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The tea about Tea

Paul le Fou

Paul le Fou

24/7 lofi hip hop man to study/relax to
(He)
Y'all like tea? I know you do.

I'm opening this with a question: What's the best way to brew iced tea by the glass? i.e. Not cold-steeping a full pitcher with bags overnight, or sun tea, or anything.

Do you brew it with double the tea? And/or, half the hot water?
Or do you brew it with the normal amounts of tea and water, for a longer time?

In either case, what's the ratio for the adjustment? Double/half? More, less?
 
Violentvixen

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
It's cooling off, which means time for hojicha! I'm partial to Nakamura Tokichi because I freaking love that teahouse but what I bought in Japan from our last trip is almost gone so I've picked up a couple other brands.

For other teas I get Rooibos and white/silver tea from the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse because uh, I freaking love that teahouse too.

I swear I'm not just won over by pretty buildings.
 
Kirin

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
I don't do tea super often, but when I do I love me some Rooibos - partly because I don't do significant amounts of caffeine which limits my option, but also Rooibos and some of the common blends for it (vanilla, orange, what have you) are really damn tasty. One of my go-to winter warmers is a nice Rooibos with some honey liqueur and maybe a squeeze of lemon.
 
JBear

JBear

Internet's foremost Bertolli cosplayer
(He/Him)
Kirin said:
I don't do tea super often, but when I do I love me some Rooibos - partly because I don't do significant amounts of caffeine which limits my option, but also Rooibos and some of the common blends for it (vanilla, orange, what have you) are really damn tasty.
Click to expand...
It me. Vanilla Rooibos is my tea of choice.
 
Paul le Fou

Paul le Fou

24/7 lofi hip hop man to study/relax to
(He)
I need to pick up some rooibos too, it's been a while. Something with nice spices for the cooling weather, maybe. The ever-popular orange and clove is always a solid choice.

These days I mainly have constant comment (an orange-spice black tea blend) and lemon lift (lemon-spice black tea blend), both by Bigelow, and also Earl Grey. I also have all three of the above in decaf variants, which is nice since I can't have a lot of caffeine, especially during work days.
 
Violentvixen

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
Kirin said:
I don't do tea super often, but when I do I love me some Rooibos - partly because I don't do significant amounts of caffeine which limits my option, but also Rooibos and some of the common blends for it (vanilla, orange, what have you) are really damn tasty. One of my go-to winter warmers is a nice Rooibos with some honey liqueur and maybe a squeeze of lemon.
Click to expand...

JBear said:
It me. Vanilla Rooibos is my tea of choice.
Click to expand...

Paul le Fou said:
I need to pick up some rooibos too, it's been a while. Something with nice spices for the cooling weather, maybe. The ever-popular orange and clove is always a solid choice.
Click to expand...

I definitely need to plug Dushanbe's Sunshine Rooibos to all of you it seems. I love it.
 
Exposition Owl

Exposition Owl

more posts about buildings and food
(he/him/his)
Vanilla rooibos does sound really good. Do you fine folks have any favorite sources for it?
 
Violentvixen

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
Exposition Owl said:
Vanilla rooibos does sound really good. Do you fine folks have any favorite sources for it?
Click to expand...
I haven't had their vanilla rooibos but I've had at maybe 20 other teas from Dushanbe teahouse and have liked them all.

That's expensive though, so I gotta say the Celestial Seasonings Vanilla Rooibos is surprisingly good if you're on a budget, and you can usually just find it in a standard grocery store so no need to pay shipping.
 
Exposition Owl

Exposition Owl

more posts about buildings and food
(he/him/his)
Violentvixen said:
I haven't had their vanilla rooibos but I've had at maybe 20 other teas from Dushanbe teahouse and have liked them all.

That's expensive though, so I gotta say the Celestial Seasonings Vanilla Rooibos is surprisingly good if you're on a budget, and you can usually just find it in a standard grocery store so no need to pay shipping.
Click to expand...
When I was grocery shopping I found some vanilla rooibos from Republic of Tea, and it was as good as I thought it would be! Thanks for the inspiration, everyone!
 
lincolnic

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
My girlfriend got me a fancy electric kettle that will heat water to the appropriate specific temperatures for each kind of tea, so I just restocked all my green teas now that I have a way to make them properly. I dunno if anyone else here likes gunpowder tea, but it's a taste I acquired a while ago and I love the stuff. Excited to brew some up tomorrow.
 
lincolnic

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
Folks who do loose-leaf tea, what containers do you use for tea storage? I know you want them to be airtight, opaque, and not plastic, but I was trying to find some the other day and got decision paralysis. What do you folks like?
 
Exposition Owl

Exposition Owl

more posts about buildings and food
(he/him/his)
The loose-leaf tea I usually buy comes in aluminum tins, so I just keep it in those.

Incidentally, lincolnic, if you’re still in Brooklyn, I highly recommend the tea and coffee from Java Joe on the corner of 8th St and 7th Ave in Park Slope, not far from the 7th Ave stop on the F. Rose, the owner, is an absolute delight: she’s an Irishwoman who really knows her teas.
 
Kirin

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
Exposition Owl said:
The loose-leaf tea I usually buy comes in aluminum tins, so I just keep it in those.
Click to expand...
Interesting tangent, I followed that link on a whim and looked at their herbal teas (mmmm, Rooibos Chai... and Thai Rooibos sounds intriguing), and noticed that one of them is basically just straight up dried Lemon Verbena leaves. I leave a crap-load of that stuff that just grows in my yard - it kind of took over an entire 3/4 of my herb garden when I stopped paying attention to it for several years. I guess maybe I should pick some this year and try steeping it?
 
lincolnic

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
Exposition Owl said:
The loose-leaf tea I usually buy comes in aluminum tins, so I just keep it in those.

Incidentally, lincolnic, if you’re still in Brooklyn, I highly recommend the tea and coffee from Java Joe on the corner of 8th St and 7th Ave in Park Slope, not far from the 7th Ave stop on the F. Rose, the owner, is an absolute delight: she’s an Irishwoman who really knows her teas.
Click to expand...
I also have a bunch of stuff from Harney & Sons, which I like a lot, but I also have a few teas that came in non-resealable bags (which I've been, uh, taping shut). I'd like to get those into something a bit more robust.

Also, I'm extremely familiar with Java Joe! I spent a lot of time in Park Slope as a kid/teenager, and I live off of the F train now. Next time I'm in the neighborhood I'll have to pop in. Please accept a nod of recognition and utmost respect from me to you, Dr. Owl.
 
Exposition Owl

Exposition Owl

more posts about buildings and food
(he/him/his)
lincolnic said:
Also, I'm extremely familiar with Java Joe! I spent a lot of time in Park Slope as a kid/teenager, and I live off of the F train now. Next time I'm in the neighborhood I'll have to pop in. Please accept a nod of recognition and utmost respect from me to you, Dr. Owl.
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Fantastic! I’m so glad! My in-laws used to live within about a block of that intersection, but much to my regret I haven’t been back in the neighborhood since they moved out of the city a couple of years ago. Say hi for me!
 
lincolnic

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
Oh damn, I want that. What kind of water temperature do you use to steep it? The hojicha I've had always wants to be steeped at 175 degrees like other green teas, but chamomile usually gets boiling water, no?
 
Violentvixen

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
lincolnic said:
Oh damn, I want that. What kind of water temperature do you use to steep it? The hojicha I've had always wants to be steeped at 175 degrees like other green teas, but chamomile usually gets boiling water, no?
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I have a cheapo electric kettle that boils water and has no other settings so I uh put some ice cubes in there. I'm not very fancy.

It says 195 on the website:

MizTeaBag_Sticker_ChamHoujicha-02_1b038eea-a82d-484e-8445-29b492b6348a_2048x2048.png
 
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Paul le Fou

Paul le Fou

24/7 lofi hip hop man to study/relax to
(He)
You can get butterfly pea by itself relatively easily, as mentioned above; I'm positive you can find a chamomile-strawberry blend elsewhere and just mix the two, also.
 
Violentvixen

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
Paul le Fou said:
You can get butterfly pea by itself relatively easily, as mentioned above; I'm positive you can find a chamomile-strawberry blend elsewhere and just mix the two, also.
Click to expand...
True, and I actually don't want the strawberry that much so might just pick up butterfly pea and add that to some chamomile.

Edit: wait, where is getting it mentioned above? If you have a good website for it I'd be interested to know.
 
Paul le Fou

Paul le Fou

24/7 lofi hip hop man to study/relax to
(He)
...Huh! Did I mention it in a different thread, then...?

Ahhh, yeah, that was in the cocktail thread:
Paul le Fou said:
I actually just got some butterfly pea teabags. Making blue tea is fun! So is changing it purple! But the flavor's really mild on its own so I was thinking of other things to do with it, and infusing gin was definitely on the list. I didn't realize someone had already done it though!

Anyway you can get butterfly pea tea in bags, loose leaf or instant powder pretty easily so you should definitely look into that.
Click to expand...

Also, I just got a pack of teabags on Amazon, myself. I'm not sure what a particularly good source would be but mine appears to be, well, butterfly pea in a teabag, so...works for me.
 
lincolnic

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
I originally came to this thread asking about containers for loose leaf tea, and I'm very pleased to come back and report that my girlfriend got me a set of very nice ceramic containers for my birthday* from a company called Zero Japan. Apparently Harney & Sons sells them in the US, but their markup is so high it was way cheaper to order them straight from Japan.

In any case, they have super strong seals and come in a bunch of cute colors, so I'm very happy! She also got me some new teas to try from a local distributor with excellent names: a new-to-me gunpowder called Temple of Heaven, an oolong called Iron Goddess of Mercy, a black tea called Lili'uokalani with orange blossoms and safflower petals, and a golden tip pu-erh (no fun name for that one). I've never had pu-erh before so I'm looking forward to all of these!

*The other part of the gift was that I didn't have to pick anything out.
 
Paul le Fou

Paul le Fou

24/7 lofi hip hop man to study/relax to
(He)
Am I correct in thinking you're in the Seattle area? If so, what's the name of that tea distributor?? :3
 
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