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Since apparently we have a lot of tea drinkers here I have questions but first a little introduction:
I'm always up to new things and tea came up in the sit back, relax thread. And wow, spicy black, I thought. I can't say exactly but something in my brain twitched with those insatiable pangs of curiosity. As of now my experiences with tea are limited to "soda" teas which I'm sure are about as close to tea as sprite is to lemons and limes. So, the machinery started cranking and before I knew it I had a colossal list of questions of to ask. So I implore you, guide me on the once mystical path to tea enlightenment. Leave no secret unspoken. Let all truths be revealed.

So now for the meat, or tea rather, of my post; the inquiries.

What would be a good tea for a beginner to try?

What is the best method of preparation?

Is there anything else that should go in it? (Milk, Sugar, Cream, Toe Nails?)

Does temperature make that big a difference, or is room temperature OK?

Are there any enhancers or is the pure tea method the greatest? (I love making tea sandwiches but oddly enough I've never had them with tea.)

Any requisite hardware? Are tea kettles that important? It always seemed silly that all they did was boil water unless I'm missing something.

Does the tea come in varying degrees of strength like coffee does?

And last but not least, why do you enjoy tea?

I don't like tea.

I'm sure you're stunned.

I'm game:)

1. My favorite brand is Yogi, however for a tea n00b, I recommend Celestial Seasonings. If you don't like herbal tea, then I haven't a clue, because that is all I drink.

2. NEVER microwave the water. Ity makes your tea taste flat. Other than that, just throw some water in a kettle, boil, and then steep for the recommended amount of time.

3.It depends on the kind of tea and personal preference.

4.I think that tea tastes better hot, but again, personal preference.

5. I like animal crackers with my tea.

6. No. A saucepan works just fine. However, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER microwave your water.

7. Yes. You can steep it as long as you want, if you want it stronger, or less for weaker tea. One warning though. If you steep real tea for longer than about 5 minutes it can become bitter.

8. It is one of those comfort things for me. [/u]

I think Lily is right about Celestial Seasonings. They make really good tea. Mint is also always a good choice -- Trader Joe's Mint Melange is excellent.

It doesn't really matter how you prepare it except that the water must be boiled. If you do not boil it, you get bland tea. You can let it cool as long as you want, but boil it first. So, as Lily said, the microwave is right out. I prefer my tea on the warmer side as I think it tastes weird if you let it cool to room temperature. As long as you can boil the water, it doesn't really matter what you use. I have an electric kettle solely because my dorm the last two years didn't come equipped with a stove. (Also, it is super fast which is nice because I used to get up for class about 20 minutes before I was actually supposed to be there.)

What you put in varies on your own taste and the tea. I drink mint without anything else, but I cannot drink black tea without a little milk to dull the bitterness and enhance the flavour. Some people like lemon in their black tea, but I have never tried this. Whether or not I put sugar or honey in depends on my mood and whether I have remembered to steal any from the Commons. Of the two, I think honey is better.

Tea is my general beverage of choice. I started drinking it regularly when I was in Scotland and have done so ever since. I once lived on tea for a week and that turned me off the stuff for a while but now I love it. Once it gets cold out, I bring a mug to my first class every morning (although not this semester since I have dance first). I drink it at three in the morning when I still need five more pages of that blasted paper. And then there's the rest of day which generally presents other opportunities. Also, because there are so many types and flavours of tea, you can find a kind to fit pretty much everything -- say Lady Grey for early morning or late at night, orange spice or mint for a cold winter (or summer) afternoon, etc. Tea is a very versatile drink.

Also, on a side note, Douglas Adams wrote an essay or column about the proper way to prepare tea if you're interested. . . . And I seem to have written my own essay there. Sorry.

The Proper and Only Way to Drink Tea; The Holby Way
_________________________________________________________

The time of the season must be fall or winter. Other seasons require Iced or Long Island Iced teas and they are a different story altogether.

Step 1. Search for a head cold or sore throat. Easiest way to do this is to visit the local elementary school. Kids that age are more than willing to share their germs with you. There is hardly a one of them that knows the first thing about sanitation. This can be avoided if you have young children of your own as they will be more than happy to bring the germs home for you.

Step 2. Once the germs have nestled soundly inside your body and have begun to make you feel like you have been run over by a tank of ridiculously disproportionate size, begin to moan loudly. This helps set the proper mood for the drinking of tea. The more wallowing in self pity one can achieve, the more the succulence of the event will be heightened.
To accentuate the atmosphere, adorn yourself with several wooly sweaters or sweatshirts. Apply until beads of perspiration glisten the forehead. Most inportant; this should be a community event. There is no need to keep this to yourself. Alert as many people as possible as to how poorly you are feeling, and announce is a hoarse whisper that you think you might need a cup of tea.

Step 3. The tea preparation. This is by far the least important part. It makes no difference how the water is heated. You can use a kettle, a microwave or a wood fire. The only meaningful bit is to get the water mega-hot. I mean hot enough that the germs that have invaded your body are screeching at the thought of just how damn hot this is going to be and 25% of them have already left your body and are on route to invade their next victim.

Step 4. The bag. Now I suppose you can shuffle through tens of different types of teabags with incredibally unpronounceable names, searching for the most fitting scent or flavor for this humble occasion. Personally I see it as a large waste of time. Just reach in blindly and grab one. So what if it is spelled camomileFengHuangShuiXianoolongchai? You have no need to remember it for the next time.

Step 5. Steep the bag in the however you heated it mega-boiling water.
Steep briskly until a rich color appears in your cup. Allow the bag to remain in the cup with the little label adorned with an unintelligble saying hanging down the side. This is for posterity and shows the world just what kind of tea drinker you really are.

Step 6. Open the refrigerator and grab any liquid that is white and wet. It makes no difference if it is milk, cream or any combination thereof. Let fall one or two drops of this white liquid. Just enough to hear the hiss of the cool liquid hitting the mega-boiling tea.

Step 7. Pull out a bottle of highly alcoholic whiskey, scotch, bourbon or any other burning rotgut you have handy. Take a big gulp of it, swish it around it your mouth then gargle with it. Swallow deeply when finished. Hopefully this has burned your mouth and throat area beyond recognition and the germs along with it. If you aren't quite sure, repeat this step until you are either numb or asleep on the kitchen floor.

Step 8. If you remain awake, walk back to where the tea is. Put your face over the cup and breathe in some of the steam. Attempt to take a miniscule semi-sip. Announce to the world that the tea is too damn hot and you will be napping until it has sufficiently cooled or someone has thrown it out.

Repeat these steps until the cold, tea or liquor is gone.
Other than that, stay the hell away from tea unless you are in a Chinese restaurant.

Tea is Tea, Camellia Sinensis.. Nothing else is tea. It is a very interesting substance.

As a tea drinker I would say you should buy some good English or Irish breakfast tea. If you don't want tea, don't read on!!

Put freshly drawn COLD water into your kettle. While it comes up to the boil, take your teapot and rinse it with hot water. Measure out the tea or put the right number of teabags (according to your pot size) aside. When the water has just boiled, quickly pour a bit of it into the teapot, pour it out, chuck the tea or teabags in and fill the pot with the boiling water. You may then wrap the pot in a cozy whilst it steeps.

Do not let the water boil and boil, but it has to be AT the boil when you make the tea. You can't make tea with warm water, it will be vile and horrid and is probably the reason so many people don't like tea.

Give it 5 minutes of steeping.

If you are going to put milk in it, put the milk in the cup first then add the tea, this saves getting a spoon dirty. DO NOT USE CREAM.

Whatever you do, don't use both lemon juice and milk, but I guess you can figure out why without me telling you.

I don't use sugar, but there are those who do.

As for that stuff, what they call "chai" tea? Well, "chai" is an Indian word for tea and "cha" is a Chinese word for tea. I loathe flavoured teas, myself, but tastes vary.

Mint, ginger, cardamom, etc., that's not tea. Those things are merely infusions of mint, ginger, or cardamom. They can be nice, but they aren't tea.

English breakfast. Don't put anything in it other than hot water, leave to stew for 15 mins, and enjoy.

As tea gets colder, it gets more icky...

Kettle plus cup plus spoon = all you need for tea. Oh. And the leaves, of course.

I like Chamomile tea and Earl gray tea best. I'm experimenting at the moment though, with things like oolong high mountain tea and things...

I hate fruit teas though...

You don't want to ask a Brit about tea!
The kettle is merely an efficient way of quickly boiling water, no more. You have to pour freshly boiled water on to tea, irregardless of the temperature you will drink it. There are many herbal teas or tisanes which I enjoy as a refreshing drink such as fennel, chamomile and lemon verbena but they are not true tea however pleasant they taste. Some true teas are flavoured with herbs. Earl Grey is flavoured with bergamot, or jasmine and rose petals are used. These teas are probably best drunk black. The most popular tea by far in Britain is from India and is quite bitter so is always drunk with milk. The amount of milk is absolutely crucial; too little and the tea is bitter, too much and it is too creamy. One has to judge the colour when pouring. You might notice that milk allows you a bigger caffeine kick.
Tastes vary wildly about how long you steep the tea before you pour it or how much tea you use. Although tea bags are used here nowadays it is a slovenly habit and loose leaves are better though messier to dispose of, unless you have a garden. I wouldn't use tea bags except through politeness elsewhere. If you use loose leaves you need a tea strainer. Some people have vast amounts of sugar in their tea, others have none.

Tea for the Brits cures all ills. Bereavement; have a cup of tea. Leg blown off; have a cup of tea. Husband left you for a floozy; have a cup of tea. Tired after shopping; have a cup of tea. We have fought several gruelling wars on it.
Some of us drink Far Eastern teas too and very good they are. Chinese and Japanese teas are drunk black, as weak or as strong as you like. I enjoy the peach flavoured oolongs; the cheapest place to buy them are in Asian supermarkets. The smoke flavoured Lapsong souchong takes some getting used to but is delicious.
It may be our climate but iced teas with lemon haven't really ever been popular though I have had one from time to time

Tosh said "irregardless".

He must be dealt with at once.

Ah tea.

The English think they know tea....(sorry guys no offense intended) but the Japanese, Chinese and Middle Easterners know it much better.

Black tea is regular tea, Lipton and the like. Which is all good, a good Earl Grey is a stable.

But....

why limit yourself to just black tea.

my ultimate favorite tea is Middle Eastern tea. You have to have the brass tea ware for it to come out right I have come to the conclusion, which is something I have not found in this country. But oh. my. god. do those Jordanians know a thing about cinnamon tea.

Anyway different teas take different steep times. Never boil the tea with the water, get the water boiling remove from heat and add tea. This keeps it from becoming bitter. I prefer green tea to black tea. But a good cup of black tea is also a good thing. I prefer to drink black tea either with spices such as cinnamon, cloves, ect in it and stronger brewed. Green Teas I like plain with a touch of honey or no sweetner at all. But that takes time to acquire that taste. I also like my Green tea a bit less brewed. Now the favorite of these types of teas (actual tea) is white tea, which is only brewed between 30 seconds and a minute, any longer and whew its bitter.

As for herbal teas, celestial seasonings has many varities. I prefer cherry berry in the spring and summer months. I dive into the more mellow spicer teas in the fall and winter. All this said, he he he, I have found that Thai Ginger tea is sooooo good, and Celestial Seasonings does not have a good Ginger tea, sadly.

Here is a link to a place that is a good dealer of tea. They are more expensive than what you can pick up in the store. The Comfort and Joy is the black spice tea I was talking about in the other thread. It lists the caffeine content of the tea, I think.

http://www.republicoftea.com/

I noticed that after I pressed 'Enter'

*grovels*

Once you add flavouring to tea, you don't have "tea" any more. IMHO. You have some kind of flavoured drink, nothing else, and I include Earl Grey in this sad group. Earl Grey was a most interesting man but he shoulda stuck to mixing perfume and snuff for his vast seraglio of mistresses and left tea alone.

The Japanese way of making and drinking tea is peachy keen for the Japanese. I don't like it myself, and it is in no way "superior" to the English or Canadian type or method. The real true tea ceremony is not an everyday thing, anyway, and has almost nothing to do with the tea and everything to do with the ritual.

The Chinese do not generally drink fermented tea, they tend to prefer green tea. So do I, when eating Chinese food. This is one time when I don't mind a bit of flavouring and a weak brew of Jasmine tea is lovely. However, it was the Chinese who first fermented tea. Lapsang Souchong is an acquired taste and it is one I have not acquired. It was supposedly developed for sailors who longed for the taste of the tea they drank at sea, full of smoke and tar. Poor fellows.

As for the Middle Eastern habit of adulterating tea with spices or herbs, I deplore it. It suits them, but it don't suit me. You might as well leave the tea out altogether, its beautiful fragrance and taste are erased anyway.

I know that people WILL go on calling infused herbs and spices "tea" but I wish they wouldn't.

Tea!

I can only answer your questions once you have decided on what kind of tea you want. I'm the semi-expert on green and herbal teas (hopefully on white soon too), the mild teas, and don't fancy black except for a cup of Earl Grey very rarely. I always recommend loose tea instead of teabags unless you need to make a thermos for work or the like. Or you are just too lazy to do it any other way sometimes. ... That being said, I am guilty of this myself right now. *fishes teabag out of cup before anyone sees*

The advantage of drinking the milder teas is that you don't have to sweeten it and it doesn't keep you awake if you aren't used to caffeine. Of course you can leave sugar/honey out of your black tea as well, but I can't - which may be the reason I don't have it. With green teas you have to make sure not to use too hot water (leave to cool for 3-5 minutes) or it will become bitter because of the leaves release the bitterness when coming in contact with too hot water or being left in it too long (remove tea after 1.5 minutes or so).

I find it quite fascinating that all teas are made from similar leaves that were only processed differently.

I'll try to answer your Qs:

What would be a good tea for a beginner to try? If you like strong drinks, black is fine. I can't help you there. Otherwise mild teas might be a good choice: good quality green, white and herbal teas. If you like the taste of bark, try roibos.

What is the best method of preparation? Depends on the tea. Follow the instructions from the teashop (buying from a specialised teashop would be best).

Is there anything else that should go in it? (Milk, Sugar, Cream, Toe Nails?) To taste, whatever you think your body can cope with.

Does temperature make that big a difference, or is room temperature OK? The temperature of the water when you our it on the leaves makes a difference depending on the type of tea you have and can improve or worsen the quality. Whether you drink it hot, luke warm or cold is a matter of taste. Personally, I like to wait till I can't possibly burn myself... and then I forget about the pot I made and have to have the next few cups cold.

Are there any enhancers or is the pure tea method the greatest? (I love making tea sandwiches but oddly enough I've never had them with tea.) I am not sure what you mean by enhancers. I am in favour of pure tea, i.e. without sugar or milk (unless black). Oh, I just saw that enhancers might refer to flavouring: in that case, I like both and if you buy from a proper teashop you won't have to worry about getting bad tea, usually. Cheap supermarket teas in teabags are usually perfumed though. I don't normally have anything to eat with a cup of tea either because all this distracts from the real taste, but I have seen that lots of teashops in my area sell shortbread too.

Any requisite hardware? Are tea kettles that important? It always seemed silly that all they did was boil water unless I'm missing something. I use an electric kettle and don't think it matters how you boil the water as long as you boil it and not microwave it as was mentioned by another poster.

Does the tea come in varying degrees of strength like coffee does? Not in that way, but generally yes - hence the different types (black, green, yellow, white...)

And last but not least, why do you enjoy tea? The colour, the taste, the scent, the warmth especially on colder days, watching the vapour swirl, and knowing that you are partaking in an age-old tradition. Apart from that it is healthy and if you make two pots every day you won't have to worry about your daily amount of liquid (I, for instance, find it easy to drink 2L of tea rather than 2L of water everyday). And there are so many nice things to make the experience more pleasurable: all kinds of sweeteners: honey, candy, sugar in various forms and of many kinds, with or without alcohol etc. Then there are tea eggs, nice tea tins for storage, special measuring spoons and so on.

Because of tea I now have too many lovely teacups. *hoists 0.5 L mug* Cheers!

Microwaved boiling water is, actually, completely indistinguishable from water boiled in any other way. Boiling water is water that has reached 100 degrees Celsius at sea level (212 degrees F). That's it.

Snopes can set you straight on this if you don't believe me.

Just don't leave the teabag in as you boil it in the microwave. The taste isn't as good, in my opinion. I have the impression that microwaved food cools down faster than if it were made the traditional way and my drinks do too.

Vison,

such western statements.

I add herbs to bread, making it not bread I guess.

And I wasn't talking about the Japanese tea ceramony at all, thats not the common way of drinking tea in Japan. Of course the ceramony is really nice to see and participate in, but its not common or even used in Japan much anymore.


I don't drink Lapsang Souchong nor do I drink Darjeeling. But I am also not a stick to Black English tea, which is fine and good, but why limit to strictly English tea.

I do however like a good black tea sun brewed, served over ice and with sugar.

One can go into this in quite some depth. The water used for making tea is better if it is as oxygenated as possible. Thus one shouldn't boil the water for a long time and indeed it is best poured a very few degrees before boiling. I tend to fill the teapot from a height and likewise pour the tea into the cup from a height. I can't help feeling I am daft doing this but there you are.
As vison has said there are many ways of enjoying tea, none of them right above all others but it can stir strong opinions nonetheless. Few Brits will drink it other than with milk in strong bitter Indian tea however they may differ on the amount of milk or sugar or strength or length of steeping.
We still call it char after the chinese word and a tea lady may well be called a char lady.

Hmmmm....

It is really up to you to sort of try some different teas and figure out what you care for the best.

(BTW, welcome, Purple Gargoyle!! )

My personal tastes run to the black teas, which are cured (sort of fermented) and are more strongly flavored than the greens and whites, although good green tea is also delicious.

My favorite tea is Earl Grey, which does have the rind of bergemot in it ( a citrus fruit sort of like a very fragrant sour orange.) I never use milk or cream in tea, never, only because I do not care for the taste of milk in such things ( I do not use milk in coffee either.) If I sweeten it at all, I think honey sometimes works better than sugar, and I never add much. If I add lemon I do generally add enough sweetener to counteract the acidity of the lemon along with the tanniny taste of the tea, no more.

I use a good clean teapot with a tea infuser, and pour the just boiling water into the pot and then let it sit for around five minutes, but there is nothing really wrong with using a tea bag to make the tea "per serving" in a mug. You do have to swish the bags around a bit to get the tea to disperse through the water.

I am not big on herbal teas, which as others have pointed out are not really "teas" although they certainly go by that name in the US. I do like teas that have citrus in them, but that is about it, I am sort of a flavor purist when it comes to tea. I do not care for spices or other fruit flavors like raspberry very much.

My advice, try out a few different types and see what you seem to care for. You might be surprised!! I once had the most delectable jasmine tea at a Thai restaurant that I would not have thought I would have cared for at all because it smelled like perfume, but the taste was sublime!

Iced tea is a seemingly peculiar US thing I guess, and I do mine like Ara-Anna - brewed double strength in a big clear glass bottle sitting outside on my patio table on a warm summer day, then drunk over plenty of ice with sugar and lemon, maybe a sprig of fresh mint. Nothing is better on a sweltering day!!

Ack, who would ever put the tea in before they boiled the water? Holy cats. HOLY Cats.

Yes, I am a snot about tea, I admit. If ordinary English-style tea is your cup of tea then it is much nicer if made properly. No cup of lukewarm water with a teabag on the saucer!!!! But making and drinking tea "our way" is not inferior to other ways, and I get impatient with those who aver that the Japanese or the Chinese ways are "better". They are merely different and I admit not largely to my taste. The Indians who work for us have a bucket of seasoned sugar in the coffee room out in the farm, that bucket is scented with cardamom and cinnamon and who knows what else. Since I never put sugar in my tea it doesn't bother me. They drink their tea heavily sweetened with it, and add lashings of heated milk.

And I like to pour the water from a height, too, how weird and strange! I met a man who was a tea grower in Kenya and boy, did he ever give me the lowdown on how tea should be "properly" made and his instructions included water JUST before it boiled. I learned what Orange Pekoe is from him and have had many the jolly row explaining it to people who thought it meant something else. (Some people insist that Orange Pekoe has ORANGE in it. Heaven forfend.)

However, I enjoy herbal infusions occasionally, although never chamomile.

I don't care for any sweet drinks, so the teas made with syrups and sugars is ghastly to my taste.

My way of making iced tea is to make tea and then chill it, but the purists say, gosh no. They say chilling it makes it cloudy (it does), so they say make it double strength and pour it over ice. Sure. That's good, but it means having ice in your freezer and I never do. Making it by sunshine creates an entirely different drink, one which is quite nice indeed on a hot day. But then, so is a cup of ordinary tea. Tea is always welcome.

Ain't nothin' wrong with chilled ice tea. Cloudy doesn't change the taste.

And I agree sun tea does taste different than brewed chilled tea.