Tea Drinkers... any reccomendations? page

[JimT]

I'm a dedicated coffee drinker, but I think I'd like to cut down and drink more tea for its anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory properties. The problem is I really haven't found any tea that I like, certainly not enough to crave on the level of coffee. Honestly, some tea makes me downright nauseous. I've even tried expensive teas at fancy cafes that people rave about, and they're not bad, but not good enough to make me go out and buy some.

I'd be interested to hear if any PBers out there are tea fanatics, and if so, what are their favorite flavors, or any that they'd recommend to a novice tea drinker? Thanks!

[elorajade]

I'm just getting into tea myself, but I love Roobios (current one I'm drinking is Madagascar Vanilla) and at night I drink Bengal Spice.

Roobios, from what I've read is an african tea, and has a very disctinctive flavor. I'm not a fan of black teas at all, which is the norm. Roobios kind of has a fruity, almost licorice like taste (I don't like licorice so I was surprised when I read that).

Bengal spice is really comforting, lots of cinnamon, ginver, clove, vanilla. Really yummy. I drink both with no sugar or milk, but I think they'd both be good with coconut milk.

[JasonF]

I'd have to say go to Teavana, they have EVERYTHING...
http://www.teavana.com/
My personal favorites are: Cacao Mint Black, Sweet Oolong Revolution, Peppermint, Vanilla Rooibos, Skinny Chai Pu-erh, Weight to go Pu-erh... hard not to find something there.
Hope that helps get you started

[Tawny]

Well, I would rather have coffee, too, but I do really like mint green tea. Tazo has a good one, and Mighty Leaf Teas has a delicious Hojicha Green. Yerba Mate is also good. It would be interesting to hear if anyone has found a tea that they crave over coffee, that's probably a tough one.

[PatrickF]

It depends on what you are looking for. There is a huge range of real teas and an even larger range of "herbal teas".

Just for the real teas -- have you tried in a decent quality:
-black teas (first flush, second flush, darjeeling, assam, smoked)
-green teas (japanese powdered, smoked, shaded tea plants - japanese gyokuro, normal green tea)
-oolong teas (no expert here)

I order my japanese teas from Hibiki-an in Japan. Shipping time is ok and price and quality are better than any local shop here in Germany.

[darkersolace]

My journey into teasnobbery began with herbal "teas" (a misnomer, there's actually no tea on most of them), because I like fruit punch, and herbal tea is just warm fruit punch. Then I graduated to flavored teas, but that's pretty much where I'm happy because just plain tea isn't really my thing, either.

http://www.adagio.com/ has some excellent choices, and they have a lot of samplers if you'd like to try 4 teas for a low price. They're home to one of my standby tisanes, Berry Blast.

I also order regularly from http://www.svtea.com/ -- they're my go-to store, as I can order my teas and herbs/spices for my homemade chai blend. They also do a good job of describing the character of the tea varietals they carry, which is helpful to narrowing down selections.

Teavana does have some nice blends (Samurai Chai Mate, NOM), but I wouldn't start out there if you're still trying to find your "sweet spot." You'll drop a rediculous amount of $$ on teeny little bags of dried stuff!

[Dragonfly]

I like The Republic of Tea.

[tommy70817]

I personally enjoy Sen-cha Whole Leaf Green Tea (a Japanese green tea) packaged by Yamamotoyama. I get a 7 oz. package at a local Oriental Market for about $3.99. Green tea has a higher concentration of antioxidants than black teas and Oolong Tea, but a lower caffeine level than black tea, and even more than coffee. Also whole leaf tea in a diffuser can be reused up to 3 times , so it's very economical, and you get a higher concentration of EGCG than in teabags. I used to hear tea drinkers say that tea from teabags tasted like paper (the bag), and until I started drinking whole leaf tea I didn't believe them.

[aboutsaffron]

oh man, where to begin?

if you're coming from coffee, you might want to start with black tea. chai is awesome (i like tazo's the best) splashed with a bit of milk, & republic of tea has some delicious flavors (blackberry sage, ginger peach are my favs). plain good tea like english breakfast from bigelow or awake from tazo is pretty basic but lovely with bacon & eggs. earl grey & lady grey are also favorites.

dropping to greens, i love the zen tea from tazo, which has spearmint & lemongrass. plain green with a bit of lemon is awesome hot or iced, but there are tons of great ones from celestial seasonings. they also have a lot of herbal teas they call "zingers" that are rather fun.

i have difficulty brewing hot white tea, but i do enjoy it iced. the berryblossom white from tazo is a particular favorite of mine...

my favorite herbals are the wild sweet orange & passion from tazo & the sweet dreams from bigelow. i love me some peppermint & chamomile!

[livinlite]

Where do you live and what type of stores do you have access to? Whole Foods? Co-ops? Does your city have a "Chinatown"?

Much to recommend, but need a little more info first...