This thread is for discussing teas, tisanes, and other herbal infusions.

info: types of tea, where to get tea, how to brew tea
https://rentry.org/teageneral

previous thread: >>21369815

1st for its too hot for me

>tea is served

>>21396943
Why is the table so wet

>>21396139
>Do you need to go sit down and drink tea the instant you move out of your bed?
thats the goal, yes.

>>21396951
Because the bug people have to spill shit everywhere in order to make tea

>>21396951
are you fucking poor or something

>>21397185
its honestly erotic the way he edges the teapot like that

>>21396951
Same reason the floor ends up wet after going for a leak at 2 in the morning.

so are you eyeing anything from the FarmerLeaf release? or are you waiting a month to see what else they add?

>>21396951

>>21397351
Probably mohei, since I still have half of TFLZ.
Maybe I'll wait for the next releases, but I'm not sure yet.

>>21397359
I'll wait to see if there is a sale with the release, and if there is a small trees LME. if it's also much cheaper than last year like the gushu is, it could be a good buy

>>21397356
And not a drop to drink

>>21397351
Waiting for the next release.

>>21397351
might splurge on the naka cake but the mohei and tflz look really tempting too, i didnt try last year's mohei cake but kunlu is one of my favourite areas

>>21397443
what's the typical kunlu flavor?

>>21397366
Sale with the next release seems like a way to piss off your first release customers.
LME isn't for me, but some new cheap gushu from an unknown location would be nice.

>>21396806
Drink some cold yerba mate

Tetley, PG Tips, Twinings or Yorkshire tea?
Which one is /tea/ approved?

>>21399012
Twinings has actual loose leaf teas, it's not even a competition. The others either don't, or just resell the same dust from their bags by weight, with meaningless marketing names for their three different types.

>five year old tea is stale
I wish I could make the effort to drink tea in a timely fashion instead of just collecting it

>>21399275
This is why you should collect teas that improve with age. Like moonlight white tea, which will just become better in 5 years

>>21399281
I like the taste of green teas, even if they don't hold up very well over time

>>21399281
Don't know if it was due to different batch or character of moonlight white, but for me 1 year old (2024) Tiltshift from w2t was better than the 4 year one. Typically white teas peak at 3-5 years for me, where it loses a certain annoying greenness. However beyond that it starts losing the good qualities as well. After 5+ years it's just gradually turning back to dirt. Which you may of course prefer if you like dirt.

>>21399372
could have something to do with Tiltshift not being a typical moonlight white. it's so bud heavy that it might age differently
how do you like it compared to some other white2tea white teas? or Jingmai Moonlight from FL?

>>21399061
Stop responding to animeposter bait.

>>21399404
It's true though. For some reason, of the budget cheapo tea bag brands most people know of, Twinings is the only one that also sells real teas.

>>21399367
some sheng puerh can have those green tea flavors but holds up better over time

are puerh lesbians a dying breed?

>>21399372
>Tiltshift
I've had tea of theirs that I swear was washed. AVOID.

drinking some iced tea.
made it with the yingpan shan sold by william.
it's ok.
honestly honey and/or cream doesn't help at all. not sure why bongs add that shit

>>21399752
ok... I guess it sort of smooths out the edges of it a bit. not sure I like it though.

I wonder with a really strong jin jun mei how honey would pair. some I've had are intensely honey like.

Anti Gate keeper bro here just want to say best bang for your buck factory raw is Haiwan . You can get an exact copy of Dayi 7542 by getting Haiwans 7548 for a quarter of the price. Also a sleeper cake people in the know only know about is Haiwans sen shan Lao shu . It's complex smokey, floral jasmine fragrance and long lasting. It's a bit more than the 7548 but for a 2014 which you can still get for around 50 to 60 it beats most raws that cost double or triple. Also don't sleep on Yunan sourcings Crimson rooster 2017 if you're looking for one of the best ripes. 70 for a 250 gram cake but it's the best ripe they have ever released. Insane viscosity and texture , woody,vanilla,cherry taste . Also white2tea lumber slut 2019 is still available for 25 bucks which is a steal. It's sweeter than crimson rooster but less viscosity and doesn't last as long but still a great ripe. If you're into white tea white2teas nightlife is the best bang for your buck if you don't want a cheaper fuding cake. Nightlife has a marshmallow texture and very floral . Also bitterleafs yearly Yiwu cakes are great this year's year of the snake cake is like 30 dollars for 357 grams which is a steal. I have cakes stretching from 2018 and it's a great classic Yiwu sweet profile.

>>21399701
Washed?

>>21399865
>nightlife
Taking you up on that rec, about time I stocked up on white

>>21399865
flecktarn spotted

>>21399865
>actually bought a kenji book
Opinions entirely discarded.

>>21399865
coziest pic ever

What sorts of tea have the strongest umami flavor? I've had some really amazing koicha matcha that did, but I would love some suggestions for non matcha tea.

>>21400464
Haven't had a lot of Japanese green teas but I had a lot of Chinese green teas and Dragon well green tea has a strong umami character. Don't use boiling water as greens can get bitter if the water is too hot and you steep too long.

>>21400541
You're a champ. Thanks

>>21400464

https://yunnansourcing.com/en-ca/products/first-flush-competition-grade-laoshan-green-tea?_pos=17&_sid=f5ebfe745&_ss=r

This is an urban legend right?

>>21400464
Gyokuro and Karigane Gyokuro are pretty good in this regard.

Is it too late to buy shincha?

I want to get into aged raw pu'erh teas. Could someone shoot me some suggestions? I am looking into the pu'erh sampler offered by thesteepingroom, which has the 2010 7542 in it. They also have some other nice looking Xiaguan samples. (2005 Xiaguan T8653) Any ideas?

Recently, I've gotten into white teas, and I've found the flavors to be delicate and subtle. (2024 Moon Waffles, 2020 Tong Mu Guan, and Bai Mu Dan) Is this normal, or am I doing something wrong?

>>21400851
>Recently, I've gotten into white teas, and I've found the flavors to be delicate and subtle. (2024 Moon Waffles, 2020 Tong Mu Guan, and Bai Mu Dan) Is this normal
I like white teas too. They've become something of a Saturday afternoon ritual. I need to try more of them.

>>21400851
>2010 7542
15 years isn't aged enough for 7542 to be worth drinking imo. The yeeontea 2008 7542 is still too young tasting for me. The 2000 7532 that yeeontea has is really good on the other hand and I recommend that. It's expensive though.
Still expensive but not quite as bad, and imo maybe a better tea is Essence of Tea's 1990's Special Order Red Mark.
2004 "Millenial Old Tree" Big Snow Mountain from Yunnan Sourcing is still pretty good and cheaper than the other two
2006 ChangTai Si Pu Yuan 65th anniversary is more affordable and a really nice daily drinker, King Tea Mall and YS have it
Also I would recommend quarter cakes from teaswelike, the Colours of Malaysia set seems pretty good- I haven't had it but I do have a cake of the yellow mark that's part of that set and it's really nice.
As for the 2005 Xiaguan T8653, xiaguan has a really bold and intense flavor profile even after 20 years of aging, I like it but some people do not. I haven't had that T8653 specifically and I believe that there's significant variation from one year/batch/version of those old XGs to the next. I have a cake of the 2004 T8653 from the jade leaf and I really enjoy it.

>>21401117
would a 2010 8582 be better to drink now?
might order from QuicheTeas, they seem to have good prices. maybe that one + the 2005 Xiaguan T8653, which is supposedly one of the good batches

>>21401136
>would a 2010 8582 be better to drink now?
I think so, yes. I haven't ordered from quiche yet but their stuff does look good.
If someone whose judgement you trust says that the T8653 is one of the good batches then yeah I'd say go for it

Slight sale on thetea.pl if any EU anons want a quick tea fix

>>21401365
Tell me what to buy

>>21401384
store is somewhat pricey, like most EU stores
but I can recommend:
>Tanyang Gong fu (intensely chocolaty, really great black tea)
>Yuchi wild black tea (fruity and very sweet)
>maybe a sample of the Banpen which is not a bad price for sampling an aged Banzhang supposed gushu. though it was kind of bitter for my taste

the white teas I had were pretty good, but didn't stand out for the price.
the liu bao was very good, but it sold out. it's possible that other liu bao they have is good too. seems to be one of the specialties of this store, next to aged oolong which is rare to find in EU stores

sippin some good ole v93

>>21402611

>>21396796 (OP)
Loose leaf Sencha green tea good shit

>>21402621
Once the EGCG phytochemical or whatever steep into my blood stream

>>21402623

>>21402616
I cant tell if this is a joke video or not

>INSTANT OOLONG

>>21402611
>>21402616
damn thats some tea stain
>>21402651
judging from the stain, maybe only a little exaggerated

No new small tree LME cake from FL this spring. Instead, we will get a Meng Noy cake

Are there any Must-Tries from w2t?
I was thinking of picking up a dozen or so minis or samples from them to try out the range.

Purveyor of cheap teas here. Harney puerh confirmed shit. It has a fishy flavor and I have not had the displeasure of tasting one with a fishy flavor yet- only having read of them and the cause being from the tea being stored in tandem with aging fish rather than given its own space. Shit. SHIT!

>>21403049
>lumber slut
it's a standout ripe in its price range with a pretty unique flavor profile
>smoked teas
they do a lot of smoking experiments. Boat Captain was good, some of the newer ones could be good too
>dancong chatou
really good lasting sweetness on this. I've only had a few dancongs, but this one impressed me and it's not that expensive

their shengs seemed alright to me, but not necessarily worth the price. especially since I doubt they'll be decreasing prices for 2025

>>21403096
>the cause being from the tea being stored in tandem with aging fish
no, it's caused by the fermentation process. if the process is badly controlled and the tea isn't given time to rest, it will be fishy. oftentimes fishiness goes away on its own after some time.

>>21403049
Seconding Lumber Slut, it's a very unique ripe, and it's so cheap it's at least worth trying a sample of.
I'd also pick up one of their black/white hybrid teas, they're interesting- Blood Moon is my favorite but Hot Brandy is another good one.

>>21403049
Yesheng Gushu Baicha
Hot Brandy

>>21403288
Oh the Three Spot TGY as well.

>>21402698
>doodoo panda
It'd be cute for the novelty. If I could buy those at gas stations, I might do it regularly.
>>21403049
I shill Camphornought as a dark, wet cousin of bright, dryer Lumber Slut. Both good.

Could a tea house that primarily serves hot tea without all the extra sugar milk bullshit work?

This is not ok

>>21403475
Yes, but you would need to start small. In most North-American cities, starting small is not possible.

>fishy fermentation
Is fermented puerh ever unsafe to drink? Whenever people are discussing bad teas it's always like oh the flavour profile was wrong, it tasted like fish, it tasted like guts, it was disgusting, etc. etc but nobody ever seems concerned about drinking literally rotten tea that clearly hasn't gone through the standard normal controlled fermentation.

>>21403589
Here's a spent puerspresso puck. Ground in a commercial coffee grinder.

>>21403589
And here's a puerover.

>>21403718
Whats the point of doing this

>>21403706
There are tales of moldy tea cakes, but there are also tales of exposing moldy tea cakes to sunlight to kill the mold before drinking the tea.

>>21403724
Someone wanted me to. I was trying to emulate the origami tea dripper.

are there teas that are actually relaxing. I didn't get much out of chamomile and it smells bad.
Does valarian root do anything? what about those GABA ollongs?

>>21403724

>>21403737
Look for tea with strong Cha Qi.

>>21403736
Ok but what is the point of that tea dripper

>>21403761
Makes tea.

>>21402698
I'm personally a fan of Chabacco as a gimmicky tea stick

>>21403706
I haven't heard of that happening with ripe fermentation, but some improperly stored cakes can get moldy. Some types of mold are safe, others are toxic
If there is no visible mold on your cake, nothing will happen to you. All the hong kong grandpas drink borderline moldy super dank stored puerh and they're fine too

>>21403737
Moonlight whites are very relaxing to me

>>21403737
I would say consider Gyokuro but it's pricy and finnicky so not exactly beginner friendly

>>21403742
Doesn't look too impressed with the result.

>>21403718
god thats like oil

>>21403779
I didn't even know these were a thing. Here's some 'da Vinci' themed black tea sticks. Neat idea, though I imagine the tea quality must be poor.

>Tea sticks
Tea coins are the superior travelling tea.

>>21403790

>>21403781
>All the hong kong grandpas drink borderline moldy super dank stored puerh and they're fine too
But haven't they strengthened their immune systems over a lifetime?

>>21403801
if people can survive in both india and china for decades i reckon the human body must be pretty resilient

>>21403330
>>21403288
>>21403270
>>21403123
Thanks for the recomendations, I'll throw them in the cart.

>>21403737
A nice cuppa earl grey relaxes me right well after a long day

>>21403793
Chabacco's neat cause it's a fun play on words and while expensive (perhaps to the point of being overpriced) it's actually good quality tea and quite drinkable

>>21403879
>Chabacco's neat cause it's a fun play on words
Tea cigarettes?

>>21403888
Cigareteas if you will.

While Westerners lust after Japanese matcha, young Japanese women are getting off on reenacting imagined British tea services.

What can we conclude from this?

>>21396796 (OP)
Does anyone know of true laminar flow tea kettles? Maybe an electric version? Surely zojirushi has one yeah?

>>21403920
Japs are /obsessed/ with western culture, really that simple. Two nukes etc

>>21403920
Everyone with culture loves the novelty of other cultures.Hardly rocket surgery.

>>21403888

I’m going to saigon, is it worth picking up anything there?

>>21403981
Most of the Vietnamese stores known to /tea/ are in Hanoi or other parts of the north. Hatvala is the only one I know of that has a store in Saigon.
https://hatvala.com/our-hcmc-store/

>>21403956
Japanese tea is objectively better than british dust bags though

>The Xi Shi teapot draws inspiration from the legendary beauty, Xi Shi. Its complete name is “Xi Shi Ru Hu,” which translates to “Xi Shi Breast Teapot.” The teapot’s graceful form resembles the voluptuousness of Xi Shi’s bosom, with its round body resembling a full breast, and the knob on the lid representing a nipple.

>>21404296
Reminds me of this:

>According to Pliny the Elder, tourists visiting the island of Rhodes could admire an exquisite electrum calix (chalice or wine-cup) in the local temple of Athena. This celebrated silver and gold cup was said to have been a gift from Helen herself. The vessel's real claim to fame, however, was not its precious metal or its antiquity, but the popular belief that the goblet had been fashioned to perfectly represent Helen's fabled breast (Pliny 23.81).

I am near multiple Chinatowns with tea shops manned by old men who will ignore me and talk to my girlfriend about tea.
What should I get?

>>21404299
Ask to sample any and everything that sounds interesting

How would you tame this naughty puerh?

>>21404309
Also, let them sample your girlfriend. Fairness demands it.

>>21404368
I get sex-pervert vibes from this

>>21402611
>>21402616
literally me

How can I get teas shipped from farms in Japan that don't do overseas shipping themselves?

>>21405221
You'd use a package forwarder as an intermediary. Something like Blackship.

>>21405221
Look for a proxy service (will buy the teas and ship them to you), or a forwarding service (you buy the teas and send it to their address and they ship it to you). The latter requires you to have a payment method that the tea farms accept which can be tricky since some Nip retailers don't accept foreign cards- an Amex card is the least likely to have problems in my experience.
If you need recommendations, I've used DeJapan as a proxy and Blackship as a forwarder and found both have reasonable pricing and good service. Haven't used them for tea though.

>>21404740
After however many years of opening cakes, I find I prefer the dark, spade one in the middle.

That said, the Dayi branded beeng slayer with the wood handle that angles downward is real nice. I would not mind having that in my collection.

25% off over at yeeon

I've been using a Chatsford pot for years, and I like it, but the plastic filter is difficult to clean. I know there are other ones with metal filters, but the ones I've seen have all seemed vastly overpriced. Do you have one, and how has your experience been?

>>21405774
damn, that's kind of a big sale. might finally try them out
any reccs? been thinking about this kind of cart
I can't buy more than 400g as the shipping price suddenly doubles above that point

They're honestly fine.

>>21405930
100% this.

I've tried around a hundred different teas from all kinds of places, but only a small handful would I want to drink often. Plus all the hassle. Meanwhile these little guys still taste better than EASILY half the loose leaf options out there.

Most of the time I don't want your funky forest floor fish, I just want something pleasant to sip while I work or game. I've never tasted a single puerh that was truly pleasant to drink, and I've gone through dozens.

Got around to trying the "Shui Jin Gui Golden Water Turtle Wu Yi Rock Oolong Tea" from yunnan sourcing and it smells like a port-o-potty.
"Dark chocolate", "sweet", "fruity" MY ASS.
Taste is alright, though.

>>21405922
That 2008 raw brick is pretty good if you like HK trad storage.
I really like the "2001 Xiaguan Grade A Pine Crane Raw Toucha", it's quite a bit more expensive at $63/100g but I think it's worth it. If you haven't had HK trad storage before though try that brick first to make sure you like the style

>>21405930
>>21405944
>Meanwhile these little guys still taste better than EASILY half the loose leaf options out there.
Yes, the "natural" (artificial) flavorings (90% of what the taste comes from, the fruit pieces are for decoration) hijack your brain like candy and it's easy to like. Flavored tea bags are effectively a bitter energy drink, the point is the flavoring and the leaves are just the caffeine carrier. And if you truly prefer unflavored Lipton Yellow Label, what's wrong with you.
>Most of the time I don't want your funky forest floor fish
I can understand this, and that's why I prefer green tea for daily drinking.
Sure, the flavors still aren't as intense as flavored tea, but 500% nicer and more interesting. And I can taste it because I'm not desensitized by the artificial ones. If I want fruit flavor, I can eat an actual strawberry. Though I guess good quality fruits are hard to find nowadays.

What are the benefits of this Chinese "get water everywhere and steep it 20 times" method instead of just putting a bunch of leaves in a pot and waiting a few minutes?

>>21405930
>Many tea bags, especially those made with plastic materials like nylon or polypropylene, release microplastics and nanoplastics into the tea when brewed. Studies have shown that a single tea bag can release billions of microplastic and nanoplastic particles per milliliter of tea. These particles can then be ingested by the drinker.

People choose this?

>>21406177
>What are the benefits of this Chinese "get water everywhere and steep it 20 times" method instead of just putting a bunch of leaves in a pot and waiting a few minutes?
It's more fun and tastes better.

>>21405922
Best taste is really solid tea for its cost, and I think most people who like ripe would like it HK stuff aside.
The 2008 bricks with the trees on em are both good.
Another one I liked was the iron buddha 2 oolong, good fragrance, it really does well grandpa style.
Very tempted to get one of their old ass xiaguan tuos..

>>21406177
If you don't do it then you can't be a sophisticated tea aficionado while you LARP the traditional Chinese tea ceremony that was invented in the 1980s.

>>21406301
Unhistoricity offends you?

>>21406311
>Unhistoricity
That's not a word you dumb queer.

>>21406177
lets you brew as you drink so every cup is hot and your not making a large pot and drinking most of it cold

>>21406718
I like my tea at 60 c

>>21406218
>>21406008
also considering this kind of order, a bit more variety
not sure about the longjing and shui xian. they are quite cheap, but IDK if yeeon would have good green tea

>>21397351
Oh wow the TFLZ is cheaper than last year's, might finally buy a cake of this this year.

>>21406843
it didn't drop as much as the Jingmai and Menghai teas
I think it was like 65 or 70$ before
worth the price IMO, I have a 2024 cake

>>21406832
I've never had anything besides their puer so I can't comment on the other teas, but the '08 raw brick is quite a bit better than the taste of hk cake.
If you just want something cheap to see whether you like HK trad storage or not the taste of hk sample will do fine though.

>>21406848
actually, instead of the Taste of HK cake I might sample their 2008 7542. it's not too pricey and trying a 7542 that's been traditional stored sounds interesting as a benchmark of sorts

>>21406189
Considering all the other shit that gets plastics into your body in day to day life? It's hardly a big deal unless you happen to be a mountain hemit.

>>21407246
Yeah that's not a bad plan. The storage isn't super dank on that one. It's too young for me personally but it's a good tea

>be me
>see a stainless steel teapot on sale at Aldi
>I like tea
>buy it
>the strainer starts tearing away from the metal ring it’s attached to
>the coating wears off the outside leaving a black mess all over the bench
>can’t pour the tea out without it dripping all down the spout and making a huge mess
>I like tea but not this teapot
>buy another one
>handle is so fucking small I can only fit two fingers in it
>the handle has right fucking angles in it too, making it even more awkward
>it’s so small the back of my fingers rest against the pot, burning myself every time I hold it
>lid threatens to flip off past a 45° angle
>still dribbles all over the fucking counter
>buy another one
>big curvy handle
>nice
>big deep strainer so I can make a little or a lot at once
>nice
>pour it
>fuck’s same
>lid nearly flips off
>you cunt
>dribbles all over the counter like a sped kid
who is designing this fucking shit? isn’t the art of the teapot a solved science by now? all I want is a teapot with a deep strainer, a big, curvy handle, a lid that doesn’t flip off when I pour and a spout that doesn’t FUCKING dribble. suggestions?

also while I’m bitching I just bought a temperature-controlled kettle so I can brew green tea better. It has 80°, 90°, 95° and 100° settings… my tea is suggested to be brewed at 85°… just useless

>>21408024
If you're spilling water/tea everywhere then it sounds like you're getting the Authentic Chinese Experience.

>>21406189
I read that """study""", they basically put tea bags in a blender and then counted the microplastics.

>>21408024
Just buy a standard Chatsford teapot

Is it too late to buy shincha?

My dealer gave me some cheap mystery black tea and it tastes like fake orange sweets. Does anyone know what tea is it?

>>21408372
fentanyl

>>21408343
no, it's only been a few weeks since it was released
shincha is just a marketing term anyway

>>21407967
too young at 17 years in traditional storage?
never had a 7542, is it really such rocker fuel?

>>21408589
It's not overly bitter or astringent, I just don't like the 7542 flavor profile unless it's really aged and that cake to me still tastes solidly semi aged. The 2004 8582 that yeeon sells suits my tastes a lot better

>>21408372
Obviously if it tastes like Orange it's Orange Pekoe, duh.
(I'm lying)

>>21408589
>>21408687 (me)
>The 2004 8582 that yeeon sells suits my tastes a lot better
...in that it tastes more fully aged, sorry if that wasn't clear.
Those two cakes don't have very heavy storage notes imo.
The traditional storage taste is way more prominent in the taste of hk cake and the jiang cheng brick

>>21408714
The 2009 raw clusters also sound like good value. Have you had those?

Whelp, its officially that time of year now. The time of year where it's too hot for me to drink tea.
>Just use AC
Mine doesn't run well and I don't have a spare 10,000 lying around to fix/replace it.
>Drink cold brew tea
It's not the same and is infinitely less enjoyable than relaxing with a piping hot cuppa on a cold morning/evening. See you all in 4 months.

>>21408024
Just get a Finum filter unless you need to make multiple cups, and brew it directly in the mug/cup.
>also while I’m bitching I just bought a temperature-controlled kettle so I can brew green tea better. It has 80°, 90°, 95° and 100° settings
You can buy ones that let you set the temperature to whatever you want.

>>21409592
I've never had that one. It probably isn't bad, yeeon is pretty reputable.
>>21409864
That sucks anon.
If you can spare $500 or so maybe you could get a window ac unit to cool at least one room down. Sorry if you've thought of that already and you can't do it but I would hate to have to stop drinking tea for the summer.

>>21396806
Just pour it over ice. That's what I do.

>>21409893
>get a window ac unit to cool at least one room down.
I dont think that I could find one that fits my giant irregular shaped window. My AC isn't completely useless either, its just old so only really gets the house to bearable temperatures, but still nowhere near cool enough to warrant drinking hot tea. I could always brew some tea in my frigid work office, but I've always associated tea with relaxation/flavor and coffee with productivity, and I'd prefer keeping it that way.Thanks for the suggestion, but I've simply become used to only seasonally drinking tea at this point.

Which tea will allow me to cultivate to the heavenly monarch realm the fastest?

>>21409864
>>21396806
Drink at night.

>>21410478

>>21410478
Your golden core is splintered and the 88 gates shall foever remain closed to you.

>>21405398
>>21405414
Thanks. I found one or two decent looking options on buyfags.

I was gifted picrel (top right) and like it a lot. Thoughts?

>>21410845
I bought the bottom right and it was just alright. The can is cool though.
I think good Chinese blacks will always beat Ceylon for a premium experience. But it makes a good daily drinker and I think goes better with cakes and pastries than the sweeter more chocolaty Yunnan blacks

>>21410478
Fu, golden flowers lead they way through the golden path

>>21409811
confining myself in my room, getting drunk on tea while playing with my funny robo girlfriend

>>21410036
if getting naked and having AC on isn't enough, you probably need to lose weight. And drinking tea helps.

>>21411031
I didn't know that hashish was a tisane.

>>21411209
I'm actually quite thin, thank you. I just live in the desert where it routinely gets upwards of 110 degrees in the summer.

>>21411331
Okay, that's just too hot. Hope you find a suitable AC

I've called shou boring in the past, but man if it doesn't go well with greasy, spicy asian food. HKers were onto something.

>>21411585
Yeah, it's a good palate cleanser

>>21411585
I prefer it with breakfast. More often than not, it's the entirety of my breakfast. Without a doubt it's good after fried food, too.

>>21406177
if you want the autist non weaboo explanation as to why i use a gaiwan, the smaller container allows for the water to circulate more evenly and quickly around the leaves, meaning a few things: 1) the tea will be much less bitter since there is not a lot of time for tannins to be extracted from the leaves and your tea will also have much more flavor as a result since there is much less water to dilute the flavor. in other words, bigger container = more time you have to steep to get good flavor = more tannins extracted as a result. 2) because of the fact that you do not have to steep the tea as long since there is much less water you will actually be able to make much more tea, out of 6g of tea i can make sometimes upwards of 2 or even 3 liters (only with white tea) in my gaiwan, whereas with the same amount of leaves in a western teapot i can make about a liter (although of course this varies drastically by tea). 3) you have much finer control over the taste of your tea and the pace at which you drink it. making tea in a western teapot i basically have to autistically experiment with times, leave amount, and water temp to get the tea taste absolutely perfect, but since youre making many steepings of a tea you have tons of chances to refine the taste in the same session. 4) also since you are making tea in multiple sessions, you get to experience the taste of the tea changing and for some teas they really can taste like a whole different tea between the first and last steep. 5) gaiwans are super portable so i just take mine out on hikes with boiling water in a thermos. all you need is your gaiwan and a cup and hot water.
note that this does not make gaiwans the absolute end all be all of tea preparation, teas that are made for a western teapot often taste like shit in a gaiwan by reason of accounting for all the factors described, so i do still use a teapot and gaiwans cannot even encompass the full range of preparation for every tea(namely, green tea imo)

I can't seem to get back into tea. Idk what's going on. It's like my taste buds changed or something.

drinking a Shizuoka sencha from a local store. cheap, but pretty tasty. has a fruity element to it, like forest fruit or grape. it's mellow with less bright grassy or vegetal flavors, more seaweed and "dark green" herbal flavor
apparently it's cheap because it's autumn harvest. not sure I ever had an autumn sencha before

>>21412034
Are your sinus passages blocked because of allergies? Tea just doesn't taste the same without smell.

>>21412034
>>21412617
yes smell definitely is a huge factor in taste. what we perceive as the taste of something is actually somewhere between 70 and 80 percent just smell according to the source, and with tea the aftertaste of something and the smell of it in your stomach is extremely important too which are also both influenced by smell.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7966593/

>>21412677
s/according/depending/

>>21412677
>>21412617
yep, when I had the coof and my sense of smell was gone for a month or two, all the tea I drank was black tea with honey and ripe pu-erh. and even that didn't taste of much, it just helped with my throat

>>21412614
ive done this before but i cant even sympathize with this guy, he overfills the gaiwan which heats up the lip then doesnt even manage to skim off the rest of the boiling water before he just grabs the gaiwan by the sides and not the lip

>>21412554
Surprised it's still good after that long.

>>21412915
Maybe they refrigerated it or something

which is the better cheap raw from Yee On?
2008 Jiangcheng brick or 2009 raw clusters?

I already know I want best taste and purple ripe for ripes, but I want to try a raw too

2023 FL had the best wrappers.
2024 and 2025 seems... meh.
Btw when is the nest round of releases? I've lost track.

>>21413221
A couple of weeks from now

>>21413221
we're supposedly getting 10 cakes, including a Meng Noy cake instead of LME small trees, and a mid-priced Jingmai blend

>>21412614
>has ice cubes ready
all these staged webms are so gay

>>21413542
All the Chinese shit in total is gay

You DO buy from your local tea shop right anon?

>>21413719
Yes, I just bought sencha from one
But most of those stores in Europe suck. I once bought samples at one and everything was stale as fuck

>the local tea shop

>>21413719
Don't have anything local. Such is the suffering of living in the boonies
But luckily in this day and age I can get anything I want shipped right to my doors

>>21413719
There isn't anything like this near me. Incidentally, I've started a tea business and hope (but don't exactly expect) to open a brick and mortar place some day.

>>21413729
We've got like four boba shops and zero tea shops.

>>21413784
>Incidentally, I've started a tea business
God, best of luck to you anon. I doubt it's easy. Hope you can establish a strong base for yourself

>>21413729
Is that like a Happy Meal for "adults"? Lol.

>>21412617
>>21412677
Idk. I'm gonna get some sencha I think. Maybe I've just grown bored or whatever of other tea.

>>21413719
All the local stores near me are a fucking joke.

>>21412682
Ya when I had coof, it was really bad. Couldn't enjoy anything. Sad.

What the heck are Fuding white teas? Is Fuding a region? A technique?

Got my hands on some roasted barley tea (boricha/mugicha). So far it is the only sugar free cold drink I've been able to enjoy (I'm avoiding things liked iced tea for now due to the tannins). I hope this will help me stay hydrated as I'm pretty bad about that as well as cut down on added sugars in my drinks. So far I recommend it.

>>21414301
fuding
present participle of fud
fud
verb [ I ]
uk
/fjuːd/ us
/fjuːd/
to have an argument with someone that exists for a long time, causing a lot of anger and sometimes violence:
fud with
They've been fuding with their neighbours for years.
fud over
Even old friends are fuding over the changes.

>>21414301
it's a region. the region traditionally known for white teas. sometimes people use it to differentiate from all the Yunnan moonlight whites

Is hissing sound a good sign that the water is already hot enough for green tea?

>>21415189
Sound is a good indicator, but you're going to have to experiment to find what sound produces the right temps for the tea you like. Play around with it.

>>21409864
Stop being weak and keep drinking. Sweating is the best way to cool down.

>earl gray
this shit really is KING
I should branch out. I like to make milk teas at home.

GS01 Bi Luo Chun off Awazon
Taste is ok. It's just your regular green tea.
For me this is great for my usual purpose with green tea, which is dump some cheap shit in a mug and sip away while I do other stuff.
Compared to the cheap Fullchea """longjing""" (read the bits that are left behind when they pick out the longjing) which I drank before, it's half the cost and taste better, and has very little stems, mostly whole leaves, it's a no brainer.

Are the clay teapots from YunnanSourcing any good? I'll take recommendations if they are. I'm a ripe puerh lover if it helps.

>>21415254
How sensitive are tea leaves against temperature? I mean, of course I'm not going to pour full boiled water onto green tea leaves but would 5-10 degree variance make that much difference? I can't be arsed to bring out thermapen every time, man.

>>21415973
Tea dust found in tea bags is more sensitive to temperature. If you get a hold of some whole leaf good stuff, it's much more forgiving.
>Would 5-10 degree variance make that much difference?
No. Don't be inconvenienced by tea. Just get a feel for what you like and dial it in. That said, it might make a difference. You should be experimenting with different kinds of tea and different temps. I don't drink green all that often, but I've had plenty that I've blasted with full boiling water and they were just fine.

>>21416013
Thanks. I have one small bag of sencha leaves, been enjoying it for evening sips.

I make tea with sliced ginger and a bit of honey to drink before bed. Am I allowed here or am I too based for this Chinese thread?

>>21416505
Everyone loves ginger. You can stay.

>>21416505
I like a bit of tumeric too

Is puer losing popularity? Are puer lesbians finally releasing their stranglehold on western tea culture and by extension /tea/?

>>21416547
The puer posers are being shaken out. It's still the best tea.

>>21416528
does he know he's spilling it everywhere?

>>21416563
he has Tourette's, please understand

I got a tea boat

>>21416547
Nah. Too busy sipping the good stuff. Not in the mood to argue with the newbies.

For me, It's gotta be Lipton English Breakfast.

>>21416547
nah, I'm going to buy a lot of pu-erh this year to take advantage of the fall in prices

maybe I should get more into oolong too though

>>21413719
My 'local' is a branch shop of Whittard of Chelsea.
They do a very nice Earl Grey that I like to keep around.

>>21401117
>yeeon
I wanted to order something from there, but their site stated that they weren't shipping to the US, at the moment. Might there be a better alternative? I was kind of researching into teas with HK storage, and I'm appealed by this moldy basement description.
>Also I would recommend quarter cakes from teaswelike
I looked at the Colors of Malaysia, and that might be a bit out of my budget range.
What do you think of the Introduction to Puerh Tea Quarter Cake Set, June 2025?

>>21417697
I don't know if there's a better alternative to yeeon for HK stored puer. I'm sure you can buy it elsewhere but I've never looked for it elsewhere.
>Introduction to Puerh Tea Quarter Cake Set
I think it looks pretty good. I haven't had those exact teas but TWL has a reputation for being well curated. It seems like a pretty decent price too.

>>21417734
It looks like thesteepingroom has some of yeeon's teas.
Any other recommendations for aged raws?
Also, what are some good farmer-leaf recommendations?

>>21417697
>What do you think of the Introduction to Puerh Tea Quarter Cake Set, June 2025?
that should be a really good option. but it won't be as moldy basementy as yee on tea, so if you want the dank hong kong storage, you can just order from the steeping room
Quicheteas also has a lot of aged factory raws with good prices. their 2005 Xiaguan 8653 looks like good value, though I haven't had it
Xiaguan tuos are cheap and fun to try, sites like KingTeaMall and DragonTeaHouse have lots of them. just make sure they're around 20 years old or more.

>Also, what are some good farmer-leaf recommendations?
tang fang liang zi, fa zhan he, all their lao man E teas. I quite liked a sample of autumn jingmai gushu I had too.

>>21417741
I don't have any more specific reccs, but I'll say that I've never been disappointed by aged raws from essence of tea or teas we like. Even the teas that didn't match my preferences I could tell were quality.
Try to find teas with varying storage conditions too(dry, humid, HK) so you can get an idea of your preferences.
I'm not super into young raw, but I liked FL's fa zhan he that I got last year. It was a pretty popular recommendation here for a budget pick

>>21417741
>Any other recommendations for aged raws?
https://kingteamall.com/products/project-1-storage-comparison-sample-tea-set-15g-3-45g-puerh-sheng-cha-raw-tea?_pos=1&_sid=2a4da6d33&_ss=r
https://kingteamall.com/products/2008-xiaguan-xi-zi-happy-tuo-100g-puerh-sheng-cha-raw-tea?_pos=1&_sid=30280680d&_ss=r&variant=31344928260199
https://kingteamall.com/products/2006-xiaguan-jin-si-golden-ribbon-tuo-100g-puerh-sheng-cha-raw-tea?_pos=1&_sid=3f1854267&_ss=r&variant=31367349239911
https://kingteamall.com/products/2004-changtai-chen-hong-chang-yi-wu-yiwu-cake-400g-puerh-raw-tea-sheng-cha?_pos=1&_sid=2338f1c18&_ss=r
https://kingteamall.com/products/2002-tailian-international-puerh-tea-seminar-commemorative-cake-400g-puerh-sheng-cha-raw-tea?_pos=1&_sid=04b091035&_ss=r

>>21417800
I absolutely love that Project #1. It comes with nice details about how each one is stored. Very interesting. The wet storage one tastes like freshly tilled garden, scrubbed potatoes, dirty root cellar. It's awesome. Given that it came out a year or two ago, I was hoping KTM would drop another similar release. Maybe for ripe.

>>21417790
>essence of tea
any specific suggestions from here?

>>21417886
The 1990's Special Order Red Mark that I recommended in my earlier post is one of my favorite teas that I own, if you're only going to try one thing that I suggest, make it that one.
The 2004 Manzhuan Brick is pretty good and isn't too expensive.
I got a free sample of the 2003 thick paper Qing Bing that I liked but I only had it the one time, but if it's still available next time I make an order I'm going to get a sample.
The pasha gushu, 2011 bulang gushu and 2010 bulang ancient tree are all enjoyable semi-aged raws if you like those bold bitter flavor profiles.
If you really want to drop some cash the 1970s loose leaf puerh is very nice. It's $32 for a 15g sample but if that isn't too much money for you and you've never had puer that old before I think it's worth a try.

>no ice at home
>no ice at shop

>>21416624
nice gotta get me one of those. Like the teapot too. It has a nice bronze color. nixing?

>>21417881
yeah I also liked the wet one. it's very cheap for an aged raw sample set

First time making tea from a tea bag in over a year. I cut tea bag open and pour the tea in those metal mesh tea steepers. Steeped 5 minutes and added about 1/3 milk. Tea was creamy and delicious.
I havent had basic supermarket black tea bags in a long time. The tea bags are so noob they dont even say what type of black tea it is, just “black tea.”

first time i post in month and thread dies

>>21418601
It's a naturally slow thread at times.

>>21418032
Builder's tea scratches a unique itch for me. Though there's lots of good variations, you can make good milk tea with puer or better quality indian teas, or HK style, it's very nice.

>>21418032
whenever i add milk to tea or coffee i can only taste the milk honestly, its just way too overpowering for something like tea which is much weaker in taste in comparison. maybe i will try again though, its been a few years

>We've long since toyed with the idea of releasing a variety tong.

https://onerivertea.com/collections/sample-set/products/raw-puer-bundle-2025

Based?

>>21417945
>Like the teapot too. It has a nice bronze color. nixing?
I wish I knew. There wasn't much documentation on it, but it is very well made as far as I can tell.

>>21418744
You have to use a lot of tea and boil the shit out of it, to overpower the milk. Though even then it's a very milky experience.

What's the deal with tea saponins? Will they give me mystical powers?

Take the powder tea pill anons

>>21419028

>can tea help us cope?

>>21419028
I've done this before him. With with white long-zhu pearls and silver needle for medicinally strong white tea or Japanese green teas for pseudo matcha.

What most people don't get is that ground tea isn't necessarily bad, it's just that ground tea goes bad quickly. Freshly ground tea doesn't have that problem.

Ground tea for the most part gives you the flavor of later infusions, but if you control temperature and time, you can potentially get a more balanced brew compared to whole leaf. With intact buds, you overbrew the outer leaves compared to the insides of the bud, but with ground leaves, you get to extract both the inside and outside of the leaf at the same time. You can also just roughly crush the buds for less bass. Works very well with fujian silver needle.

When was the last time you made tea and a meal for your wife/loved ones?

I should drink gyokuro more often, this one is a nice balance between brothy umami and grass/leaf vegetables.

>>21419154
One big downside is that ground tea doesn't allow for 10+ infusions, no?

>>21418781
if you like soapy saponins, yerba mate has lots of those

>>21419208
two days ago I did a gong fu session for a girl I'm seeing
we had FarmerLeaf Tang Fang Liang Zi. it was fun, she got a bit tea drunk.

planning to have drink a dancong next time

I dont want to spam this thread with blog posts, but if you are interested in any of these, ask away.
However, so far, I have only had one session with each.

>>21419346
Nice, that sounds like fun. Dancong is another kind of tea I should drink more often, puer just really has a hold of me.

>>21419352
Maybe the 2024 cup sniffing guy cake? I remember these were recommended on here.

>>21419463
Solid tea for sure.
It's slightly grassy, slightly bitter, slightly sweet, but not much.
The sweetness comes in later steeps as aftertaste, with the usual fruit peel sourness/juiciness.
What makes the tea unique compared to others is that it has some hops vibes going on.
I've definitely had a fancy beer that was similar to this.

>>21419208
Sometimes I brew a pot and my girlfriend and I work through it while chatting about things.

>>21419352
Anything in that list stand out to you?

>>21419411
yeah dancong seems cool. a little expensive though, which is why I haven't explored it much. I've only had two so far

Any good sources on Anxi Wulong? I'm trying to learn more about Fujien Wulongs overall.

How does this make you feel?

>>21420597
Can you please tripfag so I can block all the rednote webm spam?

>>21420597
i second the tripfag req

>>21420606
>>21420679
I posted 5 short clips in the past week--less than one per day. Stop being so dramatic.

>>21420597
3rd for please put on a trip

>>21420597
4th for tripfag req

>>21420597
Same here, it would be very helpful to just block your very bad webms altogether

can we just autohide all vertical videos

This bizarrely forceful reaction (because I'm not talking about Lipton tea bags???) kinda makes me want to post even more often, but I will restrain myself, and will continue to post one video, or less, per day, most of the time.

>>21420718
thanks man you definitely dont seem mad at all

>>21420718
Don't act like this is the first time you've been asked to stop. If you're going to make it your identity, make it your identity. Trip up.
>captcha: ATARD
cant make that shit up

>>21420730
Yep. I'm the picture of equanimity.

>>21420732
Why would I stop posting about tea in the tea thread? Note too that I don't only post videos. Note also that I decided to post videos far less frequently based on feedback from you and others.

If I asked you to stop posting in the tea thread, because I find your vexed demeanor irritating, would you stop?

Best thing to do would be to accept that not everything in life will be to your liking.

>>21420745
thanks man you definitely dont seem mad that your behavior has been called out at all. lets do it again next thread. how many you got prepped?

>>21420745
you are a faggot
keep scrolling social media
like an adult teen

your uwu aesthetic videos
cannot convince anyone
that you actually drink pu erh

your reddit spacing
and the way you feel the need
to justify all the shit all the retarded shit you do that everyone brings up
instead of just shutting up
only lets us see
just how mad you are desu~

>>21420597
>>21420718
I think all of the Chinese shit is stupid. I'm a westerner and I enjoy tea from a western standpoint. Also I hate Chinese people unironically.

>>21420842
I had a feeling that's where some of this was coming from. Thanks for being honest.

Out of curiosity, how do you feel about Japanese teas? How do you feel about "British-style" teas coming out of India?

>>21420852
I don't really care if something exists, but I think dressing up in LARP clothes to look like you're from 500 years ago so you can do some "tea ceremony" from the 1980s is fucking stupid. Hey let's spill water all over the table, how very "rustic." Maybe they can boil some dogs alive afterwards since that's also a venerable Chinese tradition.

>>21420862
>I think dressing up in LARP clothes to look like you're from 500 years ago so you can do some "tea ceremony" from the 1980s is fucking stupid
Even stupider to spend months watching, accumulating, and converting videos of it for a captive audience who begs you to stop.

>>21420862
>I think dressing up in LARP clothes to look like you're from 500 years ago so you can do some "tea ceremony" from the 1980s is fucking stupid

Fair enough, but I would point out that tradition often works this way. Whether it's grandma's ancestral rhubarb pie recipe, which is actually from a cookbook published in 1977, or biker-gang traditions, which are actually just rituals first seen in movies--themselves filled with distortions of rumors with little basis in fact. In any case, the world needs a few hard-nosed cases like yours, to keep us all a little more honest.

There's nothing I enjoy more than my traditional American bourbon drinking ceremony. With this I can connect to my roots and also embody the hardship and poverty that my ancestors experienced in the days of yore. I dress up in appropriate colonial garb from the 1600s (bourbon was invented 100 years later but it's the spirit that counts). I then sit down at my $1,000 Victorian antique wooden table and take out a traditional Old Fashioned glass, made from the finest German crystal. Next we'll take out the bourbon, and only the best will do -- let's just say this bottle cost more than your monthly wages ;). I turn the bottle upside down and make a strong pout into the glass, we only need about 2 oz, so some of it will definitely spill. I don't mind, I think spilling the bourbon really shows off that pioneer spirit, like I'm in an old saloon, a gunfight about to break out any moment... Next come the bitters, I shake them from a few feet away into the glass, like a priest with incense. The ice gets dropped in next, from at least two feet above the glass, so aim is precise, and we don't mind a little more waste do we? We don't stir with a spoon, but shake the glass about vigorously -- remember to close your eyes while doing this because whiskey will just go everywhere! And lastly we can sit down and drink it. There's about one sip of bourbon left in the glass, but that's all we need to achieve this level of traditional fulfillment.

>>21420899
I get your point, but I actually like this sort of thing. There's something earnest about the naive enthusiasm. The historical fabrications, concocted through motivated reasoning, are almost incidental. Moreover, I think that all extant hobbies owe their existence to this sort of thing.

>>21420909
There's a board for you to discuss this to your heart's content. /his/ History & Humanities. Of course they're not going to let you spam webms of asian women making tea there either.

>>21420909
I'm sure it's fun or whatever, but I think it gets presented sometimes like this is the "correct" way to drink tea, that the western tradition is inferior, etc. When you combine that with the silliness of the whole thing (once you consider its historical circumstances) it becomes somewhat insufferable.

>>21420718
one tea video a day is not unreasonable, but the presence is quite high in the threads. The problem is that the haters have nothing to post.
>>21420862
I basically take it as pretentious parody, it's somewhat funny.

>>21420929
>the haters have nothing to post
I mean an anon just offered to post about the large taobao order he made after I rec'd him Bo Jun weeks ago. He fucked up and ordered a bunch of raw. I probably should have posted a webm of making tea at a stoplight instead. You know, something that actually contributes to discussion.

>>21420927
There are different elements at play. For one, the West does have a lot of extremely low quality tea (the stuff you find at the grocery store or in most restaurants). There's good stuff out there, but the bad stuff is sadly representative, owing to its omnipresence. Another element is the "zeal of the convert." Those who stumble onto Chinese tea, and fall in love with it, can become arrogant proselytizers. This is more of a personality defect than a problem with Chinese tea. Yet another element is the "weeabooism", or "yellow fever", which can accompany a hobby or tradition of Asian provenance. Some of us are steeped in the stuff, and find oriental exoticism perfectly normal, perhaps even participating in its perpetuation without qualms. Others are allergic to the stuff. Add xenophobia to the mix, kicked into overdrive by China's ascent to the World Stage, and you can understand some of the strong reactions.

>>21420944
>mean an anon just offered to post about the large taobao order he made after I rec'd him Bo Jun weeks ago.
And hopefully people continue to respond to that high-quality post, but also a tea webm is fine too.

>>21420927
Agreed. This is clearly the superior way

>>21420975
Begone, bug

>>21419503
>What makes the tea unique compared to others is that it has some hops vibes going on.
>I've definitely had a fancy beer that was similar to this.
I got that vibe from some dancongs and a yesheng hong cha before. not from a sheng, that sounds cool

>>21419980
The Arbor King is a great value.
The cheapest yiwu-like cake that I know of.
The mother tree is unique, quite interesting, and they also have smaller 200g cakes of it.
The rattan changes with every steep, and the final steep is completely different than the first, so this is also a cool experience.
The rest is either ok, not my thing, or very good, but so expensive I won't be able to afford a cake.

>>21420944
>Bo Jun weeks ago. He fucked up and ordered a bunch of raw
I'm still planning on getting it in next order, but I'm good for now, still have a bunch of other things to do.

>>21421812
Don't mind the haters. Raw is best.

Tea coin morning.
I'm a puer man, but the occasional black or white tea on an empty stomach can be nice.

New thread:
>>21422033
>>21422033
>>21422033