Tea drinkers?

what is your favorite tea for the AM? or do you think all teas are equal?

I love tea!
I am fortunate to live within 1 mile of the Best tea shop.
http://www.souvia.com/aboutus.html
I adore their Sencha Ginger(Green), Honey Lemon (Green), and Tibetan Eye of the Tiger (Black). This is a very special tea shop.

I used to like Green Ginger by Tazo but now that I have my tea shop with about 100 different bulk teas I will never buy a tea bag again.

Hey Anastatia, I like a good black tea. You know here in turkey the brew tea quite differently from in the US.
I will post a picture of turkish tea pot. The black sea reagion is very famous for it's tea. In fact, do you remember the chernobyl incident back in 87? well, it had affected all the tea crops here, and no one would drink turkish tea, they would ask is it imported? I thought that was funny at the time.

We have many teas here, apple tea is a famous one, I dont really care for it too much, but the tourists go ga ga over it..... I like lemon ginger by lipton, also lemon and orange, we have many local fruit teas, berry teas, etc., and a lot of herbal teas. I just brought several to the store to drink while I am here.

This is a modern day teapot, no kitchen would be without one, I even had one in the states. On the bottom part, you put your water, on the top part, you put your tea leaves, and wet them, then you turn the stove on, and when it boils, by that time, the upper part where the tea leaves are, has steamed and let out a nice aroma, you transfer water to the upper part and refill the bottom part and put it to boil again, during that time, the tea steets, when you are ready to serve, you fill one fourth of the glass from the tea mixture on the top (concentrate tea) and then top the glass with boiling water. I will also post a picture of the tea glasses we use.

This is an old time tea maker, these are called semavers, they are also used in russia i think. they used to be made of ornately carved/worked copper and brass. they still have them here, but the antiques arent used on a daily basis, but in some tea gardens, they have replicas of the antiques, they bring it to your table, with a small (something like a barbecue with wood instead of charcoal)

here is a modern day semaver

here are the glasses we use to drink tea here

another tea glass, this is the traditional one that they use in all tea houses, it has gold stripes on the top, and a funny little saucer that is higher than one would expect

Drinking tea here is quite a procession. You drink it throughout the day. My mother in law was a big tea drinker, so when she would come, we would have our tea hours. 10 am and 4 pm, usually you have a salty cookie with your tea. these are called tuzlus, and they can be plain, or with cheeze, hot pepper flakes, olives, spices, herbs etc.,
here is a picture of a tuzlu

I drink ice tea! I brew combinations of black and various herbal teas, then keep some in a pitcher in the fridge for later and have some fresh. I also grow lemon grass and mints to use in tea.

Thank you for the 'lesson' Pebble.

Anastatia, next time I am in town, I will have you over for a turkish tea party......I dont know when I will be back home. I did leave my turkish tea pot with my sister, so I can whip up a pot of the turkish tea for you.
How are you?

I'm with Linda. I drink a great deal of iced tea, occasionally
purchasing various blends, but stick to the basics during the
daytime.

I can't wait until the herbs are back again for tea. MMM!

I, too love tea.
At home, I love regular Lipton Ice tea (sun tea is the best!) I love celestial seasonings orange spice tea, but have started drinking more green tea lately-both hot and made into ice tea.

I prefer my tea plain, NO sugar or honey, but enjoy a touch of lemon in hot or cold, occassionally.

Deanna

chai :)

Nothing but black tea with milk & sugar for me. My dear DH brings me a cup in bed in the morning (I'm so spoilt), I have another cup with my lunch, sometimes as an afternoon pick-me-up, and then around 8.00pm at night and always served in my DG coffee/tea cup. I don't mind the occasional herbal tea but dislike iced tea and green tea.

We like Assam type of black tea. It has a very rich flavour. We make masala chai, which means we prepare the tea with fresh milk and spices. The spice blend must always contain some cardamom.
Sometimes we make rose petal tea with milk and cardamom. This is made with red rose petals or with rose petal marmalade.

For "standard" tea bags, we buy Red Rose brand. No one in our family with drink Lipton. It's too bitter.

My grandmother had a samovar for serving tea.

You all read recently that the addition of milk negates the benefits of teas in your system>?

Well Aguane, that is a debatable point. Ayurveda teaches that black teas should never be consumed without milk to bind the toxins. The RBTI folks say black tea is a no-no for any reason because the camelia sinensis plant (from which tea leaves are picked) concentrates flouride in the leaves.

I'm sticking with the Ayurvedic point of view because it has been around and proven for thousands of years.
The "scientific studies" often negate themselves every 50 years of so and when one reads the full study documentation, one often finds the published conclusion matches the desire of the fund source, not necessarily the data.

:-)

This message was edited Jan 10, 2007 9:03 PM

during the day I drink Twinnings Lady Grey at night I have to switch to decaff or I'll be bouncing off the walls.

Question
Has anyone tried Kava Kava?
For instance, Yogi Calming Tea with Kava Kava?

I use it with discretion. It works wonders for me should I feel anxiety - say getting on an airplane.

Anyone drink tea with Kava Kava?

nope but I can tell you that a cup of hot tea with a xanax does wonders for my anxiety! *LOL*

The amount of Kave in the Yogi tea is small. As long as you don't overdo it, you will probably by fine.
Tulsi tea is good one for stress. It helps the adrenal glands.

Thank you, GM.

Araness,

"hot tea and xanax" ROLFLMBO!!!!!!!!

Pebble, nice history lesson and great tea ascessories! I love the glasses!

Deanna, sun tea in a gallon pickle jar every other day in the summer for just me!

Luziane for iced tea. Sometimes I add green or Jasmine to it for sun tea.

Hot, which I'm drinking all day long lately is Tetly, Green, Jasmine, Black Pearl, Earl Grey or the Earl Grey sampler.

(I drink coffee too.) :))

i'm a coffee drinker, but i do love Constant Comment, especially the loose tea, but that's hard to find now. for any other flavored teas, you can't beat Teavana. their teas are luscious............ http://www.teavana.com/

Love the tea talk. For you mystery lovers, there is a series out featuring the teashop lady as the sleuth. The first book is "Death by Darjeeling" by Laura Childs. Loads of information about the infinite numbers of teas, how various ones are made and includes recipes and the needed crime to be solved.
Enjoyed popping in on the discussion, will head up to my cuppa Mango black tea.

Thank you, trackinsand, for reminding me of Constant Comment. I purchased some and had a cup at noon. I could only find the bags but will look for it loose.

you're welcome. it was my mother's favorite and i grew up drinking it. she always bought it loose but they might not even make it any more. the Teavana brand was brought to my attention by my daughter. she sent me about 6 different flavors for christmas and also one of the brewer's. it really is different and delicious, but old habits die hard and when it's gone, i'll still be a Constant Comment girl.

found it! http://www.bigelowtea.com/shop/shop.cfm?si=1&sc=4

This message was edited Jan 13, 2007 6:43 PM

My mother too, was a CC girl!

~U~ that's supposed to be a smile.........

Unsweet, iced, plain, strong black tea at any time of the day or night. As my husband has to have his coffee, I have to have my tea. Drink about a qt. a day. Take a gal. with me when we go on trips, because we have very good well water and it makes the best tea. Think I will go have a glass right now. LIZ

I'm a tea-aholic...drink it 24/7, nice and strong and sweetened with Splenda. Favorite hot tea is Bigelow Chinese Fortune....a type of Oolong tea. Favorite iced tea is plain old Wal-Mart brand family sized tea bags. Detest the flavored teas. The Tazo ginger is very good and soothing. Also like to make rose hip tea. So very good for you...much more vitamin C than oranges and loaded with antioxidants.

Is the loose leaf tea better for you than the bags? I'd like to know how to make it.

Karen

rosethyme, have you tried using Stevia extract instead of Splenda? Splenda is one step away from DDT and was 'discovered' by a scientist working on pesticides. Nasty stuff. Tea doesn't need to be deadly.

http://www.mercola.com/2000/dec/3/sucralose_testimonials.htm
http://www.mercola.com/sweet-deception-aspartame

I'm drinking Red Rose today, hot!

Do you think those instant hot water gizmo's that can be installed w/ your kitchen sink get the water hot enough for tea steeping?

the one my sister had got hot enough. they took it out because they kept getting burned!

it's hooked up directly to your hot water heater, or was in my sister's case so yep gets pretty darn hot

My sister has one of those, the water isn't hot enough to make a strong tea. The tap water in our area is not suitable to drink - it's overdosed with chloramine. It's filtered or distilled water in the Simplex tea kettle when we want tea, or a pot on the stove if we're making chai.

I have a Revere SS kettle and it boils water very quickly (we don't use our tap water either) but I have noticed that this kettle is much faster than our old...so if your kettle is slow...try a newer/better made model.