The Official FOFC Tea-Drinkers thread

[DaddyTorgo]

As promised, the tea thread.

What are you guys drinking now? What have you liked in the past?

Ever wanted to make your own tea?? I've got a friend from HS who started a business for people to do just that. He imports green tea leaves and will ship them to you so you can make your own.

http://bostonteawrights.com/

[Warhammer]

Samurai Chai Matte
Earl Grey
Moroccan Mint

[Peregrine]

I drink coffee occasionally, but really only as a special occasion like after a nice dinner or a monthly trip to Starbucks - mostly I am all about tea. I started with Two Leaves Tea - they have really good quality tea bags (cachets) and I have tried most of theirs. From there I have gone into loose leaf - right now I am working through a big Adagio package I got for my birthday, with all kinds of different flavors. I occasionally make a trip to our local Teavana store to buy its overpriced tea.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

I drink coffee occasionally, but really only as a special occasion like after a nice dinner or a monthly trip to Starbucks - mostly I am all about tea. I started with Two Leaves Tea - they have really good quality tea bags (cachets) and I have tried most of theirs. From there I have gone into loose leaf - right now I am working through a big Adagio package I got for my birthday, with all kinds of different flavors. I occasionally make a trip to our local Teavana store to buy its overpriced tea.

Adagio is good stuff - my uncle turned me on to them. I have a Teavana right next door to my apartment, so I have a couple teas from there - Javavana Mate (which is delicious), and Samurai Chai Mate (which is delicious, but is hideously overpriced there on the Oolong side of it...jeezus H fucking christ), along with a White Earl Grey and an Herbal Orange (those 2 were gifts from my sister for Xmas and frankly don't get drunk as much as the others) right now, but my next order will be from Adagio, unless you guys turn me on to something else.

[Peregrine]

Personally I tend to make tea one cup at a time, though I have some teapots for when I know I will want to drink a few cups - what I really love are the Finum brew baskets I got off of Amazon - really great filters for making tea one cup at a time.

The below is a medium size, there is also a larger one for different size cups (and mine are all kinds of sizes.) Easy to use, easy to wash, and they have a very fine screen for those tiny leafed teas - great product.

Amazon.com: Finum Brewing Medium Basket, Red: Kitchen & Dining

[DaddyTorgo]

For the actual making of the tea I've been using one of these

Magisso - Teacup

[Peregrine]

I love these teapots - nice and light, variety of sizes, and come with a nice metal strainer.

http://www.beehouseteapot.com/beehouse.htm

[Young Drachma]

Rare Tea Company sells this black tea blend called Royal Air Force tea. Royal Air Force Tea | Rare Tea Company

I got it as a throw in, when I ordered some of their Lost Malawi Tea and Tie Guan Yin and the RAF tea has turned out to be one of my favorites. Just a lovely blend. It's strong, but not too strong.

Tea Spot sells this blend called Boulder Blues, it's a fruity, amazing smelling green tea blend that I always use for getting new people interested into loose leaf, because it's very useful for that purpose.

My staples are probably India Malty Assam, FTGFOP Second Flush Darjeeling, Kenya FOP, Russian Caravan, Moroccan Mint and this Mandarin Orange Green Darjeeling that my tea store in Ft. Collins sells.

Always mixing it up, though.

[Peregrine]

I'll give that RAF tea and the Boulder Blues a try YD - both look really nice.

[Peregrine]

I've been drinking a lot of Octavia Lime Blossom tea as iced tea lately - nice lime taste which is fine as hot but especially nice as iced tea.

[Kodos]

Any hot beverage sucks.

[Peregrine]

Adagio teas lets people make their own blends, and some of them are really fantastic - you can see the most popular ones here - I can definitely vouch for the Tardis blend and the Felix Felicis being awesome.

Adagio Teas: Most Popular Signature Blend

[terpkristin]

I like tea.

/tk

[Peregrine]

Young Drachma thanks for the recommendation of the RAF tea from Rare Tea Company - I tried some of their other teas as well and they are fantastic - expensive but seem to be worth it.

I also bought a Breville One-Touch Tea Maker recently - the gizmo that automates the whole infusion process, and am loving it (again, despite the cost.) It's really improved the consistency of the tea I am brewing.

[DaddyTorgo]

I got the raw tea leaves from my buddy the other day...now I just need the time to like...make the tea.

Looking forward to it.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

Young Drachma thanks for the recommendation of the RAF tea from Rare Tea Company - I tried some of their other teas as well and they are fantastic - expensive but seem to be worth it.

I also bought a Breville One-Touch Tea Maker recently - the gizmo that automates the whole infusion process, and am loving it (again, despite the cost.) It's really improved the consistency of the tea I am brewing.

So glad you enjoyed it. Totally worth it for sure!

[Young Drachma]

Dola

If you live in Pittsburgh, Portland (ME), Asheville, Burlington (VT) or Madison (WI) you should check out Dobra tea.

Dobratea

Their tea menu is absurd, it's a gigantic book of tea from all over the world. It's a bohemian sort of joint and all that entails, but you can buy tea loose and not have to sit and drink. Just a fantastic tea experience. It's my favorite place in Burlington when I visit and spent literally my summers there when I had time off, but they've grown substantially in the past few years back in the day it was just the BTV and the Madison shops.

Apparently now they also sell their tea online, so you can check out just a fraction of what they have in the actual store online.

[Young Drachma]

Double Dola:

Steepster — A Tea Community is an online tea community. Mostly a place to log what you've had.

[britrock88]

Any advice for someone who is interesting in diving into this?

[Peregrine]

Originally Posted by britrock88

Any advice for someone who is interesting in diving into this?

Well it depends on what exposure you have had to tea so far - personally I got started for my first couple of years in drinking tea with some of the higher-end tea bags (Two Leaves is a favorite of mine) and went on to loose leaf from there once I tried a lot of different kinds of tea and had an idea what I liked and what I didn't. There's a ton of stuff out there so don't go overboard at first - you can order small amounts of various teas from the online companies, so that's a good way to try a few teas and go on from there.

Definitely consider how much caffeine you need or want - black tea is the highest amount of caffeine, but if you want to limit that it's very possible with green tea, or there are lots of herbal types with no caffeine at all. As far as sweeteners, nothing wrong with them or with milk if that is what you like but I'd recommend going easy on them until you start to develop a taste for different kinds of teas on their own.

I'd definitely recommend getting a variable temperature electric kettle/water boiler as it really helps in getting the temperatures right for different teas- especially greens and whites really need to be made at a lower temperature. I make a lot of my tea one cup at a time so don't feel you have to be making a whole pot each time. I love the Finum brewing baskets for one cup at a time, so I'd recommend getting one or more of those - they are quite cheap on Amazon.

http://www.finum.com/filters/permanent-filters.html

[Glengoyne]

My favorite teas fall into the generic terms Darjeeling or Ceylon

If I can find it, I like Vithanakande. This stuff is amazing.