/tea/ 3.99999999

Info for beginners:
Different kinds of teas and how they're different
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_processing
https://web.archive.org/web/20190321060054/https://www.teadiscussion.com/types/index.php

WHERE DO I BUY TEA?

>Places to avoid
Teavana (overperfumed, expensive, shit quality), starbucks (same shit), any place that sells lots of flavored tea that isn't french.

Visit your local tea shop!

USA
https://yunnansourcing.us/
https://us.nannuoshan.org/
https://sevencups.com/
https://purplecloudteahouse.com/
https://oldwaystea.com/
https://www.banateacompany.com/
https://teahabitat.com/
https://www.amazon.com/s?me=A3NJR96E5IH0W2&marketplaceID=ATVPDKIKX0DER (amazon store for dayi tae tea puer factory, ships from amazon warehouse in USA)
https://redblossomtea.com/
https://ippodotea.com/
https://www.lifeinteacup.com/
https://www.puerhjunky.com/
https://www.mymateworld.com/ (yerba mate)
https://www.threebearstea.com/
https://www.mountaintea.com/
https://mountainroseherbs.com/ (for bulk herbs and herbal tea blends, get actual tea elsewhere)

UK
https://what-cha.com
https://theteaguru.co.uk/
https://tea-encounter.com

EU
https://www.tezen.eu/
https://www.nannuoshan.org/
www.teaencountereurope.com
https://cajchai.com/ (spain)
https://www.hotsoup.nl/en/
http://www.millepins.ch/
https://puerhtea.eu/en/ (Netherlands)
https://tea.teatracks.com/en/
https://thetea.pl/
https://www.farmer-leaf.fr/ (probably defunct)
https://www.chenshi-chinatee.de/en
https://www.teamountain.cz/prodejna/
https://www.mariagefreres.com/UK/welcome.html (france) (the only /ck/ approved flavored tea)
https://www.cajovydom.sk/
https://www.darjeeling.cz/

Canada
https://www.capitaltea.com/
https://www.puerhshop.com/canada/
https://xgtea.shop/ (Xiaguan factory store)

China
https://yunnansourcing.com/
https://kingteamall.com/
https://www.chawangshop.com/
https://white2tea.com/
https://www.farmer-leaf.com/
https://www.fullchea-tea.com/
https://essenceoftea.com/
https://www.lazycattea.com/
https://www.jingteashop.com
https://www.teaspring.com/
https://teaurchin.com/
https://txs-tea.com/
https://www.wuyiorigin.com/
https://www.yunnancraft.com/
http://www.tuochatea.com/
http://www.pu-erhtea.com
http://www.royalpuer.com/
https://fatbatpuerh.com
https://onerivertea.com/

Hong Kong
https://yeeonteaco.com/
https://hayslontea.com/store
http://www.cloudsteahouse.com/
http://www.bestteaonline.com/store/catalog/
Shops in HK that nobody has tried yet
https://shop.wingngaitea.com/
https://www.lockcha.com/
https://www.teahong.com/
https://www.teahousestore.com/
https://shop.yuehwa.com/collections/f-b_tea/Pu-Erh-Tea-Brick-&-Cake
https://lkytea.com/categories/34/普洱茶餅
http://sunsingtea.com/PuerhTea
https://www.fookmingtong.com


Taiwan
https://www.taiwanteacrafts.com/
https://www.tea-masters.com/en/
https://teaswelike.com/
https://thejadeleaf.com/
https://www.teahome.com/


Japan
https://www.o-cha.com/
https://yuuki-cha.com
http://www.yunomi.life/pages/tea-market
http://hojotea.com/indexe.html
https://shop.ippodo-tea.co.jp/kyoto/shopf/index.html
https://www.chadoteahouse.com/
https://www.thes-du-japon.com/
https://www.sazentea.com/

Thailand
https://tea-side.com/

Vietnam
https://www.vietsuntea.com/
https://hatvala.com/

India
https://www.vahdam.com/
https://www.thunderbolttea.com/
https://www.jayshreetea.com/
https://yatrateacompany.com/
https://www.darjeelingteaboutique.com/
https://www.teabox.com/

Anon wrote a browser extension to show the price of tea in grams. It works for several popular vendors.
https://gitlab.com/glodfinch/tease


Want to buy a clay teapot?
Chinese
New Pots
https://essenceoftea.com/
https://www.mudandleaves.com/
https://purplecloudteahouse.com/ (stick with the yixing from Lin Hanpeng and Chen Chunhong Studio)
https://yannzishagallery.com/
https://teaswelike.com/
https://chantingpines.com/
https://yinchenstudio.com/
https://www.chawangshop.com/
https://www.taurlia.com/ (Lin's ceramic studio) (taiwanese proxy buying service required)
Old Teapots
http://zishaartgallery.com/
https://www.tealifehk.com/categories/teaware
https://moodyguy.biz/
http://2088taiwan.com/

Japanese
http://tokoname.or.jp/teapot/
https://hojotea.com/item_e/available.htm
https://artisticnippon.com/
http://isobe.shop-pro.jp/

info about clay pots in faq

Other Teaware
https://www.craftedleaf-tea.com (big selection of handmade gaiwans and teacups, no idea if their yixing is any good)
https://eshop.anta.com.tw/
https://www.etsy.com/shop/TreasureTeawares
https://www.etsy.com/shop/GraceTeawares


Much larger vendor list with commentary and info about purchasing from taobao and tmall:
For people looking for new shops to try, work in progress
https://pastebin.com/twK4E6AM

Subscription services:

Yunnan Sourcing
Has multiple options depending on what you want, monthly. 30 dollars, or 50 for premium. They also offer several types of tea samplers.
https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/tea-club-boxes

White2Tea
30 dollars a month, mostly used to educate (e.g. comparing two teas that have been processed differently, mao cha vs raw pu erh, young tree vs old tree)
https://white2tea.com/pages/tea-club

Hotsoup (Netherlands only)
https://www.hotsoup.nl/en/hifi-theeclub-abonnement.html

FAQ

>How to make tea

Times leaf to water ratio and temperatures:
GONGFU:
TEA TYPE	TEMPERATURE	AMOUNT	         1st infusion       for each subsequent infusion add this much time
			      (g per 100 ml)        seconds                             seconds
White		85c 185f	3.5 to 4              20                                  10
Green		80c 175f	3 to 3.5 	      15                                  3
Yellow		85c 185f	3.5 to 4	      15                                  5
Oolong (strip)  99c 210f	4.5 to 5	      20                                  5
Oolong (ball)   99c 210f	6 to 6.5 	      25                                  5
Black		95c 205f	4 to 4.5	     10-15                                5
Puer (raw)	95c 205f	5		      10                                  3-5
Puer (ripe)	99c 210f	5		      10                                  5

WESTERN:
TEA TYPE	TEMPERATURE	AMOUNT	          1st brew                   for the second brew
			     (g per 100 ml)         minutes                             minutes
White		85c 185f	1-2                   3                                  6
Green		75c 170f	1-2 	              3                                  6
Yellow		85c 185f	1-2                   3                                  6
Oolong          100c 210f	1-2	   	      3-4                                6-8
Black		100c 210f       1-1.5	              3                                  6
Puer (raw)	90c 195f	1.5		      2-3                                4-6
Puer (ripe)	100c 210f	1.5-2		      7                                  12

Japanese Tea Brewing Chart:
Green Tea Variety | Brew       |Brew Ratio grams |Brew Time 1 st	|Brew Time 2nd	    |Brew Time 3 rd +
	          |Temperature |(weight)          |infusion (minutes)   |infusion (minutes) |infusion(minutes)
			       |per 1 liquid
			       |ounces (30ml)

Light-Steamed	  |175F (80C)  |.6               |1 ½ minutes         |30 seconds          |1 ½ minutes
(asamushi)

Medium Steamed    |175F (80C)  |.6               |1 minute            |30 seconds          |1 ½ minutes
(chuumushi)


Medium-Deep       |175F (80C)  |.6               |1 minute            |30 seconds          |1 ½ minutes
Steamed

Deep Steamed      |165F (74C)  |.5               |45 seconds to 1     |30 seconds          |1 ½ minutes
(fukamushi)											   minute

Kabusecha         |175F (80C)  |.6               |1 minute            |30 seconds          |1 ½ minutes
Gyokuro           |155F (68C)  |1.0              |2 minutes           |30 seconds          |1 ½ minutes
Houjicha,Genmaicha|175F (80C)  |.6               |1 ½ minutes         |30 seconds          |1 ½ minutes




1. Get a scale
Scales are useful to measure amounts of tea as their density vary widely. A rolled oolong, for example, is quite a bit more dense than a silver needle tea (not to mention silver needle would be quite hard to measure with a spoon).

2. Get a kettle
A Japanese water boiler works too, don't microwave your tea (hard to judge temperature, unevenly heats), stove top kettle or electric kettle are both fine it's mostly up to preference

3. Temperature
Different tea types require specific temperatures to bring out their best qualities, and to avoid their bad ones. Green teas for example do not generally handle boiling water well as they will scorch. Other teas (eg black tea) may be too faint if you brew them too cool (besides intentional cold brewing). Raw puerh is mostly up to preference, and many start at one end of the spectrum and work their way up or down until they find what temperature the specific puerh shines with.
You don't necessarily need a thermometer, although it is helpful. You can eyeball (roiling boil, steaming but not boiling, no steam, etc), use a water boiler or electric kettle with built in temperature settings, etc. However, a thermometer is useful when you're newer to tea as you can more closely follow other's instructions and adjust to preference.

4. Timing & quantity
Most teas become bitter with oversteeping and extremely faint when under steeping. There are two main ways of preparing tea, one is gongfu (traditional chinese method) and the other, much more common one, is the western way (see ISO3103).

Western style brewing
Heat water in a pot or kettle.
Add some hot water to your teapot or mug to pre heat it. Dump the water out after a few seconds.
Add the appropriate amount of tea to your tea infuser. Place the tea infuser inside your teapot or mug.
When the water reaches the desired temperature, pour it over the tea infuser into your mug or teapot. This will allow the water to circulate through the leaves.
Time your tea. Once the time is up, dunk the infuser a couple of times to circulate the water. Remove the infuser and set aside for a second infusion, which most leaves should be able to handle.

Gong-fu Style Brewing
Gong-fu style brewing is often done in a gaiwan (a lidded cup) or a small teapot. Common sizes of these brewing vessels range from 75ml to 150ml.
Add some hot water to your gaiwan or teapot to pre heat it. Dump the water out after a few seconds.
Place leaves in your gaiwan or small teapot.
Add water at the correct temperature for the type of tea you are brewing.
The first couple of infusions usually take around 5–30 seconds depending on the type of tea and your preferences. Tightly rolled or compressed teas may need longer first steeps as the leaves take time to open up.
With puer and oolong (or any other tea that looks a bit dirty) you should do an initial 10-20 second brew and discard the liquid. This helps remove any dust or debris left over from processing.
Pour into mug, teacup or other vessel.
You will need to experiment with different infusion times for each tea as the speed with which the leaves brew can vary dramatically depending on processing.

Chaozhou Gongfu
https://www.kyarazen.com/chaozhou-gongfu-tea/


"Grandpa Style" Brewing
The idea is to put leaves in a large mug, and continue to fill with water, never removing the leaves from the cup. This means the leaves will always be steeping. For this reason it is best to avoid teas that get bitter easily.
Add some hot water to your mug or cup to pre heat it. Dump the water out after a few seconds.
Add leaves to your mug, 3 - 4 grams in a 10oz mug is a good starting point.
Add boiling water.
Once you have drunk 1/2 to 2/3 of the liquid, refill with boiling water.

Russian TEA
https://web.archive.org/web/20061127175621/http://home.fazekas.hu/~nagydani/rth/Russian-tea-HOWTO-v3.pdf

Tea Concentrate (Kazakhstan style)
Bring 500ml of water to simmer on the stove
Add 4 spoonfulls of tea and simmer for 30min to an hour (or longer if desired) this creates your concentrated tea
To prepare for drinking bring some water to a boil
Add the tea concentrate to your mug or cup of choice and top off with hot water
You can adjust the strength to your preference by using more or less of the tea concentrate in your cup

Cold Brewing
https://www.seriouseats.com/how-to-make-the-best-cold-brew-iced-tea

Matcha
Materials required: matcha whisk, some kind of bowl or cup, sifter or wide mesh strainer for removing lumps from matcha before brewing

Usucha (thin matcha)
Sift 2g of  into matcha bowl or other vessel
Add 60ml to 100ml of hot water (80°C)
Whisk vigorously for 15 seconds using matcha whisk

Koicha (thick matcha)
Sift 4g of matcha into matcha bowl or other vessel
Add 30ml to 60ml of hot water (80°C)
Mix slowly with a whisk for 15 seconds using matcha whisk


Mate
Fill about half of the gourd (or a mug) with yerba mate
Heat some water to a temperature between 65 to 80 Celsius (or 150 to 175 Fahrenheit). You don’t have to be very accurate with the temperature, just don’t heat the water too hot so it starts boiling (or if you do, let it cool down a little). You can pour the water in a thermos to maintain its temperature.
Then cover the gourd with your palm and invert it about 180° (to a horizontal position) and tap on the bottom. This will bring the fine particle to the top and leave the larger ones in the bottom to act as a natural filter. Then revert the gourd back gently. There should now be a heap of mate on one side of the gourd and a small “pit” on the other side.
Next, pour a bit of cold water on the heap of yerba mate to moisten it. The cold water will help in preserving the integrity of the mate.
Then put the filter end of the bombilla (filter straw) in the pit and pour hot water into the pit in the gourd to fill it about half-way. The top of the heap should still remain dry.
Sip the yerba mate tea through the straw and drink until there is no more tea in the gourd. Continue by pouring hot water again into the pit in the gourd
you want the heap to remain in place so that the mate infuses slowly so fill the gourd carefully
try to remember that you should avoid touching the bombilla during the process. Stirring can clog the bombilla and it can also cause the mate to get brewed too fast.

>New to tea what do I try?
A little bit of everything.
Go to a vendor in your region (or any other decent place with samples) and try some greens, oolongs, blacks, whites, etc (Sencha, tie guan yin, moonlight white, etc pick some that interest you) get some 15g samples. Try them. If you like one, explore that subvariety more, learn what you do and don't like, then try to get some better quality (yunnan sourcing, what-cha, etc).
What-cha also has an intro sampler with a little bit of everything, which may make it easier. https://www.fullchea-tea.com/c/different-tea-0371 also offers several tea samplers including a large 35 tea offering and several specific sets for green tea, black, puer etc.

>But tea bags are so cheap!
Yes, and they contain the lowest quality tea possible (laymen translation for the technical term for the content of tea bags is "dust"), but loose leaf tea can be fairly cheap unless you buy organic japanese top quality first flush (picked during the first harvest season of the year, aka in spring, usually the most expensive and highest quality) single estate small field green tea grown in a bushido-law-observing farm by the 23rd generation of samurai farmers.
Twinings' bagged tea costs around €60/kg here, and for the same price you can get a mid quality chinese oolong from ebay, or organic genmaicha from one of the websites listed at the top, and those two can be re-steeped, so even if you bought good quality taiwanese oolong for €180/kg you could steep it (at least) three times, and while effectively costing you as much as twinings' bagged tea it would be considered much better by most.
You still can find cheaper tea bags at the corner store during the week it's on sale, and that will likely cost you less money but still taste like bagged tea.
If you like bagged tea enough tho nobody's to stop you from buying that and enjoying it.

>Does all tea come from the same plant?
No, but it's all from veeery similar plants, all of the Camellia sinensis specie.
For centuries, people have selected and crossed and cloned different bushes to get the tastier leaves and the bigger bushes, and different varieties of bushes are found in different regions (for example the variety that yields da hong pao is found in the Wu Yi mountains in the Fujian province of china, while the variety that yields sencha is found in almost all Japan, but not in China or India) - these different varieties of bushes are called "cultivars", short for cultivated variants, which means they were selectively cultivated (by men) slightly different varieties of the same specie of plant.
Different varieties of Camellia sinensis are also found in different climates - when, for example, tea was exported to India, the bushes changed slightly to adapt to the different weather and heat conditions; from that originated the Camellia assamica variant, short for Camellia sinensis var. assamica, where "variant" is the technical term to refer to slightly different variants of the plant that naturally occur(red) in different places.

>Raw pu erh? Ripe pu erh?
Raw pu erh is lightly fermented, steamed, and (generally) pressed into cakes, bricks, or other shapes. Then it is aged. The fermentation process continues as it ages developing a more complex flavor over time.
New raw pu erh can taste very vegeteal a little bitter or overly smokey, but these flavors generally mellow with time.

Ripe pu erh is wet pile fermented in a process that takes 25-50 days. It tastes much "darker" with flavors of chocolate, leather, nuts and loam. Sometimes it smells a bit fishy. It is easy on the stomach and is a popular tea for mornings.


>I want to get into pu erh what should I try?
https://teadb.org/puerh-for-beginners/
White2tea has both a raw sampler and a ripe sampler to show the differences it can have to let you experiment a bit. It has worldwide free shipping.
Yunnan sourcing also also offers several puer samplers.
Avoid puerh from random ebay shops and asian markets. There is a lot of very low quality and fake puerh on the market, so it's best to stick to the listed vendors until you know what you are doing.

>What if I want to try something from somewhere like white2tea or yunnan sourcing but I'm not sure if it will be good?
Look it up on steepster. It's not guaranteed, and you shouldn't pay attention to the scores. Someone may have rated the tea low because it had notes of liquorice or apple and they dislike these things as preference. It doesn't mean the tea is bad, it just means it wasn't for them. Read what they say and decide why they rated it low, and if the reasons are some you'd agree with.

>How should I store tea?
Normal tea: in airtight tins away from light, heat, humidity, smells, and temperature fluctuations. In a tin inside a cabinet, in a glass jar away in a cupboard, etc are fine. Tea absorbs smells very easily so make sure the container is SEALED and do not store two types of tea together, or anywhere near strong smells of any type.

Pu erh: The easiest way to store puer is to put it in a plastic bag in a cabinet or on a shelf away from direct sunlight at room temperature in a place without dramatic temperature swings between day and night. Pu erh, like any tea, picks up smells easily so avoid storing it near anything with a strong scent.  For longer term storage you want to keep the moisture level in the cake over 45% and below 65% give or take.  There are a few ways to accomplish this, One of the easiest is carefully wrapping the tea in several layers of plastic wrap, this will help maintain the humidity in dry climates but it is annoying if you want to access that particular tea regularly. Another popular method is storing the tea in some kind of plastic container or cooler, you can add some boveda 58% humidity packs to keep the tea from drying out, this method leaves the tea more accessible if you are going to be drinking it regularly.
See also
https://teadb.org/low-barrier-puerh-storage-solutions-for-casual-puerh-drinkers/
If you want to keep puer long term look into the information on teadb.org about puer storage and do some research about how western collectors store their tea.
https://teadb.org/puerh/


>What if i become obsessed with water quality?
Make your own mineral blends for your water.
https://www.teacurious.com/water-recipe/#recipe
https://www.jameshoffmann.co.uk/weird-coffee-science/water-for-coffee-resources
https://www.baristahustle.com/blog/diy-water-recipes-the-world-in-two-bottles/
https://empiricaltea.com/water-recipe-original/

>I just bought a clay teapot, how do I get it ready to use?
https://www.mudandleaves.com/teatime-blog/before-using-your-yixing-teapot
http://www.marshaln.com/2013/11/raising-a-yixing-pot/

How to carefully awaken a vintage pot
https://teaism99.com/2014/04/03/awakening/

More info about choosing clay teapots
http://www.marshaln.com/2013/10/buying-yixing-pots/

>What do i need to know about unglazed or raw clay teapots?
>11/11/20(Wed)00:28:40 No.15039542
these are the general tips
either go green label [factory 1], Qing yixing, or get traditionally proccesed modern, failing these, look for a fine grain modern (be it 90's white label, or actual modern)
If you spend less that $100, you're getting a bad pot, a common mindset is, if you can't get what was listed above, then stick to porcelain because a cheap pot will underperform to porcelain

Don't worry about pairing tea to pot's, don't worry about seasoning a pot with a specific tea (just season with boiling water), use whatever tea in whatever pot's, it really doesn't matter, rinse the pot out with some boiling water a couple of times after each use and you're set, if you need to season a pot heavily to get it to not mute like crazy, you've either got a bad pot, or you're using a heavy muting pot on a tea that doesn't need much muting
the only expection to this rule would be aged shou and high roast oolong's

first and foremost, buy good clay, then worry about everything else later
if you're buying a modern pot for let's say for over $200, you're paying for the artist and artistry to some extent

firing technique should be ignored, don't buy mixed clay unless you get recomendation's beforehand from people who own that specific pot, just stick to pure stuff

You can spend time thinking about each clay type, muting, thickness, grain, proccesing, old vs modern, mesh, size, shape
these do all come into importance it's true, but in the end, buy good clay, worry later, when you get good clay, just try every type of tea in it, and whatever you prefer is what you should use with it, some prefer hongni for shou, some a DCQ zini etc

ask the community first also
11/11/20(Wed)01:06:46 No.15039685
Never rush into buying yixing, ask around, ask the seller, post pictures on good forums and get opinions from actual experts about grain denisity, colour, and many other thing's, you'd be suprised at just how many people out there own the exact pot you're looking at, or have bought from that seller many times that can share their experience with it

Teachat is great
CommuniTEA discord is great

Lid fitting is a complete meme, it don't actually effect the tea, every modern pot, even the worst most fake yixing pot's out there, will have a tight fitting lid
It's extremely easy to do, older pot's won't have a tight fit, but again, it doesn't matter

There's a few thing's to consider also, practicality, this will include shape, pour times and what not
This is your own personal prefence, but don't go buying a pot that you won't enjoy using just because it's good clay, if it's not going to feel good in your hand and be enjoyable and practial to use as a workhorse, then consider something else, there's many people out there that rushed into buying a pot that is a very good one, but they never use it
size is one of the big one's for practically, just how much tea do you want to drink? are you willing to use a lot of tea for each session?
The only consideration about size beyond preference, is heat retention
small pots will not be able to hold heat well (talking under 100ml here) and for aged puer, it's not recommended to go lower than that, the ideal size for heat retention would be between 150ml - 200ml, you also got to consider leaf size and will that shape and size be annoying to use with some tea? are you going to have to cram in and potentially break up the tea leaves to get them in there? then maybe think of something else

If you're looking for antique pots, expect to pay thousands, if it's an ROC pot, you can safely get one for just under a thousand
a lot of these pot's are hard to come by though
11/11/20(Wed)01:47:54 No.15039808



Blogs/yt:

Teadb: Good content, chill, two guys drinking tea and talking about it, their website also has a ton of resources on brewing and articles on different types of tea, they respond really quick to comments and questions, both on the website and on their fb
http://teadb.org/
https://www.youtube.com/user/teadborg

Marshaln, extremely interesting, puer focused but talks a bit about everything, a lot of the other sources quote him often
http://www.marshaln.com/

Akira Hojo, owner of Hojo Co., of a degree in agricultural chemistry and one in food science & nutrition, has a bit of a broken english but knows a lot of stuff about tea, writes about particular teas or about the characteristics of a family of teas or about agriculture or sometimes about more technical stuff
http://hojotea.com/en/

Don mei's blog/ chinalife's yt, there is quite some shilling and memeing involved but their content is good, especially for beginners getting into gong fu
https://teatipsy.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/chinalifeteabar

2Dog, owner of white2tea, puer focused, has some funny stories and nice pics, a lot of insight on sourcing and the making of puer, his snapchat is pure gold
http://white2tea.com/blog/

Thejadeleaf: This guy is a potter in taiwan and has some nice teaware, he also sources tea, a bit on the expensive side but his blog is interesting none the less
http://thejadeleaf.com/blogs/news

Farmer Leaf: Runs a small puerh focused business. He has some excellent videos showing tea processing and explaining the teamaking process. His video about fake tea is a must watch for puer drinkers.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOgkLFmMkJLSEP9-n6hZ08A

Tea Books:
Linda Gaylard's book on tea, not super in depth but helps with understanding the differences between kinds of tea and in tea culture around the world
https://mega.nz/#!RZZliIZb!mOD6Ky0B9S489hrcQVIQ4R4aZxNXJx45prNVrSCT_ts

Tea Videos:

https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Jinghong+Zhang%2C+University+of+Washington+Press%22