>>21877097
Xiao Fa my beloved

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>>21877107
its THE daily drinker indeed. I still need to taste a Xiao Fa HK stored, it must be really a thing.

>>21877097
tea is for sissies
>t. coffee chad

third for puking up matcha

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>>21877182
wew god damn.

>>21877262
It's weird to see that the packaging looks the same as the modern one. I guess it makes sense for an export tea, they actually had to put a design on it

>>21877262
to make matters worse they send the invoice full price - i know because iv got fucked. Good tea though.

>>21877268
isnt the new one a tin?

>>21877272
Wow, iv just noticed now that its a 80s one. Not that expensive though, that is literally, probably, the best Xiao Fa you can get anywhere online now. In terms of how rare.

>>21877272
>to make matters worse they send the invoice full price - i know because iv got fucked
I can confirm, it's an issue with the store for EU anons. That and the expensive shipping.
It's too bad cause I want more best taste ripe, it's really tasty.

>>21877279
Iv got a Kunming 2005 from them and though it was my first HK, it really made a good impression on me. Now i got one from Hayslontea and going to get another from Sansing, both of them seem to help with the invoice problem.

I mean, cmon. I have to almost literally pay 100% of taxes.

>>21877283
>almost literally pay 100% of taxes
That's fuckin nasty. In the UK tea is untaxed.

>>21877287
We are lucky that most of the chinese sellers know the struggle and help us. Mei Leaf also puts full invoice but i don´t blame them.

>>21877293
Oh reaalllyyyy.

i legit love ripe purerh my god

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Can tea help us cope?

>>21877828
Why's all liu bao either from the 80s or 2024
I'm surprised I can't settle on some 10-15 year old cheap one. Anyway the quiche one seems like a good shout, I wanna load up on shu there anyway, cheers

>>21878239
I hear there is a lot of cheap old low-grade liu bao out there because it was part of rations for Chinese miners working in Malaysia and they had to make a shitton of the stuff, then a lot of it ended up on the market

>like:
Modern western branding manufacurers such as
Bitterleaf
White2Tea
Kuura Corp

Neo-traditional manufacturers such as
Farmer Leaf
Viet Sun Tea

>do not like
Products marketed for China domestic trade
traditional factories
tea more than 10 years of age

simple as

>>21878231
yes, just make chifir

>>21878549
>>do not like
>Products marketed for China domestic trade
>traditional factories
Cringe. Taobao has some good deals.

>>21878551
isn't it just a stronger black tea?

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TIL my tea tastes like vanilla because there's actually vanillin in it

>>21878750
>Taobao has some good deals.
Post your top 3 Taobao finds then

>>21878940
>trusting sloppa

>>21879057
Well, you can always go to the sources
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590157525006935
https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/11/16/2502

>>21878549
Why though? Factories and Chinese boutiques do a lot of good young raw nowadays too

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All I have to contribute is a photo of a special blend of tea from W2T that I found on my phone from 2 years ago, but can't remember which one it is. It's pretty though so here you are.

>>21878549
are you gay?

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Two people travel kit came. Very happy with it so far. One cup measures exactly 100ml and the pot 200ml. I want to take it out for some bike packing picnics this summer together with a thermos.
Pot could be a bit bigger to hold hold a pour of 200ml and 8g soaked leaves but its alright. The cloth smelled like chemicals so I tossed it in the washing machine and its fine now.
The kit is propably also good for the office.

>>21879992
Looks great. Nice texture on the glaze and nice material to serve on. I like how it sandwiches between the pieces when they're stacked. Hopefully it feels really sturdy.

What are the good British teapot brands? I thought the old sticky text had one listed.

>>21881322
In my mind Denby are the obvious maker, it's easy to get their stuff on ebay or at a charity shop even
Wedgwood seem to be popular too

>>21878752
"stronger" is an understatement, it's basically a matchbox full of black tea, overbrewed for 30-45 minutes in a simmering pot, usually drank in the siberian gulag, pure tannin and caffeine bomb, there's a reason why slavshits are the only people who consume this

>vintage elite teas
holy fucking psyop

when did this baloney begin? how do we make it stop?

teas are not wine

>>21882454
Aged teas have more in common with tobacco, but there are interesting parallels with wine as well. Fortunately, tea is better than wine.

>>21879992
I had a set almost exactly like that and I do sincerely miss it. Very easy to clean and perfectly sized for a quick cup. I accidentally dropped it and the brewing vessel splintered and that was the end of that.
I got a new one with a single cup but I don't think I like it as much.

>>21882454
>when did this baloney begin?
1980's in Taiwan
>how do we make it stop?
You don't. You just have to learn to see through the hype. Be cognizant that scamming retards and westoids is ancient Chinese custom. And lots of western facing vendors either fall for it or are in on it. Learn to make it work for you, while everyone chases aged dayi I get kilos of young xiaguan for extremely cheap because thats what I like. It does suck that good aged oolong is hard to find for reasonable prices but it is what it is. Aging is definitely real and makes some teas great but its hard to cut through the nonsense to what's real especially outside china because of all the variables involved. The only way is sample, sample, sample

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Have you taken the bitter pill, Anon?

I bought some baxian dancong oolong, new gaiwan, new cups. Tracked it daily for nearly three weeks
>day it arrives
>get sick and can't taste anything
Fuck my gay chud life. I'm going back to /ctg/ at least I can still tell I'm drinking something

My haul from white2tea arrived. I brewed some daily duckshit first. I’ve never had duck shit oolong, but this was nice. Very mild, slightly mineral taste with a sweet note. The liquor is very light, though, pretty close to a white tea. Unlike white teas, it’s not floral at all. I expected some degree of maltyness, but there was absolutely zero.
I’m gonna try some of the shou tomorrow.

>red clover, dandelion leaf, asian plantain leaf, ginger root, he shou wu root, schisandra fruit, burdock root, astraglus root, lysimachia root, kudzu root, peppermint leaf, cinnamon bark, isatis root, solomon's seal, duckweed, licorice root, japanese honeysuckle flower, tokyo violet root
>mugwort
>corn silk
>lemongrass, green tea leaf, licorice root, jasmine green tea leaf, alfalfa leaf, burdock root, dandelion root, pomegrante extract, amalaki, bibhitaki, haritaki
>hibiscus
>uvu ursi, dandelion root, parsley, cleavers, nettle, corn silk, bachu leaves, juniper berry
>dried cherries, nettle, tumeric, piperine, orange leaf, banaba leaf
>hovenia
>ito-en oi ocha-koicha unsweetened bold green leaf
>ito-en golden oolong
>ito-en jasmine green
>jardin jeju forage barley green tea
>whatever random unsweetened black tea

this + baked salmon with feta, baked sweet potato, sauteed dandelion greens with garlic/ginger/lemon juice, sauteed crimini/oyster/shiitake blend, a bowl of lychee and longan + tiger balm all over the face and chest. feels good man

>>21882939
is it worth it?

Got stuck at a PF Chang's for an incredibly stupid reason (father's corpse) the other day and had their pot of hot dragon's eye. Seems to be some sort of oolong, peach, apricot, saffron, and marigold blend. Surprisingly good.

>>21882939
Yes.
>>21883147
No.

>>21877097
The Chinese symbols actually say "Mutha"

>>21879448
Maybe one of their black and white blends?

Ripe and liubao consistently give me the least mellow, most energizing effect, it gets jittery/uncomfortable if I drink too much without eating enough. More similar to coffee/straight caffeine than other types of tea.

-10% sale on KingTeaMall because of festival shipping break. Might stock up on some liu bao and factory yancha.

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Alright, I bought a cheapo mate kit. Where do I go from here?
Are the 10-15€ per kilo mate teas that you see on eBay and Amazon good or do I need to buy from a specialty store to get the proper stuff?

>>21884122
>Are the 10-15€ per kilo mate teas that you see on eBay and Amazon good
yes. mate doesn't differ that much in quality, it's just personal preference which one you like more. each country tends to have a preferred processing style, so you can get a variety of styles if you want
go for any cheap south american brand you can find
some popular ones I enjoy:
>Argentinian
Rosamonte (somewhat smoky)
Cruz de Malta
Kraus (smokeless)
>Paraguayan
Pajarito
Kurupi
Fede Rico
Indega
Colon (extra smoky, but all paraguayan mate is somewhat smoky and also more finely cut and dusty than argentinian mate)
>Uruguayan
only one I had was Del Cebador I think. it was good though finely cut and hard to filter
>Brazilian
haven't had that many, I would go for the mate green style over chimmarao because the latter is very finely cut and can struggle if you don't have a good straw

>>21884122
Just grab a few bags and see what you like. Argentinian mate tends to be pretty approachable; another anon recommended Rosamonte, which is a favorite of mine. Taragui is also very nice. Enjoy, hombre.

How do you wash your tea leaves? Specifically for western style brewing. Is it simply running the leaves through water? Or do I add the leaves in the infuser, add some warm water, then dump?

>>21884411
A rinse is a discarded first infusion. Boiling water and all.

>>21884411
>Or do I add the leaves in the infuser, add some warm water, then dump?
Usually yes. But I’ve had some tea fanning completely lose all flavor after a quick rinse. Idk if white or green tea should be rinsed either.

>>21884411
Just enough water in the mug to cover the leaves, dump, re-add water to fill the mug and there's your tea
>>21884443
AFAIK only tea that's fermented and/or pressed should be rinsed. Most of those are pretty strong too so you don't lose much by rinsing off the first 3-5 seconds of brew of a liubao for example. No need to rinse normal blacks or greens, unless they are look particularly dusty or shady.
Not sure about white tea cakes

>>21884443
>>21884411
Just a normal infusion except extremely short. I'd only do it for aged or compressed tea personally, though I think some people also do it for oolongs

>>21884411
>Specifically for western style brewing
There's no reason to rinse if you're brewing western style
>>21884443
>>21884447
You should only do a rinse of tea that hasn't been rolled or bruised and you're going to do short infusions of, under 20 seconds or so

>>21885647
What about wet-piled tea that's then packaged with dust from the factory floor? I think it's still worthwhile to rinse. Not with a long rinse that basically works as a first brew you're throwing away, but just as a quick literal rinse with boiling water, in and out.

>>21885697
If your tea is gross you shouldn't drink it, I drink plenty of wet piled tea but I almost never brew it western style. If I drink it grandpa style I don't rinse it.
If you're bothered by dust using a gong dao bei also helps settle it out, but it's not necessary.

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>>21885701
>If I drink it grandpa style I don't rinse it

any anon had Sunsing Tea and Yee on Tea to tell me if their storage share the same notes? I'm looking for that old bookshelf punch but idk if Sunsing will deliver.

>>21885701
kek, are you drinking the first steep? ngmi

>>21885957
If I drink tea western style? Of course. If I'm brewing tea gongfu, then no, I do a rinse depending on the type of tea. If I'm making tea grandpa style then there is no "first steep".
The rinse isn't to make the tea clean, it's so the first actual brew you do after the rinse isn't weak. If your tea is gross enough that you think it actually needs to be washed, splashing some hot water on it isn't going to do anything, I would never drink tea that was actually that dirty. There's nothing unclean about shou puerh that's made anywhere that's actually reputable, all the wheat you eat for example was once piled on a concrete floor in a barn or something, it's standard practice for any kind of agricultural production.

reposting
> Any us anons ship any cups/gaiwans/teapots recently with FedEx, DHL, or ups? How has the new FDA clearance been for you? Have you had any troubles with customs? What carrier was better?

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you did drink Xiaguan Love Forever today, right?

>>21886272
Just ordered one yesterday. Should be a nice cake by the sounds of things

>>21886272
No love now, no Love Forever.

There's only one good Chinese tea: 铁观音

Otherwise I'm sticking to a normal English breakfast tea

>>21886372
For me it's Keemun.

any good liu bao on KTM?
I've been looking at these, any thoughts:
https://kingteamall.com/en-pl/products/2024-sanhe-liu-bao-te-ji-20060-liubao-special-grade-aged-from-2020-500g-cake-dark-tea-wuzhou-guangxi
https://kingteamall.com/en-gb/products/2022-cnnp-liu-bao-shan-shui-he-te-ji-dark-box-super-grade-aged-from-2018-liu-pao-200g-box-dark-tea-wuzhou-guangxi-copy

I had the orange box CNNP already, it was pretty good

>>21886272
Are you larping or did you actually drink it?
Cause I'm interested how this one tastes like.

>>21887195
nah I don't have this one

but if you want to sample it, KingTeaMall and TeaTea.pl offer those
if you want a whole cake, I think it's cheapest on Quiche

>>21887137
A while back there was an anon that had like all the liu bao samples from KTM and rated them.

>>21887247
I think those were fu bricks? Unless there was also a liu bao post

>>21887247
Yeah I think it was fu, if you're talking about the recent-ish post from a few weeks ago

I'd do a full liobao rating but I only drink grandpa style so I wouldn't be able to give full in-depth tasting notes

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>>21877097
anyone else feel like well aged raw puerh kinda ruined ripe for you? even for casual drinking it's lacking depth and just tastes like dilute swamp in comparison

>>21887735
Have you tried aged ripe? It can be quite a bit more interesting than young ripe, while remaining a comfy easygoing drink.

>>21887740
This. I had some aged ripe yesterday and it had zero swamp.

>>21887745
It can have nice aged notes too. I like Best Taste Ripe from Yeeontea

>>21887735
Ripe is definitely no substitute for properly aged ripe, but I see where they were going when they created it.
It's not ruined for me though, I just treat it as it's own thing.

>>21887735
I love ripe though, I do have a hard time enjoying sheng. Tried some old good ones from Essence of Tea and the floral and green just put me off. Maybe I should try some HK one.

This also >>21887740

>>21888506
>old good ones
>floral and green
They weren't old and/or good enough, or were too dryly stored. Definitely try HK stored raw though

I dislike puer

>>21888506
>Maybe I should try some HK one.
definitely do try them, they can be smooth and comfy earthiness like ripe

Does KTM have decent prices for those Wuyi Star yancha tins? Might get some of those. I enjoyed the Seadyke AT110 I got in my last order.

>>21888952
Price is pretty good as long as you don't get done too hard on shipping. Red one works out about $20 for me
Not sure if they're no longer available at dragon tea house or if their search sucks, but they were a fair bit more expensive there when I bought them shipping included, before KTM listed them.

>>21888966
cool, is the red tin shui jin gui good?
I might get that + the silver tin LCSX

>>21888971
I like it, I'm mostly done with my second tin now. Roasty and bready, pretty good

>>21888739
It's an acquired taste.

>>21888767
>>21888515
From where are you guys getting your sheng?

>>21889185
Yeeontea is the biggest specialist in HK storage
just be aware that it can impart some of those funky liu bao type flavors
but it gives a much smoother, darker drink. Ripe was created to mimic this king of aging

>>21889197
I love YOT, though they put full price on invoice and it gets impossible. Did you ever tried Hayslontea?

I am guessing in about a month my sample of the mythical bojun ripe will arrive.
I hope this will settle the debate once and for all whether all ripe tastes like fish.

>>21889227
I haven't. Looks like they don't have much budget stuff though. Have you ordered form them?

>>21889562
I tried that bad boy a few years ago when anon was recommending it, enjoyed it though been too long to remember it in detail. Should really get a proper chunk of it some time soon
There's Dayi Yi Yuan Su cakes as well for "clean shu", not gotten around to them yet.

>>21889185
HK stored specifically I've only really had yeeon, I like it every once in a while but it's not my favorite. I did order a couple cakes from hayslon recently and they should arrive soon though so I'll update you when I try them.
But for non HK stored sheng (not budget): EOT, teaswelike, jade leaf.
For more budget stuff, I ordered once from quiche and it was good, I'll buy from them again. For a specific recc the changtai brown is pretty good (I think it's the "king of" version, I got mine before they sold 2 different ones).
Kingteamall has some good cakes but also a lot of not good ones.
In general with aged sheng I feel like you pretty much get what you pay for up to a point.

I've been drinking ripe puer mainly for a decade now. Started at 5g/session, up to 12g/session today (less when the tea is better). BP is great (120/60), iron is normal. Just noticed this morning (a bit stressful, travelling by train) that my body odor now has distinctive note of matcha. lol. Better than my friend's who eats a lot of pesto pasta (weed).

Old ways tea has a "lucky" sample box of yancha right now
If any US anons want yancha, it seems like a very good deal. I'd order too, but they have 25$ flat shipping to EU and I can't really make a big order right now

bought myself 100g of lapsang souchong
though that if I like tea, I like smoky bacon and I like campfires - I should like that tea
smelled in the bag - smelled really nice, smoky and for some reason somewhat resembling aniseed aroma (?)
4g tea, 100ml water, gongfu - my god, smell intensified so much it was overwhelming
from mysterious smoky aniseed it turned to smoking car gearbox/burning plastic smell
I already knew I wouldn't like it even before tasting it, still tasted - yep, not for me
googled a bit, found out about russian caravan blend
tried making myself somewhat similar, mixed 0.5g lapsang, 1g li shan, 1g random ceylon tea
smelled and tasted way more mild this time, but still only burned aroma - smell of my oolong got completely buried
in the end tried drinking this blend with some honey and milk - this made smoky smell not that nasty, but desu I'd still rather drink cheapest supermarket tea than that

so anyway - has someone tried using lapsang as meat rub or some other way in cooking?
or should I just toss it out?

>>21890583
keep it for when someone visits who happens to like smoked souchong

>>21890583
>lapsang souchong
>gong fu
You fool. Try western style before giving up. As for cooking, I'd use a brew of adequate strength for the dish for smokiness, dry rub I don't know.

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>>21890583
>or some other way in cooking?
I don't know about a meat rub but maybe you could brew a strong pot and make some tea eggs?

>>21890583
if you like cofy try brewing it into HK style yuenyeung

I'm starting to think the only think that matters when it comes to white tea is the age.
The quality of material only determines how long you have to wait.
Even shit tea that is undrinkable young will taste ok given enough time, which is the limit for white tea.
At least I havent had "amazing" white tea so far. Its always meh/ok/decent.

I know this used to be puer philosophy where young factory stuff used to be undrinkable, but these days even young sheng is good.

>>21890821
any reccs for aged whites? I've only had the cheap cake from KTM, which is admittedly more to my taste than more expensive young whites I've had

>>21890837
Sorry I cant help you, I'm not a big white tea guy.
The stuff I have is something random that used to be various degrees of bad and now after few years is meh/ok.
Don't have anything else aged.

>>21890840
I recommend it, one of the best price to taste ratios for any tea I ever bought at 15$ a cake

>>21861834
>>21861836
Finally got around to trying the green and black tea from my Awazon order. Ended up disliking the black tea, found the taste overly malty and a bit unpleasant. I'm picky about black tea though so that's no surprise to me. I'll end up giving that one away. The green tea OTOH tasted good, savory, brothy with a little vegetal nutty taste (but doesn't retain flavor for many steeps). For $3/100g I really can't complain though and would definitely order again.

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Yeeontea 2009 raw puerh clusters
Brewing up looking like a ripe

>>21892505
Yeah it does. Looks great. How's it taste?

I'd like to order from thetea.pl because they have more aged oolongs than I can find on any other vendor's site, and they all seem worth a try... but they want to charge me $43 in shipping for 220g of tea... fucking hell, the tea itself is already averages out to over $1/g without shipping.

>>21892571
smooth, thick, nutty, earthy, potato, herbal, mineralic, leaves nice aftertaste of earth after the rain
it's not complex, but comfy and easy to drink. I would recommend grabbing a bag if you order from yeeon, it is a cheap one
>>21892618
I'm mostly happy with my orders from thetea.pl but yeah, I wouldn't order if I had to pay so much for shipping
I can't say I know any other western stores with so many aged oolongs admittedly if that's what you want in particular

>>21892670
>if that's what you want in particular
Yeah that's what I'm after, they're so good but so hard to find. I have a few but I'd like to try more and do a big comparison of a bunch of them. I'm probably gonna end up biting the bullet and paying out the ass for shipping.
I just hope that at least one of them will be worth buying again in greater volume and having a decent stock of

This is a scam right?
https://www.cssbuy.com/item-888368491900.html

>>21892893
idk, but it was just on sale at Quiche for 100$, so I can believe that some random taobao vendor would have it for 65$

>>21892957
Its 65 yuan not dollars

>>21892984
for a 50g sample

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How does this make you feel?

>>21893240
A little offended. It's rude to point a spout at your guest.

>>21893240
sawed-off spout for close-range combat

>>21893240
sex

>>21892670
Is anyone able to receive replies from yot? On e-mail. I`v been trying to ask about invoice prices but they just seem to play dumb dumb.

Is Love Forever a good tea for someone who's into ripe mainly? I just love the paper.

>>21893666
oh no

>>21893240
honestly the colors and the sort of glistening dark hole on the raised and flushed surface just makes me think of a ruptured cyst or something.

>>21893240
>>21893678
if you squint it kind of looks like a strange sea creature.

>>21893666
sample it, Satan
you can get samples on KTM and thetea.pl
it won't taste like a ripe. if it's young shseng you dislike though then you should sample some aged ones

I left tea in my kyusu for a month or so with tea inside and now it's turned into moldy sludge
Any ways to clean this out properly? What can I rinse it with?
The teapot is mostly glazed inside

>>21894098
baking soda
some hot water
scrubbing effort

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got my taobao teas in. I thought i would play it safe and order things from dayi (tae tea) since they have a presence in the states + as a tester for the new fda shit
https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=745783410273
https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=521430985058

I still have 90% of an open cake and only the first one came with a sample so just let me know if you are particularly curious and i'll open one. both of these the store recommended to me since i really like the fruity taste of the chunpin

>>21894657
Need to come up with some way of getting a taobao account, they seem to be blocking the UK lately.
Never heard of either of those cakes but would be cool to hear about them/seller you bought from

>>21881855
bruh its brewed for like couple mins tops xD there's a stronger variety that's boiled but ordinary chifir is just a mug of tea made with about 10g of shitty black tea.

>>21884411
I put them in a seive and wash them under the tap with dish soap. make sure the water is nice and cold or they will taste like soap after

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>>21877097
>>21877107
>>21877185
>>21893273
>>21894782
Evening teachads, I have just acquired picrel. Your assessment? How does it compare to Lipton’s standard black tea?

>>21894805
I don't drink bag tea but nearly anything is better than lipton so will probably be fine especially with milk and sugar or for ice tea

>>21894805
It's better than Lipton's but that's not saying much. You owe it to yourself to try better tea than big name grocery store brands.

I'm curious how you chose those posts to reply to.

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Finally decided to take a nip out of a raw pu erh cake I've been "saving" or whatever and I'm surprised by the taste, and also by not having to run to the shitter as was the case when I tried ripe pu erh.

>>21894833
It was random

>>21894833
yes this, if u want to get into tea you need to get your hands on some nice loose leaf stuff.

>>21894839
Yeah, it's quite different from ripe

Tea makes me piss so much it's actually annoying. I used to drink a few cups a day for a while (about 1.2L total) but I got tired of having to go to the bathroom half a dozen times in the afternoon and evening and piss up a fucking storm every time. I've cut down to probably about 500-600ml and even still some days I just don't drink tea simply because I cannot be bothered to piss out an entire full bladder 3-4 times in the afternoon. I never drink tea in the evenings because I know I'll be getting out of bed to go to the bathroom every 1.5-2h until like 2am.
Plus I end up having to drink a ton of water because I literally feel dehydrated due to pissing out so much.

Is this normal or am I particularly sensitive to caffeine or something? I have never really felt much stimulant effect from drinking tea at any time of day, but the piss production effect is off the charts.

>>21894770
>someway
just make one?

>>21894894
that's normal. I'm pretty sensitive and it makes me need to piss roughly every 20 mins

>>21894770
you can vpn to taiwan if you need to.. i'm trying the sample with the first one. it contained half of what i usually use though.
My cat likes tea but he is fucking obsessed with the wrapper and tea leaves for this one i can't get him away from it. it kind of smells like old feet. and tastes a little plain like the 7929 im not too much of a fan of. it tastes fine but not fruity or rich like i would have hoped. this is just the sample so the cake might be different.

>>21894903
I can't, they block uk phone numbers. Unless there's a way to make an account without a phone number I'm not aware of

>>21894770
Use agent

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I've come to the conclusion that 10:1 water to mate ratio at roughly 75C for 5 minutes is less autistic than drinking it like pic related.
This is basically grandpa style but it gets slowly funky towards the end. The smokiness of the first hit is peak though. Trying to replicate that with western extraction.

>>21895932
I'm interested in an easier way to drink it but won't all the dust and stems and shit get mixed in?
I tried to cold brew it once and that's what happened

>>21896001
The bottom is sludge, but whatever. You're getting the sludge with the straw too imo.

>>21895932
It's grandpa style but the water is cold enough that you can minmax extraction time and just drink it faster if it's getting too strong

>>21896001
I just use a french press

>>21894989
tea is poisonous to cats.
>>21895005
you are supposed to use the details of your shipping agent.

>>21896327
What do you mean?
Although having said all that, seems css buys's browsing stuff is working now, last two times I tried it it was broken.

>>21896429
you cant ship stuff straight from taobao to the UK you need a proxy shipping agent, just make the taobao account with the details provided by the shipping agent for the address they give then it gets sent to them and they forward it to you.

>>21878549
if this isn't bait your taste is shit

How long is matcha good for? I have a container I forgot about from last May. Stopped buying because it's just way too expensive now.

>>21896796
>too expensive
the power of white girls making tea a trend.

>>21896796
>How long is matcha good for?
For as long as it tastes good.
It mostly progresses from fresh, to eh, to hay, to fish.

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Thoughts on stoneware teacups? Specifically this brand called “CEBU”. I think they look nice, $20 for a set of 4 for me to get started with?

>>21896972
I like jianzhan / tenmoku cups

>>21896972
Looks nice. $20 isn't a bad price
Though I have a personal hangup about my cups needing a white interior

My budget is £200. What's the best kettle I can buy?

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can i steep tea leaves in this

>>21897798
Yes, 1g/100ml 3 min steep as a starting point

>>21897798
soul setup

>>21897730
Fellow Stagg EKG Pro, ~£170

>>21897815
Anon, that's a sex toy.

>>21897798
did you break the ikea teapot

>>21897730
I have that bosch sky one for £70, it's pretty great except for one flaw where for some reason its temperature control sucks for low temperatures. If I try to make it go to like 85*C or something it'll "finish" boiling with the temperature dial at 85*C, and then suddenly realise it's actually more like 70*C so I have to start it up again and it heats up a bit more. Gets there on the second try.
Works fine for 90*C and above though.

Those meme £200 kettles, I don't trust them. Sounds more like luxury brand wankery than actual quality products. Not that bosch isn't overcharging for its brand but at least not to this point.

>>21899718
>more like luxury brand wankery than actual quality products
Had my stagg ekg for like 7 years at this point? Temp accurate every time across the full range, quick as you'd expect for the wattage at 110v. Knocked it off the base once and bent the spout in and off the body but it just bent right back. Been like 2 years since then. If either kettle or base breaks they sell replacements. Real hard to complain. Pours a little slow but I bought it for coffee so whatever.

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>>21898087
It arrived broken

>>21899920
of course an itoddler would trust a company to deliver something

>>21899924
>trust a company to deliver something
That’s such a weird thing to say. Retarded, even.

>>21899929
Most people go to stores and purchase things that they know aren't broken.

>>21899933
>item arrives broken
>simply get a refund in less than a day
Its not that hard, do you live in a third world shithole?

>>21899935
Probably indian

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God I still get tingles sometimes when drinking. Love the mild euphoria, without any significant long-term drawbacks. Drugs are good and improve life experience.

>>21899920
RIP in pieces. But yeah just brew your tea in an open vessel and pour it through the strainer. I would have suggested using the original teapot that way too.

>>21899902
the temp control in mine seems weirdly strongly affected by limescale or something

>>21900120
If your kettle builds lime you are using shitty hard water. When I switched to soft water for tea my kettle stayed clean eversince.

>>21899902
The temp being accurate is good, but really I think it's more of a failure of a basic feature in my £70 kettle than some premium achievement in the £200 one.
The rest is just normal basic stuff for a kettle. Almost anything up to budget models will hit close to max speed at your voltage. The spout getting bent is specific to the EKG's design.

Meanwhile the issues I have with it is that it's relatively small, and there's no indicator of fill level. When drinking alone that's fine but if for example guests come over or I'm making tea for the whole family, it'd be too small. And even when making tea alone, there's no obvious way to fill it to just the amount I need, other than eyeballing the fill level from the top. And speaking of filling, the lid also has to be manually removed, while any half-decent kettle above the most basic £20 budget tier will have a spring-loaded button-operated lid that flips up automatically for filling.

>>21900120
Yeah obviously, when a layer of scale builds up around the sensor it will isolate it.
>>21900154
I have reverse osmosis in my house and limescale definitely builds up slower, but still builds up a bit over time. How did you just "switch to soft water" if the water in your area is hard?

>>21900157
>How did you just "switch to soft water" if the water in your area is hard?
I took the distilling and slight remineralization pill. RO is quite expensive to maintain, at least if you just use it for tea.

>>21900168
>RO is quite expensive to maintain
Is it? I change a filter or two every 6 months, and I imagine if you use it less the filters will get used up even slower.

>>21900171
>I change a filter or two every 6 months
Cost?

lol i just got a 2009 LaoTongZhi 8578 from KTM that is showing 35% of humidity. The fuck, is that a blackhole?

>>21899943
i second you, anon, sad is the anon who never felt a good tea high.

Gonna order some Liu Bao and Yancha from kingteamall
I have a cart ready, but might as well ask for recs here. I already had the Orange Box liu bao and the Seadyke shui xians they have.

well, got a tea from HK by Hayslontea and the smell doesn´t give me the notes i was expecting, like Yee on Tea. I´m starting to think that the notes are exclusive to YOT? Old books and all. I will brew still, so it may show some more.

>>21900490
I hear that the taste differs a bit because each HK store has its own process. but also not every tea they sell has to go through it, some could be natural storage

>>21900513
So, would it be a wet storage?

>>21900515
And if so, why is so hard to find a wet storage that sells online? I can´t be the only one that enjoys it. I really thought that HK tea would always carry those notes - as a style.

>>21900156
>more of a failure of a basic feature in my £70 kettle than some premium achievement in the £200 one
Tuning PID loops is a 6 figure job.
>bent is specific to the EKG's design
Or you know, any gooseneck.
>the lid also has to be manually removed
>while any half-decent kettle
You brits get uppity about the stupidest shit. You don't have experience with half decent kettles. Yours barely works.

>>21899943
>>21900342
Are you guys drinking extra concentrated chifir or just larping

>>21900579
Mine works fine for boiling water, and for slightly-less-than-boiling too.
>uppity about the stupidest shit
If you boil your kettle once a day or more, every day, it's quite nice not to have to take off and put on the lid by hand every single time. It's also a basic feature that costs £0.50 in manufacturing costs and is present on many even cheap kettles, and the only reason the EKG doesn't have it is that it probably wouldn't look right with the """design""" of the top. Even then you could probably find a way to make it work without compromising the look.

>>21900585
>probably wouldn't look right with the """design""" of the top
Or its very nice to have an easily cleanable lid and wide mouth kettle opening with no obstructions.

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Enjoying a lovely Dilmah Golden Pikoe (loose leaf) with my morning glaucoma medication.

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>>21900581
>chifir
i just drink gong fu aged ripe and it does gives me a mellow QI energy. Maybe you are expecting to get REALLY FUCKING HIGH but thats not how it works. Start by trying to feel the caffeine, then see how it hits different compared to coffee.

>>21900777
The Autumn Jingmai Gushu from Farmerleaf that I have is the weirdest body feel wise to me
It's weirdly relaxing, to the point that I don't drink it very often because it makes me sleepy

>>21900777
>Start by trying to feel the caffeine
Never felt it in my life. I just like tasty leaf water.
>then see how it hits different compared to coffee.
Never tasted coffee in my life, probably won't ever care to

>>21900771
Nice teaware

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>>21900878

>>21900771
Dis nigga blind kek

>>21900581
Like I said in first post, mild euphoria. Sometimes still get the tingles coming down my spine. Maybe I'm just more susceptible to get taken over? This one time I tried amphethamine, couldn't fall asleep the next 3 days.

tea will be cheaper now for burgers right? 50 to 15%?

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Liu bao day today. Which one should I try first?

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>>21901418
THE OLDEST!

Trying my Spring 2025 Fa Zhan He sample and it really is quite good. The mild bitterness and its smell is giving me a cocoa sensation.

>>21901756
Yeah it's the best cheap raw on the site aside from Autumn LME

>>21901756
>Spring 2025 Fa Zhan He
wow, a young sheng? Doesn´t it taste like oolong?

>>21901782
Oolong, green tea but stronger mouthfeel and more bite
The current production trends make young raw very drinkable, but may make it age worse

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>>21901797
i still have to get into sheng but as im not a big green tea fan i have a hard time. Are you into aged sheng or just young?

>>21901847
I like both. Aged sheng is not similar to green tea at all, you might enjoy it more. Tends to be woody with darker flavors

I tried a few different puers a few years back when I first got into tea and no matter what I just don't get it. It's *fine* don't get me wrong but oolong is so much better it's not even funny.

I firmly believe people are just pretending to like puerh because it's weird and complicated.

>>21901852
Yeah, i´m on a hunt. The only one was a 2003 Thick Paper Qing Bing from Essence of Tea and still felt too floral for my tastes. If you have any recs about good dark ones.

>>21901870
I like the 2005 t8653 from QuicheTeas. Smoky and woody, no florals.
Look for stuff with more humid storage in general. Yeeontea could be worth a try too if you want the really dark earthy stuff that looks like a ripe and tastes like soil and beetroot

>>21901879
I LOVE Yeeontea but their invoice always comes full price and i pay literally 100% of taxes. Like, impossible.

>>21901867
It´s just a matter of taste. I love ripe and tend to find oolong boring but im sure one day i will find one that will knock my socks off.

>>21901887
>I love ripe and tend to find oolong boring
Have you had much roasted oolong? Those can be quite tasty if you like those darker flavours

>>21901867
>I firmly believe people are just pretending to like puerh because it's weird and complicated.
>he says while preferring the tea that is aged while being autistically hand-roasted five times for every unique recipe
You just stick puerh in a chink basement for 20 years and you're done

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>>21901966
Right but you also have to check the chain of custody and memorize a bunch of weird Chinese communist factory serial numbers and you need a special hand forged bronze "puerh pick" to spread the leaves apart and the washing ritual has to be done just right and if you pour the water wrong a bunch of scrawny pasty white people jump through the wall like the Kool Aid guy and start slap fighting over hobby drama

Oolong is just so much more chillaxed and maybe it's gay or fembrained of me but whatever, rather be a woman than a puerh autist

>>21901979
>you also have to check the chain of custody and memorize a bunch of weird Chinese communist factory serial numbers
Only if you want super special handmade puerh but again you get that exact same thing with oolong too. Or you can buy whatever cheapo factory tea (in both cases).

>and you need a special hand forged bronze "puerh pick" to spread the leaves apart and the washing ritual has to be done just right and if you pour the water wrong
I just drink my puerh grandpa style I don't know what the fuss is

>>21900364
Do they still have the 16 count yancha sampler pack? That one was nice. I have to admit I found it all pretty same-y. Very, very good though.
>>21900771
Dilmah balls lmao
>>21901979
In that regard, puerh is like chess in that you can enjoy it casually but if you want to dig deep, there is tons of room for satisfying autism. The best part about both is that the autism is not at all required to deeply enjoy either. The world of oolong has a similar depth. To me it seems you're looking to draw a contrast where there is none.

>>21901979
oolong autists exist and they are much more autistic about technique than the puerh people
look up a guide on chaozhou gong fu or dancong brewing and you will see what I mean:
>use exactly 92 degrees celsius
>pour on the sides of the gaiwan to avoid bruising the gall bladder of the tea
>"umm actually this is not a core area rou gui, just a lao cong shui xian, can't believe you can't taste the difference (they both taste like charcoal)"

puerh autists are more autistic about the storage, they all use boiling water and don't care about pouring technique. the only autistic part is the compression of the tea, but that's more of a physical thing that you need to deal with

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I'm drinking Chinese "matcha"

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>>21901979
you guys who don't like pur erh are just like the people who don't get tea drunk, always so bitter and butt hurt for no reason at all kek

you just don't enjoy it. You never see pur erh people talking shit about other tea drinkers, do you always see you mfs throwing shade.

>>21900490
>got a tea from HK by Hayslontea
yeah, idk if it was worth the price. I will have to wait it to sit a bit on the storage to see if i change my mind, but it just felt like some old Xiaguan stored by King Tea Mall, though much pricier. Leather notes and deep candy soy sauce just sometimes, nothing amazing or new that ´´justifies´´ HK storage. I will update.

I think my KingTeaMall payment didn't go through, I did express checkout with PayPal but it didn't check out
Anyone had this issue?

>>21902196
Never, though they will always reply your e-mail if you write them. They are good people.

>>21901979
This is just made up, plenty of autists are into tea and they are into all kinds, but even if you look at Farmer Leaf videos you'll see even experts are reasonable and largely chill.
Even if you look in this general you'll find as many oolong autists as pu-erh eutists, I remember someone talking at length about how roasted oolong are undrinkable before 12 to 18 months, and about how if you wash a tea wrong you'll fuck up the balance of flavorful compounds in the rest of the infusions.
I'm not saying he's wrong, but he's undeniably a nerd.

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>2009 LaoTongZhi "8578" Cake 357g Puerh Shou Cha Ripe Tea
wow, that was interesting. It smells sweat but salty like popcorn? Still trying to grasp it.

>stuff the wan with shou
>brew for ten minutes
>pour into a cup of milk
Oh yeah, we're still wintermaxxing in this household.

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Little KingTeaMall order of liu bao and oolong, gotta make use of that new year discount
Anyone had these?

>>21902667
It looks good but you should get more.

Thanks for the reminder, I finally stopped procrastinating and put in my restock KTM order. Mostly liubao, some yancha, blacks, and some fu samplers from the 50 brick anon's recs. Looking forward to trying a bunch of new stuff in a couple of weeks.

>>21890821
I find that buds and leaves taste very differently, and have a strong preference for the latter over the former. White also lets you play around with brew temperature a lot.

>>21902667
The yanchas are both nice, the silver one has an interesting aroma.

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wtf why is John Kingteamall brown

>>21902883
he literally has chinese nails nigga

>>21902883
>chinese tea, chinese guy
:|
>chinese tea, WMAF sinoboo
:O

I'll be travelling to China in april, is there some guide or do you have some tips/recommendations for buying tea in person? I'll be looking to buy sheng, spring 2026 greens and maybe some white tea.

>>21902667
>>21902838
>not TeaHome
cowards

>>21902936
Shut up John, we love William over here.

>>21903418
I've already ordered from TeaHome once. I'm very happy with the order, but I still have a decent amount of it, I don't really go through taiwanese oolong fast

DHL sent me a $150 invoice for import duties on $230 of tea that arrived in the US this morning. The fuck?
I already sent in a claim disputing it.

>>21903419
>>21878549
>gets the c-word pass
Farmer Leaf
Viet Sun
Old Ways

>gets the rope
Bitterleaf
White2Tea
Crimson Lotus

>>21903418
I've already ordered from TeaHome once. I'm very unhappy with the order, and I still have a decent amount of it, I won't go through their taiwanese oolong.

>>21903337
so you not gonna ask if any anon wants something? wow

>>21903431
Was it Yee on Tea?

>>21903454
No, thetea.pl
But in the US, tea was exempted from tariffs a while back. On the two other orders that came in a few weeks ago I paid none. And the old tariffs were ruled illegal several days ago... but a new tariff of a different sort was put in place at 10%, idk any specifics because I can't be bothered to try and keep up with this clown shitshow, but I would have assumed tea would still be exempt. And even if it isn't I have no idea why I'm being charged a >50% duty. In any case there's no way I'm paying that shit.

>>21903469
Weird. I hope it all goes well, anon. I wonder what you'll say about the aged oolongs

>>21903491
Yeah I really hope I don't have to tell them to return to sender and then ask for a refund.
I was pretty excited to try them and share my experience so hopefully I get to.

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>>21877097
The tea has arrived.

>>21903662
Bust up that brick.

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>>21903662
>>21903663

>>21903668
Glorious!

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>>21903668

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>>21903668
It's crumblier than I expected. I ordered a sample with it to try it without breaking it, but there was enough broken off to make a cup. That might just be the exterior though. Quite nice flavour, it has that tobacco(?) type taste and is smooth. It's not complex, but at 1.5p/gram very good and lasted quite a few infusions.

>>21903668
>>21903678
I'm someone tempted to get a giant melon just so I don't keep running out of tea whenever I procrastinating in buying one.
I should pick up some samples next time to taste it. I wish you could buy liubao in melons.

>>21896001
ive resorted to tying a teabag at the end
big cup, lots of mate, shitloads of ice cubes and cold water = sipping only mate for hours with no stems/dust/whatever in my mouth
so much fucking caffeine my face gets red hot, or maybe these guys accidentally packed some cocaine leaves with my mate back in argentina

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>>21877293
>Mei Leaf also puts full invoice
Picrel is the last thing you see before you get scammed. Would you like a cake of ripe 2026 'dessicated sodomite'? £50/gram please. Plus shipping.

>>21903688
Checked. I will say that if you've drank a few raw puerh teas then you'll have tasted its taste before so you shouldn't worry too much about not liking it. Don't bother with the 100g sample unless your country has bad shipping rates, just get a small melon 880g.


>liubao
I can't recall having that. What's it like?

>>21903701
I'm not normally a big puerh guy. Not that I don't like it but I haven't really bothered getting into it. I know there's a lot of variety, especially among aged raws.

>liubao
>what's it like
Fresh dirt. It's great.
It's wet-piled but doesn't taste like ripe puerh at all, it's a lot deeper and heartier, and earthier. The more earthy, loamy kind of aged raw can actually be somewhat similar to liubao, I think.

>>21877293
>>21903701
There is zero reason to buy from Mei if you're not in the UK.

>>21903688
I guess the 1kg basket is the melon of liu bao
chawang has some, though you don't get those melon prices

>>21903711
True actually. I have some samples of a couple of baskets and some of the pillars on the way from KTM, if I like them maybe I'll buy a giant bamboo-wrapped blob of tea.

>>21903706
>Fresh dirt. It's great.
Why not go outside and eat some fresh dirt?
Or does it need to be imported dirt?
I seriously don't understand this obsession over nasty flavors.

>>21903714
Think of it like spicy food. Why would anyone eat something that hurts them?
Think of it like heavy metal music. Why would anyone listen to something so loud and angry?
Think of it like abstract painting. Why would anyone look at something without form or meaning?
Think of it like modern art. Why would anyone pay millions for a banana taped to the wall?

There's a world of depth that can be explored. If you don't like the fundamental building blocks, you won't get to understand that depth. That said you can learn to like something. You can acquire a taste for something you don't have yet.

>>21903737
>Why would anyone pay millions for a banana taped to the wall?
Tax evasion. Simple as.
>That said you can learn to like something
Yeah its called Stockholm syndrome.
>You can acquire a taste for something you don't have yet.
Sure but out of ALL the things out there why something like this?
I know there are people that eat rotten eggs and nasty cheese full of maggots, but that's just mental illness.
Exploring something that tastes literally like a shit is decadent, but you do you.

>>21903701
>I can't recall having that. What's it like?
Unaged liu bao is similar to ripe pu-erh but I would say spicier and woody in a dry way. It is also often described as nutty
A lot of liu bao is aged and it tends to pick up similar flavours to humid stored pu-erh, like earth, beetroot, ginseng, camphor etc.

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>>21903706
Thanks. I think I know what you mean.

Also that tea melon has some powerful caffeine, I can feel it now.

>>21903708
Even if you're from the UK I wouldn't recommend ordering. I'm >>21903662, from England. When I first started buying tea I ordered from Mei Leaf, then YS, and now Awazon. I really can't see a general difference in quality. Individual teas, of course, but they vary anyway. To put it in perspective, he sells stinging nettle which is literally a weed here, it grows everywhere, including everyone's garden or yard, at 12p/gram. His cheapest actual tea is 15p/gram. They aren't bad teas, but they aren't worth the money. Few are. I had a 2017 Hai Lang Hao "Lao Ban Zhang from YS, nearly $2/gram. I had at least five other people blind taste test it against some random puerhs I had, none of them preferred it.

>>21903755
Did you ever tried King Tea Mall? Its worth the hype.

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>>21903714
thats you, anon

>>21903761
KingTeaMall is cool because it has a huge catalogue like YS, but with lower prices and more focus on factory productions

I think the best puerh vendor right now is probably QuicheTeas, but they don't have the huge selection. For young raw of course there are a lot of specialists in that

>>21903771
I´m now on a hunt for a good HK storage that gives me the Yee On Tea notes without making me pay 100% of taxes. Tried Hayslontea but it wasn´t it yet.

>>21903775
Have you tried aged liu bao? Most of it has went through humid storage.

>>21903761
No I should try it. I just looked at it-some good stuff and very good prices. It might be a while though since I've just got that delivery.

>>21903714
It's not nasty, you just don't understand it.

>>21903750
>literally like shit
Maybe you didn't understand me, I said dirt, not shit. Clean loam, fertile earth. Some call it beetroot. Not manure or shit or anything.

>>21903755
Teas are nice because the different kinds are confusing enough that someone not used to ordering from china, and without prior knowledge, can be sold literally anything. The differences in flavours at the higher end are subtle, especially if you again aren't experienced and don't have a particularly "well trained palate" or whatever, so you literally can't be called out in a way that is provable to an inexperienced buyer.
There's a phenomenon that the price of something affects its perceived quality, and in this case it can be exploited massively. Someone just getting into "fancy teas" will have no point of reference for price OR taste, so you can probably resell practically random cakes and just say that they're worth $2/gram or whatever because it's some rare exceptional unique puerh with some tasting notes pulled out of your ass, and your buyers have practically no choice but to blindly trust you if nobody has told them any better.

It's like if you could just sell random wines for a huge markup and there wasn't yet a culture of wine tasting that was semi-respected, so you wouldn't get an angry mob of connoisseurs or whatever "exposing" your shop. There is no such culture of connoisseurs for tea in the west, so you can this with near complete impunity.

>>21903787
Wow, never. I thought it would be more like a sheng kind of vibe? So its more ripe or what? I still have a hard time understanding what Liu Bao is.

>>21903811
Just try some
https://kingteamall.com/products/2020-sanhe-liu-bao-cha-liubao-tea-1st-grade-loose-leaf-100g-tin-boxed-liu-pao-tea-dark-tea-wuzhou-guangxi

>>21903811
the process of making ripe pu-erh was actually adapted from liu bao and they share some similarities in flavor
there are "raw" liu bao out there too, but most of them are "ripe"

it's quite similar to ripe pu-erh, but made in a different province and not from assamica leaves. there also doesn't seem to be as much region autism
another difference is that wet storage is still the standard with liu bao and a lot of it is factory aged for a few years. you can also get very old liu bao for relatively cheap. you should definitely check it out as there is some overlap with the hong kong wet storage flavors

>>21903833
>it's quite similar to ripe pu-erh, but made in a different province
Thats what i don´t understand, so its like ripe but made in another province? Really curious to try it.

>>21903842
>so its like ripe but made in another province
Yes. And the plants are different, assamica vs sinensis. I think it tends to be less strongly fermented than modern ripe, but I don't have concrete stats.
If you like HK storage and ripe, you are likely to enjoy liu bao.

>>21903755
>Even if you're from the UK I wouldn't recommend ordering.
his kombucha fermented ripe Playground Rendez-Vous or the vacuum sealed and aged Bizarrely Aged Dianhong are great but they're not something you could really buy elsewhere, for standard tea yeah its over priced but he has some interesting things that are more than just X tea from Y region

>>21903662
>melon
oh boy

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I tried making this shui xian stronger, with 7g of leaves in a 170ml pot.
It's more full bodied but no more aromatic or enjoyable than using a lower leaf to water ratio.
Using a lower steeping time makes it feel less malty, so that's a plus in my opinion, but it's not worth using twice as much leaf as I normally would.

>>21903893
I use 10g per 150ml
but it's all personal preference, tea orthodoxy is stupid

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>>21903714

>>21903907
>tea orthodoxy is stupid
It's practically an oxymoron.

>>21903893
I always wondered if I was screwing up the brewing, I find they tend to get too bitter from the roast at the super high ratios people recommend. Or maybe my tea just isn't good enough quality for that.

>>21903668
>>21903678
>>21903755
Godspeed anon. I was lurking and hoping you come back.
If you are willing to sell a 150g melon sample to EU, I'd be happy to take it. Note the trip

>>21903797
It's interesting because there are quite a few people who are critical of Yunnan Sourcing for selling overpriced mediocre tea (myself included), but since tea discourse on the internet is (semi)anonymous, the opinions of inexperienced but overconfident tea noobs appear to have the same weight as the opinions of more experienced drinkers. If someone bashes or lauds a particular tea or vendor, it's hard to know if they really know what they're talking about, unless you yourself have some experience.
But as much a shame as it is to be ripped off and see new tea drinkers ripped off, in a way, I prefer things this way. There are no tea authorities or professional critics who get together to rate teas and give them a score to stick on websites and labels at stores. Finding good tea that you like is a personal journey, it's not learning to comform to the opinions of authority figures.
Having said that... while of course taste is subjective, quality really isn't. Those wine ratings aren't merely opinions, they do have some value and meaning.

>>21904043
I agree that tea not having some objective well-established rating is good. But one thing I would change about "this way" things currently are right now, would be make chinese import teas common knowledge. Because of the "price = quality" phenomenon, people really think that paying $40 for 25 grams of tea is normal and justified; perhaps they will even enjoy it more this way. But it's literally just because it is not common knowledge that often nearly the exact same teas are available direct from China. And that yes even single estate teas or special low-volume batches commissioned direct from farmers as a one-time production, are not necessarily worth their price in gold.

Or well, I wouldn't necessarily change this about the world because frankly I don't strongly care, a fool and his money are easily parted and all that. But from an objective point of view that would be better for tea drinkers.

>while of course taste is subjective, quality really isn't. Those wine ratings aren't merely opinions, they do have some value and meaning.
I'm sure, but to a point it's also consensus, or very minute differences. It's true that cheap wines are generally reliably shittier than slightly upmarket wines, while this isn't always the case with teas. But when you get into the more expensive stuff with more markups, at some point you literally cannot tell the difference if you're not already an experienced wine drinker. A sommelier says this bottle is worth $200, and all the other sellers agree, and I have no choice but to trust their word that it's apparently better than the $100 bottle nearby, but somehow worse than the $800 bottle over there, and all of them would be utterly wasted on me as I likely couldn't tell them apart from any decent $30-50 range bottle.

>>21903858
>interesting things that are more than just X tea from Y region
Though i´m not a Mei Leaf hater i think that a lot of mainly boutique drinkers get this wrong. There is A TON of difference in taste and notes from age to age, from factory to factory and even teas from the same region will differ A LOT.

Process, recipes. I know its kind of strange, so many numbers and old papers, but thats also part of the fun.

>>21904060
>make chinese import teas common knowledge
I agree that this would be better for new drinkers, but would the majority go this route even if they knew? I think that for a lot of people it can be overwhelming to jump into a new, esoteric hobby without someone who you relate to selling to you. I think that my willingness to buy weird teas, that nobody I knew irl had ever heard of, from niche, often not user friendly websites when I was new to tea makes me an outlier (maybe not as the kind of tea drinker that would be here, but as the kind of person who might want to try Chinese tea).
Have you seen the way Jesse's tea house fans jump to his defense when people point out how his teas are overpriced and can be bought for cheaper elsewhere? It's nuts.
But I do agree, it would be better if every new tea buyer had that knowledge.

>>21904060
>to a point it's also consensus
Yeah absolutely. I think that the consensus of people who have more experience than most has some value, but I don't think it's fact or objectively correct.
Kind of paradoxically, you do need to have quite a bit of personal experience for a sommelier's or a critic's opinion to have value. Once you have experience though, you can choose to trust their word in the future if what they said before has generally aligned with your experience, and if it hasn't you're free to ignore them. It's a nice option to have and would, in some ways, be nice for tea.
And if the minute differences don't mean anything to you then that's perfectly fine (and for your wallet's best).

So on the one hand it would be nice to be able to try out expensive teas based off of the suggestions of "authority" figures who know what they're talking about rather than gamble on expensive samples(or cakes if samples aren't available) hoping it's not the marked up trash you were talking about.
But on the other hand, you are getting a biased idea of what "quality" is based off of what it is to that "authority". And also you might be subconsciously catering your preferences to what you've been told is good vs. bad.
Tea is also different because I think there's more trust between the buyers and sellers when you have a quality vendor, and I think that's because it's niche. I'm quite willing to take the word of the good vendors that I trust.

Tea is more like popping in to a hole in the wall in some road off the beaten path in a foreign country than going to a local restaurant you heard about from food critics or yelp reviews. You might be more likely to get burned, but if you have a clue what you're doing you can usually steer clear of that, and you might find a real gem. It's more of an adventure and I do prefer it that way.

>>21904151
I think if it was commonly accepted that western resellers aren't selling anything deeply unique, but are mostly reselling stuff that's available on the chinese market AND is much cheaper if you buy there, then a lot fewer people would be willing to accept massive markups. Doubtless there'd still be a market for "curated" resellers, offering a nice "safe" storefront with no chinglish, a nice to browse set of listings, good recommendations for beginners, etc. But I'd expect that a lot more people would rather just not buy tea at all than pay the immense markups some sellers have today, if they could compare prices with confidence.

The problem is that people simply don't even know about looking up the same tea name and type on one of the various chinese sellers, often don't even know chinese storefronts exist. Their experience of tea is cheap supermarket tea or extremely overpriced niche boutique vendors.
Some random guy pointing to a chinese source is often not enough to break the cognitive dissonance (that being "it's clearly premium so must be expensive, it's natural for it to be way more expensive than supermarket teabags. and I paid a lot for it, I'm not a rube so surely I did not get duped - it really is worth that much."). The idea that teas can be bought from china without issues and the majority of "premiume boutique teas" from western storefronts really and truly are supermarket priced teas in china would, IMO, have to enter some kind of common knowledge zeitgeist in order to really be effective at steering normies away from immense markups.

It's not too dissimilar from amazon vs. aliexpress really. Everyone knows everything comes from china, but a lot of shit on aliexpress is also genuinely bad. But if you show someone the exact same product on ali and amazon, they might still buy from amazon for a small markup for the delivery and returns convenience, but would likely not buy it for a 200%+ markup

I'm wired on mate, this shit is sick

>>21903755
>>21904026
seconding this, you could become /tea/'s top euro melon merchant

>>21904174
>Doubtless there'd still be a market for "curated" resellers, offering a nice "safe" storefront with no chinglish, a nice to browse set of listings, good recommendations for beginners, etc.
This is what I'm doing. A little side hustle to resell good tea. Having done my market research, I think you would be surprised to know the number of people who would happily pay markup not to order from Chinese websites, to know somebody would be reading and responding to messages in English and with sincerity.
>people simply don't even know about looking up the same tea name and type on one of the various chinese sellers, often don't even know chinese storefronts exist.
This is the value add of the retailer. Having knowledge of this means you could go and do it too.

>>21904347
I know that you can get good cakes for $0.10/gram, that doesn't necessarily mean I know a lot of good cakes or would be able to make a business from the recommendations.
All it means is that if I see a seller asking for $2/gram I will probably just scroll right past, assuming it's far more likely to be just western tourist trap pricing than an actually super duper special cake.

>I think you would be surprised to know the number of people who would happily pay markup not to order from Chinese websites
I mean considering people like Mei have customers, I'm not particularly surprised. But my point was that if people were more educated, then a reasonable markup would still have a spot in the market, while wild fantasy prices wouldn't.
Like if someone set up a store reselling literally the KTM catalog but with actually accurate and trustworthy descriptions, some worthwhile opinions on each tea with recommendations for "first things to try" in each category or just generally trustworthy recommendations - maybe a tea club, and like a 20% markup for the trouble, I'd probably seriously consider using it over KTM's massive catalog of complete blind buy teas differentiated only by their ChatGPT descriptions and word of mouth recs.

Basically this is close to what websites like white2tea do, which is completely fair. And pretty much the complete opposite of what Mei Leaf does, which is the "boutique tea" market selling teas that are mostly equivalent to random factory puerhs for prices almost worthy of like actual collector's cakes.

>>21904332
>>21904026
Sure. I've not sent anything to Europe before so I'm unsure of the shipping rates/procedure so will have to look that up. Most of the cost will probably be shipping (for a melon sample) as even with a premium it's still cheap tea.

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>>21904694
Just looked it up, cursorily, cheaper than I thought for light weights, so maybe the expense will be the tea after all.

>>21904700
What genre is the tea anyway? is it puer

>>21904314
yep, mate is cool