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Decided to treat myself to an assortment of black teas

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
As it's my birthday next week, I decided to treat myself to a selection of different loose teas. It's been a while since I branched out from my usual safe choices of supermarket brands.

There seems to be quite a distinct rift here in the UK between supermarket grades and other low price/limited choice sellers, and the really snooty high end suppliers who have a very wide selection, but who want to charge far too much, in my opinion. After a bit of shopping around, I managed to find an online seller that had a reasonably diverse array at reasonably affordable prices. By which I mean 50g bags costing £2 to £3, instead of £10+

Minimum order was £30 for free delivery, and that bought me 13x50g bags, ranging from what I assume will be very safe choices, to obscure teas I have never heard of. I opted for playing safe with 50g bags in case there were any I really didn't like. However, this company also does do larger quantities at better prices, in case I discover any that I want a half kilo bag of in future.

English Breakfast Blend no.6. "Quality Medium Leaf" × 50g
Breakfast Earl Grey × 50g
Formosa Lapsang "Crocodile" × 50g
Dubliners Luxury Irish Breakfast × 50g
Darjeeling 2nd Flush Monteviot Estate Bio GBOP "Unscented Afternoon Selection" × 50g
Assam Borengajuli × 50g
Lychee Congou Black Tea × 50 grams
Honest Everyday Assam Orange Pekoe 1 × 50 grams
Darjeeling/Assam Blend BOP - Our Brunch Tea × 50g
Bamboo Temple Yunnan × 50g
Nilgiri "Blue Mountain" SFTGFOP1 - Our House Selection × 50 grams
Honest Everyday Nilgiri BOP (Nonsuch Estate) × 50 grams
Dimbula BOP, Brunswick Breakfast Tea × 50g
 
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AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
Wow! That's impressive!

Ordered 10:10 Friday morning
Delivered 08:43 Saturday morning
22.1/2 hours to pick, pack, ship and deliver!!! :yikes:


IMG_20211023_090232.jpg
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
Cheers.

Only tried the English Brekky No.6 so far. A "clean" medium strength tea, and a little more fruity than some Breakfast teas.
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
Thoughts so far...

English Breakfast Blend no.6., Honest Everyday Assam Orange Pekoe, and Darjeeling/Assam Blend BOP - Our Brunch Tea, are all very nice, but I had to drink them with milk and sugar (as normal) to enjoy them. The Lapsang Crocodile however, is very nice with a bit of brown sugar, and a splash of lemon. I wasn't taken by the Nilgiri "Blue Mountain", but haven't tried it cold yet.
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
I am enjoying these, but... on the whole, I think I prefer basic teas and fancy tobaccos, to basic tobaccos and fancy teas. For me, that means breakfast blend types, although the brunch blend is indeed a very nice afternoon tea.
 

steveclarkus

Goose Poop Connoisseur
My wife and I are dedicated Typhoo tea drinkers after trying many black teas. She drinks tea year round while I tend to drink tea more in winter as I am more of a coffee drinker. She has found the loose Typhoo to be more floral than the tea bags. Her tastebuds seem to be more acute than mine though.
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
Despite having these premium teas, I keep defaulting back to Yorkshire Tea, in and amongst the fancy ones. I use their loose tea, but do use bags for convenience too. I will have the occasional coffee, but often go weeks without.
 

steveclarkus

Goose Poop Connoisseur
I was buying Malita coffee filters a few days ago and saw they made tea filters so you can RYO loose tea. They work well and make tea drinking cheaper - what will they think of next?
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
I don't bother with disposable stuff like that. I don't see how buying extra stuff makes it cheaper either. I tend to use one of three options.

1) Stainless steel teapot with removable mesh leaf basket, so I can enjoy a full pot over a couple of hours, without it stewing.
2) A glass teapot, which brews in the top, and you press a button to drop the tea into the pouring jug below. Works well for small cups, or you can brew again with the same leaves for that extra half mug.
3) Brew in one mug, and pour through a tea streainer into another. Dumb Westerner version of a gaiwan thingy
 

Rhody

I'm a Lumberjack.
Looks like a wonderful collection of tea. As a switch off from coffee ive been enjoying Twinings English breakfast. I find it pleasant with no bitterness. But I admit I’m very pedestrian in my tastes and it’s probably shameful to further admit I use tea bags.
How do you brew the loose tea? A pot or does anyone use the little infuser gadget I’ve seen around?
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
Looks like a wonderful collection of tea. As a switch off from coffee ive been enjoying Twinings English breakfast. I find it pleasant with no bitterness. But I admit I’m very pedestrian in my tastes and it’s probably shameful to further admit I use tea bags.
How do you brew the loose tea? A pot or does anyone use the little infuser gadget I’ve seen around?

I use the three methods in the post immediately before yours :biggrin1:

I do have one of those little infuser ball thingies, but they don't give enough space for the tea to move around inside. OK for the cheapo dusty own brand loose tea, but no good for decent stuff.

I have developed a bit of a hybrid-cheat too. A couple of my mugs are big enough to accept the mesh basket out of the teapot. :clown: I simply drop the basket in, spoon in the tea, and fill with boiling water. Lift out the basket after a couple of minutes, and Robert's your Auntie's live in lover. I can usually get a second cup too, by dropping that basket back in, and reusing the same leaves.

Several years ago, my brother had a ceramic cup with its own matching ceramic tea basket and lid. I haven't seen those around much recently.

Oh... and I am guilty of using tea bags too. ;) And I probably go through two jars of instant coffee, for every bag of ground coffee I buy. I'm not proud :)
 

luvmysuper

My elbows leak
Staff member
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