Ask Lemmy

Liber Tea!

Earl Gray. Hot.

TL;DR

• Green: Gyokuro
• Black: Darjeeling
• White: Pai Mu Tan (Bai Mu Dan)
• Yellow: Yinzhen
• Pu-Erh: Sheng over Shu
• Misc: Yerba Mate (Instead of Coffee)

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.

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.

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.

High mountain oolong tea from Taiwan. Taste like sweet light leafy vegetable tea

2nd is dong ding oolong. Taste like literal boba balls

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.

Spicy chai latte

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.

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.

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.

Ginger. But only because I refuse to call yerba mate "tea".

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.

Scottish Breakfast is my new favorite I put just a touch of oat milk in it. (no dairy for me)

Jasmine is top tier imo but I also enjoy chai

Go to Turkey. Visit the shops in Istanbul where they sell carpets. Be invited in for a beer and a meal.

They will serve delicious apple tea.

But really, it's the whole experience. And that's the best tea.

Lapsang souchong

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.

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. 🙃

Oolongs on the green side are my usual go-to or Chinese greens.

The local Polish grocery store has a selection of eastern European herbal teas, herbs which I'd never heard of, and it's such an interesting experience in tea. One is a type of moss and it makes such pale tea, it's so unusual. I'm loving trying them all.

I also love lemongrass spearmint tea, and rooibos and honey bush teas from South Africa which a friend sends me.

Pu'er (fermented black tea sold in big solid disks or chunks) it's nice and dark, reminds me of coffee. I also enjoy iron goddess(Tieguanyin) oolongs and white peony.

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.

Black tea with some lemon and sugar.

This is how we drank tea in communist Poland when I was a child and I tried so many teas in Japan with the nice ceremony, Chinese green tea, american peach ice tea, English tea with milk, etc. But nothing comes close.

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.

Coffee is my favorite tea. 😆

Sadly, just can't stand the stuff anymore. Grew up having sweetened iced tea for dinner every night. My wife always keeps different varieties on hand and I've occasionally tried different combinations of hot and sweet and milky. For my money, nothing touches a cup of joe. Give it to me black and bitter, like Dick Cheney's original heart.

the only tea for me, it will surely be

it's from a pot, it's piping hot

It's

edit: I also enjoy a rare London Fog sometimes

I love strong black teas. English Bteakfast is my go to, but I love a good PG tips now and again.

Call me basic but jasmine green tea is up there

I like Earl Grey, but also drink a lot of Mate (although not sure if people consider this a tea)

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.

maybe this

Lapsang Souchong (smoked black tea).

Cardamom!

Celestial Seasoning Bengal Spice

Pu-erh for me.

Impra Gold orange peoke. Get the loose-leaf kind that comes in a metal container.

But one time, I was dragged into helping a guy I didn't know move a couch up stairs. Afterwards his wife (they were an Indian couple) made me some chai tea that was the best thing I ever drank in my life. I would happily carry another couch for one more cup. I was a fool and didn't ask what that tea was, and since then I have tried different chai teas (including when I went to India) and I never even found one I liked at all.