Tea

[Zeftax]

My moka express (not bialetti - so not really repairable, the handle broke off and it was spot-welded on) broke so I've been thinking of trying out tea instead since I have to buy a new pot anyways. Tea is healthier and I am really attracted to the more ritualistic side of tea-drinking (actually taking a proper break for a while and clearing out my mind while just sipping tea instead of just making a cup of coffee and immediately getting back to work [I may regret this, I use an old-timey hand grinder for the coffee and when I have to get up really early it is a pain to grind my coffee before being able to wake up properly]).
For a pot, I will be choosing a kyushu based on my friends recommendation (Originally I wanted a gaiwan, since it had some beatiful landscape paintings on it and came as a set with some bowls, but apparently its lack of a handle is a real pain in the fingertips if you make hot black tea, the kyushus are all kind of dull-looking and way more expensive, but I guess not getting burned is worth it). As for the teas I chose bancha kagoshima, long jing xi hu and hua cha white king - all green teas - japanese, chinese and a jasmine-scented one.
I do not have any real experience with loose leaf teas. I have mostly just drank cheap supermarket earl grey or ceylon bagged teas with lemon and honey, sometimes ginger or herbal and fruit teas (of those mostly home-grown lemonbalm tea to help with sleep).
So, is there anything I should know as a new tea-drinker? Any teas I should try once I've drank the ones I'll be buying now? The website I'll be buying from lists recommended temperatures and steeping times for individual pours, so that shouldn't be an issue. I have to say that I was a bit surprised when I saw that the times range between 10 and 50 seconds, when I am used to steeping my tea bags for ~3 minutes and the lemonbalm for around 15 minutes.

 

[klab]

Here's the rest of the teas from my order.

Spoiler: S01# Yunnan Premium Jasmine Tea Dragon Pearls

Letter Grade: A
Smells great, tastes great. It's fairly cheap, too. I'd order the 2.4kg size if that weren't a ridiculous amount.

Spoiler: E01# Yunnan Fresh Spring Tea "Bi Luo Chun" High Quality Green Tea

Letter Grade: B+
I have little experience regarding green teas, but I believe this one tastes like it should. Note the flavor is very different from the Jasmine above, even if the appearance is similar.

Spoiler: BS02# Big Golden Needle Yunnan Black Tea

There's better off Amazon or other sites for less. It's not bad, it just failed to deliver primarily in the taste department.
Letter Grade: C+

Spoiler: BS04# Yunnan Black Tea "Hong Luo"

Letter Grade: C+
Dirt cheap, but drinkable. If it were more expensive that grade would go down.

 

[A Shi Piao Teapot]

For a pot, I will be choosing a kyushu based on my friends recommendation (Originally I wanted a gaiwan, since it had some beatiful landscape paintings on it and came as a set with some bowls, but apparently its lack of a handle is a real pain in the fingertips if you make hot black tea, the kyushus are all kind of dull-looking and way more expensive, but I guess not getting burned is worth it). As for the teas I chose bancha kagoshima, long jing xi hu and hua cha white king - all green teas - japanese, chinese and a jasmine-scented one.

I wouldn't worry too much about your teaware choice. You can burn yourself just as easy on a kyusu as a gaiwan, and after some time with either it's not something you'll worry about.
If you haven't used one, it's really simple. You just pinch the the cup between the saucer and lid with your index/middle finger on bottom and the thumb on the lid, shift the lid ajar and pour. The saucer and lid won't get hot enough to burn, even when using boiling water. Also, gaiwans can be cheap, so if you bust one, you're only out $10-$20. I will say though that kyusus are really nice to have if you're brewing japanese greens. I find it kind of hard to filter gyokuro and sencha in a gaiwan personally.

So, is there anything I should know as a new tea-drinker? Any teas I should try once I've drank the ones I'll be buying now? The website I'll be buying from lists recommended temperatures and steeping times for individual pours, so that shouldn't be an issue. I have to say that I was a bit surprised when I saw that the times range between 10 and 50 seconds, when I am used to steeping my tea bags for ~3 minutes and the lemonbalm for around 15 minutes.

Yeah, brewing's all over the place, really just depends on the tea and where it's served. Gongfu cha was influential in the east, so a lot of sites will list shorter brew times with more leaves. As for recs, if you want more greens, I'd check out japanese gyokuro/matcha and korean styles like sejak, quite different from long jing.

Here's the rest of the teas from my order.

Are these from Awazon? Never bought from them. Any you'd rec? (sans jasmine, I don't like the taste.)

 

[klab]

Are these from Awazon? Never bought from them. Any you'd rec? (sans jasmine, I don't like the taste.)

I wouldn't tell you to go out of your way for anything. I believe the letter grade I gave is too unreliable and I'll have to try each tea a bunch more before I have a good understanding of it.
Everything here is drinkable, and I'll continue to do so until it's all gone. Giving the white tea a solid D for having a better option elsewhere isn't reasonable when I gave BS02# a C+ for being considerably more expensive than another product with a significantly lower price.
MH51 is interesting because it's so aged for the price, but exactly how good that makes it is still for me to figure out as I drink it and other raw pu-erhs more.
Awazon is considered to be very hit or miss (luckily, I didn't find any portions of rodent in what I ordered.) They primarily sell in bulk so even the samples are 100g+, but there's always a potential to get something you really like that you can get a lot of for a very reasonable price.
This order mostly served the purpose of giving me a good chunk of material to go through throughout the year as I think the only real winner was the jasmine. Otherwise, I'll be looking at W2T and other shops for higher quality stuff.

 

[Super Guido]

View attachment 7022293
I wouldn't tell you to go out of your way for anything. I believe the letter grade I gave is too unreliable and I'll have to try each tea a bunch more before I have a good understanding of it.
Everything here is drinkable, and I'll continue to do so until it's all gone. Giving the white tea a solid D for having a better option elsewhere isn't reasonable when I gave BS02# a C+ for being considerably more expensive than another product with a significantly lower price.
MH51 is interesting because it's so aged for the price, but exactly how good that makes it is still for me to figure out as I drink it and other raw pu-erhs more.
Awazon is considered to be very hit or miss (luckily, I didn't find any portions of rodent in what I ordered.) They primarily sell in bulk so even the samples are 100g+, but there's always a potential to get something you really like that you can get a lot of for a very reasonable price.
This order mostly served the purpose of giving me a good chunk of material to go through throughout the year as I think the only real winner was the jasmine. Otherwise, I'll be looking at W2T and other shops for higher quality stuff.

White2Tea is amazing. I love their Hypnotrain one the most.

 

[klab]

White2Tea is amazing. I love their Hypnotrain one the most.

Boat Captain is my favorite tea on W2T and I should pick one up before it's out of stock. I also had firebat, which was interesting. Firebat really captures the flavor of campfire.
My favorite tea so far is https://yunnansourcing.us/collectio...un-dried-silver-needles-white-pu-erh-tea-cake

 

[Super Guido]

Boat Captain is my favorite tea on W2T and I should pick one up before it's out of stock. I also had firebat, which was interesting. Firebat really captures the flavor of campfire.
My favorite tea so far is https://yunnansourcing.us/collectio...un-dried-silver-needles-white-pu-erh-tea-cake

Is Boat Captain smoky? Going by Firebat, have you ever had lapsang souchong? It's smoked over pine - seems like the kind of think you'd like if you like smoky teas. It's not my personal choice, but not everything has to be.

 

[klab]

Is Boat Captain smoky? Going by Firebat, have you ever had lapsang souchong? It's smoked over pine - seems like the kind of think you'd like if you like smoky teas. It's not my personal choice, but not everything has to be.

I have, but the 3 are different. Boat captain is a smoked raw pu-erh. I have the advantage of having 1 last serving I brewed and am drinking now. It has some similarities to Lapsang but has Tobacco as well as an aftertaste that's difficult to describe.
The Firebat is also a smoked raw pu-erh. The description states citrus and tobacco and that it was smoked similarly to Lapsang with pine, but to me it was more like a literal in-your-face campfire. I remember the Firebat also causing an odd tingling sensation in my mouth but I can't recall much else about the flavor.
I have a bag of Lapsang Souchong from Upton Tea Imports. I believe the Imperial. I do like it, haven't had it in a while though.
I'd argue that the Boat Captain is more of a Lapsang than the Firebat, while the Firebat is a very odd, very intense experience.
I need to do more tea orders but I have a habit of aiming for the cheap stuff. My next W2T order might not be until Black Friday where they sell the yearly Snoozefest which is supposedly a heavily discounted raw pu-erh. I can't do ripe, tastes like fish to me.

 

[Super Guido]

I have, but the 3 are different. Boat captain is a smoked raw pu-erh. I have the advantage of having 1 last serving I brewed and am drinking now. It has some similarities to Lapsang but has Tobacco as well as an aftertaste that's difficult to describe.
The Firebat is also a smoked raw pu-erh. The description states citrus and tobacco and that it was smoked similarly to Lapsang with pine, but to me it was more like a literal in-your-face campfire. I remember the Firebat also causing an odd tingling sensation in my mouth but I can't recall much else about the flavor.
I have a bag of Lapsang Souchong from Upton Tea Imports. I believe the Imperial. I do like it, haven't had it in a while though.
I'd argue that the Boat Captain is more of a Lapsang than the Firebat, while the Firebat is a very odd, very intense experience.
I need to do more tea orders but I have a habit of aiming for the cheap stuff. My next W2T order might not be until Black Friday where they sell the yearly Snoozefest which is supposedly a heavily discounted raw pu-erh. I can't do ripe, tastes like fish to me.

Ah, ok. I don't seek out smoked teas, so I wouldn't know all the differences between them.

Hopefully you're not allergic to whatever was in Firebat. That'd be a bummer.

I don't blame you. Ripe pu-erh tastes the way fish smells to me, too. The only pu-erh I've ever really liked, and I'm not convinced it was really pu-erh, was Numi's chocolate pu-erh. It tasted like powdered sugar donuts, but over the years it seemed to lose flavor.

Raw pu-erh can be aight, but I don't buy it that often. I actually don't remember the last one I had.

 

[klab]

Hopefully you're not allergic to whatever was in Firebat. That'd be a bummer.

Definitely not allergic. It was an interesting sensation, however. I'm trying to remember if it's actually the tea oranges that had that sensation instead or maybe as well.
https://yunnansourcing.com/products/fuding-shou-mei-white-tea-stuffed-into-king-orange These were very interesting and had a very odd flavor and sensation to them. Shame they're out of stock and also only available on the .com site.

Raw pu-erh can be aight, but I don't buy it that often. I actually don't remember the last one I had.

I'm mostly a fan of white tea and I find it really interesting in cakes. Pu-erh came incidental, but I do like a good amount of the raw I've had so far. That said, I'm mostly in the business for stuff that has natural sweetness to it that I can brew and drink constantly.
If I had to choose I'd pick this over every other white tea I've had so far https://yunnansourcing.us/collectio...un-dried-silver-needles-white-pu-erh-tea-cake

 

[Anonymus Fluhre]

I have a block of tea that I've been meaning to use and some tea resin being shipped to me. Has anyone tried either? I heard the tea resin can be quite strong.

 

[klab]

I have a block of tea that I've been meaning to use and some tea resin being shipped to me. Has anyone tried either? I heard the tea resin can be quite strong.

Where did you get tea resin from? I've only seen that at Jesse's Tea House. The description says each pellet makes between 12-40oz so you can probably cut a piece off.
Bricks? I have a few, but they're pretty cheap and all. They're significantly harder to break apart than the cakes.

Harney & Sons is having a 20% sale on all orders $30+ with free shipping $70+ (Code: MAR25 )
- H&S has a lot of great blends and flavored teas. I'm not sure if they're a good source of "normal" teas but the flavored ones are great.
Yunnan Sourcing US is having a 20% sale on Black & Green Tea (Code: YSUS20 ) Can't be combined with any other deals like the BOGO they offer all the time or Loyalty Rewards etc.
- Better for "normal" tea. That said, I haven't had too much from them other than white.

 

[AnOminous]

Is Boat Captain smoky? Going by Firebat, have you ever had lapsang souchong? It's smoked over pine - seems like the kind of think you'd like if you like smoky teas. It's not my personal choice, but not everything has to be.

If you like a touch of smoke but not as much as lapsang souchong, there's also Russian caravan, which is a blend including lapsang souchong, and somewhat less smoky. Personally, I like the full smokiness, but some find it too intense.

 

[macrodegenerate]

I buy loose leaf from Harney and sons. My favorite tea is a half and half mix of Formosa Oolong and Dragon Pearl Jasmine.

 

[Anonymus Fluhre]

Where did you get tea resin from? I've only seen that at Jesse's Tea House. The description says each pellet makes between 12-40oz so you can probably cut a piece off.
Bricks? I have a few, but they're pretty cheap and all. They're significantly harder to break apart than the cakes.

Harney & Sons is having a 20% sale on all orders $30+ with free shipping $70+ (Code: MAR25 )
- H&S has a lot of great blends and flavored teas. I'm not sure if they're a good source of "normal" teas but the flavored ones are great.
Yunnan Sourcing US is having a 20% sale on Black & Green Tea (Code: YSUS20 ) Can't be combined with any other deals like the BOGO they offer all the time or Loyalty Rewards etc.
- Better for "normal" tea. That said, I haven't had too much from them other than white.

You can either get it from Amazon, comes in individual packets, or just import it. I picked up mine when I imported some gochujang (South Korean chili paste, tastes awesome in everything). Tea you're thinking of from Jesse's is I think Pu'er tea resin. I'd look into Nakdnu or just look into the site, Yunnan sourcing. I'd also recommend getting a vacuum tea flask if you order some hei cha tea bricks. Don't use it for other teas unless you like bitter teas. Mojun Fu Cha was the first type of brick I tried a while back so now I'm trying others. Last one being Gao Jia Shan. Beautiful colour, tasted good. I didn't get the fruitiness that it's supposed to have, but I did smell the molasses smell and it was sweet.

If I'm not working on either well work, or school assignments I'd rather drink a good tea over a coffee.

 

[Hojicha]

White2Tea is amazing. I love their Hypnotrain one the most.

White2Tea good. agree.
Yunnan sourcing has only ever sent me stinky cakes funny enough

If you like a touch of smoke but not as much as lapsang souchong, there's also Russian caravan, which is a blend including lapsang souchong, and somewhat less smoky. Personally, I like the full smokiness, but some find it too intense.

Every lapsang souchong tastes like gasoline to me, and I can't not think of Eric Andre saying it was his favorite it in Cabinet of curiosities.

 

[AnOminous]

Every lapsang souchong tastes like gasoline to me, and I can't not think of Eric Andre saying it was his favorite it in Cabinet of curiosities.

Probably because they'd contain small amounts of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, also found in gasoline.

 

[macrodegenerate]

Probably because they'd contain small amounts of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, also found in gasoline.

Welp, I just used that H&S coupon. I've always wanted to drink gasoline. It's the smell. Ya know?

 

[AnOminous]

Welp, I just used that H&S coupon. I've always wanted to drink gasoline. It's the smell. Ya know?

I don't really taste gasoline in it, just pine smoke. It might be one of those things where some people are extra sensitive to certain things.

 

[Anonymus Fluhre]

White2Tea good. agree.
Yunnan sourcing has only ever sent me stinky cakes funny enough

Haven't had that yet but only picked up three from them. I've found worse from smaller sellers. I do however use their non American site. I've also bought tea from the chinese tea shop but they have limited stock so only bought one cake and some loose leaf green and white tea. Usually the Jasmine Yin Hao