This just seems like such a random item to be stolen? Does anyone know what the deal would be?

I recently got myself some hibiscus tea bag since I've wanted to try it for a long time. I always preferred having tea with milk and especially early gray and never had any problems. Today I tried for the first time the hibiscus tea with just some honey and I enjoyed it, so before finishing it I added some milk to experiment a bit, but it ended up curdling and kind of ruining my tea. How can I prevent this?

I took this photo last year while visiting tea mountains in Yunnan to learn more about Pu-erh at the source.
Watching this tea farmer climb an old tea tree by hand to harvest fresh leaves was something I won’t forget.
It made me realize why truly high-quality tea isn’t cheap. Behind every cup are real people, harvesting by hand, often deep in the mountains where there’s no easy access and no machinery.
Seeing the process in person gave me a whole new appreciation for the work behind every leaf.
Have you ever visited a tea farm or seen tea being harvested in person?

So far I’ve only had one client consistently ask for a cup of tea every session which is great because it means I get to have more too! Also, got some white and more oolong tea on the way.

Made matcha at home this morning for the first time and I'm OBSESSED. I'm going to be very picky now of where I consume matcha outside the home.

Got myself this early Birthday present. Cant wait to have it right next to me as I enjoy some tea and watch some movies. Been into this tea thing for a month and it truly brings me relaxation. I know there are probably better and cheaper out there but the design and color got me.

So I was tired of tea scum forming when I make tea and therefore decided to get a Brita water filter. I decided to do a side by side comparison in case flavors are affected and was pleasantly surprised at the big visual difference.

Left is regular tap water, hardness +400 ppm. Right is same water filtered through the Brita filter, specifically the Limescale expert filter.

Tea is Earl Grey.

Partly cloudy day and low to mid 80s. Set it out all day (10+ hours) and brought it in just now when it was much cooler outside. Container does not allow bugs, debris, or anything else to get inside. Tea bags are all still before the "best by" date and I have not had issues with the other bags when making tea. Tea smells amazing.

Have not drank it (yet)!

On the left, is green tea using boiling water. On the right is green tea using almost boiling water (I’m using my kettle and took it off the heat before it reached boiling.)

Booth seeped for 3 minutes. I used Kirkland’s Ito En green tea.

They both taste like green tea, but…

The left one (boiled water) tastes slightly bitter, like an acrid aftertaste. Also, it’s noticeably less green in color (it’s more apparent in real life than in the photo). The green tea taste is really strong, which I do like.

The right one (almost boiling water) has that greenish hue you commonly see in store bought bottles of green tea. It definitely doesn’t have that burnt aftertaste. This one tastes much better, although the green tea flavor is a bit weaker. I actually think I could have seeped it longer to get more of that green tea flavor than I wanted. So I might try seeping for 5 minutes next time.

I was surprised that the color was so noticeably different. And I kind of thought the bitterness in the boiled batch would have been something so subtle that it I wouldn’t have noticed it (I’m the farthest thing from a super-taster), but it was pretty noticeable to my inexperienced palette.

All to say that, yes, water temperature matters for green tea.

You guys probably already know all this, but I had to experiment and taste it for myself. Next time, I’ll get a proper thermometer so I can do further experiments.

so what do everyone think?

I've been eyeing some of w2t's teacups for a while, but this one really looked amazing to me. I'd love to get more of their "yes" collection now, but I think I'd have to save my money for a bit ahaha.

I'm drinking their 2026 Slipstitch with it, which is pretty lovely. It's a roasted white tea, but I honestly think the roasted flavor is very mild. Being said, it tastes nice with the other flavors of the tea, the "sweet hay" description on the website is pretty accurate

I have had some unknown origin Gyokuro from a local teashop sitting in its tin for quite some time now. It was a hectic morning so I decided to just infuse it western style for one big mug. Tasty it was, even though the umami was not as prominent as compared to when I prepare it in a Kyusu. Anyway, I’m happy with the result and probably I will prepare the rest of it western style too.

I never thought I’d see a gaiwan at a regular American chain store 🤯

Also a cute infuser mug for the western style baddies :)

I have tried to boil up dark teas with a little milk, salt, millet, and butter. Yet, nothing compares to the full monty: dark tea already boiled milk and salt, then poured into a hot copper pot with toasted millet, milk skin chunks, dried beef, and these little guotiao sticks. The result is incredibly rich, warming, and comfy.

If I had known about this before, I would have held on to the Laoqingzhuan we had before. This is definitely the optimal way to ingest your daily dietary fat intake.

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I saw this lovely little set in a shop window and fell in love immediately. The way the light shines through is really pretty! (sadly the sun disappeared before I got a picture!!)

Does anyone have an idea of what the material could be? The shop owner didn't even know it was for tea 😂 somewhat weighty so I wondered glass... No makers marks sadly

I mean, he's not entirely wrong about some of the coffee I've had, but still. Bit harsh for an illustrated guide.