Tea drinkers unite

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Recently I have been gung ho about drinking more tea. I have been sticking to bagged teas, but try to stay away from the bottom of the barrel ones as they are pretty terrible. I am however at a point where I seem to either be lacking the knack for making the tea itself (steeping to long or too short is what I think) or just the general quality of my tea is not up to my standards. I seam to end up with a more watery tea, but when I try to steep the bags longer I just end up with a much more bitter flavor.

I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on bagged tea to try (for when i'm at work) or loose leaf tea to get for home. I enjoy teas of all kinds from a strong black to a light refreshing white. Also, if anyone has a great chai recipie without starting from scratch that would be great. I can never seem to get mine quite right with milk and it tastes good, but is never the consistency that I like from a professional coffee shop.

Odd, I read that as "Tea drinkers die". Funny! In some fashion. A bit.

This thread is just begging for some teabagging jokes. But I'm going to be good. This time.

I used to drink tea when I worked with a number of Indian developers and they had their daily 3 o'clock tea time. Their brand of choice was Taj Mahal. We also did two bags per cup, so maybe that's what you should try to avoid watery tea?

I also drink a lot of tea, like 10 cups a day. What I have is a Zojirushi hot water pot. It's something I've seen in every asian household I've been in. It is a great thing for tea drinkers! It boils the water, filters it, and keeps it warm. It is able to pour perfectly into a coffee cup. When it comes to tea, mostly I drink just a tea bag for simplicity. If I'm doing something with a meal, I'll use loose leaf tea and a tea pot.

When it comes to putting things in the tea, I'm a purist. Just the leaves and the water. No need for milk scuffing it up.

Not sure what to recommend to you, but I live with an English woman (read: tea addict) so I understand where you're coming from.

For bagged teas, Twinings English Breakfast should best the best bog-standard that's available in the States. Its all in the steeping time. As I'm adding milk to hers, I steep until I can't see the teabag in the mug. Then remove it and use that bag to pour my (black) mug. That means it doesn't get too strong.

Green & loose teas are a whole different story.

I'm hooked on Genmaicha green tea, so delicious.

I'm not a tea drinker (go coffee!) but my wife is huge into it. I'll try something she makes every once in a while, and by far the best I've had is what she gets for loose leaf tea from the local herbal / new age dealer. There's a dude who runs an herbal shop right down the street from where I live who has just tons of herbal remedies, oils, etc... which I don't believe work at all for healing whatever ails you. However, among all these dried roots, plants, and leaves are some of the best teas that you can get around here.

If you have a store like this near you (sometimes it's called an apothecary or something like that) they will probably have some incredible tea. You could probably tell them what types of teas you like and I'll bet they will have a bunch of great suggestions.

I used to drink loose tea daily and was pretty hardcore at point. I researched different times, bought all sorts of pots, strainers, sugar cubes, etc. Most of what I bought back then was from Mark T. Wendell Tea Company and I highly recommend them. Great deals, great service, and rare blends!

I get most of my tea from Adagio. Their personal tea steeper filters are awesome. They also have a lot of variety packs so you can sample lots of teas without committing to a bunch.

Some of my favorite teas are hojicha, chai, jasmine, irish breakfast, and lapsang souchong.

I love tea.

I just don't love the caffeine.

I enjoy some Tea.

Cold, or hot.

I've invested in some decent pots and a good electric kettle. I will say that my favorites are black teas. I tried some stuff that was pricey, but I found that some of the best is from World Market. It's pretty cheap and tastes great. I recommend trying many, making sure you brew them right, and go at it.

I love tea, I just avoid the non-caffeinated ones.. I can't handle the caffeine in coffee, though.

I'd say that really, just go with what you like, go to an asian market or a tea shop and ask for recommendations (the tea shops will have samples or sample kits, which are great,) and try it, just be careful not to steep tea too long.. It gets bitter if it's steeped too long or too hot.

Also, teabags have enough tea in them to make a couple POTS of tea, so don't worry about reusing teabags, especially if you don't want the caffeine.. It's quite easy to steep tea for 30 seconds, toss out the water,a nd resteep the bag properly, and this will get rid of the vast majority of the caffeine in the tea.

Don't leave teabags sitting out for long unless they can dry rapidly, tea likes to mold.

I drink a ton of fresh brewed Lipton ice tea with just a hint of honey. I love it. I is my cold drink of choice.

We got the fancy teas here at work and it is good, but I prefer coffee as a hot beverage. It is, was, and will always be strong dark roast coffee for me over tea. I am the lone coffee drinker in my office. Tea drinking has become some sort of software industry standard or something.

Thin_J wrote:

I love tea.

I just don't love the caffeine.

If you buy the better loose teas you can easily make decaf tea. Buy a french press and put the tea in the bottom. Then pour the hot water over it and steep for 30 seconds to a minute. Then pour the water off. All the caffeine goes with it.

You can then re-steep the tea for your real drink.

I like to get the Chinese green teas here http://www.imperialtea.com/ because Chinese green tea is the only proper tea. Also, milk in tea is just wrong. Don't do it. (OK, I'm being a bit extreme here... but really don't do it).

I pretty much exclusively drink tea though i'm not fond of overly strong types like the aforementioned Twinings English Breakfast or Yorkshire teas. However, my tea and coffee making skills are well-reknowned amongst my friends and former colleagues (an unrelated point).

There are a few methods to making good tea and whichever is best for you depends on how you like your tea. First off getting a good brand is tantamount to achieving the perfect (for you) cuppa. Personally, i like PG, Tetley and Twinings Earl Grey (no other Earl Grey comes close IMO).
Method 1: Place teabag in cup (optional rinsing the cup with a little boiled water to help maintain temperature) and then fill with hot water. Traditionally you're supposed to leave the tea bag to stew with minimal stirring or squashing as this releases tannins and other such things into the water which will give a more bitter taste. However, for most people (including myself), it takes too long and is better suited for use with a teapot.
If you like you tea very strong then squash the tea bag against the side of the cup (a lot).... personally i like a small teaspoon for this and i tend to stir first and then gently squash a couple of times (for medium strength tea). My friend likes his tea extremely strong and swears that using a fork for the squashing procedure greatly increases the forced diffusion of the flavours.... and it does.

Method 2: for less strong teas stir once the water is placed in the cup, then leave for 30 secs to a minute then push the bag up and down, gently squashing it against the side of the cup every cycle to aerate the bag and diffuse the taste. This will provide a low/medium strength tea that isn't very bitter.

Oh and then there's the milk fiasco. If you take milk with your tea, technically you're supposed to make the tea and then mix it into the milk (as you would do with a teapot) because it forms an (and i can never remember which way around it is) emulsion this way, whereas if you add the milk into the mixed tea apparently you get a mixture or something along those lines. I can't really tell the difference between the two and can't see why it would make a difference but apparently it does - maybe it's an urban legend?

Oh and finally, if you want a nice cultured cup of tea then don't be afraid to mix and match. My favourite relaxing tea is 1 bag of Earl Grey mixed with two Tetleys (in a tea pot of course).

psu_13 wrote:

because Chinese green tea is the only proper tea.

What?! Tea just means an infusion. Any infused flavour in water is technically a tea.... none are more or less proper than any other

Quintin_Stone wrote:

This thread is just begging for some teabagging jokes.

My first thought as well.

And I'm not a huge tea drinker but I'll have some every once in a while.
Only cold though. I rather dislike hot tea.
I'm more of a juice kinda gal.

Harney and Sons makes excellent teas. You can find them in tea shops and gourmet boutiques sometimes or you can order from them online. Their Genmaicha and Darjeeling are excellent.

Mighty Leaf is good brand for bagged tea and some supermarkets carry it.

Taylors of Harrogate teas are awesome. My faves are the Scottish Breakfast, and Assam. Available as both loose teas, and in boxes of 50 tea bags.

I found some in UK import shops, and in a few specialty stores, in Boston. Well worth the hunt. You can also get their teas directly, or through Amazon.

If you can't find Taylors, Fortnum and Mason, or Wittard are equally good, and might be easier to find.

Be careful though...once you start drinking this level of tea, Liptons will seem like...well Coors Light compared to a real beer.

[quote=Quintin_Stone]This thread is just begging for some teabagging jokes. But I'm going to be good. This time.[quote]

I can't resist posting this hilarious video from GamesRadar: Art of Teabagging (NSFW)

I'll second mighty leaf for bagged. Best bagged Green tea I've had so far.

I was just being snarky ... do not take me too seriously. Even though I'm right.

I used to be a big PG Tips or Tetley fan but recently my partner got me started on Yorkshire tea, which has quickly crept into my top tea spot. I've never dabbled in loose tea but after reading this thread i feel inspired, plus my new Whittards teapot derserves a bit of love.

Apparently, and I don't know how true this is, adding milk to tea diminishes its ability to help protect against heart disease. Personally, tea is probably the least of my health worries, so I shall continue to fill my milk jug daily.

i need a brew...

Mostly drink Twinings as it's easy enough to come by and is fairly decent. Mostly Earl Grey and Oolong.

I'll have to check around some of the places mentioned though, as I really do like some good green tea, genmaicha, or houjicha.

I'm a sucker for both quality tea and coffee, tea is becoming my beverage of choice in the colder months. Some of my friends own tea-rooms, so here comes the first advice:

Quality of water hugely affects the quality of tea. You basically need a filter to get rid of the minerals dissolved in water. The minerals affect both the color of the tea (significantly) and taste, as the minerals both add to the taste of the tea and prevent some of the tea's substances to dissolve in water properly. I use normal Brita filters, but I know about guys who even bought molecular nanofilters (the stuff that lets through only water molecules, nothing else). The more delicate tea you are making (Japanese greens such as genmaicha or Chinese whites or greens like Dragon Well), the more you benefit from high-quality water.

As to the flavor: experiment to see what you like. Try different amounts of teas steeping with different times and different water temperatures. Don't overcook greens, you can go down to as little as 60C (140F) with those delicate ones. With hot water they will be bitter and harsh. Unless you're in for the bitterness, then go to the extremes.

And my own recommendation: get a clear glass pot/cup. Watching the leaf tea unfurl and slowly steep, coloring the water, is one of the things I love about making tea.

I drink a lot during the day at work, and I have to drink tea. Drinking that much coffee has undesirable side effects.

I like strong tea. Yorkshire tea is my personal favourite. I want it to taste like tea rather that tea-coloured hot water. I use Duoae's squashing the bag against the side of the cup method. A bit of milk, and you're away. I also quite like black tea, which has a wonderful clean taste to it.

I'm afraid that all the tea I've ever had in America has been buttock-clenchingly piss poor. Almost as bad as the chocolate.

DudleySmith wrote:

I'm afraid that all the tea I've ever had in America has been buttock-clenchingly piss poor. Almost as bad as the chocolate.

My wife insists this is down to the quality of the water and the fact that most Americans don't use water that's just off the boil. They just heat the water with the teabag in it.

Don't know how true that is.

Haakon7 wrote:
DudleySmith wrote:

I'm afraid that all the tea I've ever had in America has been buttock-clenchingly piss poor. Almost as bad as the chocolate.

My wife insists this is down to the quality of the water and the fact that most Americans don't use water that's just off the boil. They just heat the water with the teabag in it.

Don't know how true that is.

In the US, you have two main problems with good tea. 1) Improper preperation. Not really boiling the water, or letting it cool too much before you add it (to black tea). 2) Bad water.

Cold tea suffers less from the problems if you drink it sweet, but many restaurants that serve cold tea don't clean their tea brewing containers well enough, or they just serve day old cold tea. It's pretty crappy. I relish finding a good restaurant that makes some good tea.

I use hot water and a teabag of whatever is lying around. No milk. I'd like to try fancier methods of preparation, but I have too short an attention span.

If you must go with bagged tea then my personal opinion is to go with Twinnings. Their Earl Grey is one of the best and seems to available everywhere.

At work, I keep a tea-ball and an air-tight jar of "Earl Grey Creme" loose leaf tea in my desk. I bought the tea in a vacuum packed bag from a local specialty tea shop. It is a rich Earl Grey with bits of citrus peel and Blue Cornflower petals in it.

It's very relaxing on stressful days and cold winter ones.
The drawback to it is that it leeches the potasium out of your system if drink large quantities of it. So eat a banana with it.

'Tea bag' count in thread = 4

BadMojo wrote:

It's pretty crappy. I relish finding a good restaurant that makes some good tea.

I've found I'm more likely to get good iced tea in the south of the US, though I have to order it unsweet. Southern sweet tea is pretty close to an uncarbonated tea-flavored soft drink. The worst hot tea I've had was in a restaurant (in the north) -- I wanted extra hot water, and they brought it in a coffee carafe that was insufficiently cleaned. Tea that tastes like old coffee grounds is pretty darn disgusting.

I'm not a tea connoisseur -- I'm pretty happy with tea made from supermarket tea bags and boiling water. What I don't like is herbal teas. When I want tea, I want actual tea.

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