The Perfect Tea?

onesecondglance

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Do you mean squeezing out the leaves? I wouldn't squeeze a tea bag unless I was unable to let it steep long enough. It does change the flavour - I think the leaves act as a kind of filter medium. If it's not strong enough, just leave it to steep for longer, or use more leaves.
 

Curlz

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Oh, and there's a tea shop where I live that has a really amazing almond biscotti black tea that is lovely hot or iced.
Googled that... can't find it this side of the Pond. Boo! But we got "Cookies & Cream" tea :e2tongue::e2dance::Coffee:

New tea-related question - had a student in class last week and she said I shouldn’t be “juicing” my tea pod after steeping.
Apparently this adds more tannins or bitterness ...
That's what everybody tells me in Real Life while squeezing their tea-bag ;) Nobody has the patience to wait. Besides, adding milk and sugar fixes the taste afterwards. But yes, in my experience squeezing it does add bitterness and I avoid it if I'm just lounging around the house all day and have plenty of time to make proper tea.
 

Shadow_Ferret

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My favorite tea is Earl Grey. I have a black Earl Grey. A green Earl Grey. A decaf black Earl Grey. An Earl Grey black cream (I think they add vanilla). All loose leaf teas from a local tea company, Fava Tea (they ship). I have yet to try their lavender Earl Grey black or their Earl Grey Oolong. I also have a double Burgamont Earl Grey from Stash.

And when I use a tea bag, I always squeeze it to get the excess fluid out, otherwise I'm denied that tablespoon's worth of tea. I've never noticed it making the tea bitter. But since I use loose leaf teas and an infuser basket, I don't try to get the extra fluid out of the leaves.
 

SimaLongfei

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I still remember my lost love of teas. The Good Earth Vanilla Chai tea. I did love chai because the more flavor a tea had, the less sugar I'd need to put in to make it palatable. Vanilla just put it over the top in Best Tea, as I needed nothing more than milk and the teas was delicious and smooth with a little chai spiciness.

They have since discontinued it for these horrendously named and flavored teas like Sweet Chai of Mine. I tried it, I really wanted to love TGE's tea again, but they throw in all sorts of 0 calorie sweeteners. It's too diet-tasting to be good, and too sweet to add sugar. Now, I drink PG Tips for my black tea.

I'll never forget you, TGE Vanilla Chai! Taken out of this world before your time ...
 

lonestarlibrarian

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I started drinking tea when I started cutting back on Coke. It gave me the caffeine kick I needed, without all the high-fructose corn syrup that goes with it. :)

I'm pretty pedestrian with my go-to's. I like rotating between Red Rose, Tetley, and assorted Twining's. (English Breakfast, English Afternoon, Irish Breakfast, Prince of Wales.) I used to flavor them with local honey and half-and-half (or whipping cream), but I've cut back on my sugar, so now I just add the dairy.

I found that green tea was better than I remembered the last time I tried it, but I can't bounce between black tea and green tea. It takes a smidge of adjustment.
 

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I'm cracking open a white tea-melon loose leaf blend from our local tea shop (it was on sale and I was curious).
 

Enlightened

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I mostly drink green teas, but I buy flavored teas to improve the taste of hot cocoa. Steep a bag of raspberry, peppermint, or something like that in 2 oz (quarter cup) of water. Pour in regular cocoa powder. Blend. Fill with water or milk and water. No need to ever buy flavored cocoa powder again. Holiday teas are great to stock up on (like cranberry vanilla wonderland or sugar cookie sleigh ride by Celestial Seasonings); have flavored cocoas all year. This works great for cappuccinos and the like. It turns boring, homemade variants of these into something resembling Starbucks coffees. I did this a lot while in college.

I make health drinks. I steep green tea and it becomes my water for protein shakes with berries and turmeric. Tastes great, and a nice way to get the antioxidants without having to taste the tea (if it is not appealing).
 

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I'm a big believer in Yorkshire Tea when I need a caffeine hit -- it's as strong as most coffees, but doesn't make me shaky or anxious, which is a huge plus. I also love this "harvest blend" thing that Trader Joe's comes out with in the fall, which is essentially really delicious chai. Aside from that, I'll drink pretty much any kind of tea if it's available.
 

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I'm hoping to pick up some spearmint herbal tomorrow. I've read it's supposed to help with skin problems.
 

Marissa D

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I've recently switched from coffee to black tea in the morning because I like both equally, but take tea with milk as opposed to coffee with half-and-half--saves some fat out of my diet. So I'm taste - testing for the best English Breakfast I can find. So far the EB I brought home from Harrods is the best, followed by Harney's. Whittard's was meh and lost out to PG Tips. The testing will continue...


.
 

Marissa D

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Am I the only one who hates tea?
I feel nothing drinking it plus I hate hot drinks.

Umm...if you hate tea and hot drinks in general, then why bother posting in a discussion ABOUT tea? And yeah, in this thread you probably are the only one who hates tea.

Sorry--I just don't get it when people do this sort of post. What do you think you're adding to the conversation?
 

konstantineblacke

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I drink Welsh Glengettie tea (I get my mammy to send it to me) :) Nice tea, strong and refreshing!
 

konstantineblacke

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I'm a big believer in Yorkshire Tea when I need a caffeine hit -- it's as strong as most coffees, but doesn't make me shaky or anxious, which is a huge plus. I also love this "harvest blend" thing that Trader Joe's comes out with in the fall, which is essentially really delicious chai. Aside from that, I'll drink pretty much any kind of tea if it's available.

I have Yorkshire Tea when the Glengettie Tea runs out :)
 

Snitchcat

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Yorkshire Tea, PG Tips, and Tetley (in that order), with skimmed milk and no sugar.
Infusions, e.g., berries and other fruits, lemon and lime, ginger.
Almost all Chinese teas, e.g., Pu'er, Jasmine, Xiang'pian, Sou'mei, Oolong, Rose Tea, Tieguanyin, Long'jin
Chinese infusions, e.g., ginger and honey, kamquat and honey, lemon and honey, bamboo, etc.
Japanese green tea.
 

onesecondglance

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Yorkshire Tea, PG Tips, and Tetley (in that order), with skimmed milk and no sugar.

This makes me happy. Skimmed milk gets a bad rap for being tasteless, but that's actually what I want in this kind of tea. Temper the tannins but don't make it taste like a milky drink - job done.
 

Ol' Fashioned Girl

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I love tea... black more than green... and I just don't get the whole 'decaffeinated' thing (for tea or coffee) at all. There's a little mom-n-pop here in Oklahoma that will mix teas for their patrons and I get a wonderful peach/wildflower infused mixture from them. I was also introduced to Typhoo by a friend of a friend several years ago and seem to be always on the hunt for it here. Love Lady Grey and Jasmine... Other than that, I'll try just about any tea, any time.
 

Marissa D

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I get the decaffeinated thing because if I drink caffeinated coffee, it does bad things to me. I wake up at 2 in the morning with my heart pounding. Not pleasant, so when I drink coffee, I drink decaf. Not much I can do about it, because I genuinely like the taste of coffee.

Curiously, though, regular tea doesn't do it. Part of why I switched from coffee to tea.
 

RedRajah

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The husband's been trying to cut back his caffeine intake due to his Meniere's. So, I picked him up some decaf Earl Grey at the FLTS. :)
 

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I love both coffee and tea. When I was coding, I drank strong black coffee continuously from early morning to late at night. My brain was able to hold more dancing mice at a time when bathed in caffeine. I used to say I drank coffee because frequent trips to the restroom kept me fit.

When I switched to writing, I found that high levels of caffeine were not required after lunch, but tea was helpful. I generally prefer green to black because black tea tends to sour my stomach, although that might be because I often over brew.

I like to throw some green tea into a thermos, dump in boiling water, then drink small cup after small cup from the thermos. I can go through two quart thermoses in a long afternoon. That doesn't work too well with most black tea although I can get a way with it with Chinese black tea (hong cha, or Keemun). Basic dragon well (lung ching) is my staple, although Jasmine and wu lung (Oolong) are in my rotation. I prefer to buy tea in Chinese grocery stores, although Trader Joe has Irish Breakfast tea bags that are cheap and good when bags are required.
 

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The husband's been trying to cut back his caffeine intake due to his Meniere's. So, I picked him up some decaf Earl Grey at the FLTS. :)

Please forgive the derail, but where did you hear about caffeine and Meniere's? Asking because I narrowly averted a spell of vertigo again today (thank heaven for meclazine).
 

cornflake

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Please forgive the derail, but where did you hear about caffeine and Meniere's? Asking because I narrowly averted a spell of vertigo again today (thank heaven for meclazine).

I don't have it, but have heard that as well -- that it can exacerbate symptoms, especially audological ones.
 

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Thanks. Exercised a little google-fu and found a few references to caffeine. Info is much appreciated.

To speak to the actual subject of this thread -- there is some wonderful flavored Rooibus tea (which contains no caffeine) available from Republic of Tea. My favorite is ginger peach rooibos, and DH's is vanilla rooibos.