My mother's acquaintance/friend visited our house and she gave me a couple of teabags with the brand Alokozay. I opened the 100% pure Ceylon tea one first. It smelled quite unique when I opened the foil so I was a little hesitant on drinking it, but when I tried it I actually liked it? I think it has what people would call a herbal or medicinal taste. The last time I tried Ceylon tea it had some hints of this taste but this one was more intense. I actually like it.

Also, if any of you know of some other brands with more of this taste, lemme know. I'm fine with loose leaf or teabags.

I decided to be a bit silly and have it in my rabbit yunomi. This sample I had was quite good. It has a bit of that brothy, rich note that one associates with gyokuro. Shinchas tend to be a bit stronger than normal sencha, and so can often have a bitter edge which I do not prefer. This one was very mellow, though, with very little bitterness.

I shot this photo-essay ages ago and thought it might be appropriate for here. Note that in one of the pictures the ISBN is provided, for those who might want a copy of their own.

No, really. That's its name. And it's not an "unfortunate translation artifact" either. It's just as crass in the original Chinese.

Looking for advice on best way to keep temperature of water when preparing tea.

What I tried so far

Electric kettle without infuser

Issue: Because I want to measure amount of water I go from Kettle to measuring cup which brings down temperature (measured 6 to 12 degrees drop) from just pouring the water in the measuring cup

Microwave

Issue: Have figured out duration + amount of water to get temperatures I want, but temperature drops the second I put the tea bag and can't use loose leaves with this method

Kettle with tea infuser

Issue was more of a specific kettle than the method. The Kettle I first tried was somewhat wide so would have to put about 4 cups of water (32oz of water) for the water to go high enough on the container to get to the level of tea leaves. I think this will likely be the best method, just have to find a better kettle for smaller amounts since it is the only method that can keep the temperature closer to recommended temperature during the steep time. I figure one could probably also use a pot, but probably would be more of a challenge to keep temperature around a fixed level.

Brewing time question: All the temperature recommendations for different teas is that recommended time at start of steep or recommended temperature for the duration?

Reading a few articles online mostly confirmed that an electric Kettle with infuser is probably the best way to go. Any good articles with practical advice, or books, you would recommend? Lots of the articles online are somewhat generic and pretty much most have similar info.

Was having some chai tea and an orange just now, and it occurred to me that I should grate some of the orange zest and put it in the tea (in a tea egg). Then I added a couple dashes of Angostura bitters. I'm onto something here.

Fairly certain it's a white tea. Reverse image search didn't come up with much for me. Hopefully someone here has more insight!

Edit: Added more sides of the container.

:

Green, Sencha okumidori
some random Chinese oolong
White, bai hao yin zhen

Edit: The oolong was pretty good. Mildly floral and fruity. The okumidori was just as good as I expected. Worth the price IMO.

Also admire my cute travel gaiwan set I bought for no good reason.....unless...

It's established that strainer > tea bag, but jeebus, I hate having to scrub out stuck dried leaf bits the next morning. Could I just dump the wet leaves out before they stick? Bruh, do you know how much easier my life would be if I didn't forget so much lil shit the moment I take my eyes off it?

But maybe it's an excellent post hoc excuse for my unnecessary gaiwan purchase. It's so much easier to clean a gaiwan, even with a lip for the strainer lid, than to get all the little bits unstuck from the strainer holes.

Hello all!

I'm here to ask for advice, I grew up in Sweden but I now live in France, and I haven't been drinking tea since my student days (I the northern woods) really. So off I go and buy tea here in France and it's just really mediocre. I mean tea-shop weighted tea, not supermarket tea.

I'm fairly confident the water temp is okay and so on, but less or more tea, the cup just tastes like I used old no longer very potent tea.

It's like the fourth time in a bunch of years I'm trying.

A french family member drinks a lot of tea (she even have this fancy water boiler with exact temperatures, a gift because she drinks so much tea), and it's always old tea bags in a big box, and they too if course has that hay-taste/no more "tea" in them, taste. Are the french tea illiterate or am I just unlucky?

Just realized you can stack these metal tea boxes. Turns out, the dimensions haven’t changed over the decades.

Top tin: Fortnum & Mason Royal Blend, bought around 2018. I ran out of the original tea years ago, so now it’s filled with Taylors of Harrogate Assam Black Tea.

Bottom tin: A vintage tin I got from my grandma — probably from somewhere between the 1950s and 1980s. It’s currently home to some cheap, low-quality pu-erh from my local Chinese shop. Surprisingly tasty for the price.

I am looking for one. I have 2 but for one i seem to have lost the lid and the others pouring is reaaaaally bad that it always floods the table.

Price at max would be 100€. No plastic anywhere.

Thanks a lot people!