Morning Tea for beginner/student ?
Hello everyone,
I recently discovered this site via Massdrop and as I like to drink tea before going to school, I thinked that it was a good idea to look here and try to know more about loose leaf teas :)
I have some classic “bag” teas at home, including Twinings (EG, Darjeeling), 2 marmottes (Green) and an other EG buyed in London some years ago.
I want to know what would be your recommandations for a “Morning Tea”, so black tea (EG by preference),that I can get in Europe (e-shop not US only).
I like EG/Minty teas,
I don’t really have any precise exigences in term of tastes (except orange/lemon that I don’t like together), so let’s be classic with an EG but it must be something with some strong and (I would prefer) sweeted already a little naturaly.
In fact if it can helps to get awake that’s better.
Otherwise, the preparation should not be too complicated/long,
I heard that black teas may be then a more logic choice.
Any answer will be appreciated,
Thank you ! ;)
I haven’t tried it yet (bc I am not in the EU) but one EU tea that meets 2/3 of your flavor profiles is Casablanca: http://www.mariagefreres.com/boutique/UK/ft+casablanca-classical-black-tin-100g+TC908.html
My boyfriend is a mint/ earl grey person, so I’ve had my eye on that.
For all those Indian teas you mentioned, Teabox has fast international shipping that is free over $25.They only have loose leaf though, Mariage Fres has bags as an option from what I know. They do have a first time special though, http://www.teabox.com/free-samples since I know what being on a student budget is like. What I did was I got the sample pack, used the code, and then added a few other tea samples to my cart to his the $25 for free shipping. More tea :P It’s not the best indian tea I’ve ever had, but it’s pretty good and they have a lot of random coupons and ways to make it affordable.
Another place I haven’t had a chance to try yet personally, but have heard a lot of good stuff about is: http://www.damnfinetea.com/tea/ they seem to be into the strong/ simple stuff. I just haven’t tried them before bc their smallest size is sorta big.
If you decide to go the loose leaf path, I recommend picking up a Finum brewer or if you are on the run, someone showed me this the other day and said they were loving it. http://www.davidstea.com/tangerine-carry-travel-mug?&TF=ADA13E5CAE3F&DEID=
On the very cheap end of the scale, this is the tea my boyfriend picked out himself and has been drinking some: http://www.iherb.com/Yogi-Tea-Vital-Energy-Refreshing-Mint-16-Tea-Bags-1-27-oz-36-g/40276?gclid=CPCI-ZDV4cMCFQpk7AoddQQAxg. iHerb is a decent place to get teas and also decent for international shipping (I used to get some from there when I lived in Korea and herbals were $$$ there). I heard really good stuff about their http://www.iherb.com/The-Tao-of-Tea-Wild-Black-Pure-Leaf-Teas-3-oz-85-g/42869 as well for a strong black. iHerb has a lot of different brands to consider, and have a new customer special that is $10 off $40 or $5 off less than that. They have several brands to take a look at: Rishi, Harney and Sons, Tao of Tea, and a guilty cheap pleasure is St. Dalfour mango tea.
And umm… I will let the black tea experts chime in here. Those were just the ones that sprung to mind immediately based on what you mentioned. I mostly know Chinese/ Taiwanese/ green and floral flavored teas. I just thought I’d share a few thoughts.
Wow, that’s a lot of stuff to see, and I am happy to see that there are not only expensive ones to consider.
I think that it will be more at home in a first time, so thank you for the finum as it’s available easily on Amazon, 10€ is great.
I don’t think that Davidstea ships to Europe, I will wait for a come-back of the “Libretea” infusers on Massdrop, but in pounds it seems to be ok, it will be on the go, later.
From what I understand/see, I will probably go for loose leafs as the choice seems wider and a more common solution.
From what you’ve said,
for the price I am terribly tempted by the “The Tao of tea – Wild black”, seems strong and should do the stuff but I haven’t see the other brands on iherb yet.
Teabox would be also ok, especially with their Beginner pack but maybe it is like a lot of tea, with a various quality-line.?
Otherwise I have already tried a “mariagesfreres”, I had some at home and here in France it is a brand associated with a kind of luxury, as advertised it is not the cheaper but it is still one more option :)
I talked about minty teas but it’s not my main flavour, I tend to like them and in fact for the moment I am swapping between :
EG-Twinings/EG-UK/Darjeeling-TWN/Minty Twinings Creation.
Teabox breakfast pack is maybe also something to see,
and you can tell me about some “beginner-friendly” or not too expensive Chinese/ Taiwanese/ green and floral flavored teas, I don’t want to limit myself to one kind of taste :)
Finally I think that I have to see reviews on this site, try and buy some, and then surely I will be able to make myself a more precise opinion about what to search for, or not.
But, do you know any articles/videos or e-shop ressources that would be able to teach me some rudiments about the differents varieties, how to make them etc ?
It would be very nice and I would love to know more, for the moment I still think that Black teas are the way to follow.
Thank you very much, I am pretty covered with all these things !
;)
For me I started with Darjeeling and then moved up to Yunnan Red teas. I’m not that experienced in the T bag world but I know of a website (enjoyingtea.com) which offers loose and bagged. I would start with Dianhong, which is a yunnan black tea. Yunnan black tea is naturally sweet and chocolatey :) Enjoyingtea is also very inexpensive and still decent quality. With Yunnan teas they are very versatile so you can add whatever you want to them. If you wanted some mint just throw that in there and boom you have a mint chocolate chip ice cream in a cup :)
That’s ok, I find it :)
It makes one more option for me, so thank you but I think that I should look to other places to buy it, 5$ for 16$ shipping (france).. is not very a good deal.
I keep Dianhong/Yunnan teas in my mind.
There are no problems,
I found some Dianhong in a french e-shop, expensive imho (18€/100g), but classic Yunnan is 13.25€/100g shipped, so more resonnable.
Do you have other one to recommend, (even if I should be fine with classic, I have to see if I can find other or samples) ?
I have not bought from them but this is a Parisian company carrying Chinese teas.http://www.empiredesthes.fr/fr/thes-natures-orichine the black teas are under red teas. As well these are some other companies carrying Chinese, Japanese or Korean teas if you are near Paris. http://gridskipper.com/archives/entries/062/62035.php
As well Canton teas from the uk has a pretty good rep.
http://www.cantonteaco.com/loose-leaf-tea/type/black-tea.html
If you are in France, I highly recommend Troika or Prince Vladimir from Kusmi. They are great and interesting takes on EG’s. They are based in Paris:
Betjeman and Barton have several takes on an Earl Grey and also other Bergamot inspired flavours. You can try three teas in a sample flight for 5€. http://www.betjemanandbarton.com/fr/2-les-classiques
So, if I want to sum up what seems to attract me at first,
- Everyday morning, strong black → The Tao of Tea, Vietnamese Wild Black
- Fruity/alternative → Canton, Mango Black
- 3rd → Betjeman and Barton, les Classiques
Infusers
Home : Finum brewer M
Other : LibreTea Glass’N’poly
→ Yunnan etc is available, but more expensive as Kusmi – Casablanca – french e-shops, I will see if I have to consider them, and also teabox (only indians but not to overlook).
I will be soon in Brussels, maybe with new discoveries ?
Thank you for all that answers ;)
edeltee.de is German, excellent teas!
hotsoup.nl has mainly high end teas, but well worth to have a look
mingtea.be is Belgian, they sell Chinese teas, and herbals.
Great, thank you !
edeltee.de is the cheaper place I found for Yunnan Dianhong Tea (~11€/100g), and seems to be good from what you have said :)
Not checked hotsoup.nl, but even with shipping mingtea is interesting for their pack (=18€).
Wondering is they have a store..
(so much teas)
There are two EBay sellers from China I recommend, Berylleb King Tea and Streetshop88.
http://stores.ebay.com/beryllebkingtea?trksid=p2047675.l2563
http://stores.ebay.com/goshopstreet?trksid=p2047675.l2563
Also excellent for tea of all sorts is Yunnan Sourcing at www.yunnansourcing.com. There is also a US operation of Yunnan Sourcing at www.yunnansourcing.us but I would go with the dot com site if you are in Europe.
For unflavored teas you may also want to check out http://nannuoshan.org and http://what-cha.com. Located in Germany and the UK respectively. Both have some fantastic black teas and very reasonable shipping.
Login or sign up to leave a comment.