[Lavender le Fay]

Oh, hello. I saw this thread and I felt I needed to be here. I'm a definite tea lover, it's almost an addiction. Actually, my desk is currently clogged with containers of tea... If there's ever a Tea Hoarders show, I'll be on it...

[SparX]

What kind of teas do you like?
How do you brew?

[Lavender le Fay]

I like my tea strong and my blends mostly plain. I can only go for an addition of jasmine, bergamot, orange peel or lavender. Even that's on a rare occasion.

I bought a big kettle recently, and it's amazing. Sadly, I have to boil the hell out of my water because local water has a lot of calcium. I like to let my tea steep for at least 10 minutes to get all the leaves to surrender their goods.

[Coda]

I buy 5-gallon jugs of water on a delivery schedule in order to sidestep the tap water quality issue. My family goes through roughly one a week.

[Vee]

I drink Arizona Tea (that not-even-really-tea crap, I know) and my grandmother's sweet tea.
She's dead though, lol.

[Potironette]

I dump boiling hot water on tea leaves or matcha powder these days. There's something tasty about that in the cold weather. If it's not boiling water I won't drink it though x'D

[Lavender le Fay]

That's a good idea, about the bottled water, but that's really the only issue and otherwise it's natural and high quality water. Plus, I don't trust the plastic bottle people... They're shady.

From what I know, and I don't want to claim to know a lot, boiling water kills off the vitamin C in your tea, and it might be better to let the water cool off for a bit.

[Coda]

Ideally, you boil it first, then let it come down to the proper temperature -- 170-190F depending on the type of tea; some herbal tisanes go up to 205.

I've not had any shady experiences with Sparkletts / DS Waters. I couldn't tell you about any other water delivery company.

[Tas]

Originally Posted by Lavender le Fay

I like my tea strong and my blends mostly plain. I can only go for an addition of jasmine, bergamot, orange peel or lavender. Even that's on a rare occasion.

I bought a big kettle recently, and it's amazing. Sadly, I have to boil the hell out of my water because local water has a lot of calcium. I like to let my tea steep for at least 10 minutes to get all the leaves to surrender their goods.

mmm, I love lavender.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

This year I bought myself a tea advent calendar that I've been enjoying, especially since it has teas in it that I'd normally never try myself. I was really surprised how much I liked the oolong and coffee bean blend. (I have a coconut blend right now. Not bad.)

I find that I do enjoy chocolate in my teas, as long as it's more towards the dark end. I'm still debating the letter I want to write the tea guys who discontinued (another) one of my favourite teas, my garcinia pu'erh tea. *Gripe.* I understand that they can't stock everything, and they have two teas that assist digestion. The other tea is one of their top sellers I believe, but has ingredients that I can't have, so darn.

[Potironette]

Ohh, well, that sucks. The reason I use boiling water on matcha is because it's pretty much the only way I know to make it taste good. I pour the water from up high and make it frothy and spread out for me too xD.

I should cool the water more for tea leaves though--since it doesn't make it taste any better boiled.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Haven't tried the high pouring with tea but I used to do that with coffee when I worked at Tim Hortons because it was fun and the pot was conducive to it. Pouring from a higher height actually made the waves in the cup smaller so that the drink would settle faster and you could fill it higher without slopping over the sides. Apparently it also aerates the coffee and is important in some tea/coffee services.


Plain old Red Rose tea today, regular and decaf. A cousin who was over is also fond of decaf Red Rose, specifically. Who knew? I am the provider of tea!

No really, that's my job. If a guest arrives at the house and wants tea, I'm the go too person because no-one else has a selection.

[Lavender le Fay]

I also collect teacups. Because I'm an old lady in a young person's body.

All I know about matcha is that she's one finicky, green lady.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

I have two sets (one that is missing. Alas!) and several individual cups. I don't often get them out though. Usually, if I'm having an occasion where I would use my cups, there are more people around than I can swing.

I have several teapots, though I'm not sure if I can say I collect them, or not. I have one stainless steel that is my go-to (at these are personal sized), one light blue ceramic that is modern looking, one brown English guy with a teddy bear tea cozy that is broken somewhere (alas!), one white thing with a modern lady design with the lid resembling a hat (mom got hat one for me), and two yixing clay: one that looks like a horse (Earl grey tea only) and one that looks like a pig (for genmaicha).

I suppose my blue and gold steeper cup could count as a pot of sorts.

EDIT: today's advent tea was cardamom French toast. Actually pretty good.

[Coda]

My wife and I used to collect teapots but we ultimately had to make ourselves stop because we didn't have any place to put them. ^^()

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Yeah, space is a thing, and price. Some of those pots and cups can be amazingly expensive. I stick with personal sized teapots, only.

English toffee tea, today. A little over-sweet, but not too bad.