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Thread: any loose leaf tea drinkers out there?

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    Senior Member grainweevil's Avatar
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    Default Re: any loose leaf tea drinkers out there?

    I direct you all to Mr Hanway's Essay on Tea, which he "considered Pernicious to Health, obstructing Industry, and impoverishing the Nation". With or without milk.

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    Senior Member AzJon's Avatar
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    Default Re: any loose leaf tea drinkers out there?

    Quote Originally Posted by grainweevil View Post
    I direct you all to Mr Hanway's Essay on Tea, which he "considered Pernicious to Health, obstructing Industry, and impoverishing the Nation". With or without milk.
    To be fair, for a while there all tea coming from China was being being preserved with hydrogen sulfide. China was unwittingly poisoning the British population because they thought the tea looked nicer that way. So, in the 1800s, Mr. Hanway's statement was very likely true, given the side effects of hydrogen sulfide on the human body.

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    Senior Member Morgaine's Avatar
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    Default Re: any loose leaf tea drinkers out there?

    Not impressed with Pug in a mug

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    Default Re: any loose leaf tea drinkers out there?

    The most expensive tea in the world:

    "In 2002, a wealthy tea-collector paid almost $28,000, for just 20g of original Da Hong Pao... There are hardly any original Da Hong Pao trees left, and the varieties that grow are perched on a high rock on Wuyi Mountain on temple land under constant armed guard."

    This tea must be drunk while smoking Cuban cigars "rolled on the thighs of virgins."

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    Senior Member AzJon's Avatar
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    Default Re: any loose leaf tea drinkers out there?

    Quote Originally Posted by RNHC View Post
    The most expensive tea in the world:

    "In 2002, a wealthy tea-collector paid almost $28,000, for just 20g of original Da Hong Pao... There are hardly any original Da Hong Pao trees left, and the varieties that grow are perched on a high rock on Wuyi Mountain on temple land under constant armed guard."

    This tea must be drunk while smoking Cuban cigars "rolled on the thighs of virgins."
    To be fair, this particular tea was said to have healed the Emperor's mother. He then adorned the bush with red robes (Da Hong Pao means: Big Red Robe) from the Emperor, which was usually a gift bestowed only to the most promising people of the empire that often became the Emperor's advisors. If this is from one of the original trees, they are centuries old, and legendary in their own right.

    Beyond that, dahongpao makes a lovely oolong and can be had for much more reasonable prices from other trees.

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    Senior Member grainweevil's Avatar
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    Default Re: any loose leaf tea drinkers out there?

    Quote Originally Posted by AzJon View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by grainweevil View Post
    I direct you all to Mr Hanway's Essay on Tea, which he "considered Pernicious to Health, obstructing Industry, and impoverishing the Nation". With or without milk.
    To be fair, for a while there all tea coming from China was being being preserved with hydrogen sulfide. China was unwittingly poisoning the British population because they thought the tea looked nicer that way. So, in the 1800s, Mr. Hanway's statement was very likely true, given the side effects of hydrogen sulfide on the human body.
    To be fair, interesting factoid, but I suspect you didn't even click on the link. Jonas pre-dated that, and that wasn't the point he was making at all. Nor was it my point, which involved humour.

    Quote Originally Posted by Morgaine View Post
    Not impressed with Pug in a mug
    How about the Manatea? Dunno how well it defuses the flavour, but I enjoyed the pun.

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    Default Re: any loose leaf tea drinkers out there?

    Quote Originally Posted by tea_lover24 View Post
    I suggest you try http://www.republicoftea.com/ they have many great types of loose leaf tea.
    This might be the first obvious spam I've seen on the site. User name "tea lover" resurrects an ancient thread about tea and posts a link to a site where you can go buy tea. No posts in any other place on the forum.


    Still a nice thread to bump as I know naimitsu enjoys loose-leaf tea and may stumble her way in here. I enjoy a cup here and there as well.

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    Senior Member AzJon's Avatar
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    Default Re: any loose leaf tea drinkers out there?

    Quote Originally Posted by grainweevil View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by AzJon View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by grainweevil View Post
    I direct you all to Mr Hanway's Essay on Tea, which he "considered Pernicious to Health, obstructing Industry, and impoverishing the Nation". With or without milk.
    To be fair, for a while there all tea coming from China was being being preserved with hydrogen sulfide. China was unwittingly poisoning the British population because they thought the tea looked nicer that way. So, in the 1800s, Mr. Hanway's statement was very likely true, given the side effects of hydrogen sulfide on the human body.
    To be fair, interesting factoid, but I suspect you didn't even click on the link. Jonas pre-dated that, and that wasn't the point he was making at all. Nor was it my point, which involved humour.

    No I understood it. Just pointing out that basically all tea in Englad pre 1850 would have been poisoning the population, including during Jonas's time. I understood your humor and, for sake of discussion, decided to add that Jonas would not have been far off his mark in his claims/claims of doctors in the book.

    forgive my being born without a sense of humor. Mea culpa.

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    Default Re: any loose leaf tea drinkers out there?

    This thread triggered my curiosity about teas. I learned that East Asians classify teas by color - white, green, blue (oolong), and red (black) - depending on the amount of oxidation (whatever that means). Longer the oxidation, longer the tea leaves stayed good. That is why Westerners drink black (red) tea since that type of tea is what made through the shipping time from Asia to Europe without spoiling. What's a fermented tea? Is that related somehow to oxidation?

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    Senior Member gbryal's Avatar
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    Default Re: any loose leaf tea drinkers out there?

    I like Davidson's Teas because I can buy a 16z bag of anything and that lasts me quite a while and is a lot cheaper than buying at the grocery store. (http://www.davidsonstea.com/)

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    Default Re: any loose leaf tea drinkers out there?

    Quote Originally Posted by RNHC View Post
    This thread triggered my curiosity about teas. I learned that East Asians classify teas by color - white, green, blue (oolong), and red (black) - depending on the amount of oxidation (whatever that means). Longer the oxidation, longer the tea leaves stayed good. That is why Westerners drink black (red) tea since that type of tea is what made through the shipping time from Asia to Europe without spoiling. What's a fermented tea? Is that related somehow to oxidation?
    Oxidation refers to the process of "bruising" the fresh tea leaves and letting them brown up a bit before roasting. In a similar way that a sliced apple will brown when exposed to air, so too will tea leaves brown if they are crushed. The degree of crushing produces different levels of oxidation, thus yielding different flavors (as well as how the tea is roasted or dried).

    Before tea production was moved to India by the British, all tea that came from china was largely green tea that (see above comment about sulfur) was dyed and preserved to look nice upon arrival in England. The climate is different in India and was really only suitable to make tougher tea leaves that performed well after oxidation. The leaf itself aside, Britain had an absolute obsession with sugar at that time, so it is largely theorized that tea consumption for most of British history was more about feeding a pretty solid sugar addiction than it was about the actual taste of the tea. Of course, the alertness provided a nice cuppa was also pleasant.

    The most well known fermented teas are pu-erh and liu bao, both of which are called Hei Cha or Black tea. In the case of hei cha, the tea isn't oxidized through crushing, but instead kept moist, pressed into a tea-cake, and allowed to ferment, usually in a cave, for many years before consumption. In the case of hei cha, the tea darkens due to microbial activity breaking down the tea leaves. This is why this style of tea is so revered: it takes many, many years to fully develop. It was tradition, in many parts of China (and Tibet, at a time) to process a tea-cake the year your daughter was born. Then, when she was old enough to marry, you could sell the cake to pay for her wedding because a cake of 16-18 years old would fetch a very decent price.

    A further aside, I'm not sure I've ever heard oolong called a blue tea before. It's just "oolong" which is a wade-giles spelling of the pinyin "Wu Long" meaning "Black Dragon" because of how the darker, twisted leaves appear after opening. They appear to swim like a black dragon in a tea bowl.

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    Junior Member GTG's Avatar
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    Default Re: any loose leaf tea drinkers out there?

    I have some but dont drink it often unless in the mood for something different.
    I find it nice to have a change instead of having the same tea all the time like some do.

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    Default like redbull & vodka yet more sophisticated

    does Mountain Dew and Absinthe count as loose leaf tea?

    IMG_20180201_135305.jpg

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    Default Re: any loose leaf tea drinkers out there?

    Quote Originally Posted by AzJon View Post
    A further aside, I'm not sure I've ever heard oolong called a blue tea before.
    From Wikipedia entry on oolong tea:

    "In Chinese, oolong teas are also known as qingcha (Chinese: 青茶; pinyin: qīngchá) or "dark green teas."

    My Chinese friend explained that the Chinese character 青 qing (pronounced ching) generally means color blue nowadays but in the olden days, Chinese didn't distinguish between blue and green and used the character 青 to denote both colors or combination of both, i.e. color of pine tree.

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    Default Re: like redbull & vodka yet more sophisticated

    Quote Originally Posted by Bungle View Post
    does Mountain Dew and Absinthe count as loose leaf tea?
    No, that would count as a cough syrup (would taste like one anyway). I can't believe you'd actually drink that.

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    AzJon (February 4th, 2018)

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    Default Re: any loose leaf tea drinkers out there?

    Quote Originally Posted by RNHC View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by AzJon View Post
    A further aside, I'm not sure I've ever heard oolong called a blue tea before.
    From Wikipedia entry on oolong tea:

    "In Chinese, oolong teas are also known as qingcha (Chinese: 青茶; pinyin: qīngchá) or "dark green teas."

    My Chinese friend explained that the Chinese character 青 qing (pronounced ching) generally means color blue nowadays but in the olden days, Chinese didn't distinguish between blue and green and used the character 青 to denote both colors or combination of both, i.e. color of pine tree.
    Ah ha! Yes Qing is a sort of blue-green spread. Curious. I wonder if that is more of a regional colloquialism. I will have to ask my tea mentor about that naming. Perhaps it refers to a particular style of oolong like a 20% oxidation vs a 50% or higher which can be very dark (indeed "black" as the name wu long suggests). thanks for the info!

    Edit to ask: What part of China is your friend from?
    Last edited by AzJon; February 4th, 2018 at 09:42 AM.

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    Senior Member countrydirt's Avatar
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    Default Re: any loose leaf tea drinkers out there?

    My son and his then Chinese girlfriend gave me a puck of Pu'er and 2 large bricks of black tea that her father likes when he is home in China. I now have about 18 pounds of compressed tea that it may take about 10 years to drink up as I only drink it on the weekends. I do like all of it.

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    Default Re: any loose leaf tea drinkers out there?

    Quote Originally Posted by AzJon View Post
    Ah ha! Yes Qing is a sort of blue-green spread. Curious. I wonder if that is more of a regional colloquialism. I will have to ask my tea mentor about that naming. Perhaps it refers to a particular style of oolong like a 20% oxidation vs a 50% or higher which can be very dark (indeed "black" as the name wu long suggests). thanks for the info!

    Edit to ask: What part of China is your friend from?
    My buddy is from Philadelphia. His family is from China but I never did ask exactly where in China since, well to be perfectly honest, I wasn't really curious since it would be completely meaningless to me as I know very little about Chinese geography or regional cultures.

    Besides, his family has been in the States long enough that asking him about China is like asking a Minnesotan about Sweden or, more aptly, asking Donald Trump about Germany. Come to think of it, it's exactly like asking Trump about Germany, homeland of his grandparents, since Trump is a second-generation American just like my friend.

    As for the meaning of qing, I am pretty sure he said that character means blue but in the olden days (as in historical), the meaning was more expansive and included green or "blue-green spread" as you say.

    P.s. I just realized something. I don't refer to Trump as German. Yet, I refer to my friend as Chinese even though he's just as American as Trump. Hmm... food for thoughts. I am sure there is a PC term for someone like me.
    Last edited by RNHC; February 4th, 2018 at 04:30 PM.

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    Senior Member AzJon's Avatar
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    Default Re: any loose leaf tea drinkers out there?

    Quote Originally Posted by RNHC View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by AzJon View Post
    Ah ha! Yes Qing is a sort of blue-green spread. Curious. I wonder if that is more of a regional colloquialism. I will have to ask my tea mentor about that naming. Perhaps it refers to a particular style of oolong like a 20% oxidation vs a 50% or higher which can be very dark (indeed "black" as the name wu long suggests). thanks for the info!

    Edit to ask: What part of China is your friend from?
    My buddy is from Philadelphia. His family is from China but I never did ask exactly where in China since, well to be perfectly honest, I wasn't really curious since it would be completely meaningless to me as I know very little about Chinese geography or regional cultures.

    Besides, his family has been in the States long enough that asking him about China is like asking a Minnesotan about Sweden or, more aptly, asking Donald Trump about Germany. Come to think of it, it's exactly like asking Trump about Germany, homeland of his grandparents, since Trump is a second-generation American just like my friend.

    As for the meaning of qing, I am pretty sure he said that character means blue but in the olden days (as in historical), the meaning was more expansive and included green or "blue-green spread" as you say.
    It's still a pretty expansive usage. Qing Dai, for example, refers to powdered indigo, so definitely that blue-green spectrum. So everything from indigo to new plant growth. A broad color indeed!

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    Senior Member myu's Avatar
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    Default Re: any loose leaf tea drinkers out there?

    While I enjoy starting my day with coffee, I alternate with tea. My favorite over the past 10 years or so has Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire Gold. The loose tea looks more like coffee grounds. It's rather fine, so you need a fine strainer/infuser. But wow, the brewed black tea is quite rich. I have it straight -- no milk, no sugar. I also enjoy green teas. There's a Japanese market not far from where I live and I buy teas there. Genmai Matcha is one of my favorites, a fine green tea with toasted rice. Some other great sources of tea are Mariage Freres and Le Palais des Thes. Wonderful range of flavorful teas.

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