Hello all,
I'm thinking of switching back to tea, having drank coffee for the last seven years. But it has been a while since I regularly used loose leaf, and the selection of teas I drank was quite limited (mostly yerba-maté and a bunch of African teas). So I'm somewhat of a newbie again.
Open to hear suggestions on:
- tea-pots
- tea flavours
- online stores
- tips & tricks
Think I'd prefer a pot over a strainer, especially if I'm going to take it to work with me. Open to all types of tea; green, black, herbal and so on. Maybe a sample kit is the way to go?
Thank you.
Tleaft have been by far the most reliable for me, especially because they have so many samplers to try.
I'm a big green tea drinker and my personal favourite is Long Jing (Lung Ching on their website). It's a very beautiful green tea and you can keep re-steeping it 3-4 times. It has a milder caffeine content, so I find it very calming. Needs to be steepd at 70C for about 2 minutes for the first steeping and subsequent steepings add about another minute each. If you over steep or use too hot water it will be bitter and disgusting.
Long Jing is a quality tea, so it is more pricey (again the re-steeping helps a lot with price comparison though). I've tried MANY teas but I always come back to long Jing.
A cheaper and standard alternative is Sencha. I prefer Chinese teas so I go with a Chinese sencha. You may want to try a Japanese sencha to see what your preferred is. Sencha is very much the cheaper more bog standard standard green tea. I enjoy the flavour of the Chinese sencha but In an effort towards minimalism I just stick to having one around in the cupboard. Again similar brewing temp and time but probably less re-steeps.
Tie Guan Ying (iron goddess of mercy) is another very famous tea, it's an oolong tea that is regarded as one of the finest teas. Also very popular at yum cha. Again, can be re-steeped many times throughout the day. As an oolong it has a more robust flavour and higher caffeine content but is very smooth. Definitely a must try. As an oolong it is best brewed with 90-100c water. Ideally, add some boiling water, steep for 20 seconds or so, throw out the water and let the leaves breathe for another 10 seconds or so, then add water again to fill the pot. Then steep for a minute or so and consume that batch. Re-steep again and again up to 4-5 times increasing steep time each time. Throwing out the first quick steep is traditional to remove bitter flavours and leave only the smooth beautiful notes. Again be mindful not to oversteep, although it's much more resilient than a standard green.
Taiwan also makes a lot of different ooloongs that are very famous. So you could look in to some of those.
For black tea, earl grey Excelsior is amazing, but is really more ideal made as a cup with some milk and sugar rather than in a pot and you can't re-steep it. I use it more when I want a single cup of black tea for a caffeine pick me up. The bergamot in earl grey is also very calming with the higher caffeine content of the black tea.
If you'd like a higher caffeine content tea to sip on throughout the day there are many Chinese black teas worth trying. I don't have any specific recommendations just get some samplers.
I also love rooibos, peppermint, and camomile teas (and mixing all 3 together!) When I want something caffeine free or to wind down for the night.
Matcha is another favourite but more complex to get right so I'd stay away for now. It's a great cup of coffee replacement though.
Those are probably some good tea starting points. But t leaf t have always had great service and offer samplers for everything that only cost a couple bucks. I spent a year or so just trying every flavour they had :D Be sure to stay away from T2, unless you want trash tea in cute boxes with nice smelling flavours rather than actual tea.
I have a lot of teapots but my recommendation for personal tea drinking is basically anything 500ml. Perfect size for one person to sip on and re-steep throughout the day before it gets cold, while also being flexible enough to make tea to share with one other person.
Also, I'm not a shill for t leaf t, they're just really excellent when it comes to offering some good traditional pure teas and having samplers available for everything. Every time I've tried somewhere else I've ended up disappointed or it's more expensive so now I just stick to what I know. They also have stores in Wellington where you can trial stuff, and there's a tea shop in mt Eden who also stock tons of tea including the range from t leaf t and you buy it as much or little as you want, like a bin inn but for tea.
Honourable mention to zealong, their tea is nice and it is nz based but it's very expensive and their staff aren't always treated the best so I never bother with buying it. I received a sample pack as a gift once and it was lovely and worth trying.
Hope that helps!