Teas Please

Over the last 4 years or so I have developed a love of tea for the 7 years prior to that I pretty much drank nothing but water so it was a nice change of pace.

The teas that I enjoy are

White,Green and Oolong tea (Green tea and white tea with jasmine on occasion) also if I sweeten my tea I use honey

Peppermint tea

Chamomile tea

Catnip tea

Ginger tea

there must be quite a few more tea drinkers on here and I was wonder if anyone had any suggestions for new teas to try, in particular I had heard of a tea called Rooibos tea and was wondering if anyone would recommend it.

Rooibos is a good tea though it does have a slight iron-like taste to it. As for me I always drink Assam tea blends aka English/Irish Breakfast tea. The taste of that varies greatly depending on the brand (PG Tips or Lyons) but my personal favourite is of course, Barry's Tea. Very standard in Ireland but never fails at all.

I don't really drink tea with any kind of regularity but if there's apple tea in the house...That stuff disappears quickly.

Rooibos has a strong flavour that I really like, you should definitely try it. Also, you should try some classic black leaf teas, your Earl Greys, English Breakfast teas, and Orange Pekoes.

Rooiboos is awesome. With just a pinch of sugar.
I'm a big fan of licorice tea, but not all day, every day, ya know? And the spicy/chilli can be good.

gunpowder

PG Tips.

@Illuminosopher: I like oolong tea.

I don't have any recommendations for new teas for you to try, but you can try tea+coffee together - some people in Hong Kong tend to drink that with milk and sugar - it tastes pretty good!

Thai Iced Tea. I had it at a Thai restaurant once and have been hooked forever. Decided to walk into a Teavana once and found out they had a pre-made mix and after about 10-20 variations, I got it down :D

Now, only a couple of months before I am a fatty from drinking nothing but Thai Iced Tea.

Russian Caravan is the shit, get on that.

Otherwise I drink Irish Breakfast with a small amount of milk and a sugar.

There's some decent reccomendations in the thread I made a few months ago. But I've become one hell of a Théophile over the course of this year so here's some of my favourites. If you like Oolong tea then I recommend Grand Wu Long Top Fancy, it's nice and woody. There's a really nice Earl Grey called Blue of London which actually has blue flowers in it that give it a really really nice taste. For green tea I suggest Fleur de Geisha, it just has a fantastic aroma. If you want something entirely different then I'd go for Grand Lapsang Souchong, it's got a very unique, smokey flavour.

I prefer citrus and blackberry tea.

@eroticfishcake said:

Rooibos is a good tea though it does have a slight iron-like taste to it. As for me I always drink Assam tea blends aka English/Irish Breakfast tea. The taste of that varies greatly depending on the brand (PG Tips or Lyons) but my personal favourite is of course, Barry's Tea. Very standard in Ireland but never fails at all.

ah yes black tea I do like it but I believe it is a bit high in caffeine (at least as far as tea goes) I might be wrong in this but I think white,green and black tea are all the same but are different states of fermentation white being the freshest, the Barry's brand looks to be worth a try as it seems rather affordable which is good.

@Cloudenvy said:

I don't really drink tea with any kind of regularity but if there's apple tea in the house...That stuff disappears quickly.

apple tea, is that anything like cider or is a mix of things?

@weegieanawrench said:

Rooibos has a strong flavour that I really like, you should definitely try it. Also, you should try some classic black leaf teas, your Earl Greys, English Breakfast teas, and Orange Pekoes.

I have always been tempted to try earl grey tea just for the silly reason that it was what jean luc picard drank.

Lyons tea is the best. I recommend importing it from Ireland if you have to. I drink upwards of a million cups a day, so I know what I'm talking about.

Orange Pekoe is my standard tea, and Earl Grey is usually 2nd in my cupboard. I'd suggest Earl Grey with a little lemon juice for a refreshing, aromatic tea.

If you're after something spicy, try Christmas Tea. "Christmas teas are usually flavoured with tart lemon or sweet orange peels, cinnamon, and cloves, which give the tea a spicy flavour." Very tasty indeed.

I can't drink Chamomile/camomile because it tastes like eating petals to me. I have a similar reaction to coriander too.

@Illuminosopher: "It's tea that tastes like apple" is about the extent of my knowledge about apple tea!

Oh, and that it is super delicious.

Didn't know a fuckin thing about Tea, so I went to Teavana and spent about $100. It's been well worth it. The tea's really good, and it mellows me out, man.

@Illuminosopher: I can tell you for a fact that a cup of coffee has more caffeine then a cup of tea but a pound of tea has more caffeine then a pound of coffee simply by the fact that a cup of coffee requires more beans then a cup of tea needs tea leaves. Random trivia aside it does have a fair bit depending on how long you let it brew for (up to a maximum of two minutes, any more it'll start to form a light skin on the top which might alter the taste a bit) so if you want a weaker tea just soak it in for thirty seconds or so. How much milk you put into can also affect the strength of it.

For the record I drink Barry's Tea Gold Blend, Gold being the strongest. If it's too strong for you then the Green Blend or the Lyon's brand should suffice though personally I think they're too weak. That's just me though.

Also, I've rocked various teapot avatars in this site SO MY WORD IS LAW.

@Tim_the_Corsair said:

Russian Caravan is the shit, get on that.

Otherwise I drink Irish Breakfast with a small amount of milk and a sugar.

I looked at this tea it sounds interesting it's like a mix of mixed black teas.

@TheJohn said:

Rooiboos is awesome. With just a pinch of sugar. I'm a big fan of licorice tea, but not all day, every day, ya know? And the spicy/chilli can be good.

Licorice tea sounds interesting does it taste like black licorice or is it a different flavor all together?

@mscupcakes said:

There's some decent reccomendations in the thread I made a few months ago. But I've become one hell of a Théophile over the course of this year so here's some of my favourites. If you like Oolong tea then I recommend Grand Wu Long Top Fancy, it's nice and woody. There's a really nice Earl Grey called Blue of London which actually has blue flowers in it that give it a really really nice taste. For green tea I suggest Fleur de Geisha, it just has a fantastic aroma. If you want something entirely different then I'd go for Grand Lapsang Souchong, it's got a very unique, smokey flavour.

is the grand wu long different then oolong? The Grand Lapsang Souchong sounds interesting is the smokiness over powering though?

I personally like Earl Grey tea as a all around awesome beverage. During the winter I also like to drink some black tea with vanilla flavoring without any sugar. During the summer, I stick to Black tea with some lemon zest in it. I brew a extract of using double as much tea as I normally use, add a little bit of peach syrup and then pour it into a ice filled pitcher. Some great ice tea and none of that artificial taste you usually get when you buy it prepacked. For a interesting experience, try Lapsang Souchong.

I drink Canadian Tea. Also called coffee.

I do drink peppermint tea when I have an upset stomach. Calms it right down. Chamomile is for when I've got a fever. So yeah... tea! Medicinal!

@eroticfishcake said:

Rooibos is a good tea though it does have a slight iron-like taste to it. As for me I always drink Assam tea blends aka English/Irish Breakfast tea. The taste of that varies greatly depending on the brand (PG Tips or Lyons) but my personal favourite is of course, Barry's Tea. Very standard in Ireland but never fails at all.

I bet that goes great with a couple of Jill sandwiches...

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

@Yummylee: Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Seriously man, what the fuck?...

@eroticfishcake: Yikes, that is totally not the sort of reaction I was expecting. O_o'

I've only ever really had PG Tips, they have a whole line though like PG Tips Evening style or PG Tips Fresh style. They all kinda taste the same though to be quite honest, I just like the Monkey.

@Yummylee: Actually I got a good laugh out of that...followed by that exact reaction you posted. :P

Sarcasm doesn't work well over the internet. I keep forgetting. Note to self, must add more :P faces in the future...

@eroticfishcake: All's well and good then! For a second there I really couldn't quite tell whether it was sarcasm or if I somehow inadvertently struck a nerve. But yes, '':P'' are unfortunately often the only answer to try and better signal the use of sarcasm. That or overblown hyperbole. Like maybe if you said said you hope I die by being marauded by an army or ravenous duckies or what have you... then the sarcasm would be gleaming I tellz you!

But oh well. We can only hope that in the near future, Man is able to better expand the English language so as sarcasm can be more efficiently picked upon even with text - without the use of any sort of smiley faces. However for now, all we can do is dream.

@Yummylee: Oh come now, death by ravenous hordes of duckies is just trying too hard I tells ya! But ah yeah, sorry 'bout that. I'll buy ya pint sometime...whenever because alcohol solves all problems! Except alcoholism. But yes I would agree with you there. It's the only reason why I don't do offensive jokes because everyone always thinks I'm serious about them. T_T

I'll just add that Lapsang Souchong is awesome. A nice smokey darker tea that I really prefer over Earl Grey and the like. Sadly I haven't found it at the grocery store recently. Oh well, Green tea is always in stock.

I bought 2 boxes of PG Tips because I wanted the knitted Monkey on each of them. But then my kids stole them and left me with 500 fucking tea bags.

I enjoy a nice cup of green tea, occasionally sweetened with honey, before doing some work--helps me get focused later in the day and the caffeine's not quite as hard-hitting as the coffee I have in the morning.

I have a daily cup of orange pekoe with a smidge of milk and sweetened with honey. I'm surprised no one has mentioned teas from the Darjeeling region of India. Those are supposed to be the best quality tea around.

All I drink is Lipton, cold.

@Illuminosopher: I do enjoy white/green, oolong, and chamomile tea :]

Hmm, catnip tea? I've never tried that. Silly question: do you experience any effect at all whatsoever from it? I know chamomile and green tea mellow me out somewhat and oolong gets me a little hyper...

I enjoy some Chai

@Sary said:

@Illuminosopher: I do enjoy white/green, oolong, and chamomile tea :]

Hmm, catnip tea? I've never tried that. Silly question: do you experience any effect at all whatsoever from it? I know chamomile and green tea mellow me out somewhat and oolong gets me a little hyper...

Catnip is a relaxant to humans mix it with chamomile and it should be a really good relaxant.

@Illuminosopher: Oolong and Wu Long are the same, just different spellings, but Grand Wu Long Top Fancy is a specific kind of Oolong. Here's a link to the site of the shop where I get my tea, it has pretty good descriptions of them and pictures of the leaves and what the cup of tea will look like. The smokiness of the Grand Lapsang Souchong is down to personal preference, it's one of the lighter smoked teas, though, so it shouldn't be a problem.

i drink ceylon broken.

Oolong and Chai are my favourites. Chai especially when made with frothed milk, cinnamon and honey :3

Genmaicha and Matcha also have interesting flavours.

I drink a fair amount of tea, though it is pretty much only some good ol' strong Earl Grey - sometimes with a little milk and sugar.

I really don't like tea that tastes like the majority of fruit, although I do drink blackberry tea and a few others with different forest berries.

Yorkshire Tea is the best Tea. Though being a contractor I've developed an ability to drink almost any old swill that's going.

Just regular tea, tea. White with one, plz.

I accidentally had Earl Grey the other day and it was the worst.

I want to say that most teas have about the same amount of pep in them compared to other drinks but could be wrong on that, I never notice that much between green or black teas. I tend to stick with Earl Gray, English Breakfast or Irish Breakfast with one cube of sugar & a little milk in it for hot tea (I tend to just pick a simple generic tea like Lipton/Nestea for iced tea). The good thing with the Irish Breakfast Teas is that they tend to not have a ton of bitterness to them so they don't need that much sweetener to them, hard to describe the taste but they're pretty much everywhere & if you don't like a tea you can always find friends/work to take the rest of the tea packets who might be interested.

Rooibos is good, but if you're looking for something herbal I'd recommend honeybush instead. It's similar, but I think it's tastier. It's getting more popular, so it shouldn't be too hard to find.

For "real" tea, I almost always go green or oolong. Japanese greens (like sencha) are my favorites, but I also like dragonwell and gunpowder. Another one I really love is genmai cha. It's a japanese green blended with toasted rice.

For black teas, I recommend chinese unless you like milk and sugar in it (then go with something indian). Stuff like yunan and keemun is super good.