Is there a good 'starter tea'?

[Ethan.Bassist.]

Okay so here's the deal. I love the concept of tea. I like the health benefits I've heard it offers. I like the sophistication of it. But sometimes it seems like every time I make myself some tea, it's nasty. The tea always smells great. But I liken it to water that sat in your car on a really hot day with added bitterness.

I can drink cold tea alright. Even unsweetened. My mom often brews up sun tea during the summer, and chilled I like it.

Is hot tea just an acquired taste that I may never acquire (though I'm only 20) or have I just never had good tea? I also don't like coffee, but on a much greater level than tea.

What's the big idea?!

 

[craig87c]

What kinds of tea have you had? If it's just Lipton, then you haven't had good hot tea yet! Lipton is about the only kind of iced tea I'll drink- but it tastes awful hot!

You can find just about any sort of tea to fit your tastes- strong, weak, high in caffeine or not, inexpensive and OMG HOW DO THEY CHARGE THAT FOR 50g OF MATCHA?!

Let us know what you like in a drink and maybe the tea experts here can help.

 

[Special_K]

I grew up loving iced, sweet tea with lots of lemon. I still do but have also recently (almost a yr) acquired a love for good loose leaf, hot tea. When I was younger (20s), I could not stand hot tea but I never had any real quality tea only the lipton and other supermarket junk. If you really want to give hot tea a shot, I suggest you try some samples of loose leaf tea. IMHO, a good place to get going is adagio.com. You can get a sample size for cheap. This way you can make sure you do like the hot tea before you move on to some better quality suppliers that cost a bit more.

 

[Niles]

I would suggest Twinings tea. They have a large variety of teas and are reasonably priced. My favorite is the Irish breakfast tea.

 

[Ethan.Bassist.]

What kinds of tea have you had? If it's just Lipton, then you haven't had good hot tea yet! Lipton is about the only kind of iced tea I'll drink- but it tastes awful hot!

You can find just about any sort of tea to fit your tastes- strong, weak, high in caffeine or not, inexpensive and OMG HOW DO THEY CHARGE THAT FOR 50g OF MATCHA?!

Let us know what you like in a drink and maybe the tea experts here can help.

Hmm, yeah I know I don't like Lipton or black tea. One time I had this Pear Lemon Ginger tea, it's possible I steeped it too long, but the taste LITERALLY haunted me the rest of the day. It was traumatic.

Gosh, I don't even know what kind of tea I like! I think I just wrote off all teas because a few were nasty. I'll have to try some at work, and come back here! Any tips on brewing for teabags? And off the top of my head we have Lipton's Green Tea, L's Orange Gardens, Tazo "Calm", Peppermint, Earl Grey. That's all I can think of. I think we have a few more Tazo's.

 

[Proinsias]

I'm not a fan of teabags but if you're using them, don't sqeeze them. Be gentle. Swish it around the mug and give it a few minutes to infuse, for green or white teabags don't use boiling water - let it cool for a few minutes first.

Adagio was mentioned above, they are a great intro as everything is available in sample sizes and they have a pretty wide range. If you like using teabags they also do teabags which are just their loose leaf teas popped into a bag - as opposed to the factory floor sweepings which make up most bagged teas.

I'd recommend trying some unflavoured teas - try to get a taste for the actual tea. Pick up some fresh green tea, some oolong, blacks like Assam Darjeeling or Keemun, maybe some pu'er.

It's a very strong possiblity you've just never had good tea, and even with good tea there's gonna be some you just don't like. A fresh Japanese green tea is a world away from a 20yr chunk of pu'er tea.

 

[SiBurning]

I don't think you'll ever like tea using crappy Lipton tea bags or what you have at the office. If you really want to try good tea that tastes like the iced tea you enjoy, spend the money and check out http://www.specialteas.com/ and pick a couple from an Assam estate tea, or their English Breakfast, or Irish Breakfast, or one of the sample collections: Blended, Assam, or Fine. Then follow the instructions, taking care to weigh the tea, check the water temperature, and watch the brew time. You might also want to try green tea, but you'll want to go elsewhere for that. Their Breakfast teas are amazing as iced tea.

The only hitch is that most teas you get today will be months old, and they do lose their quality over time.

 

[Ethan.Bassist.]

I don't think you'll ever like tea using crappy Lipton tea bags or what you have at the office. If you really want to try good tea that tastes like the iced tea you enjoy, spend the money and check out http://www.specialteas.com/ and pick a couple from an Assam estate tea, or their English Breakfast, or Irish Breakfast, or one of the sample collections: Blended, Assam, or Fine. Then follow the instructions, taking care to weigh the tea, check the water temperature, and watch the brew time. You might also want to try green tea, but you'll want to go elsewhere for that. Their Breakfast teas are amazing as iced tea.

The only hitch is that most teas you get today will be months old, and they do lose their quality over time.

So, I'm not arguing here, but why are tea bags generally frowned upon here? Is it the equivalent of using powdered packaged cinnamon or nutmeg as opposed to grinding or grating your own?

 

[SiBurning]

There's that, so the tea isn't as fresh. Plus the tea itself isn't as good to start with. Also, who knows how old it is. I'd also argue that Lipton's about the worst supermarket brand out there--they use only the most bitter, cheapest leaves.

I was using Twinnings this past spring, though not terribly happy with it. Trying out teas from local tea shops, I didn't really find anything better. They were all weak and tasteless, and at least the Twinings had that... I don't know... artificial flavor thing? It's kind of like Lipton in that way. Since then, I've found some absolutely fabulous teas online and can't abide the Twinnings anymore. I still prefer the English style teas, but also always liked oolongs. Taiwan does some very nice ones. I've even had a delicious African estate tea. They're definitely improving around the world, but there's still a lot of less tasty tea out there, and it's these cheaper ones that go into those supermarket brands.

One thing I can't stress enough is that tea loses its quality with time and exposure. Exposure is one reason you see a lot of whole leaf teas--especially green and white--rolled tightly. In general, the more processing, the longer they last, so green tea loses its flavor sooner than white or black tea, but some processed teas keep their flavor longer or even improve in some way. But they can lose that fresh something special much sooner, so you want to watch the seasons and buy the best, most expensive teas only at the best time, and use them up pretty fast--like within a month or two. I guess there's two things here--freshness and flavor--you lose one and spoil some teas, others just get a slight unpleasant overtone or go dull but keep their flavor, and others might actually improve. Overall, I wouldn't buy a $20/oz spring tea in November. May-July is awesome in general, but there are harvests throughout the year in a couple of places, though mostly it's spring and summer. The main exception to the fresh is better rule is puerh, which generally improves with age. You'll find a lot of fans here. I think this freshness issue might be the biggest obstacle right now in late November. If you get the wrong tea, one that needs to be fresh, you won't see enough difference to justify the expense and bother, and you'll be turned off for good. And I don't know enough to pick the right one. So I'd stay with the _relatively_ cheaper teas for now. I also suspect the blends would hold up better. Just for an example, that first flush Assam estate tea I got in spring from specialteas has gone downhill since June, losing a lot of its wonderful botanical scent, and since that's what made it so special, a lesser tea might actually taste better now in November. No, it's not easy to pursue the perfect cup of tea, but that's what makes it so interesting.

By the way, I'm purposely steering you towards Indian teas only because most of the folks here will push you into the Chinese/Japanese teas, so I'm leaving that to them. Those are the places that really know tea, so you want to go there for sure. Also, your iced tea was probably grown in India or Africa, so you're probably more familiar with these types.

If you want to try something other than black/red tea, http://jas-etea.com is run by one of the members here (netsurfr) and he has some wonderful oolongs from Taiwan. I just ordered a few more from him, even though that means letting some of my other teas rot. While you're at it, ask him for a puerh.

 

[craig87c]

So, I'm not arguing here, but why are tea bags generally frowned upon here? Is it the equivalent of using powdered packaged cinnamon or nutmeg as opposed to grinding or grating your own?

This is a pretty good analogy- another would be to think of what tastes better, a mass produced McDonalds burger (teabag) or a grass-fed, hand ground burger made at home (good loose leaf).

And Steve, I'm going to be replenishing my tea stocks from Special Teas. Some of their stuff looks amazing.

 

[texaninkc]

although i advise against buying anything from Teavana, if you have one near you, you should go in there and have them brew you a cup of the different types.

i'm also of the type that no longer buys stuff that's in the bags. I buy it loose and make my own bags. the burger analogy above hits it right in the head.

try finding a cafe that makes loose leaf teas and trying those out. i only mention Teavana b/c they're pretty much at a mall somewhere near you. their teas are way overpriced but I still like going in there and buying a cup of a type of tea that I've never had before. why drop 10 bucks on 2oz of tea anywhere before you even try it. and when you do start to play with the loose leafs (and even the ones in bags too), make sure you follow the instructions on temperature and time. i've had good tea go bad b/c i messed up one or another.

 

[Ethan.Bassist.]

This sounds like great advice everyone! I'll check around town and see if we have any tea shops.