Becoming a tea drinker.

Originally Posted by crazyquik

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Go get a sampler pack of tea. It will probably include a few packs of a green tea, some Earl Grey, some 'English Breakfast', and maybe a few others. For a few dollars you'll get to try 5 or so different teas. Then you can focus in on different brands of the same variety, whether you like cream/sugar/honey, etc.

Eventually you'll start brewing burgandy colored loose leaf Moroccan teas in a French press coffee pot

I prefer Earl Grey, but I'm a bit of a traditionalist.

If it weren't for that revolution and the Boston Tea Party we'd still be tea drinkers...

Maybe you're not a dorky history buff such as myself, but on History International last night, I was watching a show about the Boston Tea Party. Pretty sweet. I mean obviously everybody knows the basic story, but a lot of smaller details and interesting facts were presented.

Irish breakfast tea with milk, no sugar. Bewley's preferably, but Barry's is my normal back up. 3-6 cups a day, and I could care less about health benefits. I take my vitamins, eat healthy, and exercise... I drink tea for pleasure, not health. I began drinking tea in this exact form and haven't deviated except for drinking Jasmine tea with Asian food. I'll be the odd man out and say I don't like Earl Grey tea.

+1 on Doc's comments about floor sweepings - I mean tea bags.

If you're in it for the caffeine, go for black tea.

If you're in it for the health benefits, go for green, or even more so, white.

Since you say you envision drinking it at the end of the day, you may want less caffeine. If that is the case, but you prefer the taste of black tea, there is a simple way to decaffeinate loose leaf tea. Since over 99% of the caffeine is extracted within the first 20 seconds, you can simply toss the first steeping and drink the second.

And yes, please do not over-steep your tea. 2-3 minutes should do. If you want a stronger flavor, add more leaves. And reduce the water temperature for greens and whites: 180 degrees tops.

For those of you who want to go high-end (especially you New Yorkers who like to support local small businesses), I highly recommend the Brooklyn company In Pursuit of Tea. Fantastic buyers of all types of tea who travel all over the world to find it. Nice guys, too.

If you don't want the bother of messing with loose tea leaves, I wouldn't bother getting into tea at all. Yes, it REALLY makes that much of a difference.

I'd recommend uptontea.com and try a few samplers, or select individual samples of teas that might interest you. Pay careful attention to brewing instructions regarding steep times and water temperatures. Upton isn't the best, but they are very good and will definitely get you started the right way.

I like to buy my black teas and Rooibos from upton, and my green and white teas from funalliance.com.

Okay I'll try and give loose tea leaves a shot. Since I won't have a stove in the dorm obviously, I'll have to rely on either microwave oven or a small coffee maker that my roomate has.

Will this complicate things?

Would I still be able to make tea by just placing some loose leaves in a filter, and let the coffee maker go at it? (apologies for the redundant question, never made coffee either, but it should be easy to make something quick, no?)

Originally Posted by Mandrake9072

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Okay I'll try and give loose tea leaves a shot. Since I won't have a stove in the dorm obviously, I'll have to rely on either microwave oven or a small coffee maker that my roomate has.

Will this complicate things?

Would I still be able to make tea by just placing some loose leaves in a filter, and let the coffee maker go at it? (apologies for the redundant question, never made coffee either, but it should be easy to make something quick, no?)

Here's what I do every morning. Heat up water (micro in your case), pour water into cup with loose leaves, 4 minutes later pour tea back into first cup through tea strainer. Add milk and sugar and drink.

Originally Posted by Mandrake9072

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Oh yes, coming from an Indian family, I'm not completely new to tea. My parents drink tea at least twice a day. I was actually shocked at the fact that people drank tea w/o milk, since I was always used to seeing family members drink with milk.

But a recent health study found that adding milk negates any of the major health benefits.

Are you sure of this? And if so, why would you think the milk negates health benefits?

Originally Posted by texas_jack

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One of the keys is to not over steep the bag. Leave it in for no more than 4 minutes.

I usually just leave my tea bag in the tea cup for as long as there's tea left. What is the problem in leaving the bag in more than 4 minutes?

If you don't want to use a strainer, invest in a tea ball. It's a small metal ball with holes in it. Tea goes in ball, ball goes in water, ball comes out of water in a few minutes, presto. Bodum makes some excellent tea pots if you're interested in several cups at a time. Don't microwave the tea with leaves in it, and you probably don't want to use a coffeepot as the carafe probably has residual coffee taste that will mess up the flavor.

Personally, I would get a small amount of loose black tea and some loose green tea, figure out which you prefer and then explore from there. Earl Grey is the most traditionally flavored black tea, and jasmine is the most "traditionally flavored" green tea.

Originally Posted by rnoldh

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Are you sure of this? And if so, why would you think the milk negates health benefits?



I usually just leave my tea bag in the tea cup for as long as there's tea left. What is the problem in leaving the bag in more than 4 minutes?

I don't think it negates the antioxidants and all of those good things, I think the poster just meant it gives a naturally calorie-free drink some calories/fat.

If you leave the bag in for too long, the drink will end up really bitter and nasty. Try steeping a black teabag for twenty minutes and take a sip...

here it is: http://www.newscientist.com/article/...ts-of-tea.html do a google search, you'll get many results on milk and tea.

Originally Posted by Spencer Young

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If you don't want to use a strainer, invest in a tea ball. It's a small metal ball with holes in it. Tea goes in ball, ball goes in water, ball comes out of water in a few minutes, presto. Bodum makes some excellent tea pots if you're interested in several cups at a time. Don't microwave the tea with leaves in it, and you probably don't want to use a coffeepot as the carafe probably has residual coffee taste that will mess up the flavor.

Personally, I would get a small amount of loose black tea and some loose green tea, figure out which you prefer and then explore from there. Earl Grey is the most traditionally flavored black tea, and jasmine is the most "traditionally flavored" green tea.

Tea ball sounds very interesting. Any idea of where I would be able to get one of these? Would Bed Bath and Beyond have something like this?

Originally Posted by rnoldh

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Are you sure of this? And if so, why would you think the milk negates health benefits?

I usually just leave my tea bag in the tea cup for as long as there's tea left.
What is the problem in leaving the bag in more than 4 minutes?

Most black teas will get bitter if left to infuse for more than 5 minutes or so. Black tea in teabags will infuse even faster and will start getting bitter just after 2-3 minutes. Unfermented and partially fermented teas (white, green, oolongs) can be brewed for longer periods of time if desired, and not get bitter.

Originally Posted by Mandrake9072

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Okay I'll try and give loose tea leaves a shot. Since I won't have a stove in the dorm obviously, I'll have to rely on either microwave oven or a small coffee maker that my roomate has.

Will this complicate things?

Would I still be able to make tea by just placing some loose leaves in a filter, and let the coffee maker go at it? (apologies for the redundant question, never made coffee either, but it should be easy to make something quick, no?)

As it has been mentioned before brewing an excellent cup of tea is very easy and inexpensive. You just need boiling or almost boiling water (depending on the type of tea you are making), a cup and some sort of an infuser to hold the tea leaves during the brewing process and then remove them. There are all kinds of inexpensive infusers available.

I can write pages and pages about tea but I will try not to. If you have access to an Indian grocery store you can check out their tea offerings which are normally a lot better that what you find in a supermarket. Even Lipton will be better in India- market or UK market versions you can find there.

If it is in your price range, I would check out the sampler sets offered on Upton Tea. Just like Jayvin, I have been a satisfied customer of theirs for years. Amongst other things, they carry single cup infusers.

Originally Posted by Spencer Young

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If you leave the bag in for too long, the drink will end up really bitter and nasty.

+1. I would say 3 minutes tops.

Originally Posted by Spencer Young

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If you don't want to use a strainer, invest in a tea ball. It's a small metal ball with holes in it.

Actually, the bigger the better in that regard. Particularly with tea with larger leaves, you want to give the tea as much room as possible to interact with the water. I would say don't go with a ball at all, but rather with something like this, by Finum...

...which you can get for $9 at the above-mentioned In Pursuit of Tea. That's the strainer that I use, generally. The great thing about it is that it will fit most cups/mugs and teapots, too.

When camping in the desert I live on Scotch, decaf green tea and gatorade. I literally lasted nearly five days with little real food (although I did eat a lot of Clif bars to start and cheated by going into town for breakfast at 5AM, while my mates were asleep.). I did eat one or two cans of canned fruit or stew per day once I got a routine going, but lost several pounds in a week.

When my mates asked what I was drinking, I'd reply "Green Tea" and they assumed it was some sort of narcotic concoction.

I actually prefer Numi mint tea, but also enjoy a basic cup of Earl Grey.

Thomas