Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am drinking dumpster tea. Youngest found this dumpster diving at college as people moved out. Mind you, this wasn’t in a pile of banana peels and old rice, but piled with furniture and rugs and such. She found three teas, all sealed and unused. One was a yingde black – not very good but great for making gallons of sweet tea and nearly all gone now. One was a Long Jing that I haven’t tried yet.
This one was completely unlabeled, just in a sealed foil pouch. The leaves were medium length, thin, slightly twisted and very dark. I thought it might be black tea but it smelled like Chun Mee, which is not a favorite green for me.
I made it by black tea parameters, saw the wet leaves turn bright green, tasted the nasty astringency, and started over.
Made as a green tea, I think this probably IS Chun Mee. I might try to find a way to use it – sweet and flavored maybe? But since it was free tea and I know nothing of its origins, I might just toss it. It is not terrible, but I will definitely reach around this for the greens I love and then it will just be taking up space.
Thanks for the adventure, ”Youngest”!
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Couldn’t be any worse than my Junkyard Tea Jar :)
Gmathis: I am guessing that is bits of leftover tea that didn’t have enough for a mug all mixed together?
Heh, my first Wuyi rock oolong was dumpstered. It led to a long and still ongoing affair with rock oolong. Way to be a resourceful one, “Youngest” and you adventurous, ashmanra :)
Derk: they have made some impressive furniture and houseware finds. I told her they should get lots of pieces and store them and sell them cheaply when students move in again in the fall! Cheap, good furniture for the newcomers, small income for the oldtimers!
I never stayed in the dorms at university. It wasn’t until the end of my senior year driving through that part of campus did I see all the dumpsters overflowing with everything. I thought about the same thing, storing all the worthy finds and staging a beginning-of-the-school-year thrift shop on campus. “Youngest”: go forth and make that money!
Yeah, it’s nice to see dumped things that are actually good and saved!
I hate the idea that food or something goes bad one day after best before date! It won’t, but they have to throw that away. I always check those “almost best before” aisles and I found wonderful stuff there.
And as I remember from Finland, there was a shop which belonged to charity and you can bring there anything and they sell it for cheap to everyone; no batter if student, someone in need or normal people. And there were wonderful things too (though I won’t enjoy the books in Finnish) :)
Treasures can be found just by the persons perspective. I always look around too..
Anybody can go buy something new. It takes someone with gumption and creativity to search out and repurpose! Ashmanra, yes—the Junkyard Tea Jar is the little bits and nubbins of unflavored black that I used to make iced tea when it’s just too doggone hot to care about anything except that it’s cold. It’s sort of like the Everlasting Gobstopper of Leaf; flavor profile changes daily.
Derk: she is off campus but most of the apartments are rented by students. They have some really good furniture and even a foosball table now!
Gmathis: that’s sounds like a great use of bits of tea to me!
Martin: Ask my family – I frequently tell them “if I fall ill or die, throw out the…(whatever expired or aged food I just ate).” Ha ha! They did rescue some naan bread as well!
Enjoy your dumpster tea! I’ve sometimes been tempted to put tea I don’t particularly like in the garbage, but worry no one will pick it up. Perhaps I should list it on Steepster so that avid tea drinkers can get the benefit of my four-year-old Darjeeling and six-year-old Yunnan green tea!
Couldn’t be any worse than my Junkyard Tea Jar :)
Gmathis: I am guessing that is bits of leftover tea that didn’t have enough for a mug all mixed together?
Heh, my first Wuyi rock oolong was dumpstered. It led to a long and still ongoing affair with rock oolong. Way to be a resourceful one, “Youngest” and you adventurous, ashmanra :)
Derk: they have made some impressive furniture and houseware finds. I told her they should get lots of pieces and store them and sell them cheaply when students move in again in the fall! Cheap, good furniture for the newcomers, small income for the oldtimers!
I never stayed in the dorms at university. It wasn’t until the end of my senior year driving through that part of campus did I see all the dumpsters overflowing with everything. I thought about the same thing, storing all the worthy finds and staging a beginning-of-the-school-year thrift shop on campus. “Youngest”: go forth and make that money!
Yeah, it’s nice to see dumped things that are actually good and saved!
I hate the idea that food or something goes bad one day after best before date! It won’t, but they have to throw that away. I always check those “almost best before” aisles and I found wonderful stuff there.
And as I remember from Finland, there was a shop which belonged to charity and you can bring there anything and they sell it for cheap to everyone; no batter if student, someone in need or normal people. And there were wonderful things too (though I won’t enjoy the books in Finnish) :)
Treasures can be found just by the persons perspective. I always look around too..
Anybody can go buy something new. It takes someone with gumption and creativity to search out and repurpose! Ashmanra, yes—the Junkyard Tea Jar is the little bits and nubbins of unflavored black that I used to make iced tea when it’s just too doggone hot to care about anything except that it’s cold. It’s sort of like the Everlasting Gobstopper of Leaf; flavor profile changes daily.
Derk: she is off campus but most of the apartments are rented by students. They have some really good furniture and even a foosball table now!
Gmathis: that’s sounds like a great use of bits of tea to me!
Martin: Ask my family – I frequently tell them “if I fall ill or die, throw out the…(whatever expired or aged food I just ate).” Ha ha! They did rescue some naan bread as well!
Enjoy your dumpster tea! I’ve sometimes been tempted to put tea I don’t particularly like in the garbage, but worry no one will pick it up. Perhaps I should list it on Steepster so that avid tea drinkers can get the benefit of my four-year-old Darjeeling and six-year-old Yunnan green tea!