Chai

Earl Grey or Irish breakfast tea

My favorite tea drinks are from Japan. Oi Ocha green tea, or Gogo no Kocha for black.

I normally don’t drink tea, so I haven’t tried many, but I remember mixing mint tea and green tea together and maybe adding some honey. That was kinda nice.

Yunnan Golden Needle for a black tea

For a white tea, Silver Needle, aka Baihao Yinzhen.

For a green tea, I like a basic gunpowder green tea, possibly with fresh mint.

Hojicha is a great anytime tea.

For cold brew tea: Adagio’s Thai black tea, Genmaicha tea, or hibiscus mint tea. Kukicha with fresh mint also makes good cold brew.

Earl Gray with milk and sugar.

Berry Hibiscus! With sugar!

Really depends on the season. Right now I am loving my pumpkin spice chai and orange pekoe. White tea is my favorite for spring and there is a green cucumber that rocks for summer.

Not really a tea, but more of a herb, but I drink it as a tea. Sweet basil, or lemon grass. I love a combination of the two. The funny thing is, when I was young I hated this hot drink. I didn’t like the smell nor the taste. But now that I’m over 50, I really like this stuff. I’ve even started to grow the plants.

It varies, I pretty much only drink herbal teas but my current favourite it a blackberry and raspberry tea I found at a local tea shop, before it was a lemon tea I got in Italy and I always love peppermint tea from my own plants.

Irish Breakfast in morning and day.

A chamomile or ginger tea at night.

Ginger tea if I have digestion issues (helps with heartburn particularly well).

Dark pearl formusa oolong

I’d say a good tea depends more on the tea quality and preparation than the blend. Unfortunately, supermarket teas seem to range from bad to drinkable. None make it to good, let alone excellent.

The best tea I’ve found, by a large margin, is from Gillards of bath. I personally prefer their “Three Gardens Cylon” blend, but English breakfast, Darjeeling, and Earl Grey have their time and place.

With good tea, preparation matters a LOT more. Just throwing it in some water, and hoping for the best, will leave you disappointed. For black teas, you want a proper pot, warmed before use. You want the water around 85°C. True boiling will scold the leaves, while below 60 will stew the tea, rather than brew. You also don’t want to stir too much, or squeeze the leaves. This releases the oils, which give bad teas a bitter aftertaste. (There’s a reason “teabag squeezer” is an insult in some social circles)

You generally want around 1 teaspoon of tea per cup +1 for the pot. E.g. a 4 cup pot needs 5 teaspoons of tea. This can vary based on tastes and teas however. Brew time is generally 1-5 minutes depending on tea and preferences. It can get away with sitting once brewed, for a second cup, though it will start to stew over time.

If you’re doing loose leaf for the first time, don’t forget the tea strainer, a standard sieve is not fine enough. Also, if you want to drink posh tea in a posh style, drink it black, or use honey and lemon juice, rather than milk and sugar. It’s a pure preference for a lot of teas, but a few do not work well with milk.

And yes, I’m a bit of a tea snob. 😁

It depends on what I’m doing.
I like a nice black tea, but sometimes I want something lighter and more subtle to sip on.

Thé des bois (wintergreen?) and Labrador tea are both nice choices when I want something light.

Although, I guess strictly speaking they’re herbal teas and not actual tea from the camellia sinensis plant.

Used to be Darjeeling, but lately I have been loving Irish Breakfast and also Lapsang Suchong