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Juaguocio posted:I recently discovered that ginseng oolong is the greatest hangover cure in the world. After stumbling home from a friend's going away party, I managed to brew and drink most of a pot before crashing, and woke up the next morning feeling like a million bucks. I've got some ginseng oolong from uptons. Has a natural sweetness to it that's awesome. Never used it for hangovers but it's good stuff.
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Sep 25, 2017 14:32
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Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:I've got some ginseng oolong from uptons. Has a natural sweetness to it that's awesome. Never used it for hangovers but it's good stuff. Teavivre's is really good too. I love the fact that it's pretty much impossible to over steep ginseng oolongs. They never seem to lose that sweetness no matter how long they're brewed for.
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Sep 25, 2017 20:43
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RE: Water dispenser/heaters, they are OP as heck. Where I work is a coffee equipment place, and I'd say about 1/4 of the commercial contracts include some kind of water heater for tea solution. Sometimes a standalone model w/ cooler, sometimes built into the machine (e.g. BUNN drip brewer). People love those things.
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Sep 25, 2017 23:05
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Scaramouche posted:RE: Water dispenser/heaters, they are OP as heck. Where I work is a coffee equipment place, and I'd say about 1/4 of the commercial contracts include some kind of water heater for tea solution. Sometimes a standalone model w/ cooler, sometimes built into the machine (e.g. BUNN drip brewer). People love those things. You might want to mention that they tend to not make good tea if you just use it straight from the dispenser. I'm all for those things existing, but temp control is just as important for making good tea as it is good coffee. They just tend to be different temps. In other news, I've started roasting coffee based on info in this thread. I'm using a 20 year old air popcorn popper to do it and it's actually turning out okay. Trying to dial in weights and times is a process and I'm starting to think I should have ordered 5# of the same bean just to really figure it out. It was my wife's idea, and she's pretty interested in that part of it too. She's not a big fan of the air popper, but it's too early to upgrade past the popper.
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Sep 25, 2017 23:39
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^^ This is apparently the tea thread not the coffee thread and Scaramouche posting here threw me entirely. For penance in my thread confusion, I got a postcard in the mail that TeaSource is adding a Free Finium filter to orders over $30 until Oct 15. Use PCFILTER17 at checkout. It is the small one, but I have two that I use frequently that are at least six years old and still in great shape. Some light discoloration to the plastic, but nothing too terrible. I know there are others in this thread that really like this infuser as well. It's this one: https://www.teasource.com/collections/tea-infusers/products/small-finum-stainless-steel-tea-infuser It looks like they have some Japanese greens on sale this month too.
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Oct 2, 2017 20:14
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Jhet posted:^^ This is apparently the tea thread not the coffee thread and Scaramouche posting here threw me entirely. I adore those little Finum filters, I have four of them. When I just want a big cup of assam and I'm not feeling like faffing with pu-erh cakes and gong-fu and poo poo, this is where I go.
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Oct 2, 2017 21:33
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basket infusers are pretty great for those situations where having a teapot around isn't doable (like work or whatever)
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Oct 2, 2017 21:41
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Cymbal Monkey posted:I adore those little Finum filters, I have four of them. When I just want a big cup of assam and I'm not feeling like faffing with pu-erh cakes and gong-fu and poo poo, this is where I go. Yeah, they get regular use. The tea that TeaSource sells is not at all pretentious, and most of it is just a solid drink regularly without going broke sort of product. They do have a few more expensive teas, too, but it's mostly very reasonable. Shipping is whatever USPS charges them, so the costs are to you what they are to them. The owner does like his big bold black teas (your Assams and Keemun for the most part), and I like the ones he sources. Some of those black blends (the ones with just tea) are regularly taking up shelf space for breakfast and the flavored blends all make pretty good iced tea. Most of the greens are just fine, but I tend to buy my greens from TeaVivre instead. I'm not associated with them, although I did work there for a month about 7 years ago before my wife got a job not in Minnesota and we moved away. In that month though, they made me drink about 85% of the product, so that was my first real experience in the world of tea.
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Oct 2, 2017 22:03
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How important is water tds and quality compared to coffee? I'm assuming not nearly.
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Oct 12, 2017 03:19
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Munkaboo posted:How important is water tds and quality compared to coffee? I'm assuming not nearly. You can certainly filter it, and the tea will probably taste better. Unless you like how your water already tastes in which case it probably won't matter. If you don't like how your water tastes to start, then you probably won't really like what it does to your tea and you should get a filter for brewing tea (and to drink water too).
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Oct 12, 2017 03:50
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Depends on how manky your water is? A couple years ago I went to visit my mom, out in the sort-of-countryside, and she gets her water from a well. Even after filtering, it still had a very high mineral and sulfur content and it was nigh impossible to brew a cup that I liked the entire time I was there. Probably didn't help that the only way of boiling water was in the microwave, but I could deal with that if I just had decent water. I ended up using bottled water for nearly everything while I was there because the taste and smell really got to me. 
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Oct 12, 2017 04:08
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Bees on Wheat posted:Depends on how manky your water is? Is the only downside with microwave boiling lack of temperature control or is there another reason?
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Oct 12, 2017 16:28
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Munkaboo posted:Is the only downside with microwave boiling lack of temperature control or is there another reason? Eh, it was mostly just a minor annoyance because I'm used to having an electric kettle, and the only microwave-safe containers my mom had were mugs and bowls, basically. This is fine for her because she normally nukes a mug of water with a tea bag in it for exactly 2 minutes, sweetens with one pack of Equal, and calls it done. I much prefer pouring the water over the tea leaves/bags, and then allowing it to steep for however long. Speaking of minor annoyances, I think my kettle bit the dust the other day. I just ordered another one on Amazon, but in the meantime I've been heating water in the coffee brewer, or a pyrex measuring cup in the microwave. It's not ideal, but it works. v  v
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Oct 12, 2017 17:14
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Had an interesting guy in today. He was representing Klub from Taiwan, they make an espresso-like machine just for brewing tea. Here's some dude's youtube of doing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b62_Qt4pzI8 It's commercial only mostly but it was an interesting idea. They might send us a machine to try out and I guess I'll let you tea heads know how it goes.
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Oct 12, 2017 23:39
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What's that bright red tea?
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Oct 13, 2017 09:20
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Scaramouche posted:Had an interesting guy in today. He was representing Klub from Taiwan, they make an espresso-like machine just for brewing tea. Here's some dude's youtube of doing it: Why though? A Finum basket and a cup is like £10, a gaiwan can be gotten for a fiver, both work brilliantly. What on earth is the point of this machine?
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Oct 13, 2017 10:23
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Mr. Squishy posted:What's that bright red tea? A random Google image search for Klub Tea Espresso which was taken from this article: http://sprudge.com/plentea-107040.html Cymbal Monkey posted:Why though? A Finum basket and a cup is like £10, a gaiwan can be gotten for a fiver, both work brilliantly. What on earth is the point of this machine? The whole idea is that it's commercial grade stuff for high speed/capacity. Klub doesn't really make machines for the home, so the name of the game is consistency, configurability, and high throughput for multivarious individual servings. So no, this kind of thing won't be replacing your Finum basket, unless the tea world goes collectively insane and suddenly starts doing "more $$$ = better than" like the espresso world. EDIT-I should say that there is a place for this kind of thing though. Where I work does consumer and commercial coffee stuff, in probably the highest chinese-percentage part of Canada. There are businesses that get high-end coffee machines from us that I swear use them mostly for the hot water generation for tea, like the Bunn machines I mentioned upthread. Scaramouche fucked around with this message at 18:17 on Oct 13, 2017 |
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Oct 13, 2017 18:15
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Scaramouche posted:unless the tea world goes collectively insane and suddenly starts doing "more $$$ = better than" like the espresso world. Have you seen Teachat.com's discussions about yixing clay grades?
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Oct 13, 2017 20:12
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I imagine high end tea is just like the audiophile world really. It's nicer to stay in the mid-grade level and splurge for some 90s puerh samples once in a while 
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Oct 13, 2017 23:44
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hope and vaseline posted:I imagine high end tea is just like the audiophile world really. It's nicer to stay in the mid-grade level and splurge for some 90s puerh samples once in a while I would do some hosed up poo poo to get hold of some bud heavy 90s shengs.
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Oct 14, 2017 00:34
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I’d love to try a 90's (or older) puer sometime, but I have a really hard time justifying the cost.
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Oct 14, 2017 22:50
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So, fairly newbie question, and I'm sure one that's been answered tons of times, but I somehow missed the posts. I'm looking to step up my tea game, investing in a cast iron pot or two if I can find 'em cheap, but kind of unsure about infusers. I have a little spoon thing that's been doing the job by the cup(s) and all, but not sure if that cuts it for a whole pot, so basically.. What should I be looking for in an infuser/'proper' tea methodology here? If it's important, I'm mostly on board with Oolongs and green teas as my favorites and probably what I'm sticking with.
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Oct 18, 2017 18:01
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Jhet posted:It's this one: There's a larger size too. Pick the one that fits your pot.
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Oct 18, 2017 19:44
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just got the 2017 year of the rooster off of Bitterleaf Teas. it came in a cute cardboard gift box  they were kind enough to throw in a free sample of a mengku puer as well, which I'm drinking now. its kind of astringent, like a green tea, but then there's this cooling, sweet aftertaste with just a slight bitterness right at the end. am I right in assuming this is a characteristic of mengku area, or what?
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Oct 31, 2017 15:30
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These guys came by the office: https://teabot.com/ Startup for commercial/industrial loose tea vending. Interesting solution, they're using a high end boiler instead of a thermoblock and the whole thing is ordered by app on a bolted on tablet. The app is nice and lets you mix and match to your hearts' content. It seems ludicrously excessive, but there are actual use-cases for boutique mass servings of tea like this in the commercial world, think large employee campuses and high foot traffic/browsing areas like high end stores and dealerships. What impressed me is that their pitch wasn't about "disrupting" anything, they almost spent more time talking about the quality of the tea and how it was ethically sourced than the machine, which shows they've done their homework on the sourcing side at least. The tea itself was pretty nice and fast though I only tried a boring pre-made recipe.
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Oct 31, 2017 17:31
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Scaramouche posted:These guys came by the office: That looks really cool and I almost want to order half a dozen and then start by putting them around the city in places. How do they deal with steeping times and the leaves? I'm kind of assuming they stay in the cup until the consumer removes them (if they remove them)? I do imagine that if the one guy comes from a family with a tea shop that they'll be sourcing tea well, so that's really nice. Personally, I love that this makes K-cups look primitive.
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Oct 31, 2017 20:01
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Jhet posted:That looks really cool and I almost want to order half a dozen and then start by putting them around the city in places. How do they deal with steeping times and the leaves? I'm kind of assuming they stay in the cup until the consumer removes them (if they remove them)? It's not apparent in any of the pictures, but part of the deal is a special lid that filters out the tea fragments when drinking, it's part of their supply service. So the tea goes in "raw", and then stays in the cup. They also have a little envelope thing you can use as an ersatz tea bag if dipping, steeping, and then removing are your thing, but it's something you have to finagle manually so kind of contra to the automated tea kiosk concept. I'm not sure if they even offer it with the full-on Teabot or not but was something they showed us when demoing. There's actually already a couple in the city here hosted with people we know and according to them the whole thing is great to operate, and the end users love it.
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Oct 31, 2017 21:11
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Can anyone identify this stuff? I got it as a thank-you present from a customer. Based on the taste I'm guessing it's a lapsang souchong, but it'd be cool to know what the text on the box says.   
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Nov 2, 2017 21:09
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Sent this to my girlfriend who can read Chinese. The first close picture of the box indicates the type of the tea. She said 'something black tea' so probably lapsung. The second one is the company logo.
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Nov 2, 2017 22:04
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Yep. It's lapsang souchong (zheng shan xiao zhong would be the pinyin of what it says).
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Nov 3, 2017 07:12
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I found a little sample package of this High Mountain Taiwan oolong http://www.teavivre.com/taiwan-high-mountain-oolong-tea/ in my cupboard. I wish I had drank it sooner. It was sealed, and still very floral and just a little sweet. Starting to get a little stale, but only just. I just love how each different tea is a surprise in flavor based on so many different factors. Makes me sad to think that companies blend it all together to make something consistent and much more boring.
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Nov 9, 2017 17:38
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Jhet posted:I found a little sample package of this High Mountain Taiwan oolong http://www.teavivre.com/taiwan-high-mountain-oolong-tea/ in my cupboard. I wish I had drank it sooner. It was sealed, and still very floral and just a little sweet. Starting to get a little stale, but only just. High mountain oolong is pretty much my go to right now if I decide to use the tiny pot and cups. I think usually the third steeping is my favorite.
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Nov 10, 2017 22:16
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kirtar posted:High mountain oolong is pretty much my go to right now if I decide to use the tiny pot and cups. I think usually the third steeping is my favorite. It was good for 5 steepings yesterday. The middle ones were definitely awesome. Would probably have been good for more, but I think 5 small pots of tea (or one large coffee mug size) is probably enough for one afternoon and evening. Short steepings was where it was best of about 45 seconds - 1.5 minutes. I will definitely be adding this to my next teavivre order. Honestly, I didn't expect to like it as some of the greener oolongs don't really do it for me. Sad that I left it for as long as I did before trying it now. Honestly, I think it's that there are so many tea places in the US that just blend them into fruity blech that I never see the good stuff.
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Nov 10, 2017 22:43
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I've recently discovered I really like tea and want to buy a kettle for home. Searching reviews I'm having a hard time finding one that won't rust/melt/leech chemicals after apparently short lengths of time at every price point. Even brands that usually coincide with high quality. I'd love something pretty but at this point I'll just take something functional I won't have to replace every few months. I'm okay with spending a good chunk of money on a kettle if it's really worth the price but a kettle that's more than $100 should last years, not months. Does anyone have any good recommendations?
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Nov 12, 2017 16:07
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Abilizer posted:I've recently discovered I really like tea and want to buy a kettle for home. Searching reviews I'm having a hard time finding one that won't rust/melt/leech chemicals after apparently short lengths of time at every price point. Even brands that usually coincide with high quality. I'd love something pretty but at this point I'll just take something functional I won't have to replace every few months. I'm okay with spending a good chunk of money on a kettle if it's really worth the price but a kettle that's more than $100 should last years, not months. Does anyone have any good recommendations? But a $20 kettle. I've had a random Hamilton Beach for 3+ years by now and there's no rust or anything. All you really need in it is something that heats water to a boil. Unless you're planning on using it for pour over coffee, and then you're pretty much looking at a BonaVita I think. The gooseneck and even temp control are really unnecessary. Just use a cup and a thermometer if you want to get precise for things not wanting water at a boil.
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Nov 12, 2017 16:17
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Abilizer posted:I've recently discovered I really like tea and want to buy a kettle for home. Searching reviews I'm having a hard time finding one that won't rust/melt/leech chemicals after apparently short lengths of time at every price point. Even brands that usually coincide with high quality. I'd love something pretty but at this point I'll just take something functional I won't have to replace every few months. I'm okay with spending a good chunk of money on a kettle if it's really worth the price but a kettle that's more than $100 should last years, not months. Does anyone have any good recommendations? I have this one and I've been very happy with it. The price is right, the temperature control is fairly accurate, it doesn't drip down the side, has dry boil protection. It's a solid little kettle.
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Nov 12, 2017 16:31
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What are some good teas for cold brewing regular old iced tea? I've been hooked on iced tea from Quik Trip for years but recently moved to a place without any QT's and haven't found anything comparable so I'm going to start brewing my own. I bought a couple of these brewers and will be starting with the breakfast teas I already have.
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Nov 15, 2017 04:37
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fknlo posted:What are some good teas for cold brewing regular old iced tea? I've been hooked on iced tea from Quik Trip for years but recently moved to a place without any QT's and haven't found anything comparable so I'm going to start brewing my own. I bought a couple of these brewers and will be starting with the breakfast teas I already have. I'd like to know this too. I'd really like to make some cold brew green teas that are as rich as the bottle japanese stuff.
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Nov 15, 2017 04:59
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fknlo posted:What are some good teas for cold brewing regular old iced tea? I've been hooked on iced tea from Quik Trip for years but recently moved to a place without any QT's and haven't found anything comparable so I'm going to start brewing my own. I bought a couple of these brewers and will be starting with the breakfast teas I already have. 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 . Same for the greens, but I'm really in love with the ones TeaVivre has had the last couple years. Chinese greens not Japanese, but there are plenty of other shops that carry Japanese greens to make iced. I should mention that TeaVivre is giving away free samples for a couple more days. No purchase necessary I think? Cold brewing is super easy, just add water and pop it into your fridge overnight and remove the leaves when you're happy with the flavor.
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Nov 15, 2017 05:53
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I also got coupon codes for TeaSource in my email this morning. Free Shipping over $50 with SHIPTEA17 and $5 off a $30+ order with TEAGIFT17 There's also their tea of the month sub if you're into that thing for $10 off with GIFTSUB17 (It's an okay sub, but not really worth it unless you really like trying random things.)
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Nov 15, 2017 16:07
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