I would absolutely buy something like this today, how gorgeous.

Does anyone else have one of these? We love to offer guests tea after meals or when they arrive for a visit. But with SO many teas in our pantry, the conversation was often "Would you like some tea?" "Sure!" "What would you like?" "What do you have?" "Uhhh..." Now we just hand them the menu and they can see all the options for themselves! It has also proven extremely handy for me when I know I want tea but am overwhelmed by the choices of my own cupboard -- it's nice to see a clear list of everything I have instead of rifling through all the bags and tins.

They are separated by type (black, green, etc), and show the name, brand, and ingredients. We love to keep a wide variety of things on hand to suit the tastes of any guest! I keep a tea diary where I record and rate every new tea I try. Some friends have suggested I include my rating of each tea on the menu as well, but I don't because everyone has different tastes! Just because I don't care for a particular tea doesn't mean someone else won't, and vice versa.

I've included three pictures as a sample, but our tea menu is currently an 8-page packet! I reprint it every now and then, adding newly-acquired things and removing what we've run out of (crossing out works in the meantime, as pictured). Just thought I'd share one of my more clever tea ideas! :)

Feel free to share your thoughts. Just wanted to share this to some.

A little gut-wrenching every time something breaks especially one that's more expensive. I suppose it's still usable but I can't use as much water or it will spill out. So if you have any suggestions for a safe product that could potentially help bring this to 100% usability again it would be appreciated. At least it was a fairly clean break with these two pieces only.

Bought samples sizes of different teas from different stores because I want to try as many teas as possible to know which ones are my favorites.

Don't hesitate to give me recommendations of your favorite teas and brands

My recent haul from Bitterleafteas is finally at home. I've tried out secret garden, in bloom 2026, soft power and year of the horse white tea and bouquet 2026.

Shengs need time to settle but I was expecting more from in bloom, I couldn't get anything flowery from it. Secret garden and soft power are more dynamic.

Year of the horse white was smooth, taste profile was on the sweet side with hay/slight wood undertones, pretty nice for the price.

But bouquet 2026 is the real dark horse for me, it is straight up flower juice, truly lovely.

Hello everyone! I’ve been a rough couple weeks and I’ve decided to treat myself with some kind of tea set, I’ve been looking at the ones from Magic Hour, but I’m not quite sure if it’s worth it or not.

I really like Earl grey teas, Jasmine, Oolong, blood orange, all the mints, lemon grass, chamomile, white teas, peony and Yorkshire tea, I have a thing for florals in general. I’ve only had teas from adagio as of right now and I’m looking to try a different seller. I’m not crazy about Vanilla or artificial fruit flavors on my tea, I’ve also haven’t found the love for chai yet, but I’ve been trying to like it.
I’m adding some captures of the ones I really like from Adagio.

Magic hour got my eye because of the looks of it, but I would love to hear from you guys, what other places to buy tea you recommend and what sets would be fitting, thanks! <3

In July, I switched from all day black coffee to loose leaf black tea. I went through steepingroom.com and initially ordered Rebel’s black tea by Kaley. It was delicious, but too expensive for my consumption rate. Next order was a standard Scottish breakfast black tea that came in 1 lb bags. This was the right price and essentially equally as good for my taste. My problem: whether it was the Rebel’s or the Scottish, I have, on a couple of occasions since my switch, became nauseous to the point of, well, up-chucking. I have made sure to eat snacks to remedy this, but have still been caught off guard a couple times. What is a good tea variety besides black that contains less tannins, is affordable, and comparable in caffeine content? Does this exist?

TIA

Hi everyone!

I’ve just joined this sub and I’m still not fully familiar with how the community works, so I hope I manage to explain myself well.

I’ve been into the world of tea for quite a while now. At first, it started as a small daily ritual to carve out a moment of calm and relaxation for myself, but over time I’ve also learned to really enjoy the taste and variety of flavours this drink can offer. At the moment, I mostly stick to buying packaged teas from Coop, which I find practical and quick to prepare, but I feel the urge to take a step further and try making tea at home in a more mindful, artisanal way.

I have to admit I feel a bit lost because I really don’t know where to start. I don’t think I have the right ingredients in my cupboard, and I’m not very familiar with the steps to make a proper cup of homemade tea. My goal is to learn a simple, accessible method without having to hunt down rare or hard-to-find ingredients. I’d love to create a small routine that lets me prepare my own cup of tea, maybe starting with loose leaves or basic blends, and then gradually experiment with more interesting variations.

If anyone has experience and can guide me step by step on how to get started, suggesting which ingredients to buy and which tools are truly essential, I’d be very grateful. Any tips on infusion times, quantities, natural flavourings, or ways to avoid beginner mistakes would be incredibly valuable.

Thank you so much to anyone who feels like helping me take this small but meaningful step towards a more authentic and personal tea journey!

Hello fellow tea heads - lifelong tea lover here and also wine lover. I have had WSET level 3 certification in wine for a few years and it really helped my understanding of wine, winemaking and viticulture, especially filling in the gaps where I had previously not been very interested. It's also an actual course with a written and tasting exam but not the highest level for lifelong professionals.

I am wondering if there is something equivalent for tea, as I would like to bring the depth and breadth of my tea knowledge up to that level. I am aware of the master of tea certification but that seems excessive for a hobbyist (roughly equivalent to master of wine it seems) but I can't tell if there are lower levels of training like for wine. Basically something the equivalent of WSET level 3 if anyone speaks that language too. (Basically if I went to a "learn about tea" class somewhere locally it would all be remedial for me but I am not up for the time and expense of a professional level program). Thanks!

Probably my favorite jasmine tea I've tried. Brewed in a yunomi hagi cup (because I don't have a gaiwan or kyusu) poured into a smaller yunomi cup using a fine mesh strainer.

1st steeping

Water - 170ml

Tea weight - 5.3g

Temperature - 80°C

Brew time - 49 seconds

Hi! My palate is... not delicate. I like *strong* teas: The kind that absolutely kick you in the teeth even through a splash of milk (Assams, Irish Breakfast, etc.). I'm trying to up my game from bag to loose leaf, and I'm looking for a good, strong, tea of this character. Preferably, one I can buy in relative bulk (i.e., a pound or two at a time, not, like, a whole pallet). You know how when you shop at Costco, you can get something of decent quality in bulk at a great price? That's the vibe I'm going for here, but with an Assam. Obviously, Costco doesn't carry such a thing, so I'm searching online. Any hints?

Thanks in advance!

I accidentally washed my clay tea set with dishsoap and its color went from dark brown to white like this

I tried boiling it but it doesn't work

Is my teapot ruined?

So I've been switching to tea lately instead of coffee for work. I have an electric kettle i use at work. So i don't have to make it at home. I've been buying bags from tealyra. It's been good but they are out of my favorite tea I've had from them. Matcha Iri Sencha. I've decided to try loose leaf tea. Any recommendations tea? Also any steeper recommendations? I really like the Matcha Iri Sencha because it doesn't give me the crash or jitters that coffee gives me sometimes. Also I can't use any glass wear where I work at. I have a yeti i was just putting my tea bags in.

So I had been hooked on Starbucks for awhile and decided to make mine at home now. I got Naoki brand sample and it is soooo good….

But I have stomach issues and it seems like the nice higher quality is actually causing me stomach issues. It was the only drink with caffeine I could tolerate.

So I guess I’m wondering what’s a brand that might be similar or are there good decaf brands? I could try that too.

Thanks all!

Will It Brew? Goldenrod

Goldenrod (Solidago sp., Canada/tall goldenrod group)
Foraged in late summer, Northern Ohio, USA

Foreword note: Have you ever looked at a sea of goldenrod and thought, “I wish I could use that?” Of course you have. Every foraging tea drinker who lives around goldenrod has. So, you Google, find instructions and follow them perfectly and end up with tea that tastes and looks like dog piss. You sadly think that goldenrod is one of those ‘edible but why bother’ herbs. 

 If you are still interested in goldenrod and using it as tea, and finding out why it is now my very favorite foraged tea, read on. I know this post is long. Goldenrod tea, done correctly, is worth it. 

This is another in my “Will It Brew?” series, exploring wild plants through the lens of tea, broth, and flavor. Thanks for following along!

Goldenrod is everywhere here in late summer. Huge plants arch into extravagant fans of yellow flowers that look, to me, like a Victorian fever dream of a fern.

It is also one of my favorite wild teas. Last year I gathered about two quart jars of dried goldenrod, and they were gone by February. This year it is getting a much bigger jar.

The trick is that goldenrod is very easy to brew badly. I’ll tell you how to brew it well. 

Found

I gather goldenrod from clean, unsprayed areas around my property in northern Ohio. The plant photographed for this post was magnificent: taller than me, with enormous cascading sprays of yellow flowers. (Photo 1)

ID Notes

I believe this is in the Canada/tall goldenrod group, probably Solidago canadensis or the closely related S. altissima. The overall form, one-sided branching flower panicles, narrow three-veined finely toothed leaves and stem hairs all fit that group. Distinguishing those two species reliably can require characters I haven't documented well enough here, so I'm leaving it at Solidago sp. rather than pretending diligent Googling has conferred a botany degree upon me.

Goldenrods are members of the aster family. This one has long, narrow, alternately arranged leaves with fine teeth that are much easier to see when you actually stop and look for them. (Photo 2) The flowering branches curve outward in large yellow plumes, with the tiny flower heads concentrated along the branches.

Goldenrod also gets blamed for a lot of late-summer allergies that are more often caused by ragweed blooming at the same time. Goldenrod has conspicuous insect-pollinated flowers; ragweed throws its pollen around on the wind.

As always, identify any wild plant positively before eating or drinking it. “Yellow flowers in September” is not an identification. There are tons of yellow flowers. Don’t drink them unless you can identify them. 

Gathering

I don't gather only the flowers.

I cut the flowering spray and continue down the stem roughly another third of the length of the flower head, taking the upper leaves with it. That gives my finished dried tea a mixture of yellow flowers and green leaves.

I prefer that balance. Flowers alone can become cloyingly floral once sweetened. Leaves alone lose the thing I like most about goldenrod and taste much greener. Together, the leaves keep the flowers from becoming perfume, while the flowers keep the leaves from becoming boiled vegetation.

Drying

Goldenrod has been fussier to dry well than most of my tea herbs.

I learned last year that if I dry the flowers too slowly or too cool, like I normally do for herbs and leaves and teas, they will continue maturing into white fluff. The resulting tea is less floral-honey and more dusty tasting.

So goldenrod is one of the herbs I dry somewhat hotter and faster than my usual delicate leaves and flowers. The goal is to get it thoroughly dry while the flowers are still yellow, rather than lovingly preserving it at low temperature until it has successfully turned itself into seeds.

For my dehydrator, I dry goldenrod on the top setting of 150 to 160 degrees F (around 70 C)

Once dry, remove the leaves and flowers from the stems starting at the bottom and working toward the flower end.

This sounds unnecessarily specific. It is not.

The dried stems become surprisingly barbed. Running your hand the other direction is like giving a hand job to a cactus. You only need to learn this once.

Preparation

For my everyday dried tea, I use roughly 2 tablespoons of dried leaves and flowers for a four-cup pot.

For this experiment I used fresh goldenrod: two modest flowering tops with their upper leafy stems, shown beside a pencil in the photo for scale. (Photo 3)

I poured just-removed-from-boiling-on-the-stove water over them once and left the plant material in the pot. I then poured samples from that same continuously steeping pot at:

30 seconds
90 seconds
3 minutes
5 minutes
11 minutes

So these were not five separately prepared teas. They were snapshots of the same tea becoming progressively more goldenroddy.

I tasted each unsweetened first and then added a small amount of plain white sugar.

30 Seconds 

Very pale yellow-green. (Photo 4)

The scent was pleasant but the taste was barely there. After adding a little sugar, I could find a faint floral-honey flavor, but it was delicate enough that I had to go looking for it.

Not bad at all. Just unnecessarily shy.

90 Seconds

This is the one. (Photo 5)

This is how I make my morning goldenrod tea. It is delicious. The floral scent was noticeably stronger. Unsweetened, the tea tasted flowery but not particularly sweet. A touch of sugar brought forward something distinctly honey-like.

It's floral without tasting like perfume, lightly green without tasting vegetal, and has a lovely honey impression once a little sweetness is added.

I've used white sugar, brown sugar, honey, stevia and turbinado sugar with goldenrod. All work. Turbinado is especially nice.

If you try this tea, set a timer. Ninety seconds is my sweet spot.

3 Minutes

 (Photo 6) Still floral, but something green had begun appearing underneath it. The smell made me think oddly of flowers and zucchini skin.

With sugar it was still perfectly drinkable, but now there was a slight bitterness at the back of my throat that lingered for perhaps 30 seconds.

At this point the tea wasn't ruined, but you could tell it was headed somewhere less pleasant.

5 Minutes

(Photo 7) The first sip was still pleasant and slightly floral, followed by a much stronger bitter, green finish at the back of the throat.

I kept thinking zucchini skin, then reconsidered and thought perhaps eggplant skin. Whatever vegetable it resembles, it's that particular bitterness where you think, This should taste good, but I wish somebody had peeled it.

Sugar improved the floral beginning but couldn't remove the bitter finish.

11 Minutes

(Photo 8) The internet often recommends brewing goldenrod for 8 to 15 minutes. The internet lies. In my pot, the color was now a deep, impressive gold.

The scent was still mostly floral. Unfortunately, underneath the flowers was a slight smell of dog piss.

Unsweetened, the first touch on the tongue actually wasn't terrible. Then the bitterness bloomed down my throat and rose into the back of my nose.

This is apparently the point at which some ancient part of the human nervous system announces:

This is piss.

I added sugar.

Now the dog had diabetes.

About Those 8–15 Minute Brewing Instructions

This experiment is why I'm suspicious of the standard advice to steep goldenrod for eight or ten minutes- or, in one recipe I found, two cups of plant material in four cups of boiling water for fifteen minutes.

Perhaps there are species differences. There certainly may be differences in harvest stage, fresh versus dried material, flower-to-leaf ratio and individual taste.

But with the goldenrod I gather, I think the lovely flavors extract very quickly and the unpleasant ones simply require patience.

More extraction isn't necessarily more flavor in the useful sense.

At 90 seconds I get flowers and honey.

At 11 minutes I get a diabetic dog.

Choose accordingly. 

Cold Brew

No.

I have tried.

Goldenrod initially seems almost hydrophobic in cold water. It floats around stubbornly until it finally becomes saturated.

Unfortunately, by the time it has thoroughly soaked, you've essentially skipped the lovely brief floral stage and arrived at cold, bitter yellow tea.

It looks unfortunate.

It tastes unfortunate.

Hot water, short steep. Goldenrod and I have reached an understanding. 

If you must have it cold, start from hot, brew 90 seconds, add ice. 

Flavor Notes

At its best goldenrod tea is floral, honey-like, lightly green, soft and aromatic. 

As steep time increases you get bitter vegetable skin, lingering bitterness and some urinary thing happening. 

The sweetness isn't really present in the unsweetened plant itself. What fascinates me is that adding just a little sweetener makes the existing floral aroma read as honey. You don't need much. I often tell people unsweetened goldenrod tea tastes like how honey tea would taste if honey wasn’t sweet. 

A Note on Effects

Some goldenrod species and preparations have a long history of traditional use as diuretics, and I can certainly say that for me, even this lightly brewed 90-second tea has a noticeable diuretic effect, especially if I haven’t had some goldenrod for a while. If I've been retaining water, I prepare to pee.

Interestingly, when I drink it on subsequent days, I notice the effect much less.

I've also noticed that I often have less pain on days when I drink goldenrod tea. That's a personal observation, not evidence that goldenrod is treating my pain, and I wouldn't use my experience as a medical recommendation. It's simply something I've noticed often enough to find interesting.

Verdict

Will it brew? 

Yes. Absolutely. But time it.

Goldenrod went from an experiment last year to one of the teas I actually drank through all my stash. Two quart jars sounded like plenty when I put them away, but they were empty by February.

Best As

A short-steeped hot tea using a mixture of flowers and upper leaves, with a little sweetener.

I especially like it as an everyday winter tea because it is fragrant and pleasant without being overwhelmingly floral.

Would I Try Again?

I'm currently filling a gallon jar with dried goldenrod and have a half gallon jar waiting for the overflow.

So yes.

Flavor Strength 

(Photo 9: shows the brews from left to right at 90 seconds up to 11 minutes on the right)

90 seconds: Mild to moderate -- floral, honey-like with sweetener
3 minutes: Moderate --floral with emerging green bitterness
5 minutes: Strong -- floral opening, persistent vegetable-skin bitterness
11 minutes: Regrettable

Notes

Goldenrod is one of those foraging discoveries I particularly enjoy: it is abundant, beautiful, easy to recognize once properly learned, and genuinely delicious with just a little fiddling.

There's enough technique involved to make you feel as though you've been let in on a forager's secret.

Harvest flowers with some upper leaves. Dry it promptly enough to keep the flowers yellow. Strip the dried stems in the direction that doesn't sexually assault a cactus. Use a modest amount. Brew it hot.

Ninety seconds.

Then get the plant material out of the water.

Caveat

There are many species of goldenrod, and flavor may vary among them. The plant in this experiment appears to be Canada goldenrod (Solidago canadensis), but I would want a fully keyed identification before presenting the species as certain.

Identify your own plants independently using multiple characteristics and reliable botanical references rather than relying on a photo, an app, or this post. Harvest only from places you know have not been sprayed or contaminated.

Goldenrod is in the aster family, so people with sensitivities to plants in that family should use appropriate caution. And because goldenrod preparations can have a diuretic effect, anyone with a medical condition or medication for which changing fluid balance could matter should check with an appropriate clinician rather than treating a foraging post as medical advice.

Mostly, though, don’t steep it for eleven minutes.

Enjoying some Japanese oolong with this porcelain teaware today.

First learning about this tea and hearing from others on this sub about it I expected it to be much more bland or less interesting to that of mainland Chinese or Taiwanese oolongs. I purchased three different varieties of oolong from the vendor Tezumi and all have been very pleasant so far. Quite fruity, floral and creamy perhaps not as savory as some of my favorite oolongs like Baozhong but certainly still very solid.

Looking at the leaves of these oolongs they are all much more loose and light than even non-rolled oolongs from China, does anyone know why this is? Simply just a processing difference or something about the leaf of the cultivars themselves?

I've never been a fan of the traditional Japanese greens (sencha, gyokuro, even matcha) but the other lesser known Japanese teas have all impressed me lots, from these oolongs to wakoucha and kyobancha it's really opened up a new world in tea for me.

I have been drinking loose leaf for a while, primarily as a caffeine substitute for coffee which I no longer drink. Mostly blends from vendors local to me. I usually use a ball strainer or something similar to that. This sub has educated and inspired me to pursue some of the more advanced methods of enjoying tea. Particularly Gongfu.

I’d love to get my first Gongfu tea set and some non-blend tea varieties to start honing in on my preferences and building my pallet but I’m kind of overwhelmed by information and having trouble pinpointing where I should start.

Im confident that I can buy or build a good tea set for my home, but I do most of my tea consuming at work. Does anyone have any recommendations for a desk-friendly Gongfu set?

I’ve done some perusing of the vendors recommended by this sub, but I don’t really know where to start with placing an order. I like green, white, oolong, and black teas. From my experience with loose leaf blends I know that I don’t like anything too sweet or floral. I like woody, rich, spicy, earthy. Any recommendations on a starting point would be greatly appreciated.

I just bought 100g of Vietnamese Bạch Mẫu Đơn (white peony) made from Shan Tuyết. The producer says the material was picked from her oldest tea trees in Ha Giang forest.

The tea itself is only around 6 months old and she says it needs more time to age, although it tastes pretty good now. I have never deliberately aged white tea before.😂

For those who age white tea at home, how do you store it? Airtight bag, paper, jar, cake box, etc? Do you want some air exchange or keep it completely sealed?
Also, how often would you taste it to see how it is developing? I was thinking of trying a little now, then maybe again after 12 months and leaving most of it alone.

I live in Australia, so I am particularly interested in how people manage humidity and temperature. Any advice appreciated. I would rather ask now than accidentally spend two years ageing it badly. 😂😂😅🤣

This is an older batch and cant seem to be finding anything as to what we're the proportions of ingredients for this as I've tasted this many times and even have seen it made firsthand- if they could bring this back or someone pop the recipe that would be cool

The last basket of our 2001 Sun Yi Shun Liu An.
Made in Qimen twenty-five years ago.
It spent part of its life with us, and tomorrow begins another chapter with its new keeper.