Tea Time!

[Aggie]

Discussion thread for teas of all sorts.

My roommate concocted an absolutely amazing and ridiculously simple herbal tea a couple of days ago using only dried hibiscus, fresh basil and a bit of honey to sweeten.  Fan freakin tastic!  It has a bit of tartness from the hibiscus, and the two ingredients perform some sort of alchemy to give it a hard-to-describe fruit flavour.  The colour was a deep red/pink from the hibiscus.  Honestly, it looked and tasted like something that would be full of artificial colours and flavours, only much much better.

She used it to mix with a little red wine and some other ingredients to make a sangria, which was very nice, but I saved the rest of the tea and guzzled it the next day.


----

My breakfast tea is currently black tea with fresh sage.  I've been drinking loose Bee brand black tea from Ceylon (Sri Lanka), which I quite like.

[Opsa]

Is it anything like Celestial Seasoning's Red Zinger tea?

Nice topic, Aggie!

One of my theater students (well two actually, they're twins) gave me a nice basket of goodies on the last day of their class. In it were some lovely items made by a local lavender farm. There was lotion, soap, a dryer sachet, plus a cute tea ball shaped like a teapot and some organic lavender-lemon tea. I have not brewed it yet, but it smells great. The ingredients are: lemon peel, chamomile, lemon balm, lemon verbena, lemon myrtle, and lavender.

[Swatopluk]

I am of very simple and cheap taste as far as tea goes. I drink this type of black tea in the afternoon.
It's extremly mild, so it can, if I forget it, brew for half an hour and is still drinkable. Other sorts become undrinkable after 3-5 minutes.

http://www.aldi-nord.de/images/610_schwarzer-tee.jpg

I also find this stuff quite useful since I have chronic stomach trouble

http://sonia.yanas.cz/collection/super/st-christoph-01218905-magen-und-darmtee.jpg

[Bluenose]

I currently quite like this: Adore Tea Russian Caravan Traditional

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Alas.... I live in the Land of We Wanted that Yesterday, and With Fries Too....

... as such, finding a shop that sells loose tea is harder than finding a Souvenir Shop that doesn't sell "local souvenirs" made in China.... (not unlike the US Olympic team uniforms, come to think of it).

So I do what I can-- I tear open the pre-packaged bags to make my own "loose" teas.  Of course, the tea bits inside the bags are of a much finer grind, so I have to use a very fine filter (a coffee one-- stainless steel, paper absorbs too much flavor).

And being cheap, I often take a deep-sided stainless steel skillet (to better absorb the heat), fill with water, tear open a couple of bags of tea, dumping the contents into the water, and heat until it just wants to boil-- yes, I use a digital thermometer, set to ring at the correct temperature:  212 deg F.   Due to the latent heat of vaporization, when it gets to that temp, it isn't actually boiling--yet.  It'll stay there for a bit.

Anyway, kill the heat (it's covered-- there's a nice hole in the cover my temp-probe goes into), let steep (another timer), then pour through a large stainless-mesh filter into my mug.    I often let it steep for 20 minutes or so, makes for much stronger teas here-- I really get as much flavor as I can out of those loose bits.   (did I mention I'm cheap? I did?  Good....)

If it's summer?  Ice it down...
... yeah, I know that icing the tea is an anathema to true Tea Aficionados... so sue me.   It's hot where I am.

[Swatopluk]

They drink very hot tea in the desert and not because they lack ice.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

They drink very hot tea in the desert and not because they lack ice.

Yes.  And they also tend towards zealotry too-- there's no rational to either behavior. 

[Swatopluk]

Small fires are easier exstinguished with boiling than cold water.

[Aggie]

Alas.... I live in the Land of We Wanted that Yesterday, and With Fries Too....

... as such, finding a shop that sells loose tea is harder than finding a Souvenir Shop that doesn't sell "local souvenirs" made in China.... (not unlike the US Olympic team uniforms, come to think of it).

So I do what I can-- I tear open the pre-packaged bags to make my own "loose" teas.  Of course, the tea bits inside the bags are of a much finer grind, so I have to use a very fine filter (a coffee one-- stainless steel, paper absorbs too much flavor).

And being cheap, I often take a deep-sided stainless steel skillet (to better absorb the heat), fill with water, tear open a couple of bags of tea, dumping the contents into the water, and heat until it just wants to boil-- yes, I use a digital thermometer, set to ring at the correct temperature:  212 deg F.   Due to the latent heat of vaporization, when it gets to that temp, it isn't actually boiling--yet.  It'll stay there for a bit.

Anyway, kill the heat (it's covered-- there's a nice hole in the cover my temp-probe goes into), let steep (another timer), then pour through a large stainless-mesh filter into my mug.    I often let it steep for 20 minutes or so, makes for much stronger teas here-- I really get as much flavor as I can out of those loose bits.   (did I mention I'm cheap? I did?  Good....)

If it's summer?  Ice it down...
... yeah, I know that icing the tea is an anathema to true Tea Aficionados... so sue me.   It's hot where I am.

With that sort of precision brewing, one might think you'd be tempted to order some tea online...

I'm the opposite.  Dump some tea in the tea pot, hit it with water that's often been reboiled once or twice due to absentmindedness, and let it soak until I get around to drinking it. Sometimes I re-water the dregs for another pot.

[Opsa]

I can be absentminded too. Rooibos doesn't seem to mind much how long you let it steep, so it remains a fave.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

I sometimes forget about the tea, after I've killed the heat... so it steeps and steeps and steeps... until the water is room temperature, even.

No problem:  if it's winter?  Microwave that sucker (after filtering the spent tealeaves).  If it's summer?  Well, I really wanted cold tea anyhow...

[Sibling DavidH]

Wendy drinks Earl Grey.  I drink tea.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Wendy drinks Earl Grey.  I drink tea.

LOL!

I've totally quit drinking soft drinks (soda) these days, the fizz kills my stomach, so I don't bother.  Now, it strictly iced tea when eating out, or just water even. 

Back when I was a kid?  If you ordered "Iced Tea" you'd get just that:  plain tea, with maybe a slice of lemon. 

Then, some idiot started serving sweet tea at restaurants.   It used to be, if you wanted sweet tea, you'd have to mix it up yourself-- sugar & sweetner packets were everywhere-- even McDonald's.

Now?  They ask you "sweet or unsweet".   If you say "plain" (because the servers are mostly foreign now) they still don't get it 1/2 the time-- and I really don't like sweet tea, not how they make it.   Most places make it as sweet as Coke or Pepsi, only with tea...

.... meh.

Customer: "I'll have a 1/2 pound of sugar, please."
Waiter:   "What?"
Customer:  "Or you could just serve me a glass of your sweet 'tea', it's the same thing, isn't it?"

[Aggie]

We don't have proper iced tea up here...  all 'Iced Tea' is a non-carbonated soda-type soft drink with similar high-fructose corn syrup content to other sodas. I'm sure none of it has ever seen a leaf of Camilla sinensis on this side of an extract-factory wall.

Some of the coffee shops will do proper iced teas, although even those require some vigilance (matcha drinks are often pre-sweetened, I think, which is a shame).

Hmm... I should track down some matcha.  Will probably have to overpay at a local tea shop until I can get to a city with a decent Asian market.

[Sibling DavidH]

I thought in Australia they smacked your cup down on the table and said, 'if you don't like sugar, don't stir it'.

A mate of mine takes the mickey out of the '2½ sugars' bit by always asking for 2 milks.