The Swamp

As briefly discussed in the drinking thread, tea is awesome. I've only been getting into it in the last few years so my enjoyment is still in its infancy. I like a simple English Breakfast in the morning and then like to drink some of my wife's fruity stuff in the evening. Anybody have any recommendations for tea worth trying? Favorites?

I'm a Darjeeling/Earl Grey man myself.

Drink it with a touch of honey or agave nectar.

Love the agave.

To reiterate what I posted in the Booze thread . . .

Loose teas foremost. There is no comparing real loose tea with tea trapped in bleached gauze bags. Bagged tea also is typically far inferior quality-wise.

So. My favorite loose teas are Darjeelings.

Blends in order of strength, Scottish, Irish and English breakfast teas. Ceylon is nice. So are most Asian green teas (Gunpowder is a favorite of mine). Also Lapsang Souchong. Herbals? Chamomile (if it is a fresh loose variety) is nice at night. Yujacha is an orange tea from Korea (that comes in a gel) is also nice at night. Should be available at your local grocer, as well.

Brooke Bond Taj Mahal is tremendous loose tea from India and is likely available at any local East-Indian grocery store. Heck, even Superstore carries it here.

My mom loves tea.


As for me, since I became a regular coffee drinker about seven years ago (thanks, kids!), I find that tea bothers my stomach sometimes, especially if I drink it on an empty stomach. Though that may be a result of my insisting on drinking it with milk/cream after having mass quantities of it prepared in that manner forced on me by my wife's relatives and a Bed and Breakfast proprietor when we visited Ireland.

There was an amazing tea store in Boston 12 years ago (I forget the name) but I think they went out of business. They were opening a couple stores in NYC at one point. They sold at least 50 varieties of loose teas in cute apartment style mailboxes. The selection was incredible. I forget some of my favorites, but Earl Grey, Darjeelings, and Irish Breakfast were standards. There was a crazy Chinese green tea I liked with dragon in the name. The tea came in "heads" that went in the bottom on the cup without a tea ball, and they would unfurl in hot water. You would remove the unfurled tea from the cup before drinking. Gunpowder is another good one. This store I can't remember had a great booklet explaining all of the varieties, pictures of the hills they farmed it from, descriptions of the areas it came from... It really made it a whole experience sampling something new when you got to learn that much about the product.

I've never tried loose tea before, but I will check around and see if I can find a shop. Is there a special setup for brewing it loose vs prebagged?

timgod99X wrote:I've never tried loose tea before, but I will check around and see if I can find a shop. Is there a special setup for brewing it loose vs prebagged?

I just use a metal tea ball

iced, no sugar, lemon wedge.

testy boxcar wrote:iced, no sugar, lemon wedge.

This. I'll request a lime wedge if I want to mix things up.

I drink tea when I try to cut back on my coffee drinking, so when I drink tea I'm pissed that it's not coffee. Just can't get into it.

I love me some tea. Not as much as coffee, mind you, but I do enjoy a hot cuppa now and then. While I only like milk or half & half in my coffee, I love my tea light and sweet. I like plain ole' Lipton, which is basically the same as English Breakfast tea, iirc.

Test Ride the Sybian wrote:I just use a metal tea ball

I don't even do that. Always felt that the water doesn't filter through the tea enough. I just put loose tea in a Bodum carafe. And, once steeped, I pour it into a cup through a small tea strainer.

Or, if by chance you have an actual Chinese/Korean/Japanese tea pot, you don't even need the strainer. I do that periodically as well but the Bodum + strainer is just so much easier to clean.

ZTest wrote:I love me some tea. Not as much as coffee, mind you, but I do enjoy a hot cuppa now and then. While I only like milk or half & half in my coffee, I love my tea light and sweet. I like plain ole' Lipton, which is basically the same as English Breakfast tea, iirc.

I believe Lipton (and Red Rose, King Cole, etc) are all just straight "orange pekoe" black tea. If you're buying loose, the "breakfast teas" are all blends. Scottish is usually black tea + Ceylon, English is usually black tea + Kenyan, Irish is usually black tea + Assam. That's a standard, not an all-inclusive rule, mind you. You sometimes find a hint of bergamot (the same flavor dominant in Earl Grey) in an English breakfast tea.

brown betty traditional style 6 cup pot; gold brewing basket; teavana brand golden monkey black tea ($10/oz). ready for the day.

here's how i roll:

++

Finally, a thread in the Swamp that my wife would absolutely dominate.

Steve of phpBB wrote:Finally, a thread in the Swamp that my wife would absolutely dominate.

Step aside, squirt. I'm here to talk tea with these maggots. Which one of you microphallus bitches wants to be the first into the dungeon of darjeeling?

I brew my loose leaf in my french press. Allows my leaves to unfurl to their tasty glory and I get a standard pot plus of delicious tea +.

Mrs. Steve Phpbb wrote:

Steve of phpBB wrote:Finally, a thread in the Swamp that my wife would absolutely dominate.

Step aside, squirt. I'm here to talk tea with these maggots. Which one of you microphallus bitches wants to be the first into the dungeon of darjeeling?

Heh.

Mrs. Steve Phpbb wrote:

Steve of phpBB wrote:Finally, a thread in the Swamp that my wife would absolutely dominate.

Step aside, squirt. I'm here to talk tea with these maggots. Which one of you microphallus bitches wants to be the first into the dungeon of darjeeling?

This was one of the funniest things I've read in awhile. Well done.

Zlax46 wrote:

Mrs. Steve Phpbb wrote:

Steve of phpBB wrote:Finally, a thread in the Swamp that my wife would absolutely dominate.

Step aside, squirt. I'm here to talk tea with these maggots. Which one of you microphallus bitches wants to be the first into the dungeon of darjeeling?

This was one of the funniest things I've read in awhile. Well done.

And tucked away in the tea thread that I gave up for dead (to me) last week. Damn.

You never know when the tea thread will spiral completely out of control.

I drink this by the half-gallon ($0.96/gal).

no lemon, no sugar, no milk

I like Earl Grey with a bit of honey. I like sleepytime for evenings.

AB_skin_test wrote:I like Earl Grey with a bit of honey. I like sleepytime for evenings.

Just wait until Steve's wife hears about this bullshit.

So, I found a tea store at the local mall (A Teavana) and took a ride over during my lunch and picked up a couple ounces of English Breakfast to start out. Some of the stuff they had was ridiculously expensive ($20 for two ounces), so I stuck with the simple breakfast tea for $3.80/two ounces. Also got a cup of something called "Strawberry Rose Champagne" instead of my daily afternoon Starbucks fix.

They had a lot of nice smelling teas, but the employees never really gave you much time to just look. Most of the teas were behind the counter, so you couldn't just check them out on your own. Is that normal?

Anyway, going to brew up a pot tonight when I get home.

timgod99X wrote:They had a lot of nice smelling teas, but the employees never really gave you much time to just look. Most of the teas were behind the counter, so you couldn't just check them out on your own. Is that normal?

Not really "normal", as it were. If you can find an independent store, not a chain, you'll be better off. For example, the store I frequent has all of the square tea cans on shelves behind the counter. But they also have a table not far from that with small little "sample" tins so you can examine and sniff the various teas. Also, whoever is working there should be big on educating the customers. That's how tea-buyers become return customers. Even if it is odd knowledge that sounds really cool, it works. "This comes from suchandsuch area of India, is a first-flush, and is a traditional black tea with a hint of oak". That sort of thing. At first, it may not mean anything to the customer beyond "that sounds cool" but at least you've learned a bit about what you are buying. And if you do so long enough, all of that seemingly esoteric knowledge will start to form a bigger picture.

Scottie wrote: all of that seemingly esoteric knowledge will start to form a bigger picture.

And that's when the elitism really starts to set in.

ZTest wrote:And that's when the elitism really starts to set in.

Or at least obscurity. If, say, you find yourself frequenting Buddhist temples . . .