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British, Chinese, Japanese tea

When I think of tea, I think of Great Britain. I know well that China and Japan have their teas. I'm just not nearly as familiar with them.

For a person (me) who drinks mostly Twining's English Breakfast, Darjeeling, and Earl Grey tea bags, what would you suggest for a loose tea?
 
The Twinings factory is 5 miles from home in the UK, but for a British tea you can't beat Glengettie from Wales !:001_tt1:
 

Luc

"To Wiki or Not To Wiki, That's The Question".
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I thought that British tea leaves where mostly imported from India. Then, I can be wrong as I am by no mean a tea expert. If you have a tea shop not too far from you, go down there, you should be able to see the variety of teas. I prefer Japanese Green tea.
 
british teas are traditionally all blends from abroad. Chinese is my favorite but you really have to be a connoisseur to appreciate the differences fully, I am not... Jas-etea is a vendor here and sells a fine product at a fair price, including samplers
 
I grew up on teas blended in the British tradition or with that style of brewing.

I've been pleased with the blends from Uptons.

For a strong cup that takes milk and sugar my favorite is the Scottish Breakfast.

They have a nice Earl Grey that is one of the few I've found that doesn't go crazy with the flavorings and doesn't use artificial flavors here.

They also have an affordable British Blend Sampler that has a good representation of the various types of blends here.

The nice thing is these blends tend to be pretty affordable and are developed to be brewed in the western tradition. If you want to venture into teas of a single type from a particular region that take well to western brewing methods, take a look at Assam, [FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=-1]Lapsang Souchong, and Yunnan Black teas.
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I recently received an order from Harney and Sons and have been quite pleased with their teas so far. They are leaps and bounds better than the Teavanna tea that I had previously purchased. They have a rather large selection of teas from around the world and their prices seem very reasonable. Right now I am enjoying 2 of their "Bristish" teas: their Supreme Breakfast tea, which is a blend of Assam from India and Keemun from China and their Earl Grey Supreme, which also uses a blend of teas from China and India; a Japanese green: Genmaicha; and a Chinese green: Gunpowder.

http://www.harneyandsons.com

If you are interested in learning more about Chinese tea I would chck out Steve's website: http://www.jas-etea.com as it has a lot of information and a very large selection. Plus Steve is easily accessible via email and can answer any questions you have.
 
I was in heaven with the estate teas from Special Teas, but they're no more. Wonderful single-estate assams from India and Kenya, and fabulous blends. Will have to try Upton next time. The new first flushes should be coming in a month or so.
 
I was in heaven with the estate teas from Special Teas, but they're no more. Wonderful single-estate assams from India and Kenya, and fabulous blends. Will have to try Upton next time. The new first flushes should be coming in a month or so.

Their storage is pretty good but there is no substitute for real time freshness check their descriptions for when a tea arrived. I don't know if the blends are going to be as fresh as the varietal teas and some lack the complexity they could have but I enjoy them for what they are, a decent quality blend for either a quick western cup or serving a large group at an inexpensive price point.
 
I recently received an order from Harney and Sons and have been quite pleased with their teas so far.
http://www.harneyandsons.com

I grew up on teas blended in the British tradition or with that style of brewing.

I've been pleased with the blends from Uptons.

They have a nice Earl Grey that is one of the few I've found that doesn't go crazy with the flavorings and doesn't use artificial flavors here.

They also have an affordable British Blend Sampler that has a good representation of the various types of blends here.

The nice thing is these blends tend to be pretty affordable and are developed to be brewed in the western tradition. If you want to venture into teas of a single type from a particular region that take well to western brewing methods, take a look at Assam, [FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=-1]Lapsang Souchong, and Yunnan Black teas.
[/SIZE][/FONT]

I check out Harney and Uptons. Thanks.
 
British tea was always a blend of teas from around the world. They were brought to Britain by the famous tea clippers such as the Cutty Sark which can still be seen in London. They were very fast sailing ships that brought the teas here whilst they were still fresh. We also had opium clippers! Sherlock Holmes needed his fix.:w00t:

These teas were/are blended in Britain.

The British actually introduced tea plants to India and Africa.

There is a tea plantation in Britain these days, at Tregothnan, near Truro, Cornwall, in the far south west of England!

Tregothnan

Gareth
 
Care to elaborate? Seems like others agree...

I'm not a fool. I'm quite aware of where the tea comes from, but names like English Breakfast and Earl Grey don't exactly refer to the customary teas used in a Japanese tea ceremony. These types of blends are what I mean when I say British tea. You didn't get to my question, you just tried to paint me a fool.
 
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I'm not a fool. I'm quite aware of where the tea comes from, but names like English Breakfast and Earl Grey don't exactly refer to the customary teas used in a Japanese tea ceremony. These types of blends are what I mean when I say British tea. You didn't get to my question, you just tried to paint me a fool.

Whoa, there buddy. I think you took a meaning I never intended. I can't imagine where you got the idea I was trying to paint you as a fool, but I'm sorry you did. :thumbup: By asking you to elaborate, I took you to mean that you disagreed or disapproved of my suggestion. Didn't know how much you knew about the tea you were drinking - I honestly knew very little about where tea came from just a few weeks ago.

Honestly, loose tea is about as varietal as bagged tea is. Sounds like black teas are up your alley - JAS-eTea.com (run by a member here) has some great stuff from China. Also, Adagio.com (who I recently was a little harsh on, but actually think their teas are just fine, if a little lower in quality than JAS-eTea) has three different black tea samplers that cover various regions.

Both vendors also carry Oolong teas - something I might suggest as a "gateway drug" to other varieties, as the darker roasted Oolongs can play a lot like black tea, while others seem a lot closer to green or even white. Check out Adagio's Dragon Sampler or JAS-eTea's Da Hong Pao or Tie Guan Yin.

A quick note about the teas at JAS-eTea - Steve really tends to stock much nicer teas than some of the bigger companies. Higher grade, more carefully processed - you'll notice some of them cost a bit more for what you get, volume wise. I think they're GREAT deals because of this increased quality, but (particularly the oolongs) they're probably oriented more toward gong fu style brewing, as in a gaiwan. Something to keep in mind.

I started out something like you - I got my hands on some tea bags, and was mostly interested in something similar but better - next thing I know, I've got a shelf full of tiny little pots or gong fu brewing, and a drawer full of pu erh and oolong. Be careful! :lol:
 
I'm not a fool. I'm quite aware of where the tea comes from, but names like English Breakfast and Earl Grey don't exactly refer to the customary teas used in a Japanese tea ceremony. These types of blends are what I mean when I say British tea. You didn't get to my question, you just tried to paint me a fool.
:blink:
You might want to try some decaffeinated tea. There's quite a few knowledgeable people here, but most of us are still learning and asking questions. :lol:

+1 on oolong. Taiwanese oolongs are the next step toward green teas. Some Chinese black (red) teas are well suited to milk & sugar, but probably most aren't. You should try a few of them, too.
 
Taiwanese oolongs are the next step toward green teas. Some Chinese black (red) teas are well suited to milk & sugar, but probably most aren't. You should try a few of them, too.

Interesting. This is a ignorant question, but has anyone on the larger Internet put together a roadmap or any sort of pictorial diagram that maps out the different teas and their relationship to each other? In terms of tastes, aromas, colors, caffeine, etc. If you asked me the same question about coffee I would look at you like :blink: :confused1 so it is probably not a valid question. But I think the universe of tea is much broader than coffee. Even though coffee is better :001_tongu
 
Interesting. This is a ignorant question, but has anyone on the larger Internet put together a roadmap or any sort of pictorial diagram that maps out the different teas and their relationship to each other? In terms of tastes, aromas, colors, caffeine, etc. If you asked me the same question about coffee I would look at you like :blink: :confused1 so it is probably not a valid question. But I think the universe of tea is much broader than coffee. Even though coffee is better :001_tongu

It would be interesting to see all of that laid out. There's a very basic start in the Types of Tea section of the Tea FAQ. I made a minor change just now to highlight the oxidation level, which is really a different way of looking at tea colors.
 
Most "western" people associate tea drinking with British custom, but Asians were drinking tea long before British got hold of it. I'm fortunate enough to have experienced drinking tea in UK, Kenya, India, Burma, Thailand, China, Korea, and Japan. And they all have their own unique tea blends (or lack of) and tea drinking customs. Of all the countries I've been to, I prefer Chinese teas the best. The tea drinking culture is rich and the variety of teas are endless.
 
The British did introduce some of the camelia senensis (variety senensis) plants that were smuggled out of China to India and Africa. However, the tea variety (assamica, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assam_teas) that assam tea are harvested from was actually found as a native plant in regions of India by Robert Bruce in 1823.

British tea was always a blend of teas from around the world. They were brought to Britain by the famous tea clippers such as the Cutty Sark which can still be seen in London. They were very fast sailing ships that brought the teas here whilst they were still fresh. We also had opium clippers! Sherlock Holmes needed his fix.:w00t:

These teas were/are blended in Britain.

The British actually introduced tea plants to India and Africa.

There is a tea plantation in Britain these days, at Tregothnan, near Truro, Cornwall, in the far south west of England!

Tregothnan

Gareth
 
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