I may have found a new hobby

[Congratulations]

I want to start drinking tea. I've had some very good hot tea recently by way of a friend of mine, and I'd like to start into myself. I've done a great deal of research, and here's what I've come up with.

1. Get an electric kettle. This is important for me, as I live in a dorm. Luckily, my best friend's mother has one she's been trying to get rid of for a while, and has offered it to me.

2. You can use tea bags or loose leaf tea. Tea bags are going to be more convenient for me, but I've heard that doing the loose leaf tea thing (and pouring through some sort of strainer into your cup) makes superior tea. I will probably use tea bags to brew in a small teapot.

3. Brew for 3-5 minutes, depending on how strong you want it. I suppose this will come down to experimentation.

I've had some knowledgeable individuals suggest I start with Earl Grey and perhaps English Breakfast. Any other suggestions? What brands do you suggest?

Any other advice? Any nifty gadgets I might like to have? Any tips or tricks? I'm ignorant of the whole process, but I've enjoyed what teas I've tried.

[gonzo914]

Get one of these, and you don't even need a pot -- Spoon tea Infuser



I have never seen any reason to go beyond Earl Grey.

[Wanderer]

I love Earl Grey tea.

I also love japanese soba tea. It's delicious...

[avanutria]

Oh golly, just wait till the Brits get a hold of this thread!

There are entire books written on this topic over here. Myself, I still haven't managed to like the stuff, but I have learned to make it.

[Montana]

I do happen to like Irish Breakfast tea; slightly different from English Breakfast but I can't explain how.
I think my favorite tea experience was when I would stop in a little place in Ireland to get out of the rain and order a pot of tea. Maybe it was just the ambience that made it taste so good, kind of like eating dinner when you're camping outdoors.

Another tea you might try is Samovar tea, if you like a little spice. You don't need the Samovar pot. In fact it wasn't until just now when I was browsing for a link that I found out about the Samovar pot. I just like the tea.
http://www.russiansamovars.com/tea_recipes.htm

[I.D.10-t]

I sometimes use a press pot for loose tea.


Often it is not needed because all but a few tealeaves will sink if you are patient. Just don’t drink the dregs (same goes with Turkish coffee).

My favorite use to be crushed green cardamom pods with gunpowder tea. The little balls of green tea would unfold and then it was time to drink.

Come to think of it, I could use more rose hips.

[chas]

Go for real tea, not the blended stuff. Darjeeling, Assam, lapsang souchong, Formosa oolong. . . Most of these will be blended to some extent (real unblended tea can be found, but it's difficult), but it will give you a sense of the regional variations.

[missy]

I don't drink coffee - I drink tea daily.

I won't tell you how to make it - I'll let our UK members chime in on that!

But some I like:
Earl Grey (love that bergamot)
Gunpowder Green
Jasmine
English Breakfast

any at a Chinese restaurant (may be that ambience thing again)

And I cannot STAND Lipton. Tastes burnt to me. Tetley is ok.

I drink my tea "black" or maybe with just a touch of lemon if it's a dark tea. No sugar or sweetning. No milk.

for herbal:
Red Zinger
Sleepytime
Chamomile

[brewerpaul]

I'm mostly a coffee drinker, but there are a couple of teas I really like.
Pu Erh is a Chinese tea with a very earthy taste.
Lapsang Souchong is smoky and very different
There's a Japanese tea whose name escapes me at the moment which is made from some sort of twig-- very light and refreshing.

[flanum]

Oh golly, just wait till the Brits get a hold of this thread!

http://homepage.eircom.net/~nobyrne/ireland2.htm

73% of Americans are unable to locate Ireland on a map bereft of country names.

Bra sales in Ireland increased by 4million between 1998 and 1999.

Raymond O'Brien is the shortest person in Irish history. The midget, who died in 1795, was one foot eleven inches tall.

Less than two percent of the Irish population have been bitten by poisonous snakes.

The Irish drink four million pints of tea a day.

[fearfaoin]

You can use tea bags or loose leaf tea.

From an episode of Good Eats (on the Food Network), I learned that
there are different grades of leaves. You want as little of the tea leaf
"dust" or "fannings" mixed in as possible, because this makes the tea
bitter. Comercial teabags tend to have a lot of this undesireable
material mixed in with the better leafy material. So, the show suggests
not letting the water come to a boil, by microwaving it until it is over
180degrees (F), but NO MORE than 190! This keeps the fannings
from expelling their nastines, aparantly. The info is for making a large
batch for iced tea, but I think it would scale OK, once you figure out
how much to microwave one serving of water.

Here's a transcript from the show which has lots of other interesting
loose tea info:
http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/Season4/ ... script.htm

[LimuHead]

Check out www.uptontea.com

I buy most of my tea from them. Their also very informative and have very fast service. I use the disposable pot-sized tea bags (Agatha's) to brew tea in my big mug at work. They work great.

Favorite teas:

Lapsang Souchang Imperial (I drink this one almost daily - it's low in caffein.)

China Keemun

Aldon

[SteveShaw]

Blimey, what are you lot on about! Take one PG Tips Pyramid tea bag and put in mug. Add boiling water to within one inch from top of mug. Mash for two minutes then squidge around with spoon to extract as much flavour as possible. Fish out tea bag. Add milk. Take three digestive biscuits, preferably chocolate. Dunk in tea and eat. Drink tea. Paradise. And give over about all that fancy, perfumed tackle. Earl Grey my arse!

Steve

[SteveShaw]

And while I'm at it I regard "decaffeinated" as the ugliest word in the English or any other language.

[fel bautista]

lapsang souchong-that's the ticket. Smells like Dunhill pipe tobacco when I was smoking.