El Cheapo tea challenge

[mjjbecker]

The merchant also told me the following:

 

1. The very expensive premium teas are marginally better than the medium ones but that extra is enough to command high prices. The rich Chinese and Chinese officials now this and are willing to pay that much.

 

2. Not all teas deliver the same results to everyone. For instance, tea A might be more suited to me than tea B even if tea B costs 3 times more than tea A.

 

Today, I payed $96 AUD for a 350g pu-erh cake today and it is cheaper than a much cheaper cake in the long run because you simply get more out of it as it lasts longer.

 

Absolutely spot on.

[Kameel]

A little less than a hundred bucks,

a little more than 6 months (let's say about 200 days),

about 50 cents a day, less than 10 cents a serving,

Sounds like a great deal to me.

Thanks for the response!

[thelerner]

When I make my tea, I'll use a tea strainer and make 2 or 3 infusions from it during the course of the morning. The next day the leaves are still in the strainer, usually dried out. I toss them and start w/ fresh leaves for the new day.

 

Q. Should I re-use them? They've been out and exposed for 24 hours. Even if they made tea, wouldn't I be robbing myself of the healthy stuff?

 

 

Michael

[Sunya]

When I make my tea, I'll use a tea strainer and make 2 or 3 infusions from it during the course of the morning. The next day the leaves are still in the strainer, usually dried out. I toss them and start w/ fresh leaves for the new day.

 

Q. Should I re-use them? They've been out and exposed for 24 hours. Even if they made tea, wouldn't I be robbing myself of the healthy stuff?

 

 

Michael

 

Depends what kinda tea you use.. Black and pu er have more infusions than oolong.. oolong has more than green.. I usually don't use more than 2 infusions but with pu er i'll go for 3. I like mine strong though so I typically add a little bit with each infusion.

[Sunya]

When I make my tea, I'll use a tea strainer and make 2 or 3 infusions from it during the course of the morning. The next day the leaves are still in the strainer, usually dried out. I toss them and start w/ fresh leaves for the new day.

 

Q. Should I re-use them? They've been out and exposed for 24 hours. Even if they made tea, wouldn't I be robbing myself of the healthy stuff?

 

 

Michael

 

Depends what kinda tea you use.. Black and pu er have more infusions than oolong.. oolong has more than green.. I usually don't use more than 2 infusions but with pu er i'll go for 3. I like mine strong though so I typically add a little bit with each infusion.

[Gerard]

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Edited May 11, 2011 by Gerard

[Walker]

I am aware, but the million dollar question probably is: where are they?

 

I think 武夷山/Wuyi Shan may be one such place. I've had a long article on "Gongfu Cha (Tea)" I've been meaning to read for the longest time, and might finally get around to it now that the semester's over. If it mentions more such places I'll post em up.

 

For my part, the most amazing tea I ever tried was called, in pinyin, Wudang Shan Gan Lv Er Cha (if I recall correctly--I got it on my first trip to China and then spoke no Chinese at all then). It was grown on Wudang and was amazing. I tried it at a small tea house amongst the temples and I was with a friend who smoked. This tea left a subtle sweetness in the mouth and throat of such--what is the word... power, I suppose--that water drank and even a cigarette smoked after drinking a few tiny cups of the tea tasted downright honey-like. And I am talking cheapo 5 yuan/pack Chinese cigarettes, which are about the roughest thing you can put in your lungs aside from Lanzhou weather. Yet the smoke tasted like honeysuckle. I think remarkable teas must grow hidden all over this country, and you never know where you might run into a variety. I've had some really nice Guizhou teas (speaking as no expert), including one my friend picked on the hills near her hometown.

 

Not necessarily. The company I work for purchases many high quality teas from China, Japan, India, Sri Lanka etc. and most aren't organic. We get samples of organic teas and they dont taste as good. Maybe the technology isn't there yet to grow good organic tea. Anyway, high quality tea farmers use water soluble pesticides that don't actually go into your cup.

 

You know your tea far better than I, but it strikes me that while what you're saying may be generally true for tea entering the international market, it seems unlikely that good organic tea not coming your way is a question of technology. After all, until very recently in terms of tea's historical roots all tea was organic. Given how tea drove generations of Chinese poets to pick up their brushes I doubt high-quality tea only came into existence after chemical fertilizers and pesticides came on the scene. On top of that, taking my tea master friend as an example, she spends a month or more in Yunnan each year traveling between small mountain villages in search of ancient trees that even the owners of the land they're on might not have realized were tea trees. These leaves she buys, personally picks, personally dries in the sun, and then sells at prices in Shanghai which allow her to spend the rest of her life all year focused on cultivating her understanding of tea and her Buddhist practice. Her teas aren't in any quality to be shipped around the world, but they are clearly enjoyed at a price by afficionados, and are very much organic.

 

If the tea farmer uses water soluble pesticides then they never get into your cup (they stay on the tea leaves). As long as you don't eat the tea leaves you're fine.

 

How does that work? Doesn't water soluble mean it dissolves in the water? I'd guess such pesticides would have to be washed off, or else you would end up drinking them.

 

I spoke to the tea merchant today and after tasting his premium pue-erh tea (but not the best he had as the price was too steep for me) for second time I decided to purchase it. The lingering taste in my mouth, tongue and throat (the Chinese have a name for this but I can't remember now) indicates a good quality tea. And we had many runs with one batch in a small yixing teapot and the tea consistency was still there.

 

Some of the words he might have used that I've heard others using in reference to tea...

 

口感-kou3gan3-mouth feeling

唇齿留香-chun2chi3liu2xiang1-a nice way to say aftertaste (lip tooth linger fragrant/delicious)

回味-hui2wei4-aftertaste

 

2. Not all teas deliver the same results to everyone. For instance, tea A might be more suited to me than tea B even if tea B costs 3 times more than tea A.

 

True, and results also depends on how much gongfu you have to draw the subtle essenses and the qi from the tea! My utter lack of tea gongfu meant that Wudang tea I mentioned above wasn't nearly as nice when I inexpertly brewed it myself.

[joeblast]

Great info

[Gerard]

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Edited May 11, 2011 by Gerard

[Mal]

The lingering taste in my mouth, tongue and throat (the Chinese have a name for this but I can't remember now) indicates a good quality tea.

 

Nice to know. When I first got my King Grade Longjing it was a noticeably different taste, the next day when I was having a shower in the morning, I was already looking forward to drinking another cup and I could vividly remember that taste.

 

I've not experienced that with other teas. I've finished that packet of Longjing and now I'm finishing off an older dragonwell I had previously. It's still nice to drink, but just doesn't have the same lingering taste.

 

When I was trying to get into tea (everyone kept posting how nice it was) I would buy some greenteabags from the supermarket and it would taste like lawn clipings I would wonder why anyone would drink it but you can find tasty cheap teas. I actually got some "supermarket no name brand" white tea bags recently for $2 on special and they were actually nice enough to give to others to taste

 

I guess it's like clean skin wines, sometimes you can get a good one, but it takes a bit more luck.

 

p.s. I get a weeks worth of infusions out of the leaves (2~3 cups a day) brewing in one of these cups

the leaves go in the basket on the right and that goes into the cup to steep. So my 12.5g of tea lasted me a over a month (I think) I only start good teas early in the week, or I won't get all the infusions out of them (keeping leaves overnight is o.k. but they go moldy if left over the weekend) while some of my cheaper tealeaves are empty after a day and a half.

 

I've got one of these cups in Yixing clay too, but being dark inside I have trouble telling when my tea has infused to my preferred strength unless I stick in a white plastic spoon

[Gerard]

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Edited May 11, 2011 by Gerard

[Gerard]

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Edited May 11, 2011 by Gerard

[Non]

man u know what...

 

this pu-erh tea I get for under ten bucks is awesome. A nice beeng cha. I dont even want to taste the expensive ones.. lest my mind be changed. I did get a brick for 15 bucks, which was more expensive. Still great. I love how it can be brewed a very long time and NEVER get bitter, only stronger. That's Real pu-erh tea I would think.. because it's characteristic only of pu-erh teas.

Edited June 28, 2010 by Non

[Gerard]

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Edited May 11, 2011 by Gerard

[Non]

Interesting to read this. Care to share here what have you exactly purchased? I am curious now.

 

Thanks.

 

I'll take pics...

[Mal]

[joeblast]

Enjoying some A grade guanyin oolong from amazing green tea - very tasty stuff! I think I need an Yixing pot now.

 

Near-boiling water steeped much less favorably than ~180 degree water for it.

Edited July 1, 2010 by joeblast

[Gerard]

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Edited May 11, 2011 by Gerard

[Non]

elixir

 

I brewed that not using the traditional kung fu method since I dont have the tea warez. I do soak the tea twice in boiling water in a french press. Put a splash boiling water in, swirl it around for a couple seconds, drain it out. Twice.. then put freshly boiled water in there are let it brew until I think it looks like coffee and red when held up in the light, about a minute or so, a little longer and a little more if done the second and third time. Good for about 3 brews or so at that same color.. but that's becuase I like my pu-erh strong and dark like coffee.

 

On the second brew however i noticed it took an even shorter amount of time to get to that color. it must be because on the first brew the leaves were opening up, and now that they are fully open it took less than 30 seconds to get to that color.

 

Very Earthy, base chakra deep red...

 

So yea.. 6.50 that brick was. The most I payed for was 15 bucks.. but that one has a bit of a funky spicy food smell probably because it was sitting next to some food at the chinese store, and it soaked up the smell. I didn't throw it away though because it cost me quite a bit.. anyways, it's good tea after you soak it twice in boiling water.

Edited July 2, 2010 by Non

[thelerner]

We're being very Chinese oriented. What input is there on Japanese or Indian teas?

 

I particularly like Japanese Genmai styles that add toasted rice, giving them a sweet and hearty taste.

 

On the conventional (&cheap) side I grew up with bags of Constant Comment(from Bigelow), and w/ a little sweetener and slice of lime its great. Likewise when I'm not doing coffee I'll have Earl Grey in the morning, sometimes taking it w/ milk.

 

 

Michael

[Non]

I like genmaicha. Genmai with matcha powdered around it. Even better, GABA Rice toasted would be cool.

 

There is some oolong tea cake as well from the Yunnan being sold at the store. I was wondering if I should get it but it was too damn cheap for me to consider. It was only like 3 dollars for that huge cake.. so it must not be too good... but then again.. oolong cake might be different from loose oolong and it's rare.

Edited July 2, 2010 by Non

[Non]

Hi Michael, you read my mind. I read that bancha was the best Japanese tea.

 

Every morning for the last few weeks, I've been drinking a bulk genmaicha that I got from mountainroseherbs.com, however it isn't nearly as tasty as the packaged Eden brand that I used to get. I can't seem to shake the bitterness unless I brew it for a very short time (I always time my green teas). Then it just tastes weak. Now that I've read up more on the quality of the green tea (thanks bums), I have a better idea why some flavored teas taste bitter.

 

Really? Bancha? I heard that in terms of grades bancha was lower than sencha... but then again I may be wrong.

 

As for japanese green tea.. I do like gyokuro for it's higher levels of l-theanine.

 

I've been wanting to try also GABA tea, which is an oolong tea fermented/oxidized with nitrogen. I wonder if that's the same of denitrification? Anyways it's called GABA becasue it contains significant amounts of GABA in the tea, and it's a new type of tea 'discovered' by the Japanese in a laboratory setting.

[Sahaj Nath]

We're being very Chinese oriented. What input is there on Japanese or Indian teas?

 

I particularly like Japanese Genmai styles that add toasted rice, giving them a sweet and hearty taste.

 

On the conventional (&cheap) side I grew up with bags of Constant Comment(from Bigelow), and w/ a little sweetener and slice of lime its great. Likewise when I'm not doing coffee I'll have Earl Grey in the morning, sometimes taking it w/ milk.

 

 

Michael

 

Indeed.

 

just for the record, since you brought it up, the company Mikaelz works for has a pu-erh with fairly strong notes of earl grey with bergamot. i enjoyed it quite a bit.

 

 

Genmai-cha was the tea that first really turned me on to teas. in college i would brew a big pot of it every night and serve it after our nightly meditation sessions. it was a big hit, and it got lots of people into drinking green tea.

 

before that i had mostly thought that green tea was nasty, but that people drank it anyway because it was healthy. SO WRONG! there was this old Japanese lady who owned a tea shop near my school, and she schooled me on proper brewing of green tea. i had no idea that different teas might require different water temperatures. so if the water was too hot, or if i steeped the tea for even a minute too long, the delicate flavors of the green tea would turn bitter. and up until that point i had been doing both of those, so as far as i was concerned, green tea kinda sucked.

 

but once i got it right, i was never the same again.

 

 

someone on the first page of this thread mentioned the African red bush. Rooibos. now THAT'S a great tea, especially as an iced tea in the summer time! and you can probably find a pound of organic rooibos for $25, so it's really inexpensive.

 

anyone into rooibos, or is it just me and that inflammablefish guy?

[Non]

Indeed.

 

just for the record, since you brought it up, the company Mikaelz works for has a pu-erh with fairly strong notes of earl grey with bergamot. i enjoyed it quite a bit.

 

 

Genmai-cha was the tea that first really turned me on to teas. in college i would brew a big pot of it every night and serve it after our nightly meditation sessions. it was a big hit, and it got lots of people into drinking green tea.

 

before that i had mostly thought that green tea was nasty, but that people drank it anyway because it was healthy. SO WRONG! there was this old Japanese lady who owned a tea shop near my school, and she schooled me on proper brewing of green tea. i had no idea that different teas might require different water temperatures. so if the water was too hot, or if i steeped the tea for even a minute too long, the delicate flavors of the green tea would turn bitter. and up until that point i had been doing both of those, so as far as i was concerned, green tea kinda sucked.

 

but once i got it right, i was never the same again.

 

 

someone on the first page of this thread mentioned the African red bush. Rooibos. now THAT'S a great tea, especially as an iced tea in the summer time! and you can probably find a pound of organic rooibos for $25, so it's really inexpensive.

 

anyone into rooibos, or is it just me and that inflammablefish guy?

 

Well technically african red bush isn't a tea as the word tea is reserved for infusions of Camellia sinensis. African red bush is another herbal infusion.

 

But yea african red bush is ok... tastes kinda like chamomile with a bit more of a red floral earthy taste to it.. kinda weak in flavor to me.. though I havne't had it in a while so I dontknow.. and I have been staying away from it ever since I read that it can contain lots of fluoride or is that fluorine? just like non-organic green teas and black teas (red tea according Chinese) White tea would have the least, but I got back into the green, red and black if I get it from asian imports.

[Sahaj Nath]

Well technically african red bush isn't a tea as the word tea is reserved for infusions of Camellia sinensis. African red bush is another herbal infusion.

 

oh, really?

 

But yea african red bush is ok... tastes kinda like chamomile with a bit more of a red floral earthy taste to it.. kinda weak in flavor to me.. though I havne't had it in a while so I dontknow.. and I have been staying away from it ever since I read that it can contain lots of fluoride or is that fluorine? just like non-organic green teas and black teas (red tea according Chinese) White tea would have the least, but I got back into the green, red and black if I get it from asian imports.

 

certainly not a weak flavor if brewed properly. it has a really robust flavor, surprisingly strong considering it's caffeine-free. for those of you who have kids, i think it makes for a good replacement for lipton unsweetened iced tea. give it a try.

 

as for the fluoride... i never looked into the fluoride content of Rooibos, although, as a general rule, i don't worry a whole lot about naturally occurring fluoride. it's the artificially introduced stuff that's problematic.

 

all of the teas i purchase are organic, and the water i use and drink is properly filtered, meaning no Brita or PUR filters, as they are a joke.

 

but generally speaking, all teas have a certain amount of naturally occurring fluoride, and historically this hasn't been a problem. but in my book, purified water is a definite must.

 

oh, and just an FYI for those of you who might think you can lessen the fluoride content by boiling the water: actually the opposite is true. the boiling point of fluoride is much higher than water, so you end up with a higher concentration of fluoride if you're boiling water from the tap.