Rep your favorite tea
HAZ
3,376 Posts
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
Comments
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...
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.
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.
genmaicha
regular green
peppermint
lavendar
mushroom
chai
tetley
Smoky goodness ... like drinking a campfire.
Cherish the nectar. (Though not "tea" technically speaking)
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.
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.
PS: I drink 4-5 cups a day
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.
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
You need the honey, that stuff is bitter!!! Caffeine for days, tho.
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.
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.
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.