Tea Suggestions on College Budget!
Hey all! For whatever reason, I’m sitting here at 1AM sipping on a pot of tea watching the snow fall and realized I’m starting to run low on my stock. I love black and oolong tea, and I would love to try something new. I’m not the biggest fan of flavored teas, as they usually taste artificial to me, but I’m not completely opposed to trying something new. I drink my tea straight up, and I prefer smooth and savory teas. I do not like anything astringent or smokey (Lapsang Souchong…blechh).
So far, my go-to black tea has been a classic Earl Grey by the Metropolitan Tea company. The oolong that I typically drink is either a Tie Guan Yin or the coconut oolong by Argo Tea.
Any suggestions with links to buy would be awesome! *Keep in mind a new semester of college starts in a week, and I’m a little low on finances so the expensive teas such as the Silver Needle White’s are kind of out of the question :/
I think Harney and Sons has a bajillion decent-to-great black tea blends and they’re very reasonably priced. Personal favorites include Queen Catherine, Scottish Morn, Eight at the Fort, Viennese Earl Grey, Tower of London, and Fruits d’Alsace. If you don’t mind smoky, think lapsang smoky, Russian Country is nice too. I hear good things about their oolongs too but have yet to try my samples of those.
links here:
to shop:
http://www.harney.com/harney-teas/black-tea-aab3238922bcc25a6f606eb525ffdc56/black-tea-blends.html
steepster reviews in order of numeric rating, black tea:
http://steepster.com/teas/harney-and-sons?black=on
I LOVE coconut oolong too but unfortunately it’s not that cheap the places I’ve most liked it from (that said, it does resteep well…). Zen Tea’s is really delicious.
Teavivre has really nice straight teas at reasonable prices – they are in China so shipping takes awhile but is free over 30.00. They offer sample sizes pretty cheap – try a bit before you commit to larger quantities.
http://www.teavivre.com/
I also really like Capital tea
http://www.capitaltea.com/shop/home.php
They sell most of their teas in various sizes.
Tealux is having 20% off right now (code WINTER20). http://www.tealux.ca/ I don’t think their teas are quite as good as Capital and Teavivre but decent quality and really reasonable – their flavors are hit or miss for me but the straights are usually pretty good.
Hope that helps you get started
You would be able to find cheap teas in bulk stores, Asian food stores or international grocers.
I also recommend Teavivre. Good prices, great tea, fantastic customer service. They offer a free tea tasting activity through their site, you could apply for a spot in their next sendouts.
Like Lalla said I would check out a local oriental supermarket some of them have surprisingly descent tea, though most of the time you find mid roast TGY, you can sometimes find dong ding, alisan and some green tgy. Many also have King Tea from ten ren where they sell cigarettes.
I enjoyed this one if you can find it http://steepster.com/teas/sea-dyke-brand/35399-ti-kuan-yin
If there is a China town or even just an apothecary near you it is worth checking out. Some just have the same teas as the supermarkets but some of them bring in a variety of other teas. One of the ones I go to sells TGY in huge bags for 9-18$.
If there is a TenRen near you and you aren’t really worried about variety they often have buy 2-3 get one free deals on their teas.
Some companies that have had teas reviewed here such as Shanghai Story etc participate in eBay auctions. Sometimes you can great deals on Tea this way. If you are buying in volume usually 100g + it’s worth checking out Aliexpress you can often get some decent teas at good prices. There have been some recent threads about reputable eBay/aliexpress dealers. There will probably be some great sales around Chinese new year (Jan 31 this year) on aliexpress as they tend to have sales around holidays.
Sometimes whole Foods has looseleaf from local companies at surprisingly affordable prices. I can get 200g of an English Breakfast, or Earl Grey I like for under 9$. I also get cheap teas at European delis and the Indian grocery stores sometimes they are surprisingly good and they are mostly under $5/100g.
Good luck!
I think that English Breakfast by teavanna is only like 3 dollars for 2 oz. I’m not sure if your into real simple stuff like that, but for the price it’s worth a shot
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