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Anyone kow where i can get Tibetan tea like the op pic? Chawangshop had pic related but its sold out.

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Found another mulchy looking Sichuan Ya'an brick on ebay
https://www.ebay.com/itm/204470454261

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>>19918791
sup /tea/. I am a scumsuckng tea scrub and I want to make milk tea akin to picrelated (without the massive amount of sugar). I used to take a prepackaged english breakfast tea and just add milk after it steeped in a cup.

Is there a better way to make this? From what I've gathered darjeeling is what I'm looking for. I have an electric kettle, if it matters.

>>19918841
Don't use Darjeeling, its too lite for milk tea.
Use ceylon
https://www.amazon.com/Alwazah-Triple-Traders-Loose-Ceylon/dp/B07DZ4M75Z/
Mix equal parts milk and water, bing to a low simmer in a saucepan on the stove, add a spoonfull of tea, stir and simmer for another 2-3 minutes, strain and add sugar to taste.
You could also make it Vietnamese style with evaporated milk.

What's that really cheap cake white2tea sells every year? I got one of them a few years back and it was a blend of white and black tea. I don't like puerh, but they had interesting white teas when I ordered (hot brandy was my favorite from them).

>>19918874
Oh the tin of tea is only $2 more, you would probably find that easier to deal with then a cardboard box of tea
https://www.amazon.com/Alwazah-Tea-Swan-Brand-400g/dp/B07FYVQ461/

>>19918874
Use a big heaping spoonful and simmer for at least 5 minutes

Trying more of that 2001 Yi Wu ripe from Ys, because i bought 50g of it. First time wasn't too impressed so i decided to brew stronger this time.
It worked somewhat, i'm getting more of that smokiness and also some minerality, so i could enjoy it a little. Still i don't think this is a tea worth the price it has now.
Also, good God is this tea dusty. If someone ever asks me why rinsing is necessary, i'll show them this tea.

>>19918798
High grade ya'an is surprisingly hard to find. I did not pull up many leads the last time I looked. If you track down a good source please share it.

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>>19918890
>What's that really cheap cake white2tea sells every year?
It's Snoozefest, a 200g young sheng cake for $15. They also do free shipping and often throw in extra free samples for Black Friday.

It's says on FL that shipping takes usually 2-4 weeks to Europe, does it start from the date you placed your order?
Or from the date they shipped it?
Or the first date of the tracking code?

Bought caichen moonlight white peony whitecake and it's honestly quite disappointing.
Even gongfu it's so weak, might have to add sugar and lemon to have any sort of enjoyment from this.

>>19919196
I feel that way about most white teas tbqh. they lack the intensity and complexity I crave from tea

>>19919207
Wanted something floral/fruity/sweet... the dried tea smells strongly like dried fruit(apricots are the majority) but the moment you boil it, it disappears and you are left with disappointment.
What a shame.

>>19919117
wondering if I should grab this or a Bangwai small trees from Farmerleaf (which I thought was good, if a little too soft and understated for my taste)

>>19918874
how much milk+water do you use for one spoonful of tea?

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I was given this old kyusu teapot by my grandmother, and I’ve been brewing jasmine green tea in it. I’d like to know more about it (when/where it was made, who made it, etc.), but I’ve been unable to dig up anything. Anybody know anything about old Japanese porcelain?

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>>19919337

>>19919337
can't say I'm too knowledgable, but it strikes me as something that was meant for export

>>19919348
Interesting. What makes you say that?

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I think I might finally get the funny meme cake

>>19919350
the decoration looks a little western-style to me. I also know that Japan did export a lot of porcelain at some point

>>19918798
i had this bookmarked for a while, is it the same stuff?
https://www.lifeinteacup.com/hei-cha

>>19919355
You think they exported yokode kyusu to the West? Not really a shape Westerners are used to. Nowadays, at least. Best giveaway for an export one would probably be "made in Japan" in latin script, but seeing kanji on the outside I lean towards it not being meant for export, but, frankly, I'm just as clueless.

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having some clean Fu brick from 2017
flavor is mellow, a bit like an aged shou mei maybe. flavors of pears, vanilla, grain, autumn leaves, some spice. the mouthfeel is the best part for me, it varies between silky smooth and fizzy

gotta try more fu brick at some point

Grandpa's #2 is more to my liking.

>>19919391
Was Grandpa in the service? Teaware was exported en masse since the 50s without latin marks. I've seen those kinds of pots and sets around. It has a poem on it, probably an old and famous one but I haven't been able to read moonrunes in years and the cursive hentaigana is throwing me for a loop.

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>>19919494
Fug.

Tastes like wet leaves and petrichor, spring water and tobacco leaf. Slightly astringent but not bitter. Umami note on the second cup. Windy cha qi. Hint of wild game broth on the nose.

>>19919337
>>19919339
Painted kyusu seems to be a Kyoto specialty. Try searching kyoto ware/kyo yaki.

>>19919494
My papaw wasn’t in the military (flat feet disqualified him), but several of his uncles served in WWII. My mamaw (the one who gave me this kyusu, has a bunch of China that says “made in occupied japan” on it.

>>19919337
>>19919348
>>19919494
Found it on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/293721960296?hash=item4463316f68:g:uwIAAOSwb8lfLLlp&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA0PAnf2o3Pqu7oIdFLvAkAbWdAJ4DP488RcIo77lMJbYlJvFCxsvjSHDeRP5y9TBDT7AUPMmepQs4fQNVmwlw%2Fv%2BjuhQQ0BlmCdbAgIrc%2BHgefRqNYezG21bic6Mz%2Fuh7FhEKJp%2FZukIW15clGMHPjy0EH%2BzCk%2F46Euf9mOQaCP67nWaU6orwqWdus5frZy9DHDddQkytUJsAR5pi9qU3XwVwOsYReJiQyHTceSpVscB8cjSJIsFrmeWzLuJMZS1AUH5ifqZthIn7ozJf6MCmi%2Fc%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR_TF9IL9Yg

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If I was to spare no expense in purchasing an infuser, what would I get?

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>YS no longer carries compressed hongs
What should I buy for my kombucha base now? Will they ever restock Drunk on Red?

>>19919764
nothing, dont buy a fucking infuser, they dont allow the leaves to expand properly which will cause a more astringent tea, literally just put the leaves in the cup you will be drinking out of--thats not a meme answer, it is way better than using an infuser.

>>19919117
Should I fall for the Snoozefest meme?
I could use another daily drinker. I just hope it's not weak or generic.

>>19919764
>>19919790
There are basket or cup type infusers that are only slightly smaller than a mug. Those would let the tea leaves expand just fine. Definitely avoid the little ball ones unless you wanted to use it to infuse spices into a tea.

I started drinking pu ehr tea some days ago and I notice a calming, relaxing effect like 5 seconds after drinking it, the effect is almost comparable to a light benzodiazepine and I'm sure it's not a placebo effect.
What can cause this ?

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>>19919858
only days yet you're already attuned to the mystical energy of Cha Qi?
I hope your wallet can handle the search for the most psycho-active pu-erh

>>19919858
i can tell you but you have to send your skin color first.

>>19919858
That's called cha qi. You had your first tea high/drunk experience.
It's a result of all the psychoactive chemicals produced by the fungi/microbes on the tea leaves. So make sure your tea isn't drying out or has a lot of contact with air because it can kill off the flavor and the good bacteria.

>>19919866
>>19919877
That's really interesting and I have never heard about cha qi before

>>19919877
>It's a result of all the psychoactive chemicals produced by the fungi/microbes on the tea leaves
is this even confirmed, or just broscience?

For people that work in the office do you brew tea there?
Do you have office set up?
Load up gaiwan a sipping whole shift could be nice.

>>19919978
who fucking cares

>>19919978
100% pure undiluted broscience. It doesn't even make sense. I've never seen someone make a serious claim that they "know" what cha-qi is or why it happens. Actually, that's not true, the Dai people believe the tea trees are inhabited by spirits that imbue the tea with some kind of mystic energy, which has literally and exactly the same amount of evidence as the microbe claim. It's actually a better theory, because it at least explains observation.

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Tragically, my hand will reach London soon.
Given the circumstances, what and where should I salvage from there in terms of tea?
Fortnum and Mason is allegedly a decent place according to really minimal research, but you lot probably know better than a blogging sow.

>>19920010
are you looking for something typically british (strong indian blacks to nuke with milk) or for good tea? this is an important distinction to make

>>19920027
I'd like to give the brits a chance at least, but generally speaking I'm hoping a /tea/ anon here has been there before recently and has some personal pointers

>>19919978
Honestly I have extreme doubt that dry stored sheng experiences significant fermentation, much less oolong/black/green etc. If fermentation was so important why would sheng producers have to go easy on the killgreen? As for microorganism growth on the leaves while on the tree, would they survive processing? Doubtful to me.

Enjoy
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=pu+erh+tea&page=1

>>19920081
There are multiple curing processes and I think that's a more accurate term, being more ambiguous and varied. I should find my pipe tool and break out the tobacco I've had jarred up for 2 years now and see how it's come along.

>>19920010
If you are spending a significant time in England What-cha is an English online vendor with reasonably good teas. If you are looking for physical stores in the city im not sure what to recommend.
If you want puer there is https://tea-encounter.com
And
https://theteaguru.co.uk/ who is probably more exciting for agarwood/oud and sandalwood and other aromatic resins then tea

>>19920010
consider going to mei leaf's teahouse though its based on the chinese method of brewing tea not western, people here like to shit on his online persona but my friend has been to his london teahouse and had a good experience

>>19920228
Curing is indeed a good term. It’s my speculation that most of the aging occurring in dry storage sheng is enzymatic oxidation and not technically speaking fermentation, but I don’t truly know.

>>19920289
It's probably a bit of everything. Wet storage would definitely support fermentation better and explain the lack of mold but I think this is closer to low oxygen or anaerobic fermentation, at least in the core of a wrapped and boxed tong of bings. More like tobacco curing, something is munching on it in multiple ways and the amount of air and temperature plays into it. Or there's some liquor shit going on as well, the science is still out to lunch tasting samples on exactly what goes on there. I think the tobacco analogue is probably the most accurate because the processing and storage is similar and nothing compliments tea like a good pipe.

>>19918798
Here is an another option for ya'an.
https://www.curioustea.com/tea/pu-erh/tibetan-tea-zhuan-zang-cha/
You may want to check taobao as well.
>>19919150
>It's says on FL that shipping takes usually 2-4 weeks to Europe
Probably from when they ship it. Don't count on Black Friday purchases making it before Christmas. Holiday shipping delays can throw things off.
>>19919196
>Bought caichen moonlight white peony whitecake and it's honestly quite disappointing. Even gongfu it's so weak,
Perhaps try using more leaves and brewing longer? Moonlight white often has autumn leaves and raw suger cane vibes to it. I don't know some people just don't seem to like white teas so perhaps its just not for you. I can't say I relate.
>>19919337
Looks like a nice practical kyusu. I recognize the art style but I don't know the name. I am pretty sure it is a traditional Japanese style and not just an export one. I know the other anon found who exported them but it looks like the sort of design that may have been sold domestically as well imo.
>>19919786
>YS no longer carries compressed hongs
yes they do but they are probably to expensive for kombucha
https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/compressed-black-tea
>>19919838
>I just hope it's not weak or generic.
It tastes comparable in quality to most of the other good cheap young sheng I have had from YS or FL.

>>19920320
>It tastes comparable in quality to most of the other good cheap young sheng I have had from YS or FL
hmm I guess I will grab a cake then. we'll see if it beats the Fa Zhan He or Bangwai in value

Anybody seen this?
https://www.reddit.com/r/puer/comments/17yerha/potential_solution_for_puer_storage/

I have some puer cakes I want to revive, so I'll think about letting some 6-7g pieces rest in airtight bags and bovedas to try it out.

>>19920327
Its interesting but at the same time my immediate impression is that this guy is retarded and has been obsessing over some new measurement toys he got. He doesn't really seem to be an experienced puer drinker so im not really sure if anything he says has any value or if he is just psyopping himself into thinking his tea tastes better when it measures a few % higher in humidity.

>>19920327
Anyway as far as getting puer up to a higher humidity using mylar bags and boveda packs is very effective and works fine. I dunno if i would recommend going over the 69% ones, definitely a higher risk of condensation.

>>19920344
any recommendations for mylar bags or do i just get whatever?

>>19920320
>Perhaps try using more leaves and brewing longer?
What about temperatures?
Is there a big difference between 80,90 and 100C?
I don't have a fancy kettle so I'm kinda winging those 85C in OPs guide.

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>sparkling tea
Anyone tried anything like that? It falls right in between the category of questionable and intriguing

>>19920377
I've had picrel, sparkling iced mate. It was very good, seems like sparkling iced tea would be good as well. Some kombucha brands have a decent amount of fizz

>>19920352
Any food storage mylar bags are fine. Maybe check reviews to make sure nobody is complaining about them smelling strongly

>>19920352
I use 65% Boveda packs (Size 60 mostly).
I get my Mylar bags from here:
https://www.usaemergencysupply.com/emergency-supplies/food-storage-equipment/mylar-bags-for-food-storage
They are good quality let you buy bags a la carte so you can grab different sizes. The 1 gallon bags are the right size for 2-3 full size (357-400g" cakes. Be sure to grab the Ziploc bags and not the heat seal only ones.

>>19920411
>to make sure nobody is complaining about them smelling strongly
I think it partially depends on how recently they were made. I have had mixed results even from the same manufacturer. I always air out my bags for a month or two after I get them before either using them or folding them back up for later use.

>>19920327
> I have ~10 hygrometers but no longer use them as I found them not reliable.
Oh no I hope this isn't the anon who was buying used shipping hygrometers off ebay.

>>19920356
>Is there a big difference between 80,90 and 100C?
Kinda depends on the tea, the difference between 80 and 100 for sure is felt across pretty much all teas but usually you'll notice it either with blacks tasting somewhat weak or greens tasting more "fried" or bitter.
If I get a large batch of tea I like to play with the specifications wildly on the first few steeps to experiment and then guesstimate the best parameters for the tea, IE low and then high temps compared to recommended, longer or shorter brewing time, etc
>>19920392
>I've had picrel
I know chinese tea is pretty popular here but I never knew you could brew the food there into tea as well

How do you get a lot of different samples of good/interesting stuff on a budget?

>>19920448
>Oh no I hope this isn't the anon who was buying used shipping hygrometers off ebay.
Nope, different guy

>>19920459
Samples are typically the opposite of value

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>>19920377
I have a forced carbonating setup for brewing beer, and between batches I have brewed up 5 gallons of bulk black tea and force carbonated it without other flavorings.

It's fucking disgusting, don't do that. Imagine brewing tea with seltzer water. If you are going to do that you need to add sweeteners or fruit to balance the flavor of the carbonic acid that comes from carbonation. No matter what, the flavor of carbonic acid and other additions will overpower your tea.

What's up with all the white teas being in cakes now? Was it always a thing or is it a recent meme? I don't remember so many of them a few years ago

>>19920539
Aging white tea became a meme like 15 years ago and it's starting to trickle down.

>>19920459
I don't think there is a trick to it. You can try to find some sample packages like the one liquid Proust does, but usually you just have to sample whatever sounds good

>>19920539
They're targeting the puer lesbian crowd who like to collect anything pressed into a cake. Black tea cakes are also a thing now.

>>19920580
I think it’s time to press cheap blacks. If I can get cheap black leaves in bulk for < 5$ a kg and sell them as 100g boutique cakes (20$ each) I will make a nice 195$ profit.

>>19920628
Put anime girls on the paper and advertise on r/tea. Guaranteed 2x profit

>>19920628
I can already see the reddit comments:
>WOWZEE this new "Pressed is the new Black" cake from avant-tea.com is yummers!
>might be the best value black tea ever made (it's the fifth black tea I've had, so I say this with full confidence!)
>time to recommend this under every post even though I haven't tried it (gotta get them upvotes, folks!)

>>19920459
If you want puerh samples you asked at the right time.
https://www.liquidproust.com/listing/719815976/2023-puerh-beginner-package
You get 8 or so samples for $5 plus shipping. LP runs this as a sort of community outreach so that they are sold below cost. Just be aware it may take a month or more to ship.

>>19920628
I guess .14¢ per is an expensive black here I thought I just had some half decent wild hongcha.

>>19920651
Got any advanced puer samples below cost for aging wizards? I just need a few old cakes before I buy the warehouse.

>>19920651
I wish LP could run a Discord server as well as he runs the beginner packages.

>>19919990
Yes, I took some of my old accumulated teaware and an old kettle to work with me and now I've got a very barebones gongfu station set up at my desk. It's quite nice for sipping pu during the day. Having that little ritual helps keep me from wanting to blow my brains out. I'm also drinking and trying out twice the tea I was before.

>>19920852
???
I don't use discord, whats wrong with LPs discord channel?

>>19920888
tl;dr - a few shitters he lets run wild make it worse for everyone - I recommend continuing to not use Discord.

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I found one I like. Modern Witch brews like motor oil and tastes like why you don't use the water you rehydrate mushrooms with. It's extremely tannic and like licking a not too expensive desk, the underside of one of the drawers. It smells like where you tape secrets. Each cup is growing more and more into what lies on the forest floor when you find yourself there amidst the rot and black earth.

This is what I've been looking for.

>>19920327
This is similar to one of those hotbox pumidor setups goes. A cake functions essentially as a moisture battery, at some abstraction. If it's high enough, you can theoretically seal it off. I question the absence of oxygen, though. My gut says sealing it off isn't ideal.

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>>19921006
Shou to raise the dead. I'd have to get a cake and some other samples of more expensive shit that sounds vile but I think I'd get a few tongs of something like this. It's what I wanted in a ripe.

>>19921006
Sounds good

>>19920888
Ban-happy mods, Redditesque culture

Has anyone bought the new oolongs from farmerleaf? I'm thinking about picking up the Ailao teas.

>>19921092
I have the oriental beauty of this year and had the winter 2022. Didn't try the sprin 2023. If you are talking about the oolong blacks I got both too. So which one would you like to try?

>>19921058
I'm not bored, that's for sure. it's still shou and not doing anything untoward but I feel like I'm drinking something worth paying not too much more. I got a few small batch samples to see if they were worth it and this one tastes like good tea.

And there is some dank cha qi rolling in after an oversteep, my attention has been shot for like 20 minutes now.

>>19921114
I was thinking about both the Ailao oriental beauty and the Ailao from this spring. How is the oriental beauty? I like that style of tea but in a way I'm not sure it's exactly what I would look for in a premium oolong, I almost feel like the more complex flavors might be overwhelmed by the more standard oriental beauty sweetness.

>>19921132
I haven't had too many different oriental beauty to compare, three in total, two from taiwan and this one from ailao. It is good and I enjoy it more than the winter "normal" one. But for the price tag you can get a Fa Zhan He cake so it's up to your preferences honestly. You have the characteristic oriental beauty smell and taste but it also keeps its characteristic from ailao. It it a complex tea to fully enjoy, at least for me, but i'm not drinking it as a daily drinker for that reason , to really enjoy and take the time for it each time I want to drink some. Ailao quality is honestly on par with taiwan known places, maybe even better for the price tag.

>>19921143
For the two oolongs black, even if you're not interested. The fen shui ling is really good and really enjoyable for a black tea drinker like me. The Menghaitian is more on the oolong side but still enjoyable.

>>19921124
Yup, I'm past tea drunk into some kind of tea loaded. No idea what pot I'm on but I refilled the kettle. It's now an ominous red. Sweetened into something almost like tea for people.

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It just keeps going. I can't keep this up.

>>19919978
>>19920001
Ask 10 different people what cha qi feels like and you'll get 10 different answers, and half are mostly describing the effects of caffeine.
They also can't agree on which teas give cha qi. Some say only young sheng, some aged sheng, some say Taiwanese oolong etc.

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Just opened up my container where I discard all of my used tea leaves and was hit with such an intense sweet aroma of jackfruit and mango. Im suspecting the microbiome that used to be on the tea leaves has to still be alive somewhere just decomposing and developing more flavors. Because these smelled and tasted like nothing when I discarded them. Best guess would've been a putrid smell by now, not something fruity.

>>19921365
Imagine the smell

>>19921304
Why are you balding. You got some cute lips tho. That slight sardonic smile does suit your cutie patootie face.

What is the best tea to make you intelligent? Or at least increase it somewhat?
I'm looking for something to make me sharper at least for a temporary boost.

I don't use caffeine, coffee, or other drugs, so I'm not looking for those similar boosts.

>>19922210
water

>>19922211
That's not tea.

>>19922226
it is in this thread

>>19921365
many teas undergo a withering process to make the aroma more floral and fruity. might just be a version of that

>>19922210
>I want performance-enhancing drugs
>I don't drink caffeine though
how odd. you can take a shitton of B2 or some sort of concentration diatery supplement

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>>19922247
I'll look into it. Didn't know Green Tea had caffeine so Red Tea is my only option it seems.

>>19922210
Ma huang (ephedra sinca) buy on ebay from Chinese sellers, typically listed as mo huang or something similar.

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>>19922210
I guess yhou could look into a family of chemicals called xanthines, which caffeine belongs to.

What is the difference between young raw puer and green tea?
Both are young leaves with no oxidation just the puer is pressed into cake right?

>>19919117
Thanks, anon. It was the 2019 Snoozefest.
W2T has some other cheaper cakes, so I'm wondering if you know what would be similar to that, since that's the most bearable "puer" I've had.
Everything else I've had from fullchea and ys has been incredibly dirt-like and fishy beyond belief. But, maybe that's because those were all ripe and the snoozefest is raw

>>19922210
Any ordinary tea (camellia sinensis) you like and extra L-theanine on the side. I recommend a white for more L-theanine in it as well. It's the most basic stack of caffeine and L-theanine that anyone into supps has tried, and useful for cognitively-demanding tasks. Ignore most claims otherwise of people alluding to benefits from tea.

>>19922408
>But, maybe that's because those were all ripe and the snoozefest is raw
that's definitely the cause
fishy and dirt-like flavors come from the fermentation process. young raw pu-erh won't have those flavors, as it isn't fermented
I haven't had the snoozefest, but from what I hear it's a pretty classic young raw pu-erh experience on the sweet and fruity side. so I'm guessing you should look for raw pu-erh that gets described like that

>>19922408
there must be some individual variation in how we perceive these things because i don't pick up any fishy flavours in your typical ripe from those stores. sometimes some of that pile smell on the wet leaf but nothing major.
but yeah stick to raw.

>>19922472
I feel like some people are way more attuned to wet pile flavors and funkiness in ripe and just can't get past it to get to the sweet pastry flavors

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>>19922472
>there must be some individual variation in how we perceive these things because i don't pick up any fishy flavours in your typical ripe from those stores. sometimes some of that pile smell on the wet leaf but nothing major.
>but yeah stick to raw.
Yes, a lot of taste is genetically predetermined in addition to how we're raised and our choices throughout life. Pic related is about cigarettes. People without the gene are more likely to be smokers.
I can not eat raw tomatoes, they make me gag. But, I am completely fine with tomato paste, salsa, ketchup, and even roasted tomatoes for the most part. So there must be some chemical I can't handle the taste of that goes away at some point.
I haven't had particularly high quality ripe puer: a bag from upton, free samplers from fullchea, one from a flight of tea from some place in berkeley, and some more samples from ys, but they were all similarly awful and there was no way for me to tease out the good flavors.
Raw puer might be it, and I am a stickler for sweetness, hence why I usually stick to white tea. I'll grab some stuff from w2t when they release the next snoozefest.

>>19922475
it's not too surprising i guess, people's noses are more varied than we realise. smell is an important part of identifying mushrooms and you can notice some people just don't smell certain smells.

>>19922486
some of those cheap ripes and samples you mentioned really could've been nasty fishy dogshit to be fair, i know the fullchea freebies can be quite bad. but i haven't had a particularly bad one from YS yet.
young raws can be on the bitter side but the snoozefest is cheap enough to give it a try

>>19922486
I wouldn't completely discount ripe based on bags from upton and free samplers from fullchea. these taste like fishy muddy shit to everyone.
throw in some several year old W2T ripe sample when you make the order, one of the milder ones

>>19922408
Yeah people just psyop themselves into liking ripe, I wouldn’t bother myself. Other dark teas are better.

>>19922472
Some young ripe cakes have a strong smell of fish food. It breaks down further into good soil over time but it's very distinct in fresh and cheap ripe. Sometimes it can come off as a salty flavor. I'm with >>19922486 and >>19922488 that it's partially genetic but also heavily influenced by your perceptual horizons of known flavors and smells. Petrichor, minerality, obscure wood and incense notes, all of them can manifest as "dirt" or "bitter" if you can't identify individual elements or aren't used to getting a mouthful of them all at once.

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all claims of inherent ripe fishiness will be dispelled by a single purchase of a Dayi production
sipping on this 2022 7562 right now. not even a hint of fishiness, despite the very young age of the brick. just a cozy aroma of cookie dough, vanilla, chocolate and clean earth, as God intended

>>19922784
>just a cozy aroma of cookie dough, vanilla, chocolate
Maybe I will buy...
>and clean earth
Nope, fuck that

>>19922429
Is there white tea without caffeine?

>>19922907
IIRC ya bao doesn't have caffeine

>>19922907
Bodhidharma didn't cut his eyelids off and grow tea from them for it to be caffeine free.

>>19922784
Factories as big as Dayi can afford to let freshly wet piled loose leaves rest for years before pressing them into cakes and bricks that are "young." Your 2022 production might be made from 2019 leaves.
I say this as a fan of young Dayi ripes.

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>>19918791
Drinking some sheng puerh from 2007 I bought in 2019
mellow and good for the crisp rainy weather

>>19923004
nice. i enjoyed a xiaguan tuo for the afternoon but it finally ran out of juice.

What deals are you expecting or what are you getting on black friday?
What are the usual places that offer some good deals?
KTM,W2T,FL?

>>19922380
They use different base material and the killgreen on the sheng is shorter/incomplete.

>>19923043
>They use different base material
Aren't both just... young leaves?

>>19923031
I ordered from KTM recently and I want some young raws
so probably W2T, FL or cspuerh (only -10% promo but hey, I got a coupon from anon, would be nice to use it at some point)

>>19923049
no, green tea generally uses clonal varietals of camellia sinensis, while raw pu-erh tends to use seed-propagated local varieties of camellia assamica. also good green tea tends to have more of a strict picking standard while for pu-erh you can find some gnarly-looking stuff with twigs that still tastes great

>>19923071
Pardon me for being pedantic, puerh is still Camellia sinensis, but specifically var. assamica.

>>19923071
>>19923085
AFAIK sinensis var. assamica is less cold hardy than sinensis var. sinensis and some of these puer vilages are 2000m above ground so I would imagine it gets really cold there, therefore they have to use sinensis var. sinensis.

I know this because I was looking into growing it cause it looked like a cool plant and the var. assamica that you can get in every mall would bot survive zone 7 winter.

>>19923113
Supposedly part of why the local plants diverged so much is because they had heavy natural selection due to the tough climate conditions. So they're quite different from the commercially available assamica they make black tea from

>>19923122
If they really had something that different it would be a new var.
I really doubt that but hey I will gladly be proven wrong and buy their magical seeds that will have huge leaves and survive winter.

>>19923133
That’s not true at all. Look up the Clausen Keck and Hiesey experiments. The variety concept is only used in agriculture where breeds are intentionally established.

>>19923049
As the other anons said the plant varieties are different. Climate and the local growing environment likely play a role in taste as well. Also puerh is typically made from older larger trees instead of highly pruned hedgerow style bushes. Regardless of the exact combination of causes traditional young sheng does in fact taste distinctive from traditional green tea.

>>19922784
Where can I find out about the Menghai naming code? These numbers say nothing to me and I'm thinking of buying one of these cakes or bricks.

>>19923194
I stand corrected.
FL should sell those seeds to suckers like me.

>>19923240
this article is a pretty good summary.
https://pathofcha.com/blogs/all-about-tea/pu-erh-recipes-what-the-4-numbers-on-pu-erh-wrappers-stand-fo

>prepare mongolian pu-erh
>it smells like bonito
What?

>>19919790
Then how do you prevent it from oversteeping?

>>19923248
thanks anon

>>19923243
If you actually wanted to grow tea, it would probably be easier to just grow it in a pot indoors honestly. Then you can grow any variety you want without any worry, and you can also carefully control water levels.

>>19923309
Additionally you can move it outside for the warm months to improve light exposure.

>>19923309
>>19923314
Yeah but I'm all about those THICK TRUNKS and as any bonsai enthusiast will confirm, you can't get those unless the plant spends couple of years in the ground.
If you have it in the pot from the start, you will have thin weaklings. Even if it's in a big pot.
I will buy one of those small pots with several cuttings, split them into individual pots and leave outside for couple of months just for fun buy it's not the same.

>>19923334
You could try planting the seedling with a nurse plant. Maybe that would improve survival during the vulnerable period.

>>19922994
The small batch outlets like w2t on the higher end also do that. You can taste the difference, better leaf and cleaner aging.

I've been drinking a lot tea the past few days and my tongue keeps tingling.
Guess I need some time off.

>>19923798
I've been drinking tea everyday for years anon i'm sorry.
Other tongue cancer symptoms may include:

A red or white patch on the tongue or lining of the mouth.
A sore throat that doesn't go away.
A feeling that something is caught in the throat.
Numbness of the mouth or tongue.
Difficulty or pain with chewing, swallowing, or moving the jaws or tongue.
Swelling of the jaw.
A change in voice.

>>19923855
I drank some stanky liubao and now I have all of those.

>>19923865
Doctor or dentist before you die.

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Threadly reminder to buy and use a tongue scraper of some sort and scrape that bitch for maximum tea enjoyment

>>19923798
Maybe you burned your mouth. Did you let the tea cool before drinking it?

>>19923923
If you drink your tea after it's below 90°c you aren't enjoying it properly

>leave pu-erh tea leaves in mug
>it doesn't oversteep to hell and become undrinkable
Sorcery.

>>19923998
Shu or Sheng? Shu just gets better

After a year straight of drinking raw puer grampa style i think it usually gets oversteeped unless you use really old ass mellowed out tea.

>>19918791
is aliexpress a good place to order pu'er tea? I live in a small backwatr european country called germany and don't have many options

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it's interesting to consider the yerba mate market in comparison to the pu-erh market
you have some intriguing similarities, such as both shifting from smoky processing to cleaner and less smoky to fit a wider public. also the fact that both are focused around packaged products with wrappers and can advertise using aged material (though the maxium ageing for yerba mate is much shorter)
but of course yerba mate doesn't really have a culture of rich fanatics around it, the vast majority of the industry is still focused on factory blends for the common south-american and occasional milder productions for the average westerner. attempts to gentrify it are a new phenomenon and limited in scope, I've only really seen one site that sells single origin, wild-grown, freeze dried or other such quirky varieties of mate, at premium prices

>>19924036
Kingteamall cheats on VAT quite effectively in my experience and they have a very wide selection
Farmerleaf has free shipping and also lowers the package value a lot. Smaller scale store though overall, focusing on modern productions more on the premium side mostly

AliExpress is a little sussy because tea is technically against their terms of service. Fullchea used to have an AliExpress front, but now you have to email them or something if you want to use it. I couldn't be bothered

>>19924036
No, selling tea is banned on alixepress and the sellers operating there are fly by night operations that could disappear at any moment.
Look at the pastebin, you can either pay out the ass for shops with EU stock or order from Chinese vendors websites. Fullchea aka heath tea house will sell through aliexpress but you have to pick what you want on their site and them email them with a list of what you want for them to set up a listing for you on ali.

>>19924072
>>19924066
>Fullchea
sounds sketchy af which in my book is a sign of quality. will check it out and report my findings

>>19924066
Excuse me it’s Health Tea House

>>19924177
The deal with fullchea is that they are good for buying puer from known factories, basically andy of the factories that get their own page on the website are known quantities and reasonably safe buys, the puer under the other brands tab is a lot of mystery stuff that is probably cheap and lame.
Their loose leaf tea is also mostly mystery stuff, the general advice is to stick with their puer but the braver/stupider anons occasionally buy their loose leaf teas

>>19924177
The popular cheap ripe rec is this guy
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/haiwan-2019-yr-pu-er-cha-9978-batch-191-shu-puer-te-357g

>>19924036
>is aliexpress a good place to order pu'er tea?
Only if you get your groceries from Harbor Freight.

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>>19922729
>"dirt" or "bitter" if you can't identify individual elements or aren't used to getting a mouthful of them all at once
I was the kind of child to pour salt on slugs, not eat dirt or glue so I reckon we're different in that department :^)
2023 firebat seems interesting. I am a huge fan of lapsang souchong. I'll pick it up during BF sale. None of the white tea samples I got from them back in 2019 were any good though. The best thing I got was the snoozefest, a sample of lapsang souchong, and a 50g bag of citramalt black they threw in for free.
I didn't even realize it's been that long since I ordered from them, but I'll probably just take recommendations on raws and order another silver needles cake from fullchea

>>19924270
I wish a had a spare $500 to grab all his smokied tea and charcoal roasted experiments. They seem right up my alley. I would probably need a separate pumidor so they didn't contaminate the rest of my stash.

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Finally sprayed some triple sec extract on my Applewood smoked roasted TGY. Waiting a day so that the flavor infuses fully.

>>19924270
I did the modern witch last night and had some kind of psychedelic experience. I also have the tale chaser and predawn dark, both of those are roasted, but I haven't opened those samples yet. All these cakes are fucking expensive but may actually be worth it.

>>19924397
>some kind of psychedelic experience
Kek. I've been sipping on the old reliable. You'd hate it.

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>>19924507
Probably. Although I do love white tea, I just like different things in ripes.

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>>19920327
I'm gonna do this experiment with some of my lao ban zhang. I have 7g in 4 bags. Each with a 69% size 8 boveda packet.
Insulating them with a towel and storing them in my closet where there is no AC flow to prevent condensation via rapid temperature changes.

Checkout this listing. Presented without comment.
https://kingteamall.com/collections/new-arrivals/products/1998-wuzhou-liu-bao-liubao-s-grade-loose-leaf-dark-tea-guangxi

>>19923254
drink it.

>>19924744
Haha nice

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>>19924939

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Drink more liubao

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>groggily pour water into gaiwan
>scalding water somehow bounces off tea and right onto my bare crotch
lesson learned

>>19924177
if you want to really sketchymax, Awazon is the way to go
>name strikes fear into normies' hearts
>website looks like it's from 2005
>some of the prices also look like they're from 2005
>when you make an order you get an error message in Chineses (but the order is still sent)
>some anon claims to have gotten bugs in their tea (free protein!)

>>19924270
>None of the white tea samples I got from them back in 2019 were any good though
yep, sounds like white tea to me

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Drinking my lbz fannings. Flash steeping it.

>>19925452
so is this shit actually worth the price in your opinion?

>>19925458
Gives me a mellow high compared to the absolute shitfest that the 8653 xiaguans put me through. It's good, but not $450 good imo...
I might change opinion if my little experiment turns to be a success. But fuck that is a lot of money so I'm gonna milk all my posts here...

puer. tea drunk. gf nagging. eat these lesbian hands.

Heh. I bought almost every affordable/cheap ripes cakes from moychay a couple years ago. They were all decent at least, some of them even quite good and thick, some others rather high in twigs. Except for that one Fields I couldn't stomach. Now, a couple years aging in a mylar bag later, it's almost good. Pretty strong, thick, brothy and leather-y. Very animal. Unexpected, if you ask me. I guess aging works better on strong tastes than stale ones. I hope they'll still carry the dirt cheap lose leaf ripes they have right now when my stock goes low because I'm even more broke now.

>>19925540
I have yet to find a ripe I don't enjoy at least a bit. Maybe I'm just good at dodging the fishy stuff
Fot black tea, on the other hand, I am quite picky

I like steeping my tea for 10-15 minutes and drinking it strength
>>19925373
Damn that fucking sucks bro
I hope you took care of it, that could lead to serious burning

funny how tastes change. when I was starting out with exploring tea, I liked lightly oxidized oolongs the most. now I find most of them insipid and boring. same for chinese green teas, though to a lesser extent
but give me some sub 20$ ripe cake and I'm happy

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>>19918791
tea with garlic
just saying

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>>19925373
Speaking of which, what gaiwan pouring method does everyone use? I use the stack method in pic related.

I'm a clumsy retard. The stack is the only way I've tried that doesn't lead to me scalding my hand from the hot tea running down the side of the gaiwan and spilling everywhere.

>>19925884
I pour with two hands, one on cup & one on lid. Ez Pz

>>19925884
Spiderman into goosehead each pour, though not every gaiwan is spiderman friendly

>>19925884
definitely goosehead
broke my gaiwan plate lately, so couldn't go for the stack even if I wanted to

>>19925884
Sorry, I'm a yixingchad. Lady Ashing a Cigarette is the best way.

What sheng is best for bittermaxing?

>>19926066
lao man E, bitter varietal. or other kucha material

>>19925884
Pointer and middle finger around the lid protrusion, thumb and ring finger holding the bowl. I'm also a clumsy retard but I'd rather spill tea/burn myself than break the porcelain.

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>>19926129
If only there were a better teapot design...

>>19922257
Not sure if you're trolling but every tea made from C. sinensis has caffeine. That includes: green tea, white tea, yellow tea, red tea, oolong and Puerh tea.

If you want performance enhancing properties from plants without consuming caffeine or using drugs (coke), I would suggest looking into ginkgo extract pills or mushroom extracts. People claim that mushroom extract from lion's mane, turkey tail or cordyceps give them energy boosts, focus or whatever you're looking for. These are NOT magic mushrooms or the ones causing hallucinations, they are used longer term for their "brain-boosting" properties but are not classified as drugs.

>>19922408
Did you rinse once or twice when drinking those cheap cakes from Fullchea? I have some Shou puer material at home even though I'm not a fan of it and it's actually drinkable after rinsing. The fishy/wet smell disappears.

>>19926175
Cute teapet. How much puerh did you pour over it until it became alive?

>>19926500
None, it came with a crack from shipping and now I'm waiting for a replacement. Looks like the kiln went on the fritz and nearly burned down dude's house so it may go into the fire this weekend. You can't really pour tea over it but it looks like it retains heat just fine.

>>19919866
>pic
Do I become lesbian the moment I sipp FL cake?
Is it really worth it?

>>19925630
my wang is relatively uninjured but thanks for your concern anon

>>19925884
I hold the gaiwan lid with the meaty part of my palm under my pointer finger. Then i grab the rim with 4 fingers and my thumb with my pointer finger sticking straight forward

>>19926513
>retains heat just fine
Lost

Is yunnan sourcing worth it?
They seem to have the biggest selection, plenty of samplers but everything seems expensive and you pay shipping as well.

>>19921365
Why do you save discarded tea leaves?

>>19926793
It depends, their selection is huge, their looseleaf tea ranges from okay to good. Their puer prices can be insane because they raise the price of old teas by 15%-20% every February, they have some old cakes i bought for $20 4-5 years ago that are $50+ now and not worth it. Still it can be a good choice, their hei cha prices are good, their recently added puers from other brands can be priced well. I don't really drink their house puer so i can't comment on that.

>>19926806
I was mainly looking at their dianhong selection.
Not sure where else I can get something good.
Not sure if it's the golden stuff that adds the sweet part to the chocolate body, but it's good.

>>19926820
The Xiaguan Hong cha dianhong I got from kingteamall recently is quite nice for the price. Robust, chocolaty and malty

>>19926820
I will recommend the 2 black teas again that I had from ys the "Black Gold Bi Luo Chun" and "Wu Liang Hong Mao Feng Yunnan" another anon tried them too maybe he's here. "High Mountain Red Ai Lao Mountain" is decent same for "Classic Laoshan Black Tea from Shandong" and the "Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong lapsang"

>>19926820
I’ve tried many black teas from YS and these are the ones I especially liked.
Black Gold Bi Luo Chun
Wu Liang Hong Mao Feng
High Mountain Tu Cha
Classic Robust Jin Jun Mei
Pure Gold Jin Jun Mei
Competition Jin Jun Mei
Sunrise Symphony Blend

>>19926859
>Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong
Had this one and really liked it.
It also had those golden things in it right?
Or maybe I'm thinking of something else, but I've a note that this one was good.

>>19926885
The ‘golden things’ are the oxidized trichomes (‘leaf hairs’) which produce secondary metabolites to deter insects, and luckily for us they also taste and smell quite nice. They are typically also a sign of high leaf quality.

>>19926820
>dianhong
If you want one that leans malty the boxes from fullchea are good
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/2019-yunnan-old-tree-black-tea-dianhong-feng-qing-red-tea-cake-357g
If you want something that leans mellow and more aromatic
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/products/jibian-high-mountain-black-tea-loose-leaf-from-yunnan-tengchong-dianhong-tea-red-china-cha-168g
Not sure what to suggest as a chocolate bomb

>>19926885
It wasn't the lapsang one. Golden tips? or fur? not the same thing.

>>19926885
>Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong
been drinking that lately, there isn't anything i'd really describe as golden about it.

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>>19924270
My W2T order came in recently. I'll probably drink some of the '23 Firebat tomorrow and let you know how it is.

>>19925202
ok done

>>19926920
Nice teaboat anon

>>19924701
Im interested to hear what happens with this

Hey kings, have you ever tried jiaogulan? It was recommended to me by a friend of mine as a caffeine-free, stress-relieving beverage similar to tea. If you've tried it, can you provide notes on its qualities?

>>19927092
A bit hesitant of herbs that don't have long documented use in the west. From a quick read it seems like it's fine to drink a few times a week but i would be a bit cautious about drinking it multiple times a day, every day for more then a few weeks at a time. Webmd lists some possible contradictions for those on immunosuppressive medications or with autoimmune diseases as it can apparently increase immue system activity. I dont want to scare you off of it, It's probably pretty benign, i just wouldn't recommended drinking multiple cups daily for years at a time.
Rooibos and Honeybush teas are both pleasant tasting caffeine free herbs that seem pretty safe to drink longterm.

THREADLY REMINDER
learn how to clean out your tonsil stones and do it regularly to enhance your tea enjoyment.

what are u guys planning to get from FL BF sale? everything willl be 20% off and hes dropping new stuff.
I'll probably get the autumn ba ka noy if is under $100 + the lao man er small trees+ ~500g of black tea.

>>19927442
Unfortunately I've already blown my tea budget for the rest of the year, so I won't be getting anything. Going to restock on some young sheng from FL in the spring though, most likely.

chai recommendations?

>>19927447
Sheng and black teas too. I don't know what's the second black tea he's adding with the ying pan shan. Might buy some more Fen Shui Ling if I don't choose enough things.

hi chads. im drinking the spring flush moo goo Gai pan as well as dong te fue. I got a won won brand gaiwan, originally for by shianhong tang but the aeration left it insipid, so I only use xhiao xhiao bang bang in it anymore. this summer when the Pingding site has a sale I'll get some jin wu Mao, ting ling tong, bi sex wung, and poo poo chao. any other recommendations?

>>19926793
their US site does free shipping over $50. every cake is slightly more than the main site, but I priced it out once and it still ends up being cheaper.

>>19927464
You should try some of that fu cha that tastes like semen (in a good way) and farm manure (in a good way)

>>19927802
Its time for crime

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I like it, I was under the impression that the extract would become extremely weak after the first 2 brews but it has held considerably well, in fact, it's a little bit overpowering. Might want to chose another flavor that would complement the coffee notes of the tea. Like vanilla...

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>>19927450
CHAI RECOMMENDATIONS?!?!??!?

I'm glad my electric kettle broke and that I've been forced to stop giving a fuck about water temperature. "Is it hot? Perfect"

>>19927912
Buy chai spice mix from a reputable spice vendor with high turnover, buy some ctc assam, crush spices, add spices to milk bring to simmer, add ctc assam simmer for 5 minutes or so strain and serve.
If you don't wanna do all that get some pre mixed chai spices and tea from vahdam

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>>19918791
whats up teatards time for another teaaaa review brought to you by the teameister himself Mr. T in his teacor er of the week. this week’s tea is Dancong and you wont beLEAF what he has to say!

>>19927917
>bag matcha
wut?

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Time for some.heresy

>>19928054
we're listening Mr. T

>>19927442
>everything willl be 20% off
That's pretty good, how long will this sale last for?

Does YS do Black Friday?

>>19928223
would you recommend this stuff to someone who already drinks coffee and has a few different beans and also drinks tea and has a few tea cakes? Not sure i want another bag of leaves lol.

>>19928555
Yerba mate? Its pretty good. Just get a cheapshit staw off Amazon ant either a double insulated stainless cup or just use a mug or something you already own.
Get cruz de malta if you want something lighter and very acessable. Get rosamonte especial if you want something a bit smokey and rougher get la merced campo & monte if you want something in the middle.
These are the cheap straws i use
https://www.amazon.com/GFDesign-Bombilla-Drinking-Food-Grade-Stainless/dp/B0748FW2C5/
Or just get a cheap set like this one
https://www.amazon.com/Cuopru-Yerba-Mate-Cup-Bombilla/dp/B0C73JLMF9/
Yerba is fun to drink, watch a youtbe video or something to see it explained. Use water that's like 170°f
It tastes pleasing, it has a nice caffeine buzz that feels different from tea or coffee.

>>19928516
>Does YS do Black Friday?
Not normally but they do more sales then typical this time of year. I think the owner said they did not want to deal with a huge number of orders all at once. They did a rare 13% off everything not that long ago. Normally they only do sales on a couple categories at a time. Also check out their "Free Gift and BOGO Offers" if they have something you want there it sometimes beats a traditional sale. Note that YS never lets you combine deals, sales don't stack with "free" offers. Because of this if there is something you want from other stores that does a Black Friday sale and have to stay on a budget I would grab that now and order from YS another time.

>>19928516
Ys doesn't do black friday, they do a bunch of sperate sales for 1 or 2 types of tea at a time. The owner said he got so many orders when he did black friday sales it took a ages to get it all shipped.

Do you first pour hot water into your gaiwan to raise its temperature before first brew?

My mom is a professor at a local university that receives many international students, a large number of which happen to be mainland Chinese
They keep giving us tea
Our pantry is drowning in tea
Send help

>>19928781
I don't bother, but I probably would if it had particularly thick walls

>>19927442
I still don't know what he'll add
mostly interested in the lao man e if he adds it again

>>19926066
w2t Gas

>>19927917
>brown yerba mate
wat

>>19928223
I've had a passion fruit flavored yerba mate already, a Taragui. so maybe not such heresy after all

>>19928223
where to buy yerba mate in north america? how much should it cost?

>>19928781
it's called a rinse

>>19929223
Europe here. haven't bought it in a while, but I would usually pay around 5$ per half kilo pack
don't overpay for yerba mate, the differences in quality between productions are not huge like they are with tea. it's more about personal preference. Pajarito is one of the cheapest brands where I'm at, but also one of my favorites

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>>19928598
I second Cruz de Malta. Great introduction mate, light and grassy taste but nicely seasoned, without the insipid green sweetness you sometimes get in the greener productions. Kraus is also a nice one at this end of the spectrum.
Gotta recommend my Paraguayan bros too for the smoky, rough and seasoned reccs. Pajarito, Indega, Fede Rico, Kurupi and others. Don't think I've ever had a Paraguayan mate I disliked.

>>19929228
Rinse is doing a short first brew and then pouring it out, what anon is describing is preheating the gaiwan. It's more commonly done like that with Yixing wares where thermal shock is more of a potential issue.

>>19928904
Regift it, it’s the Chinese way

Fen Shui Ling oriental beauty listed for a second on farmer leaf.

>>19929462
that store is funny with all the listing and unlisting of products
I might sample some of their cheaper stuff again, depends on what they add this autumn. only cheap spring cake I have left to try is the Huey Wa and it sounds a little mediocre from what I've heard

>>19929498
I had Huey Wa as sample last time it's ok-ish not top of the site by any means. Adding 2 black teas, 5 ripes, ans new autumn+ spring sheng. But didn't talk about the other oriental beauty that was just listed

>>19929462
maybe he's getting the listings ready and messed up
are we expecting them this friday?

>>19929523
Didn't give a date but said next week so friday most likely. Said he was tasting and writing the tasting notes for the ripes on the latest streams so he's writing them on the site and missclicked this one. Might have them friday night/evening with the time zones.

>>19929513
yeah from the ones I've tried Fa Zhan He was great, Bangwai small trees was tasty but not as exciting, Dong Guo was fun but not something I'd want to drink regularly and Jingmai Miyun was boring
and I disliked the huangpian cake, though I probably just don't like huangpian

so not many young raws left to sample on the cheaper end, really.

>>19929532
Maybe using the autumn price difference and the discount from black friday to get a higher price cake? I'll get a Fa Zhan He myself.

Lao man e Autumn + discount might be the best buy on the site if it happens honestly.

>>19929531
>using WordPress while tea drunk
Plausible.

>>19929539
is it super bitter, or balanced? does the bitterness linger?
I feel tempted after all the rave reviews and I think I tend to like raws on the agressive side. but I don't know my preferences enough yet to be sure if I want a whole cake of bitter bulang butchery

>>19929550
It's supposed to be "bitter" but it gets sweet that's why it's good it has character. I didn't try the most expensive ones but they all have the characteristic biterness of the mountain. You can always brew it more or less depending on how you like it. It's aggressive good in my opinion. I liked the Nuo gu wan (not pressed) if I brew it gently but not hard. Lao man e I enjoyed it both ways.

>>19929550
If bitterness is the only issue you can always wait on the cake to drink it, only gets better with age. Best teas are old raws.

>>19929040
I've got a cake of that on the way. Can't wait.

>Have to wait for Black Friday to restock my supply of neatly-condensed Asian leaves.
Suffering, send help frens. I need crispy tea pics ASAP!

Fa zhan he cake with 20% discount seems like a safe choice right?
Is this tea only for puer lesbians or even for let's say more general public?

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>>19929647
Have some cheap red I drink for breakfast.

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>>19929653
Kinda shits the bed after the 4th cup but I dont have time to sit around all morning drinking tea.

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>>19929647
Trying to make space for new teas, drinkig nuo gu wan right now (ancient trees)
>>19929651
It's the beginning of it, still cheap enough to not fall into the rabbit hole but be careful

>>19929651
if you like green tea type flavors, I think it's a pretty safe choice. not too bitter or unapproachable for a sheng

>>19929705
>green tea type flavors
I've had only one sencha and it was like drinking grass from lawnmower.
Can't say I was big of a fan.
It somehow worked when sipping while eating sweets like japs do, but that's about it, I can't be eating chocolate all the time.

>>19929651
It's your first cake ever? First puerh? Should be a decent start for the price. Take your time drinking it and gong fu style 100%

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i can't afford good yancha

>>19929664
Almost done with my tea 1+ hour drinking feels so good

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>>19929774
Last steeping.

>>19929749
Guess you're stuck with jobber yancha.

>>19929561
sounds pretty good. we'll see if he even adds it

>>19929832
Lao man e is pretty good just don't be scared of the bitterness, look for it, and push for your taste the first brewing session you do so you can enjoy the next ones as much as possible.

>>19929832
William enjoys lao man e a lot, we are getting a cake this autumn i hope.

>>19929708
The fa Zhan He doesn't really have the grassiness of sencha, more of a savory green bean thing that's reminiscent of Chinese green teas. Maybe a bit like edamame?
That + lemon and some floral honey sweetness that comes and goes and a fluffy texture on the tongue.
But if you're new to raw puerh maybe some samples would be best? Many people don't dig the astringency and bitterness that's a common feature of this type of tea. In this one it's not that high, but if you overbrew it it will still be bitter

>>19929862
He's said it's his favourite village next to Naka, right?

>>19929915
He was drinking some naka on stream I think, he was surprised by how good the cake was. But overall mountain I don't know about his exact preferences, I just know he's refering to lao man e alot especially for mid high price and ba ka noy for high end price being just north of lao man e.

>>19929931
In some video from a few years back where he compares tastes of different raws from Menghai he says Naka might be his favourite location. Maybe since then he's enjoyed Lao man e more.

>>19929944
Maybe lately, I don't remember the date of his first video with the lao man e producer he's friend/associate with but might have played a role in it. Finding a good sourceable garden can really change your perception of a village/mountain.

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Anyone else like these? I love the scent of these which reminds me of silver needle and moonlight teas.
But they just hate water and take forever to steep.

>>19930077
not really a fan of white teas, but the coniferous aspect of the flavor is kind of fun

>>19930077
>they just hate water
i've never tried them, what do you mean by that?

>>19930292
they are very hydrophobic and low surface area.

>>19928781
I do (sometimes)

>>19929223
>where to buy yerba mate in north america?
Amazon, is easy
>how much should it cost?
$10 a kilo for the cheap stuff
$10-$12 for 500g for the mid grade stuff
$18 for 500g for the top tier fancy organic stuff for white women
Just get cruz de malta for no smoke or rosamote espeical for some smoke

>>19929532
>yeah from the ones I've tried Fa Zhan He was great, Bangwai small trees was tasty but not as exciting, Dong Guo was fun but not something I'd want to drink regularly and Jingmai Miyun was boring
I didn't try the dong guo but otherwise i mostly agree
I did end up really enjoying the bangwei for when i wanted something sweet and easy to drink with good endurance but it wasn't punchy or bold or anything like that.

NEW:
>>19930406
>>19930406
>>19930406

>>19929655
>but I dont have time to sit around all morning drinking tea
Yeah there is something to be said for teas that you can finish off in less then 40 minutes

>>19929797
Damn those are some pretty looking leaves

>>19930411
Yancha has short legs for the price. Kinda worth it.

https://what-cha.com/products/intro-to-tea-collection
How dumb a purchase is this for a newfag? Seems better value than comparable intro to type things but still not completely sold on it

>>19930586
Sounds fine for an intro set, it doesn't cover every single tea but it lets you try a good range of stuff.

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>>19930586
>what-cha

>>19930624
explain

>>19930642
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iBU_D36-AA

>>19930586
there's nothing chinese in it which seems a bit odd

>my FL samples are stuck in a customs loop
It already cleared customs twice so where is it?
I don't have time for this bs, black friday is so close.