Any tea drinkers?

Joeywhat

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Anyone here drink tea regularly? Looking for some new teas to try, and also need a good source for loose leaves.

I've been getting into Oolong lately. I've been drinking Earl Grey for a while...just starting the whole leaf thing. Typically just used teabags, with decent results.
 
As a matter of fact, I have recently become fond of a "new" type of tea called pu-ehr.

This type of tea was developed I guess, in the 1970's, which as tea goes, is like, yesterday! It is sold compressed, often in discs, sometimes in bird's nest shaped form, and so on. It has been harvested, and aged, and microorganisms flavor it in a rather lengthy process akin to fermentation. The tea is then pressed. It gets better as it ages. I buy several varieties at a nearby Chinese food store. My first 10-ounce cake of tea lasted me almost an entire year, and I drank the stuff morning,noon,and night!

Read this article. Once you try THIS KIND of tea, you will never go back to tepid teas like Earl Grey. You will probably not want to go back to loose-leaf teas.

The Online Photographer: OT: The Art of Tea
 
Yes, but I mostly drink your typical Black Tea.
 
You guys really need to come to Taiwan when it comes to tea. We have the best! No seriously, Taiwanese tea is good. Many varieties and ideal climate to grow then (high altitude where the daily temp varies greatly and lots of moisture).

My preference is lightly baked green tea. I am no expert in tea, but having tried many different types I've found my favorite. Pu Er tea is mostly had in Tibet. It is very effective in cutting down grease and therefore is very ideal for Tibetans because their diet consists of mostly meat and dairy products. Pu Er also varies in prices and quality. The really expensive ones are those that have been stored for decades. It's also strong in flavor and a bang for the buck because you can make many pots repeatedly with it. We used to have one pot that the whole family drink from and keep refilling it with water for the entire day.

I find that the tea market in the US doesn't really stress on quality, but variety. It's really tea+flavors, and who knows how these "flavors" are derived? It's like orange-flavored soda. When it comes to flavored teas here in Taiwan, they are usually considered beverages and are sold really cheap, but usually suspicious on how exactly they are made. Most flavors are flower based, like Jasmine or "rose". The high end ones are authentic flavors which varies with its method and process of baking. It's both an art and science.

Correction, the word should be "roasting". The strength of a tea has to do with how much it's been roasted. The more roasting process it goes through, the darker the tea gets and the stronger the flavor gets.
 
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I too drink loose leaf. I usually go with either a oolong or a white, depending on how strong of a flavor I'm wanting.
 
No - coffee, coffee, coffee ...
 
Coffee straight up.If I have a cold I will drink herbal tea with echinacea or honey-lemon or regular tea with a shot of brandy.:mrgreen: Otherwise its jet fuel for me.
 
Why can't you have coffee *and* tea? :greenpbl: I really like a shot of Hawai'ian coffee, ~1oz hazelnut syrup, and just over 12oz steamed (or frothed) whole milk! :mrgreen:
 
I'm addict to the tea. Not a especial reason for that. But I can't start without my bed tea.
 
I like the iced variety or the kind from Long Island.
 
I *much* prefer coffee, and in the winter my coffee intake goes WAY up. In the summer, I limit myself to two cups in the morning, and once in a great while, a cup at night (regular, not decaf and I still sleep just fine, thank you very much!).

In the summer, I also drink a good bit of ICED tea--but for a born & bred southerner, I'm an oddity, as I do NOT like my iced tea sweetened at all. Most of the folks around here really want iced tea SYRUP--they drink it so sweet it would make me gag!
Anyway--I'm not much of a hot tea drinker. I absolutely ADORE the *idea* of drinking hot tea and I get on these kicks where I decide to start drinking it. But so far, I have not found a tea and/or mix-in combination that I can say I truly enjoy. I've tried various types of teas (nothing too exotic though, I confess--mostly whatever the boys have bought and left at the house), I've tried it with a bit of honey, with milk, with Agave. Some of those things bring it a LITTLE closer to palatable to me, but in the end, I just don't really enjoy it as much as I WANT to enjoy it, and I end up within two weeks just giving up and drinking coffee instead.
 
Not a fan of tea bags. Since in order to maintain freshness tea should be sealed in air tight containers. Be aware if you want to get into loose leaf tea not every tea is cooked the same way. For example, green tea if steeped at a high temperature will taste bitter. To add, steep times themselves vary depending on the tea as well. Sounds somewhat tedious but it's actual simple. Personally, I only drink straight teas but there are lots of styles and flavored out there to try.
 

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