Newbie to tea
 

I was just on a plane and the stewardess brought me tea instead of the cup of coffee I had originally requested. To my amazement it was pretty good. I would like to dive right into the world of tea but I don't even know how to make of tea! So, what's a good tea to buy and how do I make it. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

If you don't have a teapot and you want to brew without bags, you can actually just use a coffee plunger. (http://www.wishlist.com.au/images/Pr...O03P1918_l.jpg)

Always try and pour over the leaves while the water is still boiling (doing this with coffee is not a good idea, it'll burn) and give the plunger a few pumps to infuse it a bit.

If using bags, one bag per cup will suffice, just take the bag out sooner if you want a weaker cup. Otherwise, two heaped dessert spoons in the pot/plunger and then one spoon per extra cup being made.

Momentarily dunking the tea bag in a spare cup of boiling water before your drinking cup will get rid of some of the caffeine if that's what you want.

Green tea and jasmine tea are quite nice (caffeine free too) and the Japanese even have a tea drinking ceremony. Earl Gray is a good breakfast tea.

Just learn how strong you like it, after that you can decide what type you like and whether to use bags or leaves.

Personally I don't like too much milk in my tea and never in the oriental teas. I don't use sugar either, but that's a matter of preference.

In terms of making tea you want to warm the pot before you put the leaves and the boiling water in. This way the heat from the water does not go toward heating the pot but stays with the tea. You can do this by pouring a little boiling water into the pot an swish it around and then pour it out. Or you can fill it up with hot water from the tap and let the pot sit for a bit.

If you want to use milk, heat that a little too. It doesn't have to be pipping hot but warmer than room temperature. This way the milk is not scalded when you add the tea to the cup.

always use freshly boiled water, don't re-boil the water in your kettle. The water will have a flat taste if you re-boil.
I like to use Dilmah brand Ceylon tea, after you try really good tea, the regular old tea bag won't do.

You also need to know what kind of tea you're making. The English styles of tea require the water to be near boiling, 95 or so degrees C.

Asian teas to much better if the water is cooler, 80 deg C.

One adage I heard was: For English tea, carry the pot to the kettle, for Asian tea carry the kettle to the pot. (Alton Brown)

Loose leaf tea is much better becuase they can't get away with putting the really crappy parts of the sifting process ("dust") in.

One of my friends brought some real Chinese tea from China... Heaven. Jasmine tea is wonderful on a cold night.

See if you can find a tea shop or even a coffee shop that serves good teas and chat up the barrista. You'll get a ton of good info.

if it's a black tea try putting creamer in it. that's the best way in my opinion

If you're just starting to get into tea, and aren't really sure what kinds/types you like yet, and don't want to go out and spend a lot of money trying teas and buying tea paraphenalia, I would recommend heading down to your local grocery store and checking the shelves for Twinings teas. They are a good tea to start with to discover which kinds of teas you like without having to invest in a tea ball/strainer/plunger apparatus.

I personally really enjoy their Lady Grey blend, as well as their Earl Grey and Darjeeling. If you like their bagged teas, you can find their loose teas at tea shops/Cost Plus World Market/some finer grocery stores. But it's true...once you try a good cup of tea, there's no going back to the cheap stuff...so I try to stay with Twinings, cuz then I don't ruin my wallet :)

onesnowyowl is right. Even some cheap-ass Lipton (*gasp*) tea bags will do to get you experimenting. Just don't go thinking every tea tastes that bland ;)

Personally I've always been into everything oriental when it comes to food, and I'm a big fan of green tea. Drinking some right now, in fact. Word of warning if you try it, though--make it weak at first. That stuff is overpowering if you're not expecting it. My friends all think it's disgusting. Macheath says it's caffeine free, but the majority of green teas I've seen have some amount of caffeine in them, though not anything like coffee.

If you're thinking more European tea, I'm afraid I can't help you. I'm clueless.

A Focus on Green Tea
 

As I drink my cup of economy-quality green tea, I decided to share some thoughts, and I ended up unearthing this thread. Why not?

I enjoy tea. I don't drink nearly as much as I want to. I drink more coffee than I should, and maybe will drink more tea in its place. Mind you, I do enjoy coffee. Not the kind you get everyday without thinking about it (e.g. Tim Horton's). The kind you choose, grind, and brew yourself. Pick-your-region, choose-your-roast kind of coffee. I brew the best coffee I drink by using a French press. To me there is no alternative. But enough about coffee.

In North America, I think tea is grossly underrated and, consequently, undervalued. It isn't as bad as it has been--we've seen many articles published in the past few years discussing the health benefits of tea. This is typical in North America, where we make many of our food choices based on health-related findings. Scientific choices. I wish to discuss other reasons for choosing something like tea: aesthetic, experiential choices.

Green tea is downright delicious. Even the cheap stuff I'm drinking isn't bad, though you could choose a slightly better grade and taste a world of difference...that is, if you have experienced enough green tea. Tea, like other things, even coffee and scotch, etc., is somewhat of an acquired taste. To properly taste these things, you should not load them with "foreign substances" such as sugar, cream, and the like. This masks the experience of what is by nature a bitter or "harsh" experience. Sure you can take the edge off, or balance the experience using sweetness and fat, but we should learn to acquire a taste for various things such as tea as they are.

Green tea is certainly no exception. I refuse to put anything in green tea besides maybe jasmine, or other such traditional flavours. The reason being that green tea, despite its relative bitterness, is actually quite delicate and should be enjoyed alone....

I will leave this here for now. I put this out to you who are interested: What are your experiences with green tea? Do you choose certain brands/regions due to their quality and flavour? Are you new or inexperienced with green tea? Do you want to know why we green tea drinkers enjoy it?

My two favorite kinds of green tea are the Trader Joe's sencha green, and Stash's Sushi Bar green. Stash's green teas are great. Their premium green and jasmine green are quite good. I like their sampler packs because it lets me choose a tea based on my mood. Sometimes I feel like one over the other. They all have something different to offer.

I've been thinking about tracking down some matcha and trying my hand at making that.

I drink 2 or so cups of plain green tea a day. No sugar or milk; I prefer to let the flavor of the green tea speak for itself.

Thanks for this thread, Baraka. I love tea. I've been drinking a lot of it lately since the weather has turned colder here. I've been meaning to go down to the two tea shops in town and buy some actual loose tea. I recently found an earthenware teapot in our garage that I cleaned up and got a basket infuser for. I just haven't had the chance to use it yet.

Thanks, willravel, I didn't find that one.


*Baraka_Guru jumps threads, leaving a note for snowy to follow*