What is your favorite kind of Tea, for example do you like ceylon, or assam? Darjeeling? Something from China or the Nilgiri district? Do you have a favorite blend? Is it Tea Tea? Or some kind of tisane (I hate the term herbal Tea because Tea is actually an herb)? Black or green? Flavored or no? Do you like milk with it? Sugar, honey? Bagged or loose? What is it?
We can rate this thread instead. Ceylon, OP or BOP, hot, sugar and lemon. Or without sugar and lemon. And if "loose" means "not in tea bags" then loose. Bagged tea hardly could be good here (my personal opinion).
Twining s English breakfast then Twining s every day until after lunch then Twining s Earl Grey or Darjeeling or some of my Christmas gift of Fortnum and Masons afternoon blend. Then Aldi cheep tea after 6pm I also like a coffee a couple of times a day. all with milk but no sugar. Usually bagged but the Fortnum's is loose. I also have a Fortnum s mulled Christmas tea (another gift) which is an acquired taste, sadly we Haven't acquired it.
I love tea and go through maybe 4 or 5 cups a day in winter but summer in Australia is just too hot. Normally in the warmer months I'll make a pot of peppermint tea in the morning and keep it in the fridge to drink throughout the day.
Loose means not in tea bags. I am probably America's only native born (part Native American even) tea snob. One of the things I hardly ever drink is bag tea. This is due to the British woman who taught me about tea. Her uncle was a tea taster in India and told her that bag tea was the stuff they swept off the floor. I don't know if that is true but I do find some of the bag brands (at least in America) kind of old and bitter (the last step before being as good as sawdust). I grow basil and mint. Every couple of days or so I will pluck the flowers off the basil (or pinch it back) and add enough mint leaves to make a cup of leaves. Then I will either cut or bruise them and steep them overnight in a two quart container of water in the refrigerator. That keep the house in iced tea. My favorite tea is a toss up between Ceylon BOP with milk and either honey or sugar (or no sweetner if I am in an extra jittery mood) and Upton Tea Imports Chai Tea (which is expensive so I only have it sparingly). I also like Darjeeling, sometimes with a little milk. Instead of Assam I buy a blend of tea from Java which can be either hot or iced, and is less expensive. I hate most green teas, but I like white tea. Only good white tea. Has anyone ever had Pu-erh?
I don't generally drink tea. Occasionally just a cup if I feel I've had too much coffee. But not after dinner, as then it keeps me awake. I just use the bagged tea, but I think its Australian grown.
We have collective name for cheap bagged teas - "India road dust". Not yet. For some reasons it's sometimes considered here as a very lite drug (not by law of course)
I never used to drink hot tea until I went to England and France. Now I have it regularly (daily in winter, periodically in summer). I drink Stash English Breakfast Tea, although I am sure brands other than Stash are just as good. With organic turbinado (aka raw) sugar and vanilla creamer. I have been a lifelong iced tea drinker, though I drink only water at work (including lunch) and usually have iced tea for dinner. Make my own by boiling a large size bag of Luzianne tea, which is specially blended for iced tea. (The name is supposed to sound like how southerners would pronounce Louisiana, because the deep south is famous for sweet iced tea). When it is done but still hot I mix in the turbinado sugar so it dissolves and also add some lemonade. Let it cool in the refrigerator and yum. As I discussed on the derailed Chester thread, I cannot understand for the life of me why Europeans do not as a rule have iced tea.
In hot weather, there's nothing more refreshing than hot tea! Doesn't hot liquid cool your body down, or something? Anyway - Twinings Earl Grey, no milk, no sugar. Bags are fine. I think the Indian road dust days are long gone! In the evening, occasionally, Lady Grey (Earl Grey with a fruity tang - very nice). I am a Europhile and an Americophile - but the one thing that I loathe about overseas is the common inability to make a cup of tea: the cup of hot water with a tea bag on the side syndrome, with the subsequent lack of temperature in the hot water.
Earl Grey, Rooibos (also orange flavoured), and one kind of herb tea (in bags, oh no!) I am not zen enough to prepare white or green tea, but I like them. No sugar in any drink for me! Funnily, in Britain -and nowhere else- I like simple breakfast tea with milk. Probably they process the milk differently?
Mariage Freres’ second flush Puttabong (Darjeeling) with no milk or sugar is my favourite, but I usually settle for Allen Valley (Ceylon Galle) because Puttabong is expensive. In the morning I prefer to drink malty black teas like some Assams, or strong African black teas with milk, but I think tea bags are acceptable too, they are even good especially if your nose and tongue are half asleep. Samova’s Orange Safari (orange-flavoured Rooibos tea) is one of my favourite’s too, but there's nothing like chilled barley tea on a hot summer day, it cools you down in a minute.
