tea!

[jazzfish]

merseine0613 asks:
So what, besides Bigelow, is drinkable in your estimation? And what is "good" tea?

Oh dear. Where to start.

I drink non-flavored black tea almost exclusively. I'll have green or oolong if I'm at an oriental restaurant where they're serving it with the meal, but I rarely make a cup or pot for myself.

I want strong tea. Flavorful tea. Tea that I can taste.

WARNING: DO NOT OVERSTEEP THE TEA. This will force me to come to your house and flay you with a mesh tea ball. Also it makes the tea undrinkably bitter. Boiling water, three minutes. Maybe less; the Assam Golden Rain that Teavana sells is done after 2'30", for instance.

So, with that out of the way:

Good tea is single-estate loose tea. (To be fair, I've not tried many blended loose teas. I suppose some of those might be good as well.) If you want to get specific, my current preference is for a northeastern Indian variety called Sikkim or Temi. I'm also partial to Assam or Keemun, and not such a fan of Ceylon or Darjeeling. I think I've tried and been unimpressed by one or two other Chinese varieties as well.

(Lapsang souchong is not tea. It is essence of smoked bacon dipped in hot water and served to unsuspecting gweilo.)

However, I accept that most normal people don't have loose tea, or good teapots. And when I travel, it's far more convenient to just have the individual bags. So, I'm more or less resigned to drinking bag tea when not at home.

Stash is pretty good, as is Tazo. Bigelow will do in a pinch. Lipton is surprisingly decent; I'm never sure if that's because it really is okay or if I'm just constantly expecting it to be awful and impressed when it turns out to be drinkable.

I don't like Twinings at all. Not the stuff they sell in the US, anyway. I'm told their UK tea is better. I would hope so.

At the bottom of the barrel we have Tetley. This is a tea that advertises itself as "the tiny little tea leaf tea." Tea is graded for quality based solely on the size of the leaves: larger leaves, higher grade. What Tetley is saying is, in essence, "Our tea sucks! Drink it!" I cannot argue with the first part of this, and try very hard to avoid complying with the second.

And now you know more about my tea preferences than you ever wanted to.