My daily "Tea Routine" has evolved somewhat on it's own.....How about yours?

I start with black teas in the morning. Usually Earl Grey or a breakfast blend, followed by a flavored black or two, and perhaps followed by an unflavored black or two. But sometimes this order gets rearranged or certain types get skipped.

From there, I go to greens or whites depending on what I feel like. I usually don’t drink these after mid-afternoon because of caffeine concerns.

Oolongs are mostly an afternoon thing for me, as is chai. But I don’t have oolongs or chai every day as they require a bit more work. I’ve also found that pu-erh is an afternoon thing, too, at least that’s when I’ve tended to drink them if I drink them.

At some point in the afternoon or evening, I stop drinking caffeine and my last few cups of the evening are always fruit blends, herbals, or other decafs. At the moment all I have in my work stash is mate and decaf, and a couple of black tea tea bags, so I sometimes drink decaf at work and then have an oolong at home these days.

I don’t have much of a routine with teaware. Most of my blacks and greens get steeped in the Breville. My chai gets made in a pot on the stove. My whites are sometimes in the Breville and sometimes in a gaiwan. My oolongs these days are almost exclusively in the gaiwan. I have seasoned a yixing for shu pu-erh and so I’ve been trying a new shu pu-erh in the gaiwan before moving to the yixing to see whether and to what extent there’s a difference. At work, I use a finum filter and a mug for loose tea if I have loose tea, and I sometimes still do that at home, too, depending on how I’m feeling and how much control I want over the process.

My teaware is so cheap and boring. I have an electric kettle I didn’t pay more than 5 quid for and three sizes of mug depending on how much tea I need to drink/how much I like the tea I’m about to drink. I try not to exceed 2 caffeinated teas a day or I end up awake until about 5 in the morning. I’m trying to incorporate a daily chug of something like fennel tea, mostly to get my tummy feeling a bit less crummy all the time.

Years ago I tried every prep method. At some point I realized that having and using a wide variety of tea ware was exhausting. Thats a little toungue in cheek. The truth is I like simplicity. Ive settled on one small pot at home and one at work. I like a wide variety of tea styles and flavors too, so one pot is glazed stoneware and one is glass. The glass makes the best tea of the two but the flavors can be so clean its almost too neutral.
Any way, over 30 years of tea drinking, I still feel like a novice with tea. But experience has led me to smaller pots, better quality tea, and simply slowing down to drnk my tea. Tea is an “event” now instead of a beverage.

I’m in college so anything to cut down the dishes is great for me! ahhaha.
I make my tea in a mason jar and I know this isn’t ideal, but this is how I’ve been making my tea for like the past couple of years because… I like simplicity and laziness haha.

In the mornings, I just go for whatever I feel like whether it’s black, green, white etc. I stop it with the teas with caffeine at 8 or 9pm, and then just carry on drinking my rooibos or herbals for the rest of the night.
I pretty much only drink out of my Mike Wazowski mug (http://picture-cdn.wheretoget.it/57bl4o-l-610×610-sunglasses-mike-wazowski-monsters-inc-mug-boy-girl.jpg) because it’s the biggest one I have :)

Recently, I’ve been drinking smaller portions of different kinds of tea, rather than just one or two teas at night and drinking larger portions. So I measure my tea out and I brew it in a mason jar (since it already has oz markings on the side). I weigh my tea and depending on how much tea I decide to use (especially if it’s a sipdown), I just pour how much water I’ll need.

So to summarize my cheapo college version of brewing looseleaf tea:
- Mason jar
- Weigh the tea
- Put tea in mason jar
- Add water depending on weight
- Pour it all out (through a strainer) into my Mike Wazowski mug :)

Mornings: For the past few months, I drink a black in the morning. Rough mornings it’ll be a mate or matcha. Steeped up in a brew basket in a cup. On really rough mornings I’ll use a tea bag. On hectic mornings, I try to plan out a cold steeping that I put in the fridge the night before to take with me.

Early Afternoon: Varies, as this is usually when I’ll review teas for Oolong Owl. If I’m not reviewing tea, I’ll bust out my DavidsTea bubble pot for myself.

Late Afternoon: if I’m not tea’d out, usually I’ll have my gaiwan or yixing going while I clean or cook dinner. I find thats the best time for me to have 8 + resteepings of tea.

Dinner: If it’s just me, I might have an iced tea that I flash chilled in the fridge. More often a fruity herbal as on most days I cut my caffeine off at like 4pm. If I have company that drinks tea, I’ll either have a cast iron pot full of a green or white, or pitcher of iced tea.

Dessert: A caffeine free tea, usually fruity.

First Cup – Starbucks VIA packages, Matcha Tea
Midday – Yerba Mate, Runa Guayusa
Afternoon – Pu-erh, Green Tea.

I use paper cups.

Mornings: Either a big cup from the pitcher that’s going in the fridge, or somethings steeped in the tea station in our bedroom, using a paper filter or a brew basket (depends on just how early it is). Always caffeinated.

Early Afternoon: Still caffeinated. Will switch to a gravity steeper by now unless it’s a heavy laundry day, in which case I’m still upstairs and using a brew basket.

Late Afternoon: If I have extra time will use the gaiwan while getting dinner ready. Or usually just a big pot of something in my tetsubin

Dinner: Iced tea. Or water, depends how tea’d out I am on any given day. Sometimes green tea if we’re having an Asian-inspired meal

Caffeine cut-off happens around here (about 7pm)

After dinner: If we head upstairs early, I’ll use filter bags or a brew basket. If not I’ll stick to the gravity steeper. Either way it’s herbal and I make enough for Fiance and myself.

I try to stick with one mug throughout the day, though it gets rinsed and stuff, but it’d be a waste to have a new mug every time I have a new cup.

In the mornings I have a blended or African black tea for during breakfast. But once in a while I’ll break from routine and start the day with a green, an oolong, or a pu-erh. In the evenings I have a dessert tea with dessert and an herbal tea before bed. Anything goes in between. Sometimes, I’ll have a blended black tea in the late afternoon.

Now teaware. It’s a little complicated. I use a gaiwan for pu-erh and oolongs. I have a glass test tube steeper from Verdant – it holds 6oz and is for Chinese blacks. I steep dragonwell dragonwell-style, in a large glass. For Japanese greens I have a shudei kyusu and use a yunomi to drink the tea out of. I brew matcha in a matcha bowl. Everything either goes into a tea pot or tea ball/spoon, and is drunk from a mug. And when I cold-brew I drink from a large glass.

Believe it or not, my first cup of tea for the day is a cheap green tea in a teabag. There’s a good reason behind this. This is what my husband and I had for many years. He doesn’t want to change even though I have in my tea tastes AND we get up at 5:00 every week day. At 5:00 AM I can’t even get my act together to get the water at different temperature. It’s boil the water and throw it on the tea bag. After that things improve. I enjoy all kinds of tea in the morning: Green, Sencha, white,oolong, Pu-erh, mate, some black. In the afternoon & evenings I start switching over to a herbal or rooibos tea. I don’t follow any routine with my teaware. If I’m heading out the door, it’s Timoino. If I’m at home , I use my cup with lid or my little Henley teapot. I love my Henley teapot but the brewing basket is too tiny for tea leaves that need to open and spread out.

I love all the diversity in the making of a good cup of tea!!!