Newbie Tea drinker question

Hey Jane. I would suggest trying loose-leaf tea. I get mine from Upton Tea Imports (online), but others have found good luck with SpecialTeas, and others. A good breakfast tea is perfect to start the day. I have tons of Wilson Ceylon Breakfast tea that I got from Water and Leaves, in trade for some web work, and have basically been relying on that for my tea fix. A good Assam or Darjeeling would also do the trick, as far as tasting good and waking you up. These take milk and sugar well, too, at least the second-flush Darjeelings (i.e. summer pickings) and any of the Assams.

My teapot is a Chatsford, from Upton's. It comes with a strainer basket, so that you don't have to manually strain the tea. Very handy. I'm sure others here will have lots of suggestions, but they will probably all be focused on loose-leaf.

Hope you're well,

Ian

Do the teas, above, require milk to taste good or to bring out its best flavor? Also, I like to sweeten my tea and use Equal. Would honey be better and if so, why? (I'm trying to learn)

What is the benefit of loose-leaf over tea bags? The obvious answer would be the amount you could use, but at this point, I would be afraid I might use too much, or too little, and not know based on the amount, the proper steeping time.

Thank you for your response!

Jane

No, they don't require milk. I just mentioned it because that's how I take my own tea. Darjeeling especially tastes good without milk.

I personally like the natural taste of either sugar or honey. Equal to me tastes very artificial. It's quite subjective, and trial and error would sort out the problem.

Loose-leaf tastes better ... it's a higher-quality grade. The stuff they put in tea bags is basically dust that gets left over from the production of loose-leaf tea. In fact, some of the nice Darjeelings over at Upton's are wonderful, and can't be matched by a tea bag.

I would use less than you think you need, and steep according to leaf size. A tea bag will steep in half a minute, a big leaf will take up to five or six. Again, it's trial and error. That's part of the joy of making tea. If you know you like drinking it, you can't really go wrong with investing in a teapot and a bag or two of loose-leaf. There's also the old plastic strainer ball that you can put in your mug, that does the same thing.

Hope you're well,

Ian

I second the recommendation for getting something from Assam, however, I would caution you about using sweetener. I used to take my tea with milk, but stopped (since I didn't have anymore access to milk), and found that tea is much more interesting if you drink it without adding anything. Avoid anything marked 'lipton'. I would honestly avoid anything by celestial seasonings as well, but I can't speak to thier herbal tea. As previously stated, teas that are sold loose are generally of a much higher quality than the stuff from bags, although occasionally you come accross something decent. I have personally had good experiences with specialteas.com, and particularly enjoy thier harmutty estate assam (TGFOP, not the GFBOP-S). I would recommend getting a small swissgold filter, they're about $15 and the one I've had for a year now still works perfectly.

Most folks will tend to drink both of them with milk, but I think there are a lot of assams and darjeelings that can hold up perfectly well by themselves.

If you don't want to drink with milk, I'd be more apt to suggest trying china black teas like yunnan or darjeeling types.

Constant Comment is a Ceylon base tea with orange and clove added. If you like it, you may also like the Uva-grown Ceylon teas as well.

One major benefit is that it costs a lot less money to use loose teas of similar grade. Another is that a lot of better teas are only available loose. Perhaps the most important is that you get better circulation of water around the leaves when they are not all stuffed into a little bag.

Considering that a good basket like the Chatsford or Republic of Tea models is under five dollars, I think it's a good investment.

And, if you decide you like your black tea with cloves and orange peel, you can toss it in yourself and make it exactly the way you prefer it.

--scott

"china black teas like ... darjeeling"? You must have meant something else, right, Scott?

/Lew

I meant keemun but can only plead sleep deprivation.

--scott

Then you *need* Keemun.

/Lew

Peruse ethnic markets. Asian for good Chinese and Japanese bancha or sencha greens and oolongs.....Arabic or persian for some really nice darker teas: I like Sadaf special blend or Earl Grey, Ahmad or Shaharzad. I don't buy tea anywhere else anymore. The price is right and the tea is always great (if you find what you like).

Pete

No tea "requires" milk or sweetener. Best to try each one without milk or sweetener before trying them with. That way, you will have tasted the true essence of the tea. Some teas have a natural sweetness inherent in the leaf. Yunnan and Keemun are among them. These may just be your cup of tea. I personally feel that the taste of a Darjeeling tea will be harmed by milk or sugar.

There is beauty in the leaves in the water, which you miss when you use teabags. Teabags, more often than not, are made from vastly inferior tea. Teabags prevent the tea from swimming around freely in the water, which compromises their imparting flavor to the tea liquor. Some say the teabag material imparts unwanted flavors to the tea. The best teas are not available in teabags, only in loose form.

You are quite welcome.

Michael

Wow, this is deep.

In article , Araxen took the hamburger meat, threw it on the grill, and I said "Oh Wow"...

This is waaay too involved. It's tea.