Tea drinkers of DL, what are some of your faves?

Constant Comment.

Great drag name btw: Constance Comment.

silver needle white

Tieguanyin

Longjing

Fenghuang Dan Cong

R1 looked it up. It sounds delicious

PG Tips

Rooibos aka red tea. No caffeine, no tannins, lots of antioxidants and a good comforting drink in any weather.

PG Tips in the morning, Twinings Oolong in the afternoon and evening.

Harney and Sons....Hot Cinnemon Spice, Paris and Lemon Herbal..

*cinnamon

I like my tea unadulterated. Good tea should taste good without any additives.

PG Tips, never mix ~ never worry.

A London Fog blend during the daytime and Dragonwell green tea in the evenings.

I was never a tea drinker. I just started to appreciate it. It's comforting...still like coffee, too.

R1 stole my thunder and also has exceptional taste. Constant Comment by Bigelow is one of my faves due to the combination of orange rind and sweet spice. If you're a fruit tea drinker you'll enjoy any of the Ahmad (black) teas, my faves are mango, apricot sunset and strawberry.

For herbal (no caffeine) teas, you can't go wrong with the Celestial Seasonings fruit teas, and I believe they sell sampler packs. Also by CS is one of my all-time fave teas: Bengal Spice herbal tea. It's an Indian herbal chai tea. I even make it into iced tea in the summer (its natural sweetness means no sugar needed either).

'Tension Tamer' is the only tea I drink.

Yogi Tangerine.

Call me fancy, but I love Russian tea.

Mix Lipton's with Tang and a few cloves.

Serve piping hot with a cinnamon stick.

Your guests will be in awe. DELISH!

Coffee drinker mostly, but morning tea is Irish Breakfast with a splash of milk.

Afternoon tea is Harney & Sons "Paris" tea. So, so good.

Barry’s Irish Breakfast (with milk)

Private Selection Oolong

Uncle Lee’s Green

Luzianne, I just cold brew it the fridge overnight. Unsweetened. So much cheaper and convenient than buying cans of soda.

I just now found out that Teavana tea stores shut down a few years ago. Sad.

Yorkshire Gold. Nothing else will do.

Barry's Irish Tea - Gold Blend. Their Irish Breakfast is also excellent.

I try to get two cups out of one teabag or satchet. Not a purist...lol.

Damman Freres Jardin Bleu. I have to hide it from my husband because he will drink 8 cups a day until its gone.

I love Celestial Seasonings Peppermint tea. The peppermint comes from Oregon and I think it is the best tasting.

Stash's Moroccan Mint tea is delicious, if I drink it, it's in the morning because it has caffeine.

Stash also makes Licorice Spice which is a nice dessert tea.

Pete's dark roast decaf is my go to for home brewed coffee.

For cold beverages I drink a lot of Kirkland's flavored carbonated water.

Tazo chai (in a bag) is strong enough to stand a couple of tablespoons of milk after a 5-minute steep.

Most other labels I've tried are too weak.

Sweetened chai "syrup" in a box is an abomination.

For those who prefer a strong cuppa, Make Mine a Builder's is outstanding.

I had to give up caffeine and Barry’s decaf is the best decaf black tea I’ve tried. It is very rich and full compared to weaker decaf teas I’ve tried.

I make iced tea with one bag of Barry’s and one decaf Earl Grey or one Stash Lemon Ginger. Constant Comment on its own makes a very refreshing iced tea.

Barry’s Irish

PG tips strong

Harney & sons Paris & London Fog

Waitrose grand Marquess

Lapsang Souchong FOREVAR

R30 I doubt that's fair trade

organic green tea

Trader Joe's Moroccan Mint

What’s the difference between Barry’s in the red box (my regular, with sugar) and Barry’s in the green?

Harney's-Paris, Earl of Harlem, and Japanese Whiskey

August Uncommon Tea- The Black Lodge and Cabaret

Fortnum and Mason- Smoky Earl Gray

Once in a while, a nice milky oolong

Fruit flavored teas mark the drinker as decidedly nouvea riche white trash .

Twining’s Earl Grey. My husband drinks Darjeeling. It has to be full leaf. He buys it from Mariage Freres, says theirs is the best.

Earl Grey is like drinking perfume.

I've seen Harney & Sons mentioned here; I love their White Vanilla Grapefruit and their mint, specifically Mint Verbena.

Also, Wissotzky tea; the cherry and peach variety.

R28, how does Builder's tea compare to PG Tips?

Agree, R40, Earl Grey is like perfume. I do like the smell, though.

All the teas have that artificial flavoring now. It tastes like sour acid. So cheap and “fake” tasting.

Any brands that still use real flavorings? I just drink water now and the occasional lemon-lime soda.

Everything else taste like chemicals these days.

Tea already has a flavor. What flavor are you looking for?

Be aware, though. They're not going to make hazelnut coffee with the best coffee. Same goes for tea.

Anyone tried butterfly pea flower tea? It's all the rage on Instagram because it's pretty.

R32 Are you having trouble finding this? I always liked to drink Lapsong Souchong in winter... but haven't found it in my usual stores nor online - "possibly carcinogenic" was how it was explained to me.

For dark teas I tend to Pu-erh... I like the earthy taste. But in the afternoons, I also like Darjeeling (the champagne of tea!) which is just the opposite... astringent and light. For both of those more common brands are "ok", but it's worth it to go to a real tea dealer for quality brick or bulk teas.

Green teas are my every day beverage - and common brands are fine. Numi Gunpowder Green tea is a good standard. Tazo and Stash other brands.

Oolong tea - there's a company in Taiwan, "Kings", that has a variety of really high quality oolong... sometimes "spiked" with ginseng... you can spend a lot, but it's worth it. Many teas claim "second or third brewing"... which is almost never worth it. But King's tea only gets good on the second or third brewing.

I’m all about the Oolong. All kinds.

Usually buy it from the tea store, I think it’s called T. Kettle, in my local mall.

Twinings Earl Grey and UK Typhoo are my favorites. Tetley makes a great “british blend” in our US supermarkets when in a pinch. Their iced tea blend is the best one for iced, coming from a New Orleanian ex-Luzianne fan. Luzianne was much better in the early 2000s.

I am a decided tea snob. Not an expert, just highly opinionated. My everyday go-to tea is Fortnum & Mason's Afternoon Blend. It's flavorful, and never bitter. I use Assam for iced tea, and Darjeeling when serving a formal afternoon tea. At night I sometimes do an oolong with jasmine, or a plain, unflavored white tea. I always use loose leaf tea, and in the highest grade I can find (FTGFOP or better). Even then it works out cheaper than a daily Starbucks fix. I stay away from fruity herbal concoctions -they are not tea. When I am out and about and want a cup, I go for Constant Comment, like R1. It has a consistent flavor, and is far less likely to be stale than most of the teas offered in US restaurants.

Like most things, tea is what you make it. And how you make it. You really do taste the flavors differently depending on the temperature of the water and the brewing time. And you won't get any of the flavors you're paying for if you bury your high-end tea in sugar, milk and additives. In cooking, they say you should never cook with a wine you wouldn't drink from a glass. In tea, you should never drink a tea that you wouldn't drink plain, with no sugar, lemon, or milk.

Snob that I am, I'd rather be served a store-brand black tea in a tea bag than a cup of any kind of coffee.

The best black tea I've ever had was in Japan, milk tea or miruku tea. Yes, I like tea with milk and sugar. I also like Thai iced tea (with sweetened condensed milk).

I mix my own from a collection of organic herbs. Red Rose petals, Rose Hips, Chamomile, Lemon, Orange, Strawberry, Pineapple, Hibiscus, Passion Flower, Jasmine Flower, Mint, Lavender, Cinnamon, Star Anise, and Ginger, are a few...

I'll definitely be adding in actual teas (black, white, green, etc.) soon enough.

My current favorite mass-produced tea is Stassen Jasmine Green Tea. The scent and flavor are HEAVEN. It's eight bucks a box on Amazon. I order two at a time. It's excellent hot or cold. I like to pour a few ounces of unsweetened cranberry juice into a glass with ice, before adding the unsweetened tea. It's been my favorite for several years now.

Bigelow Cinnamon Stick Tea

Cinnamon Stick another good drag name.

More tea drag/pron names:

Orange Pekoe

Lapsang Souchong / Lapdance Chewdong

Assam / Ass 'em

Nilgiri

Lady Grey

Tisane Bali, by Dammann Freres

Turkish Apple Tea, Turko Baba

You're missing out if you don't try this. And the price isn't too bad.

Anyone tried Matcha?

Tropical tea from Cheesecake Factory(kiss my ass haters) and Bigelow Mango Green Tea.

Sure, R57. I like it but it's not something to drink every day for me. I get my matcha directly from Japan (as all my Japanese teas), since I made the experience that most locally sold matcha tastes terribly stale.

Glad I made this thread. So many different teas I wanna try now

[quote]how does Builder's tea compare to PG Tips

Builder's is stronger than both PG Tips and PG Tips Extra Strong, due to the inclusion in their blend of tea from Tanzania, Uganda and Malawi. The standard tea blend is usually India and Kenya. Some companies use tea from Rwanda in their blends, such as Yorkshire Gold.

After working my way through just about every tea brand in existence (I've yet to try Thompson's and Brewley's), from Tetley's to PG Tips, from Yorkshire to Barry's, from Marks and Sparks to Harney's, from Twinings to Taylor's of Harrogate, for my money, the absolutely best is Barry's Irish Breakfast, followed closely by Builder's and then possibly Lyons Original Blend.

And it's tea bags all the way. My days of cleaning the teapot of dregs and stains are over.

Mariage Frères French Breakfast

I've tried a lot of tea and Barry's is my favorite.

I was given a tin of New English Tea's Fine Earl Grey for Christmas, and it's really nice. 🧡

Tea fanatic here. Black tea only, and nothing flavoured. For the most part, supermarket teabags, even if supposedly high end, are usually the tea dust swept up from the floor. However, if I have to drink supermarket tea, Twinings or Tetley English Breakfast are pretty good. True tea cognosenti do not even buy from local tea merchants; they buy online exclusively. I haven't done so (yet). I can't stand when tea merchants open the container for customers to smell the tea, exposing it to air numerous times. Due to Covid, they now put samples in small glass jars for people to sniff. I think sniffing tea leaves is a waste of time.

Good tea starts at €9 for 100 grams and can go up, so it can be pretty expensive. I use a "tea spoon" so it's no more trouble than using a teabag. You need to keep loose tea (or even teabags) in a dark air-tight container.

My tea of choice is top quality Assam and if I buy blends, they usually have an Assam component. Recommendations welcome.

Do you mean Bewley's, R61? I don't like their black tea, Barry's is much better. However, they do have a great Rooibos and Blood Orange tea. It's best to buy it loose as the tea bags are outrageously expensive.

In the late 1970's you were considered SOPHISTICATED if you drank CELESTIAL SEASONINGS herbal tea.

My doctor said I can’t have caffeine anymore because of my stomach issues. So now I’m just drinking Trader Joe’s decaffeinated green tea.

Tazo organic chai. Delicious, doesn't have that weird taste of other chais.

How long does loose tea keep if stored properly?

I’ve had some excellent tea from Limuru in Kenya.

R57 Yes, Matcha, high in caffeine, also has a unique impact (at least on me). The caffeine in Matcha makes me feel highly energetic but the taste and chemical properties of Matcha (catechins, anti-oxidants, L-theanine which has an interesting "entourage" effect with caffeine) make the "buzz" much different than coffee. It's calming, clearing, and energy-producing - one reason it's used in Zen tea ceremonies etc.

As R59 says, most of what's sold as "matcha" is bunk. It's worth getting directly from Japan from a reputable source. Timing of the production (in addition to the quality of the leaves) is important.

I, too, am mostly a coffee drinker and will drink any black tea in a bag (cheap-ass Twining's English Breakfast tea being a favorite), but early in the pandemic, I decide to indulge in some fancy leaf teas from Upton Tea Imports. Their Darjeeling Orthodox is one that I've particularly enjoyed (it's taken me a long time to get through the whole bag--not sure if I'll reorder).

Has anyone tried MUD/WTR, the "coffee alternative" that's heavily advertised on Facebook feeds?

What brand do you drink R72, and where do you get it?

R74 Ocha

Thanks R75. How do you personally drink it, just straight?

This orange tea from Tazo is good.

R76 Yes, straight.... whipped with the whisk to make it nice an foamy though.

I've had some "matcha chai" out in the real world (remember before covid?), and I enjoyed them. But that's a guilty pleasure... the pure taste of good matcha prepared well shouldn't be "sullied" by anything else, in my opinion.

Fortnum & Mason in London is an excellent place to shop for tea. They have a display with over a dozen types of tea where you can (or could, in pre-covid days) sniff the aroma, and read about proper water temps and brewing times, etc. They also sell almost all of their teas in loose-leaf or bags in various quantities. Makes it easy to try out something new. Upstairs in the tea salon they do samplers, where you can taste a lot of different kinds of tea and talk with a server who can help you choose. You can order their products online, too, which is very convenient.

One thing to remember is that they have a flat-rate international shipping option, rather than by weight, so it pays to order a lot of stuff all at once. For example, a box of tea bags will cost about $8. That same box at Amazon, imported, will cost $20 or more. With F&M's $36 delivery fee, it makes sense to order some of their amazing marmalade, jams, chocolates, etc. along with your tea. I have ordered as many as six boxes of tea, 7 jars of preserves, a tin of biscuits, a tea strainer, a bar of soap, a two-pound box of chocolates, and some tea cloths -and they all fit in the standard shipping box.

I'm currently enjoying Twining's English Breakfast Decaffeinated:

I love Yorkshire Gold the best. I buy it through amazon.

Earl grey, lavender or Rose Earl grey, matcha, chai, sleepy tea, English breakfast, Yorkshire gold, oolong , Jasmine, peppermint.

PG Tips

Constant Comment (GOD I love that stuff!)

Celestial Seasonings Bengal Spice

“Tisane” is one of the gayest words ever.

Miss Lemon: Your tisane, Monsieur Poirot

Hercule Poirot: Thank you, Miss Lemon. This is what you need, Hastings.

Captain Hastings: No fear; I’ve tasted it.