Fine Tea

[TimmyBoston]

A question for all of you out there with more tea experience than me, which is all of you.

What are your feelings on adding milk and/or sugar?

[fuerein]

A question for all of you out there with more tea experience than me, which is all of you.

What are your feelings on adding milk and/or sugar?

Tea should be served plain. No ifs ands or buts.

If you are going to use it, please, please only in black teas, particularly the breakfast blends (English, Irish or Scottish). You'll utterly ruin a good green, white, or oolong tea adding milk, sugar, or honey to it.

[TimmyBoston]

If you are going to use it, please, please only in black teas, particularly the breakfast blends (English, Irish or Scottish). You'll utterly ruin a good green, white, or oolong tea adding milk, sugar, or honey to it.

For the record, that's the only place I would personally ever use it. I wouldn't put it in anything but black.

[SSLStudio]

A question for all of you out there with more tea experience than me, which is all of you.

What are your feelings on adding milk and/or sugar?

Dont do it, I agree with Adam.
if you are a sweet tooth id advice use a 1/2 teaspoon of Kandis instead of white sugar.

I dont Do any sugar in the refinded form so thats a no no , milk I only drink Goats milk with 2 raw eggs in it and a banana , I belief isnt it very British to do milk and tea ? again you ruin the tea.

sugar is bad for you, try to loose it and the benifits are better tasting tea .

[Scotto]

Mmm, Golden Monkey - good choice. This years stuff isn't as deeply chocolaty as previous, but still quite nice.

In (black) breakfast teas I will put milk and sugar, but nowhere else.

[javyn]

Milk and sugar should be left for only the stronger breakfast blends based on Keemun or Assams.

I've got my Brooke Bond Red Label with a splash of milk with me right now


I'd try to forgo the sugar, if you give yourself a chance to develop a palate for tea, you'll find it is actually sweet enough on its own.

[Tinzien]

What's the deal about putting a squeeze of lemon in tea?

[javyn]

If ya do that, I wouldn't mix it with milk

[ouch]

I need a pinch of sugar for black tea, but any green or oolong has to be taken straight.

[Buzz]

Okay... we drink Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime tea in the winter. (I'm sure anybody into tea wold gag at the mere thought.)

Obviously I don't know anything about tea, but I'm interested.

I don't know what kind of teas I'll find that I like. I'm sure I want something without caffeine for the evenings.

First thing I need is a decent kettle. Our old one is ready for the trash.

I'm assuming that a stovetop kettle is best. We have a gas range and a lot of stainless in our kitchen. I don't want anything crazy contemporary styled.

In particular, I need a kettle.

Any other recommendations for a starter setup that would let me experiement woiuld be welcome.

[jnich67]

I received my order from Special Teas over the weekend - very good service. I'm enjoying them very much. Another question. I purchased the Finum brewing basket in the mug size and it seems to work very well. For work though, I think I'd like to make a small pot at a time instead of single servings. Does anyone have any advice on a good tea pot for this use? Nothing too expensive, as its just going to be sitting in my cube. Thanks!

Jordan

[fuerein]

Okay... we drink Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime tea in the winter. (I'm sure anybody into tea wold gag at the mere thought.)

Obviously I don't know anything about tea, but I'm interested.

I don't know what kind of teas I'll find that I like. I'm sure I want something without caffeine for the evenings.

First thing I need is a decent kettle. Our old one is ready for the trash.

I'm assuming that a stovetop kettle is best. We have a gas range and a lot of stainless in our kitchen. I don't want anything crazy contemporary styled.

In particular, I need a kettle.

Any other recommendations for a starter setup that would let me experiement woiuld be welcome.

Any real tea, Celestial Season's Sleepytime is a chamomile herbal infusion, is going to have some caffeine. There are some true teas that have been treated to be caffeine "free" (they stil have some, just not enough to be significant). Many tea afficiandos dislike decaf tea because of the extra processing that goes into removing the caffeine from it, but if you want to purchase some many online sellers of looseleaf tea will have a section dedicated to decaf. If you really want a decaf drink in the evening there is nothing wrong with a nice herbal infusion... I have the looseleaf version of Sandman from Stash Teas which is a chamomile infusion myself for just such a reason (IMO you're still going to get a better brew with loose herbs than with bagged herbs when brewing herbal infusions).

As for the tea kettle, I use a fairly cheap Copco stovetop kettle I purchased for about $40 from Bed Bath and Beyond. There are some people who really like the electric water heaters because on some of the more expensive ones you can set the heating temperature and thus be assured of getting water the precise temperature for brewing.

[Stauff]

Milk: only in English Breakfast, Assam, Ceylon or Lapsang Souchong.
Sugar: Never ever.

I'm currently enjoying Taylor of Harrogate's Hajua estate (Brahmaputra valley) Tippy Assam. Beautiful golden tip leaves, round and full flavor, lovely breakfast tea. Had some blend of Keemun and Assam for breakfast recently - very refined little tea.

[javyn]

I don't know what kind of teas I'll find that I like. I'm sure I want something without caffeine for the evenings.

If you like the Sleepytime you might want to try Egyptian Chamomile. My favorite night brew by far though is Rooibos. I have a stressful, worrisome job, and a big mug of Rooibos is the only thing that can help me sleep through the entire night. It will certainly relax you (perhaps get you a little lifted too! )

[Buzz]

If you like the Sleepytime you might want to try Egyptian Chamomile. My favorite night brew by far though is Rooibos. I have a stressful, worrisome job, and a big mug of Rooibos is the only thing that can help me sleep through the entire night. It will certainly relax you (perhaps get you a little lifted too! )

Thanks for the tip.

Our local kitchen shop carries a massive selection of tea. Their "tea guy" was working the counter today. We talked, he made some recommendations, and I ended up with some Assam and a Rooibos with Lemon & Ginger.

I followed their instructions and brewed a cup of the Rooibos. Very nice.

I'm looking forward to trying the Assam tomorrow.

Still wondering about buying a new kettle. Stovetop or electric... hmmmm.

[TimmyBoston]

Any other recommendations for a starter setup that would let me experiement woiuld be welcome.

Upon Scotto's recommendation I just received my first "real" tea order, which I ordered from www.specialteas.com. I received several sampler packs and a Chatsford tea pot. It's a great little pot and at a good price as well.

[javyn]

I followed their instructions and brewed a cup of the Rooibos. Very nice.

You needn't follow the instructions with Rooibos, it has much much less tannin than tea, so the longer you steep it, the better!

[_JP_]

monkey's cool and refreshing iced tea

[TimmyBoston]

What's your favorite tea(s)?

[Ben]

Pu-Erh and Oolong.