What is Your Favorite Tea?

I recently had to give up drinking coffee so I have been drinking more tea than usual. I drink mostly water though I give myself a treat in the afternoon by drinking tea. A few years ago when green tea was said to be better for you, I started drinking green tea.

What is your favorite tea?

When I drink tea in the morning I like to drink hot yerba mate that I learned about here:

https://permies.com/t/71412/kitchen/Drinking-Tea-Save-Life-Unknown




Afternoons are for iced tea so I make sun tea, like this:

https://permies.com/t/58331/kitchen/Making-Tea-Sun-Tea-Refrigerator




If I am really stress I make a tea with fresh lemon balm.

I usually just have mine with ice.




I like mine sweet.  What do you like with your tea?  Lemons, oranges, or maybe peaches?




What are your favorite teas?

Do you have a favorite tea blend?

I love tea! I've been drinking tea most of my life, and that started with commercial iced tea from the grocery store. I really didn't discover the world of tea until about my mid-twenties, nearly twenty years ago. Since then, I've been a daily tea drinker, usually starting my morning with green tea, but I've been mixing up the start of my day with yerba mate as well for the last year or two. I also drink a cup of tea in the afternoon, usually a black tea but not always. I've tried many different kinds of teas, from japanese matcha that is ground to a powder, to rolled whole leaf pearls of green teas from china, indonesia and india, to different oolongs from various countries, smoked teas, delicate white teas and a variety of black teas from different regions of the world, some flavored and some not. One time I even ponied up some money for a whole pu'erh cake. It was good, but didn't knock my socks off. I love a nice cup of earl grey. After almost two decades of tasting different whole leaf teas, my favorite is a cup of properly prepared oolong. Something about that flavor adds a glow to my spirit and makes me happy.

I very occasionally make tea from Yaupon holly that grows around here.
 Quite a caffeine rush to it
I drink a lot of roselle tea.   Good stuff.   I try to harvest enough calyx's to last all year, usually they just get me through the winter though.

Well timed post Anne. The temperature is warming up and we southerner love tea! Lemon balm is my favorite by a long shot. It takes almost no preparation either. I cut off a large handful of leaves and stems then dunk them into boiling water. Once the tea has cooled somewhat I take the greenery out and add honey or sugar. Drink then or chill. Occasionally I’ll add a garnish of mojito mint for looks and flavor.

My favorite is Lancashire tea. It is very similar to Bewely's breakfast tea, but a little lighter, more flowery. Though I enjoy Bewely's as well, very dark rich breakfast teas. I purchase bulk from teadog online.

herbal, I stick to mints and chickory coffees.

I drink a lot of mint tea.  I've got four different kinds of mint right now, but the best by far is still peppermint.  I like to add a few slices of ginger (fresh or candied) and sometimes sugar or honey.  Mint tea is the one beverage I can drink unsweetened without it feeling like a punishment.

Another drink I made last year that isn't exactly a tea: Fresh strawberry (or strawberry jam) and lemon basil steeped in hot water, add honey and chill.  I tried it with lemon balm too, but I'm not a fan of lemon balm to begin with.

Hibiscus and chamomile (either together or separately) are also nice cold.  

Also not tea, but I use a lot of jam in hot water to make flavored drinks.  Just plop a couple spoonfuls in a pint jar, add hot water and lemon or lime juice to taste, drink cold or hot.  Sometimes instead of jam I'll use dried fruit and some honey.  Ginger, honey, and lime is also a favorite combo.

I've thrown a teabag into all of the above, too.  Green for lighter and citrus flavors, black for deeper flavors like black raspberry, elderberry, etc.  I try not to drink a lot of tea because caffeine can trigger panic attacks for me; decaf isn't really my thing, either.

Tea is not my usual drink (I prefer coffee),  but if I had to pick a tea I would say peppermint.  I like the flavor and I can of course very easily grow the peppermint leaves.

Eric

I love that you have a spectrum of tea throughout the day, Anne!

I think the best thing I can say about my tea collection is that an English friend helped me move house and right before we left he said that he didn't want to comment but he had never seen a person with more tea..... and he had a bit of a collection of his own....

I love all of them. I have never met a tea I didn't like. I've got a horn full of yerba mate on the desk right now (I stretch that out all day), but there was a pot of bancha (fermented brown japanese tea) this morning and there will probably be some mint this evening.

I am also finding that coffee is problematic for me, and while my tea habit is by no means caffeine free, it doesn't leave me wondering if my heart is going to burst.

I recently found Japanese brown rice tea (genmai cha) with matcha powder, which was different and very flavorful. I also have some really nice green pu-erh tea that a friend gave me, it is amazingly aromatic. then there is cardamom black tea (elaichi) that I pick up from the Indian market when I'm in the US, that is a great base for chai or just a nice warming drink on its own.

Thanks, everyone for the lovely comments.  These comments have brought back a lot of lovely memories of teas I had for gotten about.

For several years, my sister gave me tea for Christmas.  Red Zinger, Sleepytime and an orange one.  And one year is was a ginseng tea.

Though until I found lemon balm and yerba mate, here on permies ... I was sold on just plain old tea.  I have had Earl Grey though I did not notice a difference.

By the way, have a Happy National Tea Day!

Interesting fact about mate. It contains theophylline, a natural xanthine that was one of the first respiratory meds. It works great but has cardiac side effects. The newer drugs are all beta two, which have little cardiovascular effects but will get your motor running regardless! Some of the newer drugs have been around for thirty years but are second generation to the Atropines of the world. It’s now just called Atrovent. So when you have your mate you may notice an extra caffeine like kick but feels slightly different.
PS. I don’t like the smoked mate. Regular cut and a little mint is my favorite.

I keep my herbal teas to things that can be locally harvested and have found my mainstay as a daily tea is a Chaga and Golden Rod blend. I enjoy the rich bold flavour it gives off.