tea anyone?

[mizanation]

recently, i've been into tea. i met some people at work who are big tea buffs.

anyways, been ordering different types of gourmet tea online.

also, i started reading "the book of tea" by kakuzo okakura and it's already enriched my life a great deal. it's already one of my favorite books.

so, anyone up for a cup of tea?

[Loop]

Always got time for a brew mate.

Edit:

Oh yeah, I forgot the biscuits

[slipperypete]

I love tea. I usually drink four large mugs of it a day during work. I only drink decaf or the white teas though. Here are some of my favorite varieties that I grab at my local Coop or Whole Foods:

-Yogi Tea Simply Decaf Green Tea

-Green Rooibos by Ecocert

-Tazo Lotus Decaf Green Tea

I also picked up some Silver Needle White Tea and Earl Gray from Teavana when I came across one of their shops at the mall I was at during the holiday season. Any recommendations of online teas to order? I have a tea steeper and can brew the loose stuff at home, so that wouldn't be an issue. Nice topic. By the way, I just got a refil.

[aubrgene]

Yes, tea is great and there's so much to learn. I received a box of "Lupicia" tea with assortments of green, black, and herb tea from all over the world. I still have my morning coffee, but definitely tea in the afternoons. Love them!

[viv1984viv]

god miz, I was so addicted to tea for ages, im not sure who makes em, bodum perhaps, but you can get tea pots that have a kind of cafetiere center for you to put loose leaves into, saves using a tea strainer and all the mess. My favourite are Assam, kinda rich winter tea, and ceylon, perfect tea, light thirst quenching stuff- great. I never really got in Lap sang sochang (?spelling?) or any un-traditional sorts ( although calling traditional tea traditional is kinda weird ). Drink tea out of china, it really does affect the taste. Im not such a tea fiend anymore, see coffee thread!

Milk first or last?????

[onemancult]

white, red, black, green... i love tea.

[mizanation]

hey pete,

here are two of my favorite places to get tea and tea utensils and accessories:

http://www.adagio.com

http://www.serendipitea.com

viv--we're on the same wavelength, man. i am using my bodum tea press right now. i love it. yeah, bodum is a great place to get tea cups and presses:

http://www.bodum.com

[xcoldricex]

i spent $500 on tea before i left china, $300 more when i left taiwan

it gets serious - you can pay hundreds of dollars for 100g of tea.

[englandmj7]

I am a big tea drinker but don't really dabble into many chinese, etc. teas. I drink a couple cups of the following a day (which I get at the British imports shop). American versions of English/Irish teas are disgustingly horrid:

That or PG Tipps.

My absolute FAVORITE form of tea, however, is Malaysian Teh Tarek or "pulled tea." My god, the shit is amazing (so is how they make it):

Impossible to find in the states, although Indians have something kinda similar........

[mizanation]

england, are you really from england? don't know too much about you.

coldrice, that's crazy. you have some very expensive tastes.

[turcy.]

all i can say is....LOOSE LEAF!

find your local loose leaf spot, every city has at least one gem, always cheaper, and always better than any "gourmet" packaged tea you'll ever find ANYWHERE

my local spot "special teas" imports their tea straight from africa, china, japan...wherever the tea's origins are

they have organic honeybush roiboos straight from africa, and amazing organic sencha and bancha teas from china and japan

current favourites:

japan sencha 40 - organic green tea, medium strength of flavour, so yummy

roiboos apple pie - organic roiboos, apple pieces, cinnamon, cloves

marakesh mint - a blend of chinese gunpowder tea, and some peppermint and natural flavours

brazil yerba mate (hazelnut) - a dark dark tea from brazil (obviously), its caffeine content rivals that of coffee, and it has a dark, nearly burnt aroma similar to coffee as well

[denimdestroyedmylife]

sybaritical turn me on to yerba mate

crazy stuff---------for reals

coldrice----!!!

[mizanation]

current favourites:

japan sencha 40 - organic green tea, medium strength of flavour, so yummy

roiboos apple pie - organic roiboos, apple pieces, cinnamon, cloves

marakesh mint - a blend of chinese gunpowder tea, and some peppermint and natural flavours

brazil yerba mate (hazelnut) - a dark dark tea from brazil (obviously), its caffeine content rivals that of coffee, and it has a dark, nearly burnt aroma similar to coffee as well

i'm very jealous of your tea connect.

btw, you have excellent taste in tea. i would love to taste that imported roiboos!

[englandmj7]

sybaritical turn me on to yerba mate

crazy stuff---------for reals

coldrice----!!!

Isn't this the one you are supposed to drink with the metal straw in a "bomba" gourd-thing?

[denimdestroyedmylife]

wha?!

i've been using a mug

[mizanation]

Nope, I consider myself American although I have only lived in the U.S. for about 8 years of my life.

My mom is from England, my dad is American, and my wife is from Ireland. I also lived in the UK for 2 years and visit family there every year. Guess all those contribute to the brit-influence......

As far as my SN goes, I don't really know why I chose that. I have had it since middle school :confused:

cool. i miss the UK--used to work there for a little bit. would love to go back--good curry, good pints, good design, good shoes, good....

[englandmj7]

wha?!

i've been using a mug

Yah. Check this out, dunno if it is applicable, but anyway:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mate_%28beverage%29

cool. i miss the UK--used to work there for a little bit. would love to go back--good curry, good pints, good design, good shoes, good....

Word. Love it there, but screw how expensive it is for us yanks to visit.

Is there any one tea (other than green or yerba) that is renowned for its medicinal/wellbeing enhancement? I know the Chinese probably have a thousand, but does one shine above the rest? I have heard several things about Ku Ding........

[corporategrunt]

They do say Oolong flushes down excess oil in your system - some say it prevents cancer - i don't know if any of is true, but my Taiwanese friends have given me some great ones in the past.

Jessica on Honeyee has a pretty cool tea up on her recent entry where a flower bud blooms after pouring hot water on it. (yeah, I was hoping to see her in a bikni, so?)

[slipperypete]

Thanks for the tips, Miz. I'll be sure to check out those sites. You guys all have some nice tastes in tea.

[mizanation]

england,

besides green tea, white tea is also considered very healthy due to it's large amounts of catechins. it's more subtle tasting than green tea, so some people prefer it. it is also more rare and thus more expensive.

black tea is also good for you. it's fermented so it has theaflavins and thearubigens which are supposed to promote health.

green tea and oolong tea have a good amount of both catechins and theaflavins. so they are in my opinion, the most all around healthy. the japanese drink green tea almost exclusively so it probably works.

corporategrunt - i just bought some tea that flowers from adagio:

http://www.adagio.com/misc/display_teas.html?SID=a717b9a6d3745cb75aa9c0afbe5db0f5

very nice stuff, tastes great too. a little expensive, but it's good to splurge sometimes. my russian friend tells me that they serve these in tea houses in russia for $5 bucks a cup.

[xcoldricex]

well it was a large quantity of tea and i spread the love to my parents (who i inadvertently got hooked on tea).

there's a lot of good stuff in china/taiwan - it's a bit intimidating - but you find some great stuff. if you ever take a trip to china you can probably just go to a tea shop and sample many, many teas if you find a friendly enough place. i haven't explored any of the offerings from other countries really, but i've been moving towards coffee lately.

the tea that gets really, really expensive is pu'er tea - it's (usually) made into cakes of various shapes (slabs, soccer balls, tea pots, anything really - but also comes in loose form) and is aged (one of the few teas that gets better as it's aged) - has a very earthy taste to it and can get really complex... but it's an aquired taste and i haven't explored it much. i'm a big fan of "iron goddess" tea (tie guan yin).

i actually thought about doing a trip around asia to explore tea, but i ended up doing hip-hop culture instead haha... wish i was able to visit a proper tea distributor in taiwan, as they arguably have better tea than in the mainland, but i was too busy with hip-hop battles.

[ringring]

Is there any one tea (other than green or yerba) that is renowned for its medicinal/wellbeing enhancement? I know the Chinese probably have a thousand, but does one shine above the rest? I have heard several things about Ku Ding........

Pu-erh or Po Lei tea.

Highly valued and collected in 'vintages' like wine. Good 'vintages' increase in value over time. Has all sorts of reputed health benefits. Beware of fakes.

[mizanation]

coldrice and ringring - pu-erh connoisseurs. i should have known.

fake pu-erh makes me nauseous. i've had some good stuff before though, and it's great.

good to see you ringring, i'm sure you've had some great tea on your travels around the world.

EDIT: whoa, found a great site on pu-erh:

http://www.pu-erh.net/

[coleslawyum]

I use cheap pur-eh to rinse my mouth and clean my dining table. But it probably just stains them (teeth and table).

But I have to say my favorite teas are jasmine, pur eh and oolong.

I got some jasmine tea recently made from just the stems. pretty good shit.

[lilodxd]

i'm no tea buff but i do enjoy tea often. i love love love japanese green tea. so delicious.

also jasmine and po (bo?) lei.

[Guest Goose25]

sybaritical turn me on to yerba mate

I've recently tried the Swedish Green tea 'Drakens' - holy f**k - you could run a marathon on one cup - try it!

[lilodxd]

oh man... i didn't even realize.

i have a cup of jasmine tea on my table right now!

[maxmax]

loose leaf -- mate vana blended with rooibos chai.

actually drinking it iced right now.

[xocy]

Yah. Check this out, dunno if it is applicable, but anyway:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mate_%28beverage%29

Word. Love it there, but screw how expensive it is for us yanks to visit.

Is there any one tea (other than green or yerba) that is renowned for its medicinal/wellbeing enhancement? I know the Chinese probably have a thousand, but does one shine above the rest? I have heard several things about Ku Ding........

yeah, that's mate too. it's traditionally drunk with the bombilla thing, but i've seen tea packets, too. from the tea packets i've had, it doesn't taste as strong as mate is really bitter. in uruguay, you see everyone sitting/walking around with a thermos and sometimes a mate at hand. it's pretty awesome.

as for other tea, i love celestial seasonings madagascar vanilla red. also, té de tilo/linden flower tea is so good. it's good if your feeling anxious, it will just knock you out, pretty much. haha.

[Double D]

Eh, I'm not much of a buff, but throughout the day I pretty exclusively drink good old English black tea or green tea.