Questions tagged [tea]
Questions about the selection and preparation of tea leaves and beverages.
2
votes
1answer
102 views
Should I “sponge” tea?
I went to a tea shop for Chinese New Year and the owner was incredible adamant about rinsing, sponging and reusing the tea. Is this a normal thing? Should I be doing it? What teas should I be doing ...
2
votes
1answer
47 views
What type of lavender is normally used in tea blends?
I was looking through a plant catalog, and am confused as to what type of lavender to grow this year to make tea with.
Does each species taste different?
Which ones are easier to pick?
1
vote
0answers
50 views
Gold tea steeper changed colors
This gold tea steeper changed colors after it has been used once for tea steeping.
Anyone know why the color of one side has changed?
My guesses are that the gold plating has been removed, or that ...
5
votes
4answers
110 views
Samovar Tea: Let it brew the whole day?
I recently got a samovar tea kettle and am not sure about how to use it. For those of you confused about what I am talking about, this is my samovar (electric):
The metal part is a kettle for boiling ...
4
votes
1answer
109 views
Tea leaf grades and plucking standards
How do the plucking standards of tea (imperial pluck,
fine pluck, …) actually relate to the leaf grades?
PG Tips claims “we pick the top two leaves and a bud known as the tips”, so that would be ...
-3
votes
1answer
147 views
How can I manage sugar in tea?
I don't know how much sugar I use in tea for a gathering. Because some are like more sugar and some less. So how can I manage sugar in tea?
1
vote
1answer
841 views
Safe to put honeycomb in tea?
I put a big chunk of honeycomb in my tea. And it looks like my boiling tea completely melted the comb. But now the water has a weird texture to it. And now I'm worried about drinking the wax. Is it ...
0
votes
2answers
65 views
How can I add flavor to green tea at home?
I often buy green tea with different flavors like lemon, strawberry, and jasmine from the market. I want to add these flavors at home. Can you recommend how I might do this?
0
votes
1answer
130 views
What is this strange tea?
What sort of tea is this and how is it drunk? It doesn't look like any tea I am familiar with.
2
votes
3answers
99 views
How do I strain ginger powder to make ginger tea?
I was thinking maybe a coffee filter would work, but then it might not have enough time to fully brew the ginger. I don't know what other ways to filter are good. The powder is very fine-grained, and ...
2
votes
1answer
566 views
When to add Milk powder while preparing a cup of Tea (Chai)?
Tea is prepared by adding water+sugar+tea powder in a bowl, and boiled it properly. After pouring into the cup, I added 2 spoon of milk powder (Nestle product) and stirred up well. But I found big ...
3
votes
1answer
126 views
Why do turkey tail mushroom experts say to tear up the turkey tail, and not powder it?
I've seen a few videos on making turkey tail mushroom tea, and they suggest ripping it up. Why rip it up, and not blend it into a powder so you can have the whole mushroom effect?
4
votes
2answers
222 views
How to identify CTC tea?
The Harney and Sons Guide to Tea has the following to say about CTC tea:
Today, both Flowery and Broken teas are also called “Orthodox” teas, to distinguish them from “CTC” teas. “CTC” teas (so ...
2
votes
4answers
86 views
What is the difference between fruit teas and pure fruit teas?
In this Livestrong article they make a distinction between "fruit teas" and "pure fruit teas". The only difference i picked up on is that pure fruit teas have more sugar. But dont fruit teas also have ...
2
votes
2answers
207 views
Can you oversteep herbal teas?
Herbal teas don't contain tea leaves (Camellia sinensis), which means they do not release tannins into the water. Does that mean you can steep herbal teas for as much as you like without worry of them ...
3
votes
2answers
136 views
What is a reliable source for the caffeine content in tea?
If you do a quick google search for "Tea caffeine content" you may get varied results anywhere from 20mg up to 45 for black tea. I wonder:
Where do all these numbers come from? Are they estimations? ...
1
vote
1answer
173 views
Is it normal to find something in tea?
I often buy Chinese tea by weight in some local stores and at times I find some inclusions that should not be there. Up to this date I have found:
A human hair
Some sand
Some white dots (presumably ...
0
votes
2answers
112 views
Two different gynostemma teas taste completely different, why?
So i've ordered 2 different brands of gynostemma (or jiaogulan in chinese) and they each taste very differently. The first one I've ordered tastes extremely bitter, the second one I've ordered tastes ...
1
vote
2answers
257 views
Will swishing or moving a teabag around affect the steeping time in any way?
Often times I find myself swishing, dunking, or moving a teabag around to affect the steeping time. Does it have any effect at all on the tea infusion, or am i actually hurting the flavor?
1
vote
1answer
96 views
Are electric kettles a good choice for tea?
From my experience, electric kettles stop only when the water is at a rolling boil, which is bad because:
The water loses oxygen when at a rolling boil
If you make teas other than black or herbals (...
3
votes
3answers
408 views
What makes small tea leaves better than big tea leaves?
According to wikipedia, the smaller the leaf (especially the buds) the more valuable it is.
Tea leaves of different sizes just after plucking. Small leaves are
more valuable than big ones.
From ...
1
vote
5answers
266 views
Better way to make Iced Tea
Should I brew at full strength, allow to cool to room temperature before refrigerating, or should I brew at a higher strength and “shock cool” over ice?
1
vote
1answer
115 views
Are these dregs or what?
Made some tea using a drip style coffee maker by placing tea bag where coffee would normally go, namely on the standard fibrous (paper) coffee filter. After the tea has been on the warmer for a while, ...
39
votes
4answers
15k views
Tea water: heat to 80 °C or boil to 100 °C and let it cool down to 80 °C?
Boiling water is too hot for some teas. Today I heard that it's better to boil water to 100 °C and let it cool down to 80 °C rather than heat water to 80 °C. Is this true? Does it really affect ...
8
votes
1answer
426 views
Why does tea with hard water (lime) taste different?
It seems that tea with lime water (hard water) tastes different.
Different enough that tea manufacturers have a different product to cope with the difference in taste.
My question is: Why does tea ...
0
votes
2answers
97 views
How to preserve tea taste for 6-7 hours?
I am new to this site and I hope my question is clear to everyone.
I prepare 4 cups of black tea in the morning by bringing water and tea powder to boiling.
Then I pour this into flask by filtering ...
6
votes
2answers
217 views
What can you add to water to make it hard enough for tea?
I was living in southern California where the water is one of the hardest in the country, but once passed through a Brita filter it was perfect for tea.
Now I am living in a country where the water ...
2
votes
0answers
93 views
Why does this homemade herbal tea always boil over?
I make my own herbal tea with: ginger, turmeric, black pepper, cloves, cinnamon sticks, goji berry, cilantro/parsley, and lemon. I boil the whole in water but for whatever reason I need to be around ...
2
votes
0answers
187 views
Is my 3 years old loose leaf tea safe for me to drink? [duplicate]
I have some cinnamon orange tea in my kitchen that has been sitting there for 3 years. Would it still be safe to drink?
It is in a container with a lid.
3
votes
2answers
3k views
black residue in tea kettle
I have a stainless steel tea kettle, with sprayed on porcelain enamel. The interior is sprayed black, with little white dots. A very common design in the old ovens, and in many tea kettles.
When I ...
4
votes
2answers
296 views
What is the difference between small vs large loose leaf tea?
I have two oolong teas of the same type (dong fang mei ren). One has long leaves that barely fit in a teaspoon. The other has much smaller leaves that are easily scooped up, and it has a weaker taste. ...
1
vote
3answers
195 views
Grassy Tea and brands
Some time ago while traveling, I had some brand of a local bottled green tea with peach. It was not overly sweet, was mild but good - seemed a good mix of tea and summer peaches and was very ...
4
votes
1answer
2k views
“Sludge” at the bottom of matcha/green tea latte
When I get a green tea latte from Starbucks, the drink is uniformly mixed from top to bottom, no matter how long it takes me to drink it.
I prefer to make my matcha lattes at home, though, because ...
1
vote
1answer
191 views
Sperical lumps in milk
Got to work this morning and made the first round of drinks and everything was fine with them. We then made the second round about an hour later with the same milk, same kettle, same instant coffee ...
2
votes
1answer
103 views
Is this white flaky powder in this tea “vanilla flavor”?
I got some tea from Thailand as a gift, and it has some vanilla flavor to it:
Obviously, it smells a lot like vanilla. This is how the tea looks like:
Is the white powdery stuff (looks a bit flaky ...
2
votes
1answer
665 views
Why is my green tea yellow?
I make Japanese green tea. I use Gyokuro Imperial, a high quality shaded green tea, so it should be green not yellow.
Sometimes when I make it, it is indeed green, but other times yellow.
Is it ...
4
votes
1answer
155 views
Making large quantities of tea with bags
Say I'm making a litre of tea, for ice tea, would it be better to steep one bag for longer or several bags (five, I guess, given a cup is around 200ml) for the time stated on the box (a few minutes)?
...
4
votes
1answer
87 views
Techniques to toast mate tea leaves
The most common way of drinking mate (iles paraguariensis) tea is infusing its green leaves with hot water in a special way (chimarrão).
However, there is also the option to drink the toasted leaves ...
3
votes
2answers
1k views
Grinding loose Green Tea for more concentration
Would it be advisable to grind loose green tea to fine powder to increase the flavour concentration ?
Also, please share your opinions on the pros and cons of this method.
Thank You
1
vote
2answers
1k views
How long should I let my tea cool before adding unpasteurized honey to it?
I like having my tea with honey.
I always buy unpasteurized honey rather than pasteurized honey, to benefit from the healthful enzymes it contains that are destroyed by the pasteurization process.
I ...
9
votes
2answers
7k views
What is the film on top of tea?
The quiet surface of a cup of tea always seems to be covered by a thin, immovable film, even when convection currents are still moving things around inside the liquid at some speed. The surface ...
1
vote
2answers
172 views
Does it matter which goes in the glass first when having half/half tea?
I drink half/half tea. Half sweetened, half unsweetened. I think it tastes better when I put sweetened in the bottom of the glass. A friend says that's silly. It all mixes together. Is my imagination ...
6
votes
3answers
2k views
Can I add milk to tea while it is steeping?
Can I add milk to tea (bagged or loose) while it is steeping? Or will it stop or otherwise mess with the process?
If so, does the temperature of the milk make a difference?
Ideally, I'm looking for ...
4
votes
1answer
83 views
Calibrating tea dosage
How can I get the right strength of tea?
I recently have been trying Gyokura Imperial, a Japanese tea, experimentally, but it is hard to know whether I have the dosage correct because I don't know ...
2
votes
2answers
203 views
re-freezing green tea?
I just bought green tea leaves in China. They were in a deep freezer when I bought them. They were then in my luggage for a few days on my way back home.
I bought a fair amount of them. Can I now re-...
3
votes
2answers
758 views
Is filtering Japanese matcha green tea drink recommended?
When pouring Japanese matcha green tea drink into cups, is filtering with a filter cone or something equivalent recommended? Why?
4
votes
1answer
718 views
How long does it actually take to extract tea compounds from leaves using the boiling method?
So, I'm looking at the intersection of multiple brewing style of tea extraction, and the boil-it-to-death style of brewing, and I would like to know about how long does boiling actually work to ...
2
votes
3answers
7k views
Is it safe to reheat tea with milk?
I have leftover tea from last night but it has milk in it. Is it safe to reheat it the next day and drink it? Or should I just bin it?
4
votes
3answers
3k views
How to clean ginger for tea
I have recently taken up making homemade ginger tea.
I am living in Korea and most produce is very dirty and has to be cleaned.
The ginger is very..curvy with small lumps all over it.
I find it ...
3
votes
1answer
276 views
Does Tea Quality Matter For Making Kombucha?
For kombucha brewers here, I'm wondering if the kombucha tastes better when you brew it with higher grade teas. Or would making them with simple tea bags from the supermarket taste as good? Let's say ...
