The Tea thread

[BlueRidge]

That's actual Tea, not an acronym for something else.

What tea do you like? How do you make it? Do you have recommendations of teas for medicinal purposes?

I like black tea best and my daily tea is a very hearty Assam. I make it with loose leaves in a tea strainer.

[Lacey]

For the achey joint people: I mostly drink cold tea. I make decaf green and put in a piece of fresh ginger. It helps with the puffy/achey feeling

Can I ask what brand? Glad you brought it up, I can only drink decaf coffee, soda or tea.

[my little pony]

i like loose fruity teas and yerba mate. i get it in a place where they have everything and the girl is really knowledgable but she is super mean and was raised by circus clowns or something and always manages to bring it up. but her tea is awesome.

[Cachoo]

I am boring and oh-so-predictable when it comes to tea: Orange pekoe and Chai (especially during the cold months.)

[IceAlisa]

Wheeee! A tea thread! Tea is one thing I would be absolutely miserable to give up. I drink a few cups a day. Currently I drink The Republic of Tea acai green and pomegranate white (mlp, I think you'd like these.) I also have a cute little iron teapot for various loose teas which I brew occasionally.

Green tea is reported to help lose weight--I haven't investigated this claim but do like the taste. White tea has the most anti-oxidants of all teas supposedly.

For comfort on a cold day I drink decaff Irish or English Breakfast with milk. I also love jasmine green and rose black but the latter one is chock-full of caffeine so be warned. Sometimes I drink Russian tea, meaning black with a drop of honey and a squeeze of a lemon slice.

A friend taught me about the different water temperatures and brewing times for different teas. I brew black for several minutes, green a bit less and white for under one minute. Boiling water for black, just under boiling for green and not even close to boiling for white. I can get the actual numbers but I am not good with numbers.

Tea is glorious!

[Garden Kitty]

I tend to drink more iced tea than hot tea, but I'll typically brew loose leaf tea (with a large tea ball infuser) even for iced tea. For hot tea, I like vanilla or caramel flavored black tea.

During summer, I tend toward more fruit flavored tea like peach or passionfruit.

[Citlali]

I love tea!

My favorite is black tea Darjeeling, Assam, the local tea (for me) from Cusco is also very good... I love flavored black tea with chocolate and mint

In green teas I prefer sencha, sencha with cherries and roses

When I´m having trouble sleeping I usually drink rooibos (ok not really a tea) and I find it really helps me, love it with orange and cinnamon.

[pilgrimsoul]

I absolutely love Earl Grey tea. That bergamot aroma just sends me into a swoon. I buy the loose stuff at Teavana, but also like the Twinings Decaf Earl Grey tea bags so I can enjoy a cup at night.

[Anemone]

I like tea too.
I'll drink green if it is served to me at someone's house or in a restaurant, but it wouldn't necessarily be my choice of tea.
I generally tend to drink something like an English Breakfast tea in the mornings/early afternoon, but go for an early grey or vanilla earl grey later in the day. I usually have orange pekoe on hand as well.
I used to live close enough to make an occasional trip to this place: http://www.victoriasteas.com/ and they have some nice teas.
I've recently been told about a nice tea shop in the city where I live now, and I have plans to check it out soon.

[Angelskates]

I love peppermint and rooibos tea, both just with hot water. Actually I pretty much like all tea. I love the variety here. And it's really pretty.

[Allskate]

I like green tea, but have never been able to make it well myself. Maybe the secret is the water temperature.

I like Thai tea hot, not just in iced tea.

My favorite tea to use for iced tea is the original Good Earth. No sugar needed. I also like it hot.

Lately, I've been drinking ginger teas because ginger is supposed to be an anti-inflammatory.

[GarrAarghHrumph]

I like black flavored teas that take milk and sugar well. My favorite is Republic of Tea Vanilla Almond. I don't drink iced tea. I only drink hot.

[Garden Kitty]

Agnes Zawadski posted this pic today - tea for her and Colin Grafton.

[gkelly]

I like black flavored teas that take milk and sugar well.

Me too.

I don't drink iced tea. I only drink hot.

I do drink iced tea in the summer, but not as much as I drink hot tea in the winter. Fruity but with real black tea for caffeine is my preference. I'll plan to drink that even more this summer as I'm cutting back on diet soda.

We have not had good luck with maintaining a kettle for hot water on the fourth floor where I work, and the organization does not provide one although they do provide coffee carafes and coffee on both floors. There is a filtered water dispenser with both cold and hot buttons on the third floor. So I've gotten in the habit of going down there to make tea while I'm waiting for my computer to boot up in the morning. Yesterday I went down at 3 PM for some more, and three other people were doing the same thing. 3 PM is teatime at my office!

[michiruwater]

I am tea obsessed and have been for a while. For Christmas a couple years back all I asked for was a nice Japanese tea set (which I got, and I miss it terribly). I have a word document detailing all the teas I love back at home, which I will post later My favorite morning tea has been Earl Grey for years now, which I do take slightly sweetened and with milk. I like black teas that go well with milk and some sweetener for the morning. After that I tend to drink all sorts of herbal teas. I never, ever get sick of peppermint tea. I mostly order from The Tea Table, but when I was going to EMU I bought lots of tea at the Tea Haus in Ann Arbor. They have the most amazing almond tea there. I spent a huge amount of money on that almond tea. They have online ordering as well, and I highly recommend the Roasted Almond tea.

I love a good chai in the winter, also sweetened with milk, specifically this one if I remember correctly. In the US I only drank loose leaf tea and had all the various whatnots for it, but here it's harder to find a big variety of loose leaf (except green tea, there is a huge amount of green tea here of course) so I'm drinking more prepackaged. Oh well.

If you like ginger tea, it's very easy to make without a tea bag, and also more flavorful and you get the most health benefits! All you have to do is take a small piece of fresh ginger, peel it, whack it once with a large knife to crush it and release the juices, and then throw it in a pot with a couple cups of water and let boil for 20 minutes or so. Amazing with honey.

[MacMadame]

I do not put milk in my tea.. I like lemon and sweetener but often lemon is not available.

I like black tea and my staple is Liptons -- Orange & Black Pekoe. But every Wed. I meet my writing group at a coffee shop. Since I do not drink coffee, I am making my way through their tea menu. They claim to 100 kinds. I'm doing the loose leaf kinds now. At first I was jumping around but then I decided to be organized about it and start from the beginning. The canisters are numbers so I started at 1 and today I'm up to 10 - Organic Pu-Erh & Gook Po Blend.

Most of the teas are variations on black teas incluidng Assam Black, Belseri Black, Makaibari Black, Risheehat Puttamong Black and Korakundah Black. I've also had Lapson Souchang, Royal Golden Yunnan, and Keenum.

At one point, I was working my way from the back end forward and was into the Rooibos varieties including regular old Red, Green, Blood Orange, Cinnamon Orange and Red Christmas Rooibos (yes, it was around the holidays).

I have to admit, the teas I've liked the best have been the ordinary ones though. Such as Cinnamon Orange Spice Decaf Black Tea. The Mango Black Tea was pretty good too.

[michiruwater]

I love Yunnan Golden teas. I used to order this one in the US. Expensive but totally worth it.

[myhoneyhoney]

My favorite is steaming hot chamomile tea with honey. I love sipping it slowly while reading right before getting ready for bed. Aaaahhhhhh.... I, however, cannot stand iced tea.

[Moto Guzzi]

i like loose fruity teas and yerba mate. i get it in a place where they have everything and the girl is really knowledgable but she is super mean and was raised by circus clowns or something and always manages to bring it up. but her tea is awesome.

In the movies, many circus clowns are evil killers so maybe being raised by scary clowns is what made her mean.

I like all kinds of tea except those that taste overly flowery. I drank some rose hips tips that made me gag so I tend to stay away from those. I always have a stash of both Irish and English breakfast, peppermint, Dargeeling, Constant Comment, Lapsang souchong, and Chai. Sometimes I add lemon or milk but usually I drink it plain. My doctor told me several years ago that I should stop drinking anything with caffeine but I do like my tea and, although I've cut way back on my tea consumption, I can't give it up entirely.

[my little pony]

In the movies, many circus clowns are evil killers so maybe being raised by scary clowns is what made her mean.

.

you are on to something. she has her scary clown pics all over the walls to subdue the customers.