Tea

[sr71blackbird]

I just got back into Tea.
I used to be big into the bagged teas, and then I went back to coffee.
I was in the mall a week ago and saw this store called Teavana and tried a cup of tea and man, it was so god!
I went back tonight and bought a pound of tea and I already have a tea ball type of screen devise.
I figure the tea will last me quite some time.
But I was wondering something:
Does tea come out really good is you use a French Press? I was thinking it might, and figured I'd ask here before I go out and buy one.

Also, what kind of tea do you like? I am a fan of Earl Grey, and Teavana has this mix called Earl Grey Creme thats awesome and smooth.

http://www.teavana.com/images/catalog/268-191/50404.jpg

[BronxJohnny]

I myself am a Raspberry Lemon tea kinda fella , though i've heard there is Blueberry and watermelon tea's i'd like a taste of that sounds pretty cool.:smoke:

[Thebazile78]

I love Celestial Seasonings herbal teas.

My favorite black tea is Earl Grey. (And I started drinking it because I am a Star Trek: The Next Generation nerd.)

I have tried lots of other black teas, but the bagged stuff usually tastes nasty to me. Loose tea is totally the way to go.

So is using a kettle and teapot. You need to have enough room for the leaves to expand and develop their flavor before the rest of the pot goes bitter. (Unless, of course, you like bitter tea. Whatever; it takes all kinds to make a world.)

[Hottub]

I'm all about the Mate. I've got a bunch of bombillas.

http://www.yerbamotion.com/images/mate-gourd.jpg

[HBox]

http://www.orbitcast.com/archives/andrew-dice-clay.jpg

I got a tea bag for you RIGHT HERE!

OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

[topless_mike]

im into the black earl grey tea, and the mmmmmmmmmmmmmm
celestial seasonings sleepy time tea
yummmmmm

[Mullenax]

I have a suspicion it's yuppie stuff, but when I worked at a bakery we sold Tazo brand. Whatever is in Tazo "Passion" it's delightful (and bright purple), but when I get my druthers I go for Indian or Chai spice flavorings. <p>
I went to an organic food place the other day and they had "Mexican Sweet Chili" flavored tea- tried it?? I don't have the imagination...
<p><img src="http://feteafete.com/blog/herbal-remedies-usa_1966_63758005.jpg">

[Thebazile78]

I have a suspicion it's yuppie stuff, but when I worked at a bakery we sold Tazo brand. Whatever is in Tazo "Passion" it's delightful (and bright purple), but when I get my druthers I go for Indian or Chai spice flavorings. <p>
I went to an organic food place the other day and they had "Mexican Sweet Chili" flavored tea- tried it?? I don't have the imagination...
<p><img src="http://feteafete.com/blog/herbal-remedies-usa_1966_63758005.jpg">

I associate Tazo tea with Starbucks. "Passion" has hibiscus, citrus and mango notes in it (see website www.tazo.com)

It's pretty good; their green tea isn't as disgusting as most brands' greens out there, which is very good for a bagged tea.

I am partial to whatever tea they serve in Seattle's Best stands in Borders bookstores. I've yet to try a bad one!

I love the way real Chai tea smells (cardamom, cinnamon, clove . . . yum!) but haven't tried making it for real yet. I heard the trick is to toast the spices just a smidge before adding the milk and teabags so you enhance the flavors . . . and if you want it to be "authentic" you should make it very sweet. (I don't know about that; I don't like things that are very very very sweet.)

[EffMeBoobs]

Right now I'm big into Twinning Green Tea because of it's antioxidants and the metabolism booster.

[IamPixie]

queers

[TeeBone]

I just got back into Tea.
I used to be big into the bagged teas,

5 seconds until the obvious 'Tea-bag' joke...
4...
3...
2...
1

Vietnamese Green Tea is a good choice. If you are ever in Philly, there is a section of town near Chinatown that has great Vietnamese places to get some.

[Midkiff]

jasmine green tea is heaven

[flipper21]

I gave up coffee almost 2 years ago and made the switch to green tea. My daily cup is genmaicha: green tea blended with roasted brown rice. It has a nice, toasty flavor. My other fav is made by Good Earth. It's their green tea blend that has lemongrass in it. You can usually find it in most grocery stores. I get the genmaicha in bulk from an Asian market near me, but Eden makes it (in bag form) that you can find at Whole Foods and health food stores.

[FUNKMAN]

tazo zen and any herbal... lipton orange pekoe is fine too 1 splendor, sometimes honey / milk or cream

[hunnerbun]

MmmmMmm loose tea is the bomb.
I too drink the Twinings. I like their Earl Grey, Green and the English Breakfast. I don't use a ball I just put it loose into the bottom of the tea pot and then place a strainer over my cup to pour thru. A little honey and some milk and yummmm.
I drink coffee every day but tea for me is more a comfort drink. When I am feeling sick or for breakfast with toast.

[PapaBear]

Green tea, Earl Grey, or Lapsang souchong. Honey. No sugar.

[mikeyboy]

In the afternoon, when I needed a quick pick me up at work, I used to drink Earl Gray tea mixed with raspberry seltzer water. It's actually much better than you would think it would be, but it gave off a slight aroma reminiscent of furniture polish.

[sr71blackbird]

I ordered this last night.. It is like $19

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This is it too, but this video is loud, so watch your volume..

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[Gvac]

Although I'm mainly a coffee drinker, I do like a cup of herbal tea at night. My usual is Celestial Seasonings Mandarin Orange Spice.

[flipper21]

I ordered this last night.. It is like $19



I have a similar brewer for my tea. I think it makes the best cup of tea. Never a stray tea leave getting by like a French press has a tendency to do. You're going to love it.

[MM2]

queers

:lol:

[Chigworthy]

If any of you do-nothing, east coast homebodies ever get off your strangely-accented lazy asses, and you're in Boulder, CO, the Celestial Seasonings Factory puts on a pretty cool tour. The place is spotless, and as you can imagine, smells like heaven (actually, every 10 meters smells like a different-flavored heaven).

The "showstopper" of the tour is when they show you the peppermint room. It is a hermetically sealed room where all of the peppermint is handled. In the quantities that they have there, the peppermint is so volatile that it can travel through the air and ruin other teas. So they open the door to this room, and a palpable mint blast hits you in the eyes, sinuses, and tongue. It's kind of like getting a refreshing blast of mild pepper spray.

Also, while CS makes great, healthy herbal teas, they do put out some great real teas, mates, and one of my favorites, the tea and mate blend:
http://celestialseasonings.elsstore.com/app/images/product/large/07073407015l.jpg
(It's not a laxative.)

One thing I like about the CS teas, although they aren't the only ones I drink, is the fact that they don't have that strange tampon string on the teabags. What, are we limeys? Who needs to remove their teabag from the cup before you drink it other than some mushy-pea eating oddball.

I use CS green tea bags to make a healthy, very refreshing beverage for lunch. In the morning, I put 2 bags of which ever green tea into a bottle of water, (now I use a stainless one as I'm sure every one here knows) and put it into my lunchbox cooler. By lunch time, you have a sugar-free, mildly-envigorating, and very refreshing bottle of tea.

I've made this for many years, sometimes with stringed teabags. I've been lazy and just yanked the paper "kites" of the end of the string and let the string brew in the bottle with the tea. It's kind of scary when you're drinking it later and you lower the bottle from your lips and see this white string connected to your lips like some sort of teaborne snot attack.

sr71-I've used our french press for tea, and as far as I can tell, it works just fine in theory. A french press used for coffee even once will impart some of that rancid coffee meaness onto the sensitive, introspective tea. So, if your making good loose tea with it, you may want a tea-only apparatus.

[Death Metal Moe]

I usually drink tea when I'm sick. I reach for some sort of Green Tea. Got this fucking awesome honey from Syria that I add to it.

Helps the throat.

[Furtherman]

Although I'm mainly a coffee drinker, I do like a cup of herbal tea at night. My usual is Celestial Seasonings Mandarin Orange Spice.

Had that this morning. Good stuff!

[sr71blackbird]

I got my diffuser today, works awesome!

I am intrigued by the Mate, what's it taste like? Does it..uh, make you make poopies?

I also bought some Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pearl tea today. I tried it in the store and it is so awesome!

http://www.whitetigertea.com/images/Jasmine-Pearl-Tea.jpg

[Chigworthy]

Maté is fantastic. It's pretty high in caffeine, and has a very likeable, unique, and subtle "green" flavor. There's lots of blended and flavored ones, but try just straight maté. And you don't need an ornate tombombadillo thing to drink it out of like rich boy Mr. Tub.

[sr71blackbird]

I have a sensitive stomach. Does it upset your stomach? From the videos I see, you such it through a strainer straw, do you end up drinking leaf particles? Just curious, it looks really cool on youtube!

[Chigworthy]

I just make it like reglar old tea, but there is a high degree of particles at the bottom of a cup. But it doesn't bother me because I'm extremely easy going and don't feel entitled to particle-free infusions.

[LordJezo]

If you are serious about tea then you need to add yourself to the free catalog mailing list from Upton Tea:

http://uptontea.com/shopcart/catalogRequest.asp

The selection that they give you is mind blowing, you will never be able to try it all. The catalog comes quarterly. Their customer services is top notch and their pricing is great. It's pretty much he only place I order my tea. What they also do is offer $1 sampler packets of every one of their teas, so when you order you can try out 10 different things and not have to worry about being stuck with a product you dont like. With their massive selection you'll want to explore what every country has to offer.

I recently (in the past month) order two different Maté teas from Upton, they have a straight one and a roasted one. It's definitely an acquired taste, I dont think I will be able to get in to it. It has a very liquor type flavor, not something I am too keen on.

I am not a Teavana person, they focus too much on trendy mixed and blended teas and are pretty highly priced. I like more of the more location specific stuff. In my last Upton order I picked up some Singapore Java Green Tea, which is amazing and I will be ordering more of, the two Maté versions, a Kenyan co-op whole leaf green tea, which tastes more like a Japanese sencha than the Chinese green I am used to, some decaf Earl Grey, and a "Treasure of Heaven" China White. White tea is a nice light alternative every once in a while, but I don't go there too often, its too light for my liking.

I also picked up some African Roobios red tea from a tea shop in NYC that I frequent. Its a caffeine free tea that has a unique sharp flavor. It was okay, I am going to check out the Upton flavored versions to see if it's worth getting into.

I also explored single estate Indian Darjeeling, I had never had it before so I ordered about 8 different samples 6 months ago, it was a nice alternative to straight black but not really something I want to peruse. I also tried out Chinese Pu-Erh, I couldn't finish the cup, it tasted like old leather.

[Freakshow]

Anything by Twinings is going to be real good. I like the Orange Pekoe, and have a box of their Darjeeling at my house.

I still like good ol' Lipton, but that's just me.

[Chigworthy]

I'll drink Lipton in a pinch, but it is really just floor sweepings.

[Freakshow]

I understand that Lipton is the Spam of the tea world, but it's like a comfort food for me or something.

[sailor]

love tea. irish breakfast, english breakfast, earl grey, darjeeling (in that order)

[sr71blackbird]

If you are serious about tea then you need to add yourself to the free catalog mailing list from Upton Tea:

http://uptontea.com/shopcart/catalogRequest.asp

The selection that they give you is mind blowing, you will never be able to try it all. The catalog comes quarterly. Their customer services is top notch and their pricing is great. It's pretty much he only place I order my tea. What they also do is offer $1 sampler packets of every one of their teas, so when you order you can try out 10 different things and not have to worry about being stuck with a product you dont like. With their massive selection you'll want to explore what every country has to offer.

I recently (in the past month) order two different Maté teas from Upton, they have a straight one and a roasted one. It's definitely an acquired taste, I dont think I will be able to get in to it. It has a very liquor type flavor, not something I am too keen on.

I am not a Teavana person, they focus too much on trendy mixed and blended teas and are pretty highly priced. I like more of the more location specific stuff. In my last Upton order I picked up some Singapore Java Green Tea, which is amazing and I will be ordering more of, the two Maté versions, a Kenyan co-op whole leaf green tea, which tastes more like a Japanese sencha than the Chinese green I am used to, some decaf Earl Grey, and a "Treasure of Heaven" China White. White tea is a nice light alternative every once in a while, but I don't go there too often, its too light for my liking.

I also picked up some African Roobios red tea from a tea shop in NYC that I frequent. Its a caffeine free tea that has a unique sharp flavor. It was okay, I am going to check out the Upton flavored versions to see if it's worth getting into.

I also explored single estate Indian Darjeeling, I had never had it before so I ordered about 8 different samples 6 months ago, it was a nice alternative to straight black but not really something I want to peruse. I also tried out Chinese Pu-Erh, I couldn't finish the cup, it tasted like old leather.


Wow, thats a pretty cool site, I just bought some stuff from them, thanks for the suggestion!

I never had Assam tea, what is it like? I ordered a small sample from there.

[Contra]

I've actually been looking to start drinking tea instead of soda or coffee. This thread helped a lot, everything looks good

[aarathi]

I also like tea very much. Tea stimulates us carry on our day to day activity with great vigor. We start our mornings with tea.... have a tea break in mid morning... have another tea break in the mid afternoon.. and relax with the family in the evening with tea... in extreme winter conditions. My favorite tea is Brooke Bond Red Label Tea.

[jauble]

I'm all about the Mate. I've got a bunch of bombillas.

http://www.yerbamotion.com/images/mate-gourd.jpg

hell yeah my housemate brought a shit ton of that back from Chile quite strong but does the job

[LordJezo]

Wow, thats a pretty cool site, I just bought some stuff from them, thanks for the suggestion!

I never had Assam tea, what is it like? I ordered a small sample from there.

It's a black style tea, good for mornings and with your breakfast. Its not a light tea.

With Upton I would suggest emailing them with any questions that you have, I have done that many times and their support is amazing. I get the catalog and I always look through it but the selection is just too much to handle, but it's still fascinating to see how much they offer and to read through the thing. It makes awesome bathroom reading material, but I might just be a bit obsessed with tea.

Email them something like "I want to try some Darjeeling tea but I have never had any, what would you suggest?"

They will gladly help you, when I wrote that email they wrote me back with a questionnaire asking me to pick from a bunch of different categories, what I liked in tea from a selection of tastes, and things like price range, what I put in it, and such. Then they wrote me back with a selection of 8 different ones that fit my criteria. It's the customer service of that level that keeps me coming back and makes me talk about them like I am here.

[Thebazile78]

Green tea, Earl Grey, or Lapsang souchong. Honey. No sugar.

How did you get into Lapsang Souchong?

I find it to be too "perfumey" for my taste.

(Also, I think it smells like a head shop.)

[sr71blackbird]

It's a black style tea, good for mornings and with your breakfast. Its not a light tea.

With Upton I would suggest emailing them with any questions that you have, I have done that many times and their support is amazing. I get the catalog and I always look through it but the selection is just too much to handle, but it's still fascinating to see how much they offer and to read through the thing. It makes awesome bathroom reading material, but I might just be a bit obsessed with tea.

Email them something like "I want to try some Darjeeling tea but I have never had any, what would you suggest?"

They will gladly help you, when I wrote that email they wrote me back with a questionnaire asking me to pick from a bunch of different categories, what I liked in tea from a selection of tastes, and things like price range, what I put in it, and such. Then they wrote me back with a selection of 8 different ones that fit my criteria. It's the customer service of that level that keeps me coming back and makes me talk about them like I am here.


Great tip! What kind of diffuser do you use?

[LordJezo]

Great tip! What kind of diffuser do you use?

Finum, very good quality, made in Germany. I bought the green one sold by Upton, also got a tea thermometer, which is a little extreme even for me but I wanted to test the water temp at work to see if I needed to heat it up before I made my daily cup.

http://uptontea.com/shopcart/item.asp?itemID=AS62&from=searchResults.asp&searchString=finum&searchOptionMatchAll=1&searchOptionCategory=1&searchOptionItemName=1&searchOptionItemDescription=1&searchOptionDocuments=1&searchOptionLimitCategory=&searchOptionPriceRange=0&sType=item&begin=0

Give this page a read:

http://www.sygyzy.com/2007/04/13/the-perfect-cup-of-tea

He goes over a lot of the basics of tea making and has it all on one easy to read page complete with pictures.

[sr71blackbird]

I am finding that I am really enjoying this new tea ritual. It is very relaxing and good for you too. Thanks Lord Jezo, for your insight!

[ahhdurr]

If you are serious about tea then you need to add yourself to the free catalog mailing list from Upton Tea:

http://uptontea.com/shopcart/catalogRequest.asp

The selection that they give you is mind blowing, you will never be able to try it all. The catalog comes quarterly. Their customer services is top notch and their pricing is great. It's pretty much he only place I order my tea. What they also do is offer $1 sampler packets of every one of their teas, so when you order you can try out 10 different things and not have to worry about being stuck with a product you dont like. With their massive selection you'll want to explore what every country has to offer.

I recently (in the past month) order two different Maté teas from Upton, they have a straight one and a roasted one. It's definitely an acquired taste, I dont think I will be able to get in to it. It has a very liquor type flavor, not something I am too keen on.

I am not a Teavana person, they focus too much on trendy mixed and blended teas and are pretty highly priced. I like more of the more location specific stuff. In my last Upton order I picked up some Singapore Java Green Tea, which is amazing and I will be ordering more of, the two Maté versions, a Kenyan co-op whole leaf green tea, which tastes more like a Japanese sencha than the Chinese green I am used to, some decaf Earl Grey, and a "Treasure of Heaven" China White. White tea is a nice light alternative every once in a while, but I don't go there too often, its too light for my liking.

I also picked up some African Roobios red tea from a tea shop in NYC that I frequent. Its a caffeine free tea that has a unique sharp flavor. It was okay, I am going to check out the Upton flavored versions to see if it's worth getting into.

I also explored single estate Indian Darjeeling, I had never had it before so I ordered about 8 different samples 6 months ago, it was a nice alternative to straight black but not really something I want to peruse. I also tried out Chinese Pu-Erh, I couldn't finish the cup, it tasted like old leather.

Upton tea is the best tea site ever. Try using an old Japanese style "Tetsubin" for brewing - it's convenient. Golden Assam is a great tea - love it.

[Contra]

Since replying earlier in this thread I've gotten into tea drinking. Nothing too fancy, just started out with CS, and then I found this place nearby that sells about 20 kinds fresh. I've just been boiling water and using tea bags for a cup at a time.