tea anyone?

[lim f(x) = f(a)]

I've been drinking black, green, and white tea all my life.

Here are some I drink:

http://www.adagio.com/

http://www.pgtips.co.uk/

http://www.yogitea.com/ :D

And check out this site.

http://www.worldteaexpo.com/ - Tea rankings and ratings.

[lilodxd]

bump for a great thread. i just rediscovered my love for pu-erh tea. anyone have a good site to order pu-erh tea from? loose leaves preferred..

[mrkehbyners]

been drinkin snapple green tea peach for days

[Akira]

Green tea is my thing, I have this Japanese tsugaru (read: apple) green tea that is my current favorite. Passionfruit black tea for when I need the extra caffeine

[poly800rock]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/17/world/asia/17tea.html?hp

A County in China Sees Its Fortunes in Tea Leaves Until a Bubble Bursts

By ANDREW JACOBS

MENGHAI, China — Saudi Arabia has its oil. South Africa has its diamonds. And here in China’s temperate southwest, prosperity has come from the scrubby green tea trees that blanket the mountains of fabled Menghai County.

Over the past decade, as the nation went wild for the region’s brand of tea, known as Pu’er, farmers bought minivans, manufacturers became millionaires and Chinese citizens plowed their savings into black bricks of compacted Pu’er.

But that was before the collapse of the tea market turned thousands of farmers and dealers into paupers and provided the nation with a very pungent lesson about gullibility, greed and the perils of the speculative bubble. “Most of us are ruined,” said Fu Wei, 43, one of the few tea traders to survive the implosion of the Pu’er market. “A lot of people behaved like idiots.”

A pleasantly aromatic beverage that promoters claim reduces cholesterol and cures hangovers, Pu’er became the darling of the sipping classes in recent years as this nation’s nouveaux riches embraced a distinctly Chinese way to display their wealth, and invest their savings. From 1999 to 2007, the price of Pu’er, a fermented brew invented by Tang Dynasty traders, increased tenfold, to a high of $150 a pound for the finest aged Pu’er, before tumbling far below its preboom levels.

For tens of thousands of wholesalers, farmers and other Chinese citizens who poured their money into compressed disks of tea leaves, the crash of the Pu’er market has been nothing short of disastrous. Many investors were led to believe that Pu’er prices could only go up.

“The saying around here was ‘It’s better to save Pu’er than to save money,’ ” said Wang Ruoyu, a longtime dealer in Xishuangbanna, the lush, tea-growing region of Yunnan Province that abuts the Burmese border. “Everyone thought they were going to get rich.”

Fermented tea was hardly the only caffeinated investment frenzy that swept China during its boom years. The urban middle class speculated mainly in stock and real estate, pushing prices to stratospheric levels before exports slumped, growth slowed and hundreds of billions of dollars in paper profits disappeared over the past year.

In the mountainous Pu’er belt of Yunnan, a cabal of manipulative buyers cornered the tea market and drove prices to record levels, giving some farmers and county traders a taste of the country’s bubble — and its bitter aftermath.

At least a third of the 3,000 tea manufacturers and merchants have called it quits in recent months. Farmers have begun replacing newly planted tea trees with more nourishing — and now, more lucrative — staples like corn and rice. Here in Menghai, the newly opened six-story emporium built to house hundreds of buyers and bundlers is a very lonely place.

“Very few of us survived,” said Mr. Fu, 43, among the few tea traders brave enough to open a business in the complex, which is nearly empty. He sat in the concrete hull of his shop, which he cannot afford to complete, and cobwebs covered his shelf of treasured Pu’er cakes.

All around him, sitting on unsold sacks of tea, were idled farmers and merchants who bided their time playing cards, chain smoking and, of course, drinking endless cups of tea.

The rise and fall of Pu’er partly reflects the lack of investment opportunities and government oversight in rural Yunnan, as well as the abundance of cash among connoisseurs in the big cities.

Wu Xiduan, secretary general of the China Tea Marketing Association, said many naïve investors had been taken in by the frenzied atmosphere, largely whipped up by out-of-town wholesalers who promoted Pu’er as drinkable gold and then bought up as much as they could, sometimes paying up to 30 percent more than in the previous year.

He said that as farmers planted more tea, production doubled from 2006 to 2007, to 100,000 tons. In the final free-for-all months, some producers shipped their tea to Yunnan from other provinces, labeled it Pu’er, and then enjoyed huge markups.

When values hit absurd levels last spring, the buyers unloaded their stocks and disappeared.

“The market was sensationalized on purpose,” Mr. Wu said, speaking in a telephone interview from Beijing.

With its near-mythic aura, Pu’er is well suited for hucksterism. A favorite of emperors and imbued with vague medicinal powers, Pu’er was supposedly invented by eighth-century horseback traders who compressed the tea leaves into cakes for easier transport. Unlike other types of tea, which are consumed not long after harvest, Pu’er tastes better with age. Prized vintages from the 19th century have sold for thousands of dollars a wedge.

Over the past decade, the industry has been shaped in ways that mirror the Western fetishization of wine. Sellers charge a premium for batches picked from older plants or, even better, from “wild tea” trees that have survived the deforestation that scars much of the region. Enthusiasts talk about oxidation levels, loose-leaf versus compacted and whether the tea was harvested in the spring or the summer. (Spring tea, many believe, is more flavorful.)

But with no empirical way to establish a tea’s provenance, many buyers are easily duped.

“If you study Pu’er your whole life, you still can’t recognize the differences in the teas,” said Mr. Wang, the tea buyer. “I tell people to just buy what tastes good and don’t worry about anything else.”

Among those most bruised by the crash are the farmers of Menghai County. Many had never experienced the kind of prosperity common in China’s cities. Villagers built two-story brick homes, equipped them with televisions and refrigerators and sent their children to schools in the district capital. Flush with cash, scores of elderly residents made their first trips to Beijing.

“Everyone was wearing designer labels,” said Zhelu, 22, a farmer who is a member of the region’s Hani minority and uses only one name. “A lot of people bought cars, but now we can’t afford gas so we just park them.”

Last week, dozens of vibrantly dressed women from Xinlu sat on the side of the highway hawking their excess tea. There were few takers. The going rate, about $3 a pound for medium-grade Pu’er, was less than a tenth of the peak price. The women said that during the boom years, tea traders from Guangdong Province would come to their village and buy up everyone’s harvest. But last year, they simply stopped showing up.

Back at Menghai’s forlorn “tea city,” Chen Li was surrounded by what he said was $580,000 worth of product he bought before the crash. As he served an amber-hued seven-year-old variety, he described the manic days before Pu’er went bust. Out-of-towners packed hotels and restaurants. Local banks, besieged by customers, were forced to halve the maximum withdrawal limit.

“People had to stand in line for four or five hours to get the money from the bank, and you could often see people quarreling,” he said. “Even pedicab drivers were carrying tea samples and looking for clients on the street.”

A trader who jumped into the business three years ago, Mr. Chen survives by offsetting his losses with profits from a restaurant his family owns in Alabama. He also happens to be one of the few optimists in town. Now that so many farmers have stopped picking tea, he is confident that prices will eventually rebound. As for the mounds of unsold tea that nearly enveloped him?

“The best thing about Pu’er,” he said with a showman’s smile, “is that the longer you keep it, the more valuable it gets.”

[Eccles]

^

I have some Menghai mini tuo , probably not worth much but think I'm gonna hold on to it!

For the past eight months I've been sampling Wu Yi teas in an attempt to find my brand.

I had never tasted an oolong before but I have to profess it has become a daily routine and one I can scarcely imagine living without. There's something so invigorating about the complex flavours and aromas and the brewing process for each tea breeds a sorely neede patience and attention to detail.

I think I have settled on Shui Xian/Dang Cong as the first tea worth buying a yixing pot for.

It's a nice thing when a thread on a fashion forum really makes a impact in your life so thanks to everyone who posted.

I read some where that if you use the same pot for 20 years or so you can brew tea without leaves, hypocriful?

worth a try though

[Baeyer-Drewson]

Buddha's Tears is a serious fucking mouth and nose treat.

Shame you have to sell a kidney just to buy a few hundred grams of it over here.

[mlproject]

i need some more of this blooming tea sidney hooked me up with. so good.

[Baeyer-Drewson]

This is the good stuff;

A few balls in the bottom of a mug and they just unfurl slowly as the boiling water heats them, releasing white tea goodness and an amazing jasmine scent. You can reuse one serving of them a few times too (like most green tea).

So expensive because they are only made from the tips of the thea sinensis branches and rolled with jasmine by hand.

[poly800rock]

where to kop?

[Baeyer-Drewson]

I'm in Sydney, Australia. I head to a place called T2 (pretty sweet tea-shop chain) otherwise any self-respecting chinatown should have it.

[mpcec]

Hmm I think I have some of that at home Baeyer... looks like it's mixed with another tea though. I'll have to try some of it.

I'm looking to buy some interesting Black teas, I've tried all the usual suspects, I've tried a Kenya black, some fruit blacks, Russian Caravan, Lapsang Souchong... I'm really just looking for something more interesting. I know this is vague but hopefully someone will come up with something. My favorite right now is just plain old Earl Gray.

[denimdestroyedmylife]

i just received delivery of my first English made Brown Betty teapot

i cannot wait to break her in

i am a fan of black teas myself

though i will drink green teas in the evening

[Whodinihimself]

This is the good stuff;

A few balls in the bottom of a mug and they just unfurl slowly as the boiling water heats them, releasing white tea goodness and an amazing jasmine scent. You can reuse one serving of them a few times too (like most green tea).

So expensive because they are only made from the tips of the thea sinensis branches and rolled with jasmine by hand.

edit: I was wrong....In China, this type of tea generally goes by the name "Jasmine Dragon Pearl tea" (white tea/jasmine pearls) or "Buddha Pearl tea" (in the green/jasmine pearl variety)...looks nice....might have to pick some up.

[Whodinihimself]

tea i make for my dad:

put water on stove, high heat

when its almost about to boil add dry sage or fresh mint (whichever you prefer)

add tea (either a small spoon loose tea you buy in middle eastern store or lipton yellow label loose/bag)

add sweetener accordingly

dad is a diabetic so everyone adds their own.

this is typically the tea you will get in a middle eastern restaurant/home. its really good and i havent really had it any other way.

You add things before it boils???....Where I come from that's a brewing no-no....adding delicate herbs/tea leaves to boiling water burns them and changes their chemical makeup... most herbs/teas don't have a high threshold for heat (fresh herbs can withstand heat a little better, but I've never heard of any herb or plant that could withstand the boiling point of water and retain all of its benefits....boiling your ingredients will not only makes your tea taste bitter, it also mutes the positive health benefits and increases the amount of carcinogens in your cup.....I've always been told that, as a general rule, for most teas, you should boil the water first, let sit for 2-3 minutes then steep your ingredients..or run the risk of burning your ingredients. I know that there are charts out there on how to brew each cup specifically, but who has the time to take the temperature of their water?....this way might not be as precise, but i find that most tea's don't end up bitter this way.

This is why I always ask for "bag on the side" when ordering tea from coffee house chains and the like.

[gimmegimme]

Has anyone ordered from this place before:

http://www.theculturedcup.com/

They have a ton of Mariage Freres teas that you can buy in bulk.

[16steps]

nooneh paneer and chi sheereen

my persian folks will know whats up

[mpcec]

Whodini the tea becomes bitter as a result of oversteeping. Letting boiling water sit for 2-3 minutes would only drop the temperature very slightly.

Also I think that the brewing rule is roughly something like:

3 min for black

4 min for green

5 min for herbal

Correct me if I'm wrong...

[mlproject]

yeah that pearl tea is what i have. after it steeps, the tea is a light red-orange and its super light and refreshing. china town here i come.

[bangbangbang]

Different green tea varietals will have different brewing times.

For something delicate like a sencha or gyokuro, 30 sec to 1 min. is sufficient, but for something like a bancha, it can be steeped for 1.5-2 min. before it turns to shit. Genmaicha can handle longer steeps. I have a green darjeerling that does well after 3 minutes of brewing.

Black teas can handle longer times than green.

It depends on how "strong" you like your tea too.

[Whodinihimself]

Whodini the tea becomes bitter as a result of oversteeping. Letting boiling water sit for 2-3 minutes would only drop the temperature very slightly.

Also I think that the brewing rule is roughly something like:

3 min for black

4 min for green

5 min for herbal

Correct me if I'm wrong...

You will be corrected...

With regards to green tea and it's varities, steeping time does affect strength but will not make a tea taste bitter...the bitter taste can come from inferior quality teas or from the water being too hot when steeping the tea leaves. Although the tea will taste more robust and flavourful the longer you steep it, this doesn't mean that will become bitter. The bitter taste you experience from leaving the bag in comes mainly from tasting more of the actual taste of the tea plant...camilla sinensis (green tea) is a naturally bitter tasting plant...leave a bag of Chamomile tea in a mug for 7-8 minutes...it wont taste bitter, because the herb itself has a mellow, sweet taste...However, temperature is a major factor in taste....if the temperature of the water dips below a certain amount, the taste will, in turn, become bitter..bag in or bag out...this is the result of molecular decomposition...its basically rotting at a molecular level...people equate this with leaving the bag in too long because its more noticeable with a strong infusion...Whats worse is if the temperature drops too far before drinking...its not just bad for taste...what happens is that the in vitro antioxidant power of the tea begins to decline...and there are no preservatives in tea to slow this down.... the diminished anti oxidant effect isn't bad on its own. The problems is that, while green tea is considered to be anti-oxidant in vitro (outside the body) it is actually pro-oxidant in vivo (inside the body)..When you swallow green tea the main catechin (EGCG) undergoes oxidative stress which generates hydrogen peroxide within your body on a cellular level...which kills cancer cells (good) but will also kill normal cells (bad) if not for an anti-ox enzyme that basically undoes most of the damage...so, basically, if you wait too long, the clean up crew (superoxide dismutase) wont be there in big enough number to help you...so, you'll actually be drinking some mildly toxic stuff.

[mpcec]

Wow! I never realized how complex tea drinking could be. Very interesting post, and I definitely stand corrected. At the coffee shop I work at the water we use for tea is around 210 degrees Fahrenheit. I usually put the tea in right away/ let it steep/ take the bag out and then let it cool before drinking. Would you recommend waiting until the water was sub 200 degrees till I begin to steep the tea? I have thermometers at hand at work so I wouldn't mind experimenting and seeing how long it takes for the water to cool.

I also have at home a mixture of Rooibos Tropica and Jasmine Dragon Pearls. For brewing the instructions say 1 minute for the Pearls but 5-6 for the Roobios. Not really sure how I should go about this as they are all mixed together . Help please...

[Whodinihimself]

Wow! I never realized how complex tea drinking could be. Very interesting post, and I definitely stand corrected. At the coffee shop I work at the water we use for tea is around 210 degrees Fahrenheit. I usually put the tea in right away/ let it steep/ take the bag out and then let it cool before drinking. Would you recommend waiting until the water was sub 200 degrees till I begin to steep the tea? I have thermometers at hand at work so I wouldn't mind experimenting and seeing how long it takes for the water to cool.

I also have at home a mixture of Rooibos Tropica and Jasmine Dragon Pearls. For brewing the instructions say 1 minute for the Pearls but 5-6 for the Roobios. Not really sure how I should go about this as they are all mixed together . Help please...

I'm not sure of what the ideal temperature to start drinking would be. Most of what i said came from an article i read years ago. I used to work in the lab of a meat processing plant and our supervisor subscribed to a bunch of scientific periodicals. (This was back when the green tea craze first took off) It was basically a study on how green tea can be both pro and anti cancer, depending on how it's prepared and ingested. The article was some biochem or toxicology mag. I'm sure you can find similar stuff on the internetz.. I'll see what i can find. The way i see it, if its not burning your tongue, its time to drink ... and drink relatively fast.

edit:

here's a couple:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6TCP-4BP9F0D-5&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=eb6b568ea0aed5061193d6928cdcc9ac

http://scienceblogs.com/angrytoxicologist/2007/05/natural_does_not_equal_safe_gr.php

You probably wont find a lot of info on this. It's such a huge industry and I doubt that they want the general public to know that it could potentially cause cancer if prepared/consumed wrong (you would have to drink a shitload of badly prepared tea daily, for that to happen. 6-7 ill-prepared cups of it would probably be less harmful to your gut than smoking a single cig is to your lungs. So there's really no cause for worry. Lets not slow the green-tea train down just yet.

What people do need to know more about is green tea extract....that shit is lethal.

.

[lestat]

Wow! I never realized how complex tea drinking could be. Very interesting post, and I definitely stand corrected. At the coffee shop I work at the water we use for tea is around 210 degrees Fahrenheit. I usually put the tea in right away/ let it steep/ take the bag out and then let it cool before drinking. Would you recommend waiting until the water was sub 200 degrees till I begin to steep the tea? I have thermometers at hand at work so I wouldn't mind experimenting and seeing how long it takes for the water to cool.

different teas, different water temps... blacks usually need boiling/close to boiling water, as for green teas, under 200

[Whodinihimself]

different teas, different water temps... blacks usually need boiling/close to boiling water, as for green teas, under 200

There's many varieties of black tea, moreso than green tea. You can't really make that type of blanket statement. Boiling water is usually reserved for most high-grade, whole-leaf, robust blacks that have undergone strict fermentation and are packaged properly. This kind of black has a higher heat tolerance because there is less edges to singe on the leaves and the fermentation process increases oxidation (which mellows the leafs potency) You need the higher temperature to tenderize and permeate the leaf. But if you use everyday, run-of-the-mill bagged black tea (which is basically the leftover dust and crushed leaves) the temperature should be lower (around 200-202 degrees) because the surface area of the contents in the bag is thousands of times greater than whole-leaf tea...so that it will diffuse into the water in a matter of seconds. Boiling up black tea dust and bits of leaf isn't really a good idea. You'll just end up with a shitty tasting cup of tea.

On a side note:

If you look at the history of tea use in Asia, traditionally, the serving of tea was mixed with ceremony and ritual based on ancient treatise. There's a good reason for the strict guidelines that went along with the rituals and preparation guides: they began as medicinal. The tea leaf is medicinal, the pleasure part was secondary.

Although people who still follow strict tea preparing guidelines (because of ceremony) may not be aware of it, the tea ceremony impels you to follow specific rules and not mess up the brew. These revolved around medicinal texts written way before the ceremonies were developed. The ideal cup (and how to attain it) for each type of tea developed over time and it has as much to do with taste as it does with science. The guidelines aimed to maximize the health benefits and minimize the chance that you'll make something that's detrimental to your health. The difference is, the ancient texts don't use talk about how to brew tea leaf leavin's (i.e. your typical bagged tea) They were written for those that had access to the good stuff. So you can't really apply those rules to anyone but the person who's drinking the good stuff.

Problem nowadays, in the western world, is that we don't (and never really did) have the patience to brew a proper cup of tea. People in general don't really care when they're brewing up a tea that costs them 15 cents a bag. Making a good cup of tea is a craft that's been bastardized as much as making a decent hamburger.

.

[mlproject]

from what i know, using water that's too hot will cause it to go bitter. oversteeping can do that as well, but i think thats still in regards to water being too hot. half the time if i'm using a bag tea, i'll leave it in the whole time and it doesn't taste bitter until the end.

i've also read a lot about mostening loose tea with cold water before steeping so hot water doesn't scorch it. this is definitely true with maté as that shit will get incredibly bitter if you use water too hot or steep it too long.

[Eccles]

If your actually interested in the traditions of tea, it's cultural place and history

I would recommend ' The Book Of Tea' by Kakuzo Okakura which miz mentioned in the op

it is not a manual or a guide more a way of explaining to a westerner the culture of China and Japan

Boiling water is reserved for black and oolong

and green, white and yellow teas prefer a range of 60 - 70 degrees C

in the book though these are referred to by things like 'when small bubbles begin to form' and each infusion requires variable temperature

any high quality tea can be reused 5-7 times

these rules of course apply to whole leaf tea and bear no relation to teabags as these are generally poor quality

Tea in this sense is more about attempting to achieve perfection in an imperfect world

that is of course if you give a shit

[Whodinihimself]

^^ Good book....I recommend Lu Yu's "The Classic of Tea" (China 700 - 800 ad) - skip the introduction if you're reading the translated version)...this is the original source for all that is tea ..... the book that influenced Japanese tea ceremony and others that followed. A tougher read, hard to follow at times, and pretty mundane in some spots, but It's unadulterated....which is nice.

[Eccles]

^

yeah

try finding a copy for under a 100 bucks though

ridiculous

[Whodinihimself]

They pop up on Ebay from time to time....got mine used (hardcover - like-new condition) for a little under $70 shipped... I do have a bit of a thing for antiquated non-fiction though, so I would've gladly paid more.