Tea for everyone

[theBruiser500]

a local restaurant makes amazing tea, something called green tea gungpau powder ,something like that does it ring a bell? mixed with ginger and honey

[Coffee]

I think it's obvious where my real love is, but I've always thought that Stash made a decent cup of tea(Earl Grey and Chai Spice, especially).

[jackflashdrive]

- Darjeeling makes a great breakfast tea. I add honey unless I'm drinking a more expensive variety.

- Avoid "Irish Breakfast" blends unless you like tea that tastes like ham.

- I highly recommend Keemun teas. Good when you are in a contemplative mood.

- I suggest using separate brewing pots for black teas and green teas. I bought my wife, who drinks green tea exclusively, a very nice and expensive iron japanese teapot. She used it for a few weeks and loved it and then I (who am more of a coffee person but I have my tea phases) brewed some black tea in the pot. According to my wife it really distorted the taste of the green tea for a while afterwards.

[TyFuji]

Regarding your comment about the chinese:

I visited China a few years back and I went to the Tea department of the state University in Beijing. It was an incredibly enlightening experience, my family and I got a 1.5 hour lecture from some grad student about Tea (which of course ended in a sales pitch). We tasted some really excelent teas and brought some home.

I am a huge fan of basic white teas as well as greens. I happened to be sipping a cup of Twinings Rooibos tea from south africa as I found this post!

[skunkworks]

A convenient way to brew yourself a single serving of loose-leaf tea. I have one and the cleanup is ridiculously easy.

[jackflashdrive]

Skunk,

I'm not sure I get it. Is the main advantage of this device that the loose tea is not constrained (as it is in a teapot, tongs, or teabag)?

[jrbick]

I use one of these to brew my tea on a daily basis.



This is even better than what I currently use because it's a lot bigger.



For loose leaf tea be sure to use a device that will let the tea leaves expand properly. Some of those spoon-like utensiles just aren't going to cut it w/ re: to that. Some tea leaves are literally rolled up into little pellets (from the oxidation process) and expand into quite a mass when introduced to water. In general, though, tea leaves are going to expand in the same way. Something to keep in mind as it will affect the brewing process to some degree. Using one of those spoons would probably be ok as long as you gave it a decent stir for a minute or so.

What I use now works and brews a good cup none the less. For black teas, 5 minutes generally does the trick. The longer you brew the tea, the more likely your cup will become bitter tasting.

Lately I've been drinking through Harney & Sons 'Supreme Breakfast' by the pound (~$30 per). Full bodied; good, strong aroma; good w/ and w/o milk but I never have a cup of black tea w/o milk (I actually use half 'n half).

For those particularly groggy mornings, I keep a good supply of 'CTC Assam' on hand to add to the Supreme Breakfast. CTC is pretty good on it's own from time to time too for a mid-day pick-me-up. They describe it as the "espresso-style tea." About 1/4 - 1/3 teaspoon (added to a rounded teaspoon of the Supreme Breakfast) makes a nice difference.

I'm a converted (for most part; still enjoy occasional cup) coffee drinker so I tend towards these stronger black teas in general. I keep some green tea (Japaneses 'Sencha') on hand. I intended to drink this on daily basis just because of how good it is for you. I still haven't acquired the taste for it, but I'm getting there. At first it literally tasted like lawn clippings, but the more familiar I get with the brewing process, the better it's getting. I'm finding that a level teaspoon is best. Anything more and it's just going to be bitter. Also, brew time is supposed to be ~3 minutes with less-than-boiling water. These subtle differences in brewing really show through in the flavor that's produced.

When I was coming down with a cold, a few cups of this/day with a dollop of honey was perfect. Cold never developed either (combined with some good food my wife made and Cold-Eeze).

[NajdorfDefense]

I love tea, I drink it every day since no one in my family drank coffee. Jasmine tea is my favorite, also really good gunpowder or monkey-pick tea from Ten Ren teashop in Chinatown is terrific. Some of those teas go for $150/oz. The $20-30/oz ones are good enough for me though.
http://www.tenrenusa.com/

[Zeno]

Informative post, thanks. Some more useful information about Japanese green tea:

Green teas and brewing

-Zeno

[Zeno]

Oolong tea has not been mentioned:

Blends of Oolong


I have had jasmine tea from china and consider it one of my favorite teas, very fragrant and pleasant tasting:

Jasmine

-Zeno