Looking for a tea

earlnabby

I love tea and have quite a variety, including black, oolong, green, white and some scented or flower teas like jasmine and Earl Grey Creme I don't like tisanes (infusions made from anything other than the tea plant, usually and incorrectly called "herbal tea").

Having said that, someone gave me a box of Celestial Seasonings Madagascar vanilla rooibos for Christmas and I really like it. I don't even need to put anything in it and I usually make my tea with a small amount of sugar and skim milk. I also infuse cracked dried ginger if I am feeling some nausea.

People are suggesting Teavana because you can smell the canister, buy a small amount , and sometimes even taste it at the store before you buy. If you have any kind of local tea shop that is not Teavana, that would be a good place to go too. You have no idea what the names we throw out there mean, or what catalog or online descriptions refer to so out suggestions are really meaningless. You need to try and buy, or just pick something off the grocery store shelf and hope for the best.

Why do you think you need to start drinking tea? That might help us make more specific suggestions. Are you looking for the caffeine? Go with green. Are you looking for something that is good iced? Best with black. Do you like what they serve in a Chinese restaurant? That would be oolong. Are you just looking for a hot drink in order to get more water in? Herbal tisanes might be your best bet.

earlnabby

threnjen wrote: »

jlohcook wrote: »

tap water is usually too hard, there's a certain weird taste to it,

This depends 100% on the water quality in your area. The tap water where I live is ridiculously soft and pure. If your tap water is generally considered drinkable without any other conditioning, it's fine...

I wouldn't make tea with Los Angeles tap water. TDS (total dissolved solids) of tap water in LA is about 320ppm (parts per million). It is very hard water. My TDS out of the tap is 12ppm. It is soft and those fridge filters are pretty worthless for our water.

Not all tap water is "created" equal.

It also depends on the amount of chlorine and chloramines the municipal water utility uses. My water tastes awful so I keep a filter pitcher in the fridge. It is still really hard after filtering, but the filter takes out the chlorine, chloramine, and some of the heavy metals like iron so it tastes great. I find that conditioned water has a funny taste (like a combination of salt and garlic) and prefer tap water (filtered or not, depending on the location). There are really old springs in the city and occasionally I am able to get a gallon or two from them. The water is just as hard as tap water, but it doesn't have the additives so it tastes really good.

lulucitron

Celestial Seasonings acai mango zinger or raspberry zinger. So.Very.Good.

TheBeachgod

I love this stuff.

angelexperiment

Lap sang su chong is very good it is like coffee mildly sweet. Find it at a real tea shop or herb store. Peach tea, ginger tea, herbal tea, yerba mate, I like throat coat by traditional medicinals it has sweet flavor, chocolate smooth move for a chocolate flavor but its to go bm, blueverry slimlife detox tea, rooibos.

stephenial

I am a tea addict and have a large tea collection! I would suggest Darjeeling tea. Twinings makes a good one. This tea is known as the "champagne of teas" because it is smooth. It is a black tea so it does have caffeine. I typically recommend this one to friends who are wanting to start drinking tea. I love teavana however they add so much sugar to their samples that it is sometimes not a true taste of the product. Also, not sure why folks say tea has no health benefits. Tea has antioxidants (especially the more unprocessed teas like green and white) - just Google it to find all kind of interesting health benefits of tea