I have lived in China and Taiwan and have studied mandarin to a good level. I’m curious to hear people’s experience ordering different varieties and styles of tea and from which sources. Any help would be appreciated.
I was just wondering how many "cups" of tea you put down on the forms you fill out for a doctor's office when if asks if you drink coffee or tea and how much.
I mean, if I put down that I drank 5+ cups of tea per day, my doctor would think I had a caffeine addiction. I kinda do....but....I usually just put 2 cups of tea and call it a day.
How do you answer the question if you are a gongfu drinker and not a western brewer?
I picked this up off the evil super conglomerate a few days ago, and it’s been fantastic. The lid has a bit of a wobble, but it pours like a dream.
I held a small version of a tea meetup here in Honolulu, and was surprised to have a really experienced tea enthusiast join. He's one founder of one of the main pu'er oriented tea businesses, one that is better respected than many other well-known outlets, related to their theme being curation of aged teas. So the discussion was great; maybe I even learned a little, which gets harder to do as the years and exposure go by.
The teas weren't that exceptional. A good version of a Laos sheng stood out most, one from Farmerleaf (2024); and we tried a more-oxidized Vietnamese version, that I've mentioned a lot here (another 2024); and a 2007 CNNP numbered series cake, pretty basic factory tea. Attendance was limited; a couple of neighbors also dropped by. But given that type of shared interest connection it was nice not including the larger group introduction to specialty tea theme I had expected, so discussion points could run a little deeper.
Related to almost no one joining who mentioned interest in Reddit groups, that's fine. The messaging function isn't something everyone uses, related to hearing specific planning, and availability issues can come up. I might try one more time, probably the weekend after next, on a Sunday this time, since lots of schedule conflict came up on a Saturday. This writing breaks it all down in more detail, the parts about those teas.
https://teaintheancientworld.blogspot.com/2026/04/meeting-veteran-tea-enthusiast-in.html
Hey guys! I live in Taiwan, and most of the tea masters I have met have recommended storing the broken pieces of a cake in a jar for a month or two before drinking. According to them, it lets the tea "breathe". I have been told that I should store the tea I will drink in a jar, and let the rest of the tea age as a cake. Have you guys experimented with that? Did you see a big difference? I know that in the West, most drinkers break up what they will drink just before the tea session.
Please, can I see your tea pets? Do they have names? Do you wish for them to bring you luck, money, success, health or something else?
I am new to the Gon Fu tea. I know the pets were just a cute way to use leftover clay, and that they are not the focus of the hobby, but I find them ridiculously adorable and endearing.
I am hoping to buy one in the future. In the meanwhile, can I see yours?
Thank you and best wishes.
EDIT: Yes, I have been told images were not allowed in this subreddit. Sorry, I am still figuring out how Reddit works.
This is my first yixing pot and I have been playing with it for a few days. Here I was brewing some taiwanese medium roasted tieguanyin cultivar tieguanyin tea. It's really surprising to see how the teapot seems to take the edge of the tea and makes it's smoother and a bit sweater somehow. It was specially obvious with sheng pu'er. It tastes gratte, but it also seems to mellow down some of the tea characteristics, so I probably won't use it with some very aromatic teas
April showers blessed us with fair weather, enjoying it with a session outside in the company of goldfish. I’m drinking Bai Ji Guan Wuyi rock tea and snacking on cashews
The battle of the vanilla beans!
Tanzania 🇹🇿 VS Comoros 🇰🇲
Same ripe pu erh but it was made with different beans. 10g/100ml. As the description states the most noticeable difference was the Comoros was definitely sweeter and creamier.
Happy Elephants (Yunnan Sourcing)
Nameless One (White2Tea)
Bronze Label Peerless (Yunnan Sourcing)
Yiwu Gushu (Crimson Lotus Tea)
I love all these teas, almost equally. Peerless is probably my favorite, Happy Elephants was an excellent daily drinker, the Yiwu was always a nice treat, and Nameless One is by far the most unique.
They are all gone now… I thought they would last much longer but here I am… low on shou again.
Anyone have a recommendation for a new cake to try?
My beautiful wife fixed my gaiwan lid with some kintsugi! It’s her first time so her lines are a bit clunky but I love it so much!
It's not a problem when I measure out tea myself, but the samplers I've been trying all turn out this way, and I forget about it every time.
Just thought it looked funny :)
And how much does it cost? Saw it in an online shop.
Hi everyone, I just finished my second ever puer session, a 2019 year of the pig ripe from YS. On the website it was described as very sweet but during the session I got no sweetness and no huigan. So I finished up the session, sat down in my chair at my desk and started drinking my plain ice water and then I was just hit with the craziest huigan sip after sip, over and over.
Has anyone else experienced this? Any reason why I wouldn’t experience the huigan WHILE drinking the tea, but only after when drinking my water?
Tianxin Rock Rougui (Cinnamon). A WuYi rock oolong. A tea beyond comparison. Creamy and velvety aftertaste, with floral finish. Peach/apricot smell on the flip side of the teapot lid when it cools down (first 3 steeps) - u/zheyicao thanks for pointing me in this direction!
This is my first green of the spring and it did not disappoint! This tea is very sweet and non-bitter with the expected chestnut/nutty notes but also featuring an unexpected vanilla like one.
Hi All,
I'm traveling to Taiwan this summer and I'm looking for specific suggestions on places or people to reach out to to study tea with and farms to visit. A farm stay would be amazing as well. I already know great regions etc, but I'm looking to see if anyone has any recommendations on specific place to go to or people to study with. I was in talks with someone in the south but they quoted a price for two days of study that I wasn't able to meet. My Mandarin is 'advanced beginner', and I've been doing gung fu cha on my own for about ten years. I've traveled in Taiwan and the mainland on my own many times so I'm not daunted by out of the way places.
Soooo... I'm not going to bury the lede here, lao bai cha is my favourite type of tea, and I have tried a range of what Yunnan Sourcing has to offer. I wanted to summarize my thoughts on them, and even start a conversation: what do YOU think about the teas below, about lao bai cha in general, and what would you recommend me try next?
**Man Gang Gu Shu Bai Cha**
(*This includes multiple years, and the "Liang" Man Gang Village white tea cake*)
This is the best of the best, the golden standard for my taste. Very bright, floral, got some honey sweetness and apricot notes. The right balance between the "deep" and "bright" notes.
**Man Gang Tea Flowers**
This one has the same great general Man Gang taste, however the added tea flowers amp up the floral notes to 120%. It makes the tea really lovely and light, but also quite one-note, overpowering the actual tea taste.
**2024 Wu Liang Bai Cha**
One of the few "green" aged whites at YS. This is reflected in the taste, it's more grassy, fresh, missing those deep honey notes. It's one that's grown on me (rather than being love at first sip),and I ended up purchasing a whole cake of it as I'm really curious about the aging potential, given its green-ness.
**2018 Fuding Shou Mei white tea cake**
This was a huge letdown after the lot of praise I saw for this tea. It has nothing great going for it, it's musky, stale, the only saving grace is that it's cheap.
**2020 Min Feng Mountain "Secret Garden" White tea cake**
One of my favourites! Not my typical flavourful profile: it's much more clean and 'dry', reminds me a bit of sheng puer (with an admittedly limited knowledge of that style).
**2025 Huang Cao Ba Village white tea**
Very thick, floral, this cake was a great surprise. The light compression is lovely, with some green leaves hidden inside. Great value purchase.
**2025 Suan Zao Shu Old Arbor white tea**
Initially I thought this one to be quite bland, but turns out it just needs to be pushed harder: the hottest water and longer steep times. That way it turns out quite smoky and sweet... However, being one of the more expensive lao bai chas, I don't feel like the value is there.
**2024 Jiu Tai Po Bai Cha old arbor white tea**
Copy paste what I wrote for the Suan Zao Shu above. My advice is not to go for these expensive cakes.
**2020 Wild Tree Purple Moonlight white tea cake**
The loose leaf Wild Tree Purple Moonlight is one of my favourite teas on YS, but this cake version is a much worse version. It looses that amazing freshness and brightness, and becomes quite dull.
**Menghai Lao Shu Bai Cha**
I got this as a freebie — more on the smoky side, with some caramel-like sweetness in the aftertaste.
**White Tea from Da Qing Village Roasted in Bamboo**
My first bamboo roasted white. I expect it to have much more roasted / smoky notes, but the bamboo flavour is quite different: vegetal, cooling, it reminds me a bit of menthol!
My Pixiyu insisted on crushing the tea orange. So I let him do it. Faint orange aroma in steeps 3-6. Mellow pu'er taste.