Thread: Tea anyone ??!!

This afternoon's teas is Blackwood Estate: Ceylon.
Enjoy your weekend, gents.

Note to self...use a light colored mug when taking tea pics.

No tea for me this afternoon, two shots of espresso instead. Its been a long week.

Originally Posted by OCDshaver

No tea for me this afternoon, two shots of espresso instead. Its been a long week.

Espresso is nice too! I haven't had any in a while, actually. Maybe I should rectify that when i get home...

Originally Posted by Senomaros

Espresso is nice too! I haven't had any in a while, actually. Maybe I should rectify that when i get home...

It's not tea. And I think we have a coffee thread going already. But today it was more about need than want. Lol.

Originally Posted by OCDshaver

It's not tea. And I think we have a coffee thread going already. But today it was more about need than want. Lol.

And that's why I avoided coffee like the plague until just this last October, haha. The thought of developing an addiction to or physical dependence on anything terrifies me. But you're right, back to tea!

So the other day while looking for a birthday present for my sister, I walked into a store called Ten Thousand Villages (where the concept of the store is that most of the things they sell are fair trade and made by hand in little villages around the world) and I found they had tea! 100g of fair trade, organic black tea from Nepal for $9? Sweet deal! So I picked some up:

i know the label said it was bagged, but for some reason I assumed it would be bagged leaf tea. Turns out it was just fannings. Oh well, it's still tea.

It brewed a nice colour.

It had a light feel to it, and had that earthy, quintessentially Nepalese taste to it that I've come to associate with teas from that country lately. Though it wasn't very strong, and was also weaker than the Nepalese tea I get from David's tea. Still, it's nicer than the loose leaf Assam tea I usually make chai with. (On its own, anyway. I generally don't care much for Assam teas just on their own; I think their taste is too plain, not a whole lot going on.)

Lastly, i tried making chai with it...

...and enjoyed it with some baklava. Mmmmm, baklava... *salivates like one of Pavlov's dogs* Anyway, it turned out to be a pleasant enough chai that tasted quite similar to the chai I make with the loose leaf Assam tea. Except, it had a bit more of a watery feel to it, so I'm not sure if I'll try that again.

(That's the thing with chai, the spices mix wonderfully with the tea to produce an absolutely deliciously tasting beverage, but the subtleties of the tea are lost along the way. How strong or light a tea is, though, that carries through. So in my opinion, a tea that's strong, but doesn't have much in the way of subtleties and complexities in taste is ideal, and most Assam teas match these criteria pretty well in my experience; making chai is pretty much the only reason I buy Assam tea, actually.)

So overall, I'd say this tea was a bit weak for my preferences, but it was nice and light, with an interesting flavour. Good for drinking with breakfast in the morning when I'm a bit rushed and don't have the time to sit and properly enjoy my tea, and when I'm done, I get an interesting little bag to put my pens or whatever in. Or maybe some wet shaving supplies once that starter set I ordered from classicedge.ca finally arrives. (Until it does, I'm stuck posting in this thread and lurking through other, older threads that have already addressed most of my questions.)

Happy Weekend, everyone! May you celebrate with close shaves and delicious tea!

Check out Verdant tea if you haven't settled on your go to merchant. I adore the freshness and 'terroir' - for lack of a better term. They try to price their tea such that neither the grower nor the consumer is getting screwed.

Originally Posted by OCDshaver

Check out Verdant tea if you haven't settled on your go to merchant. I adore the freshness and 'terroir' - for lack of a better term. They try to price their tea such that neither the grower nor the consumer is getting screwed.

I do have a go-to merchant, I suppose: it would be David's Tea. I like buying my tea in person, where I can see and smell and (if they happen to be brewing samples that day) taste it before deciding if I want to buy it, and David's Tea meets these preferences well enough. But truthfully, they deal more in flavoured teas and teas mixed with other things, and their selection of just straight tea with nothing else can be a little lacking. Occasionally though, I'll go to some independent, local store, just to try something different. Variety and a mix-up from the usual routine is nice.

But I'll be sure to check out Verdant though. It would be nice to find some teas that I might not be able to find in shops here, or if I'm just feeling too lazy to leave the house to look for tea, so thanks for the suggestion!

Originally Posted by Senomaros

Okay now I'm curious, roughly how much do you guys pay, on average, for milk Oolong? The one I tried the other day, the Quangzhou, was $11.75/50g (which is a bit over 1.76oz) which is a bit towards the pricier side of tea, but not extravagantly expensive I don't think. Curiously though, in that local tea shop I went to today, I saw something labeled as Quangzhou Milk Oolong here too, but this one was nearly three times the price, at ~$30/50g. Now that is expensive! Is the David's Tea milk Oolong just cheaper than average, or what?

For the better ones, and the one I like the best it is around that price point. With a discount I get 100g of the good milk Oolong for $58. It is normally $68. The wife doesn't care for it as she thinks it has a spinachy smell. Me, I love it.

You need to be careful with the Milk Oolongs as well. A lot of the resellers are selling what they call Milk Oolong, but it has added flavoring. I even received a sample from one place that had powdered milk added. POWDERED MILK !! It didn't taste bad, but it definitely was not good. It was just OK.

I've not made masala chai in ages. Might do one later if I get time...

Originally Posted by PHANTZM

For the better ones, and the one I like the best it is around that price point. With a discount I get 100g of the good milk Oolong for $58. It is normally $68. The wife doesn't care for it as she thinks it has a spinachy smell. Me, I love it.

You need to be careful with the Milk Oolongs as well. A lot of the resellers are selling what they call Milk Oolong, but it has added flavoring. I even received a sample from one place that had powdered milk added. POWDERED MILK !! It didn't taste bad, but it definitely was not good. It was just OK.

Ah, that would explain it then. On the package of milk Oolong I got from David's Tea, it lists natural flavouring as an ingredient (the only other ingredient after tea), so that's probably why, then. Thanks. I think it still tasted pretty good though, but then that's the only milk Oolong I've ever had, so I don't really have anything to compare it to.