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Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:Just ordered a couple sets from Upton. Thanks! Yeah, their site is a bit old fashioned (they also do a quarterly paper catalog, which is pretty impenetrable if you aren't super into tea wholesale stuff). It's always worth adding in a sample or two of something that looks interesting or that you wouldn't want to risk buying a lot of since the samples are usually only a few bucks, even for the really expensive teas.
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Apr 5, 2016 22:27
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Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:Edit: Is their tea from 1998 or just their web site? They actually updated it two or three years ago, it used to be even more old school, really threw me off for awhile. The tea is fuckin excellent.
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Apr 6, 2016 00:26
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Sanguinary Novel posted:It's been a month of poor tea decisions. First, the Teavana experience, and then I bought some tea from David's Tea for the first time. After disliking three bags of tea, I have a deeper appreciation for Adagio selling sample bags. All of the teas seem to have a really weird texture to them, like the flavor is really muddy. It's hard to describe. It's probably the flavoring that makes the tea so weird. I'm going to try the weird teas iced or maybe with a little milk, just to try and not waste anything. Next time I'll just stick with Upton and Adagio. David's, in store anyway, will usually let you go down as low as 25g which is pretty sample-sized. If you're not into the flavouring stuff though (I kind of like a lot of it) you're best off elsewhere; some of their unflavoured stuff is nice but you can get better cheaper elsewhere.
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Apr 6, 2016 00:45
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Sanguinary Novel posted:It's been a month of poor tea decisions. First, the Teavana experience, and then I bought some tea from David's Tea for the first time. After disliking three bags of tea, I have a deeper appreciation for Adagio selling sample bags. All of the teas seem to have a really weird texture to them, like the flavor is really muddy. It's hard to describe. It's probably the flavoring that makes the tea so weird. I'm going to try the weird teas iced or maybe with a little milk, just to try and not waste anything. Next time I'll just stick with Upton and Adagio. Yeah, I know exactly that weird texture/flavour you describe, even if I can't put words on it very well myself. Every once in awhile, I'll order a few flavoured teas from David's or similar, but I almost always regret it. It might smell amazing, but that weird chemical taste just makes it increasingly unpalatable with every sip. I always swear I have learned my lesson, but a couple years later will see something else that sounds nice. My general tea preferences have swung from mostly light greens to mostly strong blacks lately, no idea why.
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Apr 6, 2016 11:52
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I finished setting up the table: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LiDx5NmTKU Here are the other videos that I had shot for the new page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_Bsx53viMc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_DUuYYhqOU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grnAbZm_c80 I need to figure out how to shoot videos for longer than 5 minutes at a stretch if I want to record any actual tea sessions that I do (whether it be for personal reference or a presentation or something). If anybody knows how to do that I'd appreciate some advice! The next step is to re-inventory all of the tea that I have.
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Apr 6, 2016 15:23
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That is a beautiful and amazing set up. If I had something like that, I would want to spend all day drinking tea. Your dog is also really cute 
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Apr 6, 2016 15:32
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Thanks! I'm debating what to do with the worn down portions of the table - refinishing seems beyond what I might be capable of (or rather how much energy I'm willing to expend on supplies right now), but I have some spare Sugru lying around so I could mold bumpers over the damaged parts that could blend in and also protect the areas from moisture.
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Apr 6, 2016 15:57
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That table is loving rad. Nice job, mang. Just tried this Giddapahar Autumn Darjeeling from Teabox and I'm really digging it. The aroma on the first steep bursts initially with tropical fruit, guava, sweet malt, brown sugar, woodsy leaves. The taste is tart, fruity, citrusy, tropical, some restrained piney and herbal astringency gives it depth and balance, notes of mint and holy basil, finishes with a slight peppery, mouthwatering sensation like pineapple. Very well balanced, bright, and delightful and a real steal at $10.50 for 100g. Seems like it'd be pretty great iced too.
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Apr 6, 2016 17:56
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My family's Utah-Mormon so tea's an entirely alien experience to me. Please don't ask about me about the religion, I'm just bringing it up to say that I only recently started experiencing the Not-Tea side of Tea. I've always heard about chamomile's relaxing properties so I bought some to see if I could get into it. In my head I expected it to taste like sitting in front of the fireplace at grandma's house but in reality it tasted like I steeped grass in hot water for five minutes. And I didn't feel too relaxed afterward, probably because I was doing it wrong. I tried it again later on with twice as many teabags but that didn't seem to help either. I added some honey and lemon to it and it still didn't taste like something I'd want to keep doing. I feel like I'm forcing myself to have an experience. Maybe I'm just not a tea guy?
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Apr 6, 2016 18:15
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MrSlam posted:My family's Utah-Mormon so tea's an entirely alien experience to me. Please don't ask about me about the religion, I'm just bringing it up to say that I only recently started experiencing the Not-Tea side of Tea. Based on your description I think that you may in fact like chamomile more than I do. The best bet is to just buy different things and try them. Make sure that you use tap-cold-then-boiled, not tap hot, fwiw. There's a big rabbit hole for water temperature stuff, but right now that's not as important.
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Apr 6, 2016 18:30
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Yeah, I'm not sure what you're expecting there, chammomile's got a really grassy taste and it's not like it's a drug or anything, it's something people drink late when they're sleepy because there's no caffeine in it, it's just a warm fuzzy thing, not some sort of chemical effect.
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Apr 6, 2016 18:42
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I think chamomile has some sort of cultural legacy stuff behind it as a relaxant and a sleep aid - taste wise, I think it should be more of a flavouring than anything else. I'd suggest you try: 1) lavender - the tastle is really subtle and refreshing, but I think it also has real depth and combines super well with e.g. chamomile and even milk. I don't actually believe in any of the health effects but I still drink it almost every night before bed, just because chilling with a hot drink is a good way to end the day. And because it tastes very good. 2) tulsi - this may be trickier to find: it's an Indian herb that's closely related to basil, but it tastes super minty, the taste is like a bit tea-y, grassy, herby, minty, and surprisingly strong. I'd hope you can't find either of the above in tea bags, just get a tea ball or something, they cost like five bucks. Lavender can take multiple infusions, like... five times 3dl or so easily, and one 10e bag lasts me and the girlfriend months of daily use.
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Apr 6, 2016 18:44
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aldantefax posted:Thanks! I'm debating what to do with the worn down portions of the table - refinishing seems beyond what I might be capable of (or rather how much energy I'm willing to expend on supplies right now), but I have some spare Sugru lying around so I could mold bumpers over the damaged parts that could blend in and also protect the areas from moisture. You could try buffing some shoe polish into it, but it looks like it's worn instead of scratched so it probably won't work unless you rough it up and then you're getting towards refinishing and it's just not worth it. @Thoht That's one of my favorite Darjeelings year after year. I'd buy it in bulk if my wife wouldn't make me sleep with it in the garage if I don't drink up the rest of my tea first. Chamomile is a grass. It's why it tastes like grass. I can't be around it because it makes my allergies go WTF and it feels like my head got kicked for the rest of the day. I'm a fan of Hibiscus by itself. It has a sort of acidic/sour taste that's pretty awesome.
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Apr 6, 2016 20:11
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MrSlam posted:My family's Utah-Mormon so tea's an entirely alien experience to me. Please don't ask about me about the religion, I'm just bringing it up to say that I only recently started experiencing the Not-Tea side of Tea. Assuming you're only looking at herbals since you can't have caffeine as a dietary restriction, consider a blend of chamomile, lavender (aromatic relax and calming aid), jasmine blossom (for floral sweetness), hibiscus (for floal sweetness), rooibos (caffeine free) and nettle (some have told me it is a focus aid). This was a popular blend from an apothecary I bought from when I lived back in Arizona, less the rooibos. It depends on what you really kind of want out of the flavor profile of your herbal tisane. Do you expect more sweet, a little savory, maybe some spicy/tanginess? These are all things you can achieve by blending other ingredients into your steep. Are you looking to get into caffeinated teas (read: all regular teas that aren't labeled as herbal or caffeine free)? If not, rooibos and other tea leaf alternatives work acceptably with herbal blends. As the other people have said already, you may wish to explore more types and ingredients or just different types of teas or herbal tisanes.
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Apr 6, 2016 21:01
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You might want to try something like a honeybush or even a green rooibos if you can find it - I find those to be really naturally sweet and not grassy. (Then again, I don't find chamomile grassy at all so ymmv.) Mint tea might be a good gateway too, it's mild and takes sweeteners really well. Mint tea was how I got into tea years and years ago come to think of it. And chamomile does mix with mint very nicely. DurianGray fucked around with this message at 21:37 on Apr 6, 2016 |
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Apr 6, 2016 21:34
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From what I've read, chamomile can be diverse in the taste. Meaning you either don't get it or you fall in love with it. I drink tons of different kinds of tea from black blends to grassy and umami greens and I can barely finish one cup of chamomile.
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Apr 6, 2016 21:38
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I'm guessing there's a reason for only herbal teas, but you could try peppermint and licorice as well. I love lavender (for culinary purposes in general, not just tea), so would second that recommendation.
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Apr 6, 2016 22:37
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Enfys posted:I'm guessing there's a reason for only herbal teas, but you could try peppermint and licorice as well. I love lavender (for culinary purposes in general, not just tea), so would second that recommendation. Mormons are generally supposed to avoid non-medicinal uses of mind-altering chemicals, so they don't drink caffeine, which technically falls into that category. I also dislike chamomile, but I really love rooibos - it's one of my favorite drinks. Spearmint and lemongrass also apparently make nice teas, although I'm not a huge fan of either. A lot of online tea shops will list non-tea leaves as "tisanes", which generally have no caffeine. The only one to watch out for is yerba mate, which has lots of it (and also tastes pretty grassy, so I doubt you'd like it anyway).
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Apr 6, 2016 23:16
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You could probably just throw out the first infusion of an oolong or something to ditch the caffeine, unless the restriction is incredibly tight to exclude even trace amounts. Something like a vanilla rooibos would be far out of the grassy taste category as well.
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Apr 7, 2016 01:36
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Control Volume posted:You could probably just throw out the first infusion of an oolong or something to ditch the caffeine, unless the restriction is incredibly tight to exclude even trace amounts. From what I know, even things like coffee flavoured sweets are out.
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Apr 7, 2016 01:41
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Thanks for the recommendations everyone! I'll be trying peppermint, Yerba Mate, Roobios, and maybe Honeybush if I can find it. The teas I'm specifically avoiding are Black, Oolong, Green, and White and I wouldn't feel conflicted about drinking things with caffeine in it. I wasn't going to get into it, but the wording in the dietary restrictions (in regards to tea) for latter-day saints is extremely vague. It says " no hot-drinks" which back then meant tea and coffee so everyone figured it either really meant caffeine or it meant specifically those drinks (possibly in a graham-crackers will stop masturbation kind of way). It was mostly a helpful suggestion instead of a full-blown rule for nearly half a century after it came out but in general it still gets followed even by super intelligent enlightened folks like me. Coffee flavored candy is fine, but so help me if you enjoy it  Today the guidelines are: Try not to do things that will lead to addiction and/or are terrible for your health, but figure it out for yourselves, but still follow the letter of the law for the most part And doing things that are good for my health is kind of a moot point since my mom turned me into a Coke-baby by drinking 2 liters of the stuff every few days while I was in the womb  aldantefax posted:consider a blend of chamomile, lavender (aromatic relax and calming aid), jasmine blossom (for floral sweetness), hibiscus (for floal sweetness), rooibos (caffeine free) and nettle (some have told me it is a focus aid) MrSlam fucked around with this message at 10:23 on Apr 7, 2016 |
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Apr 7, 2016 08:26
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Wait, why are you avoiding proper tea?
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Apr 7, 2016 11:10
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Vaguely worded self imposed religious health code being followed to the letter of the law. It says to avoid tea. So I'll drink herbal teas instead of proper teas. Here's a link and a more helpful link Is it a dumb idea to put herbal tea in the fridge? Like for later consumption? I'm a babe in the woods here. MrSlam fucked around with this message at 15:07 on Apr 7, 2016 |
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Apr 7, 2016 14:24
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Control Volume posted:You could probably just throw out the first infusion of an oolong or something to ditch the caffeine, unless the restriction is incredibly tight to exclude even trace amounts. Something like a vanilla rooibos would be far out of the grassy taste category as well. My understanding is that the "throw out a short infusion to get rid of the caffeine" thing is a myth, and that to get rid of a noticeable amount of caffeine you'd have to do a pretty long steep that would take a lot of the flavor out as well.
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Apr 7, 2016 14:49
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MrSlam posted:Thanks for the recommendations everyone! I'll be trying peppermint, Yerba Mate, Roobios, and maybe Honeybush if I can find it. The teas I'm specifically avoiding are Black, Oolong, Green, and White and I wouldn't feel conflicted about drinking things with caffeine in it. I wasn't going to get into it, but the wording in the dietary restrictions (in regards to tea) for latter-day saints is extremely vague. It says " no hot-drinks" which back then meant tea and coffee so everyone figured it either really meant caffeine or it meant specifically those drinks (possibly in a graham-crackers will stop masturbation kind of way). It was mostly a helpful suggestion instead of a full-blown rule for nearly half a century after it came out but in general it still gets followed even by super intelligent enlightened folks like me. Coffee flavored candy is fine, but so help me if you enjoy it Yerba Mate has hella caffeine in it. Just be aware that if you're under dietary limitations for caffeine to watch out for things that are tea-alternatives, particularly for Yerba Mate. If you just can't drink "tea", then good luck with your other caffeine explorations. One additional thing is that if you're branching out for tisanes (my preference for calling herbal tea) you will want to look at other things that have been used to scent teas and/or other drinks. Because flowers work, osmanthus and rose hips are also good; if you do have someone that sells any of the kind of stuff that I was talking about hit 'em up and pick their brain a bit.
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Apr 7, 2016 15:03
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Zelmel posted:My understanding is that the "throw out a short infusion to get rid of the caffeine" thing is a myth, and that to get rid of a noticeable amount of caffeine you'd have to do a pretty long steep that would take a lot of the flavor out as well. Lots of interesting caffeine stuff in this blog post including caffeine extraction in steep times which seems to top out at 10-15 minutes. http://chadao.blogspot.com/2008/02/caffeine-and-tea-myth-and-reality.html MrSlam posted:Today the guidelines are: Try not to do things that will lead to addiction and/or are terrible for your health, but figure it out for yourselves, but still follow the letter of the law for the most part How do you do one without the other? Tea has quite a few health benefits provided you're not dousing it in sugar and aren't consuming it in insane amounts. Yes, caffeine has some mild addictive properties, but like with anything in life you just have to use moderation and common sense, and compared to many other drinks people consume on a daily basis, tea is downright benign. hope and vaseline fucked around with this message at 17:11 on Apr 7, 2016 |
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Apr 7, 2016 17:03
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hope and vaseline posted:Yes, caffeine has some mild addictive properties, but like with anything in life you just have to use moderation and common sense, and compared to many other drinks people consume on a daily basis, tea is downright benign. That's the way I feel about fruit juice. In my quest to lose weight I've had people tell me not to drink juice since they claim it's practically sugar-water. It's juice! It's loving good for you! And if it's not, at least I'm not guzzling down liter after liter of Mountain Dew. MrSlam fucked around with this message at 18:25 on Apr 7, 2016 |
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Apr 7, 2016 18:01
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MrSlam posted:Thanks for the recommendations everyone! I'll be trying peppermint, Yerba Mate, Roobios, and maybe Honeybush if I can find it. The teas I'm specifically avoiding are Black, Oolong, Green, and White and I wouldn't feel conflicted about drinking things with caffeine in it. I wasn't going to get into it, but the wording in the dietary restrictions (in regards to tea) for latter-day saints is extremely vague. It says " no hot-drinks" which back then meant tea and coffee so everyone figured it either really meant caffeine or it meant specifically those drinks (possibly in a graham-crackers will stop masturbation kind of way). It was mostly a helpful suggestion instead of a full-blown rule for nearly half a century after it came out but in general it still gets followed even by super intelligent enlightened folks like me. Coffee flavored candy is fine, but so help me if you enjoy it When I hear "avoid hot drinks" it makes me think of Galenic medicine. In the "humours" way of looking at physiology, "heat" was a different characteristic than temperature. I.e. most (but not all!) kinds of wine were "hot" beverages, even if chilled, whereas coffee is a "dry" beverage. Not to argue against your orthodoxy or anything. That just might be what the nineteenth-century documents mean.
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Apr 7, 2016 18:25
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Zelmel posted:My understanding is that the "throw out a short infusion to get rid of the caffeine" thing is a myth, and that to get rid of a noticeable amount of caffeine you'd have to do a pretty long steep that would take a lot of the flavor out as well. Yeah that's why I mentioned oolong since they handle multiple infusions very well, I thought something like a 3 minute infusion would remove more caffeine than 76% though so that article was an interesting read even if this whole thing is a moot point. Control Volume fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Apr 7, 2016 |
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Apr 7, 2016 20:00
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MrSlam posted:That's the way I feel about fruit juice. In my quest to lose weight I've had people tell me not to drink juice since they claim it's practically sugar-water. It's juice! It's loving good for you! And if it's not, at least I'm not guzzling down liter after liter of Mountain Dew. It is literally sugar water. It has more sugar than soda, and ounce for ounce, more calories. The sugar contained in fruits is fructose, which spikes your blood sugar and causes insulin resistance over time, etc. You know that the F in HFCS in soda stands for fructose, right? Fructose by itself is brutal on your body. It's not usually a problem with fruit because you don't sit down and eat 10 oranges in a row, and fruit also contains lots of fibre and other nutrients in the pulp which help keep you from sugar bombing your blood stream, forcing your pancreas to dump everything it has into your sweet syrup blood and stop producing/regulating other hormones until this insulin crisis is over, overtaxing your kidneys that now must filter the sugar blood that is shredding your circulatory system into ribbons, etc. Eating fruit helps your body absorb the fructose slowly, in a way your poor pancreas can manage in insulin production so that all those other bad things don't happen and you aren't regularly forcing your blood to circulate what essentially acts like tiny glass particles through your organs and veins until your body can catch up. Juice just squeezes all the sugar out of fruit and delivers it straight into your bloodstream. It's horrible for you. Your beleaguered pancreas cries every time you drink fruit juice, and eventually it will just give up. You'd probably be better off guzzling soda because at least you recognise that as unhealthy, whereas drinking fruit juice allows you to cheerfully wreck your endocrine, renal and circulatory systems while thinking it's good for you. The only real health benefit of tea is that it hydrates you. It's so much better for you than fruit juice, though. Enfys fucked around with this message at 20:27 on Apr 7, 2016 |
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Apr 7, 2016 20:25
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So getting back to tea, I bought this stuff called just "1776 Blend" from a tea vendor at a festival a while back and love it but of course the vendor doesn't seem to sell it on their website. Google found me about a dozen other places that sell something with the same name for prices that vary from $2-5 an oz. and they look to be the same tea (some even have the same descriptive copy but different packaging). I'm not usually into blends other than Earl Greys so does anyone know if that's typical for the flavored or blended market? I guess they're all just buying this from a wholesale supplier and not mixing it themselves, so I'd love to find out who the hell the company actually making this stuff is.
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Apr 7, 2016 20:53
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Ras Het posted:Wait, why are you avoiding proper tea? Communist. All proper tea is theft.
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Apr 7, 2016 21:03
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DurianGray posted:So getting back to tea, I bought this stuff called just "1776 Blend" from a tea vendor at a festival a while back and love it but of course the vendor doesn't seem to sell it on their website. Did you try calling or emailing the vendor you first got it from? They may be able to sell it over the phone or at least tell you where you can find it. My experience with small vendors is usually pretty good when you're asking to give them money.
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Apr 7, 2016 22:30
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I went to the local But I'll let Gayaka Organ Brand Yerba Mate Sparkling Gold Classic speak for itself... The side of the can posted:Reach deep into yerba mate culture and you'll discover people have long gathered to imbibe mate to awaken the mind, perform extraordinary feats and to exchange confidences. Even Yari, the mythical goddess of mate decrees it the symbol of friendship. MrSlam fucked around with this message at 19:57 on Apr 8, 2016 |
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Apr 8, 2016 19:36
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I know a bunch of people who are into mate and they're really evangelical about it, mention tea or coffee and you'll get a spiel about how mate is somehow superior, despite being a similar collection of stimulants
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Apr 8, 2016 20:28
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Decided to look up more information on Yerba Mate on the internet and suddenly Yerba Mate causes cancer  After a tiny heart attack and some quick research, I've concluded that I will not drink 4-5 cups of yerba mate (in excess of 165 degrees Fahrenheit) daily over a period of 10-20 years while heavily smoking, drinking, and consuming charred meat.
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Apr 8, 2016 21:22
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It's spring! Anyone excited for new harvests? I think I'll try to pick up a shincha and see how freshness helps. Any other stuff to look out for? I'd be correct in assuming freshness is mostly a big thing for greens.
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Apr 8, 2016 21:39
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Do we know if mate has oxilates like tea does that is going to give me tons of kidney stones. I've drank it for years, but now I'm not sure about drinking 2 liters a day of tea or even mate.
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Apr 9, 2016 05:46
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Anyone remember the taiwanese tea vendor tea of the month thing posted a few pages ago? I know it wasn't a lot of money but has anyone actually received their tea yet?
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Apr 9, 2016 05:53
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subpar anachronism posted:Anyone remember the taiwanese tea vendor tea of the month thing posted a few pages ago? I know it wasn't a lot of money but has anyone actually received their tea yet?  .Oriental Beauty Oolong - Not quite black tea. Kind of flat. I don't like unspiced black tea. Sun Moon Lake Black - Very close to Oriental Beauty and maybe a little better. Dong Ding - Greener than I expected. Balanced between grassy and floral. Taiwan Puerh - My first puerh. Smoky with a fruity sweet flavor but pervasive funk. Dayulin Oolong - Green. Sweet not grassy. TGY - Stronger and darker than expected. Balanced. Lishan High Mountain Oolong - Another green oolong. Not too sweet. Jade Oolong - Closer to vegetal green tea than the others. Everything was a sample but the Dong Ding and Jade. I'm happy to have more of them.
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Apr 9, 2016 08:41
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