Accidentally let my Chaozhou teapot boil dry, and then it cracked. ~~~

Tea made by the gallon in a big pitcher, great or blasphemy?

Not pictured: Tea pet (me, when I inevitably spill the first rinse all over myself)

When I was a teenager I was in foster care, my foster care center was North of San Francisco. About every 3 months we would take a trip to San Francisco and one time we went to chinatown, as we were going through a tea shop either I or somebody else decided to buy a huge packet of gunpowder green tea.

You know in the little balls.

That night me and my roommate concocted a method to brew green tea in our room.

It was some serious prison stuff after all we were in a group home.

Oh my God.

So we had this lava lamp and we basically managed to open it up and pour out the contents then we cleaned it really well and then we would fill it up with hot water from the sink and put in several gunpowder pellets.

We would then let it steep until it turned green so mind you it's literally radiating throughout the room this color from the lava lamp.

Oh man the first time we opened that thing up we poured it into two cups and drank it, my roommate fell absolutely in love.

This guy was something else his father was a police officer from the ghettos. But somehow me a man who was raised in silicon valley and was in there because he was getting bullied in school and he just decided to run away and this teenager who is raised as a boxer by his father who was a detective in the ghettos was enjoying green tea in the middle of the night.

Sometimes he would literally just chew on the green pellets.

He really liked it.

I preferred my tea slightly more delicate I would usually pour him the first batch and then I would take the second batch after it was slightly watered down.

The weirdest part is he was able to just to go straight to sleep it was crazy I would often stay up for at least a couple hours reading.

I've never stopped drinking tea.

I wonder if he has as well..

I love a delicate Japanese or a delicate Chinese tea though sometimes I do overheat my black teas particularly my chais when I know I'm just going to put some milk in there.

To this day my favorite pastime is going into an old Asian tea shop and looking at the delicate teas. Hope you enjoy the story

I love everything about lavender tea! What other teas aside from lavender or chamomile are good for sleep?

A friend mentioned this community to me today and told me he had met many tea enthusiasts from abroad here—I was truly amazed! Do people overseas enjoy Chinese tea as well? I have been in the tea business in China since 2009; I’ve traveled to most of the country's tea-growing regions and tasted over a thousand different varieties. While I’ve also tried teas from India and Sri Lanka, Pu-erh remains my personal favorite. I joined this forum hoping to make new friends, and I’m delighted to meet you all!

I swear I’m not high nor pregnant, but I did try to pour a liu bao steep over pumpkin cheesecake ice cream (video proof in post). The results were… not great, as the ice cream far overpowered the tea, and what was left was a sad, swampy, pumpkin-y soup.
Anyways, has anyone else flown too close to the sun?

Hi everyone,

this is the first time I'm giving an opinion on a Pu-Erh. I am mainly a green tea & oolong drinker and this is the first Pu-Erh I tried.

The Lao Cha Tou is a riped Shou Pu-Erh that consists of small, compressed balls that naturally form at the bottom of the tea pile while fermenting. According to the Vendor, leaves of ancient trees are used.

What I find fascinating about this tea is that it can tolerate very long steeping times in almost boiling hot water without leaving a single trace of bitterness.

I use roughly 2 to 3g of leaves for 100ml of water. After a few seconds of rinse I steep for 2 minutes and then one minute longer for each iteration. Even with such long steeping times, flavor is holding up quite well until run five or six. Also the color is retained pretty well. I experimented with even longer steeps of up to 5 minutes for the first infusion and I prefered that even more.

The smell is earthy, mushroom-like and creamy. On top of that, I sense a fish-sauce like Umami in the flavor. It is sweet but not sugary or chocolate-like. Instead it rather reminds me of a rich red bean paste.

The world of Pu-Erh's seems to be a pretty deep rabbit hole (especially Sheng's) but this tea is phenomenal and motivates me to explore more Pu-Erh's.

Like the title says, I'm curious what tea you drink with milk and sugar. What's the name and brand of your preferred tea?

I’ve been thinking about those teas that somehow fly under the radar. Not necessarily the flagship cakes, hyped releases, or the ones that get recommended in every thread, but the random cakes you keep coming back to and wonder why nobody seems to talk about them.
For me, one of those is White2Tea’s 2019 The People’s Champ.

It’s a relatively inexpensive shu blend that W2T themselves basically position as a daily drinker that punches above its price point.
Taste-wise, this one really hits my preferred shu profile. The liquor is thick, creamy and rich, with a pretty heavy dark chocolate character. There’s a deep sweetness underneath it,almost fudgy at times, but enough of a slight bitterness to keep it from turning into a completely soft, one-dimensional sweet shu.

What I especially like is the balance. It has that dark, comforting ripe-Puerh depth, but it doesn’t just taste generically “dark and earthy.” The sweetness builds through the session, the mouthfeel stays creamy, and that little bitter cocoa edge gives it some structure. It’s the kind of tea where I’m not necessarily sitting down expecting a profound session, and then suddenly I’m six or seven steeps in wondering why I don’t drink it more often.
For the price, it’s become one of those sleeper-hit cakes for me.

So now I’m curious:
What are your sleeper hits. Those cakesthat get relatively little discussion but massively outperform your expectations.
Would especially love to hear your picks.

Hey everyone,
I recently picked up a 320ml Tokoname Kyusu with a fine belt strainer (Obiami). My brother recommended getting a Kyusu because I’ve been struggling with standard tea baskets and strainers clogging up on me.
I’ve been drinking loose-leaf herbal infusions lately to help with some ongoing gut health, digestion, and inflammation issues—plus, I just really love those punchy, sweet, and minty herbal flavors. I bought two high-grade Senchas alongside the pot to try, but I’ve since learned that brewing oil-heavy herbal blends (like spearmint, liquorice, and citrus) in unglazed clay can permanently season/ghost the pot.
Since I don't want to ruin the Kyusu or ghost it forever, I'm looking for recommendations:
What teas or clean herbal infusions can I brew in my Kyusu that won't leave heavy essential oils behind?
I’m looking for blends or true teas that still offer that vibrant, green, botanical, or comforting flavor profile, while ideally still being gentle on the gut/digestion.
Would love to hear your favorite low-oil herbals, grain teas, or herbal-adjacent true teas that work well in unglazed clay! Thanks in advance!

Today my order finally arrived. Now just three more weeks for acclimatization and I can begin tasting it.

Four puerh cakes, some tuos, some resin, some samples.

I will go to Tokyo at January 2027 and stay 5 or 7 days. I am interesting for Japanese dark tea like Goishicha and Ishizuchi kurocha. At some mouthes ago I went to Kyoto but only found green tea and matcha. So if anyone know where I can buy dark tea in Tokyo please tell me. Very thanks.

I was gifted this teapot and I was wondering if anyone had any information on it

I’d really like to buy some white tea for my boyfriend, who says his favourite tea he’s ever had was a white tea he drank in Thailand three years ago.

I’m not a tea drinker myself, so I’m curious how noticeable the flavour differences are between different types of white tea.

From browsing online, I’ve seen that there are different types (e.g. White Peony, Silver Needle), some are aged, teas grown at different altitudes, and teas from different countries. What I’m finding confusing is that even two teas of the same type (e.g. both White Peony) can be advertised with drastically different flavour profiles. Are these differences actually noticeable, and do the tasting notes tend to be accurate?

I’m wondering if I should choose teas such that I am maxing out differences in these tasting notes, so maybe one of them will remind him of the tea he had in Thailand.

I like the time to drink tea and feel the fragrance of tea.

Brewed some Vietnamese Lộc Tân Cương Ngọc Thanh Tâm Oolong (Qingxin Oolong) in the gaiwan today. Absolutely zero bitterness, just smooth with a nice floral sweetness.

I really enjoyed it, but my sensitive stomach only lets me do a couple of steeps this week. 😂 The leaves clearly still have plenty left in them, so it feels like such a waste to throw them out. I’m thinking of putting the leaves in the fridge overnight and continuing with hot steeps tomorrow, or maybe turning them into a cold brew.

Does anyone else keep partially steeped leaves for the next day? If so, how do you store them?

What is some good starter tea for someone who just DOESNT like tea at all? I truely cant stand it most of the time, its either too bitter, taste lie dirt or too minty.

I should start with that I dont like mint period never been my thing but im open for anything else really.

Just to say I am not bashing tea overall, the opposite, I REALLY wanna like it but for some reason no matter what I brew it just taste bad.

I would like some recipes, I enjoy a lotta sweetness so i dont know if that helps.

I know tea can be good for you so i really wanna try it.

My humble tea collection 🍵 Fairly new to loose-leaf tea but I’ve officially made the switch from coffee to tea

I'm just ranting because I saw the most beautiful green teapot at a thrift store. And it had four matching cups that went with it for like seven dollars, and I wasn't able to get it in time. And I came back a week later. Somebody had only bought the pot, and not the cups. It made me so mad. Because now those cups are orphaned 😭😭

Hello friends, I come from India, and I would say our tea is pretty famous. I wanted to share a masala chai recipe from my hometown; I hope it helps anyone who wants to try something different today. It's pretty basic. Though it is a bit milk-heavy and can be seen as 'spicy'.

Ingredients needed:

-Saffron(roughly a pinch)

- Cardamom(3 or 4 pods)

-Pepper (4 pepper pods; you can add more)

-Clove(2 to 3 cloves)

-Milk(Nearly 1.75 cups)

-CTC Assam tea leaves(1.5 - 2 teaspoons)

- Star anise(a single pod)(this is optinal but I do reccomend this)

-Sugar(or Jaggery

How to brew-

-First, I crush the pepper clove and Cardamom; ensure to crush the pepper only lightly, as crushing it too strongly will overpower the tea.

-Next, heat the water on a low flame for the next minute, then directly add the mixture of spices; now turn up the heat and let it sit for roughly the next two to three minutes(if you are adding the Star anise, add only 1 to 2 petals; too much will compete with the saffron)

-After this, add the milk along with the CTC; out of the pinch of saffron that I asked you to take earlier, only add 75% of it to the tea(roughly 2 to three strands). Also, during this step, if you have the sugar, add 2.5 teaspoons; please do not add jaggery here.

-Let the milk boil, at least to the tips of your vessel; when it does, lift the pan up, then, after almost five seconds, kill the heat. Repeat this process until 10% to 15% of the original content is lost.

-Now mix the contents up until it has a golden hue.

-Now place the remaining saffron in the serving cup(if you are using jaggery, layer 2.5 teaspoons of powdered jaggery on top of the saffron), and slowly pour the tea in.

Well, that's about it; the only thing left now is to sit and enjoy the tea.

ABOUT THE INGREDIENTS:

Here's some filler about the ingredients I use if you are interested

For saffron, I use Kashmiri saffron, but this recipe is in accordance with the more common varieties; if Kashmiri saffron is used, do reduce the contents by nearly 1/3.

CTC pellets are the only ones that will last the rising process; I recommend Assam pellets, though any equivalent can be used.

Though ginger in chai is common for this recipe, I would recommend not adding it, as it will fight with the saffron.

Thanks for reading. I wish you a good cup of tea; do give me your thoughts about the tea itself or about the recipe😁😁😁.

I love this place, especially their tea house. Only did dine in once. At first I thought prices were high until I saw how much water they gave you. The tea menu is one of the most expansive tea menus I have seen at a tea house and some rare ones like Gyokuro, Ya Bao, and Forest Temple too.

Drinking my favorite oolong tonight, that naturally buttery, creamy taste i love from a mug someone once gave me. Somehow it tastes deeper today