Nobody has mentioned Teavana yet? You can usually find them in shopping malls. The will let you try out the aromas and you can combine the tea to your liking. They also have sampling for their popular flavors. The only caveat is that the employees are trained to upsell. Trust me when I say I found out the hard way.
I have no idea if you could ever get your hands on any, but the best black tea is Barry’s, an everyday Irish brand.
This is all so great, thanks all!
I’m going to have a great time ordering a little of this and a little of that and seeing what I like 
I’m not a fan of Teavana. I find their teas to be not great and pricey. When I compare their loose leaf tea to Harneys, the leaves are broken and smaller, and the tea was much more expensive (in general, the more of the leaf you get with a tea, the better it is).
Its a pretty shop to browse in
I dislike the hard sell that I feel when I enter Teavana. I avoid it now.
You have all shamed me into digging out my stash of English Breakfast tea. Mm. I should have a good shaming more often.
Yorkshire tea is good if you want a strong tea; Lapsang Souchon if you want a delicate tea.
I’ll recommend one or two, you will need to get them online.
Teapigs Everyday loose tea - I cannot recommend this highly enough, but don’t get the ‘tea temples’, get the loose tea it costs much less - make sure your water has plenty of aeration to make the best of it.
If you like some taste to your tea then Ringtons Classic 1907 blend - this is quite heavy duty - don’t drink this for quenching a thirst, its not light like assam. Very very traditional British tea
Ringtons Ceylon Orange Pekoe - again , this is strong stuff, and again its very British traditional
Taylors of Harrogate used to have a very extensive range of estate teas but unfortunately they have reduced their range, I guess folk are not as discerning as they used to be, still, they do have some really good ones - try their Darjeeling, Assam and Ntingwe Kwazulu - oh I nearly forgot, they have a Kanyan tea that is well worth scouting for.
http://www.taylorsofharrogate.com/products/taylors-black-tea.asp
Jasmine is usually green tea, but Twinings do a Jasmine Earl Grey. I have a box of it, but haven’t tried it yet, I shall probably do so shortly now I’ve remembered it. The spicy stuff is probably chai masala. I just got some more of the spice today (I’m too lazy to mix my own), so I’ve been enjoying that.
I usually drink my tea without milk or sugar, but masala needs plenty of milk and honey - gives a much smoother sweetness than sugar IMHO.
I think I’m one of those British tea snobs mentioned earlier! Not too over the top though, I mostly use tea bags for convenience…
My default strong black loose-leaf tea is random Assam from the local Indian grocery. It’s super-cheap (less than $4/lb., I think), and works just fine for my purposes. I also have a few others around: Twinings English breakfast, Darjeeling, and Constant Comment, in bags for when I don’t feel like making loose tea, or when I have company that all want different things (lots of herbal teas too). My little brother gave me a mixed set of Stash black teas for my birthday, and I drink those at work and like them too.
Yay! My work here (for now) is done!
I thought Darjeeling didn’t stand up to milk very well until I had a conversation with an Indian friend. You make it strong - some combination of adding more tea or letting it brew for 4-5 min. Then it’s nice.
Moving this over to Cafe Society for you.
My go to for just a plain black tea is Yorkshire Tea.
My go to when I want a flavor is coconut chai from Zhena’s.
I just discovered that a splash of creme de cassis is REALLY good in black tea.
The best I’ve been able to find in the States is Stash English Breakfast. Red Rose, Twinings, and Bigelow are all decent, too.
Call me boring if you will, but I can’t go past a good old English Breakfast.
I have been ordering from Arbor Teas, where every product is organic.
I have recently learned I love Honeybush, with nothing added, and it is now my go-to hot drink for afternoons and evening. (mornings are for coffee, obviously)
A caffeine-free infusion, our Honeybush is light-bodied, slightly sweet organic herbal tea with hints of toasted grains. This organic African tea has a woody aroma with notes of eucalyptus. Indigenous to South Africa, honeybush was discovered in the 1700’s when local inhabitants realized that the flowers, stems and leaves from this plant could be used to make a drink that had a pleasant taste with honey-like flavor. Generally the plant is cut right down to the ground during harvesting. The remaining roots do not die however, and within two years they have grown into harvestable size again, quite often nearly twice the size of the original bush.
Ooh, that sounds nice. I sometimes drink Rooibos sweetened with honey, so I imagine that’s somewhat similar. I’ll have to try to find some.