flavoured tea & purists?

I'll drink the stuff, but mostly only if it is the only thing on hand. It's not like it is bad, but it doesn't give me the same satisfaction as straight up tea does.

Aaron W. Hsu

blasphemy !!!!!!!!!!

...except for jasmine and earl grey

:)

I think conceptually they aren't a bad idea, but unfortunately in most cases they wind up being pretty nasty. Many of them appear to be designed to appeal to people who believe tea is good for them but who don't like tea.

That said, I have been very impressed with ITC's osmanthus tea, and I will occasionally drink a jasmine or lotus tea.

--scott

I like apple juice, but will drink a mulled cider. Similarly, there are times when a tea/tisane mixture seems right. I have a spiced Christmas tea I often drink in December. Iced tea often tastes right with lemon or peppermint. Toci

I prefer adding dried fruits and flowers. My favorite these days American honeysuckle. In the old days I think scents were used with inferior teas. I am always suspicious of scents from something I cant see. My local tea shoppe sells it share of scented teas. I buy them when they dont sell. They tasted good with my last cold. I think nowadays nothing wrong with the base tea. I think sooner or later someone wonders what tea taste like without the scent. Once you learn each tea has its own aroma and flavor you dont need scents. Some Darjeeling is so pathetic you should add a drop of muscatel wine.

Jim

I really like King's 509 Dark Superfine. Other flavored teas do not do it for me. ~grasshopper

I would say that jasmine and earl grey, but especially earl grey, are poor examples of flavored teas. :-) I don't consider those good examples of tea in general.

Aaron W. Hsu

I was in Teavana yesterday. They were selling some scented teas 50% off. That gives me hope nobody is drinking the stuff.

Jim

Oh... also... what's the point of flavoring a white tea? They are sufficiently subtle that the tea flavour is pretty much lost when you add anything to it. Then again, maybe that's the point. Sheesh.

--scott

I like Kam Wo (or Gan He, in Mandarian), which mixes Pu'er and Chinese herbs. It's supposedly medicinal but, at least in the version from Best Tea House in Hong Kong, really tastes good.

Also, osmanthus oolong can be nice.

/Lew

I think that drinking the "Fruitty" stuff doesn't rise to the level of blasphemy, It is however,to coin a phrase, "Not my Cup O' tea." That being said, I truly do not mind a fruit flavoured tea as long as the tea is a quality whole, loose leaf tea and there are dehydrated pieces of the fruit in the mix. Several years ago I had a Ceylon White Tea with Mango and found that tea absolutely wonderful. Unfortunately have not found that tea since then, but would make it a regular purchase should i be able to find it once again.

Mike

I'd say this is the heart of the problem with flavored teas. Usually, they aren't high quality teas, and they usually don't have really quality fruit in them either. The flavoring is often a mix of artificial and natural flavors, processed who knows how many times, and the tea sometimes wouldn't even pass muster at Lipton.

Aaron W. Hsu

I think the reason for this is mostly that people who are serious about tea generally don't drink this stuff. And if you really must, it's probably safer / better to mix your own.

What I would suggest is that people who drink these kind of teas look for unscented / unflavored teas which naturally have similar qualities to the flavored teas they like.

I agree. I always assumed that the flavoured white teas were merely catering to people who don't drink tea because they like tea, but want the proposed health benefits from it (and which is probably conspicuously absent in the blends which have very little actual tea in them).