Brewing Cups of Tea

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I got on to "young hyson" japanese organic green tea from a local health store. Not bitter at all. Gives me a very nice slight numbness on my tongue just like the tea i used to share with my old sensei. He got his from japan. $6.00/ quarter oz. Drink it twice a day, mmmmm.
 
Highly recommended is Trader Joe's Irish breakfast tea!
Article | Trader Joe's

Before that we were drinking Yorkshire Gold black tea, but they changed it and it got bitter. Same happened to PG Tips around 2013. Iconic brands ruined by new owners…

Actually accurately, it would be “Iconic brands ruined by substituting CTC teas for the original real leaf teas, and thinking the dumb-as-rocks customers wouln't figure it out”.

CTC has, in my 40 years of avid tea drinking, ruined the entire Indian-centric black tea market. I could follow with something crass, but let's leave it at that.

GoatGuy
 
Hopefully innocent question: for those of us more sensitive to caffeine, what would your recommendations be for an after-lunch tea. I relatively recently moved up from San Diego to Portland and with the cold/wet season upon us I'm going to need to need a regular pick-me-up.

I cannot remember what they were specifically, but I've had a few white teas that were quite nice. IIRC specific teas have lower/higher caffeine content versus necessarily oolong vs green vs white (+etc). That or rec's for decaf teas.

Thanks!
 
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I'll answer seriously. I've been drinking tea at least 5 times a day for the last 50 years. My pattern has gone thru a huge transition over that time.

When I was younger (20s, 30s) I was into Indian food, so my daily cup was "Chai". Ground up my own spice blend, mixed up several pounds of the tea using 3 kinds of pretty inexpensive but good tasting Indian tea leaves. TO THIS DAY, every 3 to 6 months, I make up 20 pounds of this old favorite, divide it into 3 pound bags, and 4 of them away to my kids, my mom and my very old Schoolmarm who loves it.

Now Chai comes in many forms, here I make it fresh for the missus every morning. Builders tea, grated ginger, crushed cardamoms and 3 sugars. Boil, then add milk and boil again. Not that I drink it, but small price for marital bliss. The boiling is for historical reasons as Gandhi claimed tea was bad for you so people sussed that boiling it would remove the bad stuff. (I kid you not).

I was first introduced to Mango peel infused tea backing 1985 in Germany. Back then in UK poncy tea was not easily available in the grim wastelands of my home so it wasn't till I went to uni I could find it again.

My ex-wife drank earl gray so that's off the list! These days I don't tend to have time to do it right so basic builders tea most of the time.

Now can someone explain why, when you ask for a cup of tea in most places in USA you get luke warm water and the smallest yellow twinings tea bag you can imagine. It's almost as bad as the filter coffee you can see the bottom of the cup through.

Daniel: Bummer, sorry I can't help there as caffeine is the 5th food group for me. I always assumed English afternoon was low in caffeine. Need to check.

BTW poncy alert the Tea Maker – Sage Appliances . I cannot believe people actually buy this.
 
Actually accurately, it would be “Iconic brands ruined by substituting CTC teas for the original real leaf teas, and thinking the dumb-as-rocks customers wouln't figure it out”.

CTC has, in my 40 years of avid tea drinking, ruined the entire Indian-centric black tea market. I could follow with something crass, but let's leave it at that.

GoatGuy

I had to look up "(cut, torn, curled)" so I'd love to hear more about this!
 
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Lipton Yellow Label Orange Pekoe loose leaf is my favorite CTC Turd tea!

I buy it in a box that contains 2 X ~ 1lB sealed foil bags. Its usually out of date or soon to expire when I get it for some reason, Maybe its not popular :confused:
Great stuff.
Goatguy described it well, Needs milk and sugar or even better sweetened condensed milk!

I drink Darjeeling when I want to have something soothing, smooth and light.

With regards to making it, again I like Goatguys style. No muss no fuss.

I use a percolator, no kidding. I learned about "perking" it from a lady who owned a tea shop. Many moons ago (25 years?) I went to her store to repair her computer and she offered a cup of tea which I gladly accepted. I saw her use the percolator and shivered in my shoes, well thats just uncouth!
She must have seen the expression on my face or something and said just taste it or something to that effect.
I have been perking my tea ever since.
N.B. I would not perk Green tea.

Andrew
 
Hopefully innocent question: for those of us more sensitive to caffeine, what would your recommendations be for an after-lunch tea. I relatively recently moved up from San Diego to Portland and with the cold/wet season upon us I'm going to need to need a regular pick-me-up.

I haven't been really thrilled by the decaffeinated teas that I've tried to date (the process seems to suck the life and flavor out of them), but there are plenty of tea-like infusions that might fit the bill. You might start by trying mugi-cha (roasted barley tea). Common in Japan, Korea and elsewhere. Other roasted grains like corn can also make a tasty drink, as can flowers like crysanthemum, which makes a slightly medicinal-tasting drink with a beautiful yellow color.

If you can find them, some of the bagged Korean teas by Ssanggye are worth a try - they've got a number of "lifestyle" offerings and while I've liked some better than others, I haven't found any to be disagreeable. I buy these off the shelf at Korean supermarket chain H-Mart but some can be had through the likes of Amazon:

Amazon.com : (Tea Collection) Chrysanthemum Flower Herbal Loose Tea 25g(0.9oz) For Vegan : Grocery & Gourmet Food
 
As a Brit I prefer Yorkshire Tea or Tetleys. I now mainly drink decaff; Yorkshire is the only one I have found which tastes nearly as good as their proper tea.

My least favourite are Liptons and Twinings, and I cannot understand why these are often the only brands on sale in European supermarkets. If you are going to stock tea for your English visitors, at least make it a tea which they might drink at home.
 
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I buy some loose leaf teas from Upton tea which is here in MA. (Order it on the internet)

My mom loves PG Tips and Yorkshire tea. (She's British as you might have guessed.)

I like Twinings particularly their Lapsang Souchong and Lady Gray. Their teas may differ for the U.S. market as I occasionally import tea from the UK directly and it's not always the same . Their Earl Gray is a now a shadow of itself and I prefer others - used to be my absolute favorite for daily drinking. I also like PG Tips, but not too crazy about Yorkshire tbh. Fortnum Mason both loose and in bags is one of my favorites - in particular the Earl Gray.

Drinking a cuppa Stash double bergamot earl gray.

Tea is always better in a pot, but it is so rare for me to make one these days. The ritual is fun.

Well I do live in New England, one of the former colonies.. :)
 
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