A Favorite Tea?

[digitS']

I love coffee . . . but it doesn't love me too much. I love tea, too. And, I love herbal teas. Okay, maybe I'm overworking the word "love" here but I really do appreciate a hot drink, especially on cold, cold days in the winter.

I bought some "South Pacific" blended green tea not too long ago and I'm enjoying that right now. Do you have a favorite tea?

This tea came in bulk from a kitchen store but I'm pretty sure that I've found it here online. It's a "Te'" product and, altho' I'm not terribly fond of green tea - if you really load up the tea ball . . . . And, it reminds me of a tropical fruit & nut trail mix .

Often, I'm drinking an herbal tea. Since the herbs aren't actually "tea" - I suppose we should call them tisanes but I'm not a very sophisticated tea drinker. Still, I've drank a few different sorts of hot beverages over the years - teas in boxes, teas in bags, herbs of one sort or another, Postum, Pero, Starbucks .

I like a top quality oolong tea and, probably, my favorite herbal tea is Stash's Licorice Spice tea. But, as a gardener, I'm darn happy to be able to grow licorice mint and lemon verbena for tea .

How about you - are you a tea drinker and are you able to grow some things that you enjoy brewing and drinking?

Steve

 

[PunkinPeep]

I am a tea drinker. Well, i kind of go back and forth between coffee and tea.

I am on the look out for ways to make my own tea. But i'm really in love with the black tea that buy from the store, and i haven't looked into whether i can grow it here myself with any success.

I'm planning to try some yaupon tea/black drink, since our woods are abundant with yaupon holly trees.

I'm also thinking about whether i can make a lime flavored tea from my lime tree leaves (an earlier post made me wonder this) because i love the flavor of lime in my black iced tea.

 

[jojo54]

I drink tea as well as coffee. Earl Grey has always been a favorite of mine. I grew some chocolate mint this year that makes a very nice tea. I dried several jars of it for the winter. I enjoy some of the herbals that are spicy such as Licorice Mint by Stash, Floral by Tea Forte, Orange Spice by Celestial Seasonings as well as others. Years ago, I had a nice fruity rose hip tea and since I have roses now, I think I will try to make some of it next year. Tea has so much more variety than coffee. A peppermint tea is nice after a large meal to settle your stomach or tea with honey and lemon juice soothes a sore throat. Some are good for dunking gingersnaps, etc. All this tea talk makes me think its time to put on the kettle. :rainbow-sun

 

[obsessed]

My favorite tea is Chai made at my friends house. She is of Indian (from India) heritage. And it is loaded with sugar and cream. I love Love Love it.

 

[digitS']

Tastes in teas are entirely, subjective - of course!

Some subtlety is sometimes appreciated, sometimes - I like something BOLD!

Most always, I want something hot with a different/unique flavor and a handle!

Steve

 

[journey11]

Good winter topic, Steve!

Coffee in the morning and tea in the evening. I'll drink hot tea year-round.

I've gotten alot of good tea recipes out of Rosemary Gladstar's book "Herbal Healing for Women". Most are medicinal, but generally also very tasty too. I like her chamomile tea recipe the best of any chamomile tea I've had. It's basically a blend of chamomile, rose hips and oatstraw. I also drank alot of her pregnancy tea blend when I was, of course, pregnant. It's pretty tasty too, so I still drink it every so often.

I love sassafras tea, I think I mentioned that before somewhere.

In the spring I drink twice a day a tea that I make from dandelion root and anise seed (for flavor). I swear it helps my sinus/allergies go away!

Just for the pleasure of drinking tea, I like store-bought honey-chamomile, "tension tamer" (very pepperminty), and chai. I'll drink black or green tea iced usually.

I really want to get into growing a tea garden next year hopefully. I have a few scattered specimens usually as it is. I don't know why, it must just be me, but I have the hardest time getting a significant amount of chamomile to grow! Must be our red clay mud. And I've had a hard time starting it indoors too.

This is my favorite place to buy bulk herbs online (since you can't always grow everything yourself anyway). Good for supplies and things too if you like to make your own herbal tinctures and stuff. http://www.wildweeds.com/index.html

 

[obsessed]

I got a detox tea from the health food store that is absolutely repulsive. Needless to say I would rather be toxic. I also love me some green tea.

 

[digitS']

What may have made me think about tea was mentioning Missoula this morning. I usually have at least 1 cup of some kind of tea every day but my tea blend container still smells of "Evening in Missoula" herb tea even tho' it's been gone for a week or so.

That is a fairly "different" blend . . . I don't even know what's in in (and I've been to Missoula in the evening and even spent the night ). It's a strange name, too.

Journey that Wild Weeds "Sunrise over the Mountain" may suit your (and my tastes) altho' I'm not too sure about the cinnamon . (But, it wouldn't be any thing like the Missoula tea .)

Chamomile was nearly a complete flop in my herb garden. I'd have to go with 1 blossom to the cup if I was to rely on my own skill at producing a crop. As it is, I can have it in "Sleepytime" with DW in a blend with spearmint.

I have to say that the mints aren't my 1st or 2nd choices. Licorice mint is a monarda and, altho' I have chocolate mint in the yard along with several others, I don't use them in teas. In fact, I make pretty good use of catnip but, since it grows around my large veggie garden, I generally don't make much effort to protect the plants (weeds) in my yard.

What do you suppose pregnancy tea would do for me? Exclusivity isn't really fair now that we know that some women smoke cigars now and then.

That outfit has all those bath things. Well, that's going a little too far altho' a hot bath sure is appreciated most anytime of the year. And, Johnson's included a bottle of bubble bath with that last baby shampoo I bought !!

Steve

 

[Reinbeau]

Steve, I think you mentioned that coffee wasn't good to you - I'm the same way. I like the smell of it but it can really do a number on my stomach, so I avoid it. I adore a nice cuppa tea. I am a real tea lover, though, I'm not too fond of herbal teas, I've had some nice tasting cups, but I really love Camellia sinensis in its many forms. My morning cup is East Frisian blend, my favorite tea vendor is Harney & Sons out of Connecticut. East Frisian is a nice, strong cup, full bodied with lots of flannel. I also enjoy a good cup of Earl Grey. Both I take with a touch of honey and a little milk. Oolong Fanciest is nice neat, and there's Phoenix Dragon Pearls for green tea. Those are my favorites. These are all whole leaf teas, I don't much care for the standard tea bag tea, those teas aren't made from the best quality leaves.

I get upset at the way tea drinkers are treated in restaurants. Coffee drinkers are catered to, us, not so much. Order a cup in most places and you'll get luke warm water out of the coffee machine and a teabag on the side - that they expect you to use over and over again. In a little fit of pique once I said to a waitress "Are you going to bring the grounds out for those coffee drinkers so they can use them over again, too?"

There's a proper way to brew all teas. Full roll boiling water for black tea, into a warm pot or cup, steep for 3-5 minutes, depending on what strength you like. Oolongs steep for 1-3 minutes (I like it a bit stronger than that), but the water should be just about to boil, or you'll stew the leaves. Green and white teas are delicate, they should brew at 180 degrees (the little bubbles are just starting to rise from the bottom of the kettle), and the brew for the first brewing is from 1-3 minutes, with the whites taking a bit longer. Oolong, green and white teas are great for second and third brewings, each brew brings out another subtlety you don't notice from the previous cup; they're also very easy to overcook and turn into a vile tasting vegal mess!. Yes, I am a tea snob

I know an oenophile is a lover of wines, vintages, etc, I don't know if there's a term like that for tea lovers, but I am definitely one of them. At one point I was going to upen up a tea room, but I didn't have the capital to make a go of it - any kind of restaurant is such a gamble.....but that's ok, things work the way they should.

 

[obsessed]

What does second and third brewing mean? If you don't like tea bags then I assume the tea would come loose leaf and you would have to but it in something. When my great granny was alive she would brew lose jasimine in a metal egg shaped place. Where so you get your teas? Probably in like a Whole Foods Place?