Thread: Tea Anyone?

I enjoy virtually all green and white teas. I also like the Oolong, Roibos (sp?), and a number of other herbal teas. After trying loose-leaf teas, I was hooked.
As an aside, I also found that drinking green tea lowers my cholesterol. I was very dubious about this at first but after doing some research found out that green tea or white tea actually increased the receptor sites on the liver for LDL (bad cholesterol). In addition to removing the LDL cholesterol, this changes the ratio between HDL and LDL to a more favorable ratio. YMMV and all that...

Loose leaf tea, with a strong preference for Chinese black and green teas that I've purchased from Seattle Teacup. I can't drink anything that's flavored or infused with oils, with the rare exception being a very light jasmine tea. Golden Dianhong is my favorite afternoon tea; Emperor's Dragonwell or Wenshan Baozhong for other times. I've had some great pu'erh from there as well. Oddly enough, I'm not fond of their lapsang souchong; it's all aroma, no body.

The pear shaped leaves you get in china town are to die for. By far my favorite. I have found. I have to stock up when I go to the city every now and then.

I do love tea, it is my favourite drink, so I can drink several cups per day. There are many tea shops in Paris, but my absolute reference is Mariage Frères and their 600 different teas. I simply buy my tea only in Mariage Frères shops. Their products (since they do not sell only tea but also by-products, like tea-marmelade, incense with a tea fragrance, teapots and other items for the tea ritual) are excellent and refined.

I drink tea in every moment of the day, and can sometimes drink six or seven cups in only one day! I never put sugar or anything else in my cup, because I believe my tea is better natural.
Some of my favourite teas

• Red Nile: theine-free fruity and lemony
• Thé à l'Opéra: sweet spices and red fruits vanilla green tea
• Jasmin Mandarin: sweet jasmine green tea
• Full Moon: vanilla almond black tea
• Thé Rouge Bourbon: theine-free French vanilla red tea
• Wedding Imperial: a special celebration black tea
• Sweet Shanghaï: a soft fruity daytime green tea
• Esprit de Noël: a black tea with festive spices
• Casablanca: Morrocan mint and bergamot
• Russian Breakfast tea: bergamot and citrus fruits
• Eros: mauve and hibiscus

Originally Posted by Meeme

I do love tea, it is my favourite drink, so I can drink several cups per day. There are many tea shops in Paris, but my absolute reference is Mariage Frères and their 600 different teas.

I love their tea! I had no idea they had so many different teas though. My favorite I've tried from them is their coconut black tea.

I'll have to try the others you mention Meeme.

I am enjoying organic japanese sencha's and am loving them. It is amazing how much better looseleaf tea tastes compared to tea in a bag.

If you like English style teas, you shoud try "Tippy Assam" if you can find it. It's delicious. A golden brew with a taste that personifies tea. Unfortunately it is expensive and too expensive for a daily tipple.

Normally I find Assam on its own to be very strong and it is the stable part of the mix that goes into a good tea bag of which we have many in the UK. But Tippy assam is special.

A great mixture is one part assam to three parts Darjeeling. Better than your average tea bag.

It's interesting that in the UK, many of the well known Tea Houses, sell various varieties of tea both as tea bags and as loose leaf tea and the tea bag is the more expensive product. Perhaps its the extra labour cost to sweep it off the floor.

I have never been to an english tea house(wish I could) but that is an interesting thought. I just tried some sencha in a tea bag and there is no comparison to the japanese looseleaf I normally drink. The sencha in tea bag reminded me of some tetleys tea I have had before.I sure would like to go to an english tea house. Now that sounds fun.

Wow...a tea thread!!!!!

Three's a tea shop nearby where I get all my teas from....Uncorked in Roscoe Village near Coshocton, Ohio. They have a nice selection of teas, and you can serve it up yourself or have them get you a few ounces of tea.

My favorites are:

Assam Jorhat (very dark strong red tea...very bold flavor, my favorite)
Golden Needle (smaller tea leaf. a bold, red tea, a close second)
Keemum (nice, strong black tea leaves)
New Vithanakande (from Sri Lanka, I believe....nice medium color tea, very flavorful)
Earl Grey (tastes much better in this loose leaf version)
Yunnan FOP (looks similar to Asaam Jorhat, but isn't as dark...more of a medium color red tea)
Gunpowder #1 (about the size of a BB...kinda looks like gunpowder...and is a stronger green tea


The tea shop at Uncorked also has a good selection of White or green teas, and I haven't tried them all. But what I've tried so far has been so much better than the teabag teas we all drink, I doubt I'll ever voluntarily drink Lipton or Tetley again.....well, maybe not..but this tea is damned good.

As for other teas I've tried, I have to mention one more:
The famous, or infamous, Lapshang Souchong (tea dried by being smoked over pine boughs or something....takes some getting used to) this tea has a very unusual smoky flavor....I hated it when I first tried it, but I kinda like it on a rare occasion.

Been Drinking Organic Pu-Erh's recently love them. If you get a chance this is a must try
Ancient Pu-Erh Mini Tuo Cha
It is wonderful one of the best I have had.

PS Shop is Great