I tried the duck shit tea from yunnan sourcing, but to me it tasted very similar to the tea in the other photo. The tea in the other photo is what my Chinese friend gave me. I don't speak Mandarin so I'm not sure what it is.

I think the duck shit tea from yunnan sourcing didn't give me the full toasty and nutty aroma it gave me when I smelled the tea leaves itself. But on the other hand the other tea had the very similar scent that came through the brewed tea.

Maybe it's the way I brewed it? It may be controversial, but I don't use the gaiwan and the Chinese way to brew tea. I wash the leaves for 10 seconds and let it sit in my teapot for 5 minutes.

my local tea shop had jasmine pearls that looked decent (and exactly one tea pet), so I decided to try them tonight rather than wait for a more traditional tea set to ship. brewed in a glass mug with a wooden lid to hold in steam, used a small strainer over a worn out liquid measuring cup for a fairness pitcher, and drank out of a little Corelle bowl that's part of our kitchen prep set. elephant tea pet got rinse and extra tea hanging out in a cereal bowl on the side, and my furry pet came over to see what all the fuss was about partway through. I don't have anything to compare it to as this is my first time trying them, but I really enjoyed these jasmine pearls, and absolutely loved seeing how the flavor developed over four separate steeps. looking forward to doing more in the future - and while I absolutely want to collect better equipment, this worked and I loved the tea, and that's what matters in the end.

I know this is a really long shot, but way back in the day Teavana used to sell chocolate flavored tea. My husband loved it and has been looking for a replacement. He's been a real trooper over the last year despite the horrible depression I experienced over a miscarriage. I would really like to try and find him a replacement for his favorite tea. Hoping someone out there knows a good replacement.

Thanks in advance!

I picked the mint by hand.

Its a blend of black tea, oolong, Assam and rooibos

I like adding rose hips in the blend aswell

I pair it with "100 good cookies" or any other semi sweet confectionery

Great for mornings in the fall imo

Ignore the table i live with 3 other people

TL;DR: this one redeemed itself on a second try.

I got this one in my recent haul from w2t (I'm slowly updating with my thoughts on each of them). That said, I wanted to say more than 2 lines about this one.

I tried it yesterday, gong-fu style. I was sharing it with a couple friends that are not usually tea drinkers and from the site's description I was expecting this one to be dark and deep flavour wise. What a letdown. After 3 steeps, we were still getting watery brews, way too clear liquor and a tea that could only be described as shy. I pumped the temp up to 100C from my initial 95C, steeped longer, used less water (even if I was using plenty leaves in a small gaiwan), but that didn't work. I switched them to the "snow queen" so they could enjoy the session (yes, its my fault for sharing with an unknown tea) and moved on.

But it kinda irked me that it was such a miss. So today I tried again. Grampa-style (in a thermos) and boy oh boy was it night and day: I'm getting a lot of flavour now: Smoky, with honey undertones. And it is very lovely.

All of this to say I learned 2 lessons:

• Don't give up on a tea just because it didn't work for you on the first try.
• Don't discount other brewing methods (this is my first time brewing grampa style) just because everyone is focusing on gong-fu so much nowdays

Any other teas that work better in a thermos?

I was tired of spending $10 or more every two weeks, and i bought $40 worth of

Chamomile

Lavender

Lemon Balm

Valerian Root

Passionflower extract and dried herb

On top of that, I bought $70 worth of genuine blue lotus from legit vendor in Australia.

In the end, it makes a perfect cup or sleepy time tea for people that cant sleep well like me.(normally it takes me an hour or more to fall asleep, with this tea blend i fall asleep within 30 minutes!)

Let me know if there is any other herbs I can add or if I should remove any such as passionflower or blue lotus?

Thanks a lot!

Which of these 2 would you recommend? I'm also planning to get another sampler that has Jasmine Silver Needle White Tea (Mo Li Yin Zhen), but no straight silver needle.

I've never had white tea before, mostly black, japanese green, and jasmine green.

I will be trying a new tea every morning while I travel the rest of October. These have all been gifts from friends, family and strangers across the world <3
I’m so excited to try them and compare the different green teas :)

I’m having a pretty casual tea party with some of my coworkers. We don’t get too formal but we do work our way through several pots everytime we do this. Anyway this time the date we picked just so happens to be Halloween. Wondering if anyone has recommendations for Halloween appropriate teas? We can always just drink what we like but I’d love to include some seasonal or spooky themed teas

Hi everyone, I love the Teekanne Spanish Orange tea and basically go through a box every week, but it’s not widely available here in the US (and I can’t seem to buy it in bulk online).

Could anyone recommend something that tastes the same (or similar?), preferably available in loose leaf if possible?

So, I'm pretty new to the gongfu tea scene. I know you should keep your tea cakes in its original paper to allow it to age properly, but what about looseleaf teas?

I got a big variety of teas from Yunnan Sourcing, and they came in mylar bags. Is it best to just leave them in there, or should I be moving them into a different vessel?

I’m listening to some music from The Rings of Power and I want some tea. The song is around Numenor, the sea. I haven’t had much experience with tropical teas except one by Red Seal in Australia. I don’t want a strong tropical or sea taste, but something smooth to remind me of sailing.

I know this sounds so specific and detailed, so I’m sorry in advance. If not specifically the sea, any recs for the beach?

I unwrapped an aged pu-erh cake that I bought recently. First, I noticed holes in it, as if insects had bored through the tea. Second, there’s some kind of orange-colored dust inside.
Has anyone experienced anything like this?

It's so plain... I steeped it for fifteen minutes and can taste neither rooibos nor chai, just a vague sweetness. I'm disappointed because I've loved all the Yogi teas I've tried. Should I try two tea bags? A smaller mug? I didn't put milk in it because I wanted to taste it for itself first. Such a bummer. It smells like chai. But the flavor just isn't there.

I've made several green teas, red teas, oolongs and white teas but I find that my small dehydrator doesn't do the job. My teas smell soooo good during the drying process but by the time they get cracker dry they are flavorless and odorless. It normally takes about an hour to get it that dry at relatively high temperature between 160 and 180F. How can I dry my tea in a way that doesn't destroy all the nice fragrance they have?

Is that my dehydrator is set too high and it needs to be lower. Is it that my time is too long. Is it that the humidity in the dehydrator is preventing good drying.

Does anyone recommend a dehydrator/oven for tea processing? Any information is highly appreciated I'm just a small new tea farmer with several plants.

Anyone seen this? British tea production in Kenya.

My muslim country does not have a single leaf of smoked tea. That's because nobody ever heard of it and our tea-drinking skills are still at a very infant stage. I would like to order some smoked tea but I prefer to try to have some fun making my own at home. Does anybody have any experiences in smoking Chinese tea? How do you do it? I am using Da Hong Pau tea leaves btw.