OT - Going down the tea rabbit hole - OT

bucky925

The only tea i've ever had experience with is Southern Sweet.  If you didn't grow up on it, a big glass for a beginner could and has caused the onset of type 2 diabetes .  At one time it was thought to cause heart disease until that was proved viral.

I'm trying to replace coffee at night and a hot cup of tea just may do it.  In anycase could you share your favorites?  I have started with these.

MasterC

Bigelow makes some good tea. American breakfast t is even caffeine fortified 

HeavyG

I drink a few cups of tea daily (can't stand coffee) and have tried a lot of stuff over the decades.

Most of the tea I drink these days are rather mundane varieties:

Twinings - Ceylon Orange , Irish Breakfast, Lapsang Souchong

Taylors of Harrogate -  Earl Gray

Bigelow - Constant Comment

I do have a few others on hand including some green teas and herbals ( I like a cup of rooibos now and then).

Most of my tea is bagged not loose. I've never really been able to tell much if any difference between bagged or loose. I will use loose if making a pot but 99% of the time I'm just making a single cup so bags it is.

Have fun! Tea is like hot sauces - it seems there must be a thousand varieties and makers out there so a lot of opportunities to explore.  Quite a few makers offer sample packs so you can try a few bags of a number of varieties.

Botch

Like @HeavyG I've tried many varieties over the years, but I just do plain ol' Lipton now (both for my morning hot tea, and refrigerator tea the rest of the day).  

Buckwoody Egger

To make a short story long… Literally two days ago I was looking at the % of daily sugar in a can of Cheerwine (it is high). Then looked at ginger ale (also high). Then got out  a dang calculator to calculate what the % is for my home recipe sweet tea and, well, it’s high too.  Cracked up at your sweet tea reference.  I don’t do caffeine at night and in the winter for a hot drink I really like heating up a mug of Trader Joe’s spiced apple cider. Have tried several and it’s the best so far. Not tea but there you go. 

Botch

There's been an odd advert on my EweTube feed lately, a "coffee" that was made from dried/ground mushrooms.  While I love mushroom broth, I don't drink coffee, so I have no idea why that's there (then again, my EweTube bombardment of aquarium pumps for about 2 months never made any sense either; I've never even owned a goldfish in a bowl).   

fishlessman

usually have a tea tumbler from the tea spot company for the weekends on the boat, made by mountain everest . works well for loose or bagged. tried a bunch of their teas, english breakfast styles, green, matcha, settled with oolong teas, none of the funny flavored ones, just a plain chinese restaurant tea. theres some really hidious teas out there, fake chocolate flavors, taste of grass etc

nolaegghead

I've been drinking more tea since quitting the hard stuff.  We like Twinings as a standard house tea.  Various types.

I'll add stevia and honey, maybe a bit of citrus or sweet fruit juice to the hot brew for a moderately sweet iced tea that's pretty low in calories. 

I don't prefer real sugar in my drinks, so the alternative sweetener route is really easy for me.  You get used to it with time unless you're a super taster where you will find many of these concentrated sweeteners very bitter or off.