I love great tea, made English style, loose in an infuser.
Favorites have been Chisunga Estate from Malawi and Kapchorua Estate from Kenya.
A great tea, made well, can rival a fine coffee (which I also love).
Anyone else savor a great cup of tea?
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I love great tea, made English style, loose in an infuser.
Favorites have been Chisunga Estate from Malawi and Kapchorua Estate from Kenya.
A great tea, made well, can rival a fine coffee (which I also love).
Anyone else savor a great cup of tea?
Lately, I've been brewing iced tea from a basic chinese green tea and a mint-gunpowder blend, both purchased loose from a local spice shop. The rest of the year, a good cup of tea twice a day is an essential part of the day.Quote:
Originally Posted by LawsonStone
Switching to loose leaf tea has coincided with my picking up DE, and now straight, shaving. I think that as the world gets faster around me, I need to take some time to do a few things well and savor them...
i love tea, i dont know much about it but boil water, steep tea and drink.
-dan-
I love a good cup on tea.
I really like light white tea's during the summer, and Black tea in the winter.
I agree, a good tea will stand right up there with a nice cup of coffee.
I gave up coffee about 5 years ago because I was drinking so much of it. I now only drink tea and I aboslutely love English tea as well
i too love a good cuppa... pg tips with milk and 2 sugars... perfect accompaniment... an aero bar.
I have a taste for Oolong tea. But recently I have been convincing my wife to drink tea. I found that she likes Japanese green iced tea. This is quite nice. I have been filling a bottle with this and taking it to the gym. I don't know if it will have any beneficial qualities, but it tastes good.
The tea I drink most often is Lapsang Souchong.
There are several others that I enjoy, depending on my mood. In the morning I like irish tea brewed as strong as I can brew it. Sometimes in the afternoon a cup of Earl Grey hits the spot. I have also found some darjeelings that I really like.
Teavana sells a tea called Matevana, which is a really nice dessert tea.
I drink a lot of tea as well but don't know a lot about it other than boil the water and steep the bag.
The Iraqis started me drinking tea. They drink these little shot glasses of hot tea every time they get a chance. I think it must be something they picked up during British occupation. Kuwaitis too, they drink a lot of tea. Both countries call what they drink "chai". I have seen tea labeled as "chai" but it doesn't taste the same. What tastes the closest to the "chai" of the middle east is just a bag of black tea.
i usually buy the twinings teas, and i cant decided which i like best so i buy the variety pack.
But its not the tea i like best, the tea that i always drink is mountain tea from greece that i colleceted myself last time i was there. My mom lived in a remote mountain village and whenever i go there i always collect natural growing tea and oregano and other herbs. Its the best i have ever had.
"Chai" is the Russian word for "tea". It probably is in some other languages as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnarchoPhil
The only time i drink tea now is when im out of coffee.
I still have my pint mug for those times when i run out and need something nice and hot to drink :)
ian
Actually "chai" originally comes from India, specifically Hindi and is the generic word in that language simply for "tea."
The typical way tea was made in India was to boil whole (i.e. fresh from the cow!) milk and then simmer it with the tea leaves in it and add some spices and sugar. In India it is often called "chai masala." When I lived in Kenya this means of preparing tea was the typical way out in the rural areas, having come there through the workers from India who built the railway.
Because this traditional eastern way of preparing tea, in milk with spices and sugar, was so different from the usual English means, with water, and just off the boil, not boiling, with milk and sugar optional, "chai" came to refer to spiced tea while "tea" referred to the steeping of tea leaves in water fresh off the boil, but with no continuing heat applied.
I like's 'em both, but obviously the English style is easier, and here in the US, where actual whole cows milk is hard to find, it's just not the same made in the "chai" manner.
Darjeeling...Darjeeling... Oh how i love Darjeeling.
That aside, i truly do appreciate a good blend of darjeeling loose leaf, and for the days when i feel that i'm burning through my loose leaf too quickly, a nice cup of Darjeeling from Twinnings serves its purpose. A cup of french press coffee in the morning and a spot of tea right before supper, around 5:30 p.m. has suited me well in these last few months. Even if its 95(35C) with 99% humidity, i still find myself indulging in a nice hot cup of tea.
Also, am i the only person who is annoyed when people ask for a cup of Chai Tea? I've always been annoyed by redundancy, (Like people calling it the ATM Machine [Automatic Teller Machine Machine]) and it just makes me chuckle when i hear yuppies ask for tea tea.
-Jaxx
I think it has to do with the distinction, as noted above, that chai can also refer to spiced tea with milk. Then you have the Americanized chai latte'. Much like coffee house coffees are coffee for people who don't really drink coffee, it's the tea for people who don't really drink tea.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jaxx2112
Except of course that "tea" was consumed as "chai" in India long before the English started making it as "tea"Quote:
Originally Posted by HNSB
I'm going back to bed...this is way to confusing! ;-)
I do love the teas. Most preferably the greens, however.
I tend to frequent a cup of yerba mate cast loosely into a mug and sipped through a bombilla the traditional way. I also drink black tea and sometimes white tea, but herbal tea are frequently my cup of choice of an evening. Berry infusions usually if it's not too late when I turn to chamomile.
My wife gets low blood pressure so both she enjoys ever slowwly..she loves her english breakfast and jasmine tea!...I get low blood sugar so I use 80/20 decaf and regular ;-)
pcdad
Lapsang is one of my favorites, too...and in the same vein, I have some Smoky Russian Caravan tea on hand from my local shop. Very different characters. I call the Lapsang "campfire in a cup" since I grew up with pine campfires. The Russian has a hardwood smoke flavor, not completely unlike a barbecue.Quote:
Originally Posted by HNSB
My overall favorite has to be a good Earl Grey. We now keep one in the house called Earl Grey de la Creme, which has lavender added. I also favor English and Irish breakfast teas.
At this very moment, I'm having a cup of South American breakfast tea. It includes cocoa nibs and all manner of other foliage.
I do the same. :beer1:Quote:
Originally Posted by PetersCreek
Another Lapsang fan here. The smokiness reminds me of a campfire and it's always good to wake up to a mug of Lapsang.
I took the family camping last weekend in the Cotswolds and we visited Snowshill lavender farm. The café there was serving English cream tea with a difference: the scone was baked with lavender, and the tea was also mixed with lavender. It was fantastic. The scone was delicious slathered with clotted cream and jam, and the tea was a light blend with a hint of lavender (imagine Earl Grey but instead of orange/bergamot it has lavender).
Unfortunately there was no lavender shaving cream there. :cry:
I learned about PG TIPS from an englishmen years ago and LUUUV the stuff. Good straight cuppa with cream n sug mmmmmmm ! Also the Russians are good tea drinkers.They like to mix fruit teas or jam with good strong black tea. And I tell you this.A good cuppa tea with some pancakes slathered with jam and sourcream russian style is soooooooo good ! But then a good cuppa with anything slathered in cream,n jam is good......cept maybe a volkswagon tire or a dirty spark plug............what ?!!! :) P.S. Speakin of russian tea...Kusmi tea out of France is excellent. They Fled russia during the Revolution and have been making outstanding russian tea ever since.
You beat me to it and did a better job of it as well. I love Chai, even though it is a bit of a pain in the arse to prepare, at least compared to the more usual tea-bags in this country. I also like the twinings tea, Bushells brand and the best way to have tea of all, boil the water from a billabong on an open fire in your billy until it has a nice rolling boil, chuck in a handful of tea leaves and a gum leaf or two, pull it off the fire using a stick, pad the hand with a snot rag, grab the billy by the handle and swing it around in a big circular arm motion several times to settle the tea, pour into a tin pannikin that's had some ash from the fire fall into it and bobs yer aunty.Quote:
Originally Posted by LawsonStone
Fair dinkum!
Mick
All this tea talk....makes me wish we could all be sittin round together havin a cup and talkin razor speak eh. Get that Billy a brewin Mick ! :):)
Boil that billy...Not get that billy a brewin':). I had a small giggle, but just a small one mind you. And I hid it behind my hand...I knew what you meant though, and it's on the fire as we speak.
Mick
Fair enough.....My err. We need food for tea...Hmm shortbread meebbe ?! Or maybe some o those russian style pancakes .......with a few sausages on the side just because !:D
I drink japanese green tea practically as water. I usually order first-harvest green tea directly from Japan in a website called o-cha. I'm the official pusher of my office floor. I had the chance to be taught the traditionnal tea ceremony two times when i went to Korea. I'm so into good fresh green tea. The traditionnal way to do it actually requires res lot of skills which i'm humbly trying to reproduce. Kind of linked to the same spirit of shaving with a straight razor.
I also had the incredible chance to received some naturally grown black tea from a stay in a recluded buddist temple in Korea's backcountry. It was the best tea experience of my life for sure.
There is also a particular tea i really enjoy called "Labrador Tea". I come from up the 50th parallel in Canada and the climate here is sub-artic. There's is a naturally grown tea everywhere in the forest. It was traditionnaly used by natives here, especially by pregnant women since it's a really effective pain killer. It is also said to have over a dozen of benefic effects on health. Really tasty, sweet like honey. Probably the forgotten natural miraculous universal remedy for any mankind's health concerns :P
J-P
Nothing beats green tea for me.
Lapsang Souchong, Earl Grey, and ocassionally Darjeeling.Quote:
Originally Posted by HNSB
I drink Earl Grey the most. Can't wait until I infuse bergamont essential oil in some unscented soap (thanks for the "recipe" CarrieM:)) to shave with while I drink a cup.
Lapsang Souchong calls for cold weather sitting around a camp fire. Anyone remember it from Mitchener's Centenial?
Up until last few years there has been not much different tea blends available here. Nowadays it is different but i'll stick with Earl Grey. Add 1-2 drops of lemon and little natural honey and that is my choice.
I'm a big fan of Stash Teas Dragon Phoenix Pearl Jasmine...makes an excellent iced tea in the summer, and hot tea in winter :beer2:.
I too am a fan of O-cha. I got myself one of their tea pots as well and I am with you on the fact that brewing it takes skill. IMO you cannot get real green tea anywhere in the west but at a good tea house or if you order straight from Japan or China. What I love about the tea from O-cha is that its actually GREEN, not brown!Quote:
Originally Posted by jplamarre
Yes Sir! In fact, the first thing that matters with tea is freshness and the second is harvest. O-Cha is the only place i found that i have a production date and what harvest was that tea. There's about 40 harvests of tea in the season. The first one is the best quality because it's in this one that you get the maximum benefits from green tea (i.e. concentration of antioxidant (sorry its french word maybe)) In O-Cha i can have a first harvest fresh green tea for less than 20$ a 100g. I havent seen a local tea house that can beat that!! J-PQuote:
Originally Posted by LeBuzz
Though not fancy I like a cup of Good Earth Energizing Black Tea, Mate And Citrus. Its a good balance, and the Mate brings a boldness.
i love a great cup of strong lipton instant ice tea lol im not much for brewed tea fun fact america is the only country in the world that the majority of tea drinkers like their tea cold (85%)
I love Iraqi tea... It took sometime to get use to it, but once you do... The best stuff ever...Quote:
Originally Posted by AnarchoPhil
Depending on who is brewing it, it can be light or quite dark and bitter. I noticed that the older men liked the dark stuff...
The other secret to Iraqi tea is the sugar they use... They will fill the cup 1/4 full with large grain sugar that never really ever melts... So much better than our refined suagr...
Oh... Earl Gray is my choice...
I never used to drink tea, but as of late it's almost all i drink. i prefer black tea, preferably assam, and most anything Harney & Sons put out (try the spiced plum!)
Though not exotic, a good, hot cup of Earl Grey picks me up in the morning and helps me relax later on. I never had a taste for coffee, actually I hate the stuff.
Yesterday I returned home to Bangkok after a few days in Chiang Mai. At the airport on the way home I found a shop selling tea grown and processed in Thailand. I had a taste of a couple of different types of Oolongs, but I had already spent most of my money. I did however come home with a gong fu tasting set.
The Thai Oolongs were a lightly oxidised Oolong similar to Taiwanese Oolongs, but had a destinctive creamy smell. I'm looking forward to finding some more of this tea.