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I used to pride myself on my tea snobbery, sampling green tea varieties from the farmers market and using a ceramic infuser.
Then one day I stopped having time for all that and found that Constant Comment was actually quite lovely and available everywhere.
Black tea with orange zest and spices. Simple, but everything I really want from a tea. Lady Grey is good too.
High mountain oolong tea from Taiwan. Taste like sweet light leafy vegetable tea
2nd is dong ding oolong. Taste like literal boba balls
Celestial Seasoning Bengal Spice
Cutie
coffee
I buy from a local tea store that does fantastic blends.
For basics, I like green tea with honey and a squeezed lemon or chamomile with honey. Both are so soothing.
My go-to hot tea is Twining’s Irish Breakfast, stronger flavor than your typical English Breakfast. I prefer it with half-and-half and sugar, but can go with full cream or milk depending on what’s available.
As a southerner, I also like sweet iced tea (“sweet tea”) but was shocked to find what they serve at Chipotle is my favorite. It turns out the tea they use (S&D iced tea blend) comes from a provider in Concord, NC (just outside Charlotte) and they used to sell it for people to brew at home as well, but the company was bought out and don’t anymore. After some trial and error I discovered the secret was to put about half as much sugar in as I normally would. The tea blend itself is excellent, though, much better than you find in grocery stores.
TL;DR
I'll just boldly split that answer into some categories :D
Black teas: As my personal favorite I prefer Darjeeling teas, because of their flowery and mild taste.
As for my daily driver I mostly find myself drinking stronger black teas, like english breakfast or ceylon teas.
Green teas: My personal favorite for green tea is the Japanese Gyokuro, because of its strongly present umami flavour and general taste. This green tea gets its flavour from being hidden from the sun by huge black tarps some months prior to harvest. This procedure stops bitter substances from forming within the flower.
But because Gyokuro is a very pricey tea I find myself buying a Chinese green tea called Pi Lo Chun. It's nothing like the Gyokuro that I love, but it has a flowery flavour to it.
I also love drinking and preparing Matcha. You shouldn't waste money on cheap Matcha, only if you like to drink Matcha Latte.
Whites: For white teas I love to drink a tea called Pai Mu Tan (sometimes called Bai Mu Dan). It tastes somewhat fruity sometimes.
I've also tried a more expensive white tea called Silver Needles but I couldn't really make out a difference to other white teas I've tasted. But that might also just be an error of mine.
Oolong: I really like Da Hong Pao. I haven't tasted many other oolongs.
Yellow teas: It's been a while since I've had my last yellow tea, but I remember buying a Yinzhen. It had a malty taste, that I really enjoyed.
Pu-Erh: I like the earthy taste of a good Shu Pu-Erh. Riper Shu Pu-Erh might even taste like chocolate. But when first drinking a Shu you might connect the taste and the smell to fish or algae.
Sheng Pu-Erh is more like a conventional green tea. With time passing, this tea will ripen and unlock new flavours.
I prefer Shengs over Shus.
Misc.: When talking about other kinds of tea I like substituting coffee with yerba mate. It keeps you energized longer and when drinking it correctly you can also drink it for quite a long time. My longest session was about 4 hours long before the taste vanished.
I'm no huge herbal tea guy, but I do like my camomile tea in the evening to calm myself.
Cheapest store brand orange pekoe black tea
Sencha Fukujyu. Loose leaf green tea with no added stuff. 70 degrees. Reuse leafs throughout the day. Brewed in a kettle that allows proper expansion of leafs.
Jasmine is top tier imo but I also enjoy chai
First flush, estate, Darjeeling. Done with the proper temp water in traditional tea pot.
If you have to add flavor to the the tea leaves, looking at you Earl Grey, then it is most likely a crap quality tea.
Earl Gray. Hot.
It's Earl Grey, named after Charles Grey, the 2nd Earl Grey. I don't think a colour can be an Earl.
I found two Earl Gray's that I really enjoy. Earl Gray Cream and Lady Grey. Both good, savory flavors.
Liber Tea!
I'm more of a bone apple tea myself, but I hear liber tea keeps the bugs away!
Never heard of it. What’s it like?
It tastes like freedom and democracy. *It's a pun about liberty.
Like Freedom Fries I guess.
Milky oolong. It has just the right amount of sweetness and just evokes feelings of coziness for me. Sometimes I add a little bit of jasmine as well.
Irish black with a splash of cream in the morning. Peppermint tea after the stars are out
I live in a hot climate so my favorite teas are iced.
Iced oolong sweetened only with some lychee chunks is the only thing close to boba I can stomach. I also like a good iced jasmine green tea. Or just a strong green tea hot or iced.
Green, don't really care about specifics and I have tried dozens of boutique varieties. There is a variety called "gunpowder" that is fairly robust, I like it. My daily driver is Bigelow with pomegranate. Usually straight but sometimes I use local honey.
Please try August Uncommon Teas. August.la is the link. I raved about them to a friend who honestly became annoyed with me going on about them. Then, tried them. She called me and was like, "Oh, shit. Nico was right."
PG Tips :-D
I know everyone goes on about Yorkshire Tea and sure I like it too, but I've been drinking PG Tips several times a day for my entire life, and I love it.
Proper tea that keeps England going!
I switched to PG Tips because you can get like 300 bags for 16 EUR. Not the best, but works for my morning routine. Also I like the shape of the bags
I've tried a great many different black and green teas, but my favorite is Constant Comment. I realize that makes me a barbarian low-life, but I genuinely enjoy the flavor.
There is a tea from Japan called Sakura tea. It's cherry blossom tea and sold seasonally. Very tasty 😋
Lately I've been drinking a black tea with blueberry flavor which is very nice.
Bigalow sells a black tea with vanilla and caramel flavor that I also enjoy.
It's fun to try new flavors and decide whether you like them or not.
Sleepy Time extra strength. Valerian root, take me away.
My daily driver is Lipton Orange Pekoe. It's fantastic and priced right for what it is. My rainy day sipping tea is a Taiwanese Fujian black tea.
I'm a big fan of black teas as they have the strongest flavor in my opinion. I'm also partial to the fruity versions.
However, there's a Saffron Black Tea made by Vahdam that I've been rather fond of lately. It has a savory spice to it. Would recommend.
Oolongs on the green side are my usual go-to or Chinese greens.
Spicy chai latte
I always forget chai is actually a tea. I’m so used to western teas, I guess.
Yorkshire Tea Gold, a little agave and a splash of milk.
My wife and I have been experimenting with making our own. So far, my favorite is chamomile, lemon balm, elderberry, and a little stevia.
I tried a new one last night that might take the lead with some tweaking: nettle, lemon balm, ginger, and cinnamon. Gotta get the proportions right, but the combination was pretty good.
Call me basic but jasmine green tea is up there
Early Grey man myself but there is a Hawaiian Cocktail tea that has dried pineapple and other tropical fruits that is absolutely exquisite. I’m not usually a fruit tea person as I love bitters. Wish I knew who made it but we’ve had it for quite some time and I don’t.
Darjeeling or Ceylon
Haven't been able to get decent tea out Sri Lanka since about 2005... Fuck war but also, production has been moving from high altitude to low altitude, which produces a lower class tea IMO but is also cheaper to grow.
I enjoy anise-fennel-caraway tea. It doesn't taste as watery as many of the fruit-based teas and not as bitter as black tea and such. I find, it's also decent at clearing out my throat.
Peppermint tea is second place for me, for very much the same reasons. 🙃
Ooooo, I do like me some peppermint tea. I find it to be awfully seasonal, though.
Spicy chai with a touch of vanilla flavoured oat milk, I have 2 cups a day at least.
I used to mostly drink regular tea, and also enjoy earl grey, and especially if I'm not feeling well and want to avoid caffeine - jasmine (probably my favourite non-tea tea), chamomile, mint, and a few others, but the chai has beaten all others and become my staple.
