It took me about a year to master the coffee maker to suit my taste in coffee.

Now I would like to experience the world of tea. So far I have tried sun tea (3 bags of Lipton tea in a gallon jug in the Sun for a few hours) It is okay, but not what I imagined.

I bought some honey lavender tea and put a bag in a cup of boiling water for 8 minutes. Not too noteworthy.

If you have some suggestions, I'd be willing to further my education.

I am not fond of tea--aka hot water. I find it boring. The only one I ever liked was served to me at the Lanesboro in London and was strong and smokey. I don't know what it was as that was so long ago but it got your attention. I know people who swear by Lapchang Souchong if you want to try a smokey one.

I drink unsweetened iced tea now and then. It's OK. I have a Mrs. Tea maker that I used years ago to try scads of different types of tea. I tried tea bags, loose leaves, different timing, water temps, and seeping times.

All I can say is they were OK, but nothing I'd miss.

I tried herbals too, hot and cold.

Maybe I tried it too late in life and my taste buds were accustomed to punch and hot chocolate. I mostly prefer water now.

The sweet tea in the South was OK but way too full of sugar for me now.

I honestly can't figure out how tea became such a coveted important commodity in the world. A lot of things still seem to revolve around tea. It seems like tea can be largely an expected custom to socialize or play with teapots. I'll skip the cucumber and watercress sandwiches that go with it too.

If you come to see me, I'm not going to run to the kitchen to make you some tea. Ice cold water is my choice. I have three kinds of mint leaves to add if I want to dress it up. Bah humbug.

I really enjoy tea. It took me a while to realize/admit that without sugar, basically all tea tastes almost exactly the same(especially if it has either a black or green base).

I like between 2-4 regular spoons of sugar in my tea, depending on the flavor(some brands add sugar to the tea bags and some flavors of fruity tea do not need as much sugar). My favorite flavors tend to have a black tea base, like chai and spiced chai. I like vanilla flavors, bergamot, cinnamon, and ginger as ingredients in teas.

Green tea is usually my go to for plain tea. There's just something light and clean about it.

If you're starting out, I'd buy a Stash sampler of 52 for $17 on Amazon. Don't be stingy with the sugar. Don't feel like you owe it to tea snobs to taste the full flavor or something. Seriously, they all taste almost exactly identical without sugar; when I put sugar in, all of a sudden Mango tea tastes like mango, cinnamon apple tea has a more powerful apple taste, etc. Start with one or two spoons of sugar. Sip it. If it needs more, taste test it by spoon, you know?

The way I do tea is I leave the tea bag in while I'm drinking. But then again, I'm an ADHD weirdo who uses tea for the caffeine boost. So, I finish a 16 oz. cup of tea in a half hour. I don't know. People say if you leave the bag in, if you're taking longer to drink, it can make it bitter. I haven't experienced that. I am also thrifty and I reuse all tea bags a second time, usually adding a basic green tea bag for the second time. Then I use them in the garden.

the only tea I've enjoyed is served at Tai Tung, my favorite Seattle Chinese restaurant, along with sugar & sweet & sour chicken..

Seattle's Best by far!!!

It is hard to get a good cup of tea in restaurants in America. Generally problems start with very poor tea (Liptons) and water that is never hot enough to properly steep the tea. It does boil down to taste but in countries where tea is the main choice it is as much about social ritual and process as anything else. The tea is the vehicle for the ritual. JMV but the US is too fast and frenetic to savior such rituals. I drink coffee in the morning, tea the rest of the day.

Most of what you can buy in the US is really not very good tea. I like a stout strong tea. I come from a very English family and I drank tea with my father and grandfather for Sunday Breakfast since I was very young. (and he was in the Bishopric at that time!). If you think tea is boring try a strong Irish tea; I have a friend who brings me mixed dried tea from UK, I believe it is a mixture of very strong Assam and Lapsang souchong. The closest I have come to finding anything I like in the US in stores is Twinnings Irish Tea, lately you can find this in many stores, but probably not in Utah.

Tea preparation and drinking is a ritual. I used to visit the UK often on business and at the end of the day my team in the UK office would head together to the local pub. The lady at the bar knew me on sight and would bring me a good pot of Tea "for the Mormon, who can drink Tea but can't drink beer."

I am a fan of mint tea. Especially when I have a cold.

Earl Grey is one of my favorites. As are a few herbal blends my late wife collected. And always with honey from local hives. Kind of a guilty pleasure.

Instead of trying to make it yourself at first, go out and buy some. It's not too expensive and drinking some sweet tea (green tea is better for you though) that is made by a company is a good way to get an idea of how it should taste.

It's easier to get cold tea than it is to get coffee at the store, though good coffee is easy to get at restaurants. Tea by the bottle is easier to get overall, and you can get a lot of tea that can last you a day or two.

Then, if you feel you want to make some, get some Lipton Tea bags. Follow the instructions. From there, you can expand your taste even further.

Loose leaf makes all the difference.

My favorite is an Earl Grey that also has cornflowers. I have an inexpensive pot, a gooseneck kettle that I also use for my Chemex, and I can’t rave enough about this stuff. The leaves aren’t crumbly, and a little goes a very long way.

This is the stuff: https://tiestatea.com/products/earl-grey-de-la-creme

I’d get a tea infuser https://www.amazon.com/OXO-BREW-Twisting-Ball-Infuser/dp/B008H2JMFW/ref=sr_1_19?crid=2HVMD70OHJ11&keywords=tea%2Binfuser&qid=1689745466&s=home-garden&sprefix=tea%2B%2Cgarden%2C348&sr=1-19&th=1 and start off with a sample set.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/2023 02:43AM by Beth.

I buy Tetley tea. It is superb. I heard that horrible Lipton is actually floor sweepings.

Dave the Atheist Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I buy Tetley tea. It is superb. I heard that
> horrible Lipton is actually floor sweepings.

Tetley is dire. The trouble with tea bags is that you can often taste the bag more than the tea. Tetley tea tastes of wet paper.

The best stuff is loose leaf.

I'm not fussy about tea. I like plain black tea, and I use tea bags. My favorite is Red Rose. I think that Lipton is too bitter and acidic.

Red Rose the better of the domestics .

Red Rose is my go to for tea as well. I seldom drink herbal tea, as I prefer a nice black tea. I'll settle for Earl Grey as a second choice, but only if I'm out of Red rose. A bit of honey or a teaspoon of sugar and I'm good to go!

Dried leaves soaked in water. Smells like what comes out of rain gutter downspouts in November, only hot. Bah.

First time I ever had iced tea I was just out of HS (and still TBM) working construction in east coast mountains. Tons of broadleaf trees and little streams everywhere, plus heavy leaf clutter on the ground. A tannin-rich environment. I was thirsty and didn't have a water bottle with me, so a coworker gave me his thermos. I had a sip and my first reaction was this tastes exactly like what the forest here smells like. Not unpleasant, but why would anyone drink forest runoff? [ETA: I had no idea it was iced tea until I commented that it tasted like dead leaves. Coworker was offended, then amused]

Kind of ruined me for tea.

That said, on one of my first visits to Canada, I went into a pizza place, typical no-table-cloth restaurant, and there was a tea list with the menu. I had never seen such a thing in the US.

Later that same day I had to ask what a serviette and a chesterfield were. I became acutely aware that I "wasn't in Kansas anymore", as the saying goes.

Then there were the flashing green lights, which I figured out after a bit were protected left turn indicators, like the US green arrow. I'm sure a number of Canadians were thinking "idiot Yanks" until I got that one figured out.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/2023 08:57AM by Brother Of Jerry.

And it was summer and you probably took your skis, right

IMO, loose leaf tea is the only way to drink tea. I prefer an English Breakfast tea. I've used a device similar to this one for years. https://www.amazon.com/GROSCHE-Aberdeen-PERFECT-coaster-BPA-Free/dp/B07RV6W3WH/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=1S8ARTYF6VWX7&keywords=tea+maker&qid=1689778738&sprefix=tea+ma%2Caps%2C159&sr=8-2-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1

What do the aficionados think of Bigelow?

FWIW, I drink mine strong and black. If I wanted milk and sweetener, I'd take my handcart to Utah and get a dirty soda.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/2023 04:38PM by Lot's Wife.

So many good suggestions, thank you for responding. Over the next while, I will try these suggestions and either find a new thing to like or not. I know that everyone likes different things. It's fun to look outside the box and discover the "whys" of life.

First off, I agree with every poster who recommends loose leaf tea. While bagged teas are more available, they tend to be filled with the trimmings from loose leaf. Bagged teas are cheaper, but you get what you pay for. And loose leaf tea is able to impart more flavor with less risk of oversteeping. ETA: the dust and trimmings have more surface area exposed, so there's a greater chance of oversteeping. Same reason why smaller cuts of meat cook faster.

The most important thing to distinguish teas is the oxygenation of the leaves after they've been picked. White tea is made from leaves that have just budded and are less oxidized, every other type of tea is made from fully-sprouted leaves and are oxidized to different points. Green tea is the least oxidized after white tea, black tea is oxidized the longest, and oolong is in between. This affects the flavor, the caffeine content (more oxidized teas have more caffiene), water temperature, and steeping times. Less oxidized teas require cooler water and less steeping time. The specifics vary, but generally,

White tea- 175 degrees (F) for 1-3 minutes

Green tea- 180 degrees for 2-3 minutes

Oolong tea- about 190 degrees for 3-5 minutes

Black tea- just off boiling for 3-5 minutes

Herbal tea aka tisane- same as black tea.

If the temperatures seem intimidating, boiling the water and waiting for it to cool a bit before steeping the tea works.

In addition to how oxidized the tea leaves are, the region the tea grew in also affects the tea. I've heard Darjeeling and Ceylon are popular black teas in the UK and I personally prefer the flavor of Japanese green tea over Chinese green tea. I've heard some of the tea in Vietnam is picked from wild tea trees and I will admit I'm curious about how that would taste.

Some types of tea I recommend: Earl Grey and Lady Grey are both delicious black teas, Moroccan mint tea is good on a hot day, genmaicha is good and budget-friendly (It's toasted rice mixed with sencha green tea. It tastes a little like popcorn), and chai is tasty but a little higher in sugar that I like (I live in the US).

What's added to tea varies based on country and personal preferences. Brits tend to add milk (please keep the "add the milk or tea first" debate civil), the French tend to add lemon to black tea, and the Chinese and Japanese claim that properly made tea doesn't need anything else (though they sometimes add a little sugar when nobody's looking). I've also tried adding a spoonful of jam to black tea, a Russian method and it isn't half-bad.

As for brands, all I'll say is Lipton is good for making tea eggs and dying shirts. I can't think of anything else it's good for, though.

ETA: I tend to geek out about tea, in case it wasn't obvious. It's part of my broader tendency to geek out about food and drink. The history and science of things like tea is quite fascinating!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/2023 06:16PM by ookami.

"As for brands, all I'll say is Lipton is good for making tea eggs and dying shirts. I can't think of anything else it's good for, though."

LOL. I also use Lipton to dye leather I use for archery projects.

Green Tea in the US is very different than Chinese or Japanese Green Tea. I was invited to a tea ceremony which involves ceremonial mixing of a dangerous looking green powder. This was in Japan where my friend and I were special guests and participated with the wife of a good friend officiating. I must confess the tea was the most awful tasting stuff I have ever consumed to be polite, and the caffeine caused vasoconstriction in my brain, head and face making me feel like a railroad spike had been driven through my forehead. When we left my friend who had also been a guest commented that it was the worst "buzz" he had ever experienced. I guess one gets used to it.

Ah, matcha. Powdered green tea mixed with a bamboo whisk.

Personally, I think it's over-rated. I'm more of a "steeped sencha or genmaicha" green tea fan.

Try bengal spice tea from celestial seasonings. Great hot or iced

I highly recommend Yama Moto Yama Genmai-cha, it's green tea with toasted rice. I was introduced to it by a Chinese lady, I was doing work at her office and she handed me a cup and I was a fan from then on! I don't tend to drink it in the warm months, but on a cold winter day it's the best! It's available on Amazon and in Asian markets.

Loose Leaf

Look up the Art of Japanese Tea or something

Tea is nice~

Iced or hot? If iced, most prefer it sweet. Sugar isn't too good for you though, if you do it all the time. If hot, then with no additions (that's part of the art of tea, so to speak), with milk/ 1/2 & 1/2, smooth & more subtle, or sweetened, with or without milk, as a preference.

Some prefer to have multiple smaller cups of tea vs. 1 big one with coffee, and refills.

Bubble Tea :)

I have a large tea ball, about 3.5 inches in diameter, stainless and seriously perforated. I put about 3 table spoons of looseleaf tea in it.

I boil about 8-10 cups of water in a sauce pan. Allowing it to taper off a rolling boil, just a little, I drop the tea ball into it, and let it sit a few hours, cooling down & stirring it from time to time. At room temperature, the potion is fully steeped. I remove the tea ball (contents go into the compost bucket), and pour the pot into a pitcher for the refrigerator.

Different teas produce different flavors and strengths. We keep fruit and cane sugar syrups around, which allow us to sweeten a glass without forcing sugar crystals to dissolve.