Thread 21524583

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: >>21506243

1st for african teas

>>21524675
I have some smoked african black tea. it's not bad.
some african producers are definitely experimenting with making a more premium product than common teabag fodder. I'm seeing some african white teas too

Pu-erh is delicious but god damn it smells like baked 3 day old socks.

Where can I buy cheap mylar bags for my puerh cakes?

>>21524675
>>21524689
Last year an African man opened an African tea shop in my town. I'm a chode for not having visited yet. They specialize in blends that look miles better than most others I have seen. What should I know about African tea?
>>21524809
Cheap mylar from Amazon is fine. One gallon holds two cakes, but there's excess at the top.

>>21524963
>What should I know about African tea?
it's a new industry and mostly simple commodity black tea. but they're obviously trying to come up with something better too

>>21524797
I have the opposite problem. It smells wonderful but tastes meh.

>>21524797
Stop drinking ripe
>>21525060
Hard water issues/get better material.

Can we add
>$6000 YS Cakes
To the 10 years still a noob pic?

>>21524689
Someone posted about some kenyan or idr which african country it was that had some purple tea that looked interesting

I'll drink some of the smoked Malawi tea I have in a moment. Apparently it's smoked over banana tree leaves.

>>21525317
Nice. How is it?
I had some Malawai hei cha a while ago, seemed like the ferment was done ok but the base material didn't really stand up to it. Wasn't bad though.

>>21524583 (OP)
k cups are the superior way to make tea.

>>21525189
This looks like the first time you've ever been on this website fren. I'm going to need you to lurk more before posting because you're embarrassing yourself.

>>21525342
>Nice. How is it?
it's decent but nothing super special. kind of like you took the smoke from Boat Captain and added it to an assam black tea

>>21524963
The only African tea is Roibos.
I wouldn't trust teas from Africa. If you think Asians are scammers than spend a few months in Kenya.

have any anons ordered from One River Tea? the site seems well regarded for green and white tea, and they also have a selection of yellow tea

>>21525059
>African tea: it's like tea but blacked
Hard pass.

>>21524963
>What should I know about African tea?
Rooibos is gathered along with the weeds they give no fucks, I think it also tastes bad. Hibiscus is grown in Egypt and that tastes nice.

>>21524583 (OP)
>drink Irish Breakfast Tea
.. its just unsweet sweet tea..

>>21525647
Welcome back! Pretty much! Try some honey in it or a splash of milk.

>>21525647
Was it loose leaf or in teabags? If you got a decent loose leaf blend it should be made with a good amount of Assam and not be that generic. But yeah you can put milk in it.

>>21525666
>made with a good amount of Assam and not be that generic.
Not that anon but assam tastes kind of malty to me, in a good way though. Satan sure has good taste.

>>21525658
>>21525666
I'll do that.
And it was in a teabag.
I totally didn't watch a few YT videos on how to use said teabags..

>>21525678
There's nothing wrong with learning how to do something. Just make sure not to leave it in your cup when it's done steeping. Did you like it?

>>21525678
>And it was in a teabag.
Teabags are normally made with tea dust, which is the lowest quality tea, basically the leftover particles from tea production. If you want to enjoy tea more you should buy loose leaf tea. It's easy to make as well, you just need a cheap basket infuser. You put the leaves in the infuser, put it in your mug, then pour in the water and wait a few minutes for it to brew then remove the infuser.

https://www.amazon.com/Reusable-Stainless-Coffee-Infusing-Brewing/dp/B000I68NCS

>>21525681
Yeah
>>21525686
Ah

>>21524583 (OP)
What is the best chai tea I can buy?

>>21525686
Personally I'd get one without plastic https://www.amazon.com/Vaincre-Tea-Infuser-Strainer-Strainers/dp/B0BFHHJYBC?crid=KJ9FANXRFDS8&sr=8-5 Either way it's whatever.
>>21525689
Also remember put the milk and honey into it after it's steeped, not before.

>>21525695
The steel ones let some sediment through since the holes aren't fine enough. Not a big deal, though. I don't care as much about the plastic issue as I used to.

>>21525699
That's fair! I used to use the stainless steel ones. I'm probably biased about the plastic because I've tasted some plastic with plastic cups, bottles, or infusers etc and I just avoid it now.

>>21524583 (OP)
Now to embrace my inner Captain Picard and get some Earl Grey.

>>21525782
Don't forget the dorky glass cup.

>>21524583 (OP)
damn his fangs are tearing up his own lips. Looks painful, like the kind of enduring pain that will never end and is constantly fucking with you.

>>21525788
hell yeah

>>21525898
Based

>>21525980
Kek

TIL Lapsang has a US warehouse. Was ordering a bunch of tea stuff trying to beat the tariffs and was surprised my lapsang stuff got here in 3 days.

>>21526497
What site is it from?

>>21526560
https://lapsangstore.com/

>>21526573
Thanks. Any recommendations?

>>21526497
What'd you order?

>>21526573
Holy shit the markup on their teapots is nuts.

drinking some gyokuro
getting Popeye's fried chicken aroma notes. kind of unnerving for a tea to smell like that

>>21526725
Odd, mine doesn't smell like that. I hope you didn't store your tea next to the stove in the kitchen, anon...

>>21526754
I think it's just the chicken broth notes coming out strong

Where do I get good (but not super expensive) Chinese green teas?
Feels like I only ever had one that I enjoyed enough that I would rebuy... And it was technically a Taiwanese green.
I sampled some 0.5$/gram longjing and bi luo chungus and it was pretty bland. The taiwanese bi luo chun had a more complex savory flavor rather than just being sweet and vegetal. It had some citrus to it and even spicy and brothy notes, like some sort of thai soup.

>>21526914
I really like the soup-like consistency of gyokuro it's interesting.

Drinking random chinese green tea I got two years ago and didn't like. Somehow it tastes alright. Pretty generic umami-vegetal-herbal flavor, but it tastes decent quality, smooth and not bitter grandpa style.
I was sure it would be stale to the point of being undrinkable by now, but no, it's a pleasant surprise. Not sure why I didn't like it back then, maybe my tastes changed.

>>21527621
im still drinking greens from 4 years ago, not as fresh as they once were but still plenty drinkable

>>21526920
What country do you live in? Different countries have different import regulations that impact pricing.

>>21527908
I live in the EU. I'm fine ordering from Chinese and EU stores

I'm drinking a nice eight year old Haiwan raw puerh, Shen Shan Lao Shu. Has a tiny bit of smokiness like a Xiaguan, but none of the signature funk. It's really pleasant. It's darker in color than I would expect for a tea of this age, but tastes lighter than it looks. Maybe some caramel notes.

I love cheap factory raws and nobody can stop that.

>>21528206
Nice. Is that the one with the cool pic of a tree on it? Been thinking about it now it's $30 on fullchea

>>21528245
That's about the price. 500g cake, btw. It'll last you.

>>21525214
I'm not that poster, but it was available years ago in a local shop, it was from Kenya. It was mostly resembled a random Chinese green tea but with a hint of blueberry aroma (the anthocyanin), the color was darker than the taste, not acidic at all, kind of nice, would buy again.

>>21526920
I've had a taiwanese biluochun and 2 chinese biluochuns and I initially preferred the taiwanese one. I think the teas have different philosophy. The taiwanese was more like taiwanese oolongs, very aromatic, smooth. One of the chinese biluochun was mostly basic vegetal/bitter and with a corn flavor, the second one was less corn flavor, with more complex bitterness, strong and almost rusty, or charcoal, and reminding me of a forest. This also helped me realize the correct way of brewing it: it's as strong as possible with almost boiling hot water, and what you get is this strong dry, bitter oomph with a fuzzy aftertaste, and it's one of my favorite teas now. A lot of the tippy expensive Chinese greens need high temp water. Second flush teas are more green in color and need lower temp to carefully extract the aroma while trying to avoid the bad leaf taste coming out.

>>21526581
They're known for having the "original" jin jun mei. They're also known for their lapsang, which I picked up a tin of. >>21526610

>>21527621
>I was sure it would be stale to the point of being undrinkable by now, but no, it's a pleasant surprise.
I had the same experience with a tin of gifted jasmine green tea that was still decent years later.
>>21528481
It looked pretty pricey, is that due to it being "original" or due to it having a warehouse in the US? I might still want to try it though, I've never had lapsang! Right now I'm still sitting on a lot of 100g packets of random black teas. A few are still unopened I think I ordered it in 2022 or 2023? How's lapsang compare to regular black tea? Is it just smokey and that's the gimmick or does it actually taste better? Sorry if this comes out confrontational or something, I'm just very uninformed about teas!

>>21519603
Look up how they do tree rubbings do that and then shove it into ai

I was thinking about buying a fancy Kyusu or Hohin, I was thinking about buying a glut of tea
But honestly I can't even bother at this point. I guess I'll just go through my current stock which is decent, if anything I need to finish my fresh greens. And then I guess I'll be living off of tea bags I can find for the next three years.

>>21528853
That's how I feel.

Is this Amazon tea cake description right?

>>21529087
Damn you live in a tiny village

>>21528512
>looked pretty pricey, is that due to it being "original"
Yes, they're the people who created the first jin jun mei tea. It's the kind of tea brand rich Chinese will give out as gifts

>teaencountereurope taking forever to process my order
God damn it Tiego. Get on with it.
By the time you get on with shipping I could have ordered from an Hanseatic merchant guild and transported everything with a camel caravan through the Gobi.

>>21529087
>mittel-gründau
bernd...

>>21529188
What did you buy? They're the guys who do the cheap yiwu cake, right?

>>21529188
>teaencountereurope
Their website says they are on holiday until the 16th

Anyone order from hatvala? seems like decent prices for teas, shipping is cheaper than most places aswell.

>>21529215
Only Vietnamese store I ordered from was vietsun

>>21529208
Alright thats reasonable.

>>21529204
Yep. Bought a white tea cake and the 2023 Guafengzhai a while ago and I was very happy with it.
Now I'm ordering a sample of Laos Gushu – Tianmenshan to see if I like it and the Yiwi Chun Lei.

>>21529087
You can learn to judge the temperature of the water pretty accurately based on the size of the bubbles that form and how rapidly it boils, as long as you keep all the other variables the same. This is how most people judged water temperature for most of history, or by having a specific vessel to cool the water and timing it that way, because thermometers are a recent invention in terms of the history of tea. I guess it would be easier to assosciate this with the celcius scale than the fahrenheit scale but it doesn't really matter that much.

>>21529087
>>21529420
the funniest thing about this is it's a fucking pu-erh, I've never brewed a puerh at anything below boiling in my life

>>21529215
I liked the Hatvala teas I had. Which ones do you want to know about?

>>21529468
Any you tried really

>>21529151
>>21529195
Come over and please bring some cakes

90 more days lads

>>21529817
>ReTruths
lmao

So what's the rundown on quiche teas, anyone here got some tea from them?

Second question, what to get from teahome and what's the buying process?
T.hanks

>>21529817
Sadly this isn't real.

>>21525692
If you're talking about masala chai you have to make it yourself

>>21530397
I posted about the teas I got from quiche here https://warosu.org/ck/thread/21487095#p21488864
From teahome, the thread pick is the legend of tungting. It's really nice. Pretty cheap, and well roasted. I like the shanlinxi as well. After you place an order they'll send you an order confirmation, and then shortly after they'll send you another email with a link to pay for the shipping

Tangpin tea order also got here quick; they have a US warehouse as well. But they canceled and refunded the tea part of my order citing "tariffs", so I only got teaware.

>>21528481
It also came with 2 free samples.

Tangpin tea order also got here quick; they have a US warehouse as well. But they canceled and refunded the tea part of my order citing "tariffs", so I only got teaware.

pic unrelated, it's my ZSH order >>21528481 that I forgot to take pics of.
It also came with 2 free samples.

>>21524583 (OP)
I was told to add milk and honey to my irish breakfast tea. How much?

>>21531050
A splash of whole milk and not much honey, less than a spoon maybe. Too much milk will drown the tea. Honey is really sweet so try a small amount first.

>>21529800
Fish hook green tea is the classic Viet tea and worth a try if you've never had it as it's different from Chinese or Japanese greens. I would compare it more to Korean greens than anything. The oolongs I had were decent and comparable to Taiwan oolongs. I haven't had any maocha from them, but other /tea/ posters in the past had favorable impressions of them.

>>21530397
>quicheteas
it's some guy reselling from a Taiwanese puerh store at low markup
I bought the 2005 8653 (supposedly one of the good batches and it's half the price of TWL and KTM) and one cheap Mengku cake that's well reviewed
I'll report when I get them. if I like the teas, I might make another order for some Dayi cakes

>Second question, what to get from teahome and what's the buying process?
you put items in cart and check out. used to be that they would send you an email with a payment link, you use it to pay and they ship out your teas. if the payment doesn't want to go through (they use some taiwanese payment that's blocked by some banks, ask them to send you a paypal instead). someone said that maybe they have normal checkout now without the email shit? IDK
I can second the roasted alishan jin xuan and the legend of tung ting / laodongding: https://www.teahome.com/product/upteah/
I think most of their roasted oolong should be good. not sure about unroasted

Drinking some gyokuro. I bought it from a local store along with some sencha, seeing that they had 2025 jap greens.
Heavy on the buttered corn. I think I prefer the fruitier, less vegetal profile of their sencha (asanoka cultivar from kagoshima). This is pleasant too though. Can't say I have much experience with gyokuro brewing

>>21531189
What are you brewing it in? I think my tea pot cools down too quickly and that's partially the problem for me brewing it.

>>21531191
in a large kyusu, which I'm only filling up 1/3rd of the way

>>21531209
Ah, yeah that's probably why. I really need to get a bigger pot that retains heat instead of this 60 ml one.

>>21531249
Isn't gyokuro brewed with really low temperatures anyway? I can't imagine that heat retention matters that much fot this tea

>>21531266
Yeah but this pot I bought from o-cha is so thin it cools before it really gets to brew. I think it's too late to buy a pot due to tarrifs though

>>21531267
You could get some local artisan's pot if you're willing to pay for it
I got lucky and scored my kyusu at a thrift store for 5€. Apparently the guy sells his work for around 150€, so idk how it ended up at a thrift store priced like some aliexpress pot

>>21531084
What about the blacks/dark teas? wondering how accurate the taste notes are, also curious how their earl grey is.
Might order from them soon.

I realised I haven't had Chinese greens in like a year and they're not getting any fresher at this point.
So I ordered some from a local store. At least they'll get here fast.
Though I should really make a purchase at some store that specializes in chinese greens next spring. I find these teas weird to shop for though, there is so much hype and wildly varying prices. It's hard to know what's worth it.

>>21531050
When I put milk in tea I normally use 1 or 2 teaspoons depending on how much tea it is. I don't use honey so I can't tell you that. You could just add sugar if you really need a sweetener and don't have honey.

>>21527621
Buttery cucumber notes from the random 1-2 year old cupboard green tea. Slight bit of nuttiness too. Not bitter.
Simple but honestly pleasant flavours.

>>21530766
>I like the shanlinxi as well
did you have the roasted one or unroasted?

>>21525695
>>21525706
I've actually tasted steel from infusers. I used to think every black tea tasted the same then I made some that had particularly large leaves in the bottom of the cup without an infuser and suddenly every other tea started tasting metallic, or otherwise somehow off. Then I started brewing them without the infuser and suddenly they all had distinct tastes.
I think it's just a skill issue in that I shouldn't have bought a bargain super cheap one from amazon. But just mentioning that it's possible. Ostensibly better quality ones should probably be fine.

>>21531647
the roasted one

>>21530766
>>21531180
Thanks. Ordered before you answered. I went with some oolongs. Ding dong was sold out. I used their credit card middleman service, it converted the currency correctly. I had to use a phone camera translator for the encrypted pages, to see what they was chinking about. It had to be business hours for them, because the order was processed instantly. Good stuff.
For the quiche I was looking at
2015 Zhongcha Big Red Mark
2004 Macau Hualian Red Mark Brick
and one of two Xiaguan big tree cakes, never tried this Yiwu line to be honest with you, I bet it's nice.
But do I really need this shit too? Computer said no.
>>21531914
Steel and tea really don't mix well. Especially evident with the black teas you mentioned. You can filter through it or stir with metal teaspoon but don't brew in it. Also don't be afraid of the foodsafe plastics like some blogger mom from 2024.
>Then I started brewing them without the infuser and suddenly they all had distinct tastes.
Exiting Plato's cave moment, for sure. Ditch the infuser altogether. It's like a coitus interruptus for the tea. Brew a very hot pot of tea like a big boy. Refill with boiled water few times. Whole day on a breeze. Mhmmm.

I drink all of my teas iced, is this a bad thing?
I just hate hot beverages, but I've been using expensive teas like yunnan gold/dragon pearls/taiwanese oolong.

>>21524583 (OP)
I want a tea set.

>>21531914
I use a porcelain teapot gongfu style that has a built in filter made out of porcelain or my big western glass teapot that I don't use a filter in and just pour it carefully.
One day I think I'll buy a glass filter or see if they make porcelain ones but I usually don't need one.

>>21524583 (OP)
Can tea help us cope?

>>21532989
yeah kinda, I guess.

>>21531914
>I've actually tasted steel from infusers.
>>21532641
>Steel and tea really don't mix well. Especially evident with the black teas you mentioned.

Stainless steel is chemically inert, you can't taste it. Hence it is the go to material in anything industrial food preperation/production. The water is in the stainless steel kettle before it even reaches your strainer. Maybe you used a shitty strainer from base metal or it was dirty? When it's new you need to give it a few boils to wash of off all contaminations.
I've used stainless steel strainers for decades and if you can taste them you have to clean them.

>>21533371
is that your box? how has the white tea aged?
I got a 2024 cake, but I feel like it will improve in a year or two

>>21533440
yes. The Jingmei white tea is "aged" (summer 2021) although I'm sure there is some process involved to create that dark look and taste since the 3 years storage are not going to do that on their own own.
I really enjoy it, the cake is almost gone in the meantime. It is thick, earthy without bitterness but less potent than a "fresh" lose leaf Fujian Pai Mu Tan white I have to compare it to. The Fujian has a brighter soup color. The Jingmei is more interesting though. Would buy again. But I want to dig in some w2t whites next and keep some of the Jingmei for reference.

First impressions of the fzh/tflz/jingmai autumn gushu/mohei:
The taste of the autumn jingmai gushu is basically the same as tflz.
There probably are some slight differences, but not worth obsessing about.
It's the same vibe.
The only real difference is that the jingmai stuff got me warm while other teas dont.
I wouldn't pay an extra $20 for it over tflz, but you do you.

Mohei is very similar to fzh.
FZH is more on the nose, while mohei is stronger on the mouth. It's frutier or something... hard to describe.
Again, if you are on a budget, I wouldn't say it's worth the extra 50 % price increase, but if you like FZH, have the money and want something like FZH+? Go for it.

What I'm trying to say is that if you like young raw and want to explore as many different flavours, then save the $20 and spend it at other vendors. That way, you get way more variety for your money.

>>21533475
yeah the Jingmai whites are clearly "browned" or partially oxidized in production, as is the fashion nowadays
but I think those oxidized cakes have some aging potential too, I had one from theTea.pl that was very oxidized and almost black tea like, and it got much tastier after a year or two, developed a strong honey aroma
One River Tea has a comparison set for unoxidized and oxidized whites, might buy it sometime

only white2tea white tea I have is Moon Waffles. a sample of that kind of convinced me that white tea is good, before that I only had cheap bai mu dan and bad silver needles and thought all white tea was bland like that. I caked it later. it's a little more intense and milky in flavor than the Jingmai which tastes a bit darker. Cao Bo from VietSun is also enjoyable, oaty and bready flavor.

but the super cheap aged KTM white kind of moggs them all when it comes to the flavor. though the boutique moonlight whites have stronger mouthfeel and might age into something more interesting

>>21533496
thanks for the reviews
yeah, vendors tend to have their own house styles with different selection and processing

I agree that jingmai gushu is similar to TFLZ, both are very soft, fruity and green in a non-vegetal way. and both have some more depth and relaxing feeling than the cheaper soft cakes

I've drunk through all the shincha I got this year, is there anywhere other than o-cha to get cheap sencha shipped to America? I was thinking about getting some genmaicha too, but I could also make it.

>>21533588
anyone else feel like sencha has a high floor of enjoyment?
I don't think I ever had one I didn't like at all
even the cheapshit ones are decent drinkers

>>21533669
Is it good on ice?
Fuck I need ice green tea

>>21533707
yeah, it's a good fit for iced tea

>>21531389
Shout out to eherbata.pl bought some of their 2025 shinchas

>>21533860
were they any good?
this store kind of got me into tea a few years back, they have good descriptions and videos though they're more of a generalist vendor like YS, so not super curated so can be hit or miss
I mostly buy from chinese stores nowadays because they have better prices, but it's nice to buy from a domestic store sometimes for a quick fix
I bought my Jap greens from five'o'clock this year, the sencha kagoshima is very good. has a distinct mango note, I like fruity sencha. lady at the store said it's asanoka cultivar

eherbata has some cool stuff too. I'd recommend the tanyang gongfu, gaba green (weird experimental tea, I think it's the same one that taiwanteacrafts carries) and the cheap roasty yellow huang xiao

is Fu Cha any good? does it taste any different than other dark teas?

Matcha latte son or boba tea daughter?

>>21534393
matcha labubu dubai chocolate for sure

>>21534392
only had one. it was mellow and brighter tasting than liu bao or ripe. closer to aged shou mei or very mellow aged raws. I think some are smoky too

>>21534392
Yeah pretty different. I enjoy it, pretty cheap too

>>21534392
I really like the mojun 1368 from YS. It's mellow and fruity (I think people say it's like dates? idk i haven't tried actual dates lol) and has a sort of cooling/menthol effect especially at the beginning. Almost more like a red tea or an aged white tea than a dark tea like puer or liubao; very comfy tea. I've had the 2022 inverse from white2tea too, which has mixed raw puer in it. It's really good too, it's also mellow and similar comfy vibe but doesn't have the fruitiness of the mojun, so I'd put it in second place. Right now I'm trying the Mojun "Guo Zhi Fu Li" from YS, and I'm thinking it's just alright. It also doesn't have the fruitiness of the 1368, but unlike the W2T one, this one does get a certain unpleasant bitterness if you overbrew, so I'd put it in third place. I also have a sample of 2019 "Mojun Yi Hao" from YS, which I'll be trying tomorrow.

>>21532648
Post pics if you get one!
>>21533371
This is very true, in the past when I shared a strainer it's really noticeable if someone never cleans it.
What does white tea taste like? I've only had black and green teas.

I heard the tarrifs suspension is real, does that mean I can order tea and not get slapped with fees?

>>21534820
Dude nobody knows. Nobody knows.
Just keep buying tea until maybe sometime in the future you might have to pay more. Reassess then. Until then, fuck all the noise.

>>21534822
This
I stopped paying attention to all this bs after the first back and forth.

>>21533371
>>21534788
both of you/your socks are morons
brew two glasses of black tea leaves with and without your chemically inert recently cleaned stainless tm steel infuser. it's so inert that it rids your hands of garlic smell when you rub on it. which of the two was better? don't answer until you tried.
I'm really thinking it's the one singular schizo responsible of the total community disruption itt.

>Drink 1-1.5 litres of water
>pee
>Drink 1-1.5 liters of tea
>have to pee 5-6 times

Life is not fair bros

>>21531296
I have a bag of Hatvala's Mossy Frog. I don't remember it being bad, but I don't remember it at all really. Need to try some again. I haven't tried any of their dark tea, but remember some /tea/ posters liking the Forest Genie and the Snow Princess.

>>21534664
noted, thanks

>>21525214
Oh shit I vaguely remember brewing some purple tea back in russia when I was young, but for the life of me I don't remember what we actually made it out of.

IM SO HAPPY to see /tea/ is still alive i remember starting this thread in like 2016 back when i was a wee weeb and got back from my trip to Japan and China and was super into gong fu. :) even the same OP text and everything

i dont even drink much tea since covid I stopped ordering from YS i mostly just have a cup of english breakfast here and there. How much can be said about Tea haha its amazing stuff its medicine. Lowkey I went kinda cray ever since I stopped drinking tea I switched to protein shakes and big pharma crud. this cha stuff really can help keep the mind on track.

>>21533669
totally japanese tea is usually never that bad i feel same way with gyokuro cant go wrong

>>21535369
>stopped drinking tea I switched to protein shakes
Yeah that's a bitch.
I'm trying to get stronger, and drinking protein all day really doesn't leave much room for other liquids.

>>21535437
you could also eat normally (with a diet that involves a little more chicken + rice) and still gain muscle
also your farts wont smell of rancid eggs anymore

>>21535437
>>21535369
>he doesn't make his protein shakes with tea
ngmi

>>21529215
Had a go last year with their green and white teas. Much like yunnan sourcing, pretty much all their green teas are of the assamica varietal. So their green teas taste closer to sheng rather than chinese green tea. Buffalo horn and tiger monkey have a little more roast to them.

Exception is the fish hook. That one is a sinensis varietal. That one tastes kind of like a sweet bakery.

Then you've got the white needle teas. Mountain mist is pretty spot on with the tasting notes. Might like to add it is very green. With pretty much zero oxidation. Whereas floating cloud does taste very oxidized.

>>21531084
Haven't tried their oolongs. But the oolongs are sourced from the same farm by a taiwanese geezer who smuggled a bunch of trees over the chinese border back in the 80s (source: I read their book). So not too surprising they kind of follow the taiwanese taste.

When did you accept that drinking everything grandpa style was the final, ultimate teapill?

>>21535967
I've been drinking Gong fu style every day for more than 3 years now. That's the pill I took.

Gong fu style? More like gooner style.
Thank you, I'll be here all week. Remember to tip your waitress!

I heard about a rare tea is a cactus tea no a random cactus a cactus call San Pedro that makes alucine but the taste is bitter I wanna know the receipt of it to know if is real

>>21535336
Was it Ivan Chai?
I really want to try some of that stuff.

>>21533669
The way Japanese make tea with their standard procedures and machines, they can't really go wrong, it's more about producer's choices of which levers to pull based on their taste and what works best with the leaf from the farm.
>>21535967
more like the final "I don't give a fuck" pill.

>>21531389
Got my eherbata order!
They chose the perfect sample to throw in, I was curious about their yushan wun lu too
The little wood fired cup was only 10$

>>21537446
Brewing up the mengding ganlu

>>21537468
>Pint

I'll be on a business trip in Changchun in September and obviously I want to go to a tea store and bring some home. Any tipps on how to approach this? How do I even find a tea store? I expect them not speaking any english and I will be on my own.
First time in China and all I heard is that Changchun is a shithole.

>>21537446
>eherbata
based

>>21537446
>>21537926
The shou mei is good and cheap. It's the classic green processed type, not browned. Getting strawberry leaf notes and lots of creamy sweetness.
The mengding smells very nice but is a bit mellow for me so far.

>>21531389
>>21533860
>>21537446
I've just received info from my cousin's that Poland's new president is drafting an executive order to ban all tea imports by midnight next Tuesday. Prompting the "Poland Tea" initiative to reclaim cultural sovereignty by forcing citizens to brew exclusively from locally sourced ingredients like beetroot peel blend with a smoky aftertaste of pickled cabbage infusion fermented in solidarity, and pure slesian coal dust tea served lukewarm with nostalgia. The Ministry of Health's anti-caffeine propaganda will replace tea breaks with mandatory "potato appreciation minutes" because why sip Darjeeling when you can whisper affirmations to a spud, so fellow tea lovers must hoard their stashes since Yunnan blacks and Japanese matcha are becoming the new black market currency, smuggle smart using hollowed-out kielbasa sausages instead of suitcase compartments, and learn to order "unregistered chamomile" in code as "one sadness-neutralizer, hold the hope." The Tea Council declares this isn't just a war on tea but a war on sanity, warning that if bergamot is outlawed, only outlaws will have bergamot, so your mission is to protest via teapot by rattling lids at noon daily, brew solidarity by sending care packages of forbidden oolongs to Polish tea rebels labeled as "dried spinach," and question why rooibos looks suspiciously like presidential hair. If Poland falls, who's next and is your chai safe, so steep in defiance as Agent Lavender_Lumps from the Underground Tea Operative Sector 7 reminds you that the ban reportedly excludes herbal teas because peppermint is apparently "ideologically compliant," though this satirical post may or may not have been brewed under the influence of 3am hojicha, so vive la résistance and polish your kettles just in case!

Should I order a pound of nondesctript genmaicha in a bag off of amazon for 30 dollars?

>>21538329
If you drink it a lot, sure. Half of the flavor is the rice so it's probably fine.

I am once again asking for a teapot that does not overpour and dribble down its own spout like a toddler on his bib.
Other necessities:
>big, curvy handle - NO RIGHT ANGLES OR HANDLES FOR ANTS
>ceramic for warming in the microwave
>in-built ceramic strainer or stainless steel strainer - NO MESH
>800mL to 1L capacity
>A SPOUT THAT DOESN’T FUCKING DRIBBLE
I am open to all suggestions.

YES I AM FUCKING CALM.

>>21538487
I have one of these (black)
https://www.forlifedesignusa.com/collections/teapots/products/curve-teapot-with-infuser-24-oz
and while I don't use it very often, I haven't noticed it dribble (YMMV of course). The size is a little smaller than what you want, though they do have a larger one (though that's also bigger than what you want). Maybe look at some of their other models if the size won't work.

I have this one(not my pic cuz my teapot is gross af a xo)

Is there a brand of bottled unsweet iced tea available in the supermarkets that tastes like McDonald's unsweet iced tea, or does all the bottle shit in the stores taste like swamp water?

>>21539205
Most of it tastes pretty awful or like citric acid was added to dirty water.

>>21524583 (OP)
Anyone know anything about golden sail brand?
Picked up a tin of oolong a few weeks ago, nice enough but nothing special from what I can tell.

>>21539387
I think they're one of the typical producers of cheap export tea
I hear Sea Dyke makes some decent very cheap roasted oolongs

>>21539393
>I hear Sea Dyke makes some decent very cheap roasted oolongs
Damn puerh lesbians are branching out now...

should i just start brewing my tea in distilled water? the tap water is mild tasting but it still pushes through in my tea.

>>21539423
Get a filter. Distilled water is a step too far as you still want some minerals in your water.

>>21539423
filter or use bottled water

Hey /tea/ thanks for keeping the thread around.
My latest pickup is a sampler from viet sun tea. The puerh is pretty good overall except for one really bland dud (H'mong village raw) and the black teas are really rich and sweet but I don't drink enough black tea to accurately rate their quality.
Would recommend picking up a sampler if you like young raws and want to try something a bit different.
Too bad he doesn't have any green teas i still really want to try a fish hook green or other viet style green.

>>21539697
which raws did you get?

>>21539703
Tua cha, ta cu ty clay gardens and y ty dao village. The one i found bland is the y ty h'mong village.

>>21539697
>black teas are really rich and sweet but I don't drink enough black tea to accurately rate their quality.
I had a lot of black teas, and especially the "deep forest" black I had last year from them was very good. It's one of the best black teas I've had so far, I'm hoping to get some again on BF.
>Tua cha
Enjoyed the sample I've got of this as well. Was hoping for a cake, but apparently he couldn't get his hands on the spring harvest, so there was only some bit pricy maocha, so I'm hoping for autumn cake again.

I'm curious about their white teas. I usually dont drink white, but it might be a nice change from sheng once in a while.

>>21539751
I enjoyed the Cao Bo white tea sample. Quite sweet and oaty flavors, kind of like waffles + classic moonlight white flavors. I like it more than Jingmai White from FL right now

>>21538329
I did that a few years back. It wasn't very good. I'm honestly not sure how much of it was tea and how much was grass clippings.

>>21538209
amazing

>>21539751
>deep forest black
This is one of the samples i got, great tea. Makes me want to explore black tea in more depth.

>>21539917
I ended up buying a much smaller amount and it was kind of shit. I might just make it, but then I have to find brown rice.

>>21524583 (OP)
What is your favorite tea

>>21540914
Whatever is in my cup.

>>21537446
the Sanxia bi luo chun is mogging the Ganlu and Lushan pretty hard. I guess it's to be expected as it was the most expensive of the three
a bit citrusy and brothy and also slightly herbal-spicy. fairly complex flavor that tastes like some kind of thai soup. great to brew grandpa style, there is no bitterness at all. in fact, it needs to be pushed hard.
I bought this tea from TheTea.pl last year and it was my favorite non-Japanese green I've had. I wonder if the two Polish stores share some sources cause it tastes similar to what I remember. or maybe this is what all Sanxia BLC tastes like?

>>21539751
>BF
What's bf?

>>21541755
black friday

I'm drinking some hibiscus tea it's pretty good.
>>21541759
Thanks! I misread and somehow thought BF was the store. No wonder I couldn't find it.

>>21539423
I live in a very hard water area and whenever I travel to continental europe where most of the water is mild, any tea I brew tastes yucky

>>21541826
>I live in a very hard water area
How much mg Ca/l? (you can look it up online at your assigned water plant)

>travel to continental europe where most of the water is mild
I live close to the central point of Europe and our tapwater has a ridiculous 206mg Ca/l which requires me to distill this shit for tea. You want to be below ~35mg Ca/l. Above you can see the stains in the tea ware with bare eye and taste goes to ass. Research confirming this: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2023/sm/d3sm00169e

>>21539444
>Get a filter.
Doesn't work well for calcium reduction. It does for a bit when the filter is new but it quickly saturates before the lifetime end of the filter. (Assuming standard active charcoal water filter)

>Distilled water is a step too far as you still want some minerals in your water
You distill a batch and then cut it with tap water again to get calcium somewhere around 30mg/l.

>>21541850
You know what, I think you're right.
I looked up my hardness and it's 93 mg/l of calcium (and they also quote a "total hardness" of 233 mg/l, apparently that's in calcium carbonate, but it's not very clear). I then tried to look up the places I remember visiting and I can't find fully reliable numbers but it almost seems comparable - one of them apparently has around 200mg/l of calcium carbonate (so maybe a little bit softer but not much), and another a bit over 100mg/l of calcium (so a bit harder even).

In this case I have no idea why the tea tastes off everywhere.

>>21541850
103 AVG Hardness PPM / mg/L in my area

>>21541850
NTA but 200ppm is my area

just got this one, the packaging is very high quality and gives a luxurious feel to the product. the tea itself is very low quality but the flavorings they use for the tea have very pleasant scents. earl grey had a really nice bergamot scent, i decided to use milk this time in order to cover the PTC taste which i found binds some of the bergamot taste into the drink. i think i will be a bit quicker with the milk to bind more of the aromas and have a better tasting experience.

>>21541850
Not him, but the lowest mineral content bottled water I could find has 157mg/l of minerals(doesn't say which).
For some reason, it lists cation and aniont content, and Ca is the majority, so let's say 120ml Ca... I would have to buy distilled water at this point.
My water provider uses some meme units, so water hardness is in the norm, but I'm hitting the upper limits of this nonsense range as well. (Not a single online calculator could convert it to something that makes sense)

>>21542270
Mix one part bottled water to three parts distilled water. Or one part tap water to four parts distilled water

>>21542292
Does only Ca matter?
I'm looking at some laboratory test of bottled waters, and the lowest has only 6mg/l of Ca, but 104 mg/l total.
If I won't forget, I'll try to get my hands on it and try it with some tflz.

>>21542311
There are some links towards the bottom of the rentry talking about blending you own mineral mix to use in distilled water. They should give you some insight in terms of what content of each mineral to look for in bottled water.
>About 120 total
I think this is what you want to target.

Watching tea leafs try to figure out water will never not be funny to me. Good luck. There's a decent intro guide on teasecrets but 4chan doesn't like the link.

>>21542383
autism

>>21524797
The shit is like crack to me

>>21541953
I don't have anything to add but thank you for making a post that isn't about Asian shit.

>>21542383
Are you a wizard

>>21541953
I don't know how people stomach Lipton garbage. Your brave anon.

>>21542668
Nah but there was an anon years ago who'd hike up into the woods with a canteen for his preferred tea water. I think he had jap charcoal in the bottle as well.

>>21542704
I don't blame him. Back when I lived in the mountains, the water was really fresh and clean.

>>21542704
>Decides to get freshest water up the mountain
>Doubles down with charcoal for extra purifying
Peak dedication, guy must be a brewing master.

>>21542734
Or some autismo LARPer who'd never confirmed anything through blind taste tests.

>>21542757
Based either way. I want to drink hot tea on a mountain summit now.

I couldn't go to the china shoppe, but ny supermarket came in clutch fr

>>21529087
you can buy 2014 -2017 version of that puer for around the same price on ebay. it's a really good Haiwan production. Smokey sweet and very nice with age.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/134586656736?_skw=haiwan+2014&itmmeta=01K2ZY77JZ47NZSSCDDN59NPC8&hash=item1f55fd67e0:g:lBcAAOSwMShkcGYv&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA0FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1duhuce5xxnh%2BS5SfTiL%2F7GhnmV7CMaQbGtUFUU76ddQg9po2RYl4WAnwZskoxdLG9rwn%2F8nURTUZhVuKe7qbhwDdJ17V%2F9mMbrFY5wM0oe0fQdxdmxhbais5S2Gxp4EyMKKcJ98cJ2OkMePk4DFv%2Fys4bFD%2F%2BHWPGJ0iW2vry3yWolfP0VzgxxWymMpy509UcIIaJjMqICY5CoOJy3OM7wTyYhgGMvjN5a%2FTe%2B0wI1w18io%2FTe%2BiUFIeHNakAC%2FuY%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR9T5nP6XZg

>>21542667
The tea is still from Asia, just lower quality, they don't really grow tea in Europe. Put in 5 pieces of fruit for show, spray with artificial flavors and brew it in plastic and voilà, you got western tea.

>>21543443
Hell yeah. I'd love to see more anons reviewing it. Haiwan deserves to be a staple of the general.

>>21542311
It is the biggest contributor to the chemical reaction, which creates the tea film and it's all I ever looked out for. According to the research paper Fe also matters to a lower degree.
Pic rel is top notch tea water, although hard to find in stores

>>21543973
I doubt it effects the taste of tea but 9.89mg/L +/- 15% is a pretty high nitrate level; the maximum allowable level in public drinking water per the US EPA is 10mg/L for example.
IIRC the main sources of nitrates in water are pollution from agriculture (fertilizer/animal waste) and septic tank systems.
I don't know if you care and I'm not telling you that you should (I probably wouldn't, if that water makes best tea), but I thought it was interesting/noteworthy. I just work in water treatment and most people don't care about this sort of stuff so I guess I wanted to share.

this seemed interesting, it's quite expensive but i think i should be able to get it next week.

Some new teas have been released on Farmerleaf, including this year's Huey Wa, a mid priced Jingmai blend and some other stuff

>>21526497
>>21528481
I know it says it's smokey but what's it smell and taste like? I heard they use pine wood, does it smell and taste like a camp fire?

>one of the teashops in my city reopened the store
>check it out and see a big display of gong fu teaware besides the high quality/price japanese teware
>they only have one choice of shu pu'er
I don't blame them since they have everything else under the sun but it felt like a bit of a disconnect since they they have all that gongfu equipment

>>21544138
Kusmi flavor teas are really good though. I have their Kashmir Tchai black tea blend and got no complaints.

>>21544168
>this year's Huey Wa
last years Huey Wa is the weakest tea I had from FL so far. It is bland and flat - as advertised. I had a sample from an earlier year Huey Wa which was better and got me into getting a 2024 cake. If you want to cheap out I recommend the 2024 Jingmei yellow flakes for a more potent and interesting experience.

>>21544216
Yeah I have no interest in the huey wa cake
The yellow flakes I'm not a fan of either. For the cheapies, fa zhan he or LME Autumn is my preference

>>21543765
>The tea is still from Asia, just lower quality, they don't really grow tea in Europe.
No shit. It should be obvious what I meant.

>>21543765
>Put in 5 pieces of fruit for show, spray with artificial flavors and brew it in plastic and voilà, you got western tea.
Also you're a fucking idiot.

>>21544314
What part of what I said was wrong?

>>21544316
Your collapse of the entire western tea tradition/s into an autistic chink stereotype.

>>21543765
That's just major tea bag brands. It's like how major coffee brands are shit.
>>21544319
Pretty much. Where I grew up it was really common for parents or grandparents to make homemade mint tea or other herbal tea grown in their gardens.

>>21544319
The post was about artificially flavored teabag slop though, not anything traditional
Can't argue with European teaware being cool. I just wish there were more small porcelain teapots from Euro brands around.

>>21544168
I'm glad hekai came back. I might finally get a sample real hekai this year.
I'll probably pass on the Manzhuan sample since I hate any level of smoke in my tea.

>>21544358
tea is fucking gay dude

>>21543973
>>21544021

>>21542311
Trying my 2024 TFLZ with this water today.
I'm more than half of the cake in, so I have a good idea what this tea tastes like.
It's different compared to tap water.
It's sweeter and less vegetal than I remember.
I remember some anon was saying startfruit... There is definitely some new watery fruit that wasn't there before. Reminds me of a different fancy tea I had a 7g sample of. Now I wonder what that would taste like with this water.
More testing is needed before making any conclusion, but it's a promising start.

>>21544358
I'm a big fan of pottery so I've always loved seeing teaware. How many mL is that teapot btw?

How important is it to air out your puer cakes in sealed containers? I try to air them out for a week every month or so but sometimes I forget.

>>21544637
It's 180ml
I bought it on AliExpress

>>21544358
>I just wish there were more small porcelain teapots from Euro brands around.
I don't. Brewing in little baby teapots and drinking from tiny sippy cups is gay.
>But the ding dong snail shit tea tastes slightly different each time!!
Don't care

I love this cup

>>21544820
Jianzhan / tenmoku cups are nice

>>21542383
>Watching tea leafs try to figure out water will never not be funny to me.
I thought you meant you liked watching them unfurl in the cup at first

Buying 300g of gyokuro was a mistake, I'm still on the first bag.

>>21546393
I can relate, I still have some of the 50g of gyokuro I bought a year and a half ago. I like it well enough too, I just like old sheng that much more.
When did time start moving so fast...

Farmer leaf order finally came in a week ago or so. I'd hear tales of how generous they are with samples and whatnot but I didn't get shit in my order. Oh well, at least he severely undervalued it so I didn't get taxed to shit.
So far I've tried the 2025 yingpan shan, 2024 moonlight white, 2024 yellow flakes and I'm currently sipping on the 2023 bangwai ripe. It's my first time with puer and so far I'm kind of underwhelmed. I have more ripe and raw samples to sip through so I'll see if anything makes me change my mind.
The yingpan and white were great though, not like they'd win contests but for the price you can't get anything better here in yurop unless you shell out two or three times as many eurobucks.

>>21546435
I'm an idiot. I can't drink the same thing every day it will drive me nuts so I'm not sure why I bought 3 of the same thing. I have yet to try puer, I really should. When I'm willing to buy some I need to sit down and ask the thread for help. Also next time I buy tea maybe I'll see if whatever place has smaller than 100g bags... I think my ideal purchase would be several servings sizes of ~5 different teas.

>>21546457
the KTM-based starter kit someone was putting together a couple of threads ago sounds up your alley

>>21546439
Ripe is extremely mediocre and I honestly don't get why people praise it. Even as a "cheap daily drinker" it feels thin and boring to me.

>>21546489
I'll probably try it someday he's finished but skip the oolong.

>>21546494
It's smooth, easy on the stomach and makes a thick and simple drink to have after a meal
It can be very thick, just brew it until it's pitch black

It's no replacement for raw, but it has its uses

>>21546523
Maybe I'll try making it strong as fuck and see if it makes any difference.
But personally after a meal I'd rather have an oolong or something.

>>21546494
Sure it's the cheapest stuff he sells and it's my first time tasting any kind of puer but from all I've read I expected ripe to taste like wild fermented barn hay or something. So far it's closer to not so good black tea with a bit of funk and not much sweetness. I've had jap greens that had stranger and wilder taste profiles.

>>21546523
Interesting, I'll make my next infusion strong as fuark and report back.

>>21546534
>wild fermented barn hay
You might be looking for liubao, whose taste is varyingly described as wet hay or fresh loam.

>>21546538
NTA but there's a black tea that smells like what I remember fairgrounds near the animals smelling like. I guess it's a hay smell? I believe it's this tea from YS "Wu Liang Hong Mao Feng Yunnan Black Tea" There's one that's a bit more mild than this but I can't find it in my cupboard.

>>21546538
I'm not particularly looking for tea that tastes like hay, it's just what I've heard when people describe ripes. I've had some shincha that tasted like straight up hay though, and man that was some good hay.

Anyone else still drinking cheap Awazon tea? I liked their moonlight white and want to get a tong for cheap daily drinking. Thinking of getting a couple of their cheap raw cakes from the 2000s.

>>21546523
Okay it definitely got a bit sweeter and thicker in a weird way, it's more of a feel than an actual texture. Still doesn't taste like much though. Maybe I should let the samples rest some more.
It's definitely not as stomach churning as the yellow flakes I tried a couple of days ago so that's nice at least.

>>21546554
I have a 2018 Awazon raw which is ok and a 2022 raw which recks my stomach. What I gather is young raw is better from a boutique seller like Farmer Leaf who specializes in young raws at a higher price point, and that older raws are probably safer at a cheaper price point.

>>21546554
Ye. Get some xiaguan brick. LCT and the oranges are pretty good as well. White chocobars are alright but very compressed. 2006 "wild ancient" is also pretty tasty.

>>21546534
It's more like mildly fermented cookie dough with a nice thickness. I think the Bangwai ripe is a pretty typical example of ripe
Wet stored ripe and liu bao is what you should go for if you want basement beetroot funk. Ripe is just a smooth easy drink.

>>21546457
The good thing about puerh is unlike green tea, you can actually just buy however much you want without fear of it going stale

I hate being on a timer with green tea, that's why I never buy it in large quantities

>>21546600
Ain't no cookie dough in mine unfortunately. I must be on my 8th steep and it still smells a bit like unsalted smoked salmon and doesn't taste like much, it's just kinda thick and slightly sweet.

Only ripe I've had tastes like astringent fishy cardboard.

>>21546606
Even if it's in a sealed container? I always store my tea in either bags or tins because year round this area is hot and humid and has pests that creep in from outdoors sometimes.

>>21545917
It really is an interesting glazing technique

>make a cup of cinnamon horchata stress & sleep tea
>add like 1/2tsp horchata powder
>fall asleep within 10 minutes
Reminds me of Christmas cookie tea I used to drink as a little kid
>>21538717
I like that and am jelly. I want a blue or cranberry clear glass one

The prices on the cheap teaware wishlist I built on AliExpress have gone up x3.

>>21546439
>how generous they are with samples
It's a bit random. One time I got a $20 sample, but I've had several with nothing too.

>>21546615
yeah it helps but green tea still just tastes worse and worse with time

>>21546610
Sounds like you had a shitty ripe

>>21546671
Oh, I meant for the puer. I'm never buying this much green tea at once again haha.

>>21546615
>>21546691
Oh yeah, you can keep it sealed. Some of it might even improve with time.

>>21546393
>>21546457
300g is low enough that you should be able to get through it before it goes really stale. You can keep the other two bags in the fridge. Gyokuro is meant to have a ton of leaf per session anyway.

I'm going to Ireland next month. Any places I should visit for really good tea?

First time brewing the Zheng Shan Tang Lapsang.

4g in 170mL gaiwan. First brew at 90C for 20 seconds. Went to 95C for subsequent infusions. Will probably use more tea next time since it was on the light side.

Admittedly I've only tried like 2 lapsangs, but the ZST/Lapsangstore is the best lapsang I've had. Fairly strong smoked aroma in the tin. Sweet and cooling. Smoked taste a supporting player in the brew itself and not overpowering. Maybe a touch of floral taste.

>>21544193
It depends on the lapsang. Some lapsang is smoked to all hell and it's the only thing you can taste. Some of them aren't smoked at all.

Is Grandpa Style the most complicated way of sipping?
After years of gong fu I finally tried it. Rentry says to use 3-4g tea for 300ml cup and boiling water. However that way I'd have to wait minutes before it gets cool enough to drink and that would no different from western style brewing. After 2 rounds leaves would be stale.
So I thougt it would be a wiser strategy to control intensity with water temperature, gradually increasing it for each round.
I tried 6g leaves for a 250ml cup. I started 65C° and went 75°C and 80°C. Intensity seemed right each round.
However am I supposed to drink this with a bombilla? Or is chewing on leaves what one is supposed to do? They swim on top and going really careful barely helps.
So far too much hassle compared to good old gong fu or a western quickie.

American here, what is tea?

>>21548033
>wait minutes before it gets cool enough to drink and that would no different from western style brewing
Except it only requires the one glass and no pouring of tea instead of a brewing vessel and a glass and pouring from one to the other.
Are you drinking young sheng in the pic? I don't think young sheng is well suited to grandpa. I only do grandpa with shou and some oolongs, if the tea can't handle several minutes of 100°C then I wouldn't bother trying to grandpa style with varying temps. The appeal imo is that it's simple and low effort.
I just spit the leaves out of they get in my mouth, but ime they mostly sink and this is pretty rare, yours seem really floaty though.

QuicheTeas order. Have been testing the Xiaguan 2005 T8653 (thick paper February batch). Great so far, glad I blind caked it.
Flavor is a lot like smoky Xiaguan tuos, but with 10x the mouthfeel and texture. The smoke almost has a charcoal roast quality to it, it feels well integrated with the overall flavor, which is mostly woody with just hints of sour fruits.
The tea feels powerful, but isn't too harsh. Some astringency is still present, so it's best not to overbrew. Even light steeps have a surprisingly good mouthfeel. And it packs a punch, as expected.

>>21548033
Isn't grandpa literally a western style?
The way I do it, you pour a full cup, yeah you have to wait like 10 minutes, and it doesn't last more than a couple of rounds. Depends on the tea even, some leaves die in one infusion, some can go for maybe three, sometimes four but that's rare. If you want more tea out of your leaves use a bigger cup, I've never read the rentry but remember that you're going to be boiling your leaves for minutes at a time, you don't need anywhere near as much of a leaves-to-water ratio as for gongfu - think of it like maybe 5-10 gongfu brews all at once, and how much water you'd need for those.

The point is that you pour water and after a little while the tea is ready and you drink it. And if the tea is strong then the leaves are still good so you pour more water and repeat. It's the complete opposite of wanting multiple short infusions, you can't simulate gongfu style "rounds" with grandpa brewing.

>They swim on top and going really careful barely helps.
Yeah your leaves seem unusually floaty, I've never had this. Usually after a minute or two most leaves float down to the bottom of the cup for me. Especially with big leaf teas, it's really almost never an issue, sometimes with lower grade small pieces there's a handful of bits that refuse to sink and get annoying. Also if there's bits of stem they can be really floaty, I just fish them out in that case. But if you use an actual teacup and not a narrow glass, it's not that hard to just avoid them.
I wonder if your narrow glass and giant folded leaves resulted in bubbles getting caught in the leaves. Tea seems just barely more dense than water, even a few small bubbles caught on a leaf can be enough to make it float.

>>21548139
How's that Mengku? I was thinking about giving it a shot

>>21548207
I'll report on it after a few sessions

>>21548045
>>21548206
Got 5 rounds out of this, last one got a bit stale. Next time I will use hotter water and less leaves and aim for a lower output overall. I also have a white tea which I'll try this method.

>Are you drinking young sheng in the pic?
Yup. Huey Wa though, which is described as Grandpa Style friendly.

>yours seem really floaty though.
Propably a side effect from the lower initial temp. I suppose it makes the leaves soak slower. In the last two rounds they sunk mostly.

>If you want more tea out of your leaves use a bigger cup
makes sense

>>21548033
I've noticed that you pretty much have to use boiling or the leaves won't sink

>>21547895
Your teacup and gaiwan are pretty they remind me of grandma's tea set in a really good way.
>lapsang
That's a nice shade of orange! I heard some can taste malty? Or maybe I looked up the wrong tea.

>>21547895
damn we got some big spenders here. nice to hear thoughts about THE Lapsang

>>21548526
Tell me about it, didn't an anon buy the black cherry chocolate cake tasting puer a while back?

>>21547895
>>21548526
Correction, it wasn't THE lapsang souchong. It was the cheaper 8310 souchong sold by them.

https://lapsangstore.com/collections/lapsangsouchong/products/pine-smoked-souchong-blacktea-8310

>>21547895
>>21548526
Correction, it wasn't THE lapsang souchong. It was the cheaper 8310 souchong sold by them. I am poor.

https://lapsangstore.com/collections/lapsangsouchong/products/pine-smoked-souchong-blacktea-8310

>>21548543
At least two of us tried that ripe and independently came up with the same flavor description.
It's not that expensive $36 for 100g.
And he at least to do free shipping for orders over $50
https://tea-expert.net/mengku/00135-mengku-bojun-2020?page=2

>>21548683
Interesting

Good tea to buy? There's a loose leaf place I'm stopping at tomorrow. Metal diffuser from Marshall's good enough? Always sipped on English breakfast or green tea while reading all these years.

>>21548771
>There's a loose leaf place I'm stopping at tomorrow.
Post some of the teas from there if they have a website.
>Metal diffuser from Marshall's good enough?
It's most likely fine, just wash it a few times before you use it.

>>21548771
Yeah steel infuser is fine
Try some oolong and a chinese black tea. Only buy green tea if it's 2025 harvest, no sense spending on it if they have one that's several years old and stale

>>21548207
After two sessions preliminary opinion is that it's alright. Nothing exciting so far but some nice vanilla on the nose and classic semiaged raw notes, it's not super thin or harsh. I can't complain for 30$. We'll see if I grow to be more excited about it.

>>21548774
https://tealabcle.com/

>>21546523
I tried really strong ripe today, it was indeed not quite as thin as how I brewed it previously. Dumped almost 10g into a 500ml cup, it was indeed pitch black after a few minutes.
Still not for me I think. I get the kind of dough-ey, almost bubblegummy taste, and I think it might be the dissonance of getting a doughy flavour while drinking a watery liquid that makes it feel thinner than other teas, since mentally I associate the dough taste with a thick chewy substance (let alone bubblegum). It's also still not a very strong taste.

I guess probably it's just not my cup of tea so to speak.

Also for reference what I had today was a 2016 7572. I also have a 2023 xiaguan tuo but they taste almost the exact same to me (I haven't tried brewing it extra strong yet, I dunno if I'll bother).

>>21548870
Yeah ripe tends to be in a similar flavour range and not everyone is into it
Traditional stored ripe and liu bao can be a bit different

>>21549204
>Traditional stored
do vendors usually advertise this in their listings or would you need to buy from a teahouse/region that's known for their wet storage to get some dank ass cakes?
I'm liking my cheap factory ripes from Quicheteas so far, they're cozy, warming and mellow, though it definitely raises my intrigue about the more funky types of treatment and storage.

>>21549218
some vendors will mention this, although if you're curious, the best source is yeeontea, as they specialize in traditional storage and most of their catalogue is very dank
some liu bao goes through a similar process and can have a similar flavor
the flavors tend to go into beetroot, dusty old cellar, rustic wooden furniture, ginseng, wet soil and other flavors that are a bit love or hate but undoubtedly unique

>>21549275
>beetroot, dusty old cellar, rustic wooden furniture, ginseng, wet soil and other flavors
that's how my apartment smells, so I'm bound to love it

>>21549275
>yeeontea
>We regret to inform you that, due to recent changes surrounding the duty-free de minimis threshold for goods entering the United States from Hong Kong, Hong Kong Post will be suspending all parcel deliveries to the USA effective 27th April 2025.

>>21549926
Crazy.

>>21549926
The steeping room in the US sells some yeeon bestsellers. Probably the only way for Americans to get them right now

A couple of years ago I bought a 2013 9948 from Fullchea, then this year got a 2015 of the same, that was much less densely pressed, which tickles my curiosity.

>>21549926
>>21549934
I swear I remember reading China Post and HK Post resumed since then. I can't find it now, however, so I'm not sure anymore.

Alpha version. Probably forgot something obvious.

>>21550774
Pumidor sweepings are surprisingly good

>>21550774
needs improvement, way more obscurity on the bottom, dark, scary

>>21550774
Needs a lot more deep tiers. Aged oolong, goishicha, sour tea, bug poop tea, various obscure types of hei cha would all be far down

>>21550774
puer that smells and tastes like anon's basement on the bottom. Gosh I love the tea vampire it never gets old.

>>21550774
>kuding

>>21550774
I think this is rather region-dependent because here in bongland for example, earl grey is one of the most common tea types, so that'd be flavoured tea. Assam and ceylon are all widely available loose leafs and would probably go directly below "store-bought earl grey tea bags" and probably on the same level as "fancy flavoured tea bags". Darjeeling is very slightly less common than ceylon but definitely far above puerh for example.

So a lot of what's on there can be compressed upwards IMO, then once you get down to specialty asian teas like puerh you can have some of the common stuff there, then as you go down you can have the various heicha (liubao would be below puerh but above golden flowers for example) and all the really obscure stuff the other anons mentioned.

>>21550809
Oolong is interesting because IMO it's all very nice and inoffensive, it's not like e.g. weird heichas which are "fungus tea" or "tea that tastes like dirt". It just happens to be relatively uncommon for some reason. You could probably feed aged oolong to most normies with no ill effect.

>>21550895
>Oolong is interesting because IMO it's all very nice and inoffensive
usually
still deserves to be pretty far down just because it's way less common than aged pu-erh and even aged liu bao

>>21550914
Okay but I think your pic related is its own category of antideluvian moldy pomelo tea rather than just "aged oolong". I got some aged oolong from KTM when buying some chinese samples almost entirely on accident, it was just alongside the other oolongs, and it's very nice and also not dramatically different to normal oolongs (since there's - normally - no fermentation process going on).

>>21550774
Matcha is flavored tea tier.
It's the most normie shit.
On absolute bottom, you could add liu bao, those sketchy orange peels filled with shit or something disgusting like that.
You won't catch me drinking that moldy shit.

>>21550983
Liu bao is far from the absolute bottom, it's like the most common type of hei as far as I'm aware

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