Tea Newbie Asking for Advice
So I’ve always been a huge coffee drinker, but the past couple months I switched to tea. Coffee was burning a hole in my stomach and I realized that I really like tea. I’ve tried many different types, mostly teas like “Twinings”, but I know there’s a whole new world out there.
I’ve read about the health benefits of team and have taken a liking to having green tea first thing in the morning. I’ve also had issues in the past sleeping and noticed that chamomile has helped me quite a bit (or maybe it’s just a placebo).
Either way, I’d like to “step up” my tea knowledge and was wondering wear to start. I had a tea infusers in the past, but never really used them. I feel like I should be doing things different, but maybe I’m just used to using tea bags, etc.
Any thoughts?
If you aren’t a fan of tea infusers, even just baskets that sit in your mug, you could buy empty one-use teabags/teafilters: https://www.coffeecreations.co.uk/prodzoomimg766.jpg
As for tea knowledge, wikipedia’s always a place to start, otherwise the library tends to have a few handbooks on tea. It can be daunting figuring out where to look first.
You can also try hitting ‘Places’ at the top menu, and typing in your general location to get an idea what teashops are in your area. They’re usually more than happy to show you around and answer a bunch of questions, plus set you up with filters or infusers.
As you start to drink more tea, you’ll probably notice a big difference in quality if you step up to whole-leaf tea. Don’t use a tea ball: it compresses the tea to the point where it doesn’t really mix with the water. Get a tea pot with filter or an infusor such as the one here:
https://www.amazon.com/Approved-Stainless-Infuser-Strainer-Capacity/dp/B01LQ7NQTW/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1507583311&sr=8-11&keywords=tea+infuser+mug
Adagio and Harney and sons are good reputable on-line shops with a wide variety of teas. They also offer samples, which will let you try small quantities of a large number of teas for a reasonable price. Adagio also has a nice infuser cup:
http://www.adagio.com/teaware/porcelain_cup_and_infuser_grasshopper.html
Thanks, guys! Going to take your advice and see what I can find around my area. Also, I’m going to take a look at some of these online shops too.
Rest assured that you can drink tea and not have to go back to coffee.
Loose leaf tea is a great place to start. A simple basket in cup and some looseleaf tea and you are ready.
Of course, there is much to learn!
A good starter company is Adagio Tea (an online store) or, depending on where you are, DavidsTea – here in Canada there’s one or more stores in practically every little town.
There are a wide variety of teas and tisanes and I’ve found that preferences are highly individual. So don’t be afraid to try new things because you never know what you might end up liking. Have fun!
If you are a newbie. Tea bag is not a good choice. You’d better try some loose leaf tea and compare their differences. Chooseing one of the most suitable teas for youself. It depends on what flavor you like.
Get a gaiwan! Its a small chinese handle-less pot that is used for many quick infusions. Certain teas work very well with it (oolong & puerh, which happen to be some of my favourite teas)
www.what-cha.com is a great source of teas from all over the world that also provide sample sizes.
try some:
Indian Darjeeling
Bai mu dan white tea
Taiwanese green oolong
chinese dark oolong. Actually try as many oolongs as you can, it has a vast taste range
and then when you have a gaiwan and are feeling adventurous, try some sheng (raw) and Shou (fermented) puerh
If you are looking for tea from China I would recommend Yunnan Sourcing and Teavivre. Yunnan Sourcing actually has two sites, www.yunnansourcing.us that ships from Oregon and www.yunnansourcing.com that ships froom China.
That reminds me, Rasseru, I’m thinking about buying a Hohin next, for high grades gyokuro’s.
On another subject, the other day I opened a container with some white peony tea. It had been sitting for a while in one of those tin containers. The aroma was incredible, well beyond any other tea. Perhaps because we had a hot spot very late in the season.
I don’t see anything wrong with starting with bagged teas. They’re a cheap way to play around with a tea until you think you have prepared it the way you like. They’re also extremely cheap and harder to mess up. I would always start out with the basics which would be finding a kind of tea you like, whether that be black, green, white, oolong, rooibus, or even herbals. There’s something out there for everyone. Going to tea shops isn’t a bad idea either. You can usually get a pretty decent introduction to teas there because they have so many on hand. I do think the next step would be to invest in a strainer or mesh of some sort for trying loose leaf. Adagio is a good start for loose leaf teas. I use a french press for making my loose leaf teas and just set a timer according to recommendations. Then, I’ll try making it different ways on my own in the future. Tea is a science as much as it is an art. It’s subjective to your tastebuds so don’t let anyone tell you what is “right” or “wrong.”
The best way to acquaint yourself with tea is to seek out vendors representing different tea growing regions and procuring samples. This is a relatively low cost way to introduce yourself to a wide variety of teas.
Everyone’s tastes and preferences are different, so a tea that I love to drink (First Flush Darjeeling) may not resonate with your taste profile.
A lot of vendors (myself included) offer reasonably priced samplers. Get a few, try them out, and soon you’ll zero in on teas that you prefer. From there you could invest in larger quantities.
Login or sign up to leave a comment.