I’m quite fond of a number of herbal tisanes (yes, I do know the difference!), but the Celestial Seasonings brand is not one I care for. They tend to go rather heavily on the hibiscus, which is simultaneously too sweet and too bitter. I like chamomile, peppermint, and one or two blends. My current favorites are Stash’s Licorice Spice blend and a ginger one that I can’t recall the name of.
No one has mentioned chai, which in the US is black tea blended with spices like vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon and usually served as a latte. That’s the only tea I drink with milk and sugar. For me, it’s more a dessert-y treat than a beverage. It’s also become much more widely available in recent years.
For TEA tea, I like jasmine a lot, and I bought a big box of Tetley’s British Blend, which is quite good. As for restaurants, if I’m in the mood for tea I simply smuggle in my own teabags.
The restaurant buyers who buy the crap mentioned in the OP don’t drink tea-- and I think it is fair to say that most Americans have never had a proper cup of tea.
Here’s a hint-- if a pot of warm water shows up with a tea bag on the side, it’s not a properly brewed cup.
I have Bewley’s Irish Breakfast Tea in bags, which is my standard “cup of tea” tea.
I also have some Tanganda loose leaf tea from Zimbabwe for pots (brought back by my grandmother, it’s what we always had at home) and some Marks and Spencer’s Earl Grey tea for late nights and early mornings. I love Bergamot, and find it quite relaxing. It goes nicely with my M&S dark chocolate ginger biscuits too!
I have some Rooibos tea bags as well (another childhood thing), some green tea for when I’m feeling healthy and Camomile and Peppermint teas for when insomnia and nausea strike.
The Irish drink more tea per capita than anyone in the world…and we tend to like Ceylon tea strong enough to stand a spoon upright, with a little milk and no sugar. Bewley’s Irish tea is tailored to that kind of taste, so I tend to make it weaker for anyone who isn’t used to it.
Strong white tea with lots of sugar is known as “builder’s tea” and is used a a remedy for shock around these parts.
I’ve also had tea in India…which was made up with milk, sugar and spices like chai, but due to the Indian sweet tooth I found it overly sweet and not my thing at all.
Moroccan tea is fabulous, even in 40 degree heat in Marrakech it was refreshing. They use Gunpowder green tea (I asked), fresh mint leaves and about 3 spoons of sugar per glass. The mint is put into the glass with the sugar and the tea poured in on top. Yummy.
Hm. I don’t like Lipton’s (hot, anyway), but most restaurants and cafes have, ime, a better assortment of tea than that. I see all sorts of brands, and the baristas/waitpeople are usually fine with my insistance that the tea steep separately so I can put the milk in the bottom.
Maybe it’s one of the many benefits of living in the big city? I don’t know.
I think the odd combinations in restaurants results from people with no clue about tea making the choices.
IMHO, if it comes in a teabag, it’s probably crap: fannings and dust guaranteed to brew a bitter, acidic cup. Tazo isn’t too bad, but you still have to watch the brew time carefully, since all those tiny tea bits have so much surface area just waiting to release an overload of tannic acid.
I’m into tea like some people are into wine. I like Keemun the best - very deep and full bodied. I get my at-home tea (loose!) from Upton Tea Imports, via mail order. I also got a nifty one-cup-at-a-time infuser basket.
Also, green tea should not be brewed with boiling water. The water temperature should be 160-180[sup]o[/sup] F.
It’s not at all surprising to me that people hate green tea when it’s been steeped in boiling water for 5 minutes, and I am completely at a loss as to why most green tea manufacturers actually have “Steep for 5 minutes in boiling water” as the instructions! You can’t tell me they don’t know better! So, why are they instructing their customers to ruin their product? I just can’t figure it out.
Here’s Honest Tea’s website, BTW. Really good stuff—though IMHO their greens are overbrewed. (Again, the mind boggles! Do people prefer that their green tea be bitter? Do they not want to taste the actual flavor of the tea?)
I’ll second Stash teas; they’re very good. I also like Twinings. English Breakfast and Earl Grey are my personal favorites. Twinings makes a good spice tea called Mary Twining Spice that’s pretty good, but the Stash Tea’s Chia is better. I don’t care for Tazo’s Chai - it tastes more perfumy than spicy.
I have two French presses. I use one for coffee and one for loose tea. Very simple to use.
Well, here’s the Adagio Teas info page. They also other intersting tea facts. I love their teas but have been annoyed with 'em lately since they’ve been outta gunpowder for forever…
I dunno about Lipton having the market cornered… They’re probably the biggest in the US, but there are plenty of other brands. At the physics department colloquia, we generally have the store-brand generic stuff, and an assortment of Bigelow teas and tisanes (yes, I make the distinction too). The store brand is, well, store brand, so nothing remarkable, but Bigelow is much better than Lipton. I will admit, though, that nothing this side of the Atlantic really comes close to the stuff you find in the British Isles. The tea served at the bed and breakfasts was one of many very pleasant memories I brought back from my trip to Ireland.
For the Friday colloquia, I generally need some caffeine to keep me awake, so I take some sort of black tea. There’s generally a few “English Teatime” bags available, or a breakfast tea, but if those aren’t available, I typically go with the generic rather than choking down Earl Grey (my god, Picard, how can you stand that stuff?) or one of the funky weird flavors. Other times, though, I usually drink tisanes, since I generally prefer to avoid caffeine. Chamomile and various mints are always nice, and some of the fruit flavors are good, too (Bigelow has a raspberry which I’m fond of).
Thanks to my English family, my stepmother has become a devotee of the strong English teas. AFAIK, she has a hell of a time finding “real” English teas here. There are various Twinings flavors available in the U.S., but some are only available in the U.K. Her favorite is the regular Marks and Spencer brand, which no one has even heard of here.
I’ve tried to convince her to try loose leaves instead of bags, but I think she prefers the convenience. Fortunately, we recently got a good tea shop locally, Teavana, but I have yet to try any of their stuff.
Count me as another Stash Tea fan. I absolutely adore their Double Bergamot Earl Grey tea.
Strangely enough, while I’m normally very sensitive to bitterness in food (I simply cannot get down broccoli or walnuts), I’ve never had a problem with bitter tea. And I’m one who leaves the bag in the cup while I’m drinking.
Discovered Stash tea. Have been working my way through a sampler of the various black teas, and I think I like Irish Breakfast Tea the most – spike with milk and sugar to get it fullbodied and strong enough to wake my tastebuds. (part of the reason I love coffee – it’ll jolt me awake right enough)
Then there’s the caramel decaf black tea they make. Oh mama. …and now I need a moment.
Hmm. I’m also a sucker for 500 Mile Chai, although it’s more fiddly since I have to make it in a saucepan and I increase the ratio of teaspoons by half again. Gooood stuff, that. I haven’t found another brand of chai that I’ve liked quite as much, unfortunately. They’re all too perfumey and spicy.
To add to the data points collected by the OP: the break rooms at work offer Bigelow’s (free), but the cafeteria has a small assortment of Tazo teas (not free).
