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DurianGray
Dec 23, 2010

King of Fruits
I would say keep playing with times and temperatures until you find something that tastes good to you. I usually start on the lower end of times and temperatures when I have something new that isn't a black tea.

Hahah, Chinese Sencha. Yeah, I've certainly seen some teas that go more by the style than where they're grown. It can get kind of confusing, but as far as I'm aware most of the Japanese teas are designated by style rather than where they're grown. Chinese and Indian teas go more for the region as designating what it's called.

There are some teas that go more by the specific subspecies of tea bush than the region or style, so you can have Ti Guan Yins from places other than the Fujian province for example. I guess it's a lot like wines in that way? Some are designated by the specific grapes (zinfandel, merlot, etc.), and others by specifically where they were grown (Bordeaux, Champagne, Burgandy, etc.)

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Vienna Circlejerk
Jan 28, 2003

The great science sausage party!
It's likely that in the case of "Chinese sencha", the tea was steamed rather than pan fired in the curing process.

Enfys
Feb 17, 2013

The ocean is calling and I must go

Sencha appears to be my green tea achilles heel or something. Sometimes I make it, and it tastes fantastic; other times, I do the exact same things and it tastes terrible. I don't get as many unpredictable results with any other tea as I do with sencha, and I've never quite figured out why.

Culinary Bears
Feb 1, 2007

Depending on how much you can return it for and what deals you can find, you could also take a look at Breville's tea maker if you still like the automatic concept. It'll give you any temperature from 160F to boiling in 5F increments (also works in Celsius, I don't remember the numbers but that's around a 70C minimum), whatever time you want, and only needs a quick rinse unless you forgot old tea in there or something. There's a 500ml minimum for it to steep for you though, so that might not work with some high-rebrew ones unless you're serving a crowd or just using it as a variable kettle. I feel like I go on about it way too much here though, so I'll st-- did I mention it makes tea for you in the morning? :v:

FuriousxGeorge
Aug 8, 2007

We've been the best team all year.

They're just finding out.
Holy hell lapsang souchong. It smells like the incense they use at Church. I only bought it for a BBQ sauce recipe...but it's the most goddamn delicious tea I've ever drank. I was not expecting to like it at all.

Enfys
Feb 17, 2013

The ocean is calling and I must go

BBQ sauce recipe with lapsang souchong? Intriguing.

I love drinking it, but this morning I didn't have time to wash out my glass tumbler. I'm not sure I'll ever get the smell of lapsang out of the plastic bits of my backup thermos now.

Entenzahn
Nov 15, 2012

erm... quack-ward
Thanks for all the advice. I guess I'll have to try and brute-force the right combination then. That said I think I already managed some decent green tea. I'm not sure since I never had any proper, professionally made tea that I could compare it with. But it wasn't bad.

Goddamn posted:

Depending on how much you can return it for and what deals you can find, you could also take a look at Breville's tea maker if you still like the automatic concept. It'll give you any temperature from 160F to boiling in 5F increments (also works in Celsius, I don't remember the numbers but that's around a 70C minimum), whatever time you want, and only needs a quick rinse unless you forgot old tea in there or something. There's a 500ml minimum for it to steep for you though, so that might not work with some high-rebrew ones unless you're serving a crowd or just using it as a variable kettle. I feel like I go on about it way too much here though, so I'll st-- did I mention it makes tea for you in the morning? :v:

Sounds convenient but I think I'll stick with a kettle/pot combination for now. Should be easier to experiment with and I barely ever brew that much tea at once.

milpreve
Feb 29, 2012
Lapsang souchong is the best tea.

As for "professionally brewed tea," tea should just taste good. I like what I like, and I really only drink teas I can forget about and not ruin (rooibos, oolongs). When I make a high-maintenance tea, I baby it until I know the exact temp/time combo I like. Tea takes patience, but it's cathartic. I don't like bagged tea simply because I don't generally care for bagged black tea. But I really don't care for black teas loose, either.

Comic
Feb 24, 2008

Mad Comic Stylings
It's true, but without a point of reference you can keep doubting yourself. Do you really not like it? Or was it just made incorrectly?

That said tea is pretty varied so if you're not feeling one type of tea after a bunch of attempts I'd move on to a new variety.

ReptilePicasso
Jul 22, 2010
Hey guys, I am trying to jump into the world of tea and was wondering where to start. Some quick information about me: I enjoy coffee right now and wanted to get into tea for the late afternoons when I don't want that extra caffeine. I am currently planning to use my trusty french press to brew tea until further notice, with the water coming from my Bonavita variable temp kettle. I've tried oolong before and I quite enjoyed it. I'd love to stay with light and floral might be a good scent/taste that I might want to get into.

Also, I want to use Adagio since my credit card gets a good amount of cashback this month. Thanks everybody!

General Emergency
Apr 2, 2009

Can we talk?

milpreve posted:

Lapsang souchong is the best tea.

It really is. It just hit -20C here and that smoky as hell smell and taste hits just the right spot when coming in from the cold. I can see why it's not everyone cup of tea, but pea soup with some smoked meat in it and some sweetened lapsang warms you up like nobody's business.

I recently bought some Pu Ehr and that stuff literally smells like horse dung. It's tasty and all, but is it supposed to smell like that? I mean it is fermented plants in the end so maybe it makes sense.

breaks
May 12, 2001

ReptilePicasso posted:

Hey guys, I am trying to jump into the world of tea and was wondering where to start. Some quick information about me: I enjoy coffee right now and wanted to get into tea for the late afternoons when I don't want that extra caffeine. I am currently planning to use my trusty french press to brew tea until further notice, with the water coming from my Bonavita variable temp kettle. I've tried oolong before and I quite enjoyed it. I'd love to stay with light and floral might be a good scent/taste that I might want to get into.

Also, I want to use Adagio since my credit card gets a good amount of cashback this month. Thanks everybody!

Short answer: hit Adagio's oolong section, and order either the samplers or some of the green looking ones. Some of the brown ones may be ok - the more heavily oxidized ones will tend towards fruity flavors rather than floral - but avoid anything that mentions being roasted. If it's roasted enough to turn it brown it's unlikely to be floral at all. Also roasted oolongs in general are tough to get right and there are a lot of lovely ones out there. I think unflavored teas are great and the much better way to go, but if you like the flavorings then try those too!

Entenzahn
Nov 15, 2012

erm... quack-ward

Comic posted:

It's true, but without a point of reference you can keep doubting yourself. Do you really not like it? Or was it just made incorrectly?

That said tea is pretty varied so if you're not feeling one type of tea after a bunch of attempts I'd move on to a new variety.

Yeah, that's pretty much it. Maybe part of the problem is that I just bought two of the cheapest teas they had without much thought. I think I'm going to order a sample collection and see what else I like. That said I think I had some decent cups of tea by now, only I failed to take any notes about temp and brewing time :downs:

DurianGray
Dec 23, 2010

King of Fruits

General Emergency posted:

I recently bought some Pu Ehr and that stuff literally smells like horse dung. It's tasty and all, but is it supposed to smell like that? I mean it is fermented plants in the end so maybe it makes sense.

I know the pu ehrs I've had have all had a pretty strong 'barnyard' aspect to them so I wouldn't say it's entirely out of place. Is it a specifically fecal smell, or more of a "I just walked through a horse stable in general" smell? The latter is more what I would expect/be comfortable with. I grew up in the country though, so farm smells mostly just remind me of home.

ReptilePicasso
Jul 22, 2010
Update on my last post: I tried to get some variety with my order and this is what I got from Adagio.

Yunnan gold
Jade oolong
huang jin bolero
jasmine silver needle
jasmine phoenix pearls

I've never bought tea from Adagio before but it's a pleasant experience and they even gave me $5 off my order!

Another question I have is whether anybody cold brews tea or not. A friend of mine had a few mason jars in his fridge, where he said he had some red tea in it and was trying to cold brew. He also said that he kept it in the jar for over a week. Now this sounds like an easy way to over-extract the tea but can anybody shed some light on this? If it's delicious then I'd have to find some jars and do it myself.

Hummingbirds
Feb 17, 2011

It's hard to overbrew rooibos but I've cold brewed flavored green tea and it was good. I think I left it in overnight.

defectivemonkey
Jun 5, 2012

ReptilePicasso posted:

Hey guys, I am trying to jump into the world of tea and was wondering where to start. Some quick information about me: I enjoy coffee right now and wanted to get into tea for the late afternoons when I don't want that extra caffeine. I am currently planning to use my trusty french press to brew tea until further notice, with the water coming from my Bonavita variable temp kettle. I've tried oolong before and I quite enjoyed it. I'd love to stay with light and floral might be a good scent/taste that I might want to get into.

Also, I want to use Adagio since my credit card gets a good amount of cashback this month. Thanks everybody!

For light and floral I would grab some jasmine green tea.

General Emergency
Apr 2, 2009

Can we talk?

DurianGray posted:

I know the pu ehrs I've had have all had a pretty strong 'barnyard' aspect to them so I wouldn't say it's entirely out of place. Is it a specifically fecal smell, or more of a "I just walked through a horse stable in general" smell? The latter is more what I would expect/be comfortable with. I grew up in the country though, so farm smells mostly just remind me of home.

Yeah, it's the same smell as a stable. It doesn't smell like poo poo or anything, if anything the odor is pretty pleasant. Still I sure was surprised by it since when dry it didn't really have a smell.

Fluo
May 25, 2007

Could the OP add these three sites please? :)

:britain:

http://www.teapigs.co.uk/ Is a great little site that says loose leaf, bag tea (which are whole leaf) and even Matcha!
http://www.whittard.co.uk/ Well known big site, prices range from cheap to expensive. Biggest range from any UK base tea site I know.
http://www.hasbean.co.uk/ This is mostly coffee base but it sales a a good amount of loose leaf / bag teas. But mainly ask for it to be included because it sales Cascara/Coffee Cherry Tea, which is classed as a herbal tea [it's husks from the coffee bean] but its massive in caffeine and you make it the same way as you would tea.





Follow these simple steps for Cascara:

Step 1: Boil the kettle and let the temperature drop to 90 degrees c (194f)
Step 2: Weigh out the cascara, you will need a ratio of 24g of cascara per litre of water (0.84oz to 1.05 us quart)
Step 3: Add the water
Step 4: Wait for 4 minutes
Step 5: Heat the cup or mug that you would like to use
Step 6: Pour and enjoy



DurianGray
Dec 23, 2010

King of Fruits

Fluo posted:

Could the OP add these three sites please? :)

Just did, thanks for that! :)

Comic
Feb 24, 2008

Mad Comic Stylings
I might have to look into some US distributor who sells cascara. That sounds really interesting as a fan of both coffee and tea.

Vienna Circlejerk
Jan 28, 2003

The great science sausage party!

Comic posted:

I might have to look into some US distributor who sells cascara. That sounds really interesting as a fan of both coffee and tea.

Definitely post them if you find them. That sounds delicious and I want to try some.

Fluo
May 25, 2007

Comic posted:

I might have to look into some US distributor who sells cascara. That sounds really interesting as a fan of both coffee and tea.

You'll love it if you're a fan of both coffee and tea, first time I tried it I couldn't get my head around it. It was like a refreshing tea that has a cherryness about it but the caffeine was like a strong coffee, the husks swell up and go berry-like and smell great!

Its great if you can get it, for a long time it was only really used in countries that grew coffee but last couple of years it's gone international and less of it is being thrown away (because getting the beans for the coffee, you end up with tons of it).

quote:

One of the first steps in processing coffee once it comes off the tree is to remove the fruit, or cherry, from the coffee bean. Normally the fruit is discarded or recycled into compost to be used as fertilizer. In some countries the fruit of the cherry is dried and then brewed as a herbal tea know commonly as Cascara. The name comes from the Spanish cáscara, meaning "husk".

Cascara is a bright, naturally sweet tea with strong notes of strawberries, cherries, raisins, and honey. Without any type of sweetener, Cascara has a bit of lemony brightness on top of the strawberry flavor, but with a touch of sugar or honey it morphs into the delicious flavor of strawberry jam. It's terrific. You can definitely enjoy this flavorful tea either hot or iced; a perfect treat to beat the summer heat! Add a cinnamon stick while brewing to create a drink known in Bolivia as Sultana.

Also I've found some places in the US that sell it (they give slightly different ratios but I think it's because of Metric vs US measurements).

http://www.vervecoffeeroasters.com/products/cascara-coffee-cherry-tea
https://www.bluestatecoffee.com/products-page/coffee/cascara-coffee-cherry-tea/
http://www.meancatcoffee.com/coffees/19/88-cascara-coffee-cherry-tea.html




I recommend going by one of the ratios they recommend, then next time you can cup of it try adding abit more if you're not quite getting the fullness. :)

I was surprised using the 24grams for 1 liter ratio how much tea and how little cascara I used (I had a 250gram bag).


From one of the US sites:

quote:

Brewing Instructions:
Cascara does contain as much or more caffeine as a cup of coffee when brewed hot. A lower caffeine version can be made by cold brewing.



Hot Brew Instructions:

Place 20 grams of Cascara (approx. 2 heaping tablespoons) in a brewer and add 12 ounces of hot water. Water should be just off of a boil. Allow the Cascara to steep for 6-8 minutes, according to taste, stirring at least once during the brewing process. You can also brew Cascara in a French Press.



Cold Brew Instructions:

Combine about 40 grams (or 4 heaping tablespoons) of Cascara with about 12 ounces cold water into a glass jar or other brewing vessel. Allow to sit in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours. Pour through strainer and enjoy!

Fluo fucked around with this message at 20:19 on Jan 16, 2014

Enfys
Feb 17, 2013

The ocean is calling and I must go

Does it taste like coffee? I really love cherry type drinks and teas, but I'm not a coffee fan. Sounds really interesting though.

Culinary Bears
Feb 1, 2007

For cold brewing the Takeya Iced Tea Maker is really excellent (and I'm not flipping out over more teatech, it's a 20-25$? buck pitcher). Go for the 2 quart though, even if you don't drink much tea. It's pretty ergonomic for that volume (fits easier than, say, orange juice cartons), and you're going to appreciate the extra space after adding all the leaves/ice cubes/fruit or citruses/whatever. Well, especially that last point - you can make a small amount of tea and then just chuck a bunch of fruit in, it's great.

Now, I don't think that cold brew really helps the flavor of tea like it does for coffee. Unless you actually like squeezing out all the weird grassy notes - I think they pair well with certain additives (lemon's a classic, berries etc) but are kind of ehh on their own. YMMV. But anyway, it's an awesome way to use up large amounts of tea that you don't care too much for and make it taste decent.

Fluo
May 25, 2007

Enfys posted:

Does it taste like coffee? I really love cherry type drinks and teas, but I'm not a coffee fan. Sounds really interesting though.

I don't think it tastes of coffee just the caffeine amount in it, apart from being the fruit / husk it wasn't roasted which is what brings out the coffee taste in coffee. :)

Also tried my first Nilgiri today. :)

Fluo fucked around with this message at 10:21 on Jan 17, 2014

Comic
Feb 24, 2008

Mad Comic Stylings

Fluo posted:

Also I've found some places in the US that sell it (they give slightly different ratios but I think it's because of Metric vs US measurements).

http://www.vervecoffeeroasters.com/products/cascara-coffee-cherry-tea

I ordered this, along with their '1950s blend' because I've just about run out of coffee beans anyway. I remember eyeing their site when I was first looking for online coffee beans.

Fluo
May 25, 2007

Comic posted:

I ordered this, along with their '1950s blend' because I've just about run out of coffee beans anyway. I remember eyeing their site when I was first looking for online coffee beans.

Awesome! Love to hear what you thought of it! :D

defectivemonkey
Jun 5, 2012
I just ordered some Cascara, too. Excited to try it -- I usually hit up Yerba mate for the in-between caffeine level.

Enfys
Feb 17, 2013

The ocean is calling and I must go

Definitely going to have to try the cascara now, excited to see what it's like.

ReptilePicasso
Jul 22, 2010
Hey all, I have my sample of teas now from Adagio and I want to enjoy them to the fullest so I have a few questions.

Firstly, I used 3g of leaves for around 225g of water @ 180F and steeped for 3 minutes in my french press (I know but it does pretty well and looks nice) and the tea was pretty underwhelming. If I'm using a ratio that's took weak, I'd love to get advice on this!

Finally, I want to buy a gaiwan so I can use it as an alternative to my french press and look like ipman while drinking tea. Any suggestions? I see a bunch of them on Ebay for around $10 bucks but I am not sure whether that's the best place to buy one. Also, since I am buying a gaiwan... Can somebody quickly explain what exactly is the right way to prepare gongfu tea? Most of the websites list the amount of tea in teaspoons or by how full the gaiwan is so it would also be great to get weight measurements! Thanks everybody

Slaapaav
Mar 3, 2006

by Azathoth
I think tea works like this: You have to use more tea or increase the steep times (or a combination of both). Do this until the tea starts tasting like you want it to taste. Adjusting the temperature of the water will also have an effect. How much space the tea has to move while steeping could also effect things.

Try a higher tea ratio and see what happens. Make notes if you want to be really tryhard about it.

Like if I want to make some Keemun OP I boil water, put it in a random size cup with a perforated metal tea infuser filled with a teaspoon of tea. I then steep it for what I feel is 2 and a half minutes but atleast under 5 minutes. It doesnt end up tasting the same every time when I do it like this but its always good enough to be fairly satisfying.

Hummingbirds
Feb 17, 2011

ReptilePicasso posted:

Firstly, I used 3g of leaves for around 225g of water @ 180F and steeped for 3 minutes in my french press (I know but it does pretty well and looks nice) and the tea was pretty underwhelming. If I'm using a ratio that's took weak, I'd love to get advice on this!

What kind of tea was it?

DurianGray
Dec 23, 2010

King of Fruits

ReptilePicasso posted:

Finally, I want to buy a gaiwan so I can use it as an alternative to my french press and look like ipman while drinking tea. Any suggestions? I see a bunch of them on Ebay for around $10 bucks but I am not sure whether that's the best place to buy one. Also, since I am buying a gaiwan... Can somebody quickly explain what exactly is the right way to prepare gongfu tea? Most of the websites list the amount of tea in teaspoons or by how full the gaiwan is so it would also be great to get weight measurements! Thanks everybody

$10 seems like a good price to me. I mean at the end of the day you're buying a ceramic bowl with a lid, it's nothing super fancy. I've never done gongfu before, but as far as getting weight measurements you'll probably have to figure those out for yourself for the most part. The majority of tea retailers I've seen assume people have measuring spoons, but not that they have kitchen scales that go into grams, so when you do see brewing instructions it's almost always in teaspoons.

hope and vaseline
Feb 13, 2001

Heads up, Norbutea has 25% the entire order until January 31st. Mostly an oolong and black tea vendor with a few whites and puerhs. I regularly get their Ali Shan and Mi Lan Dancong from them.

Check out amazon for some $10 digital pocket scales, they're great for measuring a baseline for gongfu brewing.

Entenzahn
Nov 15, 2012

erm... quack-ward
I'm about to finally return my Morphy Richards machine and replace it with a standard pot/kettle combo. To that end I still have a few questions:

Is there anything specific I should look for in a kettle? I'll probably try to get one where I can set a target temp, but anything else?
Same for the pot. Will any old pot do? Is there any advantage to brewing tea in a pot vs. directly in the mug? (Other than the larger quantities)
Finally, I noticed that my hot water loses a lot of temperature when I pour it. How do you guys deal with that? I usually pour some of my heated water, then toss that away and refill the warmed cup with more hot water. But that seems kinda wasteful, especially when you brew in a bigger pot.

Enfys
Feb 17, 2013

The ocean is calling and I must go

It's always good to pre-warm whatever you're brewing tea in because it can change the water temperature quite a bit (depending on the size and material of whatever you pour the hot water into). You don't necessarily need to fill the entire teapot/whatever to warm it first. I usually just pour some hot or boiled water in, swish it around, etc then dump it. I don't see the extra bit of water to be that wasteful, but I don't brew in huge pots.

ReptilePicasso
Jul 22, 2010

Hummingbirds posted:

What kind of tea was it?

It was a green oolong. It seemed pretty underwhelming but then I think it may have been the ratio because the leaves looked like they were pretty high quality

Hummingbirds
Feb 17, 2011

ReptilePicasso posted:

It was a green oolong. It seemed pretty underwhelming but then I think it may have been the ratio because the leaves looked like they were pretty high quality

You could probably go slightly hotter as well, but like everyone else said, just play around til you get it right :)

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milpreve
Feb 29, 2012

ReptilePicasso posted:

It was a green oolong. It seemed pretty underwhelming but then I think it may have been the ratio because the leaves looked like they were pretty high quality

I'm usually underwhelmed by green oolongs. But I like roasty teas, so I'm biased. :)

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