Thread: Tea anyone ??!!

Originally Posted by STF

Wasn't trying to knock Red Rose Bob, I have one cup of coffee a day, although to be fair my cup is the size of a bucket.

Maybe it's because I'm English but except for that one coffee, I'm a tea drinker, especially for breakfast.

I can't imagine coffee with my cornflakes. Nice cuppa with milk and two sugars, well sweet and low.

I was just being cheeky and personally don't care who likes what as it is a personal choice which varies person to person. Then there are also cultural differences to consider on top of that also. So long as you enjoy your cup of choice is all that matters.

Bob

Originally Posted by BobH

Yes, please do leave it for us. The only Red Rose tea I will drink is their Black Orange Pekoe. Actually any black Orange Pekoe will do. That is about as fussy as I get concerning teas. Generally, so long as it is dark enough that I can't see the bottom of the cup and has a couple of sugar in it I am good to go. Drinking tea for me is a rarity though. A good decaf coffee, there aren't many, black is my go to now.

Bob

When I first started drinking tea black tea was all I was interested in. Over time I discovered high mountain tea then oolong, then puh ehr, then green tea, etc...not necessarily in that order but you take my meaning. The beauty of any such pursuit is that as your interests expand your horizons simply broaden. I still love black teas. There are simply more places for me to go now and sadly the same number of hours in the day , which seem shorter as a result.

I agree with Paul. Another thing to say is that the tea journey is quite lonely. At least it was here in Greece and in some other European countries that I lived in the past. I say lonely because nobody knows anything about real tea and you have to discover it yourself. Even the shops, and even the ones that claim to be high end shops, all that they offer is low quality chemically-flavored tea. Nobody will guide you to loose-leaf, high-quality tea. It doesn’t even exist in the market. The last two decades some things have changed and you can find also some medium to high quality teas hidden under the flavored-teas showcases.
The same does not happen for wine for example. Even if you are completely ignorant, the moment you sit in the restaurant and watch the menu you can find high quality wines and order them just looking for the prices. They are everywhere. The same goes for the other upper quality poisons like whiskey, brandy, champagne and so on.

Being a tea-drinker makes you go against the crowd (just like straigh-razor shaving). Everybody drinks coffee here. You are that lonely, a bit weird but confident guy, that prefers tea over coffee. About a month ago, an ex-girlfriend from university, which lives in the northern part of the country and I don’t see her for years, was passing by my city and called me to meet. The first thing to say to the telephone was “I am passing by; do you have time for a tea? I missed our tea sessions”. After many years, she remembered that I was that strange guy who was proudly drinking tea ��.

My tea story is very similar to the straight razor story. My first shave when I was teenager was with a brush and a cream that I bought from the supermarket. Everybody, including my father, was shaving with the canned cream or with electric shavers at the time. I had this concept of the traditional shaving in my mind from old movies that I had seen. Once, I found a shavette and I tried it. It was a disaster.
When internet came to our lives, I discovered that traditional shavers actually exist and I am not alone. I discovered the market of straight razors, the equipment, the plethora of soaps and creams and shaving software and a whole new world began regarding shaving.
The same goes for the tea. If it wasn’t for the internet, I would have never discovered the world of high-quality tea, the huge market around it, and the chinese gong-fu brewing.

Straight shaving and tea sessions have some similarities. They are both humble. If you are not humble with a straight razor and you don’t handle it with respect, it will punish you. They are both full of natural pleasures, smells and feelings; and they are "earthy". Both in straight shaving and gong-fu tea drinking you enjoy the natural materials, the water and its the warmth, the blade and the herb, the natural scents. At the end, they both leave you with a natural satisfaction that could never be achieved with an electric shaver or a milkshake drink.

Well put. I too have spent my life as a tea lover alone. In the US there is still a vestigial disinclination to drink hot tea because of the tea tax in the 18th century. In the south the tea is all iced tea, which I also love, but hot tea is reserved for little old ladies in victorian dresses eating sandwiches so small they just make you mad. Even then it is all just flavored tea and nothing very good, let alone fine. So being a man, in the south, in the US it was, and still is, very lonely.
I actually stumbled onto fine teas by accident when a local Barnie's tried carrying a line of fine teas. I got to smell the samplers and thought they were fabulous but I was shocked by the price. Apparently I was not alone because they eventually went on clearance. I bought some reluctantly and loved it so much that I went back and bought everything I could...I think all they had. Afterwards I would gladly have paid twice the original price had I been able to find it. Fortunately there was a connoisseur's shop mainly concentrated on wines and cheeses but the owner would order tea for me.
Eventually there came the internet and then, like slur said, the whole world changed. Since then I am able to buy those teas that before were a thing only of legends.

Just enjoyed a cup of loose black tea with rose petals and a splash of milk, along with three Whole Foods "Chocolate Sandwich Cremes" (Oreo cookies). The tea was brewed in a two-cup Chatsford teapot. Not sure if any of this makes me a tea lover or not.

3 weeks until a caming trip in NW Wisconsin. Snow blowing or 80'f that time of year.Tent camping with a fire for brewing tea in a "coffee pot".

Any thoughts on a tea I could get in Minnesota by that time and at a "reasonable" price.

A good Russian caravan would be good for that.

https://www.uptontea.com/afternoon-t...-tea/p/V00411/

Last week I bought a very affordable Oolong tea made in Thailand.
It is a low oxidation oolong.
I am sure their tea trees came from Taiwanese Oolong trees and the manufacture process is copy/paste from Taiwan. It has the same scent and taste profile. Medium thickness, creamy taste, maybe some milk, biscuits. But compared to the Taiwanese Oolongs it is very wick. And it dies quickly, 4-5 decent brews. Maybe the trees were too young. The picking was done correctly. Look at the second photo. Large-picked leaves, as it should be for an oolong, and stalks with 2-3 leaves, typical of the Taiwanese oolongs. Fair for the price.

Nice. Years ago, probably 10 or more, Republic of Tea had a floral Ti Kuan Yin that was fabulous. It would brew 7-8 times starting with an orchid note and with a nicely developing character that changed with each brew. Since then it has not been the same and I have had a hard time finding one that was comparable. I have tried many Formosa oolongs trying to find a "special" grade and some were quite good but nothing to write home about.

Tie Kuan Yin is a wonderfool oolong and a whole category of its own. It can be very pricey as well. I am afraid that the same quality that you got 10 years ago will be much more expensive now if you find it. Tea prices have gone up last years. For this reason many tea shops import lower quality teas just to keep the same prices.