Had a fun/new experience the other day...."A Spot of Tea"...My neighbor stopped by in the afternoon

B

barb_b

Well-known member
she is from the U.K. I asked if she would like some soda or iced tea (Recognizing the heat), her response was she would like a "Spot of Tea". I dug around and fortunately had some twinnings, and made a cup for both of us.

WELL, I really enjoyed it. I only drink tea at chinese restaurants, or when my throat is sore (Also, stick to Chinese)... I am interested in learning if anyone else is a regular tea drinker. If so, what do you recomend? Do you use fresh tea leaves? It seems like such a fun "ceremony" to make tea. (I have to admit that I do not own a tea pot. I boiled the water in a sauce pan...)

Curious if anyone else drinks tea!

Regards,

Barb

 
I drink tea every morning and afternoon...

I enjoy a hot beverage but am trying to cut down on caffeine, and it's so much easier to make a cup of tea than to brew a pot of decaf. My favorite is Earl Grey.

 
i've never learned to like coffee, so tea is my caffeine crutch...

it became a ritual for me when living in the uk. earl grey was my staple, but am now addicted to a flavor called monks blend - it's sooo good. i've come to prefer loose tea for it's fresher flavor, but teabags are certainly faster. i bought a bodum teapot designed for loose tea - works on same principle as their coffee presses - and i love using it. if i make too much i pop the rest in the fridge for iced tea. a friend once made me a london fog - a cuppa earl grey with warm milk, plenty of sugar and a dash of vanilla - a perfect afternoon drink (ok, maybe not in the middle of summer).

oh what a nerd i am for being excited about tea. anyhow, check out a good tea shop and do some sniffing, there's such variety, you're sure to find something you love.

 
An occasional tea drinker here....

My morning hot beverage of choice is coffee but several times a week hubby and I will have tea after dinner, usually decaf and most often from tea bags but sometimes from loose tea.

I get together with several culinary girlfriends each month and do culinary-related outings. Lately, we've been enjoying going for afternoon tea which is sooooo much fun. A few months ago we went for high tea at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco...very elegant and the sweets and savories were scrumptious. This past weekend the four of us went to another tea spot in San Francisco called Lovejoys (click link for website)...a more casual place to have tea but equally as fun and delicious. We've become hooked on going for tea and plan to go to a new-to-us place every couple of months to try out the wide variety of tea houses in the area. We also held our own tea party where each of us contributed both sweets and savories and drank champagne in addition to the varieties of tea. It's a great way to spend an afternoon with friends.

http://www.lovejoystearoom.com/

 
I enjoy it very much...

and have a number of teapots and china cups. I use both loose and bags, just depending.

I use a lot of different kinds of teas. Earl Grey is good, Jasmine is wonderful (Numi Monkey King Jasmine Green is good), Stash Tea's Chai is soo good! (like a dessert with milk and sugar - yum)

I order the majority of my teas online. Even my Stash I ordered online in bulk. They sell vacu-bags of loose teas.

Locally, I buy from Churchill's Coffee Co.
I have also used http://www.coffee-am.com
They have a nice assortment of bulk teas, and all accessories. Or, they did when I last ordered from them about 18 mos ago.

I have one of the Bodum type brewers, also.

http://www.coffee-am.com

 
I love my one cup of freshly ground & brewed coffee each morning but

the coffee is so bad & weak here in the office that I don't drink it and actually prefer tea in the afternoons anyway, so for me, it's oolong, (teabags) straight. Someone brought in Tazo Chai tea recently and it is delicious! I also love Ginger tea with fresh lemon juice when I have a cold. So many people love the Earl Grey..to me, it's like drinking perfume and I don't enjoy it.

 
I'm with you on that, Val...

I would hate to give up my fresh ground beans! We have a Rancilio Silvia Esresso Machine and it makes wonderful latte's! I've never acquired a taste for straight espresso but you never know...

I find there is room in my life for both coffee and tea. There are weeks I never have a coffee urge at all but I do love good fresh coffee. I'm spoiled. If I can't have excellent, I pass.

 
I can do earl grey if I use one bag of EG and one bag of regular tea and make a big pot. Not so

perfume-y that way. I also enjoy Market Spice tea which I believe is made for Pike Market Spice in Seattle. It's a lovely orange/spice blend(like chai, no milk) that is good plain, or with lemon and honey. I just can't do milk in tea. I always bring back the island blend teas from Hawaii. I love the Passion Fruit and pineapple teas---not sweet at all, just the essence of the fruits. Makes delish iced tea.

 
Hi Barb, here are some good sources for tea

Harney has some wonderful selections. I drink tea by the gallon and have an entire cupboard dedicated all my assorted teas and tisanes. Harney also has some beautiful hand sewn artisan teas that perform in the pot for you (Jasmine Fairy Maidens are especially beautiful),They literally bloom into flowers. They even have one that "snows" in your teapot--use a glass teapot for these spectacles of course. Those are always fun when you have company in for tea. Also the Peach Fruit Tea is wonderful. I sometimes use a spoonful when I brew a pot to make iced tea and it's very refreshing.

I usually drink English Breakfast in the morning and also use that for my iced tea, although I'm constantly making all different sorts. The Russian store down the street has an amazing Black Russian Tea with rose petals that is out of this world. During the day at the office I drink assorted green and herbals. (and I cannot abide those horrid Lipton tea bags that we have in the breakroom. Ick.)

http://www.harney.com/

http://ashworthtea.com/

Also, if you like Twinings, you can buy the large 200gram tins on their site for a lot less than the grocery stores charge for them (or at least that's what I found).

I usually use loose leaf teas. Harney sells a wonderful little silver tea strainer that comes in handy for pouring out of the pot.


Enjoy!

http://www.harney.com/

 
If you want to know everything you ever wanted to know about tea and coffee...

check out eGullets forum on coffe and teas. Be careful, eGullet can be habit forming! I went over there to get you this link and got distracted by another post and read for a couple hours, on and off. Sheesh!

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showforum=127

 
I now have tea in the morning, usually Irish or English breakfast, maybe something different...

in the afternoon. I like black currant and darjeeling.

I've had lots of cups of bad coffee eating out but never a bad cup of tea! smileys/smile.gif

 
I love London Fruit & Herb Company's Fruit Tea Assortment...

from Costco. There are 5 flavours and 80 tea bags in the box. They taste and smell wonderful. I try to drink green tea often, for its health benefits, but the fruit teas are so good that it's hard to stay away from them. Celestial Seasons also make some wonderful flavours, and are excellent quality - there is a blackberry and ?something, I can't remember right now, that is especially good.

 
Yes, I do too. Not every day, but most. Especially in the...

winter. And then there is iced tea in the summer, that I flavor with extracts from my baking stash (mint, orange, strawberry was very good).

My favorite hot tea is "Chinese Restaurant" tea - part green/part black tea; I think it is from Celestial Seasonings. And Oolong. 'Have been trying some green teas lately, and I like the grassy taste, but I do "dilute" it with black tea (in in the CR tea, above).

Gotta have cookies with that tea, too!

 
THanks everyone for sharing your tea expertise with me. This will be a fun, new area for me to learn

 
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