Quoth jackdavinci:
Well, I don’t insist on tea bags, but I do usually end up using them. I find that it helps a lot to put the bag in first and then pour the water in over it, and I also usually put the spoon in over the bag to sort of weigh it down.
Quoth Magiver:
I would have argued just the opposite, myself. It’s kind of moot, though, since I imagine we both agree that properly made quality tea is better than either, and really, it’s not all that hard to boil water.
Ringtons. I am English, of Irish stock, and grew up on tea. I can’t say anything to explain to you how wrong you’re going with Liptons and PG Tips and all that crap when Ringtons exists. They deliver to the US. You’ll thank me.
(Being someone who likes a good strong brew, by the way, I ignore the “two cup bag” thing on the packaging, and use each bag for one cup only. People who don’t like strong tea, like my weird cousin, make a whole pot with one bag. So strange.)
I think it is also important to address the question of which biscuit to nibble with one’s tea. Digestive biscuits get mentioned a lot, but for me the king of biscuits is the Rich Tea, which as the name suggests goes well with a cuppa. And, while in most things I would happily settle for a generic supermarket brand, with Rich Teas and many other biscuits it has to be McVities. Store brand Rich Teas don’t quite have the lovely roasted flavour and powdery texture.
Bourbon creams all the way!
Oh yes, a Bourbon Cream. Or, preferably, a Mr. Kipling’s Country Slice.
Never understood putting milk in tea without also adding sugar. (Sugar without milk is also unpalatable to me, but not quite as inexplicable.) It’s milk and sugar (or preferably honey, or both)–and not too much of the former–or plain for me.
OK, I’ll share my weird, favorite, can-only-make-at-home tea recipe. It’s got tons of sugar in it, so I try not to make it too often. But for anyone who likes a very strong tea with cream and sugar, you’ll love this:
I have a 4-cup wide-mouth Mason jar. I’ve had it for 21 years, since I started college.
I’m sure I’d have never have come up with this concoction if I wasn’t using the Mason jar to make a lot of tea.
I’ve been hooked on Tetley Tea since I first drank England where I spent a semester in London. I stayed up for 3 days straight with Tetley as my stimulant!
Boil 3 cups of water in kettle on stove
place 4 Tetley Tea bags in jar
Add 4 tablespoons light brown granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon pure almond extract
Pour boiling water into jar
Stir everything, wait about 10 minutes.
squeeze the crap out of the tea bags to get all the bitter mixed with the sugar
add half and half to taste. Should be about the color of coffee with cream!
Otherwise, I just make it in a “normal” way. I do enjoy a lot of herbal teas and fruity teas and green teas.
If you’re in Chicago, I get the Tetley just from whatever Jewel. It’s about $3.50 I think, for 80 bags. I can’t stand Lipton.
There are two shops I go to that are within a few blocks of each other, you can get great kettles and great teapots at either place, along with all kinds of tea paraphernalia, and bulk teas.
Coffe & Tea Exchange and Coffee Tree and Tea Leaves
These are both on Broadway between Belmont and Grace.
Happy Steeping!
Another vote for Barrys Tea here. I’m usually a coffee girl but it’s sacrilege to wash down a big Irish breakfast with anything other than a cup of Barrys. It’s thirst-quenching in a way that coffee can never be…
I’m a huge fan of Mighty Leaf. They sell both loose and bagged teas and have a great range available. I’m able to find a decent selection at Whole Foods and other health food store variants, but their online offering is substantially larger. Their samplers are a great way to try their offerings and I’ve found several new favorites that way.
I got hooked on sadaf special blend by a local mediterranean restaurant. An Iranian friend told me what it was and how to get it, now I buy it in bulk at the local ethnic shops. I took some to my sister in law’s one night and her Israeli husband said it’s like the tea he drank back in Israel and he liked it a lot. I’ve also developed an appreciation for masala chai based on how some co-workers drank it. Very strong, almost espresso like(or what I imagine espresso is like because I don’t drink coffee). A typical six ounce styrofoam cup takes one packet of the masala chai and about three ounces of water. Strong stuff.
My wife prefers iced tea, but I grew up with a cup of hot tea damn near every morning(Celestial Seasonings herbal tea with honey we harvested from our hive mostly). I quit cold turkey when the dentist told me I had tea stains. I was very self conscious of my teeth and didn’t need anything messing up my smile any worse than it was already. As an adult I’ve kind of picked the habit up again and tend to have tea once a day, usually hot tea in the middle of the afternoon.
Enjoy,
Steven
I had a look around Meijer tonight, and they have a bunch of McVitie’s products, but I don’t think I saw the jaffa cakes there (not having looked up what jaffa cakes are until after I came home, I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking for.) I don’t know if it’s an adequate substitute, but I realized I grew up on the Polish version of these things, which are sold in pretty much any Eastern European grocery in Chicago under the brand name Delicje (scroll all the way down). I don’t know if it’s exactly the same thing (it looks like the same concept to me), but it may be able to tide you over until you get a supply of your preferred brand of jaffa cakes.
I’m comfortable with the idea that I’m going to hell. 
You heat the pot or cup up first so it doesn’t absorb the heat of the water.
I love a cup of loose leaf tea, but it’s always such a bother to deal with washing up afterwards that it’s not worth it for just one cup. I wish someone would hurry up and invent non-stick tea balls or whatnot so the leaves can be dumped in the trash without washing and clogging up the sink.
Thanks for looking. Mmmm, I should try out those Delicje…
See my point #2.
The above illustrate why Americans shouldn’t be put in charge of anything as important as making tea.
I use one of these: http://teasource.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=807&Category_Code=supplies&Product_Count=10.
It’s reasonable easy to shake the leaves out–usually only a few have to be rinsed out.
Oh, absolutely. And be sure to think about Safety First!
I’m back home in Chicago, but my local shop where I got the Brooke Bond loose tea no longer carries it. Instead, they seem to have a larger selection of Eastern European teas - Andy’s Fruit Ranch seems to have evolved into the go-to place for Chicago’s Bulgarian community. So I went up to Devon Avenue and bought some Tetley black tea. Visually, it seems to be much higher quality than that wretched Lipton’s crap, though they did have some Lipton’s Yellow Label packaged in India that I’ve had good results from before. The Tetley is small black balls, and didn’t appear to have bloomed anywhere near as much as the Brooke Bond did. Tasty though - I’m on my third cup this morning.
In a different area, I like the Chai served in my my favorite Indian restaurant. But there were too many different varieties to just pick one and hope. The owners are from southern India, though I’m not sure what state. What flavor of Masala Chai should I look for?
Is anyone else getting the jingles?
“Clears throat”
Tetley - tededely,
Teabags
Lovely as can be
Tetley make teabags
Tetley make teabags
Make tea.
Right now I’ve got “essential waitrose original brand round tea bags” Kenyan (good heavens) and Indian Assam and other fine teas, along with Hytop Tea Bags Select Orange Pekoe - 100 count for a bargain price. If I’m splashing out it’s Irish Breakfast and Earl Grey - two quite different teas with their own merits.
I love round tea bags there’s something entirely satisfying in the way you can get the boiling water ssshhhhhing through the bag, although this is achieved with square ones, it’s just not quite the same. I don’t appreciate a tag or a piece of string or a bloody packet around my teabag thank you. I don’t like sugar in my tea, but enjoy saying “one lump or two?”