So I want to get more into tea. I was mainly into fruit teas, but want to venture out into the world of tea.
I am looking for something to replace my late morning/early afternoon 2nd cup of joe. I like adding milk and a bit of sweetener.
I’m open to suggestions and partial to Harney & Sons Tea because I know the son and played WoW with him.
Danke.
(Edit: it took me various searches to find the original thread using “tea” “chai” “coffee”, then I realized “oolong” was the better search term. Bollocks to that search function of garbage.)
I personally can’t stand most sweetened teas. Sometimes they’re made too sweet, and they’re not even healthy. Those brands that call themselves “tea” like Snapple or Brisk are total bullshit.
I highly recommend Ito En. I pick these up at Daiso whenever I get the chance (they might also be available at your local grocery store). It’s all natural, loose leaf tea with zero sweetener, and it’s not over-roasted or disgustingly bitter.
If you’re willing to buy your tea online, there is an Australian company called T2 which makes excellent black tea blends. I am a particular fan of the Melbourne breakfast blend which is nice and floral. They also have a lamington flavour which is chocolate-coconutty which is super lovely. It ain’t cheap though. http://www.t2tea.com/en/us/tea/black-tea/
Not sure if they have many brick and mortar stores in the US.
There’s a place called Adagio Teas that has regular (pretty quality) teas as well as some weirdly branded teas that cater to the likes of Overwatch and Steven Universe and shit. I dunno if those blends are any good or just gimmicky.
I usually just buy loose leaf genmaicha from Uwajimaya. I used to buy from Adagio but it’s just so much cheaper to buy from Uwajimaya.
I love tea but I’m not particular on what tea brand it is. I just buy the grocery store brands. The break room at my work carries all of the bigelow teas. I like to mix the black tea or green teas with one of the flavored herbal teas. Black tea and apple cinnamon go really well together.
Harney and Sons is pretty good stuff. Their Early Grey Supreme has been one of my go-to standard daily teas for a long time.
They’re also a good source for any of the straight regional varieties that are actually about the tea rather than the fruit blended into it. If you want a good generic black tea for adding milk and sweetener to, I might recommend one of their cheaper Assams (they have several, but if you’re adding milk you don’t need very fancy tea.) For something slightly fancier, I also like their “Holiday Tea” (black tea with a bunch of spices, but it’s a different set of spices than your typical masala chai.)
If you do want to branch out into tea more generally, I’d recommend trying a few completely unadulterated (no non-tea addons in the blend or in the cup) varieties to see what the “true” experience is about, for comparison. There’s a huge variety in flavor between varieties, actually, so if you can find a local store that does tastings, that’s an excellent way (H&S has such a place in NYC, but I’m not sure if they have other locations as well.)
Wow, when I was on holiday there I grabbed the milk tea wherever I went (mostly Family Mart or other corner stores), maybe it was just the different taste that I can’t get over here.
I really loved the cold green tea over there, so much thicker than what you get overseas.
My Mum has an entire draw of T2 flavours, then again she also collects tea kettles and tea cups and is constantly drinking tea of all sorts.
I had no idea there was a lamington flavoured tea, I’ll have to check that one out.
My day-to-day tea is Tetleys, brewed strong and in great quantities, though I like Taylors of Harrogate when I can get it. Which is a lot less, now that I don’t live a 40 minute ride from Harrogate. Madura also have some pretty decent brews, and they have a really good Assam for the money, if that’s what you’re into.
Personally, I like my tea strong but with little bitterness to it. I use extra tea leaves and pour in water at a lower temperature than usual.
One of my favourites is Genmaicha, green tea with popped rice in it. Even though the rice was originally used by poor people for filler, it gives a real nice toasty nutty flavour. I find it to be almost comforting and helps me relax during a break.
You should try the French earl grey if you like floral black teas, it has no bergamot but instead hibiscus and rose petals. I have not heard of the lamington flavour! I must give it a try. I personally am a big fan of New York Breakfast, which somehow tastes like pancakes.
