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The holiday tea rush is firing up, Samovar has put a bunch of their back stock on 50% off (secretly it is to make way for the new year of product). If you're looking to try a variety of teas and you're in the US with some cash to blow, you could probably do worse than getting this: http://shop.samovarlife.com/The-Samovar-Tea-Starter-Kit-p/50stse.htm And the full sale here: http://shop.samovarlife.com/Sale-s/160.htm
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Nov 21, 2012 23:07
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I just went to the DavidsTea in Manhattan (Bleecker Street) and impulse bought 5oz of santa's secret. It's great, but why did I get 5 oz? This addiction is full blown. Where do I go to get help?
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Nov 22, 2012 03:50
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GenericGirlName posted:I just went to the DavidsTea in Manhattan (Bleecker Street) and impulse bought 5oz of santa's secret. It's great, but why did I get 5 oz? This addiction is full blown. Where do I go to get help? Right back to the store, my friend. We'll fix you right up. A girl actually came almost running into the store and was like "OH MY GOD I DIDN'T KNOW THIS WAS HERE I NEED SANTA'S SECRET!!!" and she bought 100g and i think I totally made her year.
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Nov 24, 2012 03:18
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Speaking of David's Tea. I was just recommended Second Flush Darjeeling. I really like it and have added it to my rotation. Right now I drink The Skinny (non-stop), Organic Lapsang Souchong Star, and Le Digestif. Yep.
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Nov 24, 2012 03:34
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I interact with foreign crewmembers on ships quite a bit as part of my job. The Masters are always offering drinks to us, and I like to play to their strengths. If it's a Turkish/Italian/Greece crew, I'll go for coffee, as they take it very seriously and I've had some really decent cups aboard. Coffee I can completely get into. However, when I go aboard ships with Chinese/Indian crews, they are all about tea, where I'm loving lost. What's the best way to take this? Cream/sugar/plain? I usually just tell them I want it however they drink it, but I'd like to know more about what different ethnicities and areas usually drink and how to play it best to them. For example, the Chinese crewed ships I've been on normally serve me a type of green tea 99% of the time. Is this best to drink plain? It seems that's the way it's usually offered. However, I think on ships with an Indian crew, I get some kind of black tea?
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Nov 24, 2012 04:02
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Green tea is plain or maybe with a bit of honey in my experience. Indian tea is usually black tea, sometimes with plenty of cream and sugar. Both green and black teas have as wide a variety as coffee (if not a wider variety- I've had some teas that you'd never expect came from the same plant) and depending on the type of tea additions vary really. Heck depending on who is making the black tea, sometimes they'll make the tea in milk rather than water, or making use of condensed milk for extra sweetness.
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Nov 24, 2012 04:10
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nwin posted:For example, the Chinese crewed ships I've been on normally serve me a type of green tea 99% of the time. Is this best to drink plain? It seems that's the way it's usually offered. However, I think on ships with an Indian crew, I get some kind of black tea? Chinese and Japanese typically drink green tea. They are slightly different, but you drink both these teas straight, no sugar/milk. Honey is acceptable in small amounts. I've seen it commercially mixed with ginseng, honey, and lemon but I think this is a pretty strictly American thing aiming to get a more American palate. India is the origin of most black teas, so that makes sense. India's tea culture started from the English though, and the English take it with milk and sugar usually, so you can certainly do that. Black teas are very heavy on tannins and can upset stomachs. A little dash of tea is enough to fix this though. If you drink Scotch whisky, I would recommend applying your developed palate towards green teas because they generally have very subtle and delicate flavors that can only be tasted at certain temperatures and such. It's really fascinating. Edit: On the note of making it in milk and such, there probably aren't many Tibetan sailors, but in Tibet and parts of Nepal, and now in Northern India, black tea is commonly made directly in yak butter. That poo poo is super sweet but god it's like drinking straight up melted butter. I really wish it was more tea and less butter. It was like drinking, well, melted butter. Paramemetic fucked around with this message at 04:21 on Nov 24, 2012 |
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Nov 24, 2012 04:14
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Speaking of how people take their tea. How do the people in this thread enjoy their tea? I tend to drink my black tea with waaay too much sugar. Fortunately Santa's Secret is sweet and very minty, so I drink it without sugar. But I feel like I drink my tea ~wrong~.
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Nov 25, 2012 05:19
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I take milk in my earl grey and chai, occasionally in other blacks depending on my mood. Also I take at least some sugar in almost everything, regardless of whether it's right or not. I'm a bad tea fan.
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Nov 25, 2012 05:23
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I don't like very hot drinks so I let mine cool too long usually. I don't like it cold either though. So I kinda wait then sip furiously. I drink green tea straight up in all circumstances because I get off on complexity of flavor as much as anything else, and adding honey to green tea overpowers it usually. Black tea I usually take with milk because otherwise it upsets my stomach. I also usually add a teaspoon or so of honey. If I'm in the UK I just take a few lumps of brown sugar.
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Nov 25, 2012 05:34
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I like green tea plain (with perhaps a pinch of sugar if it's a tart fruit-flavored green) and black tea with some sugar. No milk unless I accidentally overbrew it. But generally I'm of the opinion that people should drink tea however they want to drink it!  e: for nice black teas like darjeeling, I don't add sugar.
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Nov 25, 2012 05:44
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Personally I drink my green tea plain, but I have been served honeyed green tea before that I found delicious- I just never seem to replicate the flavors or my honey just doesn't suit the tea. For black tea, most of the time I'll drink it plain, but if it is a chai or english breakfast it gets a bit of cream/milk and sugar (sometimes). Though with fruity black teas I prefer to make iced tea out of it, which does almost always get sweetened.
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Nov 25, 2012 06:48
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I, like the rest of my family, happen to regularly drink unsweetened iced black tea (and sometimes green tea) - except to the point where I can't really stand hot tea or coffee. I've also been using teabags, which are apparently sub-par. Thing is, I'm liking the idea of that Yerba Mate stuff. Does it work iced? From what I can tell, it's traditionally served hot, but the thought of coffee levels of caffeine in iced tea form is almost too good to be true. And if that's a terrible thing to do, are there any alternatives?
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Nov 25, 2012 09:21
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You could always drink iced coffee?
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Nov 25, 2012 14:24
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Rollofthedice posted:I, like the rest of my family, happen to regularly drink unsweetened iced black tea (and sometimes green tea) - except to the point where I can't really stand hot tea or coffee. I've also been using teabags, which are apparently sub-par. Just drink twice as much black tea? Anyway, I never put anything in tea. My co-workers (Egyptians, mostly) think I'm insane. I once poured a bit of Rote Grutze from Upton in one's cup and he drank a sip, made a terrible face, and added four tablespoons of sugar. Anyone have some oolong recommendations from Upton? I never really got into oolongs and want to try them out.
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Nov 25, 2012 15:14
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I guess I never really understood adding sugary things to tea. Then again, I grew up drinking a whole lot of roasted barley tea and I know a lot of tea people who absolutely hate the stuff because it's bitter (i guess?). I'm almost tempted to try putting honey in green tea just to see what it's all about. Is there anything specific type of honey or will the little bear do?
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Nov 25, 2012 15:40
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Rollofthedice posted:Thing is, I'm liking the idea of that Yerba Mate stuff. Does it work iced? From what I can tell, it's traditionally served hot, but the thought of coffee levels of caffeine in iced tea form is almost too good to be true. And if that's a terrible thing to do, are there any alternatives? My fiancé drinks yerba mate. I got him a french press mug. In the mornings he adds a few inches of mate with a little yerba dulce (dried stevia leaf) and (I think) 185•F water. Then he goes off to work and refills it from the hot side of the bathroom and kitchen sinks throughout the day. The dulce only lasts a brew or two, but by the end of the day, the mate is still good, if a tad weaker. So, not exactly cold, but certainly near tepid. He doesn't like hot drinks either. Also, don't use a gourd. Seriously, unless you have cultural reasons to do so, it's gross. The gourd taste is weird, then you use it lots and it sucks up the bitter flavor of the mate, then your mate always tastes gross. But that is my personal opinion. Bombillas are cool, though. Metal straws with a filter on the end so you don't drink leaves. Also, the metal part should tell you how not-hot mate is supposed to be. That could be painful if it's served too hot. And, like green tea and white tea, it can scorch. I have never tried it iced, but I would imagine it would taste okay... You could always add some yerba dulce if it's gross. Good luck!
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Nov 25, 2012 17:25
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Rollofthedice posted:Thing is, I'm liking the idea of that Yerba Mate stuff. Does it work iced? From what I can tell, it's traditionally served hot, but the thought of coffee levels of caffeine in iced tea form is almost too good to be true. And if that's a terrible thing to do, are there any alternatives? Normally I drink mine sort of lukewarmish anyway, but iced isn't bad. At a coffee shop I used to work at, one of my coworkers would go NUTS for iced Yerba, so we always had some on hand. Due to his constant pushing of it, iced Yerba actually got to be pretty popular with our customer base! My advice for doing iced Yerba is to have a very fine strainer on hand for when you pour the tea into your glass--fine particles always manage to make it through the initial straining, and the particles are gritty as hell.
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Nov 25, 2012 17:53
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Cizzo posted:I guess I never really understood adding sugary things to tea. Then again, I grew up drinking a whole lot of roasted barley tea and I know a lot of tea people who absolutely hate the stuff because it's bitter (i guess?). I drink everything straight. Green tea is the only thing I sometimes add honey to and the generic clover honey seems to work fine. I know some people complain about clover honey tasting like grass so it's probably a good complement to green tea.
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Nov 25, 2012 20:35
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Let's see if anybody has a solution for my problem. I need advice on tea drinking etiquette. I prefer my tea warm (but not hot). I'm generally the person in the room starting the sipping process while everybody else has finished their cups. I caught on early on that this disrupts group dynamics and really numbs conversations in public because everyone has to play patient with me; so, I picked up the habit of using my saucer as a cooler. I drip some tea into my saucer, where it cools faster, then return it to my cup where due to convection it helps the rest of the tea cool faster. I find 5-6 two-way transfers makes for my perfect drinking temperature. The problem is the stares and questions this nets me - I feel that in the process of trying to become more transparent during cafe outings I've become the topic of conversation. Does anyone have a similar problem and found a much better solution?
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Nov 26, 2012 02:50
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Ulgress posted:Let's see if anybody has a solution for my problem. I need advice on tea drinking etiquette. I prefer my tea warm (but not hot). I'm generally the person in the room starting the sipping process while everybody else has finished their cups. I'm sure this will offend some people, but if you're somewhere you can do so (like a cafe), just get some ice cubes to add to your tea to cool it off a bit.
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Nov 26, 2012 03:18
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Zelmel posted:I'm sure this will offend some people, but if you're somewhere you can do so (like a cafe), just get some ice cubes to add to your tea to cool it off a bit. That feels like it might both dilute the tea below its brewing flavor and cool it far too much. (Not criticizing your solution, sorry, just feels like there's still something even better I'm missing.) Anyway, just made my first purchase with DavidsTea since it's goon recommended. I'd stayed away so far because it always seemed their highlights were flavors I'm not much interested in. Ended up grabbing a bucket-load of flavors I do like in hopes of finding something that can get me addicted.
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Nov 26, 2012 04:04
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Is it an option to just let them go on to the next cup without you? Unless you're sampling I shouldn't see that as a problem, but then I'm unfamiliar with a lot of tea etiquette. What culture are you in, anyhow? I fear your method for cooling it resembles "playing with your food" and that cooling your tea in this way is somewhat juvenile. If you really must cool it in a hurry, asking for an ice cube would be less offensive I think. Edit: Bring a copper spoon and use it as a heat sink? Paramemetic fucked around with this message at 04:30 on Nov 26, 2012 |
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Nov 26, 2012 04:22
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How about constant stirring and blowing across the top? I know stirring makes a big difference when chilling wort for my homebrews.
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Nov 26, 2012 04:28
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I know you prefer your tea a little colder, but have you tried slurping it? Mixing in the air as you sip can help cool it on the way in.
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Nov 26, 2012 04:38
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When I'm out and get David's Tea I ask them to let it brew for a few minutes and then add two ice cubes. Since you're putting poo poo on your saucer anyway you may as well let it brew with an icecube on your saucer and then add it after a minute or so.
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Nov 26, 2012 11:31
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luscious posted:Speaking of David's Tea. Oh, Lapsang. The tea that smells like a campfire.
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Nov 27, 2012 06:05
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jazz babies posted:Oh, Lapsang. The tea that smells like a campfire. I know and I love it! That's exactly what I said to my friend when I mailed her some. The first time I had it I didn't like it but I knew that I would grow to love it (and I do!)
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Nov 27, 2012 10:43
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Reiterating my request for some oolong recommendations; any decent website will do. I've never tried more than the standard ti-guan-yin (which I found good, but not stunning) and one roasted oolong that was completely unremarkable. Thanks!
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Nov 28, 2012 02:30
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From Upton, for a darker oolong I like their Formosa Amber Oolong. For a lighter style, try either the Tung-ting Classic or Formosa Pouchong.
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Nov 28, 2012 02:45
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Thoht posted:From Upton, for a darker oolong I like their Formosa Amber Oolong. For a lighter style, try either the Tung-ting Classic or Formosa Pouchong. Thanks for the recommendations, may pick one up... has anyone had experiences with the Chinese tea sellers on e-bay?
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Nov 28, 2012 02:54
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My preferred vendor for oolong (mostly Taiwanese in origin) is Teamasters. Not the place to go for bargain pricing, but he's got impeccable taste in tea and very rarely misses with his selections. His 2008 roasted TGY is a very good example of heavily roasted oolong, and thanks for posting and reminding me of it because I think I'll brew some up right now. It's been a little while since I put in an order as I wasn't drinking many oolongs this year, so I can't offer too much comment on most of what he's currently got available. But, if you buy from him you've got to email him for his current price list anyway, and if you ask him what a good intro to oolong type of purchase would be I'm sure he can help you out.
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Nov 28, 2012 03:12
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Ulgress posted:That feels like it might both dilute the tea below its brewing flavor and cool it far too much. (Not criticizing your solution, sorry, just feels like there's still something even better I'm missing.) The more I think about this, if you have a normal cup and saucer type arrangement, you don't actually have to put the ice in the tea. Put it on the saucer touching the tea cup and it will cool it without diluting it unless it's a Turvis tumbler.
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Nov 28, 2012 03:14
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Are all tea farmers this eccentric? http://vimeo.com/53745796 I found this guy through a startup called Tealet. I'm interested in signing up for their monthly tea shipments, but I have nooo idea how much I should spend for such a thing. Are these prices reasonable? http://tealet.com/
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Nov 28, 2012 04:11
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I wouldn't call the prices a deal by any stretch but they're certainly not outrageous either. I'd say average to slightly above average. Obviously though you're not getting just the tea out of it. You're paying for someone to do the work of curating the selection and give you the stories behind the teas etc. So if you're not that experienced with tea you could do worse. You could also get a ton of samples from Upton for really cheap but I know their catalog can be pretty daunting.
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Nov 28, 2012 04:42
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WaterIsPoison posted:Are all tea farmers this eccentric? I'm actually a developer at Tealet.com and I think it's awesome that you found the video of Akky, not all tea farmers are that crazy but that one sure is. We filmed him while we were at a tea festival and are actually getting all our other videos ready. If you're wondering how good it is here's a video of George Takei drinking Akky's tea! Let me know if I can assist you in any way as well. https://vimeo.com/54004373
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Nov 28, 2012 04:42
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That's around $7/oz for the 2 month and $4.50/oz for the annual. Houjicha, (kyo)bancha, and genmaicha are all cheap ($2-3/oz) teas. The black is unusual because not much black tea is made in Japan, but probably also not expensive. So the annual is a little pricey, which is to be expected with the videos and the way they are marketing it, but you're really getting jammed on the 2 month, which costs nearly what you'd pay for very high quality sencha straight from Japan. Their per-ounce non-subscription prices are outright offensive, I guess they are trying to make the subscription look like a great deal rather than actually sell them. Definitely don't order any that way.
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Nov 28, 2012 04:51
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breaks posted:That's around $7/oz for the 2 month and $4.50/oz for the annual. Houjicha, (kyo)bancha, and genmaicha are all cheap ($2-3/oz) teas. The black is unusual because not much black tea is made in Japan, but probably also not expensive. So the annual is a little pricey, which is to be expected with the videos and the way they are marketing it, but you're really getting jammed on the 2 month, which costs nearly what you'd pay for very high quality sencha straight from Japan. You're absolutely correct. Our current selection is not the highest quality or most expensive but you'd be surprised how expensive that black tea is. What we're selling as you pointed out is the experience and the fact that you're not only buying direct from Japan but direct from the farmer (we actually went to the farms and got them). We're about to raise our prices so that we can provide exclusively high price teas such as Kabuse and Gyokuru. It's not something we're letting everyone know but if you make a free account right now you'll be locked into our current pricing even when we start shipping out the higher quality teas. I really appreciate the feedback and its good to hear what others think about our products so thanks for that. In fact if anyone comes across this just email me christian[at]tealet.com and I'll hook you up with a Two month supply on our annual pricing so $10 off. On a side note. If you're thinking about Samovar..do it. If anyone is in the Bay area, Jesse has made a great experience with his tea lounges and he does have some great teas. My favorite is the Green Ectasy a mixture of Sencha and Matcha.
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Nov 28, 2012 06:13
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For anyone interested: Teavana $10 off $30 with free shipping Code: LOYALTEA http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/85226/teavana-teavana-coupon-10-off-30-orders
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Dec 6, 2012 03:33
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QuentinCompson posted:Reiterating my request for some oolong recommendations; any decent website will do. I've never tried more than the standard ti-guan-yin (which I found good, but not stunning) and one roasted oolong that was completely unremarkable. Thanks! From the west coast US, you have a few options, all of which have pretty decent oolong selections. Aroma Tea Shop, Vital Tea Leaf, Teance, or Imperial Tea Court A few types of oolong you can look for: Fo Shou (Buddha's Hand) - sweet, green Dong Ding, Tung Ting (Taiwanese Frozen Peak) - similar to tie guan yin with higher roasting Da Hong Pao (Big Red Robe) - mineral, robust, bold Ginseng Oolong (Blue People Oolong) - honey/ginger with no additives, unique appearance, very sweet Milk Oolong - creamy, but kind of a crap shoot at finding a good one by chance Also try the other Wu Yi cultivars of tea since they have some different flavor profiles than the DHP. All of the above oolongs benefit greatly from multiple steeps due to their changing flavors as time goes on, and are mostly affordable (they can be much more expensive the fresher they are). I've tried pretty much all of the shops I listed above in person and they are all pretty fantastic, though the price spectrum is quite wide.
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Dec 6, 2012 22:10
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