Physio a couple days ago so went to a new coffee shop and they had tea I haven't tried before!

They brand they stock is Harney & Sons, which I've never tried before, but from their "scent bar" they have some good stuff. I tried the chocolate mint, but I'm also curious about their Indian Spice (black tea with cardamom and such, and they have a hot cinnamon that smells quite similar to the Cinnamon Heart tea that was my favourite! (I still need to write that letter to David's to see what became of it.)

Alas, the tins sold at the coffee shop were out of my price range, even for my tea.

Hi there. :)

I do drink both coffee and tea. Percolated coffee made in a percolator at least as old as myself, no bad aromas later. And either evaporated milk or plain non-dairy creamer. I like to reserve the milk or sometimes half & half for special occasions.

I've sampled many sorts of tea. My favorite was to make a brew mixed of black chai, eleuthero, green tea and ginseng. I like it both iced or hot with a tad of milk and less of sugar. I found that mixture of great help with concentrating and other issues. Like my weak immune system. I'm debating online ordering, seeing as its getting harder and harder to find them localy.

Oh wow, Earl Grey. Just reading eveyone's comments is making me crave bergamot! I wish i could remember the brand i got several years ago, but was by far the best one i've tried yet.

As for reducing the tanic acids in dark tea, i have done the following for the past 22 or 23 years. (One of my 80+ year old home health clients taught me her grand mother's tea recipe in the mid 1990's, this is it).

First of all, the results: Acid reduction. The tea is iced tea, will be crystal clear and very clean in taste. Little to no after taste. Very refreshing!

She had me place a family sized tea bag in a small pot of cold water, slowly bring it up to hot. Just before it boils, remove the pot from the heat, (remove the tea bag), and add 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon baking soda. It will foam as the baking soda reacts with the tanic acids in the hot tea. Stir until all the foam is gone. Don't rush this step. It will take about 30 seconds to two minutes, depending upon how much tanic acid the baking soda must neutralize.

She then had me sweeten it with Sweet-n-Low, as she was diabetic. At home, i added 3/4 cup of sugar, stirred until the sugar was dissolved, then dilluted with ice cubes or cold water in the pitcher.

It *can* come to a boil. But not for more than a handful of seconds. Boiling releases far more tanic acid than stopping the brewing process before it boils. Beyond this, it's all just basic chemical reactions. The baking soda neutralizes the tanic acid.

I find this is easily utilized with most dark teas. I've not tried it with herbal teas recently, so i cannot remember the results. I've been making iced tea with her grandmother's method since 1993 or '95, somewhere in there. Gotten plenty of compliments and requests for it.

And i know for a fact i used to have stomach upset from many dark teas, until i made it this way. I'm sure it had to be the tanic acids that tore my stomach up back then, it gave me horrible heartburn until i began making it this way.

As near as we can determine (or guess!), her grandmother's tea method dates from approximately middle to early 1800's. Pioneer and settler days. I have no clue its actual origin. But it does work.

Just don't try what my ex-in-law did and ruin it attempting to make it in a Mr. Coffee machine. That was just nasty! x.x

Hi Spider. I'll certainly give that a shot. The doctors aren't actually sure why strong black tea appears to cause bone issues, but tanic acid is the prevailing suspicion. I rarely have iced tea. Does the mix microwave well? Or I suppose I could just stove heat it. Does the baking soda affect the taste much?

Eleuthero I can't have, which is what's annoying me about the fact that my favourite tea place got rid of their other digestive Pu'erh tea.

Bubble Tea
 

I tried bubble tea with my mother in a Vietnamese restraunt to try it out. I found it pretty enjoyable, but my mother didn't like it. :S We hade to look up on Google to find out what the bubbles of the tea are made out of.

I have to admit, it amuses me to see people trying bubble tea for the first time, especially if they aren't aware of the "bubbles."

Tried some tumeric tea that came with my mixed tea parcel I got the other day (because I can't walk into a tea store and not come out with something I didn't plan for). Not sure tumeric is my thing, really, though I suppose I'm getting some good out of it. It appears to be one of those new health craze things, though perhaps not a craze yet. Didn't make my stomach angry so that's a plus. The tea had beetroot in it, so once I put the milk in it resembled strawberry milk.

Mango tea is wonderful! But I personally like it with just mango and most often I find it in a mix with other fruits. I know one place that has a plain mango black tea and I got a good stack of it last time I was there.

oh i love both letelay i just had my first coffee today =) whats your favorite tea flavours quiet man?? =)

Oh, it varies, but I think it would be chai, particularly if it's heavy on the cloves, cinnamon, and maybe black pepper. There are different varieties and I'm not always sure what the ones I like best have in them.

Probably just regular black teas, or a black tea with a single flavour like vanilla or mango. Smoked is good too. That reminds me, I'm out of my lapsang souchong.

well sounds really you like heavy tea flavours =) i like more the light ones like fruit or marrakesh mint
its so awesome ^^ my dad also bough some guarana tea i cant describe how it taste but its awesome =))

I used to drink more herbal teas and lighter ones like green or white more often, but yeah, I'm a strong tea person. I forget that I have a number of those around still. If I feel like something other than tea, I'll often add hot water to juice if I'm still after something warm. It's been cold enough of late for me to stick to hot drinks. Mint tea I still have fairly regularly. I do like the herbal varieties that come off as refreshing.

0o sounds wierd you add hot water to juice!
i just cant imagine it!

Really just makes hot juice. The type does make a bit of a difference. Since I have apple cinnamon tea on hand, hot apple is not all that hard to think of. I have pear around now because it sits okay in my stomach. Curiously, we actually have to go to the baby foods to find pear juice.

oh this sounds plausible
pear juice is a baby juice though
mh we never have juice on hand and my dad forgets my nuts *gloom*
i would buy them myself but i have a bad flu

That moment when you realize that the specks in your tea are too many to just be errant leaves and you see your tea bag has a hole in it.

Tea flows in my veins and in my ancestors. My usual go-to teas are roasted barley tea or pu-erh, always unsweetened. Unsweetened bottled tea is so common here in Hong Kong, and it's a staple. Any self-respecting shop or 7-11 must carry a few types of unsweetened tea (Oolong, Jasmine and Green are the most common).

Most unique tea I've had so far was Bitter Gourd tea. It isn't as bitter as cooked bitter gourd (thank god), and actually had a pleasant nutty taste.

I love pu'erh but it's proving annoying to find (I'm in western Canada) outside of niches in specialty shops.

Related to that, I messaged David's about their discontinued versions but no reply. Sigh! I'm going to investigate Teavanna now, as they have a strawberry one that could be alright. I'm going to have to start blending it myself if I run out of acceptable flavours.

Same here because I'm Irish and Irish drink tea just as much if not more than the English.
Alas, tea turns my stomach very badly and I cannot handle the taste.

I HAVE FAILED YOU, ANCESTORS!!!

I drink coffee every morning and green tea gets me through work every weekday.

I'll occasionally treat myself with some black tea. I used to drink it regularly (and I probably enjoy the taste more than I enjoy coffee) but I had to stop because it was staining my teeth at an alarming rate. :c

I've been playing havoc with my caffeine tolerance lately. I've been chugging too much Mountain Dew and too many energy drinks in addition to my daily coffee the last couple weeks in order to keep going on preparing for my move. This CAN'T be good for me.

I hear energy drinks aren't too bad if you sit at a computer all day, but they are nasty things if you are doing anything physical. Bad for your heart there.

I have enough Irish/UK background to probably make the heritage argument for tea as well, but I'll just go that I like the stuff. What about the Danes? Are they tea people? Never really asked.

I may have answered this way in the past, but I really dislike the smell, and therefore flavor of coffee. Tea however, I can get behind! I drink it somewhat often, and have no particular favorites. I usually don't sweeten it either, but sometimes will if I feel in a sugary mood.

Hello again!

I've started leaving sugar out of my tea once I hit about the third cup, especially towards the evening or if I'm having something else sweet with it.

My older sister laments that Red Rose changed their tea bags and they don't quite taste the same, so now we're on a quest to find a new 'default' tea. Tetley is a no go, and Overwaitea and Yorkshire are meh. I recall not being a big fan of Dilmah. I forget the name of the latest one but I found it at a Canadian Tire for cheap. Not too bad. Starts with an A. I still with regular old Red Rose for the most part, especially for decaf.

I usually only end up drinking only one cup at a time. Mostly because I have no efficient way to heat water that isn't a microwave, and that makes the cup hot too.

Hope that the quest for a new "default" tea goes well! I suppose loose leaf tea is not convenient though? That avoids the tea bag problem entirely.

DAMMIT CODA

Algo? Ahmad?

I have plenty of loose leaf, but that's usually more expensive than the bagged stuff and less convenient for 'default' purposes.



Neither of those, espy. I think it's "ash-" or "as-" something. Never seen it before. I'll have to check out the name again when I get back home. I also tried a black tea of theirs with strawberry, because cheap.

i only do tea if it's sweet iced tea with lemon. sometimes i will take hot tea if i'm feeling sick.

usually i prefer coffee, either black or with a splash of creamer. every now and then i will treat myself to "junk coffee" (the sweet stuff with whipped cream and flavorings and shit in it).

Recently I've taken a liking to unsweetened bottled tea. I was volunteering at this thing called "Japan Day" which was basically a cultural festival and they gave volunteers some Japanese branded drinks. The tea was tasty xD

Alokozay. The tea is Alokozay. It's is apparently based in Dubai.

I no longer trust the term "sweetened" tea. Are we talking regular tea with sugar or are we talking that curious concoction that appears to be a staple of the southern US?

As well you SHOULD. My wife is from the South. Tea with sugar in it is very much not the same thing as sweet tea. COMPLETELY different flavors.

Should I end up in the South someday, I'll give it a try just to say that I did.

I saw an advertisement on TV for iced tea that highlighted its "herbal extracts!" I think they might not have a complete grasp of what tea is. (Or tisane, I suppose, if you want to be technical.)

So coconut sugar is my new favourite thing! My sister brought a bag over that she didn't want anymore and I've been using it for the sake of using it up (and hey, free sugar! All savings are good savings.) It tastes quite sweet, which is fine for me, and my gut seems to like it better than the turbinado that I have been using (same reason. We had a tube of it so I'm using it up.)

I went and dug up one of my personal sized teapots: enough for 2 cups. I realized how fast I was going through teabags and this was getting to me, both because money and my doctors giving me a hard time for how strong I like my tea. 4-6 cups a day digs away at your stash.

Hoping to make a visit to Murchies soon when I'm back in the city. I'm out of my Queen Victoria tea!

Is it total spam if I have new things to share?

So, my sister in law just picked up some coffee leaf tea for my mom and I try. I'm not really sure what to make of it. It was an earl grey, so the bergamot was pretty strong but it still had this low (if that's a thing) sort of flavour that might have leaned either nutty or roasted. Not sure which. I think it was called Wize Monkey, or something like that.

I like Golden Monkey myself, might that be similar?

I myself ended up buying 2 lbs of tea today to take home, since our tea store closed down. . .

No idea. Is that Brand Name? In this case the "tea" was made from coffee leaves rather than tea leaves, so I suppose that wouldn't really make it proper tea.

I went to a couple tea stores and picked up a few things. I picked up an herbal strawberry thing that smelled good but I was told not to use milk in it as one of the other ingredients will cause it to curdle. Not sure what it was. I think they said it was the Hibiscus.

NEgatory, to my understanding. Weird how they put coffee leaves for a "tea"

from Wiki-http://lghttp.31623.nexcesscdn.net/8...nkey_1.1_2.png
Unfortunately it was top-shelf tea T.T so it was like $20 per 2oz -pets wallet- but I use it to make my orange spice black (1 scoop golden monkey, 2 scoops orange blossom) so I can't let it disappear from my sight.
I have been told the same thing about a few of my tea choices, which generally do include hibiscus for its sweetness.

I've encountered "monkey picked" tea, which is a ranking system of sorts.

Coffee leaves in a tea is really no different from anything herbal. It's just not a tea plant. I guess you could call it an infusion. Does it qualify as a tisane?