Rep your favorite tea

HAZ

Yo,Yesterday, one of my Japanese students laced me with some tea called Matcha, a special kind of green tea. I've had green tea before, like the stuff you buy in supermarkets, and & didn't think much of it, but this matcha ish is THE BOMB! I've also discovered rice tea (or I think its called rice tea) at my shabu shabu spot. I've always been a tea drinker, but just the everyday stuff like earl grey & always the cheap, supermarket brands. This matcha has got me curious to try some more real schitt teas, tho. The hommie Big Chan was telling me about a spot called Koots tea, which is a chain that's in Seattle that's supposed to have great green tea. Should I place an order? I also googled "Japanases tea ceremony" and that looks intense. Has anyone here participated in a tea ceremony? What teas should I be sippin'?PeaceHova

piedpiper

matcha is really special stuff. I don??t like it for everyday use, but it??s nice from time to time. I participated at a tea ceremony during my studies in Tokyo, but we were not allowed to participate. We had to watch the professionals celebrating the Japanese tea ceremony from a distance in the special tea ceremony house of the university. Interesting experience, but it??s sooo formal.

For everyday use I like a lot of the more usual Japanese green teas "sencha", but quality varies a lot. My favourite black teas are the first flush Darjeelings, but they are costly. There is a lot to explore in the world of tea...

HAZ

The tea ceremony looks like fun. Looking on wikipidia, there's a lot that goes into it, right down to the utencils. The thick, frothy matcha looks tasty. I'm trying to find a tea ceremony in my town, even if only to watch, but I wanna participate, too, if I can.

drums

twinings earl grey (regular). maybe not so hip, but that's easily the best one in my opinion. would like to get more into the asian stuff though. i drink alot of tea.

DJPrestige

pg tips and the earl grey....green onc ein a while..but lately it's been all about the pg

white_tea

I have been liking this Republic of Tea brand called Asani Breakfast Tea for the past few months. It has a malty finish, almost chocolately, and goes well with a little cream. Even some honey won't do it wrong.

Now that it's getting warmer though, I'm on the hunt for some lighter teas that are good hot or cold. I took a pretty long break from Earl Grey tea, but when it's iced it's pretty refreshing.

Electrode

I'm not a tea connoisseur, but the Bigalow stuff has a nice buzz to it. It comes in green packages and I don't think it's a specialty store type of thing. I quit drinking coffee regularly and I'm not turning back.

hemol

I worked as a tea buyer at whole foods, I worked as a demo rep for a tea company, and I worked at fancy tea house, so trust that I know what I'm doing when I recommend you some tea.

A quick break down:

There are teas and tisanes. Teas have actual tea leaves form tea trees, and tisanes are things like herbs, fruits, and flowers. Teas have caffeine, and tisanes don't (unless they containt chocolate, or nicotine, or cocaine).

The darker a tea is the longer it stayed on the tree before being picked and fermented (fermentation stops the oxidation process). When tea leaves oxidize caffeine goes up, and antioxidants go down. As well tannins increase and you typically wind up with more complex flavors. Many green teas are fired which gives them a nutty, and roasty flavor. Sencha, and Genmaicha (roasted rice tea) contain roasted tea leaves.

There are--for the most part--five types of tea:

White; leaves are picked very early, and thus high in antioxidants and low in caffeine; light subtle flavors very floral.

Green; leaves are allowed to oxidize a bit, but are still picked before thorough oxidization; flavors can range as roasted green teas will be nutty, while unroasted green teas will be similar to white teas.

Oolong (my personal favorite right now); oolongs have the greatest variance in oxidization, and are the most aromatic; darker oolongs are earthy and poignant while lighter oolongs can be incredibly vegetal with intense floral characteristics and high levels of oil

Black (I'm not a huge fan of black teas); black teas are typically rich and complex.

Pu-Erh; Pu-Erh is black tea that undergoes alengthy fermentation process; Pu-Erh teas can be aged for many years; Pu-Erh teas typically have strong earhty mushroom-like flavors.

Important note on brewing: white, green, and light oolong teas need to be brewed in water thats is cooler than boiling, so just add some cold water along with your boiling water. Teas usually steep for around 4 or 5 minutes.


Rishi is the company that I worked for and they have really nice, they do a lot of organic, and they deal directly with the tea farms. rishitea.com

Try a Jade oolong, try white peony, try Keemun (black tea), and if you're really feeling green tea get yourself a decent grade of dragon's well. I'd also recommend that you try a Pu-Erh after you've gotten to drinking tea for a while. The flavor is intense, so give it a few tries. It's really high in caffeine and you can brew it super strong.

bassie

lapsang souchong
genmaicha
regular green
peppermint
lavendar
mushroom
chai
tetley

edulus

that tazo green tea with the hint of mint. thats nice.

Snagglepus

Smoky goodness ... like drinking a campfire.

Snagglepus

Cherish the nectar. (Though not "tea" technically speaking)

gravelheadwrap

tea is my favorite thing to drink. while i like it hot and cold i love sun tea at anytime. it always just puts me in a good mood as cheesy as that sounds. cosign on the earl grey, been drinking that a lot lately.

misterc

Aser

haz - the rice tea you're referring to is genmaicha, which bassie mentioned.

I'm on a tie guan yin kick right now. It's classified under the oolong family, plus there's a great story behind it.

DB_Cooper

I guess it's classified as a tisane, but I've been digging something called Ani Blend for the last couple of years. It was produced by a company called MEM Tea Imports, but they stopped carrying it, as apparently I was the only one drinking it. I think it had St. John's Wort or something as one of the ingredients. Man, a big cup of that about an hour before bed with a little smoke, and you're carefree.

white_tea

Smoky goodness ... like drinking a campfire.

I'll have to try that. I never sipped campfire before.

Somebody left a box, tin rather, of Courvoisier tea in the lunchroom at my work. I took a bag home but haven't tried it yet. I'd have steeped it at work but I don't want my lunchbreak turning into a Puffy/Busta Rhymes song, as relaxing as that may be.

BigSpliff

You are all contributing to the oppression of indigenous women and children, especially with the TAZO/Coca-Cola crap.

PS: I drink 4-5 cups a day

asstro

I don't drink tea, but my wife goes about 30 cups of PG Tips or Typhoo a week. I can't imagine drinking that much of anything except for water or beer.

bthav

A quick break down:

There are teas and tisanes. Teas have actual tea leaves form tea trees, and tisanes are things like herbs, fruits, and flowers. Teas have caffeine, and tisanes don't (unless they containt chocolate, or nicotine, or cocaine).

where's yerba mate fit in?

i swear by that schiitte

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yerba_mate


got me through 2 years of sanskrit.

hemol

That was the fifth source of plant stimulant that I forgot. It's a tisane, but it has caffeine.

pcmr

That was the fifth source of plant stimulant that I forgot. It's a tisane, but it has caffeine.

thanks for the info hemol

I drank a lot of mate in peru (with lemon and honey its the best morning drink you can have on a mountain top

yerba buena was an amazing tisane they had

canela/clavo is a classic that is harder to find here in Namerica try it

cove

i really dig the twinings earl grey/green tea blend.

hemol

I think you can probably get yerba buena at Whole Foods, and I wouldn't be surprised if you can find that other stuff there too.

guy_alcindor

I drank a lot of mate in peru (with lemon and honey its the best morning drink you can have on a mountain top

You need the honey, that stuff is bitter!!! Caffeine for days, tho.

This is my schitt:

bthav

This is my schitt:

yuck doood.. you gotta brew your shit. start with the real assam:



saffron, and milk and suga to taste. dont f*ck with that best used 7 days after opening schite.

guy_alcindor

saffron, and milk and suga to taste. dont f*ck with that best used 7 days after opening schite.

The premade stuff is my comfort food. When I make chai from scratch, I go with cardamom pods, clove, cinnamon, a couple whole black pepper, and some strong mamri tea.

bthav

nuce... just checkin

frankynipplez

bozak

brown rice tea is nice.
peppermint
roastarama (tastes kinda like coffee but dont fcuk up my stomach)

I studied abroad and had this chinese kid as a roomate. he had this huge box of dried up vegtable matter in his room. it turned out to be tea. he would boil water and throw some of those joints in the cup and wait a moment. these little veg-balls unlfolded and stretched out from the hot water making the cup look like a frickin swamp. tasted real good though.

alieNDN

if anyones toronto based, go here www.tealish.com and get the walnut ave green tea, its my fave tea of all time, reminds of irish cream coffee in a way. also i second the yerba suggestion, i drink it in the mornings to replace my coffee.