Tea Drinkers Check In

Not a huge fan of Sheng. It has a bit of a wet leaf taste. I prefer the aged puerh.

laertes22 said:

Growing up in the South, I only drank sweet iced tea.

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There is a truly local variation of tea that was very new to me! I did have an appreciation for iced tea before travelling there, but had not seen or tasted sweet tea. It was, well, sweet! What's in a name, right?

Tiki said:

I prefer smoked pu'er to sheng, because it just tastes like smokey yummy goodness... I will check out the tea thread, thanks for the link!

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For those without access to the cooked shou pu'er, a reasonable alternative is drinking the contents of a goldfish bowl.

ouch said:

Sheng is uncooked/raw/green pu'er, aka liquid crack.

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I might have to gamble on some of this one day

Yorkshire Red or good ol' Tetleys in my house, brewed up brick red strong. Builders tea for me, thanks.

I enjoy virtually all varieties of tea. My wife and I tend to prefer black selections, from English Breakfast to Prince of Wales, to Darjeeling.

We also enjoy it with milk and sugar.

Best tea so far: a house blend from Ohio that has cinnamon (real, not candy) and vanilla. We have nicknamed it "comfort in a cup."

We enjoy coffee, as well, but far more frequently are brewing tea. Iced tea through the day; hot tea in morning or evening.

I tend to appreciate all varieties, but some the black selections are our favorites: English Breakfast, Prince of Wales, Darjeeling. We currently have our first tin of Scottish Breakfast, and are enjoying it!

Favorite? A house blend made in Ohio by a woman who has since closed her tea room: Cinnamon Vanilla. The cinnamon is real, not the "red hots" candy variety. It is amazing, and soothing. We have nicknamed it "Comfort in a Cup!"

Sorry about the repeated reply. Something hiccuped on my computer and I didn't realize the first post actually went through.

Have been drinking tea for about 32 years, loose leaf is the way to go.
Started with the tins of Twinnings (Earl Grey, Russian Caravan, Darjeeling etc).

Now we vist local tea shops to stock up, have about a dozen varieties in the cupboard.

Black tea mostly, some rooibois and green also.

Monks blend, Earl grey, Assam etc. Generally brew it strong, our tea pot is about 1.2 litres, and we steep the tea from 8 to 15 minutes.

Another tea drinker here. I've almost cleaned out the various tea bags in the house and have switched to loose leaf almost exclusively. I make a travel mug most mornings before leaving for work, and then I have a small infuser pot at work (I've gotten lots of commetns on it when I take it to the break room to clean it out between pots, people are really curious about it). I've been staying with various black and green teas plus herbal infusions, but I'm interested in trying pur-eh. I tried a sample size once, but I didn't like it too much. Does anyone know where I could get a pu-erh sampler to try small amounts of a few different ones? Now is just about the time for me to order, I'm getting low on earl grey, and I don't have a whole lot of green tea left either.

Steve is fellow member who sells tea. He has a number of good samplers: http://www.jas-etea.com/tea-sample-packs/

StillShaving said:

Steve is fellow member who sells tea. He has a number of good samplers: http://www.jas-etea.com/tea-sample-packs/

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Thanks, there are quite a few samplers there. Any pointers on what sampler is a good starting point for a pu-erh newbie? I really know nothing about pu-erh. It's a different world than the teas that I'm familiar with.

-James

jamesnj said:

Thanks, there are quite a few samplers there. Any pointers on what sampler is a good starting point for a pu-erh newbie? I really know nothing about pu-erh. It's a different world than the teas that I'm familiar with.

-James

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It is a little difficult to answer, as I am still relatively new to drinking these types of teas as well. I found that I liked them in general and plan on drinking them into the future. There is variation in flavor, as I did find some teas that I liked some more than others, but I did not take any good notes about this.

My main recommendation is not make any assumptions on higher price being correlated to better tasting teas, and to try as wide a variety as possible. Something like the Raw Pu-erh Sampler might be a good start, or a combination of the Menghai + Mengku. If you knew you liked Pu-erh and wanted to explore more, then getting the Super sampler would be recommended, but for a first time drinker, I believe you would find that much variety overwhelming.

Just came home with a new tin of English Breakfast Premiers.
Time for a cuppa.

Dries

jamesnj said:

Thanks, there are quite a few samplers there. Any pointers on what sampler is a good starting point for a pu-erh newbie? I really know nothing about pu-erh. It's a different world than the teas that I'm familiar with.

-James

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I'd suggest sticking with long established, well known producers and their classic blends. Try Menghai and Xiaguan for starters.

Love my cuppa, from a pot ,strong with milk.

I'm a Brit, so I grew up with tea. Strong, northern strong, black tea with milk and sugar got me through my teenage years before I discovered coffee. These days, I like a good cup of green tea with jasmine and I can't recall the last time I took milk or sugar in a standard tea. Still need half a spoon of sugar in some of the more exotic spiced teas...

There's a company over here called Wittard's and I think most of their branches closed, but I am lucky enough to have one nearby. Every time I go in there, I end up discovering something new and realising that it's being discontinued. That can be annoying, but it has forced me to explore lots of new types of tea.

Never understood iced tea though. I have tried it, even had it made 'the right way' by an American, but... cold tea? It just doesn't work for me...

Green tea fan here. I like gunpowder and jade green tea. If I'm not drinking tea, I'm drinking water.

What's always on my shelf: Lapsang Souchong, Jasmine Green, Min Pei Oolong, Russian Caravan, Rooibos, Yorkshire and Pu-ehr strong with lemon and sweetener.
I'll have a nice cup of Liptons once in a while!

Me too. Never really picked up a taste for coffee. I mostly drink Assamese varieties.