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Devi posted:Someday I'll find the perfect mug. Until then, I'll stick with a big Kleen Kanteen. I had this beautiful double wall, hand painted mug from Teavana with a steel, machined tea basket that was really easy to remove and I adored it. My cat knocked it over and it shattered. When I went to go get a new one, they had discontinued and recalled them because they were glass and would break when dropped (no poo poo?!). I still miss it.
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Nov 6, 2014 07:21
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Hello Gunes, New Green Tea fanboy posting. I have recently discovered the wide wide world of tea and am loving it. I have some questions but will defer until I get stuck with my tea experimentation's.
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Nov 6, 2014 19:57
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Echeveria posted:I still miss it. I assume you're talking about the cat after you murdered it for breaking your favorite mug.
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Nov 7, 2014 01:40
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Can anyone recommend a source for making my own tea blends? Adagio's custom blends are WAY too expensive now. My goal is around 80 4oz jar sized wedding favors and 3 varieties of tea for brunch for the same number. I'm on a budget here.
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Nov 7, 2014 02:05
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milpreve posted:Can anyone recommend a source for making my own tea blends? Adagio's custom blends are WAY too expensive now. My goal is around 80 4oz jar sized wedding favors and 3 varieties of tea for brunch for the same number. I'm on a budget here. You could always just order several component teas and mix them yourself. Upton carries an obscene variety of teas, so you could probably find the types to make the blend you want there.
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Nov 7, 2014 12:53
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I'm going to be making a David's Tea run this weekend and I have three empty cans  any suggestions?
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Nov 7, 2014 13:50
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Get more empty cans.
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Nov 7, 2014 20:37
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I just went through a bunch of oolongs from Upton. I thought the 2nd grade tieguanyin was remarkably good, although I don't go through too much on my own so I sprang for 200g of the first grade today. I also threw in a sample of that Christmas blend, I'm not too much into blends but that sounds pretty ballin.
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Nov 7, 2014 22:30
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Zelmel posted:You could always just order several component teas and mix them yourself. Upton carries an obscene variety of teas, so you could probably find the types to make the blend you want there. Yeah, that was the plan. I just didn't know if there was a better bulk source than Upton.
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Nov 8, 2014 00:20
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milpreve posted:Yeah, that was the plan. I just didn't know if there was a better bulk source than Upton. The frontier herb company sells large bags of teas and herbs. You wont find any very special tea with them, but they have a wide variety of herbs and non-tea substances that are ofter steeped, like sage and mint. You can get basic chinese tea flavors like yancha and dragonwell too. http://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr...9&rnid=16310231 giant link, sorry
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Nov 8, 2014 00:47
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taters posted:The frontier herb company sells large bags of teas and herbs. You wont find any very special tea with them, but they have a wide variety of herbs and non-tea substances that are ofter steeped, like sage and mint. Oh fabulous, thank you!
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Nov 8, 2014 02:02
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CommonShore posted:I'm going to be making a David's Tea run this weekend and I have three empty cans I got their dessert sampler and really like the Chocolate Orange Pu'erh. I had just decided to give up on pu'erh, too. I'm in love with one of the teas they brought back for Halloween but it's not available in stores. It has coffee beans and almonds in it. Yum! Some of the winter teas look really good. I've given strong hints that I want the holiday sampler but that wouldn't give me much time to try out teas and buy them. I might have to switch my present requests to things that are available year-round and get the limited stuff early. Their samplers that have little tins have more tea than I expected. I've made two batches of the Chocolate Orange Pu'erh to take to work in a 20oz mug. The second batch was a little weak so if I do that again, I'll use less water one or both times. But that's 5-6 cups/mugs worth of tea in one little tin.
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Nov 8, 2014 04:55
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Devi posted:I got their dessert sampler and really like the Chocolate Orange Pu'erh. I had just decided to give up on pu'erh, too. I've never tried Pu'erh. I'll give it a taste when I go down there, but I usually stay away from more oxidized teas, because I often oversteep them and then they taste like twigs.
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Nov 8, 2014 05:59
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You're probably going to be tasting more of the blend than the actual puerh. If you buy a straight puerh tea though I'd highly suggest avoiding the major retailers unless you want some funky fishy smelling stuff. If you're not into more oxidized stuff, you might be interested sheng (raw) puerh, especially younger ones, 1-5 years of age or so. Their flavor profile is more similar to green tea with hints of smoke, hay, and light floral and fruit notes. The really young ones tend to be very astringent (which actually makes them a better candidate for aging as it mellows into a deep, woodsy flavor years down the line), but there are sweeter ones that are sold primarily for immediate consumption. Mandala Tea has a great beginner selection for raw puerh, they actually source and press their own cakes. hope and vaseline fucked around with this message at 14:47 on Nov 8, 2014 |
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Nov 8, 2014 14:40
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I tried a cup of puerh when I was there. I found it... ok but unremarkable. I'd take it over red rose, but vOv I ended up getting some super grassy-smelling Japanese green which I haven't tried yet, "Countess of Seville," which is essentially Earl Grey made with green tea, and a Chinese green called "Dragonwell," which I can't stop drinking. I've had like four cups of it already today. Making tea has been interfering with my actual work. It is staggeringly good.
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Nov 11, 2014 19:04
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Hey! If you're in the SF Bay Area I recommend coming to the tea festival this Sunday. I'll be volunteering for the entire day and afternoon (and morning and evening and the day before) so if you're into that kind of thing or you want to try something new, maybe check it out. Tickets are still on sale at the main website: SF International Tea Festival It is this Sunday the 16th - if you volunteer, I think you get in free!
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Nov 11, 2014 23:01
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Christ, there is a thread for everything. Right. I had some generic pu-erh tea bought in a grocery store. No markings on it, it came in a sealed plain plastic bag labeled "pu-erh". I love it. I want more of that stuff. I want pu-erh tea that tastes very strongly. I want tons of flavour. Earthy is good. I can buy stuff from China directly, but what should I look for?
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Nov 12, 2014 02:03
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You want shu or ripe puerh, aged at least a year. My go-to vendors are Crimson Lotus Tea, White2Tea, and Mandala Tea, they have really nice curated selections and it's really hard to go wrong with the puerh they stock. This article is a really great breakdown of the types of ripe puerh, from the importance of the leaf size, amount of fermentation and big factory vs small farm gushu puerh. Yunnan Sourcing is another great vendor but their stock is huge and a little overwhelming.
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Nov 12, 2014 02:28
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Just started gettin some actual tea leaves instead of the bags. This one girl at work is into tea and she said she can usually take the same tea and get up to 8 steeps or cups out of the same tsp or tbsp of leaves in her diffuser. She also said that some tea requires a steep of only seconds. Everything I read (at least about steeping) says completely opposite of that. Well?
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Nov 12, 2014 02:47
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She's probably talking about gongfu style brewing which uses small steeping vessels like a gaiwan or a yixing clay pot, anywhere from 60 to 150 ml. You stuff it full of leaves, and you do short steeps of a couple of seconds and increases gradually. You can extract many steepings this way, usually the more oxidized a tea is the more you get out of it. I can get up to 20 steeps with my ripe puerh if I'm pushing it.
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Nov 12, 2014 03:11
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nwin posted:Just started gettin some actual tea leaves instead of the bags. Depends on the tea - most black tea I only do one steep of otherwise it gets terribly bitter, green teas I can get about 3 before it gets too weak, pu-erh teas I can get 5 or 6. This is normal brewings with standard mugs, not any kind of special brewing style, with about 1 teaspoon of leaves per 6-8oz of water. Edit: Also depends on how you like your tea. If you don't mind bitterness (from longer steeping) weak tea you could probably squeeze a few more cups out.
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Nov 12, 2014 04:15
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nwin posted:Just started gettin some actual tea leaves instead of the bags. This is oolong tea, thats how it works. Most people use a single small cup called a gaiwan and just leave the leaves in while they drink. I drink tea this way mostly. Sometimes they steep the tea in the gaiwan and then pour it into tiny cups.
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Nov 12, 2014 06:17
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Aside from gongfu style brewing, the other time you'll commonly encounter very short steeps with high quality tea is when preparing sencha. It extracts quickly, especially on the second steep, since the process of steaming and rolling it into the needle shape also pretty well pulverizes it.
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Nov 12, 2014 06:49
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I recently ordered some milk oolong from Teavivre and I finally got it today. They also sent me a sample of phoenix dan cong oolong. I haven't actually tried the milk oolong I ordered, but holy poo poo the dan cong oolong is quite possibly the best thing I've ever drunk. Has anyone tried this and can they recommend something similar?
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Nov 13, 2014 00:50
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glomkettle posted:I recently ordered some milk oolong from Teavivre and I finally got it today. They also sent me a sample of phoenix dan cong oolong. I haven't actually tried the milk oolong I ordered, but holy poo poo the dan cong oolong is quite possibly the best thing I've ever drunk. Has anyone tried this and can they recommend something similar? I drink mostly anxi and wuyi oolongs. From time to time I will get a small amount of dan cong. I dont hate it, I just prefer the other types. Try this http://www.silkroadteas.com/one-bush-phoenix-bird-dan-cong-oolong/
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Nov 13, 2014 06:13
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taters posted:I drink mostly anxi and wuyi oolongs. From time to time I will get a small amount of dan cong. I dont hate it, I just prefer the other types. This one a friend has made for me at his house, different then what I normally drink but quite good none the less.
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Nov 15, 2014 07:00
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I'm not sure if this belongs in this thread or the gardening one, but is it possible to grow a tea set for work? I have access to near boiling water from those coffee machines, and a good grow light. if I just had a soil box or a just a pot is there a specific blend I could work toward so I could just have awesome fresh tea at work everyday?
Veskit fucked around with this message at 21:18 on Nov 17, 2014 |
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Nov 17, 2014 21:11
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You can grow your own tea, to be sure-- though herbal stuff is best for this; mint is literally a weed and all. But usually leaves used for tea are dried first, so freshness is a debatable virtue.
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Nov 17, 2014 21:26
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neongrey posted:You can grow your own tea, to be sure-- though herbal stuff is best for this; mint is literally a weed and all. But usually leaves used for tea are dried first, so freshness is a debatable virtue.  Of course I remembered that!
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Nov 17, 2014 21:33
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I'm still stuck with the bags, I do love them though. Thanks to this thread I found out a new world to make teas, will try stuff posted in this thread soon, thanks to all the contributors!
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Nov 17, 2014 21:34
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Hey guys, I accidentally left my tea collection at my old place when I graduated and it's now long gone. Winter's coming and it's time to restock! I'm looking for really really tasty black and green teas as well as any other recommendations you guys might have. The more caffeine, the better. Also, I love teas that taste like gunpowder and cave moss, so if anybody has a suggestion for something that will kick me on my rear end, lemme know! Bonus if all from the same source to save on shipping. Thanks in advance. 
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Nov 22, 2014 04:33
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Armchair Calvinist posted:Also, I love teas that taste like gunpowder and cave moss, so if anybody has a suggestion for something that will kick me on my rear end, lemme know! Bonus if all from the same source to save on shipping. The closest thing to gunpowder in taste I can think of, having never tasted actual gunpowder, is probably lapsang souchoung. It tastes like a fireplace smells, and is pretty strong. Not sure how caffeinated it is, but I know during cold nights, a cup of it is pretty nice. Though there is a tea referred to as gunpowder and if that's what you meant, oops.
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Nov 22, 2014 19:21
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An aged sheng, around 5-10 years would be right up your alley. I picked a Fenqing raw brick during a teavivre sale and it's just the right amount of smoky and woodsy while still being relatively cheap.
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Nov 22, 2014 19:33
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Armchair Calvinist posted:Hey guys, I accidentally left my tea collection at my old place when I graduated and it's now long gone. Winter's coming and it's time to restock! I like Keemun black tea when I'm looking for a strong cuppa. The Keemun Hao Ya that Teavivre sells has been my favorite lately: http://www.teavivre.com/keemun-hao-ya/ I find some Keemuns too smoky, but this one is more on the malty side. Speaking of Teavivre, they have a big Black Friday sale coming up. Anyone know of other tea vendors with similar sales?
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Nov 23, 2014 00:32
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Thank you thread for letting me know about yabre mate. It's pretty great despite me ignoring all the rituals and making it in a French press.
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Nov 23, 2014 01:04
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Juaguocio posted:I like Keemun black tea when I'm looking for a strong cuppa. The Keemun Hao Ya that Teavivre sells has been my favorite lately: http://www.teavivre.com/keemun-hao-ya/ Steepster always has a great bf/cm sale compilation http://steepster.com/discuss/9732-black-friday-and-cyber-monday-2014-sale-compendium
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Nov 23, 2014 01:49
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Adagio is doing free shipping right now, picked up a few oolongs, and I'm slowly inching my way back into the world of black tea.
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Nov 26, 2014 17:23
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Teavivre Black Friday is up! Though I think I'm gonna be spending on some White2Tea cakes instead for this weekend.
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Nov 28, 2014 00:12
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hope and vaseline posted:Teavivre Black Friday is up! Though I think I'm gonna be spending on some White2Tea cakes instead for this weekend. For Dian Hong fans, this is an incredible deal: http://www.teavivre.com/premium-yunnan-black-tea/ I haven't been into green tea much lately, but for the sale price, I had to get some of the premium Long Jing: http://www.teavivre.com/premium-dragon-well-green-tea/ Their loose ripened puerh is ridiculously cheap as well, so I figured I might as well try it.
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Nov 28, 2014 05:03
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Second their Long Jing, it's the only green I keep on hand nowadays. Their Dong Ding is the best I've had out of any vendor. I'd stay away from their mini-tuos though, it's pretty crappy even for that type of puerh.
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Nov 28, 2014 05:25
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