outward and honest, the owners (Catherine and Ned Heagarty) are family friends of mine. I can personally attest to their good-hearted nature, but more importantly, the quality of their teas. Ned frequently makes trips to China to barter and test the newest (and best) teas, and he knows his proverbial poo poo when it comes to Chinese tea culture. Also, if you live near San Rafael, I wholeheartedly recommend you check out their warehouse. Just give them a call and figure out when they're going to be filling out orders there, and ask them if you can come and visit. The sheer volume of tea they have there will force a single tear out of your left duct. Also interesting, they supply most of Peet's "premium" teas, so there's another place you can try their selection out if you just want a cup. They're rebranded, though, and they might even be re-named, so I'm not sure how you'd discern them. Maybe another thing to ask them personally about. e: oh and they're direct trade if that's important to you. Greatest Living Man fucked around with this message at 17:35 on Feb 13, 2012 |
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Feb 13, 2012 17:18
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Don't feel bad Greatest Living Man, I just discovered this thread too. My main brew as of late is a Sencha from the little teashop in the mall that I work in. I also got a lovely Assam Chai that's wonderful on really cold mornings, or when I want to have cookies and tea but feel like a change from orange pekoe. Obligatory pictures of the Sencha and my favourite teacup.   
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Feb 13, 2012 20:41
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Goddamn posted:Just get samples whenever possible, with everything. I've run into $4/100g teas that I love and $4/1g teas that I don't care for. I would agree with you for some types of tea, however the class I cancelled was a pu erh class at the Mandarin's Tea Garden. A class at arguably the best tea supplier in North America, for a variety of tea that is renowned for being daunting, confusing, and mind numbingly expensive.
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Feb 13, 2012 20:52
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Oh, I was replying to DVW about the sample/grocery tea stuff. On an unrelated note, I'm actually quite impressed by Davidstea's tisane and rooibos stuff. They've got a bunch of tasty and well-balanced options there, which is nice to have for the evening. I'm surprised since I'm not a fan of any of their "real" teas (the flavorings are mostly too chemical-tasting and the leaves themselves are nothing special), but I guess it kind of make sense - if your thing is lots of flavoring might as well go all the way. I wouldn't bother with the hit-or-miss nature of their stuff if I could only buy from the online store though, since 50'gs of teas you don't like suck and really add up in cash. Their physical locations are pretty awesome for just picking up like 10g of everything that looks alright. On that note, Silk Road looks really nice but I wish they sold in less than 1/4lb options. That's quite a lot of tea, more than I like to buy of even my favorites at a time. If anyone ever wants to split stuff... Culinary Bears fucked around with this message at 02:00 on Feb 14, 2012 |
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Feb 14, 2012 01:22
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This is probably the kitchiest thing I own, but it's also pretty functional and cute at the same time. http://www.amazon.com/DCI-Tea-Duckie-Infuser/dp/B004DDBUXQ Goddamn posted:On that note, Silk Road looks really nice but I wish they sold in less than 1/4lb options. That's quite a lot of tea, more than I like to buy of even my favorites at a time. If anyone ever wants to split stuff... I typed up a post to this, then accidentally closed the tab. I need more tea, apparently. But, this is one of those cases where you can just contact them. If you're willing to make a reasonable order (something that makes shipping and handling worth your while) and you want to try a bunch of different teas without committing to the quarter pound bag, I'm sure they'd be willing to accomodate you with some sample sizes. I haven't tried all of their teas, but my favorite black is probably golden monkey, green is jasmine pearls, oolong is drum mountain clouds and mist, and the pu-erhs are all great, but camel's breath is an affordable choice for a traditional, well-rounded pu-erh. If I sent them an e-mail asking for 2 oz packages of all of those, they'd likely oblige. Seriously, they're nice people. And my sister drew their logo. customerservice@silkroadteas.com
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Feb 14, 2012 02:30
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Goddamn posted:Keep in mind that tea, in general, is cheap, and is, in general, consumed heavily by people in pretty poor economic situations. While I'm not saying "don't ever be suspicious of anything", taking the "cheap = dubious" train of thought too far can get you ripped off by people who just up-sell a huge margin on the same leaves with a fancier name/package. On this note, I'd love to hear about "grocery store teas" that exceeded expectations. If anyone wants to share, posting photos of the package here would be really awesome! But consider this: one of the steps that all teas goes through is drying outside under the sun. During this stage, bad things can and do happen to tea leaves (according to some tea farmers I talked to). Think: dogs and chickens walking around over the leaves. This is why you should never forget to do the first brew rinse.
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Feb 14, 2012 02:44
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Death Vomit Wizard posted:On this note, I'd love to hear about "grocery store teas" that exceeded expectations. If anyone wants to share, posting photos of the package here would be really awesome! Especially Pu-erh. Generally I do a first pull for about 15 seconds with boiling water to allow the leaves to open up and rinse, then I throw out that water and re-brew.
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Feb 14, 2012 10:55
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 Teavana has free shipping today!! Use code TREATYOURSELF
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Feb 14, 2012 20:15
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Hummingbirds posted:
I really want to think this is a Parks and Recreation Tom Haverford reference.
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Feb 15, 2012 00:57
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Cizzo posted:I really want to think this is a Parks and Recreation Tom Haverford reference. Oh, am I wearing an ascot? I didn't notice.
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Feb 15, 2012 01:26
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 17:23 |
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Happy Valentine's Day to me  
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Feb 15, 2012 02:21
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