/tea/ general

What type of green tea do you use when cooking rice?

I'm drinking snow chrysanthemum at the moment.

>>7209106
I use gunpowder tea, mostly because it's the one I like the most. But it should be okay with any. Try it at least once, it's very good

silver tea master race

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>>7209101
I'm sick at the moment so... chamomile master race.

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A Euro bro introduced me to this shit and I haven't used any other tea since. Best fucking tea without any extras. No sugar, lemon, or honey needed.

Goes great after a meal.

>>7209162
Do you like to drink other kind of teas when you're not sick?

>>7209110
Do you use brewed tea or put the leaves in? Sound awesome desu senpai

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>>7209167
I try to visit the Spice and Tea Exchange store near me every so often and pick up some of their unique blends. One of my favorite herbal teas that they sell is a cinnamon and plum blend which has a bit of currant and and licorice root in its blend as well. Kinda pricey at $15 USD for 3 oz. but its certainly a favorite.

Caffeinated, I'm partial to English Breakfast, Earl Grey, and Chai.

I've also been known to pick up some Jasmine Pearl green tea as well.

>>7209173
No, I mean. when boiling rice, instead of using normal water, try to use green tea(brewed, of course). It will take you 1 to 1'5 litres of green tea in the proccess since a lot will vaporate.
I haven't tried any other kind of recipe of this kind, but I'm willing to. Hope you like it though.

>>7209190
Wow I can see you have a good taste anon-san

>>7209225
Thought so.
Gonna have to experiment with my rice cooker once I get back from break.

>>7209250
Of course. Have you tried or read any other recipes with tea? I'm also curious

>>7209884
I've heard of tea smoked duck - I've always wanted to try it but I've been worried about messing it up.

>>7209912
sounds delicious, I'll search that one

>>7209101
Rooibos and Honey Masterrace reporting in.

twining's lady grey + a dash of milk is what got me through my dissertation. i'd finish one mug and immediately want another.

I got some matcha and there is a expiration date on it that seems very close for something like tea. Is that for real? You can't keep matcha for more than five month or so? Or is that for legal reasons and it's okay to keep it longer than that?

Drinking Oprah's chai tea from Teavana.

I can feel her feminine power rinse through me.

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My current favorite. Gets me through work.

>>7209162
Chamomile all the way
Feel better anon

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>>7210804

Chamomile is good, I usually drink it when i'm smoking weed to help calm my nerves. Herbal tea is amazing. Also i'm gonna be dumping my folder of tea pictures throughout this thread.

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Once in a while I go to downtown Seattle at Pike Place Market and browse the tea shops there. No joke the entire area reminds me of a little Harry Potter town nestled within the city. Old buildings with that early 20th century smell, wooden walkways, and of course tea shops. And because it's such a hipster new age city it's sort of blends well with the city even though it's known for it's Starbucks coffee. Tea was meant to drink in cozy rainy weather. I'm gonna head up there this weekend.

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>>7210877
>teapots
>pottery
>puerh cakes
Everything in this picture is great.

Repostin' pic from old thread while we're at posting tea house pictures.

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>>7210924

>>7210924

My dream in life is to find the perfect tea house where I can go chill and unwind. It's all about the atmospheric vibes to compliment the tea.

>>7210930
This one is in a park in Belgium. https://www.pairidaiza.eu/en/activities/the-tea-pavilion

They don't say much because it's supposed to be only a small part of a big park. But it is a freaking good tea house. The point of this part of the park is to make you feel like you are in China and it's pretty spot on.

>>7210943
>Belgium

I seriously wish I lived in Europe instead of greasy America. I need to get the fuck out of this place before it collapse on itself.

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>>7210948
Also, I didn't took many pictures when I went there but I still has the board with all the teas they sell. This is for take out but you can also drink in.

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>>7211036

>>7210577
Mostly for legal reasons. If you keep your tea in a nice place it can easily last more than 5 months. I have some leaves kept for almost a month and they're still fresh and delicious

>>7211778
I got leaves that are older than the Big E, and they still good.

A decent quality sencha for me pls

>>7211778
Tea definitely lasts a long time in that it doesn't go bad but if it's not vacuum sealed, it can lose its full flavour profile. I would not recommend keeping certain loose leaf teas, particularly Chinese greens, for too long (e.g. five months). Fresh is better.

>>7212381
What about black tea?? I have some little leaves left in a pretty shitty bag one of my friends gave me that is almost exposed. I have it for 3 months or so, tried a little today and still was ok

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>>7209884
Tea eggs are a thing.

Just started drinking loose leaf tea two weeks ago. I got 8 different teas, not really sure what I like yet. Milk oolong was pretty nice. But also some strong broken Assam and Genmaicha.

>>7212434
I tried this the other day but it didn't go too well. It was good but the pattern on the egg was very pale and they didn't have a very strong taste. The sauce was well made but just didn't impregnated the eggs… I used eggs that were laid like two days before, maybe I should have used some older eggs…

I was following this tutorial btw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7upT3vzJt0M

>>7212404
I'm sure any tea would taste 'ok' no matter how much time has passed but it won't taste as good as it can do if it has been inappropriately stored. I have found that black tea can lose its flavour over time once exposed to air - particularly with English-style black teas.

>>7212456
I have this problem. I think I might not be cracking the peel well enough.

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I would say my favorite tea is jasmine dragon pearls. Also have a nice tea shop around the corner where they serve you in interesting ways

What does matcha tea taste like?
I'm thinking about getting some.

>>7212719
Very bitter. Depends a bit on the mixture but in general it will be bitter. If You try to sweeten it it will taste even worse, so the pro tip here is to enjoy a bitter taste.

>>7212719
>>7212869
I would say pro tip would be to eat something sweet - like pairing bitter coffee with baklava.

>>7212874
What the hell is the point of enjoying something if you avoid the true taste of it?

>>7212874
>>7212869
I don't get it. Isn't tea supposed to NOT taste bitter in Asia? Especially China and Japan?
Bitter tea is normally considered bad tea isn't it? Does all matcha taste bitter or only low quality matcha?

>>7212895
Nevermind. Looked it up and got my answer.

http://www.thedailytea.com/taste/high-quality-matcha-know-difference/
>#4: Taste:
>If you have ever tasted good matcha, you will have noticed the sweet, vegetal smell to it; this comes from the amino acid called L-Theanine, again produced by the shade growing process. It is the L-Theanine which gives matcha that nice, clean-drinking, green tea taste. And since low-quality matcha conversely lacks L-Theanine, it has a strongly bitter and astringent flavor that isn’t tasty or sweet.

>>7212895
No. Basically, there are different kinds of bitterness. The good kind is the 'innate' kind while the bad kind is from oversteeping and is associated with tannins.

https://warosu.org/ck/thread/S6115979#p6146043

>>7212888

You're not avoiding its true taste, you're complementing it with a contrasting flavor.

>>7212909
This.
Another factor is that people who aren't very familar with matcha often end up using far too much of it. Because it's such a finely ground powder you use less of it than you would a more typical tea. It's easy to use too much and that also tastes bitter.

Matcha tea causes irreversible damage to the brain stem.

>>7212921
show me the science

not sure if i can pick a favorite between black and oolong...
not a fan of fruit flavored teas, rooibus is too sweet for me. although the green rooibus i tried was quite good.

>>7212946
>green rooibus
Holy moly, I have to try this!

>>7212916
>>7212895
>>7212719
My bad boiz, i misread matcha for mate for some odd reason.

>>7212990
Oh. Okay. I do have some matcha. It's only a matter of time before I can taste it. I just don't have the chasen to prepare it right now.

I bought a couple grams of matcha this year and it started to lose flavor after about half a month. I think it has to do with the surface area or something because all my kukicha go bad quickly as well. I have some houjicha stems right now that are old and taste like semen.

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:3

>>7209101
I prefer cheap tea because I'm a cheap person. Is it possible to get cheap fucking leaves?

some nice black puerh, like drinking a mouldering log laying across a swamp, fallen from an oldgrown copse... it's like drinking the forest.

also basic green, alternately green+jasmine.

also genmaicha, omg, put it in my mouth.

>>7213238
see
https://warosu.org/ck/thread/S7192740#p7202658
TL;DR: first price loose tea is the same price than the shittiest teabag tea.

Is it okay to do loose leaf green tea in a french press?
I tried some Gyokuro somewhere and I can't get the tea I bought to have that same taste with it. Maybe I gotta steep for a long time? I try about 2 minutes and the water looks only slightly green.

Drinking some low tier Darjeeling FF (3€ for 50g) I bought about a year ago.
When I tried it back then with tap water it tasted like bitter dead flower leaves,
now I brew it more properly with 90°C mineral water and it is like heaven, I can't stop drinking and smelling it.

The leaves are probably from 2013 or 2014, I can't imagine what fresh ones would taste like now.

I have a firm belief that for emotion or physical state you're in, you can have a favorite tea.

That said, black teas with a splash of milk are my base tea. I also enjoy lapsang souchong, even if it smells like burning rubber.
There are near infinite blends of black tea with added extras (black tea and cornflower petals is great).

Rooibos is my ideal non-caffeinated tea. Peppermint tea is amazing after a filling meal.
Jasmine green tea is really nice (it's all about the aroma with jasmine though).

Flavoured teas I'm not a huge fan of, nor fruit teas. There are always exceptions though.

One tea I've never been able to fully appreciate is Earl Grey, the perfuming seems too strong to me. I had a friend who even used to refer to it exclusively as Whore's Bathwater.

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>>7214830

Yeah I agree, it's important to match up emotions with the right tea to truly appreciate it.

>>7214830
Nice blogpost, people like you are why there's a character limit on posts

>>7214892

I enjoyed reading it.

Help senpai, I'm an absolute retard and can only get my tea to ever taste like burnt water. What am I doing wrong?

>>7214909
How the fuck should I know?
What are you doing exactly?

>>7214913
You know, normal shit, boil the water, throw that shit on a teabag desu senpai

>>7214919
>teabag
The problem is right there.
Don't fucking use teabags.

also
>boil the water
Don't just boil it, different teas need different temperatures.

>>7214925
What should I use instead?

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>>7214932
Loose tea, duh!

Either find a teashop in town or order on the internet. The worse loose tea you can find is better than the better teabag you can find.

Also be careful of the brew time. The most important things to make tea are in order:
-The leaves you buy
-Water temperature
-Brew time
-Quantity of tea
-Space for the leaves to expend nicely

Everything else is matter of debate and way less important. The starter kit is:
One mug-size infuer like pic related or a nice teapot or a tea ball, some ~5€/100g tea leaves and a kettle that brew to any temperature.
Just put 2g of tea (doesn't have to be very precise, that's about one very full teaspoon of leaves) and follow temperature/brew time from tables that you can find on the internet, it depend of the type of tea you use.

>>7214944
Do you have any recommended kettles?

>>7214985
This one is pretty popular:
http://www.amazon.com/Bonavita-Variable-Temperature-Electric-Gooseneck/dp/B005YR0F40/ref=pd_sim_79_2?ie=UTF8&dpID=51p5Rnb1U4L&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=1TZY5WYQY4X8K0P65GPZ

But it doesn't really matter, I'm sure there are way cheaper alternatives out there. Anything with temperature control will do.

>>7214994
I had no idea what to google, I'll see what I can find.

>>7213949
French presses are fine for tea. Greens in general are quite tempetature seneitive, however. Too low and they taste like nothing, five degrees too hot and it's bitter shit. If you taste nothing, I'd try making the water a little hotter.

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>>7214985
You can also get a thermometer and heat water in a pot. Or boil water in a simple kettle and leave it to cool for a few minutes.
Of course you will get slightly different temperatures depending of elevation, kettle insulation etc.

>>7215325
>>7213949
French presses are fine provided that you don't leave the leaves compressed on your next brew.

>>7214944

I have one of those and it's made loose tea so much better for me.

>>7215606
Yup. Very nice way to begin. Now I have a gaiwan and link related, which is even better.
http://www.teavivre.com/manually-blow-molded-glass-infuser-tea-cup/

Im a beginner with loose leaf and higher quality teas, i usually would drink PG. I find these loose leaf teas often have a much more subtle and less robust flavor. Is this normal? I always follow directions accurately btw

>>7209101
>general

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Fellow tea connoisseurs, help an anon out.

Am I brewing green tea right? I'm using a tsp of loose green tea per 4oz of water. I use 70C water, and brew for 1-2minutes. The end result I get is yellowish in color, smells earthy, tastes earthy, but I also get this almost lemon like acid taste at the back of my tongue. Is this how green tea is supposed to taste? I think it is good. But I have no fucking idea what the end product is supposed to taste like.

>>7215867
honestly that sounds fine

if you like it, you're brewing it right

I like my tea pretty bitter so I overbrew it somewhat

to each their own

>>7215875

I understand that if I like it, it is fine.

Problem is I'm trying to get into teas, and lose leaf tea just tastes so different from bag teas, that I simply do not know what the taste should be like.

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Just smoked some dank indica ganja and now i'm drinking some lavender tea. The two plants go so well together, almost as if they were made for each other.

>>7215928

Can you make tea with ganja?

>>7215933
>Can you make tea with ganja?

Oh god yes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_6l1zx8_eI

I just got my samples from Upton. Sencha, Genmaicha, and four Chinese green teas. The sencha is ridiculously good so far.