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I've ordered from them three or four times, and they messed up the order two of those times-but sent free tea and a handwritten note each time. I also had a problem with the chai (it tasted odd) and just asked what it could be, they sent two boxes of 100 bags as apology even though I didn't ask for it or complain. Also, my partner once ordered a cheeky set from them as a gift for me, and they wrote a "To (Battle Pigeon), enjoy the tea, love (partner)" without asking for it-so I can definitely recommend their customer service! I've tried most of their tea, the lemon/ginger, super fruit, chili chai, and popcorn are favourites. Agreed about the chai though, it's very subtle. I found if you open up the bags and make it how it's suggested here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3488707&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=1 it tastes stronger.
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Nov 7, 2013 18:04
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Yeah, they definitely have good customer service. I've ordered once and it came just fine. I'll make a note of that, though and give preparing chai that way a shot. Thankfully, I only ordered samples since I am uncertain on buying a whole box or bag of stuff I might not like. I like tea from Zhi Tea and DavidsTea when I was in the US, and it's fairly similar. The winter spiced is one of my favorites and chocolate.
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Nov 7, 2013 19:17
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DavidsTea has all the "fun" teas. I like to see what creative teas they come up with. I recently bought their Pumpkin Chai and Alpine Punch from their new Winter collection. The Pumpkin Chai is nothing to write home about - a few hints of caramel but not very spicy. It does have adorable pumpkin candies in it  . The Alpine Punch is pretty good. It's got a wonderful scent with an interesting smell, but is very good before bed with a bit of milk.They also have adorable cups and mugs.
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Nov 8, 2013 03:26
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For those of you who like flavoured blacks: I recently picked up some of what I think is this Guava Tea from a local shop (I have no idea about the website I linked, but the picture matches. It's probably available elsewhere) and it's really pleasant. It doesn't have that overpowering "chemical" taste (i.e. overuse of flavorants) that turns me off from most options at places like DavidsTea, but can still handle a touch of milk (I find it a bit too bitter without, but that goes for so many things that I'm probably just overly sensitive to bitterness). Not sure how to describe the flavour though. First thing that comes to mind is "candy and flowers", but not to the point of being perfume-y.
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Nov 13, 2013 03:23
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Shnooks posted:DavidsTea has all the "fun" teas. I like to see what creative teas they come up with. I recently bought their Pumpkin Chai and Alpine Punch from their new Winter collection. The Pumpkin Chai is nothing to write home about - a few hints of caramel but not very spicy. It does have adorable pumpkin candies in it Was the pumpkin chai only available for a little while? Everyone who loves David's Tea seems to go on about this one every winter, but I can never find it on their site. Somehow I must be missing its limited availability window? I'm not all that fussed about most of their teas or flavoured teas in general, but I do like chais and am curious about the raves this one seems to inspire.
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Nov 15, 2013 19:01
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Enfys posted:Was the pumpkin chai only available for a little while? Everyone who loves David's Tea seems to go on about this one every winter, but I can never find it on their site. Somehow I must be missing its limited availability window? I'm not all that fussed about most of their teas or flavoured teas in general, but I do like chais and am curious about the raves this one seems to inspire. If you can't find that, I'd recommend Adagio's apple spice chai. It's like drinking apple cider without the teeth-rotting sweetness. The SAmart's chocolate chai is also delicious.
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Nov 16, 2013 00:35
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I don't know if it was a little while or not. Its probably seasonal. I'm surprised people like it so much. I wasn't really impressed.
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Nov 16, 2013 00:55
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Recently I bought some broken leaf Darjeeling green tea by mistake from Upton (I didn't notice that it was broken leaf when I ordered, mistaking it for my usual Darjeeling green), but this turned out to be quite a happy accident because it works really amazingly well in those empty tea filter bags you can buy and still tastes much, much better than (pre-) bagged tea. Now I have the perfect way to enjoy green tea at work, where the hot water dispensers run at 175F, without having to take care of tea stuff at the office. The broken leaves don't really need to open or expand much at all. So if you're looking for a way to enjoy tea without tea stuff, this might be for you.
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Nov 18, 2013 20:40
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I'm an electric kettle convert now. I was wary of buying one for a while, since all the ones I've used at other people's houses seemed to take longer than heating a pot on the stove. Even the really nice looking ones seemed to take forever. Then I found one on sale at the grocery store for  and figured I'd try it out. It heats a liter of water to a full boil in less than 5 minutes and is now my (and my fiance's) favorite kitchen appliance. I think I just doubled my daily tea intake since it's so much easier to heat water this way. Next I need to try boiling eggs in it, ala Alton Brown.It's not very fancy and it doesn't have different heat settings, but neither does my clunky old kettle that doesn't even whistle. I'm gonna throw that thing in a closet. 
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Nov 19, 2013 15:32
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aldantefax posted:téance (Berkeley) - Kind of new agey and pricey, treats teas like wine in a variety of ways ('tea flights', usage of wine vocabulary, etc) - they are probably gonna sigh and roll their eyes if you mention you take your tea with milk, that sort of thing Quote from a few pages back, sorry, but these folks just had their warehouse sale in Berkeley last weekend (it's an annual thing, so um, mark your calendars for 2014? It was at 1435 4th Street in Berkeley, though I don't know for sure if it's always at the same warehouse) and they had last year's yixing teapots retailing for between 20 to 40 bucks, which normally retail for something in the ballpark of 60 to over 100 bucks. I picked this little thing up for around thirty bucks.  The closest looking teapot on their website is this which they're pricing at 109 dollars, so holy crap, what a goddamn steal. This thing is going to be my dedicated puerh pot. ookuwagata fucked around with this message at 20:19 on Nov 19, 2013 |
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Nov 19, 2013 20:17
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Wow, 10 oz, that's pretty dang big for a yixing isn't it? And speaking of puerh, what's a good way to get into it without breaking the bank?
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Nov 19, 2013 20:23
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Yo, goons...I bought a chocolate chai from david's tea and...I've never had it before so I'm not sure if I did a thing wrong or not, but it doesn't seem to taste...right? it says to use 1.25 tps to a cup and I did that, and let it steep for the 4 minutes it says on the package but it still tastes weak or off?
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Nov 19, 2013 22:08
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hope and vaseline posted:Wow, 10 oz, that's pretty dang big for a yixing isn't it? And speaking of puerh, what's a good way to get into it without breaking the bank? There was an even bigger yixing that was on sale for around 25 dollars (I think it was mostly because it was kind of ugly IMO, with a couple of garish colored animals on it). I think some of the loose puerhs are pretty reasonably priced, as are some of the miniature tuocha on Silk Road Teas. If you're in San Francisco, I know that Rainbow Grocery sells Silk Road Teas, including their puerhs, in the bulk tea bins, which allow you to buy smaller amounts than those offered on their online page. Just be sure to completely understand the rules for bagging bulk items. Because Rainbow Grocery hires pretty cranky people. Where it starts getting insanely pricey is with the large diameter discs, the beencha, and large tuocha, which is generally so expensive because of a combination of speculation, and the Asian concept of gift-giving.
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Nov 19, 2013 22:12
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Mizufusion posted:I'm an electric kettle convert now. I was wary of buying one for a while, since all the ones I've used at other people's houses seemed to take longer than heating a pot on the stove. Even the really nice looking ones seemed to take forever. Then I found one on sale at the grocery store for Best thing about an electric is being able to flip it on and walk away as it'll just shut itself off when it hits a boil. I don't know how I ever dealt with a stove kettle all these years.
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Nov 19, 2013 22:20
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Renzuko posted:says to use 1.25 tps to a cup and I did that, and let it steep for the 4 minutes it says on the package but it still tastes weak or off? If it tastes weak first thing to do is try using more tea, pretty much always. If it tastes off as in rotten then something else is wrong.
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Nov 19, 2013 22:48
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Make sure the water is boiling pretty well if it's a black tea, too. And maybe add another minute onto it. I've had a chocolate tea previously and it didn't really taste like a chocolate bar. The taste was a little bit different, more nutty and less dark. Still good, though. Question of my own: what's your guys's favorite mate? I've been drinking a lot of the 'yerb recently, but I'd like to see if there's something different/better. I buy an organic mate in bulk at the grocery for $7 a lb, but I have no idea who makes the mate. It's slightly smoky which I like, and is a bit dusty and has some stems. I brew it using a tea filter instead of a bombilla/gourd.
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Nov 19, 2013 23:27
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ookuwagata posted:Quote from a few pages back, sorry, but these folks just had their warehouse sale in Berkeley last weekend (it's an annual thing, so um, mark your calendars for 2014? It was at 1435 4th Street in Berkeley, though I don't know for sure if it's always at the same warehouse) and they had last year's yixing teapots retailing for between 20 to 40 bucks, which normally retail for something in the ballpark of 60 to over 100 bucks. Good stuff! We should have some tea some time with your new puerh pot.
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Nov 19, 2013 23:49
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I just kinda left the tea ball in the entire time I was drinking, and it started to taste better later, I imagine that if I'd used twice the amount/a smaller cup it would have been better.
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Nov 19, 2013 23:56
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Can't wake up in the morning without a cup or two of Irish Breakfast. 'Course you'd all probably think I'm a pleb since I make it in a coffee machine.
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Nov 20, 2013 01:51
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Mizufusion posted:It's not very fancy and it doesn't have different heat settings, but neither does my clunky old kettle that doesn't even whistle. I'm gonna throw that thing in a closet. I'm not in the market for an electric kettle, but are kettles that whistle still a thing that can be bought? I drink almost entirely black tea so I guess I'd want something that would whistle when the water was boiling, but I have no idea how that works. My current kettle starts hissing when it gets remotely steamy and has no lid so I have to either stand and constantly monitor it or have it boil over.
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Nov 20, 2013 04:31
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I have a $13 Copco kettle that whistles when it's boiling, but honestly I wish I had purchased an electric one simply because it's such a pain to get the temperature just right for when I want to enjoy a white or green. If you honestly aren't going to drink anything but black tea ever, then yes, they exist, but I'm jumping on the "get an electric kettle" bandwagon.
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Nov 20, 2013 05:29
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Grrl Anachronism posted:I'm not in the market for an electric kettle, but are kettles that whistle still a thing that can be bought? I drink almost entirely black tea so I guess I'd want something that would whistle when the water was boiling, but I have no idea how that works. My current kettle starts hissing when it gets remotely steamy and has no lid so I have to either stand and constantly monitor it or have it boil over. In my experience, most kettles whistle or make some other godawful noise when the water boils. However, this one that my roommate owns, doesn't. Like yours, it doesn't have a lid either. You just have to fill it through the spout and that makes cleaning a pain. I got really good at identifying the sounds it makes while boiling though, even from the next room over. My friend has this ridiculous strawberry kettle and the sound it makes is downright alarming. First time we heard it whistle we were both in the living room and it scared us shitless because it sounds like some sort of warning siren. 
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Nov 20, 2013 11:31
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Mizufusion posted:In my experience, most kettles whistle or make some other godawful noise when the water boils. However, this one that my roommate owns, doesn't. Like yours, it doesn't have a lid either. You just have to fill it through the spout and that makes cleaning a pain. I got really good at identifying the sounds it makes while boiling though, even from the next room over. This thing is so ridiculous I don't even know what. ...I added the apple version of it to my wish list. Thanks for the recommendations everyone! I really considered an electric for a while, but over the last year or so my tea preferences have shifted almost entirely to black teas and sweet, fruity tisanes, both of which hold up pretty well at boiling, so a regular kettle sounds pretty nice and low maintenance.
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Nov 20, 2013 12:55
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Grrl Anachronism posted:I'm not in the market for an electric kettle, but are kettles that whistle still a thing that can be bought? I drink almost entirely black tea so I guess I'd want something that would whistle when the water was boiling, but I have no idea how that works. My current kettle starts hissing when it gets remotely steamy and has no lid so I have to either stand and constantly monitor it or have it boil over. They definitely still exist, but I guess it might depend on where you live. If you want one, camping/outdoors equipment stores tend to have them. I have a really fantastic one that I adore that was randomly found in a pound shop. I do have an electric kettle with different temperature settings that I use often, but if I'm making black tea, I use the whistling kettle on the stove (or the wood stove in winter since it has a place for a kettle, and it's handy when there's already a fire going anyway). It might be ingrained from childhood, but something about hearing a kettle whistle says "Tea time!" to me more than anything else.
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Nov 20, 2013 16:23
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My partner would like an automatic tea or boiling water system, like a coffee pot on a timer. Is there such a device? Even a fancy kettle that will have boiling water ready at 0530 would be great.
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Nov 20, 2013 18:07
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adventure in the sandbox posted:My partner would like an automatic tea or boiling water system, like a coffee pot on a timer. Is there such a device? Even a fancy kettle that will have boiling water ready at 0530 would be great. I haven't seen one, but the Zojirushi water boilers (which aren't cheap) can keep water at a specific temperature and are quite well insulated so it wouldn't waste a ton of energy to leave it on overnight.
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Nov 20, 2013 18:12
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adventure in the sandbox posted:My partner would like an automatic tea or boiling water system, like a coffee pot on a timer. Is there such a device? Even a fancy kettle that will have boiling water ready at 0530 would be great. There's the Breville One-Touch. From the web site: quote:Tea Basket Cycle auto lowers & lifts tea to brew It's one pricey thing though.
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Nov 20, 2013 18:23
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adventure in the sandbox posted:My partner would like an automatic tea or boiling water system, like a coffee pot on a timer. Is there such a device? Even a fancy kettle that will have boiling water ready at 0530 would be great. For just water, I have this one that will let you set an auto-on time and will keep it at that temperature for an hour or until you turn it off, so I just set mine to about 15 minutes before I want to be able to use it to make sure it's done by then. The interface isn't exactly intuitive but if you take the time to read the manual it's pretty straightforward.
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Nov 20, 2013 18:23
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adventure in the sandbox posted:My partner would like an automatic tea or boiling water system, like a coffee pot on a timer. Is there such a device? Even a fancy kettle that will have boiling water ready at 0530 would be great. Here's one on Amazon that seems pretty highly rated. I think it fits all your criteria. There's an electric tea maker on Adagio for $99, but I don't think it has any auto-start function. I have no idea how either of these perform, and they're both kind of pricey, so unless you absolutely need the tea ready right when you wake up, I'd recommend an electric kettle and infuser still.
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Nov 20, 2013 18:25
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Arcsech posted:For just water, I have this one that will let you set an auto-on time and will keep it at that temperature for an hour or until you turn it off, so I just set mine to about 15 minutes before I want to be able to use it to make sure it's done by then. The interface isn't exactly intuitive but if you take the time to read the manual it's pretty straightforward. Hey cool, I think I'll pick one of these up! Been using adagio's basic variable temp kettle but the control's kind of finnicky and lately I've taken to watching how big the bubbles are when boiling to get the right temp. Which I could just be doing on a regular kettle.
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Nov 20, 2013 18:30
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hope and vaseline posted:Wow, 10 oz, that's pretty dang big for a yixing isn't it? And speaking of puerh, what's a good way to get into it without breaking the bank? If you want to learn more about puerh (actually tea in general, but he posts quite a lot about puerh), I recommend reading through A Tea Addict's Journal as he has a lot of really great information. I know various posts have been linked to in this thread already, but it's worth mentioning again in relation to puerh. As for buying some, it depends on what you consider breaking the bank. You can definitely get good puerh without having to spend lots of money, but beware of your sources. Try both sheng and shou, but know that really young sheng tends to have a fairly sharp flavour that isn't always nice (or indicative of its future) while shou that has just been processed can be unpleasantly strong. I've recommended Life in Teacup before for other things, but I've also really enjoyed the puerh I've gotten. You can get various sample bits if you aren't sure what you like and want to try various different things. It's easier to start shopping puerh vendors once you have a slightly better idea of your tastes.
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Nov 20, 2013 19:16
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I've had the Breville One-Touch for over two years and it's totally worth it. Heats water super fast, makes every kind of Western style tea (although the super fast heating makes it decent for pouring for gongfu), and it's awesome to have freshly brewed loose tea ready when I wake up. If I don't have to rush anywhere, I set it to go a little bit early so that it cools down to drinking temperature by the time I'm ready. Otherwise I'll just pour into a thermos and head out. If you can make the splurge, maybe there'll be some sort of Black Friday deal on it. Oh yeah, couple of minor drawbacks... the cord is comically short (I like it but it might be awkward for certain counters) and the metallic parts eventually turns a kinda ugly brown. Also you'd probably want to tell it to steep for like 30 seconds less than you would in a mug, because the basket lift itself out pretty slowly. And you need at least 500mL of water to do the auto-steeping, so that might get a bit much with high-rebrew teas but should be fine with two people. Culinary Bears fucked around with this message at 04:09 on Nov 21, 2013 |
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Nov 21, 2013 04:06
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Some pretty nice black friday sales from teavivre! Think I'm gonna pick up their Dong Ding, Da Hong Pao and maybe the tuocha and try out a puerh for the first time. http://www.teavivre.com/black-friday-sales-2013 Anyone spot other Black Friday dealies? Adagio seems kind of lame, just free shipping till the 2nd. Verdant seems to just be "unveiling" new teas or something. hope and vaseline fucked around with this message at 19:58 on Nov 27, 2013 |
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Nov 27, 2013 19:45
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http://www.teasource.com/ They don't have it posted on their website, which has finally received the upgrade I heard they were making three years ago. I did get it in their newsletter though. On 11/29 only, black teas are 20% off with the code: BLFRI2013 On 12/2 only, there's no shipping charges with the code: CYBER13 On Small Business Saturday if you're in the Twin Cities in Minnesota, you can get 50% off prepared pots and cups at their locations. They ship USPS standard boxes so shipping usually only runs me about $6-7. So do the math to figure out which day will be better for your savings.
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Nov 27, 2013 23:12
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Hey guys, I was wondering if I could poke my head in here for a little advice. It's that time of year again, and as per usual I'm struggling to find something that my brother could actually use and enjoy. He's a huge fan of tea, and loves trying new things. As far as I know he has never tried mate, and I was wondering about getting him a few things so he can try that out. Is this a bad idea? Is mate something you should try before you buy gourds and bombillas? Provided that it's not a terrible idea, are there any recommendations for gourds or bombillas that are good? I've had a look around and there seems to be quite a wide variety for both. Anyways, thanks for any help you guys can provide. I drink neither tea nor coffee, and unfortunately as such know very little about what would be desirable to someone who does.
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Nov 29, 2013 07:34
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Khaba posted:Hey guys, I was wondering if I could poke my head in here for a little advice. It's that time of year again, and as per usual I'm struggling to find something that my brother could actually use and enjoy. He's a huge fan of tea, and loves trying new things. As far as I know he has never tried mate, and I was wondering about getting him a few things so he can try that out. Is this a bad idea? Is mate something you should try before you buy gourds and bombillas? I started brewing yerba mate in an infuser like tea, but mostly because I was too stingy to dive right in. This is the mate and bombilla I have. It's pretty decently sized, the gourd is actually a little big for my tiny girl hands, and the bombilla works amazingly and is easy to clean. I use really fine-cut yerba mate and I never get leaves sucked up. The website is really friendly and speedy, too, and they have daily deals for a free item to go with your order, but every time I looked at it it was underwhelming.  One thing though, while the website says it's ready to use, it hasn't been seasoned at all and desperately needs to be. Before anybody drinks out of it, it needs to be packed full with leaves and filled with boiling water, then left to sit for 24 hours. Afterward, scrape and rinse it out and it should be good, but another seasoning wouldn't hurt.
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Nov 29, 2013 11:36
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Are there any famous Vietnamese teas? Any particular sort of "tra" one should look out for?
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Nov 29, 2013 14:46
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Battle Pigeon posted:I bought some Milky Oolong/Jin Xuan (?) tea yesterday. It's probably a flavoured rather than natural version but I'm not sure how to tell. How long can I keep the leaves for re-brewing before it's not worth it? Teapigs are cool but are really expensive, I'm so tempted to buy a load whenever I see them in Sainsburys but a pack only lasts a few days 
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Nov 29, 2013 20:14
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I looked at the Teapigs site and fiddled with some conversion calculators (I'm bad with grams to ounces and had to check what pounds to dollars is currently at) and at least to me it didn't look that expensive? Is tea generally even cheaper than that in the UK? I'm genuinely curious. From what I saw it looked like you could get quite a few of their teas for something like $14 for ~1/2 lb. of loose leaf which is a great deal compared to what I usually pay or see being charged in the US.
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Nov 30, 2013 04:58
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cobalt impurity posted:(Helpful Information) Thanks a ton for the information, just what I was looking for and then a little more. Ran it by some of the other family members, and no one is quite sure whether or not he'd go for it, but then again that's the same every year  .
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Nov 30, 2013 09:42
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