Do you like tea?

Brand wise I like Red Rose for my "regular" tea. I go through spurts where I drink a lot of it. I love most mint teas and fruity ones. Some are weaker than others; but sometimes thats ok too. Lemon tea is great! My mother in law got me hooked on making up iced green tea with fresh lemons and also made with mint tea and no lemons. Either way it's sooo refreshing!

And yes there is a difference when you boil. Sarah explained it all on facebook the other day. Also allowing it to steep long enough makes a difference.

From http://www.teamuse.com/article_020502.html

The scientific process for boiling is the formation of steam bubbles, called "nucleation."
If a steam bubble forms inside the hot water, water molecules can evaporate into that steam bubble and make it grow larger and larger. That's why boiling only occurs at or above water's boiling temperature.
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The hotter you heat the water, the larger the fraction of dissolved air you drive out of solution. By superheating water in the microwave, the dissolved air content may be reduced further than it would in a stove-top kettle. The result, as my tastebuds aver, is "flat-tasting" water.

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I made a friend buy a kettle because I always drank tea at her place, and she only had a microwave, and the tea always tasted like dirty dishwater. It truly does make a huge difference!

You can just boil it on the stove too, just don't forget about it

Before we got the Keurig coffee pot at work, I had switched over to tea because our work coffee was so terrible and it got to the point where it was actually upsetting my stomach. I loved Twinings Irish Breakfast tea. I had some flavors of Celestial Seasonings (which aren't really teas) which weren't bad (Mandarine Orange was one that I liked). Trader Joe's makes some great teas, too.

Some afternoons are just good for tea and one of my co-workers and I will have a cup. We both love Earl Grey. I brought a tea kettle to work and we use that....no microwaving water for tea for us anymore. It doesn't taste the same.

My son's exGF was Japanese and she used to bring Morning Star Loose Leaf tea home for me whenever she went back to Japan. It was very mild-flavored, but it was quite good. I used tea balls to hold the leaves.

I love mint tea and, in the summer if I get up very early in the morning, I'll go out back to the garden to grab some fresh mint for my cup. DH loves iced mint tea, too.

For cold tea, I always like Luzianne tea bags. Unfortunately our store doesn't carry that brand very often.

As a general rule, no tea. I really do like hot tea, though, the way my mom's friend from Scotland made it, with milk and sugar. I don't drink the hot tea with meals, but sometimes get a craving for it, even when it's a hundred degrees outside.

Originally Posted by jugen

Try Chai teas, they are stronger and taste fantastic..

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I agree. There's a box of chai tea bags in my cupboard. I think the brand is Twinings. I like lots of honey and almond milk in my chai. It's like a hot dessert.

Originally Posted by Winchester

Some afternoons are just good for tea and one of my co-workers and I will have a cup. We both love Earl Grey.

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Earl Gray is wonderful!

I have a cute little teapot with a stainless steel mesh infuser. It looks like this but in avocado green with a black cover: Pic (You can't see the infuser in the pic) .... My best friend has something similar (with a mesh metal infuser), but mine's dishwasher safe and microwave safe (except for the mesh and cover)--- Hers isn't! Hers looks like this, but all in black: Pic They are really easy to use, especially mine because it's microwave safe.

I see there's also a clear glass one. Link

I like tea (I don't drink coffee), but not herbal or iced. I like it strong, but I've had to go to decaffeinated and I just can't seem to get it strong enough. It usually doesn't even taste like "real" tea to me.

I normally drink Tetley's Redbush and Vanilla, with a spoonful of honey and milk in it, but I like it that strong that I never take the teabag out. I also really like Twining's Redbush, Strawberry and Vanilla, but that is sooo hard to get hold of, I can only get it when I go and see my bro (or he comes here) - I think I can buy it online, but not checked the prices out.

I do like fruit teas, but am very fussy with them. I need honey in all of them, or they dont have enough flavour, and again, have to have the teabag left in. i keep meaning to try flavoured white teas.

I drink green tea everyday, several times a day, hot and cold

I am a coffee drinker but on occasion I will drink a cup of tea in the evening if I'm feeling a bit chilly. I drink just regular tea, nothing exotic but it is decaf tea.

My favorite is now Earl Grey Creme from Teavana with a 1/8 tsp of sugar. I got it in the 2009 Secret Santa exchange along with a one cup tea maker. It has a lovely smooth taste without being too bitter or sweet.

Yayyy I made a cup of Earl Gray with boiling the water rather than microwaving and totally tasted a huge difference!!! I love the way it tastes with boiled water. Especially with a little skim milk and stevia sweetener.

I love tea. A day without tea would be a strange day indeed.

I have never even heard of boiling water with a microwave. I wouldn't dream of not using a jug

I enjoy tea, I probably drink a cup about once a month - usually just Dilmah

I'm a big tea drinker. And, as such, I agree with everyone who has shared that the most important part of making tea is boiling the water versus warming it in the microwave. I'm glad to see that you're enjoying your tea more now that you've started boiling the water -- it really does make the biggest difference!

As far as what kind of teas I enjoy most, I typically prefer fruity flavors. I also like your typical, plainer teas. Black, green, red, white...it doesn't much matter. I like them all. In the summer I like green tea with honey or mint tea. And, in the winter I love the spicier flavors. I'm not so picky where brands are concerned, but I do enjoy variety. I get a lot of my teas from Trader Joe's, but I've been recently enjoying some yummy tea that my SS gave me this year.

It's very cold here and snowing like crazy. So, I think I might just boil up some water and make some tea for myself. My SS gave me a delicious peach-flavored tea and I'm looking forward to sitting down with a cup of hot tea and my Nook. It sounds like the perfect day!

I LOVE tea!!! There is an entire section in my pantry devoted to it! (I really like Chai, green, and fruit flavored teas). I like to add honey, sugar, fruit/etc to mine depending on what variety I'm using.

Alison's right too - you must boil the water in a tea kettle vs. warming it in the microwave...it makes a huge difference when you're letting the flavor of the tea infuse with the water!

Originally Posted by strange_wings

I really only like black or orange teas, or a blend. Anything else taste bland or gross. And I absolutely hate green tea - there's some sort of aftertaste to it that I can't describe but I do not like it.

I like my tea sweetened with sugar.

If you can't find the teas you want in stores, order online. There are several sites that carry high quality teas and even import teas.

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Full agreement here. I particularly enjoy orange pekoe. I used to send some of our Canadian tea to my brother in Branson, MO because he couldn't get good orange pekoe in his area. I don't know if it was available in other areas. I do not like green, white, black, or herbal teas. I drink tea with only milk unless I'm sick with a cold then I have black tea and honey.

I do sometimes have some Chinese tea that is supposedly good for lungs so with my COPD issues I try them from time to time.

My supervisor made a mixture of green tea with the juice of one lemon, one lime and one orange. Then she heated it in the microwave. It was pretty good...though I did try the fruit juice mix without the tea and liked it better. Without the green tea the juice was beyond sour and delicious, even though I'm not much for lime.

I like Celestial Seasonings Wild Berry Zinger Tea. I am not much of a hot tea person, I love my Iced Tea.

Earl Grey Lavender tea is my favorite. I also like Irish breakfast tea. I like mine with a tbsp of non fat coffee mate, and 3 tsp of sugar. Chai tea is very spicy and good too!

Originally Posted by rad65

I do enjoy some teas, though my favorites are probably not everybody's. I absolutely love extra strong green tea. It's gotten tothe point where the bitterness is my favorite part, and it actually feels like it's helping you.

I also like Earl Grey. Mostly I like stong, non-fruit flavors in my tea. Fruit flavors always end up tasting like someone mixed potpourri with hot water.

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I like to mix Earl Grey with Lipton. Taste's just like Starbucks. Usually I prefer iced tea, black.