A community for anything tea (Camellia Sinensis) related. Rooibos, Yerba Mate and alike welcome!
By volume, I drink most tea by just throwing in cheap green or black tea bags into a pitcher of water as my general hydration.
Actually drinking and enjoying tea, it's probably filter basket in cup and grandpa style, depending on the tea. Gongfu is also fun and needed for a few teas, but I only do that when I really feel like it.
This is a cooked, wet-store pu'er. I'm using a set of tea pliers (more convenient than the more traditional tea knives) to break some off for brewing.
This is that tea brewed in my portable pot/cup combo.
Yum! I see that it's shu, how does this one taste? Also, that mini shiboridashi-ish thing is pretty!
This was a fairly aged cooked (about 10 years, IIRC?) so it was very earthy and almost mushroomy in the aftertaste. One of the more mellow ones.
Personally I prefer raws, though. The cooked, however, are more forgiving and more suited to off-the-cuff brews like the one there: the raws require very precise timing to avoid that flood of bitters; I'd use a full-on tea set most times.
Right now, I most often drink Irish Breakfast loose leaf from Adagio. Boiling hot water in a giant mug for 5 minutes. A tiny spot of half & half, no sugar.
My favorite used to be Darjeeling, but I feel that it needs a little sugar or honey and I'm trying to do less sugar.
Also lapsang suchong has become a favorite of mine lately. I went through a whole pound of it in the last 6 months or so.
I am a pleb, but it's bags for me. Yorkshire Gold. 4 mins at 80c.
I also do iced Yorkshire with 6 bags. 16 fl Oz water at 80c. 4 mins. Simple syrup to taste. Ice to fill.
I've tried other methods but they all feel so involved compared to simply dunking a bag.
Right there with you. I almost exclusively use bags. Maybe loose leaf once in a blue moon if it looks really nice, but that's also with the metal ball thing which is basically a reusable bag. 😆 Not to mention, my usual black tea is Lipton and water at 84c.
I drink cold brew coffee for the slightly lower acidity, but I actually bought a commercial cold brew maker a couple months back. You load in as much ground coffee beans as desired, top off with water (usually a 4:1 water to coffee ratio, by volume), and leave to soak in the fridge for 12-24 hours. I usually make 2ish gallons each time, which last me a couple weeks.
Edit: It’s expensive, I know, but it: is dish washer safe, holds a tons of coffee, and is quite sturdy. There are other similar kits on Amazon but I brew for myself and a flatmate, so we go through a decent amount of coffee.
Recently ended up neck deep in Japanese teas, love them so much! In particular genmaicha.
I know it should be loose leaves, but I usually use a paper tea bag, because I don’t like to clean the tea pot. 100C for 30seconds. Delicious.
I do the classic net cup most of the time. I tried to do a makeshift gong fu with pu erh and later with yunnan high grown. I really like the method, it's meditative despite my unconventional setup. Pu erh tastes weird, it's either because of the kind of it so maybe I'll try a different variety one day. The yunnan was awesome.
Jasmine, 3 or 4 spoons into a thermos, 10 minutes steep in boiling water. Its bitter and strong, but it kicks real good.
I also recommend pu'er tea. Its delicious
1tbsp loose leaf black tea into a tea infuser with just under boiling water for 4 min or so.
Depends xd I like to gong-fu brew all kinds of oolongs, pu'erh and black teas, either in gaiwan or small teapots. Special teapot for Japanese green tea and porcelain teapot for Chinese green/yellow teas.
Never tried cold brew yet, was thinking for some time to give it a go, but I always forget.
PS. Thank you for creating this community, really missed the reddit sub here.
Gong fu style in gaiwan. I put some leaves into the gaiwan and steep them multiple times throughout the day.
I like trying different kinds of teas. But darker teas, for example oolongs, are most convenient because they can be brewed many times and they are easier to brew as you don’t need to be so accurate with water temperature and steeping time.
Recently decided i didn't like the plastic in teabags so i got a small spherical metal strainer. I use loose leaf Yorkshire tea from tesco, add three quarters of a teaspoon into the strainer, pour boiling water through the strainer into the mug, swish it around for a minute. Many, many times a day :-) i'm gonna start a mini-compost bin for the used leaves :-)
I’m also interested in the mini-compost idea! Let us know
Ooh, a mini compost! Please do share your progress, I'm producing a lot of spent tea-leaves and I'm wondering what to do with them c:
I use these daily: https://www.amazon.com/IPOW-Upgraded-Stainless-Infuser-Strainer/dp/B07KY69ZKH
They work great for loose leaf tea! My first one failed after ~200 uses or so and another is still going strong!
My favorite tea: Numi Breakfast Blend. This stuff is delicious. One cup everyday and that bag lasts about 5 or 6 months.