General Discussion

anyone else out here OBSESSED with tea?

i don't even drink it that much, but i'm always finding myself impulsively buying more tea every time i go down the tea aisle at the grocery store. i have so many boxes taking up space in the cabinet in our kitchen and my mom's really annoyed by it.

anyway, i'm sitting here waiting for the tea water to boil and i figured why not make a topic about tea? what's your favorite kind? do you prefer loose leaf or tea bags? do you have a favorite brand?

In my own humble opinion - tea bags are sacrilege (one could say I'm a bit of an eli-TEAst?? huehue). I like all kinds of tea if it's made properly, to be honest. When I'm having tea at home it's usually black tea, since I feel like it's the lowest maintenance - the three big boxes I have are a blend with Earl Grey from Sadaf, a box of black tea flavored subtly with jasmine from Ahmad tea, and a large bag of barooti assam from a brand I can't decipher because it's written in Arabic. I also really enjoy white and green teas, jasmine is a bonus.
Oh on occasion I love the addition of a lemon slice, some mint or a small amount of honey.

@arizonagreentea How about yourself, what's your favorite kind?
heh, your name reminded me of carefree college days when I drank Arizona by the gallon.

Anybody tried Pu-erh (fermented tea)? I heard it described as tasting "like dirt, but good." I can confirm that is accurate.

@Nekron

yeh, i think i prefer loose leaf over the bags but i can enjoy both. i bought teavana's 'perfectea maker' for loose leaves and it's probably one of the best purchases i've ever made. speaking of teavana, my favorite kind has to be their winterberry blend, it's SO good and usually i don't much care for fruity teas but this one's an exception. mostly i drink green and black teas.

i haven't heard of pu-erh until just now, but it sounds like kava. except kava is actually bad, lol. when i visited portland earlier this year i went to a kava bar with my friend and it's probably the most bitter thing i've ever tasted,kinda like what i imagine dirty dish soap water to taste like. props to anyone who can legitimately enjoy that stuff.

i rarely ever put anything in my teas except for maybe a tiny bit of sugar if i feel it's needed. honey goes well with green tea for sure. never tried milk/cream, can anyone tell me how good this is?

I personally don't care whether it's loose leaf or bags. At least most of the time. Assam for example feels strong enough that I prefer it loose leaf, to be able to get the amount I want myself.

Picking a favourite is hard. There are so many teas that taste great in a different way. But if I had to choose, I'd be Vanilla Rooibos Chai. It tastes about as fancy as it sounds. Sadly, the company stopped production of it for now, so I basically just hoard this stuff at the moment without drinking it.

Other teas I have currently are east-friesian style assam, earl grey, Darjeeling, matcha and some yellow tea that is not further specified.

And there is something I can't stop thinking about: Having an own tea plant. That being said, I'm one of the people who can't even keep cacti alive. Only trees and spider plants survive near me. But a tea would be pretty damn cool.
Anyone knows if they take central European climate well? I know the assam subspecies it tropical, so they probably won't like it here. I'm not entirely sure on the common one.

Mmmm, tea! I also like tea bags more than loose leaf. I also find myself always drinking the Choice herbal rooibos tea, with a bit of milk added to it. I also quite like the Starbucks Very Bery Refresher.(Teavana brand)

@Xionahri

i just looked up vanilla rooibos chai and it sounds really interesting, sucks that the company you mentioned stopped production of it :c is there any other place you can buy some? i might try it out

I love tea! I've been drinking ALOT of chamomile tea lately, meanwhile all the bags of green tea are sitting around unused!

I like tea bags for the convenience, but if I'm feelin snazzy I'll use looseleaf. My looseleaf is a lot nicer anyhow.

Right now I'm working through my box of lemon/guanabana blend. It's really nice!
As much as I love green tea, most of my stockpile atm is black. :v I wouldn't say it's a favourite, but I do drink it a lot. No favourite brands though. I shop around.

@arizonagreentea

Sadly so far I've only seem it at this one company. The easiest alternative would be to get loose leaf chai, rooibos and something vanilla and try to mix it on my own.

Oooooor I could try writing the company sometimes. After a quick search I've seen multiple forum threads on the internet about people being confused it got discontinued. So maybe if they get enough feedback, they might bring it back.

Black and lemon tea is life...I don't drink anything else.