Forums » Smalltalk » Random Q: Favourite Tea?

Just as the title asks, do you have a favourite tea? And no, I'm not asking about your standard Orange Pekoe, or Lipton, but loose leaf teas! My home stock is getting low and what with online shopping, it makes acquiring teas that I can't acquire locally made easy, and I would love to hear suggestions.

Many thanks!

If you've never tried it - I recommend Rooibos. It's from South Africa. At my local tea shops you can buy it mixed with caramel and things like that but I prefer to drink it straight. (You can also buy it in teabag form in Supermarkets)

It has a very earthy taste that might not be for everyone (my brother says it tastes like Tan bark)

It's also caffeine free which I really appreciate because it means I can drink it in cold evenings and not stay up all night.

Ooh, you have unlocketh Pandora's box, my good man. I adore the fail out of teas, and am a total tea (and lemonade) addict.

But my favorite? Hmm, outside of the usual southern iced tea, I have this thing for blackberry tea. Peach tea is also lovely, as well as peppermint tea. I'd also suggest a nice, clean green tea. (If it's blended with fruit, even better I say!) If you're talking about specific brands, then I would have to say Celestial Seasonings is pretty good, and I think they have loose leaf versions... I'm not sure though. (But that's because I've yet to try places like Teavana in the old days and The Tea Spot, which is my dream~)

I must ask though: as a novice tea brewer, do you use any special equipment for loose leaf tea? And I'd also love to know your favorite tea as well!

I am familiar with Rooibos, although I would have to agree with your brother. It's not my favourite flavour, but it is great for iron, so I cannot deny it's benefits. Is there a particular Rooibos you would recommend?

Oh, this is a Pandora's box I wanna open! (The love for lemonade is strong with me, as well ). Now, Southern Iced Tea is something my husband has introduced me to, since he is from TN. It's quite sweet for me, but I admit, it is nice, but in small doses for me. Green tea, you can never go wrong, if you don't need a fruit added though, I suggest Silver Needle tea. It's a white tea, but is clean, light and positively divine. Celestial Seasonings is the bomb! I am obsessed with Bengal Spice. I can drink 5 cups in a day if I don't be careful.

As for brewing, there are a lot of thins that you can brew loose leaf with those. The more common is a tea infuser made from metal. I believe they even sell them at Starbucks nowadays. Teavana will definitely sell these as well. These are good if you need to step for a while, but there are skinny ones out there and they don't let the leaves expand as much as they could, which means you could be lacking in flavour and missing out, so I cannot recommend these. You can also get bags, where you line the hole of the teapot with a cheesecloth sort of bag, and put the leaves in there, permitting for easy removal of the leaves once steeped and a quick toss into compost!

But on the subject of my favourite tea, it's really difficult to decide...



Needless to say, I love tea, and have a lot of it. I'd venture to say about 6 kilos. But as I stated above, I am always on the hunt for more! Potential tea dragon alert~

But this is why it's hard to decide. I do love a Masala Chai, and putting in chocolate chips - it is a dessert in a cup and it never fails to please!

[Edit] Oh, you were looking for recommendations. I'm of no help there, nope.

I'm a sucker for matcha, personally. Make sure you get those filter tea bags to ensure no power residue or the tea whisk.

I'm also a big fan of blooming tea.

Yeah as I said, I know it's not a taste for everyone. My local fancy-tea shop sells some blends with berries (which I have never tasted) which might give the sweetness needed reduce the overpowering flavour. But yeah - I'd be cautious.

I love trying new teas but I can't really say I'm much of a connoisseur. Still, I'd like to recommend https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapsang_souchong for those who haven't tried it. It is very smoky so it's certainly not for everyone, but I find the fragrance super soothing. Makes me feel like I'm at a campfire.

This sounds pretentious, but there's a type of hand-rolled jasmine green tea pearls called dragon tears that are really good. If you have a glass teapot or cup it's nice to watch them open up. Sometimes you get a whole flower. Although, as I've learned there's also a form of edible (drinkable?) cannabis called dragon/phoenix tears, so. If you're shopping online make sure you specify that you're looking for tea lmao

Other recommendations: loose earl gray with lavender or rose, peach Ceylon, black tea infused with lemon, grapefruit, or maple, and blooming teas (which usually taste like a combination of vanilla and mango imo). I bought a bunch last year and when they got here all the names were in Chinese, so I translated them (incorrectly) character by character to get great flavours like "Shining Blue Star" and "Step Up".

I know my response is short but I really enjoy Runa tea...



...and this is one of my favorites. (I literally have a can in my lap and I'm fixing to make some, I usually add a tiny bit of honey because of my sweet tooth.)

I am agonizingly basic. I like black teas like English breakfast and Bigelow English teatime, mixed with honey and cream. (I love creamy teas, so a creamy Chai is also good, but I know next to nothing about it!) Sometimes I will forgo the cream and do an Earl Grey or Darjeeling. I would love to learn more about teas!

I have a rather large tea collection in my oppinion.

But my favorite is Licorice with peppermint

Like Heimdall I also really like just a nice strong hot black tea

this is my fav

I can't really drink tea, the flavours aren't for me and I get a huge horrible headache when I do drink
Might have something to do with me not being able to drink water as is too easily, but who knows

Russian Earl Grey is the tea that I did like though, it was kinda nice

JASMINE GREEN TEA BABY! THAT'S MY JAM!!!! It smells soooo goood and tastes AMAZING!!!!!!

OMG I LOVE HARNEY AND SONS! I live right by their Millerton store!!! OMG BEST TEA COMPANY EVER!

Ok, favorite teas aside, I'm all amazed, terrified, and ridiculously envious of your tea collection. That's some 100/10 stuff dude omg~

As for my favorite teas, I don't usually drink "Leaf" tea, I'm kind of a basic person :'D I really like sweet briar tea (and it does wonders with lemon and honey if you get flu), as well limon and mint scented teas. Any other day, I usually just drink black tea, since most times I mix it with milk and other teas than basic black don't tend to mix well.

There was a fancy-ish one that I liked tho, that had bits of blueberry in it! It was still bag tea, but it had a really sweet and sour taste~ Bad thing is that I ran out of it some months ago (altought that's less on the fault that it's rare, and more on the fault that I'm always forgetting to go buy more)

i'M rUnNiNg OuT oF tEa

but uh

this tea is the absolute best. it's from teavana, called rev up. it's like a whooole lot of teas mixed together and it's not even a white tea so i don't burn it every time i make it lmao. it's got apricot and mango and peach and oolong tea and green tea and it's just so freakin good. doesn't need anything else in it either, it's not too bitter by itself

It seems I have found much mutual love for tea! This is awesome!

The disposable filter bags are a dream, no? So incredibly handy and affordable to boot. Blooming teas are divine, not only in taste but to look at. I'm grateful for the links, Zet. I'm sure to make a purchase from Blue Bird soon. Thank you!


Thanks for the recommendation, Rat! Out of curiosity, do you drink it black, or do you mix in milk/cream? Have it tried it either way?

Not pretentious at all! Actually, I'm rather fond of Dragon Tears and I've recently run out. Good to know about the cannabis version though as that totally mucks up with my body chemistry and that would have gone terribly. The heads up is muchly appreciated.

Earl grey is wonderful, and I usually eat it in scone form with lavender, but now it occurs to me, thanks to you, that I could be drinking it that way too. I will have to go lavender picking and add it in.

It sounds delicious, Orrik! I'm guessing, cause of the image link, that I can find it on Amazon easy enough?

Lol! Not agonizing at all! English breakfast is a classic and for a damn good reason! I'm with you on creamy teas, too. Creamy chai's and earl grey's especially. If you really love Darjeeling, check out TWG, they have some good ones, and if you're good with finding a new black tea, I cannot sing higher praise than to their 1837 black tea. It's extremely good, and smooth. I usually need to add milk and honey to my black teas, and this one, I don't.

Thanks, Solus! I'll have to try licorice with peppermint. Admittedly, I've never tried them together.

I am a major fan of Harney & Sons. I'm fond of their Earl Grey and Egyptian Chamomile, so I will definitely have to seek this one out. Thanks, Zhi!
Ah, Reima, that sounds like quite the ordeal simply to drink tea. I'm sorry that that happens to you. Headaches are never worth it, especially when they are the type to linger. However, I will keep an eye out for Russian Earl Grey.

LOL! Jasmine is pretty darn fantastic. Can't argue with a classic, now can I? Thanks, Izzy!

Don't be terrified, it just wants you to drink it As if that doesn't make it sound that much worse! Oops~

I will have to hunt down this briar tea you mentioned though. Can never have too many teas that know how to kick a flu's ass, y'know? Thanks so much, CoronelCoscacho.

I adore you too, Andi. I have a Teavana just downtown, so I will hit them up and take part in this deliciousness soon. Thanks, Love.

I enjoy diminutive doses of rose and lavender teas, but recently I have been brewing a tea called the iron goddess of mercy. I did not make up the name; I promise it is a real tea! It is cheaper when bought locally for me, but it can be purchased online. It is an green tea and it is very refreshing when consumed in the afternoon, after classwork and social gatherings.

Iron Goddess of Mercy