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Steve Yun posted:Got a question about teapots The cast iron pot is going to be much hotter if you heat the water inside it. I'd recommend preheating it a bit if you're going to do any steeping in it. You should be okay steeping in a cast iron pot, but I'm not much for it myself. I use a ceramic of some sort for steeping and an electric kettle for heating the water. The kettle doesn't hold the heat as long, but it works for when I'm making tea for right then. I think it's easier to control the temperature within small ranges too, cast iron seems to keep heating a bit after I get near my intended temperature and for someone like me who's looking for a particular temperature when it's not just off the boil, that's outside my needs. The ceramic teapot doesn't hold heat as long as cast iron either, but it's long enough for the time it takes for me to drink it as it holds about 28 fluid ounces (3.5 cups) depending on the size of the leaf that I'm brewing. Edit: I've heard people talk about the flavor changing from the cast iron as well, but I've not experienced it myself so long as it's properly cleaned.
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Oct 15, 2013 19:53
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Mercury Hat posted:According to my British husband our inferior American wattage means our kettles are terrible anyway Haha. I know it takes a little longer to heat, but I still prefer my inferior electric kettle to using a stovetop kettle. It's quick enough, and I don't have to worry about burning my hand on the handle. If you drink tea regularly though, it's a good investment, even if it's a $20 kettle.
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Oct 23, 2013 16:37
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I like all metal mesh strainers alright for larger leaf teas, but for anything with a smaller leaf, or something that I've had for a while and I've managed to start to break up a little, I really do prefer http://amzn.com/B000I68NCS infuser. It has a smaller mesh, but I wish it had smaller plastic supports or some other configuration. The medium size is perfect for a single cup and leaves plenty of room for the leaf to expand. It's easy enough to clean. I use it as the infuser for my ~3.5 cup tea pot and it fits just great.
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Oct 27, 2013 05:20
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hope and vaseline posted:Mostly a combination of those really! I'd like to kind of find a baseline TGY that's decently affordable for everyday drinking, and try smaller quantities of the higher grade stuff. I've just really fallen in love with the amount I got from Adagio, more so than any other tea I've had to date. There's something else that bothers me about Verdant Tea. There's another tea store based in the twin cities that offers a lot of similar teas for a whole lot cheaper. It's called the Tea Source http://www.teasource.com, and while their website is not shiny or at all new looking, the prices are way better for a lot of the offerings. When I lived in the Cities I tried both, and didn't really notice a difference. Check the difference between the Big Red Robe Oolongs. Verdant charges more for 2oz than Tea Source charges for 4oz. I couldn't taste a difference in the tea, but maybe you can? They have a couple Ti Kwan Yin as well under the China, Oolong section. Might be worth taking a look. You can also get some teas in larger quantities than 4oz if you call them to order.
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Nov 1, 2013 00:04
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http://www.teasource.com/ They don't have it posted on their website, which has finally received the upgrade I heard they were making three years ago. I did get it in their newsletter though. On 11/29 only, black teas are 20% off with the code: BLFRI2013 On 12/2 only, there's no shipping charges with the code: CYBER13 On Small Business Saturday if you're in the Twin Cities in Minnesota, you can get 50% off prepared pots and cups at their locations. They ship USPS standard boxes so shipping usually only runs me about $6-7. So do the math to figure out which day will be better for your savings.
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Nov 27, 2013 23:12
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coyo7e posted:I checked out around and found that 2 liters (68 oz) seems to be about the biggest size possible and I have no problem carrying 5 lbs around in a backpack for a couple hours, for the chance to enjoy a nice hot cup of tea and lunch on a mountaintop or at the foot of a waterfall with some company. Does anyone have experience with anything of this size? Zojirushi's (apparently) only offering has some iffy-sounding reviews about its durability, so I was thinking it may be wiser to go with a Thermos brand one, and frankly I don't have a clue of what other brands to look for, or if any are worthwhile. I have a Themos brand one that works wonders. It keeps things hot for way longer than it logically should, but I payed plenty for it. I think I have the 64 (68?) oz one. It holds about eight cups of liquid and keeps it hot/cold legitimately for a long time. I use it to take tea out with me while refereeing and while it looks ridiculous, it's fantastic when it's cold or rainy and I want something to warm me up. Worth every penny. Make sure you get one that does have a vacuum rating for the area inside. From what I understand, this is why it stays hot/cold (due to the lack of transference of the heat energy), so make sure you take the time to find the right one. \/\/\/ The 68oz looks to be about the same price as the Thermos brand too. Jhet fucked around with this message at 23:45 on Jan 28, 2014 |
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Jan 28, 2014 23:29
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http://www.amazon.com/Thermos-Stain...eywords=thermos This is the one I use. It has a stainless steel interior and exterior and has taken a bit of a beating. I've had hot tea a day and a half later. It did taste a little stale, but not metallic. I've dropped it a few times, it's been struck by a flying soccer ball more then once, and it still works very well. The price fluxuates on amazon a little so maybe wait for it to sneak down under $40? I've seen it there a couple times.
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Jan 30, 2014 14:55
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AreYouStillThere posted:I've recently discovered Pu'erh, and I'm intrigued. I thought it was delicious, but I'm a little wary of buying things grown in China. Should I be worried? Is there a brand that I can be less worried about? I bought one of these and though it does say USDA organic on it, I'm almost positive it was still grown in China. I'd be more worried that you're buying a sub-par product from a large distributor than tea being grown in China. They do a very good job of growing tea in China, and buying puerh can be sort of like buying good wine. There's a lot of different tastes and flavors that accompany the fermenting process. So not that the one you have might be bad, but I'd go so far to say find something without a USDA stamp on it (because what do they know about growing tea anyway), when we don't grow much in the way of tea in the states anyway.
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Feb 22, 2014 17:04
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milpreve posted:I'm glad it made sense. I realize now I use fancier words when I'm tired, and I wrote "sleep" instead of "steep." I expect most of the people who dislike to hate Teavana have nothing against their employees. Just their tea and possibly business practices. I just find it sad that Teavana thinks that they need to mix herbal ingredients into so many different concoctions that the tea leaves and quality of their flavor just seems lost. Then again, what else could I expect from a chain that shows up in malls but catering to a distinctively different crowd. I'm just sick of hearing, "Hey, you should try this new tea I got. It has peaches and vanilla in it!" Mostly because it instinctively makes me want to throw it on the ground. (Because I'm like that.)
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Feb 28, 2014 16:34
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I can blame that on autocorrect, though.
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DurianGray posted: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). I've mentioned it a couple times as my go-to place to get tea, but http://www.teasource.com is quite wonderful. It's not overpriced for most things. While they do carry some of the high grade stuff, for the most part the stuff they have is solid tasting and un-blended. They do have some blends, but my favorite part is the ability to find unblended teas for cheap that don't taste like dirty sock. They're not a large supplier, and have all of three stores in the Minneapolis-St Paul, Minnesota area. They don't go in for the over specialized teas, and the prime goal is to drink tea that you like, how you like it. Also, flat rate shipping via USPS.
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Mar 2, 2014 00:58
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DontAskKant posted:Thanks I managed to get in this time and was worried it would sell out so I just got the sampler. $3.90 shipping to Korea, though it will probably arrive when I am actually in Yunnan on vacation. Boo. It was in stock when I put it in my basket and already out of stock. Or maybe it was my sample selections. Either way I guess I'll check again tomorrow morning.
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Jul 16, 2014 16:21
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Jhet posted:Boo. It was in stock when I put it in my basket and already out of stock. Or maybe it was my sample selections. Either way I guess I'll check again tomorrow morning. It's back in stock today if anyone else was trying to snag it.
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Jul 17, 2014 21:06
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Niemat posted:I managed to snag it this time, and I picked up their oolong sampler that was on sale as well! Did everyone else get YET ANOTHER free sample at check out...? Or was that attached to me picking something else up in addition to the $1 sampler? Either way, I'm excited. Yeah, I got another free sample with my order of under 30$. It looks like if I'd ordered more than 30 there would have been even yet another sample added. I'm excited to try another source for my tea making pleasures. I feel a little like I'm cheating on my usual supplier, but maybe I'm just not a one tea shop sort of guy?
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Jul 18, 2014 14:51
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DontAskKant posted:It's 2014 a man can have as many tea shops as he can manage. We've earned this. I bought a few other teas while I was at it because shipping was only 5bux. When I checked out it asked me what sample I'd like. They were all the same as the samples as part of the sample pack, but that means I got 6 instead of 5 sample sized teas (and a few non-sample sized).
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Jul 18, 2014 16:18
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I managed to only buy $30 of puerh from Teavivre with the sample special. Thankfully I'm still stocked on the greens and whites that I'd want from them. Let's pretend the oolong and puerh tea sales were over three weeks okay-thanks.
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Aug 1, 2014 16:29
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LEFTENANT RIGHTIE posted:So I too am just getting into teas, and I am dying to try lavender tea. I saw one from The Tea Spot, but what made me do a double take was the 'vanilla flavouring.' Should I be hitting the brakes or are added flavours normal in floral teas? Added flavors are pretty normal. It's one of the reasons I don't like them at all. To me it makes the tea taste a bit like chemical. Some people really like it though. So try things and see if you like them! And DontAskKant - I have at least 3kg right now myself. It's perfectly natural to keep buying more tea than a human being can logically drink.
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Aug 23, 2014 01:01
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gamingCaffeinator posted:So I can't take a picture of it, but at the Sbux I work for we just received a care package from the retail tea team. It's full of samples of all the new Teavana stuff we'll be selling, as well as a 'PerfecTea Maker' for us to use in tastings. I'll admit. The only reason I've started stopping at Starbucks again is for the iced tea. Because it seems to be the only place that will serve it unsweetened without it tasting like butt. Honestly, it's not bad. I'm glad they've done it and I hope they don't take it off the menu when the weather changes.
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Sep 10, 2014 19:25
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DontAskKant posted:This is Indian tea so it's mostly black and oolong and chai, but there are some uncommon green and white teas. I love and hate you at the same time right now. That's an awesome collection of Darjeelings that I'm going to end up trying. Trying far, far too many of them. Thanks for the referral code!
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Sep 18, 2014 21:01
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Personally, I start with 3g per 8 fluid ounces and then adjust from there. Pearls (and anything rolled) I might start a little less if they're still going with the 1tsp per cup thing. I tend to still end up about 3g or just a little more.
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Dec 31, 2014 16:46
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I finally ordered one of those ingenuiTea things from Adagio, and it's pretty decent. I don't like that I can't get under the filter to clean through it completely, and sticking it in the dishwasher just tends to leave a bunch of water sitting in the thing. I'm using a sanitizing solution (from brewing stuff) to make sure it stays clean, but I can't see myself using this with a puerh or any smoked tea like lapsang souchong. I like it a lot for oolongs and anything I steep more than once. It's just another tool for tea in my kitchen though and I don't see it fully supplanting my mesh infuser anytime soon.
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Feb 4, 2015 16:43
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hope and vaseline posted:You can pry the filter off, just grab the middle nipple part and yank hard. It pops right back in when you're done cleaning. Thanks for the tip. The instructions didn't mention that it comes apart, and it was stuck in there pretty hard and I didn't want to break it right after buying it. I'll give that a try, and the hot water trick too if it doesn't work cold.
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Feb 5, 2015 01:06
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WanderingMinstrel I posted:I think that actually used to be a Victorian insult, "Well, you know she's a very milk first kind of person". If I remember my Miss Manners correctly it was meant to mean the person had very nanny like sensibilities and was kind of low class. Didn't that have something to do with the china cracking if you didn't put the milk in first too? And only people who couldn't afford china put the milk in last? I could be pulling this out of an old tale, but as far as the insult goes, it was very classist. Granted, I don't care for milk in my teas. Even in something like yorkshire gold.
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Feb 23, 2015 06:02
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aldantefax posted:Really, what it sounds like is you want hot tea on demand. One of the better options would be to find a teapot you like, brew your tea, then pour into an insulated container immediately. I used to do this before going into jobs where there was no ready hot water access for brewing with a few thermoses to varying success, but it worked out on the whole. I do this when I'm gone for the day working a sports tournament. I have one of those giant black Thermos, and the heat retention is really very awesome. I've had it stay hot for 24 hours and only lose 10-15 degrees. I just preheat the inside of the thermos before filling with 68 ounces of tea. Who cares if people look at me crossways, I have tea for all day long and some to share.
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Mar 26, 2015 18:17
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aldantefax posted:You mean open fill bags like t-sacs? They have plenty of room to expand. They come in different sizes (I recommend Finum again here because their paper choice is better than t-sac brand, which is stiff and can impart kind of a paper taste to your brew (prewash them before steeping). Tea will suffer more from water quality and temperature more than what you steep it in. I use open fill teabags when brewing iced tea in the fridge. Works fine, they don't fall apart, and they haven't ruptured as a result of too much leaf no matter how much leaf I've put in. I'll second the t-sacs for iced tea. Really, anytime I'm brewing a large quantity at once, I use them because I got a package of the large size. Plenty of room for most of my oolongs to expand, but I resteep when I'm doing 64oz and mix together. For green teas and most black teas that I make into Iced versions though, they can fit all that I need. Some people may say you shouldn't, but I staple them shut with a strand of cooking twine to pull them out. ulvir posted:Even still, I want to prepare more than one cup at a time, which is the reason I'm looking for a teapot in the first place. I'm already sometimes and sometimes not resteeping, I'm already going on a "cup by cup basis". I want something more, not a different way of doing the exact same bloody thing. I use an actual thermos for heat retention. I have a giant one (64oz about) that I'll fill and drink over the course of the day. Temperature doesn't drop much over 24hrs, and I'd recommend a smaller one (32oz maybe) for what you're wanting. If you use the t-sacs, you can steep in the thermos, but I steep in a cheap ceramic pot and then put it in my pre-heated thermos. A small extra step, but it works like a charm. Jhet fucked around with this message at 20:10 on May 18, 2015 |
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May 18, 2015 20:06
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Definitely straight black for AP. I like this tea with ginger and peach for iced otherwise. I also enjoy strong black teas turned iced-Assam and Keemun often. Really it comes down to personal taste preference. Try some and keep trying more. Many green teas are great iced too. If you're adding sugar go with some Lusianne and make it nice and bitter first. (Everyone needs sweet tea sometimes.)
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Jul 10, 2015 06:30
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Look Under The Rock posted:Mint is almost too easy to grow, it is like a weed and will take over if you plant it in a yard or whatever. It's awesome. There's a strain of spearmint that has a chocolate note to it, I wish I knew the exact name but we had a ton of it in my backyard growing up and it was amazing in tea. It's not creative. It's called chocolate mint. It's also really tasty. Buy it once and keep it in enough space and it'll just keep coming back. It's a great addition to tea, and should be good steeped itself (although I've not tried).
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Jul 20, 2015 06:04
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CommonShore posted:David's can be a convenient place to pick up 50g of an actual Oolong or less-common green tea. Their prices even out if you join their "frequent steeper" club and get something that's ridiculously overpriced for their freebie every few months. They don't give a poo poo if you buy $100 of their cheapest plain leaves and then get a free $30 bag of some shade-grown Japanese stuff when the time comes That's a terrible idea, because it seems like you're not going to actually save any money, or get a consistently great product. Especially when you can find so many good teas that come straight from where they're grown at websites like teavivre.com for China, teabox.com for India, and there's even one for Ceylon/Sri Lanka that I can't manage to find right now. Aside from that, there are plenty of purveyors listed in the OP that aren't going to overcharge for middle-grade stuff and have plenty of good options (like Adagio and TeaSource). Or better yet, order from just about everyone because they're carrying what you want to drink. So drink what you want, but don't get pulled in by gimmicks. There are too many other good options right now and they all regularly have sales.
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Nov 10, 2015 02:15
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hope and vaseline posted:It's that time of the yeeeear Please no... My cupboard is full. Stop pushing the tea-crack. Seriously, great time to buy. A lot of stores are having sales in the next week, so buy and drink more tea. I may need to check my stock of dragonwell and restock.
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Nov 24, 2015 23:47
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The teasource.com sale is out. 20% off black teas on Friday, Free Shipping on Monday, and spend $75 in December get a $10 gift card. Edit: I'm tempted to buy a bunch of that teavivre Dragonwell. So yummy.
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Nov 25, 2015 23:16
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Butch Cassidy posted:Tried Teavivre's strawberry oolong, yesterday. The strawberry fragrance was aggressive in the pouch but brewed to a pretty mild cup. My wife and kids really liked it and I thought it was alright. I found a sample package of their Fengqing Old Tree Raw Pu-erh cake 2013 in my drawer. It is wonderful. Most everything I've had from there is wonderful. I've never run into any off or chemical flavors either (like I have with some Indian teas). I just need to drink through what I have before I'm allowed to order anything new. I would like to try their dragonwell, and maybe a few oolongs as well. The pu-erhs I have tried many and they are wonderful.
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Dec 8, 2015 20:50
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hope and vaseline posted:Their mini tuos are the only thing I'd say are hit and miss, but that's kind of true of that form factor in general. They're pretty much the teabags of the puerh world. Entirely agree with that. But I love how musky and fishy they can get. I don't care for vegetative/grassy flavors a lot of the time, which is the reason I can't manage to drink through my greens.
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Dec 8, 2015 20:59
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XBenedict posted:I'm usually an Upton guy, but I made an order with Teavivre on the strength of their Black Friday sale. Since the tracking information is in Chinese, I don't know what's going on. Not terribly long, but it is coming direct from China so it may have to sit at customs. They package it well so it's not really a concern. I think the last time I ordered it took about 10 days total? It took longer when I ordered from India, but it's been a while so I don't remember exactly.
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Dec 9, 2015 23:38
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XBenedict posted:Thanks. They tried to deliver it today. 11 days. Not terrible. Yeah, I think it was pretty quick once they got through customs, but I'm also near where China ships everything through the pacific northwest.
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Dec 10, 2015 00:47
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Fluo posted:Recently been trying out a handful of UK tea sites again and found https://jingtea.com/ to be one of the best for quality / price, http://www.greysteas.co.uk/ is really good for selection, best I've found for Japanese teas if the OP could those two into the OP under @Cymbal Monkey Fluo just posted about two good sites. Jing tea seems to have what you're looking for.
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Dec 14, 2015 21:58
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that'd be awesome.
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Enfys posted:Happy International Tea Day! Health Benefit: Hydration. Good stuff.
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Dec 15, 2015 22:21
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aldantefax posted:like, 250 lbs worth? I guess that is 113.398 kilos ... wtf?... I can't wait for your pictures. I'm pretty sure it would take me quite some time to get through all that tea. So much time that it would mostly be stale and sort of gross by the end. On the other hand, I'm sure it'll make good presents for all occasions. What's that... Independence Day? Have 2oz of tea as your party favor. Halloween? Tea. Secretaries' Day? Lots of tea. Fake edit: My wife brought me some Assam, Darjeeling, and Masala Chai from India. She's not any better at finding tea than she was a few years ago when she brought me some dragonwell and a generic tasting oolong from China. It's decent tea, but they're all blends and really nothing special. The packaging was absurd and hilarious though. I thought getting those plastic electronics packaging was excessive. This was 4-6 layers of plastic, paper, and fabric. Jhet fucked around with this message at 21:52 on Feb 5, 2016 |
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Feb 5, 2016 21:48
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Sanguinary Novel posted:Was gifted a certificate to Teavana for Christmas, and finally went in yesterday to spend it and finally re-remembered why I hate getting tea there. The sales person was super pushy, they were way overselling the health benefits, and honestly their tea was incredibly expensive. I do enjoy getting to smell the tea before I buy it and there were a lot of unique flavored variants (including the lime herbal I bought, which'll make a bomb cold tea), it's too expensive for the amount I drink. Also, the person just would not take my word that I knew how to brew tea. The person who gave you this gift card doesn't really like you. Take them off your 'christmas card list. I bought a bunch of loose hibiscus for brewing beer. Anyone have pointers on finding the right ratio for blending it into some black tea or maybe some dragonwell that's starting to get past it's age?
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Mar 22, 2016 18:41
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aldantefax posted:Here is that thing that I bought: This thing is insane and awesome. My wife will let me get away with putting a bar with kegs inside in my living space, but I doubt I could get permission for something like that.
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Apr 2, 2016 23:02
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Ineffiable posted:That's the sad thing about local stores. I've never seen there prices as good as most online favorites (Yunnan, Upton others). The only reason my local store from when I was in Minneapolis/St Paul had prices like that was that they also did online sales (Tea Source). I still buy from them for most of my general needs and they have a commitment to not talk about this month's "health" benefits of drinking tea. The only benefit they suggest it has is hydration. They don't do a lot of the really expensive teas, but they have a few. Good quality daily drinking tea can be found there and I like a few of their black tea blends for warm drinking and iced drinking. I'm really glad they do online ordering too, because I would miss them otherwise and would call them to beg that they ship me tea. They're the people that turned me onto pu-erh initially and dark teas as well. Their cheapest one, the Hunan Dark Tea is one of my favorite daily drinkers. Great for multiple steeps and I used to make a gallon of it and take it with me for refereeing soccer tournaments in cold conditions. It's 6.50 for 4oz. Take that Twinings.
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Apr 5, 2016 16:39
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Sanguinary Novel posted:It's been a month of poor tea decisions. First, the Teavana experience, and then I bought some tea from David's Tea for the first time. After disliking three bags of tea, I have a deeper appreciation for Adagio selling sample bags. All of the teas seem to have a really weird texture to them, like the flavor is really muddy. It's hard to describe. It's probably the flavoring that makes the tea so weird. I'm going to try the weird teas iced or maybe with a little milk, just to try and not waste anything. Next time I'll just stick with Upton and Adagio. I have a hard time with anything that has flavoring that isn't present in flower or leaf form. They all leave a sort of chemical taste/feel in my mouth, and that's even with water through a carbon filter. I do mess with my water chemistry for brewing beer and I know that it's not from the water, so it must be something that's in the blend. Basically then I don't ever buy anything from Teavana (ever), I only get blends from Adagio, Upton and Tea Source because I'm comfortable and familiar enough that I can pick good ones without the extracts. The good suppliers will tell you what's in the bag. I stay away from anything that says oil or extract and I can do really pretty well with variety still. I don't do David's because it seems overpriced compared to so many other places. Samples are still the best, especially when you can buy a bunch of them and then order what you really like.
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Apr 5, 2016 20:23
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