Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected].
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
view the rest of the comments
When Teavana still existed, I bought a teapot and some "teas" (Teavana was mostly herbal tisanes...but still.)
I don't drink coffee, so I imagined the teapot wouldn't ever be used...but somehow it ended up being a big hobby for me. Bonus: fancy teas from online stores are cheap to ship, because they're basically dry and lightweight. Like, if you want to become a food snob about anything? Tea really is the way to go.
The one learning curve I had (as an American) was learning that you DON'T steep the tea longer for stronger tea. You use more tea leaves/more tea bags. Steeping too long turns the tea bitter. (I thought I disliked tea when younger b/c I'd only ever had cheap tea bags left to steep for far too long.) Also, when brewing a green tea, they're really reactive to boiling water, so you REALLY don't want to use boiling water or it'll be a bitter mess. You want to either boil then let it cool, or get a fancy electric kettle where you can set the temperature so it's appropriate for green tea, oolong tea, or black tea.
I got addicted to PG Tips extra strong blend when I was in the UK and now I import it. I feel like such a snob, but I don't care. They wouldn't think I was a snob for drinking it in the UK!
There's a small tea retailer in the UK, What-Cha.com, and the owner does a "mystery tea" option which he uses to get rid of slower-moving teas, or teas he might have had to buy to get a better choice on a tea he wanted to get from a wholesaler. Or sometimes teas he just wants people to try.
"Mystery tea" sounds dodgy, but it did a great deal to expand my horizons, because even these mystery teas were really, really good (far better than ANY grocery store tea in the USA) and opened me to teas I might not have otherwise tried.
I'm TOTALLY a snob importing teas from the UK...but what can you do? America is a coffee-culture country, not a tea-drinking place, and the local stores just have tisanes or crappy bottom-tier tea (basically, tea dust from processing higher grades of tea is packaged into teabags and sold in grocery stores--and people don't know how crap a tier of tea that is!)
I've had great luck with Upton teas for the past decade or more in the US. Great selection, teas at multiple price points from broken leaf to first flush single estate.
Oh boy. Similar story for my wife and me. Now we've got 3 gaiwans, 4 yixing clay pots, and two cast iron pots. And now we do a little tea ceremony everyday. It's a great way to just sit together and chat without other distractions.
I never quite got into the tea ceremony part, I admit. (Maybe because I live alone and don't have anyone to share it with.) My first teapot was glass, and I like viewing the color of the brewing tea. Plus, the gaiwans/yixing are so small...I'd rather brew a big pot and have it last than have to go back to re-steep teas.
I know I'm probably missing out on the experience of the tea changing flavors subtly as it's steeped and re-steeped...I just can't give up my big glass pot, haha.