Kick-ass Tea

though mostly a drinker of coffee, i've switched to tea in 2012 cuz i'm trying to eat/drink healthier in 2012 and for some reason tea feels healthier to me. and i really dig tea. but i like my tea STRONG. no sugar no cream no nothing. most americans drink hippie tea or weak-ass tea and that weak-ass stuff stinks cuz i use like 4 tea bags in a cup. (i actually bought a tea ball but i have trouble with it and get tons of tea in my cup for some reason. i figured loose tea might be the way to go.) anyway, seems like brit and japanese tea is for me. that roasted japanese tea is soooooo good and also strong. i have to go to the asian markets to get the good stuff though. next time i'll probably stock up for a month or two. and brit-wise, i've been drinking this stuff, still 3-bagging it though:

http://gifts4heartbeat.co.uk/images/uploads/Yorkshire-Tea-4-Yorkshire-Gold-Tea-Bags.jpg

but if anyone has recommendations for some great tea that will slap me in the face in the morning, i'd love to know about them. black or green caffeine-only please.

tried this this morning and its okay if a bit hippie and only really gets good toward the bottom of the cup when you get that earl grey perfume-y thing happening.

http://cn1.kaboodle.com/img/b/0/0/198/5/AAAAC17xkb4AAAAAAZhV-A/buy-numi-organic-tea-black-tea-bags-aged-earl-grey-online-at-drugstore.com.jpg?v=1320771637000

and, you know, i like twinings okay too in a pinch, but i like trying new things.

If you do loose-leaf, most machine-cut (the "leaves" looks like tiny pellets) assam will do the job. I drink it every morning with soymilk lest it eat a hole in my stomach.

"machine cut assam" i'll write that down, thanks. ooh and i like the idea of pellets cuz then i won't get little bits in my cup.

http://pics.drugstore.com/prodimg/348346/300.jpg
I like this stuff. Tastes like campfire.

Good tea is amazingly affordable, considering how long you get out of say 100g of leaves. The difference in taste compared to supermarket teabags is as big as e.g. Bud Light vs Belgian abbey beer.

We buy ours from Le Palais des Thés, who do seem to have a US mail-order operation, though I'm sure there are lots of reputable places out there.

ceylon and yunnan are also really good for breakfast, very strong and malty.

xp smoked teas are fucking great.

really like yorkshire gold too but i think barry's gold is just a little bit tastier (i'm drinking it right now). assam is generally also very good too (taylors makes an excellent one)

Good tea is amazingly affordable, considering how long you get out of say 100g of leaves.

Very true, and you don't need too much to make a good cup or two. We've been refining our tea tastes a bit on our end as well, and however yuppietastic the place is, when Teavana was going through these ridiculous post-holiday sales lately we pretty much scarfed up on a slew of good teas. Not to mention a couple of pretty good infusers.

i'm looking at that palais website now and now i'm intrigued about white tea. don't think i've ever even had white tea before!

this is the nicest tea i've ever tasted and the fact that it looks like skunk is a bonus

http://www.teacuppa.com/Milk-Oolong-Tea.asp

oh yeah oolong forgot about oolong too. i like it all basically. and, depite what i've said, i DO enjoy herbal teas too. but not gonna go there here. lol oolong description:

Very high fermentation: 70% and over. The most famous of the "Black Dragon" teas. Plucked in spring, it has an abundance of tips and a ripe grape flavor that pairs remarkably well with the dark, woody notes of the lower leaves. This very subtle tea must be prepared precisely according to the rules of Gong Fu Cha in order to achieve its full delicacy.

WF have you been to Tchai Ovna? it rocks.

don't fuck with the gong fu cha!

i can't see ward's tea!

neither can i

really enjoying my pg tips. england's number one tea, apparently.

fond memories of bringing a gf back a box of pg tips.

PG tips is my fav tea. You can get it here now which is awesome.

this guy likes it too

http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc4/50234_42278189189_3414_n.jpg

since i've gone tea i figure i only spend about 20 dollars a month on good stuff. feel like i must have spent more on coffee in a month. plus, i would buy store/shop coffee a bunch as well as make my own.

wait, i'm cheating, cuz i still will have a cup of coffee in the morning before the kids go to school. still feel like i've saved a lot of money. think its because of the one cup thing. instead of making a pot of coffee i just make one cup of tea when i want one. i guess that's why people like those coffee pods so much. and yes i know i could brew a cup of coffee but for some reason i never do...

my wife is a big loose leaf tea drinker. i was too for a while but went back to coffee. our favorite tea paraphenalia was called the Tea Tiger. I'm on my mobile right now or I'd try and find you a link.

what made it good was how long it would keep the tea hot, i should mention.

what makes pg tips tea good

WF's tea looks like ganja

Pyramid bags, cute monkeys - x-post

Scott, there are a lot of good kick-assy cheap Jasmines at the Asian markets that don't taste too floral.

I am fucking obsessed with tea.

Get some of this into you tea-lovers, I was in their shop in Paris recently and almost moved to tears. when I make a cup of this my entire room smells of tea. the teabags are made of cotton FFS and they have autumn/winter and spring/summer teas that change each year.

http://www.dammann.fr/

you can get it on amazon, it's not as expensive as it sounds.

that does look pretty hardcore. want some. you gotta figure they know from bad-ass tea in nepal.

it is really amazing. also you find you sort of only have a cup or two a week cos it's quite a rich flavour, at least the oriental rooibos one i got is like that, maybe other ones differ.

http://images.ethicalsuperstore.com/images/226587-dragonfly-rooibos-earl-grey-40-bags.jpg

this is my daily tea

oops http://images.ethicalsuperstore.com/images/226587-dragonfly-rooibos-earl-grey-40-bags.jpg

Pyramid bags are great cos you get more strength out of a bag while the water's still hot in a mug (5 mins). That said I don't think PG Tips itself is any better than UK supermarket own-brands. My favourite bags are Clipper organic english breakfast, though I rarely buy them cos £££. For really good tea you need a thick, highly-insulating, pre-heated tea pot. Bags or loose doesn't make a difference in a pot imo. Always use freshly drawn water, poured immediately as it hits a rolling boil. I would never drink non-hippy tea without a slug of milk - and the the milk itself makes a huge difference. Semi (1.5%) scalds less easily than full milk, which is an advantage for tea making in a hurry. Here in Germany I think all milk is more heat-treated than it is in the UK, consequently, tea is shit here and I've given it up for black coffee.

been rocking lapsang & empress grey as my daily teas lately

tried, and didn't get on with, white tea. might pick up some of LG's daaaaaaaamn frere/WF's ganja tea next

what do you do when u run out of ganja

this my jam
http://s3.amazonaws.com/media.steepster.com/product_images/16283/large.png

Choice Tea has their processing plant in my neighborhood and are doing tours in early May. Very tempted to go; I drink so much of their loose leaf assam every day and green moroccan mint in the summer as iced tea and their ginger tea a few times a week in the evenings. They sponsor the PNW tea festival every year which is also a fun way to spend part of the weekend.

are they caffeine-free cozen? my health is so fucked i basically die in a number of ways if i consume caffeine.

don't think either lapsang or empress are caffeine free. is a big consideration def

PG Tips is the fucking BOMB. It's so awesome that it has become well-distributed in the northeast. Been pretty much my go-to for a couple of years now.

I quit coffee in late 2008, suffered horribly until I found Bewlay's Irish Afternoon Tea, then rejoiced when I found PG. I too like my tea strong, hot as fuck and with nothing in it but tea.

This is good for brewing a single cup of loose leaf tea. It won't let any crumbs through:

http://www.amazon.com/Finum-63-421-50-00-Brewing-Basket/dp/B000I68NCS

Oolong tea for me. I got a bag of Shui Hsien and a bag of Ti Kuan Yin at McNulty's in NYC. I brew it three times.

ooh i like. i should actually check the ancient department store across the street from my store before buying online. they have a pretty decent kitchen section.

x-post

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_FzLB7mNEfYw/SjbcGyVRUoI/AAAAAAAAD5E/Yc954liX2lQ/s400/lapsang.jpg

official ad campaign right there

oops http://images.ethicalsuperstore.com/images/226587-dragonfly-rooibos-earl-grey-40-bags.jpg

― I'm going to allow this! (LocalGarda), Wednesday, 14 March 2012 21:30 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

LG i was gonna post this too. so good. like i think it is one of the great teas, & you would think that it was more esoteric, being some sub-genre of the dragonfly-brand. i am trying to kick caffeine on the head slightly & noticed that it was more hot drink than caffeinated hot drink that woke me up in the morning. the vanilla is real good also, & someone told me to try the ginseng along similar it-wakes-you-up lines.

re: brit-wise, i've been drinking this stuff, still 3-bagging it though, is 3-bagging it using three bags? for a cup? this is crazy to me, and i like strong tea (bag left in, &c) (which apparently is good for you?, like the antioxidants release towards the end or something).

twinings fucked up earl gray, by adding lemon extract, so i don't know what to recommend in terms of regular-black-teas. i get the clipper one in the black box.

I've been trying to wean myself off of caffeine and coffee so I've been drinking chamomile tea almost exclusively. It's nice, but it's no coffee.

my current favorite: http://www.teareviewblog.com/?p=12878

yes, 3 tea bags. i guess i'm crazy. but i like strong coffee and i drink coffee black, so i like really strong tea. i am not very macho otherwise.

I drink coffee black too, it is torture switching to non-caffeinated drinks.

I like strong tea but I tend to be a heathen and drink it in the form of LOTS OF ICED TEA.

I'm really into this Marrakech-themed blend I have at home that has green tea with mint and bergamot.

I bought some of that Egyptian liquorice Yogi tea that several ilxors were on about and it's pretty interesting but I made the mistake of drinking it in my mug that has a silicone lid and the smell of cinnamon/liquorice would not wash out of the lid for days

@ schlump: Twinings went back to OG recipe, no?

I don't go so far as multiple bags in one cup, but I do leave my PG Tips bag soaking in there until I'm done drinking it.

I keep seeing this thread title as a single croatian word: Kickastea. Like Dragostea.

yes, 3 tea bags. i guess i'm crazy. but i like strong coffee and i drink coffee black, so i like really strong tea. i am not very macho otherwise.

― scott seward, Thursday, 15 March 2012 13:37 (2 hours ago) Permalink

yeah i drink tea black, too. three bags though, wow. it's funny that you're talking about uk teas: i grew up drinking tea with milk, & changed at some point, & it meant recalculating the hierarchy of domestically availble teas to factor in which ones were best black. like i think tetley's nicer than pg tips, black, irrespective of pg tips being maybe more popular as it's probably usually served w/milk. but that might just be me.

@ schlump: Twinings went back to OG recipe, no?

― mom in the woods (Ówen P.), Thursday, 15 March 2012 13:45 (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh wow, ty so much for this. i knew the slightly-more-active-sect of outraged-internet-commenters would be good to rally around (i just searched, for fear of repeating myself, & found that i have previously trash talked about twinings on 77). i think regular earl grey is now this:

http://shop.twinings.co.uk/shop/classic-earl-grey.html

& the freaky generation-x remix can be avoided by looking for this:

http://melkery-shop.fr/281-521-large/twinings-earl-grey.jpg

tea is kinda just barely noticeable liquid intake to me at this point, but then one in ten times it's super satisfying.

(http://www.twinings.ch/webautor-data/7/earl-grey-classic-k.png <- O.G. E.G., in case that image didn't show)

I keep a box of that in my schoolbag. Just in case.

twinings decaff earl grey is pretty damn good too...

I used to love Earl Grey so much. And then at some point I went off it completely and utterly. I can't imagine wanting a cup now. Can your taste buds change between your mid-20s and your early 40s?

on account of the caffeine thing i migrated to mainly rooibos tea, & i went somewhere (a zoo) recently where they only had decaf tea, just regular tea but decaf, it was like the sad ghost of every bad cup of tea i've ever had.

OTM, decaf black teas are the death flavor-wise. Swee-Touch-Ny (sp?) decaf is the closest to okay.

I've been mad on oolong and green tea for the past four months. Chinese greens are hard to get right, sencha is easy enough to acquire but the fancy Chinese and greens have been somewhat mysterious... most of the tea vendors I've visited haven't had enough of a demand for 'em, so they've had them sitting on their shelves for too long.

Then I was blown away but the quality and selection at Théréal in Montréal. The place is unassuming but their greens are fresh and brilliant and their oolongs are exceptional. After I splurged on a few different kinds, the owner was kind enough to let me sample a cup of this year's first-pick Anxi Baicha and it was, well, it was perfect.

how crucial is brewing temp/times for green tea? the bags say one thing; people say another.

Entirely a matter of taste. Pour boiling water over the tea and wait 5 minutes and it's gonna taste like assholes. Let the water cool to 70 C and let it steep 2 minutes and you'll think you were drinking hot water.

For Japanese teas i.e. gyokuro you have to be precise with your 60 C water and steeping times. For Chinese greens, they're less processed (traditionally) and can be treated according to taste. I typically brew 4 minutes at 80-85C for a fresh green.

.. This might sound didactic for a message board I suppose but like the bags of black tea sweepings we all grew up with are a touch more forgiving. If we were talking about cooking a nice piece of fish these deviations in temperature/time would be a little more yeah

i've just been alternating between bags of yorkshire and typhoo lately. which is pretty boring, but it does the trick.

i keep forgetting to look for the machine-cut assam pellets someone mentioned above. i like the idea of tea pellets for some reason.

i'm on this tea thing and it's nuts. i've got like three different little bulb thingies

do not like assam - too bitter

i'm amazed by how different different oolongs can be

silver tip is.. nice i guess but does very little for me

darjeeling might be my sweet spot

btw i have never felt more like a druggie than when loading loose tea into a bulb. it's like, yes doctor, are you ready for your "infusion", right away sir

oolongs can indeed be super different. if you ever happen across aged Tie Guan Yin it's incredible.

I’ve been drinking a lot of muscatel darjeeling lately. A little less astringent than some, a bit fruity.

assams can be super different too!
it's a big region, some assams can be quite sweet...
(that said, I usually go darjeeling...)

I have dialed in my assam now and feeling good about it. i brew it not quite so long, and not quite so hot, a little milk.. frankly it's ideal breakfast tea. really nice when you get it right.

Have been trying and failing to make my own loose leaf Red Zinger blend instead of using 10 bags at a time to make pitchers of iced Zinger. Nothing tastes right and the pre-made loose leaf hibiscus blends don't have the right... zing.

Ruby #18 black tea from Taiwan is all I drink anymore. It's delicious

I am absolutely not a tea drinker by any means, and I just tried tapee tea with honey for the first time this morning. It’s the worst, most disgusting thing I’ve ever tasted in my life. I guess I just gotta deal with it, because it’s supposed to help with my arthritis. I’m giving it one month.

GOOD LUCK, MR. SNRUB!

i had a huge cup of Lyons Gold Blend this morning. i need to go tea shopping.

i went off sugar. i've been drinking a ton of sugar-free iced tea for months. well, sugar-free iced tea is just...tea.

My bf, who likes chai, bought in the spring a box labelled “Bombay Chai”, but it is just assam tea, the kind I drink all day. I like it about as much as my normal Yorkshire/Tetley so I’ve been working through this massive discount box of tea for months now. Down to the last ten bags as of this morning.

The weirdest tea related thing I’ve done was that one year I was gifted a fairly large container of loose rooibos. I like strong tea and was perplexed by the tasteless red water. One day I got frustrated, said “I’m gonna actually taste what you taste like”, put the remaining rooibos into a coffee grinder, ground it up, packed it into a clean mocha pot and made rooibos espresso. It tasted good! Took a lot of rooibos leaf to make, though

My favourite tea is still those big pu-ehr coins people bring back from China, followed by Taiwanese oolongs, but I basically just drink Yorkshire or Tetley

I've been drinking Arnold Palmers in the morning rather than coffee... this will likely change when the weather gets cooler

I make sun tea in a jar outside, even though it's supposed to be slightly dangerous

i've been on a pu-ehr kick recently (just bulk, not fancy coins).
xpost
am not a huge tea person, typically, but this is lovely stuff. as is this earl grey i got from this place: https://www.chadotea.com/collections/flavored-earl-gray-bergamont-tea/products/blue-flower-earl-grey

i recently learned that sun tea is not allowed for food facilities as it is considered a potentially hazardous food. this surprised me.

another xp

Taiwanese oolongs are the best. I got gifted a tin of Pu-er by some Chinese officials a couple of days ago and woof it is potent, half a teaspoon goes a long way

xpost that looks a lot like the earl grey I get here in Malaysia but my local shop calls it Sapphire Grey, and it has cornflower instead of blue mallow - it’s lovely and pretty much what I drink daily. Been looking to try some new earl greys though

Some good intel here, thank you all

I've noticed that my can of Darjeeling leaves recommends brewing at 85C. Kinda low no? This basically means it will be a sweeter, softer flavour, less tannic, right? I've discovered that achieving 85 is pretty easy: pour the water straight into a mug and let it sit for a few seconds. Only THEN do I dunk the tea leaves in. Feels wrong. But I guess it's right.

Cup and a half of Darjeeling and I am fucking FLYING

Are very-old tea bags safe/desirable? I always imagine one either tasting surprisingly fantastic or killing me.

"Healthy volunteers consumed a candy containing green tea or black tea, and saliva collected from them immediately after the candy consumption significantly decreased [Omicron subvariant] BA.1 virus infectivity in vitro..
These results indicate specific amino acid substitutions…

— Hiroshi Yasuda (保田浩志) (@Yash25571056) October 4, 2023

I'm telling you guys... *wipes brow*.... Some of this green tea is fucking potent

I only drink disgusting shit like camomile tea and peppermint tea. I was surprised and delighted that a U.S. airport lounge I was in recently had some really nice teas (https://www.tealeaves.com/collections/premium-organic-tea-bags) and honey too. I’d like to say this helped with on-flight anxiety but no. Still, good tea.

Very little that beats a nice cup of green or ginger tea on a Sunday evening.

I drink herb tea every night after dinner. My wife and I love the ritual. Chamomile, mint, nettle leaf, etc. Hate fruit teas, or red teas, they are the worse. We also make our own mint tea from our ferocious mint patch in the yard. Last year we started making echinacea from coneflowers in our yard - so much better than the stuff from the store - almost has a sweet roasted flavor.

Recently switched to green tea from coffee because the coffee I was drinking was giving me heartburn (I think).

worse = worst

That sounds nice, PBKR! I dried lots of mint a couple of years ago and still have some but I want to re-up this year and maybe do a spearmint too. I tried to grow chamomile but it didn't thrive.

spend most work daytimes drinking any of assam, lapsand souchong, russian caravan, earl grey
then in the evenings switch to jasmine, iron buddha or green with lemon

anyone finding it harder to sleep, or getting more wired on rooibos despite no caffeine in it?

currently flying on my russian caravan/yerba-maté blend, with a squeeze of lemon juice

Moldovan grocery store across the street sells eastern european teas and they are all a mix of black/green/spices! like, they don't even sell just simple black tea. i did not know that was a russian/ukraine/etc thing. i bought a box and it was definitely the first time i ever had a mix of black and green. with added spices. its not bad...but i think i like my tea to be one thing.