Tea Is Badass and Better Than Coffee

[MrStash2000]

I have officially made the switch to tea from coffee.

I had been spending ~$120 per year on coffee. I'm a big drinker and I brew using a reusable pod in my Kuerig (it was a gift). While perusing the caffeinated shelves of my local grocery store I noticed black tea was priced at $1 for 100 tagless bags. The tagless bags work great and clean up well with reusable Kuerig pods. I've never been a tea drinker, but I really dig it. I'm thinking my beverage costs went from $120 to about $5.

Not a bad score and tea has more health benefits than coffee.

[HPstache]

I drink tea at work after about 10 or 11 o'clock.  I drink much more expensive tea though, Stash brand black licorice and can ever see myself getting tired of it.  Each bag is about $0.13 but I use each one 2 or 3 times.

[david51]

   Green tea all day and night.  3.4 liters on a normal day, 5 liters if its hot. If the okinawans can live to 100 drinking it I'm in. Zero calories and all the healthy stuff.

[meadow lark]

I'm a tea girl, but for me it is not a cheap choice.  I like loose leaf, and right now (literally, right now) I'm drinking Cream Jasmine from NM Tea Company.  Oh well, if only all my vices were as healthy as tea...

[Rezdent]

I am jealous.
I love the taste of tea, I really do.
However, tea often makes me very nauseous, especially in the morning.  Black tea, green...with/without milk or sugar.
I've tried.  And every few months I try again, just to see if it's still true.
Coffee doesn't do that to me.

Am I the only one whose stomach can't tolerate tea?

[cdttmm]

   Green tea all day and night.  3.4 liters on a normal day, 5 liters if its hot. If the okinawans can live to 100 drinking it I'm in. Zero calories and all the healthy stuff.

Same here. Okay, maybe I'm not quite up to your consumption levels, david51, but I'm definitely at 2+ liters a day. I'm planning to live forever at this rate.

[enigmaT120]

I drink loose-leaf Irish Breakfast Tea, and I'm not sure that's any cheaper than coffee.  Milk and honey, too.  I buy it from our co-op in 5 pound bags so I get a 10% discount, but it's still around 70 bucks.  That will last a few months. 

[Tyson]

I used to be a big coffee drinker but my GERD can't tolerate it anymore.  So I switched to tea.  My current favorite is Dragon Pearl Jasmine Green Tea.  Not sure it's all that much cheaper than coffee, but it sure is more agreeable with my stomach.  Plus I sleep better with tea vs coffee - too much caffeine and it disrupts my sleep, no matter how early in the day I drink it. 

[Bracken_Joy]

I used to be a big coffee drinker but my GERD can't tolerate it anymore.  So I switched to tea.  My current favorite is Dragon Pearl Jasmine Green Tea.  Not sure it's all that much cheaper than coffee, but it sure is more agreeable with my stomach.  Plus I sleep better with tea vs coffee - too much caffeine and it disrupts my sleep, no matter how early in the day I drink it.

I was taught in nursing school that peppermint tea can worsen GERD symptoms in many people. Just an FYI for your tea drinking!

[Tyson]

I was taught in nursing school that peppermint tea can worsen GERD symptoms in many people. Just an FYI for your tea drinking!

Good to know, thanks!

[meadow lark]

Interesting!  We give peppermint tea for nausea.  And we use it for aromatherapy, telling pts they can but don't have to drink it.  Just the smell can help.

[SachaFiscal]

I'm a tea drinker too. Just have one cup of black tea in the morning, usually Trader Joe's Irish breakfast. I'm really sensitive to coffee so I only drink it when I need to be extra alert at work.

[stripey]

Nice work, OP!

I tend to have about 5 coffees per week. I've gone for the 'quality over quantity' approach with coffee. If I'm preparing myself at home, it's freshly ground beans from a local roaster (with ethically sourced beans), or it will be made at a cafe that makes a decent black coffee. I enjoy coffee as a treat, rather than as a necessity*, and tend to drink it more socially than anything.

I drink about 5 - 6 cups of tea daily though. Mostly green but will take black too. It's my go-to drink, particularly at work. I love tea (but weak, see comments below). Will occasionally have a tisane (like mint or lemongrass) but it's not my go-to drink.


*Disclaimer- no children, only 30, have not found coffee to have any physiological side effects (except a modest increase in blood pressure) or any psychological effects (totally useless as a study aid). YMMV.

I am jealous.
I love the taste of tea, I really do.
However, tea often makes me very nauseous, especially in the morning.  Black tea, green...with/without milk or sugar.
I've tried.  And every few months I try again, just to see if it's still true.
Coffee doesn't do that to me.

Am I the only one whose stomach can't tolerate tea?

I kind of get where you're coming from.

Strong tea makes me very nauseous regardless of sugar (I don't 'do' milk). I have vomited occasionally from overly strong tea that I have been served (after asking for it to be weak, and then feeling obliged to drink when served). For me, black is worse for nausea than green, and some types of black and green tea are worse than others. Also, loose-leaf tends to cause less issues with me- my guess is because the tea is usually a little higher quality and doesn't contain so many tea fines (which I guess would over-brew quicker due to increased surface area).

Interestingly, there is a type of green tea a relative of mine got in sub-Saharan Africa that I can consume very strongly brewed. In that part of the world, green tea is brewed super-strong, super-sweet and more closely resembles an espresso shot than tea, and a single cup is passed around the group and sipped. Oddly enough, I don't have any problems with that tea type, even when it's strongly or normally brewed. It is very flavourful without being very bitter. But it appears to be very high-quality loose-leaf.

So maybe experimenting is the best option for you if you really want to persist in this tea thing.

[Scommm]

+1 on nausea, I thought I was the only one in the world with this problem..

I REALLY like Rooibos teas.

[Faraday]

I'm a tea drinker too. Just have one cup of black tea in the morning, usually Trader Joe's Irish breakfast. I'm really sensitive to coffee so I only drink it when I need to be extra alert at work.

+1 to Trader Joe's Irish Breakfast. 80 tagless, stringless, HUGE teabags. My fave tea of all time.  Scommm mentioned Rooibos - Trader Joe's has a WONDERFUL Rooibos tea.

Now, I've made myself sick drinking too much of the Irish Breakfast and not enough plain water. Takes about 3-5 days to happen, where I forget to drink water but keep drinking black tea. The black teas can dehydrate you if you drink too much.

[Anje]

A tip for those who can't tolerate tea is that an abundance of what is marketed as tea is really tisane. If it's either the coffeine or the actual tea plant you reeact badly to, tisane will likely be an excelent substitute. Examples of delicious non-tea brews are herbal tea (the kind with no tea leaves: just read the box), rooibos, fruit tea and so on.

My favourites is mint (dried mint leaves), birch (again, just dried birch leaves), ginger (fresh ginger in hot water), lemon, fake-chai (just the spices, no tea). You might also enjoy rose, chamomile or lemon gras.

A mustachian plus for tisane is: many of us have the ingredients for free right outside our back door.

[patrickza]

Another vote up for rooibos. We grew up on the stuff in South Africa, literally, it was in our bottles as children instead of formula at times, and given to us at pre-school with out peanut butter sandwiches too. Fortunately it's caffeine free.

I make the best rooibos iced tea, one teabag, a full kettle of water, and a half a teaspoon of stevia. That in the fridge for a few hours is amazing. And cheap! I get 80 teabags for under $2, and the stevia is about $4 for two months worth. I figure I'm probably paying about $0.08 a jug, or $0.01 a cup!

I drink about 2 jugs a day, no coffee or soda for me thanks.

Then of course there's all the health benefits added in: https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/beverage/health-benefits-of-red-rooibos-tea.html

[stripey]

I also really like RedEspresso too (works well in my stovetop bialetti). Pity it's a bit pricey. Am seriously considering having a go at milling loose-leaf rooibos finer and see if that's a good substitute.

[Marie13]

I love tea. I rarely drink coffee. I usually drink some version of Earl Grey or English Breakfast. I always have it with milk and sugar.

[sixup]

Screw tea. Coffee is for closers.



;-)

[seemsright]

Coffee will always be something I would love to drink but unfortunately it spikes my anxiety and I no longer can drink it. I used to live on the stuff during the college years and beyond.

These days I drink tea. I like the green tea bags from costco. It is about $20 for a box of 100 that last me about a month. 2 bags per huge mug and I drink at least 2 mugs per morning. I have become a tea snob. I know what I like and I have no qualms buying what I like.   

I also drink a ton of black tea with sugar and almond milk (I cannot do cows milk) And the amount of tea I drink during the cold months is kinda crazy...a minimum of 5 large mugs a day. And during the summer it is iced tea in huge mason jars.

[stephQ]

I like the green tea bags from costco. It is about $20 for a box of 100 that last me about a month. 2 bags per huge mug and I drink at least 2 mugs per morning. I have become a tea snob. I know what I like and I have no qualms buying what I like.

Costco Kirkland green tea (by Ito En) is really good! I'm a huge fan of genmaicha (roasted brown rice w/green tea) too. I don't drink much coffee either since it tends to make me really jumpy. Typically use one bag for a few mugs worth and I love to 'collect' new tea bags whenever and wherever I can find them. Places such as restaurants, hotels, buffets, etc, where they tend to give you so many tea bags for only one serving.

[lifejoy]

I had to stop drinking my tea with sugar in it because I got cavities :/ and I take good care of my teeth otherwise. So yeah. Consider drinking it straight.

[Bob W]

Switched from coffee to tea over a year ago.   I buy 100 bags black com Sally world for around a buck 25.   I'm lazy so I just run it through the coffee maker.   I do 2 bags for 4 cups.  I keep the bags in and add more as the week progresses.     So yeah about 6 bucks per year.

[MrStash2000]

Thank you everyone for the suggestions. Tea honestly soothes my stomach. For some reason to me coffee is harsh and I do not always react well to it. The tea has been a welcome change.

I may experiment with some of the other suggested teas BUT the best part about this switch is that the cost per unit is one penny per bag. This cannot be beat!

[Anje]

Something I found out by (well let's be honest) being a bit of a tea-snob is that loose-weight tea is a lot cheaper than bagged tea. Obviously: they save on the packing cost. But not obviously is that it's so much more inexpensive that I can upgrade to more fancy tea and still pay about the same per cup as for cheap bagged tea.

Just look at the little tiny writing saying how many grams the packet contains. A same-sized box of loose weight will be from 4-5 times heavier than a box of bagged tea. And it's nowhere near 4 times as expencive (in my area usualy twise the price for 4 times the product).

[stripey]

Something I found out by (well let's be honest) being a bit of a tea-snob is that loose-weight tea is a lot cheaper than bagged tea. Obviously: they save on the packing cost. But not obviously is that it's so much more inexpensive that I can upgrade to more fancy tea and still pay about the same per cup as for cheap bagged tea.

Just look at the little tiny writing saying how many grams the packet contains. A same-sized box of loose weight will be from 4-5 times heavier than a box of bagged tea. And it's nowhere near 4 times as expencive (in my area usualy twise the price for 4 times the product).

I found out the same thing. Plus (little known fact) tea-bags are not completely made of paper and are not completely biodegradeable.

[Anje]

Something I found out by (well let's be honest) being a bit of a tea-snob is that loose-weight tea is a lot cheaper than bagged tea. Obviously: they save on the packing cost. But not obviously is that it's so much more inexpensive that I can upgrade to more fancy tea and still pay about the same per cup as for cheap bagged tea.

Just look at the little tiny writing saying how many grams the packet contains. A same-sized box of loose weight will be from 4-5 times heavier than a box of bagged tea. And it's nowhere near 4 times as expencive (in my area usualy twise the price for 4 times the product).

I found out the same thing. Plus (little known fact) tea-bags are not completely made of paper and are not completely biodegradeable.

Most tea bags here are made out of plastic. Aparently it's "tastier".

Here landfills vere forbidden by law years ago, so the teabag gets burned and turned into heating along with the rest of general garbage (thank heaven: cleaning up an old landfill is part of my job, and it's a royal pain! If you want to think expencive, think landfill..), but it's still really not environmentally friendly. Plus: I taste no difference.

[Faraday]

Something I found out by (well let's be honest) being a bit of a tea-snob is that loose-weight tea is a lot cheaper than bagged tea. Obviously: they save on the packing cost. But not obviously is that it's so much more inexpensive that I can upgrade to more fancy tea and still pay about the same per cup as for cheap bagged tea.

Just look at the little tiny writing saying how many grams the packet contains. A same-sized box of loose weight will be from 4-5 times heavier than a box of bagged tea. And it's nowhere near 4 times as expencive (in my area usualy twise the price for 4 times the product).

I currently drink only bagged tea, but I'd be glad to switch to loose tea. May I solicit some help?

1)Where's the best places to find good quality and different types of tea? I was terribly disappointed by the insane prices at Teavana. (and their bizarre flavors) Internet sources would be A-OK. And I'm not looking just for information I can find with a google search - I wanna know who's buying where and if they are treating you right.

2) What's the best way to steep it and not end up with a bunch of tea leaf fragments in the bottom of the cup?

Your expert help solicited.....

[seemsright]

Something I found out by (well let's be honest) being a bit of a tea-snob is that loose-weight tea is a lot cheaper than bagged tea. Obviously: they save on the packing cost. But not obviously is that it's so much more inexpensive that I can upgrade to more fancy tea and still pay about the same per cup as for cheap bagged tea.

Just look at the little tiny writing saying how many grams the packet contains. A same-sized box of loose weight will be from 4-5 times heavier than a box of bagged tea. And it's nowhere near 4 times as expencive (in my area usualy twise the price for 4 times the product).

I currently drink only bagged tea, but I'd be glad to switch to loose tea. May I solicit some help?

1)Where's the best places to find good quality and different types of tea? I was terribly disappointed by the insane prices at Teavana. (and their bizarre flavors) Internet sources would be A-OK. And I'm not looking just for information I can find with a google search - I wanna know who's buying where and if they are treating you right.

2) What's the best way to steep it and not end up with a bunch of tea leaf fragments in the bottom of the cup?

Your expert help solicited.....

I really enjoy englishteastore.com everything I have ever tried from them has been good. This one is my fav...http://www.englishteastore.com/1mt-fb.html

But I have had good luck at asian stores too buying tea.

I am in the phase of drinking what I have on hand (which is quite a bit right now) before I buy any more. I am trying to simplify.

[Faraday]

in summer I drink green tea. genmaicha is green tea mixed with toasted rice. it is incredibly subtle and delicious and sold for almost nothing at the Asian grocery.

in winter I need the cream and sugar in coffee to feel ok about life - tea doesn't have the substance (read: calories) to console me when the wind blew ice in my face at the bus stop on the way to work.

coffee is more expensive, but cheaper than perpetual misery.

Bless your heart, you are lucky. You have found your One True Love: Coffee with cream and sugar!

[stripey]

Something I found out by (well let's be honest) being a bit of a tea-snob is that loose-weight tea is a lot cheaper than bagged tea. Obviously: they save on the packing cost. But not obviously is that it's so much more inexpensive that I can upgrade to more fancy tea and still pay about the same per cup as for cheap bagged tea.

Just look at the little tiny writing saying how many grams the packet contains. A same-sized box of loose weight will be from 4-5 times heavier than a box of bagged tea. And it's nowhere near 4 times as expencive (in my area usualy twise the price for 4 times the product).

I currently drink only bagged tea, but I'd be glad to switch to loose tea. May I solicit some help?

1)Where's the best places to find good quality and different types of tea? I was terribly disappointed by the insane prices at Teavana. (and their bizarre flavors) Internet sources would be A-OK. And I'm not looking just for information I can find with a google search - I wanna know who's buying where and if they are treating you right.

2) What's the best way to steep it and not end up with a bunch of tea leaf fragments in the bottom of the cup?

Your expert help solicited.....

1) No idea for your locale. Asian grocers might be the ticket.

2) There's many ways to skin the proverbial cat here. These are the options that come to mind. Purchase a single-cup tea infuser of a sort which has extremely fine mesh- this sort works fine- do note the sides need to clip tightly to prevent floaters and this one has quite a long catch on it: http://www.t2tea.com/shop/teaware-2/accessories/brewing-tools/mesh-ball-small/. Or something with laser-cut holes like this: http://www.t2tea.com/shop/teaware-2/accessories/brewing-tools/merrier-tea-infuser-orange/. Alternatively get a single teapot, and use a very fine strainer when pouring, or get a teapot with a very fine mesh strainer that nests inside the teapot, and try not to disrupt the tea too much whilst pouring (this sounds like heaps more effort than it actually, is, trust me). Alternatively- find a high-quality tea with large leaves which will help minimise the mess.

Hope this helps.

[Tremeroy]

Coffee will always be something I would love to drink but unfortunately it spikes my anxiety and I no longer can drink it. I used to live on the stuff during the college years and beyond.

This happens to me, too, although I get panic rather than anxiety. It seems to be independent of my caffiene consumption & can even occur when I have decaffinated coffee. I've always been a big iced tea drinker, so switching to hot tea in the mornings was pretty easy for me.

[Anje]

Something I found out by (well let's be honest) being a bit of a tea-snob is that loose-weight tea is a lot cheaper than bagged tea. Obviously: they save on the packing cost. But not obviously is that it's so much more inexpensive that I can upgrade to more fancy tea and still pay about the same per cup as for cheap bagged tea.

Just look at the little tiny writing saying how many grams the packet contains. A same-sized box of loose weight will be from 4-5 times heavier than a box of bagged tea. And it's nowhere near 4 times as expencive (in my area usualy twise the price for 4 times the product).

I currently drink only bagged tea, but I'd be glad to switch to loose tea. May I solicit some help?

1)Where's the best places to find good quality and different types of tea? I was terribly disappointed by the insane prices at Teavana. (and their bizarre flavors) Internet sources would be A-OK. And I'm not looking just for information I can find with a google search - I wanna know who's buying where and if they are treating you right.

2) What's the best way to steep it and not end up with a bunch of tea leaf fragments in the bottom of the cup?

Your expert help solicited.....

The tough part of this is that I'm based in Europe. So my favourite brands of tea might be expencive or not to be found at all over your part of the world (I don't know). I have one tip for an online source that's on "common ground": iHerb. I buy several types of tea that I drink from there.

My favourites from them is the Twinings Jasmine green tea (or anything Twinings - Twinings makes good tea. They make very decent bagged tea and very good loose tea) and the "Prince of tea" white tea. The last one comes in bags, but it's a good, basic, white tea. Doesn't turn bitter on you in iced teas or the like.

St.dalfour is good. Also Harney and Sons. So, surprisingly, is many british store-brand teas. But again: not widely available. The English tea Store-brand is the proud owners of the only tea I've ever tossed out. I do not like them, but luckily tea is a matter of taste so you might.

Other than that: if you can find a good old fachioned tea-shop that scoops up your tea and sells it to you over the counter it doesn't have to be overly expencive.

As for a strainer, I would recomend looking for anything shaped like this:
http://www.twinings.co.uk/teaware/serving-accessories/tea-filter-with-rest
Not the round balls, just a simple gadget open to the top. Easier to wash, easier to fill - tea brews better. If you end up with a pletoria of "tiny bits" on the bottom of your cup using this it means you've been sold not-nice loose tea. Loose tea is supposed to come in larger bits of leaf. Though: at the bottom of a box of loose leaf tea there will be tea-dust. One might just cope, or one might strain it away before breewing.

[2ndTimer]

Best places to find inexpensive loose tea:  Little grocery stores.  If the store has a Chinese, Korean or Japanese name it is likely to have good loose green tea.  Check out the Genmai Chai in those places.  It's green tea with toasted brown rice in it.  Tastes like popcorn.  If the store has an Indian, Pakistani, Arab or Russian name it is likely to have good loose black tea.  If you can't read the containers, ask the person next to you what they buy and buy that. 

I even use loose tea in my lunch thermos.  It works just fine and at about $4.00/lb. it is cheaper than the cheapest bags and tastes a lot better.

[flyingaway]

Some Chinese teas are very expensive. I have several kinds that sell for thousands of dollars per pound. I like to smell coffee, but drink tea.

[Eric222]

I think of all the little luxuries (weaknesses?) in my life, my homemade, french-press coffee is the thing you will have to pry from my cold, dead, hands. 

[lifejoy]

Coffee will always be something I would love to drink but unfortunately it spikes my anxiety and I no longer can drink it. I used to live on the stuff during the college years and beyond.

This happens to me, too, although I get panic rather than anxiety. It seems to be independent of my caffiene consumption & can even occur when I have decaffinated coffee. I've always been a big iced tea drinker, so switching to hot tea in the mornings was pretty easy for me.

I read a study that found that introverts are, by a landslide, more likely to be sensitive to caffeine. not relevant to the general discussion, but interesting.

God a link to that study? I'd be interested! :)


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[lifejoy]

Re: Teavana - if you can't resist, sign up with them online, and receive a coupon in your email that gives you $10 off of your $30 purchase. Yay!

David's Tea will give you a free cup of tea on your birthday if you are signed up with them.

Blenz Cafe will give you a free drink on your birthday if you show ID.

Edited to add: I live in Canada.

[RetiredAt63]

I'm an introvert and I like my tea (especially with jasmine) and love my coffee. 

One thing - a friend who has long term damage from a car accident was told by her physiotherapist that black tea is inflammatory.  She loves her tea, but stopped the black tea - it made a real difference for her.  If you are fine with black tea, great, but something to consider.

Also, for those who find coffee irritating, using a paper filter (i.e. Melitta type coffee) takes out some of the more irritating oils.  I tried a French coffee press for a month and went back to my filters.

[Faraday]

One thing - a friend was ... told by her physiotherapist that black tea is inflammatory.  She loves her tea, but stopped the black tea - it made a real difference for her.  If you are fine with black tea, great, but something to consider.

Seconded. I find I can overdose on black tea if I drink only tea and forget water hydration. It starts to give me a kind of sinus headache (I'm sure, due to inflammation) in a particular spot that I have learned to recognize. The association has been consistent and I can reproduce it if I try, but I surely don't want to.

I don't give up tea, but I definitely pace myself now and always follow any tea with a liter of good, pure water. The good news is that I can make that Trader Joe's Irish Breakfast tea last at least 2x longer now...

[Goatmilker]

I am jealous.
I love the taste of tea, I really do.
However, tea often makes me very nauseous, especially in the morning.  Black tea, green...with/without milk or sugar.
I've tried.  And every few months I try again, just to see if it's still true.
Coffee doesn't do that to me.

Am I the only one whose stomach can't tolerate tea?

Me too! I can't do green, black or even red in the morning either. I remember one time I drank a big cup of black with some vitamins and actually went outside and threw up. However, I can stomach the herbal teas like mint or chamomile. The good news is that you can grow herbs yourself. So technically it can be free! :)

[Tyson]

Something I found out by (well let's be honest) being a bit of a tea-snob is that loose-weight tea is a lot cheaper than bagged tea. Obviously: they save on the packing cost. But not obviously is that it's so much more inexpensive that I can upgrade to more fancy tea and still pay about the same per cup as for cheap bagged tea.

Just look at the little tiny writing saying how many grams the packet contains. A same-sized box of loose weight will be from 4-5 times heavier than a box of bagged tea. And it's nowhere near 4 times as expencive (in my area usualy twise the price for 4 times the product).

I currently drink only bagged tea, but I'd be glad to switch to loose tea. May I solicit some help?

1)Where's the best places to find good quality and different types of tea? I was terribly disappointed by the insane prices at Teavana. (and their bizarre flavors) Internet sources would be A-OK. And I'm not looking just for information I can find with a google search - I wanna know who's buying where and if they are treating you right.

2) What's the best way to steep it and not end up with a bunch of tea leaf fragments in the bottom of the cup?

Your expert help solicited.....

I use one of these -

[YK-Phil]

Something I found out by (well let's be honest) being a bit of a tea-snob is that loose-weight tea is a lot cheaper than bagged tea. Obviously: they save on the packing cost. But not obviously is that it's so much more inexpensive that I can upgrade to more fancy tea and still pay about the same per cup as for cheap bagged tea.

Just look at the little tiny writing saying how many grams the packet contains. A same-sized box of loose weight will be from 4-5 times heavier than a box of bagged tea. And it's nowhere near 4 times as expencive (in my area usualy twise the price for 4 times the product).

I currently drink only bagged tea, but I'd be glad to switch to loose tea. May I solicit some help?

1)Where's the best places to find good quality and different types of tea? I was terribly disappointed by the insane prices at Teavana. (and their bizarre flavors) Internet sources would be A-OK. And I'm not looking just for information I can find with a google search - I wanna know who's buying where and if they are treating you right.

2) What's the best way to steep it and not end up with a bunch of tea leaf fragments in the bottom of the cup?

Your expert help solicited.....

I am an espresso drinker but I enjoy both Japanese and Chinese teas, and black Turkish-type teas in the afternoon and evening. We usually get loose leaf teas at our local Asian and Turkish grocery stores, but I still have almost two pounds of Turkish tea that I brought back from Turkey a few years ago, and my wife who is Japanese and is currently visiting her country will bring back a pound of delicate Shizuoka green tea and some good matcha powder when she comes back to Canada next week. For green tea, we use a small Japanese tea set with a teapot that has its own little strainer. For Turkish tea, I simply use my French press. I also started to make my own version of Starbucks' London fog to replace my afternoon cappuccino: two-third strong earl grey with a bit of homemade vanilla syrup, and a third frothed milk. About $4 at the coffee shop, compared to less than ten cents at home.

[Anje]

Seeing so many recomend the Asian store for tea I looked in the shelves of mine. They do actually have the PG Tips brand. And also other a ok selection of solely Asian type tea (I suspect a lot of it was from Thailand). For somene who's been drinking tea the british way all my life I find buying a big box of unknown tea daunting. All I kow is that I do not apeciate the gunpowder-teas and like my tea floral.

Might any of you have any expert tips for what Asian type tea to start out with?

[Bertram]

I was a tea fan for many, many years. The whole range from the cheap-dirt stuff like those 5$ teas, to the fancy teas. One  day I read an interview about some politician that had this quirk that he would always ask for hot water in meetings and just drink the hot water. I found it pretty funny and thought of him being a fool. Then of course I had to give it a try, and thought man, how can you like that. A week later hot water is all I was drinking for months. I still drink tea and coffee, but only for leisure time and with involved "ceremony" if you will (grind beans and so on). But my go-to drink when working and just keeping hydrated has been hot water. It has all the benefits of tea, and you never get tired of it. It's pretty amazing. I know it sounds silly - until you try it.

[jasminegeekface]

I was a tea fan for many, many years. The whole range from the cheap-dirt stuff like those 5$ teas, to the fancy teas. One  day I read an interview about some politician that had this quirk that he would always ask for hot water in meetings and just drink the hot water. I found it pretty funny and thought of him being a fool. Then of course I had to give it a try, and thought man, how can you like that. A week later hot water is all I was drinking for months. I still drink tea and coffee, but only for leisure time and with involved "ceremony" if you will (grind beans and so on). But my go-to drink when working and just keeping hydrated has been hot water. It has all the benefits of tea, and you never get tired of it. It's pretty amazing. I know it sounds silly - until you try it.

+1

People always look at me funny and ask "why don't you just make tea?" when I tell them I drink hot water at work all day. My office is always too cold for me and constantly guzzling tea to warm up just leaves me thirstier.

[Squirrel away]

I drink tea, mostly green and herbal but occasionally black tea with one sugar and almond milk.

I used to have the problem of feeling sick when drinking tea on an empty stomach but for some reason I don't get that any more.:)

[acinaps]

I currently drink only bagged tea, but I'd be glad to switch to loose tea. May I solicit some help?

1)Where's the best places to find good quality and different types of tea? I was terribly disappointed by the insane prices at Teavana. (and their bizarre flavors) Internet sources would be A-OK. And I'm not looking just for information I can find with a google search - I wanna know who's buying where and if they are treating you right.

2) What's the best way to steep it and not end up with a bunch of tea leaf fragments in the bottom of the cup?

Your expert help solicited.....

I buy my loose leaf tea from Harney & Sons (harney.com). I am on their email list, so I am alerted when they have free shipping offers. That's when I buy. I really like their Organic Assam tea for my everyday simple black tea fix. Their English Breakfast is good too. I probably spend less than $50/year on tea.

I use a plain old tea infuser like this:

[Faraday]

I had to stop drinking my tea with sugar in it because I got cavities :/ and I take good care of my teeth otherwise. So yeah. Consider drinking it straight.

I take my tea plain, but I like almond milk / sugar in my coffee. I have reduced the sugar in my diet significantly over the past few years, so I now use liquid stevia in my coffee. I really like it, but it might not be for everyone :)

+1 to stevia. Just gotta watch out how much, I've overdone that too.