On Tea

[swan_tower]

I've never been much of a tea drinker.

. . . but I'm getting there.

It started with my sister introducing me to what she calls "tea of life" -- more properly known as Kirin's Gogo no Kocha Lemon Flavor. It's a cold bottled black tea sweetened and flavored with lemon, and lemme tell you, on a hot day, it's glorious. Then I started drinking Oi Ocha, which out here in California is mainstream enough that you can buy it at CostCo, because on the whole I tended to like green tea better than black. From there I branched out into a few others -- genmai cha, Ayataka, mugi cha (which isn't actually tea if you're pedantic, but I'm going to lump herbal infusions in under that term for the purposes of this post, so just deal with it) -- which all shared one thing in common.

Well, two, but the Japanese part isn't that significant. No, what they had in common was that I was drinking them all cold and pre-bottled.

I mentioned to Marissa Lingen in email that part of the reason for this was, I find the drinkability range of hot tea to be very narrow. They're too hot to drink; then they're cool enough that I could drink them but if I do they'll mostly register on me as hot water rather than any flavor; then there's the drinkability zone; then they cool off too much and get unpleasant to me. And even when they're drinkable, they often taste . . . thin? If that makes sense?

Marissa recommended a particular herbal mix to my experimentation, so I thought, why not. I bought some. And then, when I went to put it into our cabinet -- well.

My husband used to drink hot tea every so often. But he fell out of the habit years ago . . . except there was a span of time where he hadn't quite accepted that yet, and kept buying tea. Plus I had bought a few, or had them bought for me, during previous stints of experimentation. The result was that, for a household which doesn't drink tea, we sure did own a lot of it.

Thus began the Great Tea Craze of 2017-2018. I decided to taste-test my way through the cabinet, and my husband decided to resume his old habits. And I've learned some interesting things.

• MY GOD was some of that tea old. We celebrated when my husband finished off the box of cinnamon apple spice that had expired in 2009, and could move on to the box of cinnamon apple spice that actually dated to this decade. (Still expired. But only by a few years.)
  
• Mostly we're drinking the old tea, because it's just weaker and less nuanced, not actively gonna hurt you. But the untouched 48-count box of Lipton that, judging by the packaging (featuring a message from Mary Lou Retton), probably dated back to the '90s? Yeah, that went in the compost.
  
• Joulies, which we'd received as a Christmas present years ago, are really helpful for keeping tea in a drinkable range of warmth for a longer period of time.
  
• Although one of the reasons I'm interested in drinking tea is because I like having beverages that aren't sugared . . . well, I like tea better when I apply a moderate amount of honey.
  
• Also milk. In fact, I like many teas better with milk, not because that obscures the flavor, but because I can taste the tea's flavor more clearly when there's milk to give it body. It helps address the "thinness."
  
• I'm fine with English breakfast, Irish breakfast, Ceylon, maybe Keemun (just started on one that's Keemun and a bunch of other things, so it's hard to say for sure), rooibos, and some herbal things.
  
• I don't like darjeeling (too astringent) or Earl Grey (too floral). Also, contrary to what I had thought during previous tea stints? I don't like fruit teas very much. Most of them are much too sour or tart for me.
  
• My husband, however, likes Earl Grey. Or at least, he decided that he did, because Captain Picard likes it ("Tea. Earl Grey. Hot."), so that should be good enough for him, right? We own a *lot* of Earl Grey, much of it untouched.
  
• . . . yeah, I can see the appeal in the whole ritual of the thing. Heat your water, get your tea bag or infuser, pour the water, wait a few minutes, add the various things (honey, milk, joulie), go back to your desk with the cup.
  
• Also, hot tea = very nice in the winter for somebody like me who gets cold easily.
  

The most interesting thing will be to see whether this truly becomes an ingrained habit. Right now it has the energy that comes from I HAVE A PROJECT as we drink our way through the Cabinet of Ancient Tea. At this point we've disposed of most of the boxes and bags that had actually seen activity in the past; now we're into the things that were basically untouched. Deprived of the feeling of progress that comes with clearing things out, now we're going to find out how much I actually enjoy drinking hot tea for its own sake. More than I thought I did! But enough to do it habitually, especially once winter ends? We'll see.

I know I have tea drinkers among my readership. Share your own preferences, your thoughts and suggestions for a novice in the comments!

Comments

[ducened]

I have been making my own chai for years - get a good Ceylon or other "simple" black tea as a base, then add whole cloves, ginger, cinnamon bark, cardamom pods, and/or peppercorns to taste. I treat it like I do any other tea (that is, I don't steep it on the stovetop in oodles of milk). My favorite tea is Yorkshire Gold, which comes in both bags and loose. You only need a wee bit and (for my taste) the merest steep to get an acceptable tea, and you can reuse the same leaves for several mugs. To my black teas I usually add in a dash of milk - as you say, it gives the tea some body - and occasionally honey.

We have used an in-mug infuser (similar to these) for years for our loose leaf. We have tea bags, which are nice for the mornings where the additional steps of 'open tin, get out infuser, put tea in infuser, put infuser in mug' between the basic 'tea in mug' and 'water in mug' require too many brain cells.

My preferred tea purveyors online are Adagio (they are (in)famous for their fandom blends) and Nepali Tea Traders. NTT started on Kickstarter and purchase exclusively from small farms in Nepal. The Spice Hut is one of the few places I can find a straight peppermint loose leaf. Too many people sell a Gunpowder mint, which is green tea mixed with peppermint.

I am not a huge fan of either green or flavored teas (though I have both in my cupboard; they just aren't my go-to) and I go through caf/decaf phases where I'll drink nothing but black/nothing but herbal. When I'm not feeling well I'll make myself an entire teapot of something, slap a teapot cozy over it, and happily drink from the same pot for several hours. I've never heard of Joulies before, but they sound perfect for me. I have to add an ice cube or two to my tea mug so I don't burn my tongue.

[swan_tower]

I have been making my own chai for years

Oh, nice! I wouldn't have thought of that, but it makes sense. I've had variable results with chai, depending on what's added to it and in what quantities; making my own (and I have a whole tin of Ceylon we haven't gotten to yet) would address that nicely.

Thanks for the purveyor recs -- when we finish off what we have, I'll definitely need advice on where is best to go for more.

The Joulies are great. I've never bothered using them before because my hot beverage of choice is hot chocolate, and that has a broad range of drinkable temperatures, but for things like this, they're perfect.

[rj_anderson]

Some Earl Grey teas are definitely too soapy-tasting for me -- it's a question of how much bergamot that particular brand puts in, and if it's blended with something like lavender (which I like to smell but NOT to taste) I find it undrinkable. But there's also Lady Grey, which Twinings developed for the Nordic market since they found the bergamot in regular Earl Grey too strong (thank you for that info, Wikipedia), and it's got a milder, mellower flavour you might like.

I am very much a fan of black tea with certain not-too-sweet, not-too-tart, not-too-floral flavours, but again it can vary widely by who blends them. I found a delicious loose leaf tea called "Canadian Blueberry Black" at one local shop, but when they shut down I turned to another called simply "Blueberry Black" and it is not nearly as good. I have also occasionally succumbed to the delusion that chocolate tea should be good because I love both chocolate and tea, but so far it has been a mistake every time.

I do like the Republic of Tea's Ginger Peach flavour, as well as Monk's Blend (which is mild with hints of vanilla and grenadine), and also Black Currant (though I have to be careful not to steep it too long / put too much tea in or it gets acidic). The only non-black teas I really enjoy are Celestial Seasonings' Vanilla Rooibos and Peach Apricot Honeybush, because even though both have a faintly grassy scent and taste they at least have real colour and flavour to them; most herbal teas smell great but taste like hot water. Peppermint tea is nice, though.

[swan_tower]

Yeah, I know Earl Grey varies a lot, so I'm not ready to swear off it entirely. But it's definitely in the camp where if I do wind up liking it, I'll only like a very specific blend, not that type as a category. I'll try Lady Grey at some point, though, if I happen across any.

I might try Republic of Tea's Black Currant! We have in our cabinet a bag of decaf black currant tea bought from one of those places where you scoop it out of the bin into the bag . . . and since the bag has zero identifying marks other than "decaf black currant," I have no idea where it came from. I really like it, though, and have been poking around looking for places that make anything like it.

[rj_anderson]

Oh, I don't think Republic of Tea makes either Monk's Blend or Black Currant -- just the Ginger Peach. Sorry, that was unclear. My Monk's Blend is from Metropolitan Tea Company and I get Black Currant from whoever I can find selling it.

[swan_tower]

Ah, got it. Drat! I've been having a lot of trouble finding it myself.

[rj_anderson]

Harney & Sons makes a Black Currant variety -- I got a box of their Hot Cinnamon Spice tea for Christmas this year and it's pretty pleasant, so they seem to know what they're about...

[swan_tower]

Good to know, thanks!

[cgbookcat1]

Republic of Tea does have a very nice Blackberry Sage

[pameladean]

I find that getting rid of tea goes faster if I'm making iced tea for hot weather. You do have quite a list of acceptable cold teas that you don't have to fuss with already, but I thought I'd mention this. And if thinness is a problem, you can brew iced tea quite strong, and for whatever reason some kinds have more body when cold.

P.

[swan_tower]

I forgot to mention it in the post, but yeah -- I've started cold-brewing mugi-cha in a pitcher. I just toss in a few bags and leave it overnight. Lupicia has a bunch of fruit-flavored barley teas that are pretty good; I don't like any of them quite as much as the Juurokucha I'd been buying bottled at the Japanese grocery store, but making it myself is a damn sight cheaper. :-P Some of the others we have can be made as iced tea, too, though I haven't tried them yet.

and for whatever reason some kinds have more body when cold.

I really wonder why that is.

[jenett]

The Joulies have gone right to my 'things I want' list - I also have the problem where I like the fussing of the making the tea and the smell of the tea, and then I have to wait for it to get to a temp I will drink, and then I put it down and thirty minutes later, it is not the right temperature in the other direction.

I do a lot of iced herbals in the summer, where this is not a problem, but I've been trying to drink more in the winter, and it has just not quite worked for me.

For determining what I liked, I did a tea subscription, where they send you little packets of different teas each month, enough to make a few cups, and tell you how to get more if you want (from a whole bunch of different sources).

There's several out there: the one I did is Tea Sparrow. I have stopped for the time being, because I have many little packets I have not yet tried, and I'd found a bunch of things I liked. They send one black, one green, one herbal, and one something else (sometimes roiboos, sometimes a mix of teas, sometimes white, etc.)

I've found I tend to like green with berry and related flavours (including iced), that black definitely needs milk or it tastes too thing, and a bunch of herbals I like (but I've always tended to herbals, so that wasn't a surprise.)

[swan_tower]

Joulies won't hold the warmth for thirty minutes -- not unless you have several in a whole thermos -- but they do at least extend the time!

The tea subscription thing is an interesting idea! I won't even let myself consider that until a) we've drunk all the ancient teas we have and b) I've confirmed that this is a thing I'm going to go on doing, but I'll keep it in mind.

[carbonel]

As an alternative to joulies, I have a mug warmer that sits on my desk and keeps my coffee or tea at the right temperature. There are adjustable ones, but this one has only on or off settings.

[kurayami_hime]

I can help with the Earl Grey. I actually do like it, but it does depend on the maker. I had some once that I swear tasted like someone had set out to capture the taste of Fruity Pebbles and more or less succeeded.

[swan_tower]

I'll be interested to see what you think of the flowering thingies we have.

The Fruity Pebbles tea makes me think of the white wine Kyle had once that could only be described as what would result if Jolly Rancher set out to make a white wine-flavored candy.

[cgbookcat1]

As some background, I'm someone who detests coffee (smell and taste) so I started drinking hot tea for its caffeine. Fruit herbal teas are also too tart for me most of the time, but like you we have a bunch because it took some time before we realized it.

My absolute favorites, names and purveyors:

Super Irish Breakfast from Stash -- I buy this by the pound and drink it with milk most mornings

Apricot Black from Mariage Freres -- flavored black tea, also good with milk

O'Connor's Cream by TeaHaus Ann Arbor -- this tastes like whiskey and is just lovely with a bit of both milk and sweetener

Jasmine Pearls (most purveyors) -- delicious, flowery, and some depth to the flavor. The pearls unroll so you don't need very many

Vanilla Bean by Mighty Leaf -- very nice balance between the tea and vanilla flavors

Hot Cinnamon Spice by Harney and Sons -- kind of like Constant Comment, but with more cinnamon than clove, and a better balance of flavor.

[swan_tower]

I adore the smell of coffee . . . but its taste is absolutely foul. (Unless you adulterate it so thoroughly that I question the value of the starting point.)

Mariage Freres -- we have their Wedding Imperial, and it's one of our favorites! I should try some of their other options.

I imagine "this tastes like whiskey" would be a better selling point if I liked whiskey. :-P

Thanks for the recs!

[daidoji_gisei]

I've been a tea drinker for approximately four decades now, and I've drank cheap teas from Asian groceries and expensive teas from haughty British merchants. I try to be open-minded, but I have accumulated Opinions on the topic. Unless otherwise specified, I'm talking about loose-leaf teas, not tea bags.

--I don't have much use for white teas. I have had some high-end loose-leaf whites that were good, but not inspiring enough for me to spend $$$ to get more. I strongly feel that cheap, grocery-store white teas are not worth the bother of brewing.

--I'm not much of a green tea drinker. My favorite is Temple of Heaven Imperial Gunpower, which is very cheap and is widely available in Asian grocery stores. (At least, I assume it's widely available: I've found it in Nebraska and New Jersey.). If you like teas with body it might appeal to you. (Also, this tea makes a really delicious green tea liquor. Some years ago I made a batch and took up to a Kotei which had both pre- and after-parties. Contrary to my expectations it was all drunk the first night and so many people asked for the recipe I had to post it on my journal.)

--Jasmine. I have drunk and enjoyed jasmines at all price points. However, some Asian grocery jasmines are so highly scented I had to blend them with a green tea to make them drinkable. YMMV. Really great jasmines are really pricey, but--as with all high-quality loose-leaf teas--you can get multiple steepings from them. I have gotten three steepings off of dragon phoenix pearl, which makes it not that bad, priced by the cup. Jasmine teas are almost always based on green or pouchong teas; I usually prefer the pouchongs.

--Of the oolongs, I really like the Formosa oolongs. Mainland oolongs are hit-and-miss, through I recommend that you try Iron Goddess of Mercy, also known as Ti Kwan Yin.

--Black teas are my favorites. I love Darjeeling and find Keemuns a little ho-hum, so I won't try to win you over to my favorites. But if you like Irish Breakfast you should try some Assam, which is tradionally the base of an Irish Breakfast tea. I find Ceylons to be 'brighter' than Assams or Keemuns but not as aggressive as Darjeelings. There are probably some amazing, knock-your-socks off Ceylons, but I haven't drank any yet. As I generally prefer India black to Chinese blacks, I'm unable to recommend any good Chinese blacks.

--Rose-scented teas: Like a jasmine tea, but with roses. Almost always based on a black tea, which is a plus in my book. Finding a good brand is critical; I recommend Fortnum and Mason, Taylor's of Harrogate, or Harney and Sons. (As a side note, I'm kind of a sucker for any floral-scented tea. Or as I like to say, 'if you put flowers in it, Nancy will try it.')

My absolute favorite tea merchant is the Grace Tea Company. They have a focused selection of high-quality tea. After that I really like Fortnum and Mason, but I've had trouble finding it in the US. At some point I'm going to give in and order some of their Fortmason tea off of their UK website and have it shipped to me. It's scented with orange blossoms and is utterly dreamy.

[cgbookcat1]

May we have the link to your green tea liquor post?

[daidoji_gisei]

Sure! Homemade Tea Liquor. Have fun!

[cgbookcat1]

Thank you!

[swan_tower]

I don't have much use for white teas.

Honestly, I don't think I've ever had one. And with what you said about the grocery store teas, I won't put them high on my priority list to try.

I also haven't tried oolong or lapsang souchong yet; that's on my list to experiment with. And yes, I'd like to try some straight-up Assam.

Also, this tea makes a really delicious green tea liquor.

I would also like to see this!

as with all high-quality loose-leaf teas--you can get multiple steepings from them

Is that also true of black teas? I was under the impression that they went very tannic if you tried that.

Rose-scented teas

Heh, you and I diverge rather a lot on floral effects, I think. :-) I have a very strong sense of smell, and floral stuff leaves me feeling like I'm drinking potpourri.

[daidoji_gisei]

Honestly, I don't think I've ever had one. And with what you said about the grocery store teas, I won't put them high on my priority list to try.

If you come across some in an Asian grocery and it's within your mad-money budget you might give it a try. Asian groceries are exceptions to my anti-grocery store stance, as they generally serve a tea-drinking population. My general experience is that they have teas that are, if not stellar, decent examples of their class.

(For some reason my iPad won't let me copy when I'm in reply mode, so I'll have to skip quoting your remarks now.)

I posted the link to the recipe in the comment above. Have fun experimenting!

I've never had my black teas go tannic on the second (or third) steeping, but I think it's a matter of technique. I use a teaball to brew tea, so I steep the first pot (usually 5 minutes, less if it's a Darjeeling) and then take the teaball out and put it aside. Then when I make the second pot I steep it for the original time + 1 minute. The tannins don't have a chance to build up.

The brands of rose-scented tea I usually drink are very subtle, but then I am a flower-fan, so I might be biased. :D
I don't have any on hand right now, but the next time I do I'll try to remember to send you a small sample.

[swan_tower]

If you come across some in an Asian grocery and it's within your mad-money budget you might give it a try.

I could probably find some there if I looked, but at the moment I'm not in any particular hurry. I still have other black teas to explore, and the cabinet to get through. :-)

I've never had my black teas go tannic on the second (or third) steeping, but I think it's a matter of technique.

This gets into "I don't know enough chemistry to really grok how that works," since I'd normally assume that steeping the same teaball for eleven or eighteen minutes in three separate rounds would be nearly as problematic as steeping it for that long in one round, and my impression is that steeping black tea for that long has unpleasant results. But I'm new enough to this that there's probably something I'm missing.

Thanks for the tea liquor recipe!

[edenfalling]

I am a tea-drinker because I dislike coffee but still need caffeine, and am very utilitarian in my approach: tea bags (usually Bigelow or Twinings because they are readily available and a couple steps up from Lipton *makes warding gesture*) and an electric kettle (or a mug in the microwave) to heat the water, nothing fancy. My tastes lean strongly toward things that (to me) continue to be drinkable as they cool off, because I make large cups (16-20oz) and drink them over several hours at work.

The teas I find best in the "tastes okay hot, warm, lukewarm, and cool" category are Darjeeling, Lady Grey, oolong (any variety -- this also starts out a bit less hot if you're brewing it carefully), and green tea with mint or peach. I also really liked a weird Hungarian tea that tasted like grass, but in a good way, but I received one box as a gift years ago and foolishly threw it out without writing down the name, which I have not been able to track down since. :(

For teas that will not last long enough to cool down because I'm only drinking one mug with breakfast, I also like Irish and English Breakfast, and Lapsang Souchong (which manages the interesting trick of smelling like bacon and eggs cooking over a smoky campfire while tasting absolutely nothing like that).

Honey in black tea is lovely, but I don't find that it goes well with oolongs and am unsure how it would taste in green teas.

If you make a pot of tea for a long, cold winter afternoon, tea cozies really do work wonders at keeping the pot at a nice, drinkable temperature for up to three hours.

[swan_tower]

I actually prefer to avoid caffeine as a regular thing, which (since it turns out I don't really like fruit teas) leaves me with . . . a lot of rooibos. Or decaf green or black teas, but those are relatively rare, and don't come in all the flavors you would get otherwise. So I've been drinking more caffeine lately than I normally would, and I haven't decided how I feel about that.

I haven't tried any oolongs yet, with or without honey. I find sweetened green tea to be an abomination: drink it straight or don't bother. :-)

An actual pot of tea with a cozy is on my list of "If I get into this as an ongoing habit, I'll ask for that as a birthday or Christmas present" items.

[genarti]

Ha, my tea preferences are sufficiently diametrically opposed to yours that I'm not sure most of my tips and thoughts would be useful! (I can't stand sweetener in tea, with the exception of chai; most fruit teas are too sweet for me, though I like several kinds of black tea with fruit added; and I prefer hot tea to iced, in most weathers.)

I have a teapot stand which holds a tealight candle, and keeps the teapot hot for as long as the candle lasts. It's great if what you want is to make a pot of tea and nurse it small cup by small cup over a few hours! It's probably not worth buying more tea-specific paraphernalia at this point, for you, but maybe if the habit turns out to be a lasting one. I hadn't heard of the Joulies, but they look really excellent for the purpose; I might just have to buy some at some point.

[swan_tower]

Whoof, yes, it sounds like our taste buds are completely opposite. :-)

I have a teapot stand which holds a tealight candle, and keeps the teapot hot for as long as the candle lasts.

Oooh! Do you have a link? I like the sound of that, as I am fond of fire. <glances at the candle on the desk>

[genarti]

Oooh! Do you have a link? I like the sound of that, as I am fond of fire.

I admit, the fire is a significant part of the appeal for me, too. *shifty*

Mine was a gift some years ago, but Adagio has one that looks very similar. They also have a glass teapot + wooden holder that works similarly. Uncommon Grounds has a bamboo one that looks pretty cool, too. If you google "teapot warmer candle" you'll get a number of results, if you're willing to risk falling down the rabbithole of pretty tea paraphernalia for a bit. :)

I use mine mostly with a glass teapot, but I also have a cast-iron one, and the warmer has held it without a problem too.

[swan_tower]

Thanks for the links! Those are purty. ^_^

Yeah, tea paraphernalia is a category of stuff I am holding in reserve for my next birthday/Christmas (those falling later this year, and if I'm still doing the tea thing regularly by then, it'll be justifiable to indulge in some special tools for it).

[okrablossom]

Glad someone else recommended the tea warmer, although I'm not sure if it would keep it too hot for your taste. Ann Leckie recommends this cast iron teapot warmer.

[swan_tower]

Oooh, I like that! Looks very similar to the hand-warmers I see in historical Chinese dramas. :-)

[alessandriana]

Re: the temperature issue-- I highly recommend the Joeveo Temperfect mugs! They have a phase-changing material in the walls of the mug that soaks up the excess heat and then releases it at a steady rate, which means that unlike vacuum-sealed mugs, which just keep things boiling, you get to a drinkable temperature faster and then stay there for a long time. (I have come back to tea after a couple hours to find it still perfectly warm-but-not-hot.) I own two of them already.

ETA: aaand I just followed your link to the Joulies thing, haha. This is basically the same thing, except the material is in the mug itself.

[swan_tower]

Yup, that's basically the same thing as a Joulie! The mug is probably more effective overall, but on the other hand we'd need to buy several of them, which I imagine gets expensive.

[slashmarks]

I'm not sure how well our taste buds line up, like a few people above said, but for suggestions:

I drink tea for caffeine and for chronic throat soreness, so I started out basically just wanting something drinkable to down. However, as happens, I started trying more stuff out of curiosity, discovered I actually could tell the difference, and developed opinions.

My favorite flavor for pure taste is Moroccan mint/green tea with spearmint in it. I am unfortunately not sure which looseleaf brand my favorite coffee place uses to brew it; at home I usually just stick a green tea bag (Stash or Bigelow) in a mug with either a tea ball with about a teaspoon of dried mint or a couple sprigs of fresh mint in for three minutes and I have found this tastes pretty similar. If you have issues with tea not tasting like anything but hot water I would suggest giving mint a try - I like green, I can taste it, but I suspect this is in part because I'm a supertaster, and mint green is way more obvious. Spearmint and peppermint taste completely different and I actually loathe peppermint tea, so try them both.

I like black teas straight or with milk and honey in them. Constant Comment is cheap and what I grew up drinking. There's a Turkish tea brand I have found once in the US once, Çaykur, which I really liked and which has a subtly different cast. I also really liked Quality Tea Company's Persian tea, which is distinctive in a different way. (My first sip I was like "What? No" and then I kept drinking and realized I liked it.)

Seconding that chai brands are very variable. I have not found one I am particularly fond of.

There was a peach oolong tea I impulsively bought at a fair somewhere and used up and I am totally failing to come up with the brand. It was definitely floral without being intrusive or sour.

Seconding that all looseleaf teas can be steeped multiple times - just take them out of the water in between. Also, check them for mold if you leave them out for more than a few hours if the weather is hot/humid. Use a timer and different brewing times for the teas in question - I find I sometimes have really specific brewing time points I like specific teas at/like them best at. It also really does taste different if you get the temperature right for the brand - I got an electric kettle after about a year of constnat tea drinking and it has made my life at home SO MUCH BETTER.

And yeah, the ritual is another big part of the appeal to me. Also making tea is good for right before writing in my experience. It feels like procrastinating because it only takes a few minutes and I'm doing it instead of work, but by the time I've finished making tea I am now sufficiently detangled from whatever I was doing before to start work.

[swan_tower]

I'm not sure how well our taste buds line up

Hey, I welcome all suggestions! Expanding my horizons is a good thing, even if not everything I try wil lbe a hit.

My favorite flavor for pure taste is Moroccan mint/green tea with spearmint in it.

Funky! It's interesting to me how many people have referenced flavored green teas, or green teas in combo with other things -- for me, green tea is very much a "drink it straight" thing. The farthest I venture afield in that area is genmai cha, which involves brown rice . . . but I think of it as a unitary thing, if that makese sense. It isn't "green tea plus something else," it's just genmai cha.

I suspect this is in part because I'm a supertaster

I am as well, but I don't deal very well with hot things. (Plus I'm pretty sure that "supertaster" means you can taste certain chemicals more distinctly, specifically some bitter ones -- not overall taste sensitivity. Though I have that, too, as part and parcel of having an overpowered sense of smell.)

(My first sip I was like "What? No" and then I kept drinking and realized I liked it.)

This is part of why I've been drinking my way through the tea cabinet. Even if I don't like my first cup of something, I'll have another one or two, because sometimes I warm to things with more exposure, or if I fiddle with the honey and/or milk proportions.

I got an electric kettle after about a year of constnat tea drinking and it has made my life at home SO MUCH BETTER.

Yeah, I've thought about that. Especially since we have a gas stove, but solar panels on the roof; there aren't enough of those to quite account for all our electricity usage, but we come close.

by the time I've finished making tea I am now sufficiently detangled from whatever I was doing before to start work.

I'm a big fan of using Pavlovian conditioning to help gear one's brain up for work. For me it's often been music -- associating a particular track or album with a story, then putting that on to shift myself into thinking about the story -- but I suspect that with more time and association, tea may also become part of my "it's time to work" warmup.

[starlady]

Should you ever get to the point of wanting to buy new tea, I highly recommend Tea Source--they're my old local from Minnesota and also one of the best tea companies in the world. You might look into pu'er tea especially, if you like the stronger Ceylon teas. They also have the best chai I've had--remind me the next time we hang out and I can bring the ingredients to make it.

[swan_tower]

That's the one mrissa recommended to me -- or rather, she recommended the Red Berries blend from Tea Source. I'll keep them in mind for other varieties, when the time to buy more comes.