Recipe Tea: What are you steeping these days?

Ugh, the only tea milk and sugar belong in is Irish Breakfast or other strong, malty teas.

Better break that habit good before trying to switch to Darjeeling, @Baraka_Guru, or you're going to ruin the floral notes. Plus, you shouldn't need sugar with a good Darjeeling.

Man, now I need to make some tea. Fortunately, I just paid way too much for some at Teavana.

 

Why, I never! What do you take me for? I have never in my life adulterated a Darjeeling such.

Do it.

 

I will, after I drink all this coffee.

 

Part of the reason, possibly, is that you're drinking the inexpensive stuff. Broken or dusty tea tends to release way more tannins, making a bitter brew.

Try a first-flush Darjeeling black. It's called the champagne of teas, so consider it more like wine than coffee. You wouldn't add sugar and milk to wine, would you?

No. I like the idea in principle, but I also like keeping things simple, especially making tea.

 

It's true with both good tea and good coffee--no sugar needed.

 

This is true, but I find that there are way more variables for the end-user to consider when making coffee. Given good beans and good leaves, it's much easier to brew a great cup of tea vs. a great cup of coffee.
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That's some cheap tea. The difference between a $0.05 cup of tea and a $0.75 cup of tea is noticeable, but I'm not going to try to convince you that the latter is 15 times better. (Though I could really argue such if you'd like.)

Perhaps there is a middle ground. I've often had tea that would come out to $0.30 or $0.40 a cup that was pretty spectacular. You might even do well on $0.20 a cup.

 

I'll keep it simple.

Some people drink cheap (mass produced) beer because "beer is beer." (Woo-hoo?) Others prefer quality craft/microbrew beer because "life is too short to drink shitty beer."

You may not know the difference between cheap tea and quality tea. Yes, some tea gets ridiculously expensive, but paying $0.40 a cup for tea isn't ridiculous, especially if it avoids having to drink bitter/skanky tea. I remember once buying a really cheap box of Chinese green tea. It was so inferior that I couldn't finish drinking it, and I gave it away.

I did the same thing after drinking a bottle of Coors Light from the case of twenty-four my sister bought me on my nineteenth birthday.

 

Coors Light has its place. Besides, it doesn't taste bad, per se, as it really doesn't taste like much.

With tea, there is some shopping around to do. Places like Buy Loose Leaf Tea Online | Free shipping over $49 price their teas pretty well. Teavana tends to be on the more expensive side, and then they want to sell you a huge amount (and all that wafting!). No, thanks. I fell for that once, and never again. Local tea shops tend to have the best prices and are willing to sell in smaller quantities. Plus, they may have unique relationships with their wholesalers that allow them to get special teas. For example, I have this High Mountain Formosa that is very close to Ali Shan in quality, flavor, and appearance; I got it because my local tea shop asked their wholesaler to look out for something similar to Ali Shan. Ali Shan is absolutely worth the price you pay for it to try it; that said, part of what you're paying for is the cachet of drinking Ali Shan.

 

Yes, sometimes "beer is beer."

Shopping around does pay off, I've found. I'm generally a cheapskate. I've managed on a few occasions to find teas of really high quality with reasonable pricing. I think it's often simply a matter of where it comes from. Some sources can justify higher prices based on demand/fame, while others are cheap I'm sure because of exchange rates, rather than any reflection on quality.

That said, I should consider buying my tea online. I've never done that before, but it's out of my way to shop for tea at bricks 'n' mortar stores at my current residence. Now I'm wondering about Canadian companies.

 

Don't patronize me. I know I'm the TFP's resident Cliff Clavin.

 

Ah, damn it. My local tea shop just announced the arrival of this season's first-flush Darjeeling.

I can't not get some. I just can't.

 

Is it like this one:
Teavana Perfectea Tea Maker: Make Tea Easy
| Teavana


Polycarbonate should stand up to a great deal of abuse.

 

Nope. I have a handmade ceramic teapot that I use if I'm brewing a whole pot. Usually, though, I just use a large mug and my Finum.

 

Apparently this is a thing:
Toronto Tea Festival

Next year....