What are some good teas?

[Allan]

I usually have only one cup at a time and I'm not into the whole brewing process like some people I know are. I don't have a water thermometer or timer and I usually use water out of the tap. So here's what I do:

1) I heat up the water. If its green tea I pull the kettle off just before boiling. If it's black tea I just let it boil.

2) I pour some hot water into the mug prior to brewing to get the mug hot then toss that water out.

3) I brew with one of these: tea strainer those tea-balls are a pain to use and clean and don't allow the leaves to expand as much as a strainer does.



If you like having more than one mug then a small tea pot might be the way to go.

Allan

[Toro]

They have these ceramic tea pots with a strainer. That's what I use.

[jdl22]

I like Mariage Frere. It's a French tea company with some good black teas. I really like the pleine lune and the chocolate mint, my fiance likes the wedding imperial.

[Allan]

That really is some great tea.

Allan

[sfer]

It's best just to find a tea merchant and to try some to see what you like. It's true of tea, coffee, wine, scotch, etc etc etc.

Standard supermarket tea in England tends to be quite good compared to your standard Liptons. A friend who used to live in England made me get her a big box of PG Tips when I was in London last, and I got one for myself too. It's a good, unfussy tea.

[scrub]

Tealuxe.com is a tea retailer with a great online site. I've gotten great customer service and fast shipping.

Mariage's Princeton Darjeeling is good stuff.

Dean and Deluca also sells high end teas. They carry some Mariage teas.

Most tea in bags sucks. Scrubette really likes Mighty Leaf tea, though.

scrub

[Rick Nebiolo]

Great thread. I'm more of a coffee drinker in the morning but I love hot herbal tea in the evenings before bed (except in summer). I have two of those one cup tea stainers (or something like it) but I don't live close enough to a good supply of loose tea that tastes better than the Bigelow teas in a bag (such as Sweet Dreams and the variations of Chamomile).

Made a folder of links to the various sources in this thread. I can't afford a real good new car but I might as well drink decent tea (and martinis) [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img].

~ Rick

[PoBoy321]

I come from a very, VERY Irish family, so tea has always been something near and dear to my heart, so this thread strikes a special chord.

I had a great aunt who every year around christmas time would give us a big gift basket full of Bewley's Irish Tea. It was some of the greatest stuff I've ever tasted. I'd nearly forgotten about it until you put up this post, but I looked around, found the website and remembered that some of my favorite childhood memories were sitting around on a cold morning drinking Irish Breakfast tea. She passed away a few years ago so I haven't had the stuff since, but you just gave me a great idea for what to get my parents for christmas.

[nothumb]

You've been silent so long and you come back with some crap like this. Little expat bastard.

NT

[Allan]

Rick if you like cofee you may wanna try something like Lapsang Souchong. It's got a very rich flavor with a lot of smoke to it.

Allan