Where to buy good cheap tea?

Hello,

OK if you can supply some basic info I'm sure we can point you in the right direction. Where in the U.S. are you located? I can all-to-easily relate being from Pittsburgh, PA but even here good tea can be found if you know the secrets.

What type of tea do you enjoy or would you like to try? Green, Oolong, Puerh, Black/Red, White, Herbal, etc? And if you know, from what region? China, Japan, England, etc.

A few places off the top of my head would be: teaspring.com, adagio.com, and uptontea.com I chose these three not because they are the best, but because they have a fairly wide array at fair prices with even more fair shipping rates. I find adagio to be a bit overpriced and annoying, but some people like them for certain teas.

And as to the "fishy" smell at Trader Joe's, what kind of tea was this? Some green teas can smell and taste "fishy" and in fact people like myself actually seek this out quite rabidly... however, if it was just some Earl grey stored too close to the tuna/salmon then count me out.

- Dominic Drinking: Vintage Oolong teasphere.wordpress.com

Hi Dominic, Tell me about your seeking out quite rabidly... What does this mean? I swear that I have tasted some slight maybe hint or nuance of fish in a tea I drank recently. But I cannot remember tasting it before and it was either an oolong or yintzen silver needles. This happened recently so I am going to try t reproduce it and tell you bout it. Tell me about your opinion. Jenn

The "fishy" taste that many people experience actually has nothing to do with fish but instead is generally attributed to a vegetal flavor... which in turn is preceived as "fishy." More often thannot people are turned off by this, however many people then grow a liking toward this taste and seek it out... such as myself.

I have had some very fishy tasting senchas and a few other Japanese greens, I'm always delighted to find new ones and as a matter of fact have been hunting for a strong "fishy" tasting green for over 4 months now. It's like an addiction, and I'm not alone in my draw to this flavor. It just is hard to come by and there is no "go-to" tea for it. I'm not really sure what causes the flavor, and I have had many teas that taste fishy in one years crop but not in the next... so my guess is that it is either environmental or due to processing. 10+ years later it is still a mystery to me, but I'm always happy to find a green tea that exhibits the characteristic and then buy up a pound or two.

- Dominic

Hi Dominic,

I primarily go for black tea because I make chai using that i.e. tea with spices and sweet concentrated milk.

As for the fishy smell, it was from Trader Joe's decaf English Breakfast tea and I believe in the past I smelled that from the Earl Grey

Thanks.

Hi, I am by no means a tea expert, but I do love a good cup of chai!

Some chai teas I use (in bags) are: Yogi Black Chai Tea-I buy these in health food stores. Tazo Chai-www.tazo.com Davidson's Chai blends-www.davidsonstea.com and loose chai I was able to get from Wegman's (I don't know if you have one near you) and from an online store called the Tea Caddy-www.theteacaddy.com

Hope this helps a little. :) Karen

I think the main point here is that most of us by our tea online, not at stores, so look online for the best tea and prices. :D

With that in mind, it depends on what you want. As far as black tea goes, I used to buy mine from

...but I don't drink black tea anymore, personally... :P

-Drew

Karen Giesen wrote:

snipped-for-privacy@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com10/11/06

Hi Jenn! I too like that fishy -- seaweedy, perhaps -- bit in Senchas. I seek it out rabidly.. But, only when I've forgotten to take my meds. Michael

The rest of the world drinks cheap tea which has nothing to do with the taste. You can find them in ethnic stores in large metro areas except Pittsburgh for penny/gram. I drink my share on a daily basis no matter what I pay elsewhere. To get you started locally or on the Internet Ahmad Arabic brands, Brooke Bond Indian brands, Foojoy Chinese brands. I saw your later post about Chai and the Mamri brand of stout Assam is the choice in the Indian stores. I highly recommend the CayKur Turkish brand which is readily available on the Internet. Discount stores like Ross and Tjmax carry British tea tins. The commercial prices stay a constant while the estate prices go up.

Jim

PS I always preferred Tw> Hi all,

ahh, this is completely polar opposite from my area of knowledge, but my fiance is a chai fan so I have a little input to offer. She tends to find that indian markets have a number of chai offerings that beat out grocery store teas and are generally cheaper. I believe the one she last bought is by "Fantasy" brand and it comes in a clear plastic "tub" with a teal-greenish colored plastic lid crammed full of chai teabags. I picked up a carton of the Tazo Chai that is in liquid form like they use in coffee shops once for her and she really enjoyed that.

The other option, which we haven't tried simply because I'm not into chai, is to buy all of the ingredients at the indian market and make your own. They sell Brooke Bond tea, Lipton green label, and a number of other loose black tea blends at very low prices.

...as for the Eng. breakfast tea/Earl Grey... ugh, I think it may have just been stored by the halibut, definitely NOT what I was refering to being desireable :)

HTH,

- Dominic

I've tried it. It's OK with additional spices and condensed milk. Incidentally Tazo has been bought by Starbucks, which I normally avoid.

I hear there is a Wegmans near me, but I've never seen it.

Thanks.

Oh, buddy, if you have a Wegman's you've hit the jackpot! Wegman's generally has an area called "The Tea Spot" and it is filled with tins of loose tea (generally Numi brand) and they are all decent with average prices. The real bonus is that you can bag them yourself so there are no minimum limits and you can make yourself samplers of every tea they have and spend less than $20.

Don't be afraid of the prices listed either, $40.00/lb. is very inexpensive.

- Dominic

Great. I called and they do have a bulk tea area in the organic section. Thanks for the tip...