Questions tagged [tea]
Questions about the selection and preparation of tea leaves and beverages.
239
questions
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1answer
159 views
What is the stringy slimy stuff in Peace Tea?
I bought a Sno-berry Peace Tea today that had a slimy stringy substance in it. I pulled it out of my mouth after unknowingly drinking it, and I put it into a napkin. Once the moisture was out of it, ...
4
votes
1answer
84 views
Discoloration in tea kettle
I have a two piece tea kettle used for brewing black Turkish Tea. The bottom part is used strictly for water (specifically faucet water), whereas the top is for steeping the concentrate of the tea.
...
0
votes
2answers
210 views
My tea had expired(?) for about 9 years already, can I sill use it? [duplicate]
is doesn’t say if it’s best before or expiring date
It smelled okay.I saw a blog saying that it’s okay to use it,but I’m a bit skeptical about it.
3
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2answers
137 views
What type of oolong is Twining's oolong? Or what would this be closest too?
Edit: From the UK site, there is good reason to believe that Twining's is ALSO Iron Goddess of Mercy, but it tastes nothing like the IGoM I got from Numi. From what I've read about oolong, "nutty and ...
1
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0answers
25 views
How to get boba pearls as dark as commercial ones?
Does anybody know what I can add to the tapioca dough to get pearls that are as dark as commercial boba (bubble tea tapioca pearls)? Brown sugar alone is not dark enough to provide much color. I want ...
5
votes
2answers
190 views
Storing matcha tea in a thermos?
lately i started to drink matcha tea, as an experiment instead of coffee, and i have read many descriptions about it.
I want to drink matcha tea to work, but i dont want to make it every time here,...
2
votes
2answers
198 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
66 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
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0answers
53 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
218 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
194 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
154 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
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1answer
2k 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
4answers
138 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
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2answers
189 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.
3
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3answers
255 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
2k 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
149 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?
5
votes
2answers
302 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
93 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
383 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
158 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
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2answers
255 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
199 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
460 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
103 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 (...
4
votes
3answers
669 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
532 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
123 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, ...
40
votes
4answers
18k 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
498 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
104 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
237 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
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0answers
96 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 ...
3
votes
0answers
233 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
4k 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
370 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
245 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
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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
210 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
114 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 ...
3
votes
1answer
952 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
168 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
96 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
2k 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
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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
10k 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
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2answers
175 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 ...
3
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 ...
