|
i like doing reasonable quality black teas for cold brew because the forgiving cold steep gets flavour without any of the bitterness. versus needing to step up in quality to get tea that doesn’t do that when hot.
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2021 19:43
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 14:52 |
|
|
 Tea Goons Good Tea Study Club now has a discord because zoom and email are boomer tier. https://discord.gg/yBV9UGtp Today's weekly video chat was all about white tea and hongcha (red tea). The two teas were both gushu from different Yunnan mountains, one processed as white (loose) and one red (brick). Both teas are 3 yo. I shared my belief that the dip between 3 years and 8 years is the most boring-tasting age for puer, and possibly other teas too. The red in this case still has lots of flavor though, due to the dense compression. White tea facts: Can steep so many times Originally from a mountain in Fuding The saying is: it becomes tea at 1 year, medicine at 3 years and treasure at 7 years Can simmer in a saucepan 3 minutes then let cool Edit: I just browsed the god awful White tea Wikipedia entry and feel compelled to add some more white tea facts: It is usually wilted/ sun dried only, meaning that like red tea it doesn't have a "kill green" step It is (very roughly) 15% oxidized due to these processing steps Oriental Beauty and Moonlight White (puer) are other teas that are a little oxidized Red tea (what Westerners call Black Tea) is put into wet piles for 2-3 days so it's 99% oxidized White tea is graded by leaf size, though the highest grade is not necessarily "the best flavor" according to many: Buds only: Silver Needle Baihaoyinzhen Buds and 3 leaves: White peony Baimudan Bigger leaves: Shoumei Oldest Fuding trees are semi wild and 100-150 years old Death Vomit Wizard fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Apr 11, 2021 |
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2021 02:01
|
|
|
I likely ain't gonna be joining the tasting due to my schedule but I will happily join and say hello and talk about tea!
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2021 05:41
|
|
|
There is a monthly publication called Global Tea Hut that is from this tea cult that an american buddhist started in Taiwan. It is legit info and they send a sample with each magazine. That guy Wude I think is polarizing and his whole following looks like rich instagram hippie models that do yoga festivals and stuff. Which is true somewhat. But the dude himself and the writings are actually all super accurate and he's done his own translation of the Book of Tea by Luyu (Tea Sutra). Somehow I found all these PDFs by poking around their shittily constructed website a few years ago and it's 500MB of their whole back catalog. Literally the best tea information I've ever seen in English by a mile. Here is a link to the zip file that will work for 3 days apparently: https://www.myairbridge.com/en/#!/link/S7zblXIeW
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2021 03:26
|
|
|
They include a lot of the little exercises and cues for your tea practice. The first one, I think, is brewing one leaf of tea in a tea bowl. You a encouraged to not only try it once, but to repeat it once a week. To calibrate yourself and try to experience a more direct connection to the tea tree. (or something... I read it a while ago) Anyone tried that before? Reminds me that there's a really cool method of brewing rolled oolong in a tea bowl that farmers here use for tasting. I can show you, but to do it right you need a porcelain soup spoon.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2021 04:31
|
|
|
Hey, this seems like the right spot to try to up my tea game. I've always drank tea, mostly from bags, but also loose leaf back a century ago when I worked at Pier One in high school. But I've never known squat about it! All I know is that I like oolong in a bag, and senchas too, but green teas can be a bit tannin heavy at times. Also darjeeling maybe but generally I am not so fond of the english styles of tea unless sugar and milk is involved. I first accidentally discovered better tea when in China unsurprisingly, when at the airport in Hangzhou I bought some new harvest Dragonwell, which my partner loved. Also more recently we got as an Amazon added item a box of Uncle Lee's Organic black, which I adore. So now I would like to know more about Chinese black/oolong/pu-erh teas, and what I should try! And our local shop's website is overwhelming with options, ugh. I mean if it weren't for the pandemic I would go in and start tasting but lol nope. I would love your thoughts and suggestions as I begin to learn more about fine tea and what I like!
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2021 00:05
|
|
|
Loose leaf or pressed hand picked Chinese style tea is my specialty, other goons can learn you more about Japanese styles. Sheng Puer tea: this kind of tea is hot right now with tea snobs. A big round brick is called a cake or a bing. Puer can also be spelled pu'er or pu-erh. It's made from big leaf cultivar trees in remote southwest china. Popular "young" which means less than a few years old, or semi-aged (5-15 years) or aged. The only oxidation puer goes through is during aging, so young shengs are akin to green tea due to puer processing. Puer is known for its health benefits. It has the widest variety of tastes -- they can be extreme compared to other teas. And within puer, ancient tree tea is popular for health. Oolong: While puers are appreciated for their "wild", organic quality, oolongs are popular for their exquisite craftsmanship. Within the tea classification system, oolong has the greatest diversity of production styles, with oxidation ranging from 3% to 35% or near-green to near-red. ("Black tea" is a mistranslation of hongcha which is "red tea" in Mandarin. So from here on I will call it red tea.) Therefore we need to know which oolong is which. Taiwanese high mountain tea is the lightest. Rock tea from Wuyi mountain in China is roasty and fruity. Phoenix Dancong is another Chinese oolong that has been bred into hundreds of distinct tasting cultivars. The trend, bemoaned by many of us, is to make all oolong styles greener now, so even with traditionally roasty cultivars/styles like Dongding and Tieguanyin you have to specify if it's "green" or not. You may see an "oolong" from Tibet or Sri Lanka or some other place, but unless it was made rigorously following the 25 steps of oolong processing (basically meaning from China or Taiwan), it shouldn't be called oolong. It's the biggest pain in the rear end to process of all tea styles, basically 40 straight hours of labor, so half-assing it and calling your tea oolong is some bs imo. Red tea: Puer, oolong, green, red, white... these are all categorized by their processing btw. So let's say you have leaves harvested from one tea tree. You could make that into any of those 5 kinds of tea. So it's a matter of preference. Each cultivar has its traditional processing, but more and more you're seeing farmers making other kinds of tea than you'd expect for a given cultivar. Red tea is 99% oxidized during 2 days of "wet piling" of the leaves at the beginning of production. And since red tea is really popular for its taste, you see red tea being made with all kinds of tea. In Taiwan the oolong farmers split up their oolong harvests and make them into both oolong and red. Puer farmers do the same with their puer trees. Of course there are teas that are traditionally red too: All assam teas, Jinjunmei and Lapsang come to mind. White tea: White tea is growing in popularity fast in asia now and you see a lot of different farmers making their tea into white. White tea is naturally oxidized through wilting, but just 15%. So it has some of the qualities of red tea, but the taste is closer to the tree. Its is known in asia for being healthy. It's the most minimally processed style and has a very different taste than the others. It has little to no bitterness. Traditionally made in Fuding China.
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2021 03:50
|
|
|
Death Vomit Wizard posted:Loose leaf or pressed hand picked Chinese style tea is my specialty, other goons can learn you more about Japanese styles. Thanks for this, its very helpful. Guess its just time to start tasting a whole bunch of different teas and learning how to brew it right
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2021 05:27
|
|
|
Bilirubin posted:Thanks for this, its very helpful. Have fun and remember this: there is no one right way to make or enjoy your tea. The joy of "gongfu tea" as they call it is the fine tuning and experimentation it allows. Keep a journal and list your steep times and grams of tea and vessel size. If a tea is high enough quality, I always steep at 100C (except green tea). But write down the temp too. Also, there is a lot of bad and possibly unhealthy tea out there.
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2021 05:48
|
|
|
to avoid the really awful and possibly harmful stuff with puer teas, do yourself a favour and buy this only from shops that specialise in it, and who market it to the anglo sphere/europe. for reasons, that market is heavily tainted with fake teas that’s made in dreadful conditions with bad products, and sourcing has all the regular hurdles that most tea has added tenfold
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2021 11:25
|
|
|
This thread always makes me feel so inadequate, but that's a good thing. Time to reset/refine/reeducate my tongue.
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2021 11:29
|
|
|
Death Vomit Wizard posted:White tea is growing in popularity fast in asia now and you see a lot of different farmers making their tea into white. White tea is naturally oxidized through wilting, but just 15%. So it has some of the qualities of red tea, but the taste is closer to the tree. Its is known in asia for being healthy. It's the most minimally processed style and has a very different taste than the others. It has little to no bitterness. Traditionally made in Fuding China. I dunno about this. Some studies show that green tea is the closer to fresh leaves in terms of composition. As far as which has less processing it depends on your definition; the processing time is usually shorter for green tea than for white tea and it's less oxidized, but white tea is usually heated less and not rolled. I'm not sure one can generalize either way, it probably also depends on the tea. thotsky fucked around with this message at 11:47 on Apr 16, 2021 |
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2021 11:42
|
|
|
thotsky posted:I dunno about this. Some studies show that green tea is the closer to fresh leaves in terms of composition. As far as which has less processing it depends on your definition; the processing time is usually shorter for green tea than for white tea and it's less oxidized, but white tea is usually heated less and not rolled. I'm not sure one can generalize either way, it probably also depends on the tea. Your way of looking at it makes sense with green being non oxidized. I'm just repeating the common refrain about what white tea is.
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2021 12:14
|
|
|
re: white tea https://www.theoolongdrunk.com/single-post/the-inconceivable-lie-we-ve-all-been-told-about-white-tea Never had any aged white tea, only the occasional bai mu dan. Interesting read regardless. Made some 2019 lao cong mi lan xiang last night. It's a tea that has been finicky to brew right, but I finally nailed it! A great tea, that seemed thin to begin with, but with lots of nuance. Intoxicating smell and some really nice sweetness to it. Will make more of it today as soon as I get off work... slurp
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2021 13:21
|
|
|
Death Vomit Wizard posted:Have fun and remember this: there is no one right way to make or enjoy your tea. The joy of "gongfu tea" as they call it is the fine tuning and experimentation it allows. Keep a journal and list your steep times and grams of tea and vessel size. If a tea is high enough quality, I always steep at 100C (except green tea). But write down the temp too. ulvir posted:to avoid the really awful and possibly harmful stuff with puer teas, do yourself a favour and buy this only from shops that specialise in it, and who market it to the anglo sphere/europe. for reasons, that market is heavily tainted with fake teas that’s made in dreadful conditions with bad products, and sourcing has all the regular hurdles that most tea has added tenfold Thanks you two, will do! I appreciate the tip on unhealthy teas. I had already heard about how the "pu-erh market" had collapsed recently and about the counterfeits so I will stick with my local reputable merchant
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2021 18:42
|
|
|
Truck Stop Daddy posted:re: white tea I like the conclusion that yes, we are all being lied to about age/provenance, but that green and brown are both legitimate ways to process white tea. Like oolong, white tea comes in a range of oxidation levels and originally that was due to people in different areas using a unique processing technique. It's also funny that the explanation for the explosion of popularity Fuding white was a concerted economic development effort, but if you ask a Chinese tea drinker they will look back to 2010 and say it started when one movie star gave a ton of white tea for his dowry.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2021 01:49
|
|
|
New tea friend Bilirubin has alerted me that I accidentally set the old tea goon discord invite to expire. I have made a new one that won't expire. https://discord.gg/s3r8ZkeZd8
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2021 00:05
|
|
|
This week's Tea Study sesh was quite a treat. We enjoyed a Da Hong Pao (blend of 5 rock tea cultivars actually) and a 2010 gushu from Daxueshan. The gushu kept going long after our chat ended, I think I got about 20 steeps using my tiny gaiwan. And after Disdisdis mentioned he was taking the DHP many steeps too, I gave it a go myself. It's been a while since I really pushed an oolong, and I was pleasantly surprised. Just goes to show tea friends have a way of pulling you out of your habits and showing you new ways to enjoy what you've got. Here's a shot of the Daxueshan. It's more young leaves/buds than the average puer, and one of my all time faves. 
|
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2021 03:01
|
|
|
 So I found this sample in the bottom of one my my tea boxes this weekend and it’s gone about 16 steeps so far. I’m not sure I have any good tasting notes, but it’s been fantastic the whole way through. I just tuck the leaves into the fridge overnight and it’s been one of the longest lasting and most consistent teas I can remember drinking. It’s herbal and just slightly woody and for a few steeps (6-8) it was almost really sweet. I’ve always been a little reticent to spend more on puer because it’s never really gone the extra mileage when drinking it. It really shows that if you can find the good stuff it’s worth the price of admission.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2021 19:51
|
|
|
Posted in here about a year ago and never ended up ordering any loose leaf tea or infusers, so I’ve just been drinking this variety box of tea I got from my cousin. I’ve only had the green tea varieties so far but the Jasmine and Citrus ones are wonderful. I’ve also got some Stash Melon tea that really light tasting and great. I just ordered some infusers and a Tiesta loose leaf sampler, which should be in on Thursday so I’m looking forward to finding out what I’ve been missing.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2021 20:43
|
|
|
Jhet posted:So I found this sample in the bottom of one my my tea boxes this weekend and it’s gone about 16 steeps so far. Just goes to show that as soon as a tea gets popular the scamming begins. Puer from Bulang, Yiwu and all those famous mountains are surely mixed to hell with leaves from other areas by the time they get to plebs like us. We're talking many dollars a gram if you go there and buy the real maocha yourself.
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2021 02:36
|
|
|
It's that time of year again, folks. That's right: it's cold brew time! It seems like a lot of people come here looking for info on the subject, so I'm here to concentrate all the esoteric wisdom of the ice faeries into one mighty post. What tea is good for cold brewing? Well there's no simple answer to this question for a lot of reasons, but bear with me. First off, we are all explorers here. The vast majority of the world's high quality teas have been brewed the same way for hundreds of years: hot. The invention of refrigeration is like yesterday in the history of tea, so we're in uncharted territory here. But this is a good thing! Without the restrains of dogma and tradition, we can all experiment freely and help each other find what really works and tastes the best. Generally, cold brewing is going to bring out less bitterness/ astringency than hot, and so it lets you taste more sweet or delicate notes that may have been covered up by bitterness when hot brewing. I think when people talk about different teas being better or worse for cold brewing, better means more flavorful, and worse means that it will simply be too weak no matter how long you steep. •High mountain ("green") oolong: this is the favorite for cold brewing in Taiwan. Some oolongs brew better than others; you just have to try each one yourself to see. •Green tea: another common recommendation. It's really delicious. •Cheap "black tea" (red tea or hongcha in Chinese): I saw a goon recommend cold brewing for cheap teas as a way to leave out undesirable tastes. •Spent leaves: try throwing your spent leaves in the fridge after a hot session with a quality puer, red, or white. Many people have reported good results with red teas doing this. How to cold brew? There are many cheap and easy ways to achieve a good cold brew. Here are the rules: •Give your leaves free reign! No balls, no bags, not even a basket. Those leaves are gonna swim all over during brewing. •Glass container, covered. The lid doesn't need to be tight, just something so the surface of the water isn't exposed to your funky fridge fumes. Could even be cling wrap or foil. •12 hours: this is a standard starting point. If you don't have strong enough tea after 12 hours, try again with more leaves. •5-10 grams of tea per liter of water: other goons can chime in here because I only have experience with green oolongs. But 2L and 10-20g is what I do. That's it. How you separate the leaves after 12 hours is up to you. Personally, I have 2 glass pitchers, and when I'm done brewing I just pour the tea through a strainer into the other pitcher and put it back in the fridge. I have seen pitchers that have a strainer built into the lid, although handheld strainers are cheap and proven so that's what I can safely recommend.  
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 03:00
|
|
|
Everything came in today! My fiancée wanted to try the herbal peppermint/lavender/chamomile first so we gave it a go and it’s great! Can’t wait to break into the sampler box tomorrow
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2021 04:06
|
|
|
Alright, so I have 3 sheng bricks and 1 aged white tea that are at the teahouse for aging to reside with my teapots that are over there. I'm trying to figure out what I want next, I might buy the remaining 2 sheng bricks so I can have one brick per year, but I'm not sold on it. For anybody in this thread that does aging, what are your pumidor setups? Should I bother to do climate control, or is leaving it at the teahouse going to be fine?
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2021 04:26
|
|
|
I gotta ask about this:Death Vomit Wizard posted:•Spent leaves: try throwing your spent leaves in the fridge after a hot session with a quality puer, red, or white. Many people have reported good results with red teas doing this. I don't doubt it, but I have to assume that (a) the quantity and time will be significantly different vs doing it with fresh leaves, and (b) you probably don't want to mix different spent teas? Not gonna lie though: I'm tempted to mix up spent leaves from like a vanilla black tea and a rooibos and just see what happens.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2021 04:31
|
|
|
Trabant posted:I gotta ask about this: There's no reason to not do it. Over at the tea house we do super long steeps of a tea after 20+ rounds and let it rest for an hour or two in order to get that last, surprisingly intense and well-rounded extraction from it. The same can be said for cold brewing spent leaves in the same way that DVW mentions. With tea you can do pretty much whatever you want when cold brewing as it's significantly more forgiving and experimental compared to hot brewing. I wouldn't personally recommend using fancy leaves that haven't already opened up and are more or less done, but you can always give it a shot to mix or have them cold brew separate and mix later. Either way, you will likely be fine.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2021 04:36
|
|
|
Trabant posted:I gotta ask about this:
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2021 05:50
|
|
|
What I've been doing, as a reference point, is throwing my post-session leaves in a thermos full of water and then just putting that in the fridge until I feel like drinking something cold. This usually ends up being between 8 and 72 hours later - you can certainly get away with less to have a drink that tastes like more than water, but I'm "done" with the leaves at this point so what do I care about precision? The two standout successes from this approach have both been reds, but I've also tried a couple shengs and a green that turned out better than not doing it. The only thing I'd call a disappointment so far was an oolong that turned out very boring, but again, the opportunity cost was basically nonexistent so whatever. The sole downside: going to buy like ten more thermoses and then my wife will notice the entire fridge door full of them and start rolling her eyes at me.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2021 21:03
|
|
|
Irony.or.Death posted:What I've been doing, as a reference point, is throwing my post-session leaves in a thermos full of water and then just putting that in the fridge until I feel like drinking something cold. This usually ends up being between 8 and 72 hours later - you can certainly get away with less to have a drink that tastes like more than water, but I'm "done" with the leaves at this point so what do I care about precision? I'd suggest trying mason jars, you can get them 12 at a time for pint size. And then they can be multi-taskers too. I did try this with the TGY that I finished brewing earlier today, so I expect to to come out as something different than just cold water, but I have no expectations. At least it's not the 'weirdest' thing I've made. My wife doesn't even bat and eye when I do these things.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2021 22:33
|
|
|
Irony.or.Death posted:What I've been doing, as a reference point, is throwing my post-session leaves in a thermos full of water and then just putting that in the fridge until I feel like drinking something cold. This usually ends up being between 8 and 72 hours later - you can certainly get away with less to have a drink that tastes like more than water, but I'm "done" with the leaves at this point so what do I care about precision? Just did this with a small jar and some Harney black vanilla tea. Small stakes!
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2021 01:56
|
|
|
Anyone know where an American can buy yaupon tea? Dying to try some and my local tea shop is sold out.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2021 19:13
|
|
|
I've bought from a nearby place: https://catspringtea.com/
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2021 19:43
|
|
|
I actually just got my order of Catspring yaupon in today. I've only tried the dark roast so far (I got the sampler) but it's definitely similar to a roasted yerba mate I've had before. Maybe a little less vegetal and a little more sweet? I can definitely say I like it.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2021 23:13
|
|
|
DurianGray posted:I actually just got my order of Catspring yaupon in today. I've only tried the dark roast so far (I got the sampler) but it's definitely similar to a roasted yerba mate I've had before. Maybe a little less vegetal and a little more sweet? I can definitely say I like it. yeah this is my thought on it too, if you can't get yaupon, get a few kinds of mate. it's the same genus.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2021 23:25
|
|
|
Where's a good entry point for oolong? I've mainly had out in Chinese restaurants and really enjoyed it when it's actual tea leaves. But just checking online there's a whole lot of variety which left me a bit wrong footed trying to figure out where to start going a bit deeper.
|
|
#
?
May 4, 2021 08:58
|
|
|
Carillon posted:Where's a good entry point for oolong? I've mainly had out in Chinese restaurants and really enjoyed it when it's actual tea leaves. But just checking online there's a whole lot of variety which left me a bit wrong footed trying to figure out where to start going a bit deeper. Mine has been an organic Shui Hsien (Xian), from Fujian Province but not on Wuyi Moutain. Its very modestly priced but has a very complex flavor that, once I learned how to brew it (thanks for folks ITT) it has really paid off well. It is apparently your standard "restaurant tea" but it tastes so much better than any I've had before. I'd be perfectly happy to settle on this as a daily driver but the experimental spirit says try more! My next will be a more expensive rock oolong from Wuyi, and then we'll see where we go from there. (Phoenix perhaps?)
|
|
#
?
May 4, 2021 18:30
|
|
|
Bilirubin posted:Mine has been an organic Shui Hsien (Xian), from Fujian Province but not on Wuyi Moutain. Its very modestly priced but has a very complex flavor that, once I learned how to brew it (thanks for folks ITT) it has really paid off well. It is apparently your standard "restaurant tea" but it tastes so much better than any I've had before. I'd be perfectly happy to settle on this as a daily driver but the experimental spirit says try more! My next will be a more expensive rock oolong from Wuyi, and then we'll see where we go from there. (Phoenix perhaps?) Awesome, thanks, I'll check that, are you brewing it Gong Fu style?
|
|
#
?
May 4, 2021 19:00
|
|
|
Carillon posted:Awesome, thanks, I'll check that, are you brewing it Gong Fu style? Kind of a hybrid of gongfu and western styles. I am using gongfu amounts of tea and water and brew times, but I am using a basket strainer in the 4 oz teacup for the leaves not a red clay pot eta: this is the vendor and tea I got mine from: https://mrmaxeystea.com/product/organic-shui-hsien-oolong/
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2021 23:43
|
|
|
Oolong and gong fu are studied by many of us here. Oolongs span a very wide range of different teas. Roasty or green. Rolled tight or twisted. Fruity or floral or woody or mineral or buttery. It's the most labor intensive of all tea styles and has the most focus on nose/tastes. Needless to say they can be intense and like with all teas there are a lot of bad ones out there, even at prices higher than supermarket tea. Don't think you dislike floral high mountain tea tastes if you've only tried a couple cheap ones. At the same time you don't have to pay a whole lot to find something you like. Taiwanese oolong is generally cheaper than the other famous Chinese oolongs and offer a wide variety of styles. Wuyi rock tea and Phoenix Danong are the main famous Oolongs. The real thing is rare and Really Expensive poo poo if you want some really wild tastes. Anxi in China is also famous and has styles similar to Taiwan's. Tieguanyin is one.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2021 16:03
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 14:52 |
|
|
What are the best sites in the US/that ship to the US for oolong? (Been waiting on a farmer leaf order for weeks. 🤞 it makes it to me eventually)
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2021 16:37
|
|
