what are your cupboard essentials and semi-essentials?

No specific blends or brands… but I must always have masala chai and rooibos.

I always need herbal and rooibos blends for when caffeine is giving me a hard time, so I will always have some DavidsTea varieties of both of those types.

Current essentials for me (actual types):
Lemon Chiffon – Della Terra Teas
Ginger Sage Winter Spa Blend – Verdant
Yunnan White Jasmine – Verdant, although for the white jasmine, DavidsTea Jasmine Silver Needles will suffice if I run out of Verdant’s.
Oh, and a Phoenix-Mountain Dancong Oolong, preferably from Verdant, for my Yixing pot!

Semi-Essentials would probably include:
Mother’s Little Helper – DavidsTea
Jessie’s Tea – DavidsTea
Laoshan Green – Verdant
Papa Bear’s Hibernation Blend – Della Terra Teas

I must always have Earl Grey, English Breakfast, plain red rooibos, chamomile, peppermint, and at least one Japanese green tea (preferably sencha or houjicha). I also like to have at least one oolong and one white tea (doesn’t matter what kind).

I have tried to avoid becoming brand loyal, out of fear of loosing access to my favorite teas, but since discovering some companies through swaps, I may be loosing that diversified stance.

my list seems to change every few months, but at the moment it’s Assam/Ceylon, Dragonwell, Mint Green, and random herbals.
So many teas have been struck off my list the last few months!

Teas I would like to always have in my cupboard would be:
“Irish Breakfast” blend; Yogi “Ginkgo Clarity”;
and Zhena’s gypsy tea “Mojito Mint”.

Those I like but could do without are seasonal teas:
Stash “Pumpkin Spice”; Tzao “Joy”; and Celestial Seasons
“Gingerbread Spice”.

Interestingly my tastes change, in the Winter I look for strong blacks or spices like cinnamon or ginger. In Summer I tend towards fruity or mint flavors.

Hmmmm….

I think my essentials are more divided into TYPES of tea rather than EXACTS… I must always have: A fruity mate, a dessert mate, a dessert black, an earl gray creme, a minty tea, YERBA MATE is my new must have, and a few bagged teas for the mornings I’m running late and must steep on the go. Requirements for those is that they must not turn bitter when not monitoring the steep! Often I leave them in for my entire 3 hour commute!

Actually responding to this made me realize how much my essentials have changed over the last few months. I used to have the ones I HAD TO HAVE, but now I just need to make sure I have a few types… maybe I’m branching out, but maybe I’m losing touch with my favorite teas? HELP MEEEE. sips tea better now…

Hmmm… My list is expanding lately, but it includes:
A Ceylon, preferably Golden Monkey or a really good orange pekoe
Darjeeling first or second flush
Keemun
Nilgiri
Piccadilly Blend (fortnum and mason)

In the also have but not must list:
White tea
Assam

I have a very small list, because I like to taste different things and have stuff rotate through my collection. I’m getting better about not hoarding tons of tins of Davids, but I still have a few musts that I will refill if I run out of them.

All from DavidsTea:
Chocolate Rocket
Birthday Cake
Pinapple Oolong
And Brazillonaire because it is the hubby’s favorite.

On top of that I always have 2-3 tins of different blacks for the season, and 2-3 different types of herbals as well. Those are my necessity as far as 100+grams go.