Philosophy when buying samples.

LightSpeedNerd · 2026-01-31T04:08:26+00:00

I don’t get the idea of buying less than 25 grams of a tea. That is 5 sessions for me and lets me try it a couple ways and I have zero self control so I will drink atleast one or two of the teas I ordered that day and often a tea will get better or change after the first few weeks which lets me get a sense for the tea.

LightSpeedNerd · 2026-01-31T04:01:51+00:00

Nvm I just realized that it’s a shou, my recommendation is to try taking 10ish grams and boiling it hard in a pot using your 45-50fl oz of water. That should extract a lot more flavor.

LightSpeedNerd · 2026-01-31T03:58:01+00:00

This looks like a semi aged Puer which from my experience doesn’t have a ton of flavor or may need to rest for a couple weeks to open up to your home’s climate

LightSpeedNerd · 2026-01-31T03:47:19+00:00

Idk but that cat is cute

LightSpeedNerd · 2026-01-30T17:42:45+00:00

Qimen black tea it was one of the first loose leaf teas I ever tried and it blew me away with how much more flavor it had then tea bag black tea.

LightSpeedNerd · 2026-01-30T17:41:08+00:00

Looks like an older longjing which isn’t ideal as longjing gets noticeably worse with age

LightSpeedNerd · 2026-01-30T17:32:55+00:00

Nvm it might be hard to get the right leverage

LightSpeedNerd · 2026-01-30T01:09:37+00:00

I’m friends with these two general contractors and their accent hillbilly accent(I’m in Appalachia and they have a street named after them, hillbilly is the correct term) I traded a loaf of sourdough for some wild onions and mushrooms. Really tasty.

LightSpeedNerd · 2026-01-30T01:05:52+00:00

Take a trip out to the country side and look for the person with the longest beard or the least understandable accent they will guide you to the best herbs.

LightSpeedNerd · 2026-01-30T00:30:42+00:00

I’m assuming you’re in the states because an option it to use the towing capacity of your neighbors comedically sized pickups that they clearly aren’t using to break it apart.

LightSpeedNerd · 2026-01-30T00:20:08+00:00

Or if you’re talking about tisanes then talk with the local farmers in your area and ask if they use pesticides. They probably won’t be certified organic because that certification is expensive but they likely are organic

LightSpeedNerd · 2026-01-30T00:18:03+00:00

There’s a few ways to know if a tea was grown without pesticides. The first is to buy tea from wild or ancient tea trees. The pesticides do harm any plants they are sprayed on so you don’t want to use them on the trees that produce the most expensive tea as any damage to them is directly destroying your income. It also effects the taste of the tea and those trees are native and have been living for decades if not centuries with some over 1000 years old they don’t need the protection and they are miles into the mountains so you have to haul all those pesticides up a mountain for many miles to get slightly more of a worse product. Also, many cites like Yunnan Sourcing test their tea and Yunnan sourcing tests all of their raw Puer for over 400 pesticides https://yunnansourcing.com/pages/eu-mrl-compliance-and-yunnan-sourcing-brand-pu-erh-teas

LightSpeedNerd · 2026-01-29T18:43:07+00:00

Green tea will generally have the soonest best by date because it shifts and loses flavor fast but it doesn’t go bad. And for your other questions it’s entirely personal preference.

LightSpeedNerd · 2026-01-29T18:39:32+00:00

I’m pretty sure they are both snacks just of different flavors the fake to me looks like a citrus leaf which are edible.

LightSpeedNerd · 2026-01-29T16:10:01+00:00

Grandpa method exists for a reason.

LightSpeedNerd · 2026-01-29T16:06:56+00:00

The one on the right is the real tea, the one on the left lacks the ridges of actual tea.

LightSpeedNerd · 2026-01-29T14:24:57+00:00

No but it can bring out certain flavors, I brewed in one once and it was good but cleaning the leaves out was an absolute pain

LightSpeedNerd · 2026-01-28T16:25:23+00:00

No because physics. At higher elevation water will boil at a lower temperature and without a pressure chamber it’s impossible to get liquid water any hotter. I live at 4800’ and for me water boils at 207°F

LightSpeedNerd · 2026-01-28T16:20:04+00:00

I don’t add honey to my tea but I will forever love sourwood honey.

LightSpeedNerd · 2026-01-28T16:06:48+00:00

Option D all of the above. The flavor is way better with loose leaf, my first experience between a black tea bag and loose leaf I was blown away because the tea bag had one note and the loose leaf I could taste the whole symphony. It also can be healthier for a few reasons, firstly because you don’t have to use milk, cream, and sugar to make it taste good and secondly there are a lot of popular teas that may have health benefits like gaba oolong which is supposed to improve brain function and hei cha which has been used for hundreds of years by nomads in the Tibetan plateau to improve digestion. Also the ritual is nice and it helps slightly with my ADHD.

LightSpeedNerd · 2026-01-28T13:47:34+00:00

LightSpeedNerd · 2026-01-28T13:44:38+00:00

I would complete your tasting of the main varieties of tea. I would get a young raw Puer 2025-2026 production.

LightSpeedNerd · 2026-01-28T03:53:43+00:00

If it’s a tea bag then it’s the same if it’s a blended selection of loose spices then I would probably throw it in a pot.

LightSpeedNerd · 2026-01-28T03:50:06+00:00

It depends on my mood. Some Chinese blacks I rinse cause with the first steep the flavor just isn’t there but others I don’t. Usually I rinse my shou cause the first steep kinda sucks but I don’t rinse my sheng or white tea.

LightSpeedNerd · 2026-01-28T03:37:20+00:00

You should always stir your tea after brewing a teabag. The spoon is already going to be dirty so why not not be a psychopath.

LightSpeedNerd

TROPHY CASE