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More recent studies that I've seen have shown that teas (from the camellia sinensis bush) all have roughly the same amount of caffeine, regardless of whether they're green, oolong, white, black, etc. Health benefits (and detriments?) are also more or less the same because they all come from the same plant. Anyway, I would say try some rooibos or honeybush if you haven't. I've personally never messed with decaf tea because I'm not all that sensitive to tea-level doses of caffeine. http://www.mayoclinic.org/caffeine/art-20049372 This is interesting, if you'd like to compare caffeine amounts between beverages. Even a really strong cup of tea only has a fraction of the amount of caffeine that a really weak cup of coffee would have.
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Jan 21, 2014 08:23
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If you have trouble using Taiwan as a search term, teas from Taiwan almost all end up being called Formosa teas because the Western part of the tea industry is still stuck in the 1890s as far as naming conventions. (Sri Lankan teas are called Ceylons for the same reason.) In "what I bought yesterday" news, I ended up going to this little hole-in-the-wall Thai grocery store and getting a $4.00, 14 oz. bag of "Thai Tea Powder" (which was actually loose leaf), and which was actually the kind of tea used to make Thai Ice Tea like you get in restaurants! It even turns that same lovely orange color when you stir the milk in.
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Feb 26, 2014 17:35
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I've never heard of Teance before, but if someone is willing to vouch for it I'd be happy to include it in the OP. Just looking at their website briefly it looks like they specialize in sort of boutique single-estate teas so everything is super pricey (about $10 an ounce at the cheapest). And things not being listed in the OP isn't any sort of value judgement. It's just because no one has recommended or mentioned that particular vendor yet. I think I've put most of the suggested ones from the thread in, but there's a good chance I've missed some, so if anyone feels like something should be included that isn't there, go ahead and let me know! 
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Feb 28, 2014 18:23
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Watermelon City posted:Guys, there's sticks in my kukicha! Serious question: where does Yamamotoyama tea rank among Japanese tea brands? I love their genmaicha and hojicha, but is that just because I don't know any better? I say, if you like it, prestige doesn't really matter. (Unfortunately I know nothing about specific Japanese tea brands so that's the only advice I have.) mmm11105 posted:I'm just getting into tea, have currently mostly tried greens, and am looking to try out some of the different varieties of teas. I'm planning on just ordering a bunch of sample sizes from adagio, any particular teas you guys really like from there that I should try? If you're looking at trying a variety of specific styles some of their sampler packs are a pretty good bet. Yunnan Noir is one of my go-to things from them, too, really nice and malty/tannic if you're into that. Irish Breakfast is solid, so is oooh Darjeeling (though last time I had that was a while ago). I remember liking their ali shan, too, if you're looking into oolongs. I personally stay away from their artificial flavor heavy stuff just because I had bad luck with one or two. I still have about 3oz (out of an original 4oz) of Earl Grey Moonlight sitting around from about four years ago that I ended up pretty much hating every time I made it  That's the only thing from them I've had that I've disliked.
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Mar 3, 2014 07:29
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I had a ton of mineral buildup in a stovetop kettle that I got rid of by boiling the usual amount of water with maybe a quarter or half cup of white vinegar mixed in. I think you could probably do the same with an electric kettle. Just make sure to run it through a few a cycles of just water afterwards to get the vinegar taste out. It smells pretty strong too, so be prepared for that.
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Mar 6, 2014 18:35
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I think the only thing I've gotten almost no particulates with was some of those paper disposable "tea bags" like these http://www.adagio.com/teaware/paper_filters.html I've just gotten used to those particles for the most part. I do tend to shake my mesh filter over the sink a bit after putting the leaves in to get some of that extra dust out and that helps to a degree.
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Mar 12, 2014 00:24
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General rule of thumb is about one teaspoon of leaves per cup (or 8 oz.) of water. If the leaf is really densely packed, maybe a little less. If it's not dense at all, then maybe a bit more than the teaspoon-per-cup ratio. Adjust according to taste more than anything else though. If grams works better for you as a measurement, you'd probably need to experiment and figure that out on your own. Unfortunately almost everything uses teaspoons instead of weight.
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Mar 15, 2014 19:51
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Chaos Motor posted:We sell an Indian chai made with Assam black tea, you can get a free sample from our website at chai-me.com. We have a 5 star rating, 100% customer satisfaction, and a money back guarantee. Give us a shot if you like black teas, I am certain you'll like ours. Hey, I went ahead and added you to the OP under the vendor section, hope that's cool.
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Mar 22, 2014 22:21
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I've tried making sweet ice tea with some of my fancier loose leaf blacks but it's just not the same as using the generic Food Lion tea bags my parents would always have on hand. If it doesn't taste vaguely of cardboard, it feels like there's something missing. 
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Jun 3, 2014 04:46
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I did get a batch of their Earl Grey Moonlight once that would always either come out delicious (not often) or tasting like straight dishsoap (more often). I think the only thing that sort of helped was brewing it weaker on purpose (less leaves, water not up to boiling, etc.). Most of their flavored stuff I've had was fine though. Out of curiosity, which teas did you have the problem with exactly?
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Jan 20, 2016 14:05
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I bought this a few months ago http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00IMBSGNW/ref=mp_s_a_1_5_a_it?qid=1458129031&sr=8-5&keywords=matcha+green+tea It's culinary grade and I do plan to use it for cooking, but it's not bad for making a cup every now and then. I've always sweetened it a bit and it tastes fine to me. I'm not an expert with matcha at all though, so it could be total swill compared to the crazy expensive ceremonial grade stuff.
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Mar 16, 2016 12:57
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This is totally some fuzzy, back of the envelope math, but at least where I live, a lot of the teas even at the (slightly overpriced imo) upscale tea shop in town cost the same or less per ounce than the somewhat decent bagged teas like Numi. Probably not the same everywhere, but I've almost always found bagged tea is way overpriced for the quality and quantity you get especially compared to how far your dollar goes with loose leaf. (Numi costs about $6 an oz. here and most good loose leaf I can get locally is more like $6-15 for 2-4 oz.)
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Apr 5, 2016 12:52
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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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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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Resteeping well depends on the variety too. Most Oolongs are good for a few steeps (sometimes they get even better in later steeps) and I've heard rumors of ones that can go for 20(!!) resteeps. But for the most part, yes, about 3 is what you'll get. One exception would be flavored teas, at least in my experience (both artificial like chocolate orange or blueberry or whatever and the more 'natural' processes like the smokiness in a Lapsang Souchong). Those are usually only good for one steep unless you don't mind subsequent cups being super bland/weak in comparison.
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Jul 12, 2016 23:13
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Hey everybody! It's been great to see this thread keep chugging along for nearly 5 years (!?). Since it's been a while, I'm looking to maybe update the OP and would love to know if you guys have any recommendations, or if there's anything else you'd like to see on there. I've noticed a few links to vendors seem to be dead now so I'll probably be removing some of them if I can't find a working link. (I did just add Teavivre since I noticed it wasn't on.)
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Aug 27, 2016 14:51
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You could put the tea, milk, and sugar all in the pot to start with. Just premix in the kitchen it how you like and keep it at your desk. (I'd recommend a tea cozy or even just a towel wrapped around it to keep it at temperature longer if it takes you a while to get through.)
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Sep 13, 2016 03:29
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 Well. The strainer you have is not for putting leaves in. Basically it's for when you have leaves loose in a pot, you put it over the cup to catch them when some inevitably slip out of the pot as you pour the tea. I would... maybe not use that cast iron pot if it's shedding enamel. I'm guessing that it's fully enameled on the inside? I don't personally like cast iron pots since they tend to be very small volume and very expensive, at least the ones I've seen, and I don't think the claimed benefits really make up for those two strikes.
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Mar 24, 2017 13:04
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I'm not super familiar with samovars, but if that cast iron pot is enameled you want to be careful about putting it directly on a heat source. (Like absolutely don't put it directly on a stove or anything like that since it can make the enamel crack even worse.)
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Mar 24, 2017 21:54
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Hmm, I would experiment since there can be a lot of variation in greens in my experience. I think a cold steep overnight wouldn't be a bad idea to start with, and a somewhat generous portion of tea to water. If you don't add sugar while it's hot (or don't brew it hot to begin with) you could always whip up some simple syrup and add that in whenever. (I don't know why more places don't offer simple syrup for cold drinks in the first place but I'm always grateful when I find one that does.)
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May 2, 2017 03:05
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Cacao nibs aren't that uncommon as a tea ingredient. I've had them mixed in with mint for a mint chocolate-y tea, or even with rooibos. If it tastes good and doesn't make you feel sick, then go big wild. Also yeah, "health benefits" from most any food are mostly garbage science (or more likely bad journalism hyping up some test results) unless you're talking about common sense stuff like eating citrus/fruits occasionally so you don't get scurvy or having a vegetable now and then or whatever.
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May 25, 2017 04:32
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After you put the dry leaves in the strainer, shake it gently over the sink or trash or wherever to sift out the tiny pieces. That should get rid of most of the ones that would otherwise slip out once you'd start steeping it. e: if it's so fine that all/most of them would come out, look into a finer strainer or even a cloth one. There are also disposable paper tea bags you can fill yourself that might work. DurianGray fucked around with this message at 13:41 on Oct 25, 2020 |
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Oct 25, 2020 13:39
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Heath posted:I'm not sure what a tea machine refers to. There are things the Ingenuitea that you can place over your mug that brew the tea and then you flip a switch to release the tea into the cup and the leaves stay in the upper part. But that doesn't sound like what you're asking for? Think of an automatic coffee maker, but it makes tea for you instead of coffee. That's basically it. Vim, one of the few (not ludicrously expensive) tea machines I know of is this one from Adagio (https://www.adagio.com/teaware/velociTEA.html). It doesn't steep the leaves directly in the water (it runs the water through them instead) and it does have a keep warm feature but only lasts 60 minutes in case you wanted longer than that. While I haven't used it myself, Adagio generally has pretty good customer service and it has fairly good reviews on their site, so I feel OK recommending on those grounds at least.
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Dec 6, 2020 14:05
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https://youtu.be/KVmNboY14aU You can see a demo of how some automatic tea makers work in that video (that Breville model is like $250 or so on Amazon, which seems like a pretty typical price for that kind of tea maker from what I've seen. The Adagio one I linked above is $120~ and one of the less expensive ones I've seen but I haven't done a lot of research into them). Basically, yeah, automatic tea makers exist and I'm pretty sure something like the one in the above video is what Vim was asking about.
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Dec 6, 2020 19:49
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Electric kettles are a huge life improvement if you're currently just boiling water on the stove. Nice features to look for are variable temperature input (some teas need to be steeped at temperatures colder than boiling so it's great for green teas and the like) and a keep warm feature. This (https://www.amazon.com/Temperature-...ble+tem&sr=8-14) has both and I used one almost exactly like it for a few years until it started to rust on the inside (probably mostly my fault it rusted though). Also pretty much anything by Zojirushi will be good, including the model that was posted earlier. One nice thing is that almost all of them have an automatic turn off safety feature so you don't have to worry about it boiling off all the water and melting down if you forget about it (but make sure it does in fact have the safety turn off, just in case that's a worry for you).
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Dec 6, 2020 21:13
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I love that it looks like it's basically just a glorified heated chemistry stir plate and a spice grinder. Hell, you could buy both of those yourself and still probably have about $300 left over to buy tea with.
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Dec 7, 2020 22:30
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In my experience the pyramids are always in a type of plastic. As far as safety, they do shed some microparticles of plastic, but if you drink water, eat packaged food or breathe air (any clothes or textiles made of synthetic material - so basically anything besides cotton, wool, linen or silk - constantly shed microplastics into the environment) you're ingesting microplastics constantly anyway and it's just a personal decision for what you feel comfortable with. I personally don't have a problem with the occasional plastic sachet but I don't drink them often either (mostly because I tend to stick with loose leaf since there's generally much less packaging waste and it's usually much cheaper for better quality). e: beaten by a much more succinct post
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Jan 27, 2021 17:25
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Sounds like it might just be a bizarre reaction unfortunately (they happen - I get migraines from sweet/bell peppers but not spicy peppers even though they're technically the same plant/fruit).
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Feb 2, 2021 20:35
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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.
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May 3, 2021 23:13
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effika posted:Apparently they've recently merged their FedEx accounts, but so far I hadn't noticed anything different over the years. Huh. Oh whoa, I had no idea that had happened. I just started ordering from them again recently and everything has been as nice as I remember it being 8+ years a go - maybe a bit better packaging now I think?
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Jun 12, 2021 23:25
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Oh yeesh, I just added YS to the OP (as well as a small entry on Yaupon since that seems to be picking up traction lately and I also really like how it tastes). I admittedly haven't been great at keeping it super up to date in the uh..... ten years?! since I first made the thread. Feel free to yell at me if there's anything else that should definitely be there!
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Oct 14, 2021 17:01
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Platystemon posted:You may as well add guayusa to the section with yerba mate and yaupon. It’s the third cultivated caffeinated holly, and if you like its relatives, you may well like it. To me, it has a fruity taste. Drinking straight, I generally prefer yaupon, but I rank it above yerba mate, and guayusa’s unique flavor goes well with things like citrus. Oh drat, I completely forgot about guayusa! And apparently there's also a fourth caffeine holly in Asia called Kuding? What a talented plant.
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Oct 15, 2021 02:46
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Kukicha, a Japanese green that's mostly the stems and twigs leftover from making other teas, is also naturally super low in caffeine and also pretty tasty.
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Oct 22, 2021 21:43
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isaboo posted:I'm new to tea and have so far only bought a few different loose leaf greens and whites from Adagio and I enjoy them a lot. Oolongs have so much variation that you're probably best off trying samples of a few different ones to see what you like. Looks like Adagio has a 12-oolong sampler sometimes (it looks like it's sold out right now, but you can sign up for a restock notification) and that could be a good crash course. If you want something sooner, I think their Ti Kuan Yin, Golden Flower, Formosa Oolong and Milk Oolong could all give you a good idea of some parts of the oolong range if you're into doing a little compare and contrast. The Milk Oolong will be the wildest of the lot -- it's one of my favorite teas in general and it's very unique -- it really does taste/feel creamy somehow. I'd stay away from the flavored ones if you're looking to get a baseline of what oolongs are like by themselves, but if one of those just sings to you, go ahead and follow your dreams.
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Nov 2, 2021 02:39
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I've always just waited for the tea to cool off to around room temp before pouring it over ice, but I'll also just make a big batch and store the rest in the fridge when I'm in the mood for iced tea. Evades the issue of heat shock entirely if you make it ahead of time. (The southerner in me is perplexed by the concept of brewing it glass-by-glass and pouring boiling tea over ice, but different strokes, etc.)
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Nov 13, 2021 16:39
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I usually use a cheap ceramic teapot I bought from Adagio years ago (I also have a few old/maybe antique? ones I use occasionally). I just use a knitted tea cozy to keep the pot warm longer and I've never had it get too cold (at least what I would consider too cold) within a 30-45 minute time frame.
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May 11, 2022 17:53
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HIJK posted:what's the scoop on microplastics and tea bags The fully plastic teabags are usually those pyramid shaped ones. I would definitely avoid all of those if you don't want to drink plastic. That said, I don't think they're the majority of tea bags by a long shot. Paper are still way more common at least at all the stores I've been to, but some of them do use a small amount of plastic-based glue to seal them (not great, but it's WAY less plastic than the plastic pyramid shaped ones at least). Odds of plastic are lower if it's a brand that just uses staples to close the bags, but not zero unless you can verify a specific brand doesn't use plastic at all. If you really want to avoid it as much as possible though, definitely just switch to loose leaf. Especially if you're considering cutting the tea bags open and brewing loose leaf style anyway (I imagine cutting/tearing them still sheds microplastics anyway). It's usually a lot cheaper and higher quality than bagged tea, too!.
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Jul 5, 2022 16:05
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FAT BATMAN posted:Hello! My throat is sore. What’s a good tisane/blend to try so my throat doesn’t hurt so much? Most anything with a little honey in it can help, at least for me. If it's a dry sort of sore, something with slippery elm bark can make it less dry (iirc, it's either a bit mucilaginous itself, or it can help promote some helpful mucus. But if your throat is already gunky, skip it.) Ginger, mint, and chamomile can be nice, too (plus they just taste good, especially with honey). I personally hate the flavor of licorice root but it's supposed to help sore throats some, so if you find you like it, enjoy.
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Oct 27, 2022 12:46
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I have a couple of interesting little odd-sized dishes I picked up at thrift stores that I use for used tea bags and strainers. You could also just designate a small plate or bowl you might already have for it. Lots of good options!
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Oct 27, 2022 22:23
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Yeah I'll do multiple steeps of any given tea through the day, but I always throw the used leaves out if they've been sitting overnight. The few times I forgot (like leaving some leaves in my work setup over a weekend by mistake) it got gnarly very fast.
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Mar 6, 2023 22:11
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