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PHRAG

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Since I started school, my sleep cycle is all messed up. I swore off caffiene years ago, but now it is almost a necessity. I refuse to drink soda and coffee is too much for me to handle, so I have developed a bit of a tea habit. It started with plain old Lipton's and has progressed into some foo-foo flavored varieties. Right now I am alternating between berry/plum green tea and vanilla/almond black tea bags from Republic of Tea.

What are your favorite teas?
 
the history channel had a thing on the history of tea today. i personally like green tea, but i'm a coffee and espresso person all the way.
 
I love tea :)

I'm not big on flavored teas. I love Earl Grey, but that's the only flavored tea that I really like (and some similar citrus flavored teas, like Lady Grey or Ahmads's English Tea No.1, or Kusmi's Russian Evening). I don't like fruit 'tea' or herbal 'tea' with the exception of Evening in Missoula, which is nice. These should properly be called "teasane" rather than tea.

Williamson and Magor make a really interesting, different Earl Grey. The bergamot is a bit stronger and a bit more fruity than others that I've tried. Of course Jackson's of Piccadilly is good, with a good tea flavor underlying the bergamot, and Twinings is my daily standard, which seems to be impossible to make bitter. Also, Upton's Tea makes a good light-bergamot Earl Grey made with a high quality base tea, which is excellent.

My favorite teas are Tung Ting Oolongs, though. They are very lightly fermented, only a little darker than green tea, and end up with a natural sweetness that I love, and sometimes they produce a flavor and smell of lilacs. Just about any High Mountain Oolong is good :)

I like good darjeelings, too, and Keemun.

As Ever,
Matt Gore
 
Love a good darjeeling or a honeylike yunnan. Lately I've been starting my day with Drum Mountain White Cloud from Special Teas. I've also been very happy with the teas I've been getting from Teasource thanks to a tip from a certain Minnesota grower/vendor. :)
 
I'll have to check out teasource. I'm also a big fan of the slightly fermented whole leaf rolled oolongs and Earl Grey. (Haven't been able to find Jackson's of Picadilly's lately.....) I also like the Old Bush Shui Xian, and various other Chinese teas. During high stress periods I switch almost entirely to puerh (really does help with blood pressure) and recently started on rooibos (which is not a tea). Once in a while, I want the really grassy japanese green tea. I've also started drinking more tisanes - elderflower, linden, mint, fresh ginger - to cut back on the caffeine and to drink more water.

I'm actually mostly an espresso drinker and have to really watch how much of the dark stuff I drink ;)
 
I think I need to branch out a little with my tea selection. I had no idea there were so many varieties outside of the "bagged" section at the grocery store. :)
 
Pull up Teasource. Get a box of the #1 Tee Sacs and order a variety of loose teas. "Do your own tea bag" each cup or two and you'll never look back.

I'm planning on using my over-the-counter teabags for dying dishtowels. :D
 
Ki, I haven't been able to find Jackson's Earl Grey for the past couple of months either, I'll let you know if I run across some.

There's been a huge "gourmet" tea explosion around here... maybe it's all over, I don't know. But the gourmet teas I've had are mostly awful. I've been really unimpressed with Republic of Tea, or example. I don't like the fact that they take a white tea (which has a very nice but delicate flavor) and then FLAVOR it with pear or other random fruit, so you completely lose the tea flavor. Might as well just use cheap green tea. They probably do, actually... I don't see any silver tips in there. I don't even want to start ranting about Whole Foods.

So, I've mostly been sticking with graded teas from reputable estates or British blends for my black tea. I buy at a lot of my Ooolong from Lidia Lin at the TenRen/Seattle's best Tea in the international district in Seattle, since they let me try everything first (even though its pretty expensive).

- Matt
 
FWIW, I perfer Upton's tea to TeaSource, but there are lots of good places to get tea :)

- Matt
 
gore42 said:
FWIW, I perfer Upton's tea to TeaSource, but there are lots of good places to get tea :)

- Matt


I agree. Although I understand McNulty's is closing if not already closed. :( Just avoid anything like Republic of Tea, Lipton, Yogi Tea or Tazo (*gack gack*) and you're golden.
 
Republic of Tea is good though. If I didn't need the caffiene, I wouldn't be drinking it at all.

Honestly, I didn't realize that people took their tea as seriously as they take everything else. :)
 
I am not even sure if I like the tea flavor since I haven't had anything but Lipton's. By the time I add sweetener to it, I might as well drink warm sugar-water.
 
It looks as though Jackson's of Piccadilly has discontinued all of their traditional teas; they don't make earl grey or russian caravan, etc. anymore... they sell mostly green (including white) teas and some single estate teas, it looks like.

What awful news. I'm going to have to start a web search now for the last few boxes of Jackson's Earl Grey. Maybe I should offer a bounty...

- Matt
 
:crazy:
PHRAG said:
Honestly, I didn't realize that people took their tea as seriously as they take everything else. :)

tea is religious. :rollhappy:

yeah, I buy from tenren as well - and sometimes from imperial tea. I don't think our local tea shops sell enough for the tea to be reliable.

so anyone into yerba mate? I tried it recently and found that I can't take the kick the stuff has. (And this from a die-hard espressoist....)

oh hey, dairy (like cheese) is supposed to help keep your brain working. Someone recommended it to me for my late night snacks while I was studying for ... something. I forget. Must not be eating enough cheese. :crazy:
 

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