What are your daily tea drinking habits?

I start my day with milk, cause real men drink milk. Once at work, I open the drawer and ponder what I am in the mood for this day. Actually, today I drank mostly pop, but that is a rarity. Most days, I’ll choose a tea and steep and resteep the same leaf the rest of the day. Some teas are so giving, they will go two days. A little tea will last me a very long time.

I’m very situational with my tea drinking. Like you I have a coffee in the morning but after that it’s all tea. I tend to crave different teas at different times. What i have while at work is totally different than what i’d have in the evening before bed or when just relaxing or chatting with a friend. Depends on if I want something soothing vs. energizing vs something medicinal to help with a sore throat etc.

Usually, in the morning I will have some Earl Grey or Lady Grey, sometimes I want a bit of spice, so I will have some chai, just depends. Then throughout my 10 hour work day, it’s a toss up in the air. I have several brands laying around, and I also have my loose tea (Upton tea). Most of the time I just alternate. I have oolong, lapsang, jasmine, darjeeling, green, chamomile, early grey, chai, and various flavors like green with citrus, or green with honey lemon and ginseng, etc. I am just all over the place. In all honesty, as long as I have tea, I will be fine. I have about 6-8 cups a day.

I take a 32 oz of iced black tea to work, usually last all day. Sometimes I’ll have a cup of another type of black tea, hot before I leave. Then I either do green tea/white tea when I get home, and the herbal/red tea before bed. When I make the big jug I take to work, sometimes it’ll be a green tea, and I’ll rebrew it when I get home.

But on my days off, I am doing all types, oolong all day. Mix of black, green and white the next.

Like a lot of things in my life, my tea-drinking is a ritualistic and rather repetitive habit (boy, that’s one heck of an alliteration right there…)

Weekdays:

I start with an Earl Grey at breakfast, and pour off a second steeping into a travel mug to take to work. Morning is the only time of day I can drink Earl Grey, I find it to be a little too sweet later in the day.

Late morning and on into the afternoon is usually Russian Caravan (my everyday “quaffing” tea) or Lapsang Souchong – I switch between the two depending on my mood and energy level.

After the kids go to bed in the evening, I like to savour a few steepings of a green or oolong tea. It’s about the only time I have available to pay closer attention to the subtle nuances of the tea I’m drinking – the rest of the day is pretty much “wham, bam, thank you mam” as far as tea-drinking is concerned.

Weekends:

Weekends are a work in progress now that I’m exploring some new oolongs that stand up to multiple steepings. I have more time to devote to the appreciation of tea, so I’m happy to sit around the breakfast table with the kids while I mull over a couple of steepings.

I’ve recently purchased a Turkish double-kettle and some Caykur brand Turkish tea, and look forward to brewing and enjoying some Turkish-style tea. Given the length of time it takes to brew Turkish tea, that’ll definitely be a weekend-only experience, unless we have guests during the week.

I tend to start off the day with a strong black tea. Which then turns into green teas around lunch time. In the afternoon I might switch to a herbal tea, or keep it going with a Chai depending on if I need to stay up past my usual bedtime or really need to call it a night early.

I drink tea all day long, but some times I have been known to stop off for coffee. But tea is def. my go to drink of choice.