Cristina said

New to drinking tea!

I I have had the regular iced tea and lipton teas. About a year ago I was visiting my friend, asked fora cup of coffee and was told she no longer drinks coffee. Boo! But she offered my some tea that was as strong as I like my coffee and good with a little cream. Now I want more, but don’t know what to look for? I love sweet, creamy,strong, and anything with cinnamon. HELP!

8 Replies
mrmopar said

Check out the tea tab on the top of the page. You can narrow it down and hopefully find something you like. I would check Butiki teas out as I have heard they do some great blending. Welcome to Steepster!

Cristina said

Thank you! I will look into Butiki teas.

Login or sign up to post a message.

Welcome!
Check out this thread here. It’s another ‘New to tea’ thread someone just started recently.
- http://steepster.com/discuss/6737-im-new-to-drinking-tea-any-tea-slash-tea-brand-slash-general-suggestions

I second what mrmopar said and just browse through the Tea tab up top. But for more specifics, I’ll just copy-paste what I said from another thread. Lol.

‘Definitely check out DavidsTea. They have lots of different flavored and straight teas that’re reasonably priced and their in-store customer service is excellent (at least at the shop I’ve been to). So is their online customer service though I’ve only asked questions, not actually ordered online from them yet.
Della Terra Teas is also a good place for flavored teas. Lots of good stuff there and they have these make your own try-me-packs so you can sample a handful of their different teas without having to buy larger amounts.
Adagio Tea is another place that I personally like, though I know it’s hit or miss for some people. But they have cheap sample packs of teas, and you can create your own blends of teas through their site, which is awesome. Half the fun of that is perusing the art people use as labels. Lol.
Butiki teas is amazing. I’ve only found a few teas from them that I love, but I keep going back to buy different ones because I love the company and their customer service is over the top.
I’ve also heard good things about Teavivre, though I have yet to order from them. Soon though.
And Verdant is a good place to get higher end teas, though my palate isn’t quite refined enough, so I miss out on alot of what makes their teas awesome. Lol. But that’s me. And it certainly hasn’t stopped me from buying a bunch of their teas to (eventually) try.’

Cristina said

Thank you! Very helpful.

No problem. Hope you find your niche of teas.

Cristina said

Oh I know I will! I’m just sick of drinking soda and other overly sweet drinks

Login or sign up to post a message.

I’m like you… New to variety in tea. I grew up drinking iced tea w/fresh mint in the summer and Lipton w/milk and sugar, and sometimes Celestial Seasonings in the colder months. I just recently got the bug to learn about loose leaf and varieties of tea. I do become familiar with chai several years ago buy my inspiration didn’t go any further at the time.

I also like sweet and cinnamon teas and am just getting a good start at branching out and learning what I like the most. I have found a few flavor that I really like and of course my Hubby has very different tastes.. Guess that means more variety in our cupboard.

What got me interested in learning more about teas is a box of tea bags I picked up on clearance of all things. It is called Sweet & Spicy by Good Earth. I have bought several cinnamon teas from other companies, Hot Cinnamon from Harney & Sons, & Cinnamon Crackle from Della Terra and they are good in their own way, but non are as strong to me as this one. It’s my go-to tea when I want something over the top spicy and sweet that I don’t even have to add sugar to. I just fill my thermos, add a tea bag, & go. When I drink it too often, I don’t appreciate what I like about it, so I’m learning it’s good to rotate and I often go to get tea and find myself looking for something specific. Different teas fit different moods or times of the day for me.

I have found that there are some flavored teas that I just don’t like. Maybe I will try them iced this summer and feel different about them. Sometimes though it’s a brand thing, so don’t let your first impression of a flavor kill it for you.

Login or sign up to post a message.

Brent said

Some good advice here. Very broadly, it sounds like you might be drawn more to European and Indian teas rather than East Asian teas (Chinese and Japanese). Unfortunately, I’m a bit out of my element there.

I will say this much. Try to explore teas in loose-leaf form (rather than tea bags). The quality is generally better (though there are good and bad examples of both tea bags and loose-leaf). But, you also have much better control of how you brew the tea. Plus, you can easily create your own blends to your liking.

The other thing I will suggest is that, as you explore, you challenge yourself to drink teas that are less heavily flavored. One real joy of tea is that it can have tremendously rewarding complexity on its own. Many of the spicy blends we see, are really just a way to cover up some of the unpleasant qualities of inferior product. (Not to say that some of them aren’t quite tasty for it.)

A good introduction to this would be a good keemun tea, which is so sweet and flavourful on its own, that it is actually an ingredient in English Breakfast tea as a sweetening agent (as I understand – again, not my area of expertise). Many keemuns come across as chocolaty, and/or fruity (more like wine than fruit). But, most should taste slightly sweet. If not, you’ve brewed too hot or too long.

Login or sign up to post a message.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.