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EKDS5k posted:That's what I would do. With the added step that if your water is already 80 degrees then I would warm the mug up with it first. I've been told that the "correct" way to do it is to boil the water once, and then let it cool, so if you're doing that then it'll be a matter of experimentation to find out how long to let it sit in your mug before adding the tea leaves. Gong Fu preparation ranges from extremely formal ceremonies to two cups with a strainer and everything in between. If you are just preparing it for yourself, something like this is pretty useful. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01JVYOSIK/ You brew in the bottom and the cup is also the lid. I use a simlar one at work with an electric kettle at my desk. You don't really need to do a wash on green teas, the first steep can be drank just fine. You should on Oolongs tho, especially the darker ones; the first steep can taste pretty bad. Also Poo Erh is gross.
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Nov 23, 2017 01:52
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taters posted:Gong Fu preparation ranges from extremely formal ceremonies to two cups with a strainer and everything in between. If you are just preparing it for yourself, something like this is pretty useful. The point of puer isn't really the flavor. They can taste quite nice, but on flavor alone I'll usually pick an Oolong or darker green. It gets you high. Puer is drug tea that doesn't show up on a piss test and won't get you fired.
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Nov 23, 2017 06:21
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Upton updated their website and I miss the web circa 2001 thing it had going on.
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Nov 23, 2017 07:34
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Teavivre's Black Friday sale started. 20-40% off most stuff until Saturday night (Sunday?). They'll do something for Cyber Monday but last year it was maybe a flat 20% and I was mad about missing the weekend sale. I got oolongs because I have about 2lb of greens already. Taiwan Monkey Picked (Ma Liu Mie) Tie Guan Yin - Smells like bread and tastes lightly roasted Guang Dong Phoenix Dan Cong - More earthy than roasty but not all the way like a rock oolong. Huang Guanyin (Yellow Goddess) Wuyi - It's a mystery. Reviews of Spring 2017 teas. Non-Premium Dragon Well - Grassy and nutty. The cheap stuff is good enough and I almost bought more today. Organic Bai Hao (White Downy) - Strong and vegetal. Don't oversteep this. Lu Shan Yun Wu - Light and nutty. Very good. Organic Tian Mu Yun Wu Mao Feng - Lighter than the Bai Hao. I've only tried this one twice. Premium Tai Ping Hou Kui - This is great. Sort of a stronger Long Jing and amazing large leaves.
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Nov 23, 2017 09:26
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I lost the gasket for my teavana perfectea. Is there any way to get a replacement?
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Nov 23, 2017 13:00
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UltimoDragonQuest posted:Teavivre's Black Friday sale started. 20-40% off most stuff until Saturday night (Sunday?). They'll do something for Cyber Monday but last year it was maybe a flat 20% and I was mad about missing the weekend sale. Their standard grade Silver Needle is really nice this year. I'm getting a whole bunch with my Black Friday order. I've tried both the Premium and Superfine Longjing. The Superfine is definitely better, but the Premium is excellent as well. I was kind of disappointed in their Keemuns this year, but the Superfine Fragrant is really good. I still need to finish my Teavivre stash from last year, but here I am ordering more tea.
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Nov 24, 2017 06:14
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Teavivre haul: not much. Taiwan Osmanthus Oolong Tea Lychee Black Tea - Free Sample Just because taiwan is number one in my heart, and after reading up on farming practices, I don't really trust food from China, even if lead poisoning wouldn't make me that much dumber XD . Also lol at them needing a legendary concubine to justify lychee flavored tea.
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Nov 24, 2017 06:55
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Jhet posted:Try different teas in a variety you already like, then try making them cold. The more you try, the better of an idea you'll have when it comes to origin and style of leaf. Don't go buying anything that's $20/4oz or anything, but $6-10/4oz is a good place to start. There are a bunch of links to online tea shops in the OP, and most of them have good black teas to try. Without knowing what kind of tea you like, it's really hard to give recommendations, but this one is pretty decent and cheap enough to drink it a lot https://www.teasource.com/collections/china-black-teas/products/teasource-classic-iced-tea-black-tea . So I went ahead and bought the classic iced tea and a few other varieties from Teasource. I'm actually a bit surprised in the flavor differences between them. I ordered a few more types yesterday to take advantage of their black friday sale and a coupon they sent me with my first order. How many round teaspoons should I be using for a 2 quart cold brew setup? I've been using anywhere between 6-8 and haven't really noticed any differences between the different amounts.
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Nov 25, 2017 21:28
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fknlo posted:So I went ahead and bought the classic iced tea and a few other varieties from Teasource. I'm actually a bit surprised in the flavor differences between them. I ordered a few more types yesterday to take advantage of their black friday sale and a coupon they sent me with my first order. When I worked there almost a decade ago, it was +/- 3g per cup normally with a hot steep. You should be able to get away with about that still and I think it's about 12-15g per quart and that should work alright with cold brew as well. 1 tsp of the classic iced tea should be about 3g due to the size of those leaves. 6-8 should be about right, but if you're not noticing a difference, definitely go with the lesser amount so it lasts a little longer. I like the way they do their black blends there. Most of them are really solid drinkers. It's a personal taste preference when it comes down to it, so there's not really a wrong way to do it if you like the results. (Except for boiling tea bags for Southern sweet tea. Don't do that. It's nasty.)
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Nov 25, 2017 22:30
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Just dropped about 50 bucks on a large assortment of puerh samplers from Teavivre, so that should be tasty.
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Nov 25, 2017 23:12
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Wife's aunt took us out to a tea place here in Kunming for a tasting. Tried a heilong, another red that was gushu something something, a jasmine white, current year Pu'er and a 2002 Pu'er. I was floored at how the flavors could develop like that... very smooth, very complex. The jasmine white was delicious and light and refreshing, the heilong was a great overall everyday tea, the gushu was a really rich and complex umami, almost mushroom-like flavor. Afterwards we went to a second place and had... what I think was an "uncooked" green that they called a "yellow" tea? Which wasn't as deep but was a good plain drinking tea. I'm going to have to get myself a small set for work and do some tea here in the afternoons. K that's my tea story.
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Nov 28, 2017 03:58
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Do you guys have any words about Two Leaves and a Bud tea? We might start carrying them but I obviously can't do that without the goon go-ahead.
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Dec 2, 2017 02:19
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Scaramouche posted:Do you guys have any words about Two Leaves and a Bud tea? We might start carrying them but I obviously can't do that without the goon go-ahead. It’s meh. And very overpriced. Consumer prices are like $9 for 15 bags of mediocre tea. It’s better than Lipton and Twinnings, and they’re also very much more interested in blending it looks like. I put them in flashy but not a lot of substance category.
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Dec 2, 2017 03:56
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I guess all Teavana stores are going to start closing, so I went to the one by work to see if they had any decent sales. Mind you, I NEVER shop at Teavana, their customer service model has always been notoriously pushy. Even on the edge of death in a store full of red ticketed merchandise, all 8 employees in the 3 square ft store still harassed me. Good riddance. Having said that, I did pick up a teaball and 6oz bag of gingerbread for 8 bucks. Hopefully closer to 2018, there will be more significant markdowns.
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Dec 2, 2017 04:53
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Jhet posted:It’s meh. And very overpriced. Consumer prices are like $9 for 15 bags of mediocre tea. It’s better than Lipton and Twinnings, and they’re also very much more interested in blending it looks like. Well given that our current stock is Numi, Tazo, and Twinnings I'm not sure if I should consider that an upgrade or not.
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Dec 2, 2017 20:19
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RandomPauI posted:I lost the gasket for my teavana perfectea. Is there any way to get a replacement? Teavana's shutting down all their stores and poo poo is cheeeap (33-75% off) right now, so you can probably get a new one. I don't know if they do replacement parts though. Their online store is going down on Dec. 15 too. Starbuuuucks 
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Dec 2, 2017 22:33
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Scaramouche posted:Well given that our current stock is Numi, Tazo, and Twinnings I'm not sure if I should consider that an upgrade or not. It’s about even with Numi and Tazo. Clearly not a tea shop, so it’ll do fine probably. Although if you could get one of those tea kiosk things you posted about up thread, that would be much cooler.
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Dec 3, 2017 04:04
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gamingCaffeinator posted:Teavana's shutting down all their stores and poo poo is cheeeap (33-75% off) right now, so you can probably get a new one. I don't know if they do replacement parts though. Their online store is going down on Dec. 15 too. They didn't have a replacement gasket so I just bought a new plastic one and a ceramic mug with tea strainer and lid. I also thought about picking up some tea but the flavors that they had left in stock didn't appeal to me all that much for some reason.
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Dec 3, 2017 08:41
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How long does tea keep? I got into it big a while back and lost interest in the hobby and didn't have the motivation to blow through my stocks, so I have a basket full of fancy loose leaf sitting in my cabinets. The pu erh I think keeps indefinitely, but what about the greens blacks and herbals? They're stored in airtight opaque bags in cool-ish conditions. E:Judging by my last post in the thread, I'd guess it was about 2.5-3 years that these have been sitting.
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Dec 10, 2017 01:48
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tweet my meat posted:How long does tea keep? I got into it big a while back and lost interest in the hobby and didn't have the motivation to blow through my stocks, so I have a basket full of fancy loose leaf sitting in my cabinets. The pu erh I think keeps indefinitely, but what about the greens blacks and herbals? They're stored in airtight opaque bags in cool-ish conditions. May have gotten a little stale, but the only way you'll know is to drink them. The blacks will probably be better than the greens. Herbals will depend on what's in them entirely. Anything with delicate flavors will tend to suffer more than things with robust flavors. They just won't be quite as robust anymore. Puerh's should be fine or maybe better depending on how well they were stored. I have a couple puerh's that I've had bricks of for the better part of a decade and every so often I open them up from their dark and dry storage to find out how they taste. I enjoy them, but not so much that I'd drink the whole thing quickly enough to where it won't have a chance to age. Also, I bought a few too many about 6 years ago anyway, so my stock is far too large. They don't seem to be harmed by the time at all.
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Dec 10, 2017 05:16
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I now have like eighteen different puerh tea samplers  Teavivre was nice and gave me two more puerhs as free samples
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Dec 15, 2017 01:33
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Archenteron posted:I now have like eighteen different puerh tea samplers So one of those samples is their Moonlight Beauty Raw Pu-erh Loose Tea, which according to their website, is a new style of lightly fermented almost-white-tea pu'erh. It was a very pleasant light brew with a subtle malty sweetness to it. I've never seen that style of tea leaf before (the long thick buds). Due to the amount of tea in the sampler and the difficulty measuring it, I ended up doing some sort of weird teapot/gonfu hybrid brew: loaded up the infuser basket in my little tetsubin and started at a 3min brew, increasing by 20 seconds each subsequent time. Got a full day's worth of very nice drinking out of it.
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Dec 21, 2017 19:59
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I tried gyokuro Chinese green tea for the first time at a tea shop recently and it was so delicious. Can anyone recommend anything with a similar taste? It is kind of on the higher end of what I would pay for tea, wondering if there are any alternatives. It has kind of a briney/seaweed green taste.
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Dec 22, 2017 03:21
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dms666 posted:I tried gyokuro Chinese green tea for the first time at a tea shop recently and it was so delicious. Can anyone recommend anything with a similar taste? It is kind of on the higher end of what I would pay for tea, wondering if there are any alternatives. It has kind of a briney/seaweed green taste. Try out some Japanese greens, which is what gyokuro is anyway. It’s shade grown at the end at least and more expensive. I don’t remember which others are stronger brine/seaweed. Most of the Japanese greens I can remember do have some of that to them though. It’s been a while though so I can’t point to specifics. Best bet is to shop around and try a few things to narrow it down.
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Dec 22, 2017 15:24
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dms666 posted:I tried gyokuro Chinese green tea for the first time at a tea shop recently and it was so delicious. Can anyone recommend anything with a similar taste? It is kind of on the higher end of what I would pay for tea, wondering if there are any alternatives. It has kind of a briney/seaweed green taste. Gyokuro is a Japanese style usually grown with specialist cultivars and undergoes a fairly labor-intensive production process--I'm actually fairly surprised you found a quality Chinese gyokuro. Is the tea shop the sort that sells online? I'm fairly curious, now. The savory/briny character comes from the shading process. The plant is shaded for ~21 days before harvest; the stress apparently inhibits the conversion of savory/sweet chemicals to bitter chemicals in the leaf or something. That means one harvest per growing season even in warmer areas, so finding a cheap gyokuro could be quite difficult. Look for a machine-harvested, tarp-shaded (both modern cost-cutting innovations) gyokuro produced from a farm that still adheres to the full shading period. Uji/Kyoto gyokuro is the orthodox, well-balanced option which still maintains some astringency. Recently, teas from Yame in Kyushu have been taking advantage of the warmer climate to grow the (frost-vulnerable) saemidori cultivar, which cranks the savory/sweet nature to 11 at the cost of some aroma. I would expect to pay a minimum of $0.25/gram for quality gyokuro, even the machine-picked stuff. If you can't find a gyokuro within your price range, consider a kabuse-cha instead. Kabuse gets a 10+ day shading process which makes it something of a middle point between gyokuro and other green teas. The good stuff has a very noticeable savoryness paired with a traditional tea astringency. Some of the best comes from Mie/Ise. You can get fairly premium kabuse for $0.15-$0.20/gram.
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Dec 22, 2017 22:51
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TLDR: if you want MAXIMUM SAVORY, look for a handpicked gyokuro from Yame/Kyushu, preferably of the saemidori or ujihikari cultivars. If you want something reasonably priced, look for a kabuse-cha from a good vendor.
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Dec 22, 2017 22:53
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I've been having a lot of fun comparing Teavivre's different grades of Longjing. I don't have any of the really expensive ones, but the Premium and Superfine are both very nice. The Premium is more "brisk" and nutty tasting, while the Superfine has a richer mouthfeel and a sweeter, more flowery taste. I like them both a lot, but I think I lean towards the Premium, since I prefer Longjing with that roasted chestnut-y flavor. The standard grade Longjing is really good too, way better than anything you'll get in a store here in Canada. As for Teavivre's black teas, I think the winner from this year's harvest is the Bailin Gongfu. I find that I prefer black teas without a lot of golden tips, or pekoe, or whatever you call that stuff.
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Dec 23, 2017 02:12
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Juaguocio posted:I've been having a lot of fun comparing Teavivre's different grades of Longjing. I don't have any of the really expensive ones, but the Premium and Superfine are both very nice. The Premium is more "brisk" and nutty tasting, while the Superfine has a richer mouthfeel and a sweeter, more flowery taste. I like them both a lot, but I think I lean towards the Premium, since I prefer Longjing with that roasted chestnut-y flavor. The standard grade Longjing is really good too, way better than anything you'll get in a store here in Canada. I def prefer their premium also. You don't often get that nutty feeling as a tasting note very often with most teas.
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Dec 23, 2017 03:03
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Does black tea not lend itself to multiple steepings well? I bought some Turkish black and the leaves are tiny to my previous ones (Chinese green chun mee), and the second steeping yielded a lot less color. Or maybe I needed to add more leaves, but hmm
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Jan 4, 2018 10:57
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Schneider Heim posted:Does black tea not lend itself to multiple steepings well? I bought some Turkish black and the leaves are tiny to my previous ones (Chinese green chun mee), and the second steeping yielded a lot less color. Or maybe I needed to add more leaves, but hmm Turkish tea is (technically speaking) trash. The leaves are small and broken to bit and generally very low grade. They'll steep fully in very short order and go bitter before you know it. Better Chinese blacks can be steeped 8 or 9 times and still be very enjoyable. I'm not making GBS threads on you for enjoying Turkish tea, mind, but the leaves are very low quality and won't hold up like high grade leaves will.
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Jan 4, 2018 11:36
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Cymbal Monkey posted:Turkish tea is (technically speaking) trash. The leaves are small and broken to bit and generally very low grade. They'll steep fully in very short order and go bitter before you know it. Better Chinese blacks can be steeped 8 or 9 times and still be very enjoyable. I'm not making GBS threads on you for enjoying Turkish tea, mind, but the leaves are very low quality and won't hold up like high grade leaves will. That's fine. I like the strong taste. I'll probably use a coffee press instead of my huge teapot to save on stuff. I'm just trying out different teas as this is my second loose-leaf one.
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Jan 4, 2018 12:38
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I never understood not using things for their intended purpose, but if you do use a cafetierre for your tea, don't crush down the leaves if you do use the plunger.
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Jan 4, 2018 12:50
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Cymbal Monkey posted:Turkish tea is (technically speaking) trash. The leaves are small and broken to bit and generally very low grade. They'll steep fully in very short order and go bitter before you know it. Better Chinese blacks can be steeped 8 or 9 times and still be very enjoyable. I'm not making GBS threads on you for enjoying Turkish tea, mind, but the leaves are very low quality and won't hold up like high grade leaves will. It's also because traditional Turkish tea is prepared Russian style with a Samovar and involves making a strong tea concentrate (Zavarka).
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Jan 4, 2018 13:18
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I thought it would be fun to host a tea party. I basically just want to brew a few different flavors and make some little sandwiches and pastries. What are some essential teas for a nice variety of flavors? Mostly just looking for a few teas that would have noticeably different flavors and smells.
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Jan 10, 2018 09:01
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RobotDogPolice posted:I thought it would be fun to host a tea party. I basically just want to brew a few different flavors and make some little sandwiches and pastries. Did you want to stick to a particular type of tea, like black or green? Assam and Ceylon taste different within black teas but not as different as ones would from the next category up.
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Jan 10, 2018 09:08
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RobotDogPolice posted:I thought it would be fun to host a tea party. I basically just want to brew a few different flavors and make some little sandwiches and pastries. What's your audience? People with no knowledge or experience with growing regions won't have any idea yet. I'd go with teas that will make them feel smart because they've heard of them. Something like a good longjing (dragonwell), a low astringency Darjeeling, and then wrap up with a strong black blend or Earl Grey. People who have more than the experience of putting a tea bag into a cup will enjoy a lot more. You can go down the rabbit hole of matching teas to your food choices, but probably start with a green (lots of Chinese greens to choose from), an oolong (greener or roastier), and a nice straight black tea (I'm partial to Ceylon and Autumnal flush Darjeeling). You can go down the puerh route as well, or an earthier black variety as well. Or there's always the Lapsang Souchong route, but serve it last as it will not leave much room to taste other more subtle teas.
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Jan 10, 2018 15:37
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Jhet posted:Or there's always the Lapsang Souchong route, but serve it last as it will not leave much room to taste other more subtle teas. Truth. My partner loves him some lapsang, and always ordered it when we'd hit the tea shop. As his first pot. Which he always immediately regretted, as everything else tasted like a smokey, piney, flat version of whatever it was supposed to be. But seriously, if you want to blow some minds, lapsang is both polarizing and mind-blowing. And there are varying smokinesses available if your tea party friends are not, say, Laphroaig drinkers.
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Jan 12, 2018 00:14
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Thanks for the suggestions guys! I got a longjing today and I really like it so far. I love the way the leaves smell after being steeped.
RobotDogPolice fucked around with this message at 10:26 on Jan 12, 2018 |
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Jan 12, 2018 10:18
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Question and story time, tea goons. This past summer I went to Taiwan - I posted about this in the thread above - and grabbed a modest haul of bulk teas from a Taiwanese tea shop. I repacked a bunch of it and gave it to friends and coworkers. Among this haul was a smallish amount of something called "Oriental Beauty" - that's the name I have for it, as the employees in the shop spoke minimal English, and we communicated via written numerals and them pointing at signs on which I used Google camera translate for the most part. The salesman described it in broken English as "mix white and green tea... little worm - butterfly worm - it go on tea plant, and it nibble." I'll supply a picture if necessary, but it's smallish loose leaf pieces containing a mix of deep green, golden brown, and white flakes. It tastes light and earthy, in that it has a light black tea flavour with otherwise green tea characteristics and few tannin notes. Anyway my coworker loves this Oriental Beauty tea and she's trying to figure out how to get more, but I can't find anything that has that name which looks remotely like it. Anyone able to help me find some more of something like this? Also: is Teavivre effectively dead now?
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Jan 25, 2018 16:29
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CommonShore posted:Anyone able to help me find some more of something like this? I wish I could, but I have no idea where to start looking for that. I've never even heard of it before, but it sounds like a blend of a few different things. Teavivre just launched a new website, so I doubt they're dead. What gave you that idea? E: On second thought, could it be a broken up white tea cake? Without seeing what it looks like I'm just taking a shot in the dark. Jhet fucked around with this message at 17:39 on Jan 25, 2018 |
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Jan 25, 2018 17:28
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