Anyone here drink tea? I've never had hot tea in my life,

bleach tea

i dunno man, just buy any from your local supermarket

Get something with either honey or lemon in it. Tea is an acquired taste, like coffee but inverted.

Earl Grey is a good tea for beginners.

A nice oolong is great if you'd like some pure tea.
I drink a lot of black, I prefer strong black tea with lots of tannins.
Green tea is too light for me and it has a very memeish flavor.

Please don't be one of those losers who puts milk and sugar in all your tea. That's not being a tea drinker.

It tastes better than coffee and there are endless varieties with noticeable difference unlike coffee

>>37233202
I drink herbal fruit teas because I'm a massive cuck

>>37233275
why do herbal fruit teas make you a cuck?

>>37233242
But I want to actually enjoy tea. It seems relaxing.

>>37233274
What's the most relaxing tea?

>>37233350
Black tea is great. It contains caffeine and something which I don't remember the name of that makes you feel relaxed. Don't put milk in it, that ruins it.

>>37233436
Should I buy tea bags or loose leaf?

>>37233448
I've only ever had tea bags so idk.

I drink tea. Usually drink whatever the cheapest thing is. I add no sugar and mostly drink it for the warmness. Keeps my body warm and healthy and winter, which is pretty cool cause I used to catch colds a lot before I started drinking tea.

>>37233274
>green tea
>"memeish" flavor

What the fuck is a "memeish flavor"? Is "meme" just a generic word for "bad" now?
How does tea taste of "meme"? What does "meme" taste like?
Do you believe Sencha has the same flavor as Green Yunnan tea?

>>37233202

If you like musky/bitter flavors, go with black tea.
Assam and Darjeeling are the top Indian varieties, can't go wrong with those.
Pu-erh isn't strictly considered "black tea", but a separate variety, although it's just a heavily fermented Chinese tea, effectively making it black.
Pu-erh has a wooden/musky flavor and it will keep you awake for as long as you need, it's probably better than coffee at that.
I don't drink a lot of black tea, I think tea should be kept as close to its original/fresh state as possible, so I choose the less fermented types.

Oolongs I have less concrete knowledge of, can't reference a lot of varieties off the top of my head.
Da Hong Pao is an excellent, unique Chinese tea with an interesting history, grown in a specific mountainous part of China. It's good, has a slight sweetness to it.

Also, don't buy tea with additives, like pieces of dried fruit/herbs/flowers.
They may smell really sweet and tasty and make you believe you're drinking something sweet and fruity, but they completely kill the flavor of the tea itself and you might as well be drinking compote or some herbal drink. Also the fruitiness is very shallow and turns to an unpleasant bitterness very quickly. I'm not a fan of Jasmine either, although it suits tea better.
You also have roasted teas of various sorts, especially the Chinese ones, but I'm not a fan of those.
Go with classical, pure tea.
The only additives that are acceptable are milk-flavored teas. Some tea plants are steamed with milk while still growing and the milk flavor enters the leaves.
Do this if you don't want to put straight on milk in your tea.
I agree with >>37233274 that sugar in tea is a no-no.

Next post: green and white teas.

>>37233350
There are herbal teas like kava and valerian root which are relaxing.
There's also passionflower tea which tastes good and gets you stoned if you drink a strong enough brew of it

>>37233591
Green tea in general tastes like a meme.
By this I mean it tastes bad and weak compared to black tea or oolong and people probably really only pretend to prefer green tea unless they are gooks or just inexperienced

>>37233591
Where do I buy teas? Should I go with loose leaf or tea bags?

I have a lot of social anxiety, so I'd feel kind of like a faggot buying tea, but I really want to try it. I like coffee but I'm getting tired of the "coffee" taste

>>37233325

Herbs and fruits only make you a cuck if you put them in tea.
Drinking herbs/fruit based drinks by themselves is pretty patrician.

>>37233448

Loose leaf, always.

>>37233619

Or maybe they actually prefer tea to taste like tea instead of fermented, vegetation that tastes like something was burned in an oven?
If green tea is weak to you, then you're not making it correctly, or your palette is ruined by years of coca-cola and starbucks coffee.


Anyway, Green tea.

Main types are Chinese and Japanese.

Japanese green tea: most commonly known variety is Sencha. Bancha is the lowest quality, Gyokurou is the highest quality: first pick of the year, grown in shade to stop the sun from drying out the flavor.
Then there's matcha powder, made from leaves of a comparable quality to gyokurou, but in a powder, which is not steeped, but mixed into the water and drunk in its entirety: also known as ceremonial green tea.
The creamy texture is nice, but it's a hassle to make.
The most prominent quality of the Japanese sencha variety is the vividly fresh/grassy flavour.
The smells like fresh hay, and reminds me of freshly mowed grass.
Sweet, flavour, with just the right amount of tang.

In my experience Japanese sencha teas can vary by flavor according to the region.
I've bought gyokurou in Japan, which looked almost completely blue, and had a strong sea-salt flavour to it rather than the grassy one, which was certainly interesting.

Chinese green teas: There's the Yunnan varieties (the southern ones), which are also sweet-ish, but less "fresh" than the Japanese ones. This is a good one to start with, it's quite mild and pleasant all around.

If you want the Chinese equivalent of Gyokurou, go with Tai-pin tea, it's similar.

Chinese green tea in general has a specific tang to it, can't really describe it..."musky".

Next we move on to the king: white teas.

>>37233875
You're an autistic little fucker, aren't you?

Is tea another sort of acquired taste like coffee? I need something else to drink other than coffee and soda.

I never used to like coffee, but I started drinking it in the morning before work because it was taking me too long to stop feeling groggy, then over time it changed from "this doesn't taste very good" to actually enjoying and liking the taste.

>>37233875
>>37233591
I appreciate all this information, teabro.

How should I brew/steep my tea?

Ignore the severely autistic tea obsessive and just go and buy some black tea bags and follow the instructions. Milk and sugar are optional.

>>37233202
English Breakfast (a blended black tea), from teabag. This is traditionally served with milk.

Or if you are rich, 2nd flush Darjeeling, loose leaf, never with milk. Buy from specialist tea dealer only, if you buy this from a supermarket you are definitely getting ripped off. 1st flush Darjeeling is also good.

Japanese sencha is also very good. Don't waste your money on gyokuro, it's bland and boring.

>>37233675

>Where do I buy teas?

There are a lot of online vendors, but I buy mine locally, so I can't really recommend anything.
There might be a tea shop or something in a mall nearby.
Or just search for one in your area.

> Should I go with loose leaf or tea bags?
Loose leaf. Tea in tea bags has lost its odor through that paper shit it's stored in, and you'll mostly be tasting the tea-bag paper instead of the tea.
The exception is if you're buying tea bags packaged in aluminium lined packets, which prevent flavor loss, but that doesn't solve the "paper taste" problem.

>I'm getting tired of the "coffee" taste

Coffee doesn't have a "taste".


Anyway, white teas.

White teas are the least fermented of all tea types, which means they preserve the original flavor of the tea the most.

There's an excellent Chinese green tea, which to me is quite close to white tea in terms of lack of fermentation, and which exemplifies that idiosyncratic Chinese tea flavor: Longjing tea.
The flavor is kind of like a little tangy spike, almost as if it's a sour taste, but without the actual sourness. Kind of like that metallic taste that coins have, but much more subdued and flowery/vegetative. It's probably a product of the fermentation process they use, but whatever. I used to not like it, but now I appreciate it more. It kind of underlines the grassy flavour of tea in its pure form and imparts subtle transformations to it.

Ying Zheng and Zhu Ye Qing are the two best varieties of white tea I know of.
They have an elegant, refined sweetness and freshness to them that to me is the essence of what good tea is all about.

>>37234056
if the tannin rush from black tea is all you care about, maybe just skip the tea part altogether and go straight to shooting meth?

>>37234073

The flavor of gyokurou can be very dense and imposing in a way, almost too heavy.
I can appreciate the lighter, more playful and cheery sencha, so good taste.
Why do you prefer second flush though?

>>37233202
chamomile. chills you out. calms the nerves

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>>37233202
I'm drinking Blue Lady, from Zest Tea.
Black tea, orange, lemon , and hibiscus.

It's really good!

>>37234182
>Coffee doesn't have a "taste".
Huh?

>>37234182
>White teas are the least fermented of all tea types, which means they preserve the original flavor of the tea the most.
I disagree, steaming before drying (sencha style green tea processing) preserves more flavor. It's like how blanching vegetables before freezing preserves them better.

>>37233987

You can find this information online.

This is all my personal understanding.

The rule of thumb is: the more fermented a tea is, the higher the temperature, and the shorter the steeping time.

Fermented tea means you need more heat to get the flavour out, but if you steep it for too long, the tea becomes too bitter, because the fermentation increases the tartness and acridity. So it's a trade off for a stronger, more powerful flavour.

The less fermented a tea is, the more time you can afford to steep it for.
But the temperature has to be lower, because temperatures that are too high kill the delicate and subtle flavors of the tea leaves and once again, turn it bitter.

There are some varieties of White tea and Japanese green tea that are so delicate they are steeped in temperatures as low as 40 degrees celsius (don't know the F value).

I personally have made white tea by steeping it in cold (!) water overnight in the fridge.

The higher quality and less fermented the tea, the longer you steep, and the lower the temperature.
This means better taste and less tang/bitterness.
That for me is the zenith of tea drinking.

Also a plus of steeping tea at very low temperatures is that it doesn't spoil for a very long time.
Tea steeped at 80 degrees celsius (the average temperature) has to be drunk within half an hour or so before is starts losing its qualities and goes dark, but tea steeped in cold or warm water will last you a whole day at least.

Black tea is the most fermented, it's usually steeped at 90 C
Oolongs are steeped at about 85 C
Green teas: 80 C
White teas: 75 C

But personally I bend these rules a lot.

Also, there are specific steeping times and quantities of tea that you calculate depending on how much water you use, but I don't really follow those and use personal experience/taste.

I keep the tea steeped in the teapot until I finish it, I just use less tea instead.
That allows me not to worry about over-steeping it.

>>37234295

Hmm, I'm not familiar with the blanching process, but you could be right on this one.

I agree that Japanese sencha is remarkably flavorful in comparison to the Chinese white ones, and I could never explain it.

But steaming isn't really fermenting, is it?
Sure, the resulting tea is still "green", but for some reason the Chinese green teas don't preserve the flavor the same way the Japanese ones do.
The only exception I can think of is Longjing, but even that is kind of fermented-tasting.

Why are the Japanese green teas unique in this regard and why don't the Chinese do the same thing, do you happen to know by any chance?

>>37234416
Most Chinese green tea is pan fired instead of steamed. The temperature is higher and it damages the tea more.

>>37234372

Also, I don't steep the same tea multiple times: I don't see the point.

Just use the minimum amount of tea, and allow it to steep for as long as it needs to to release all of its flavour.

That way you don't have to re-steep and experience diminishing flavor each time, or calculate how many steepings you have left.

First steeping is the best steeping, in my opinion.
I think the whole "second steeping is when the flavor comes out" thing is a meme.

>>37234182
>if the tannin rush from black tea is all you care about, maybe just skip the tea part altogether and go straight to shooting meth?

t. hyperbolic numale cunt literally inventing a retarded position to feel superior to

No wonder you're such a cum gargling bitch about tea, you're objectively worthless and stupid.

>>37234452

Ah, so that's where that peculiar, almost metallic-tasting tang comes from.

Why don't the Chinese just steam it, I wonder.

I remember the Japanese began steaming it because they simply couldn't grow tea the same way the Chinese could, (lacking the necessary soil/weather conditions) and so they couldn't prepare it the same way either, due to their geographic/climatic limitations.

But the result seems to be even better than the Chinese ones.

>>37234461

I don't care whether you're content with drinking your supermarket piss mix, just don't go recommending it to people who are interested in drinking tea and have never tasted tea before.
That's just mean.

I'm trying to introduce this person to a healthful, delicious type of drink with a rich culture and history.

If I wanted to get into drinking coffee, how would a coffee lover react if someone directed me to the nearest instant coffee vending machine?

(Except coffee is sour and makes your breath stink)

>>37233275

Fruit teas in general are nothing short of awesome to dunk shortbread in. Bake some and try, they absorb and amplify the flavour in a near magical way.

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>>37234182
I'm drinking pu-erh

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>>37233202
I make cannabis tea. I steep it together with black tea for flavor, since weed tea by itself tastes weird. Will greentext my process for making weed tea if anyone is interested.

>>37234632

Pu-erh is in a class all on its own, I greatly respect it.
It's almost more of a medicinal drink than a recreational beverage.

>>37234651

What does weed by itself taste like?

>>37234496
Chinese were farming tea before anybody else. Pan firing just needs metal pan + fire. It's easy with ancient technology. And even though Chinese can make steamed tea now, pan fired is traditional and people don't like change.

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>>37234676
Kinda bitter, plant-like.

Just go and get a cup of tea and try it fucknut this isnt the bronze age

>>37233202
the longer the teabag sinks in, the more bitter it tastes

>>37234676
it tastes like a mixture between skunk smell and dirt. It's not pleasant at all.

Lots of ginger tea with honey. I like the spiciness. Ginger root is like 60 cents a pound and weighs nothing so I can get a fuck ton of it. You don't even need that much for the tea itself, it's my favorite tea currently. I haven't had many different kinds though.

>>37235686

I'm the guy who made all the giant posts about tea in the thread, and I approve of ginger tea with honey.

I've been drinking ginger/lemon/honey tea recently to cure a cough, and apparently it's great for digestion too.
The spiciness is great too, and yes, it's extremely cheap.

>>37235780
Do you think a cold brewed ginger tea would be any good? Or should I just make it hot and refrigerate it?

>>37233202
Any tea is fine, except tea with milk that's fucking nasty.

>>37233591
Be my tea bf. If you're a girl be my tea party bff.

>>37233202
You probably won't like plain tea. Sweeten your tea accurately (that is, measure it out), slowly decrease it.

Jasmine tea is the best kind, absolutely no argument there.

>>37235858

Boy here, so tea bf it is.

But tea is just a side interest of mine, I'm not as obsessed with it as I make it out to be in this thread.
It's just I've never shared my tea experience in writing before so I got a little passionate.

Tea will probably not be very effective as a main topic of conversation for bonding with me, since I have other bigger interests as well.

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>>37233350

I drink this

Tea is my hobby, it gets expensive after a while, drink mostly puer, still drink more budget stuff like <.50$/g, delved into other kinds of chinese tea but know fuckall about indian/japanese teas, only sampled a bit here and there.
There is usually a tea thread on ck with a pastebin with vendors and other resources but it is a bit outdated (I made it, at least the first iteration)
If anyone has questions about vendors I can vouch for a few depending on what you're looking for

>All these tea experts.

Since when is this a tea board? How do you all know so much.

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>>37236009
Because tea is nice and knowledge about something you enjoy makes it even nicer.

>>37236009
Its a hobby like any other, its knowledge intensive while still being very personal(different people have different tastes), theres high end stuff, and theres the component of experience, you are constantly building on your past experiences and gained knowledge
Its not even surprising considering this website's interest for anime/japanese culture, not how I got into it personally but I assume it's fairly common

>>37233202
here's how i make my texas tea
>heat water in small 6" pot to a boil
>turn off heat, add 3 teabags and steep
>pour tea into 2-qt pitcher, add <1 cup sugar to taste
>fill to 2 quarts, serve on ice

>>37236139
also tea "purists" can fuck right off, this shit is delicious and addicting

>>37236030

To this day, I don't understand everyone's obsession with this gif. There is NOTHING special about it.

>>37236149
Because you're addicted to sugar.

>>37236168
and the caffeine

>>37234264
I want to drink tea with a Piety.

>>37236150
I know, there isn't anything special about it. Just a guy and his GF probably.

>>37236214

You can even see her friend next to her talk to a guy next to cameraman. They obviousely know each other, yet retards will scream that 'reeee Stacy wants only Chads to do this to her! She would get angry if you did this!'

>Ctrl+F Thai Milk Tea
Its sweet as fuck.

who here /mi-chai/?

>Its an American hipsters gets into pretentious tea culture then proceeds to lecture British people on how they're drinking it wrong episode

Black tea with milk, or earl grey

>>37233202
I drink green tea every day (my fav is the one with cinnamon and anise) and organic white tea which has even more antioxidants, but it depends on what you want to get out of it. If you just want to substitute coffee, any kind of tea would do but green would be best, if you want flavor try the more processed darker ones.

tea is nasty. just drink coffee like everyone else

who here gaiwan master race?

>>37237263
Here, also have a small qt 60ml 80s yixing

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>>37237134
Lol @ your life. Nice try, norman. Coffee is a big meme.


>>37233202
Green tea, chai tea, black tea, dericate white tea. That's where you should start, find out what you like most by trying them all. Give it time if you don't like tea at first, it may grow on you. Don't add sugar and try to stay away from any other sweetener like honey. Tea is best in its natural form. Also, teapots are nice.

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>>37238112
Oolong tea and different variants of black are good, as well.

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>>37233202

Buy one of those tea assortment boxes, try a little of everything out and see what you like. My personal favourites so far have been Ceylon FOP, Mint, Darjeeling, Vanilla and Cinnamon.

Irish breakfast tea hits harder than most coffees

>>37233274
If you don't put milk in your tea you're not white

All white tea drinking countries use milk, asians probably would too if they could handle milk but they're all lactose intolerant

>tea is something you get "into" in America

lmao, shouldn't have left the british empire you traitors

>>37238377
>thinking drinking teabags of the shitiest pajeet dust makes you know fuckall
Not even american senpai

Tea is a nice drink that should taste nice and not rely on pretentiousness and bullshit references and deliberately tasting terrible and bitter. It's the real point of difference from the other main hot drink, coffee. Tea should be like Coca Cola. Like ecchi anime or the best pop music. Pure enjoyment. Tea "culture" (which as some posters point out is not culture but hipsters and weeaboos) ruins tea. It's like dark chocolate. Just go and drink coffee or fine wine or something instead.

If anyone is going to try tea, I would suggest trying both normal tea and pretentious tea. They are extremely different and have a different appeal. You don't have to believe me that normal tea is better, just try both.

A basic list of normal tea to try:
Generic black tea
English Breakfast
Irish Breakfast
Ceylon
Assam

Tea bags are fine, and you can sometimes get ones with large leaves more like loose-leaf with little or no "dust". Milk and sugar are fine.

Chai is very nice and fits into the same frame of enjoyment as normal teas. It is sweet, spicy and very heavy.

im only into chinese teas , so i cant really comment on Japanese senchas but ill give you a bit to experiment with.

first thing you might want to try is Lapsang Suchong,this is the historical poor mans tea , because its not roasted in metal pans but directly over open fire. this adds a very interesting smoky flavor, + it enver really lost its stigma and you can get tons of high quality LS for cheap.

Next one is Milky Oolong. This Oolong is a twaiwanese specialty that is first prepared like traditional Oolong , than exposed to the steam of boiling milk. incredibly intresting flavor, even tho its usually not cheap.

If youre into OOlongs in general , id recommend two kinds the most. First is Chinese Da Hong Pao, which has an incredibly salty complex taste that i got addicted to, and then theres the more commonly available Tieguanyin, which comes close to being the "standart" Oolong. Ironically it almost sits at the crossroads of Oolong and green tea in taste.

Dont get into white (or yellow) teas to early. these teas take skill to prepare and if your not used to teas their taste is very watery and subdued.

>>37238657
tea bags are not fine. i open up at least one of them if i buy a box of bags , and you wont belive the amount of twings and small wood splinters you find in this. never buy teabags

Brit here. Tea is an acquired taste, like coffee or alcohol.

It's gonna taste like shit until you get used to it. Just use normal british tea bags, bit of milk and add sugar for taste.

>>37238691
I don't notice any issues with the twigs. My only issues are that sometimes the bags break and the taste is slightly variable. But they are fine for an every day several cups a day habit.

Rethinking this, now that I realise all the large-leaf teabags are not sold any more where I live, maybe it is worth going for loose-leaf. But it is a lot of trouble. And if someone wants a general idea of the taste of tea, tea bags will do. Going to a cafe that serves loose-leaf tea is another alternative.

>>37238920
its not trouble. just buy something like this.
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81MJe-X%2B7BL._SY355_.jpg

and lose tea is also much cheaper. i can get 1 Kg of high quality black tea in an indian store here for 10 dollars. just buy a goddamn strainer.

>>37238552
You don't have to know anything, it's just a drink

I drink coca cola it's not like I have to know the history of coke and all the different flavours there ever was

ctrl + f 'rooibos'
0 hits

SHIGGY

(It's even good when cold)

>>37239037
its not even tea. its some shitty southafrican weed that gives you gastroentestinal distress.

>>37238657
>not rely on pretentiousness
It's nothing like that, afaik. Drinking tea that tastes bad was an operation in learning appreciation and recognition for different sensations that weren't just sweet (pleasure).

It was drinking green tea that started the change in the way I viewed things that let me lose all my weight and become a normal bmi, desu.

Learning to appreciate the suffering of bitter tea and other shit is like a babby introduction to bending your mind around your senses and appreciating what may initially appear as something that doesn't deserve appreciation because the payback isn't immediate.

I remember watching some video about shitty tea being an operation in discipline and it really is. People who won't finish a cup of green tea are usually fast to give things up.

>>37239075
>gives you gastroentestinal distress.
only if youre a fat fuck with a belly full of oily shit

>>37239093
no its not, its because its stock filled with pesticides. sertiously , your drinking shit grown in africa?

>>37239134
>It's stock filled with pesticides because I'm a fat cunt who can't stomach vitamin C rich brews.

>>37239151
wake up
https://www.google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=7&ved=0ahUKEwjtrM7d0YjUAhUDLMAKHUScAMEQFgheMAY&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.environment.gov.za%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fdocs%2Fpesticide_usein_sa.pdf&usg=AFQjCNHA7iTKRzN-39iXzCE5S9U0QmFUqQ&sig2=jUnOyQFu7yiXkH-_4kIOVQ&cad=rja

>>37239151
abandoned thread hmm?
ill give you the rundown. the main pesticide used in roobois production is oxydemeton-methylene, on average 2 pounds of processed roobois contain 0,4 mg of that stuff.

oxydementon-methylene....well , you can read the pesticid properties database yourself:
http://sitem.herts.ac.uk/aeru/ppdb/en/Reports/501.htm
it is classified as neurotoxic with an LD50 of 48 mg/Kg