I'm new to drinking tea, any tea/tea brand/general suggestions?
So in September 2013 David’s Tea opened up a location in my town, and prior to them opening I had never been a tea drinker. But now I own 93 of their teas and am totally addicted. But I’m looking to broaden my horizons and try new brands, flavours, etcetera. So I was hoping to get some “must try” or hidden gem type suggestions :) Also, any other general tea related suggestions would be more then welcome! I really know nothing about tea, aside from what I’ve learned from David’s Tea.
Hi Pandeme – welcome to Steepster!! :))
What are you looking for? Straight teas? Flavored teas? Herbals/Tisanes?
Do you want to buy online? Would you prefer to buy locally?
There is a vast amount of info on this site. Lots of tea recommendation threads. If you click on “teas” at the top of the page you will get a list of all the top rated teas on the site. You can click on the types on the right hand side to see only top rated blacks etc. You can also use the letter to look for a certain tea company then view jut their teas.
Having said that…and not really knowing what you are looking for, some of my favorite teas/shops are:
Flavored teas similar to Davids – check out Della Terra http://www.dellaterrateas.com/ I really like their Grandma’s Pumpkin Pie and Cappuccino Caramel Crunch – Lemon Chiffon is also really popular here. They do try me sample packs – 5 samples of your choice for 10.00
I like TheTeaCupany – out of Vancouver http://theteacupany.com/
They have 10g, 25g, 50g sizes so you can buy small amounts of lots of teas for really inexpensive – good customer service. I really like Sweet Potato Pie
Harney & Sons – mountains of choices – shipping to Canada is a bit expensive but the tea is really cheap. Florance, Soho, Boston are a few of my favorites. Soba Buckwheat is amazing – don’t let the name scare you. https://www.harney.com/
Herbal Infusions – another Canadian Company – you have to try their Cacao tea. Amazing http://herbalinfusions.ca/
Butiki is really popular here – more natural subtle flavoring, more high end – it’s not my favorite, but lots of people LOVE it. http://www.butikiteas.com/
Straight Teas
Teavivre – really nice quality straight Chinese teas, sample sizes, amazing customer service – can’t go wrong. http://www.teavivre.com/
Mandala – LOVE, LOVE Mandala Pu’erh – their milk oolong is usually the highest rated tea here on Steepster. http://shopmandalatea.com/
Verdant – more high end, but amazing teas – great loyalty program – You have to try Loashan Black – wow – they also do natural herbal flavored blends – http://verdanttea.com/
Cheaper, more mid range quality out of Canada – I like their straight teas, their flavors are hit or miss for me is Tealux http://www.tealux.ca/
That’s a few of MY favorites, but that’s not a complete list by any means. If you let us know what you are looking for, will help narrow the recommendations.
Thanks for the suggestions! I really didn’t have anything specific in mind, but there is just so much out there that I wanted to have a general jumping off point. So this was perfect, thanks for all the different suggestions! :)
Upton Teas is another option as well for samplers that give you a number of cups to play with and is economical. They also often have the cheapest prices around on finum baskets when they’re on sale. They have straight and flavoured, though i personally stick with their unflavoured.
Other than that, dexter’s got some other great starters above!
what kind of teas do you alredy know you like?
Well, I know I love green tea -both flavoured and straight. I like most other teas as well, but not straight. I’m not a huge fan of bitter tasting flavours. Thanks!
I don’t have anything to contribute except my thanks for starting this thread! As another newb, I’m looking forward to the suggestions as well! :)
It’s nice to meet another newb! How did you find steepster? It’s addicting isn’t it? :)
I think I was just looking for some information on other places to buy tea. I got my start at Teavana and while I have no complaints regarding the teas themselves, I feel the prices are too steep.
How did you find it? Steepster is crazy addictive! I used to think that I was bad about checking my Facebook but this is a completely different demon!
Agreed this site is crazy addictive. I joined 03Mar13. I’d been drinking loose leaf for about a year before that from primarily Davids and Teavana. 10 months later, I’ve swapped with a ton of amazing people, bought tea from dozens of amazing companies, currently have more than 300 teas in my cupboard (some of which I didn’t even know exist 8 months ago). I love it here – amazing community. Hope you enjoy your time here.
Alexa, I found it through the DAVIDsTEA Facebook page two days ago and I was instantly hooked.
Thanks Dexter! It sounds like we’ve had pretty similar starts, and I’m super excited to start branching out. Thanks for all of your advice!
I too am brand new here. My husband bought me a Breville tea maker for Christmas and a small samplings of tea from Tealux (all black teas). Now that I have almost depleted my supply I’m looking to branching out and trying other flavors.
Its addicting isn’t it? I ordered a bunch of different tea today based on everyone’s awesome recommendations in this thread, and I can’t wait to try them!! Once they get here of course.
How do you like the Breville tea maker? I’ve been wanting to get one, but since they are on the more expensive side I’ve been hesitant.
I love it. I love the fact that I can have a pot of tea waiting for me when I come down in the morning. I love I can set the strength level on the tea and I love the fact that I can set what type of tea I’m drinking and have it the proper temperature and brew time.
Thanks for starting this thread, Pandeme! I’m new here as well, and although not completely new to tea, I’m new to the huge selection of teas that I now realize exists :) It’s very addicting, and I just keep ordering and ordering from different companies ;)
I know what you mean karamell! I spent over $400 on tea from various companies last week, I just can’t help myself -there is just so much out there that I want to try! :) And welcome to Steepster! I love meeting fellow newbies to the site :)
Pandeme: Thanks! It’s very nice to meet other newbies :D I’m from(and live in) Norway, and the selection in stores here isn’t nearly as good as I can see it is in the US/Canada, so I get so caught up in all the different selections and possibilities! It’s a good thing that I can justify all my orders and the money spent when I know that there’s more people like me here ;)
You should try Mariage Freres. They have tons of teas, all of which I am sure somebody somewhere will not like though I guess that can be said for all tea. But the range of teas they have, the quality, I think they are pretty much the best, most serious and extensive, tea reseller in the world. There might be better resellers for some specialized things, but taken in scope, nobody really compares.
Avoid the pretty special edition tins. They are expensive, even if sometimes very pretty, and the special blends they make specially for those have been pretty much unimpressive and totally unworthy of the price IMO. But the regular plain teas, the classic blend teas, the rooibos blends, that is worth it.
Thanks for the suggestions! And for the tip about the special edition tins, I get sucked into buying stuff like that really really easy so it’s a good thing to know before I start :)
MF is a little harder to get in Canada but there are a few places on the mainland that sell it there. I just can’t think of them off the top of my head.
Welcoem to steepster! It’s an addictive site, that’s for sure.
Also, if you tell us some of your top favourites from David’s, we can start suggesting specific teas from some of the vendors.
I’d suggest doing swaps with a few people. It’s a great way to try new teas without much investment :)
I’m going to sound like a total newbie asking this… But what do you mean by a swap? It sounds interesting :)
No worries, we all have to start somewhere! I’m glad you’ve discovered the world of tea :)
Sometimes, sample sizes are difficult to come by, or simply not offered. It can get expensive, as pointed out above. So people from Steepster (and elsewhere as well! so I’ve heard) will often share items from their cupboard with one another, via mail parcels. This way, you can try different teas and explore all sorts of options.
Also, many people here are willing to send tea out to people just because, without anything in return.
My tea love started with Davids as well. I tried all of theirs I was interested in and then branches out to 52teas (www.52teas.com) and Joy’s Teaspoon(www.joyseaspoon.com). 52Teas was never my thing but a lot of people here like them, so take a peek at them. I haven’t seen any talk of Joy’s Teaspoon in a while but there were a couple herbal blends from her I loved (Lemon Zest and Wellness in particular. Davids had a blend come out a year or two ago that was very similar to wellness but I can’t remember what they called it. Something grapefruit?)
Anyway, once I realized I didn’t really want to drink more flavoured tea I started seeking out all the unflavoured blacks I could find which took me back through Davids selection and ultimately to Teavivre where I still stock most of my teas. I also forayed into Verdant for their premium stuff when I had the money. No regrets!
I had a terrible habit of buying ALL the tea and buying way too much of it. Try to stick to samples while you establish your tastes and trust your judgment. If all the black tea tastes gross, you don’t HAVE to like it. I promise. :)
Happy tea!
Thanks for the recommendations! I definitely have the same habit, I jump straight to buying 100grams without trying out a smaller amount to see if I’ll like it first. I definitely regret that, so I think I’ll be doing what you said and sticking to sample sizes!
definitely second joy’s teaspoon—she offers sampler packs in five or eight (cinco and ocho) where you can pick the teas you get samples of (della terra does this as well). i’ve been happy with 99% of the stuff i’ve sampled from joy’s teaspoon.
they don’t offer sample sizes but for flavored tea i really love lupicia too.
I started with Adagio (A company on the same “level” as David’s). I like Adagio for a few “barebone” teas (like their Hibiscus tea which is just black tea with Hibiscus in it). Just recently, though, I had some Della Terra and they are amazing. If you end up getting some Della Terra, I suggest the Pineapple Upside Down cake tea.
Oooh, Pineapple Upside Down Cake tea sounds amazing! That’s definitely going on my “must try” list!
If you’re in Canada, Adagio is pretty out of the question. Their shipping rates are crazy.
i know you spent a ton of money, but if della terra wasn’t one of those places, i likely have some of the upside down cake i can send your way for you to try first. Just send me a PM
Thanks Sil! If you don’t mind I think I’ll take you up on that, Della Terra wasn’t one of the places I got around to buying from -it’s definitely still on my list though :) This is going to sound silly, but how do I send you a PM?
If you and the other person are both ‘following’ each other, you can PM. It can be a pain, but eventually everyone tends to be following each other. :)
I’m guessing your over in Victoria. (I’m just on the other side of the San Juans.) The best advice I can give is this:
Jump on the Victoria Clipper to Seattle. OK, that’s not cheap, but …
From the pier, walk just a few blocks to the corner of Western and Lenora. There is a shop there (you can’t miss it) called Vital Tea Leaf. When you walk through the door, you’ll be invited to sit and have some tea. They will bring you free tasting cups of just about anything you want to try. They hope that you’ll buy some eventually, but there is no pressure – just nice people who are very helpful. They’ll help you find out what you like, how to prepare it, and you can taste it properly prepared right there.
That’s a bit of a trek for you, and there’s bound be something similar in Vancouver, though I haven’t found it yet. There’s no better way to learn tea, in my opinion.
I am in Victoria, and I’m actually heading to Seattle this weekend! (Seahawks Game!)So I’ll definitely try it out while I’m there, it sounds like it would make for a really fun afternoon.
What serendipity! Yeah, definitely go, you won’t regret it. This is where we buy our Blue People, which my wife drinks daily. (http://steepster.com/teas/vital-tea-leaf/1803-blue-people) This is where we get ours, and I buy tea from all over the world.
Again, really nice folks there. We stop in every time we’re in Seattle. They actually are the ones who got me really hooked on tea years ago.
if you feel adventurous, try some matcha, specifically domatcha or pure matcha so you can start with a good experience. Beware, its a little bitter.
Also, if you do go into it, I recommend you buy a bamboo whisk, its hard to make it foam without it, a regular whisk doesn’t cut it, a milk frothier seems too expensive.
I’ve been thinking about venturing into matcha, do you have any tips on how you like to drink it? I know some people do matcha shots, or make it as a tea, and some put it into smoothies.
I like flavored matchas from Red Leaf Tea. I make it by mixing 1/2 tsp of matcha in 8 oz of milk with a milk frother and it is delicious.
my opinion, take matcha like an espresso, a shot and you’re good. If you just want it for the health benefits, put it into a smoothie. Also, if its to bitter for you, try adding a little bit of kosher salt, removes the sting of tart.
My favorite way of blending matcha in the summer… I make a concentrated shot of matcha with some 160 degree water or so, sometimes a little honey, and then shake that up with some ice once it is all dissolved. Then I mix it with Almond Breeze’s touch of honey with vanilla almond milk. Quick easy tea latte. Seriously, it takes like 3 minutes.
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