Switching to tea.

I'm thinking of switching to tea from coffee. Where do you buy good teas and what blends would you suggest and why? Thanks

There are so many varieties of tea, you just need to try some. I sometimes buy good tea from Stash Teas - I think they have an online catalog, as well as one they will send to you. They have lots of varieties I never heard of and it was fun to try them all. Any large grocery store has a good variety, too. For a breakfast tea I like English Breakfast or Irish Breakfast because it's a good strong black tea. (not black like coffee, I mean the tea leaves are what they call "black tea"). A good dinner tea is Darheeling or Earl Grey or a good Indian Assam. For evening there are lots of good herbal teas without caffeine. Before bedtime, I like a cup of chamomile or Celestial Seasoning's Sleepytime tea. The only tea I never liked was Lapsang Souchong (not sure of the spelling), but it is a smokey flavored tea and to my taste - yukky! But try out Stash Teas - you can buy all kinds of mixed packages of various teas to try! I used to make tea from loose tea leaves, which I liked a lot. But I'm getting lazy in my old age and prefer a tea bag.

I go to an Indian grocery store and buy a box of loose leaf black tea (it saves money compared to buying tea bags). I put some in a little strainer that sits atop a cup or mug and pour boiling water over, then let it steep a little before dumping the tea leaves in the compost pail. Quick, easy, and pretty cheap.

I get my green tea (loose leaf, again) from my mother who gets it from Japan.

All 'tea' comes from the same plant, Camellia sinensis. The different flavours come from how the leaves are treated after being picked - and to some extent it depends on where they are grown. Oolong tea, Hunan tea, Pu’erh tea, Keemun tea and many others are made from this plant.

Tea contains caffeine, but less than coffee, and it also contains tannin. The bitterness of tea depends on how much tannin in the leaves. The older the leaves, the more tannin they contain. That's why the best tea-producers use only the newest, youngest leaves or leaf tips.

While tea does have its health benefits, for best results you need to drink green tea - or even better, white tea (which is quite expensive). Caffeine and tannin content on both these is very low.

Other herbal 'teas' are correctly called 'infusions' (for leaves and flowers) or 'decoctions' (for roots, bark and harder parts of the plant). So chamomile tea is an infusion of the flowers of chamomile; ginger tea is a decoction of the ginger root. Even coffee is a decoction of the roasted berries of the coffee plant. Chai tea is made from a selection of herbs and spices.

It needs to be remembered that ALL herbal teas (including the 'real Tea') are really medicines. While some of these taste delicious, and it's tempting to drink them purely as beverages, they shouldn't be used willy-nilly. This is especially important during pregnancy/breast-feeding; or if you have any health issues, such as diabetes, high/low blood pressure, heart/liver/kidney problems; or if you're on any other medication (including contraceptive pills).

You need to do some research to find out what medicinal actions each herb has, and what the contraindications are, and what other herbs/medicines each reacts with.

As an example: lemon balm tea is a very pleasant drink, but it should be avoided by anyone with a thyroid condition, or by menopausal women suffering from hot flushes.

You might also like to try Rooibos Tea, which has a pleasant though mildly medicinal-tasting flavour:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rooibos

But - back to 'normal' Tea. I happen to prefer Twinings tea, which is of excellent quality. A good all-rounder is their Orange Pekoe, but for a stronger-tasting tea, you might prefer their English Breakfast - even stronger is their Irish Breakfast. Some of their others, which can be acquired tastes, include Russian Caravan, Afternoon Tea, Earl Grey, Lady Grey (a milder version of Earl Grey), Lapsang Souchong and numerous others. Here in Australia, all these are readily available in local supermarkets, but Twinings has their own website and you can order from them. They also have a range of herbal teas.

Browse through their US site:

http://www.twiningsusa.com/

You can search online for various tea suppliers to learn more about the different types of tea (of which there are many hundreds, if not thousands!). Here's one site from Canberra, Australia.

http://www.adoretea.com.au/cart.html

Or a UK site which offers free samples with every order (not sure if it applies to US customers, however):

http://www.allabouttea.co.uk/tea-samples.html

I drink a few teas at times. I drink a classic black tea sometimes later in the day drink a cup of green tea or a Cinnamon Apple Spice Tea. Sometimes for bed drink a cup of chamomile to help me relax after a long day.

You may have to try certain teas to see what you like. I've tried other teas before an found out certain ones I couldn't drink due to been allergic to them but finally found some I could drink without any problems. So if you can do some research on the teas too. I purchase most of my teas from our local grocery store.

Like for example on chamomile tea.Possible side effects-Chamomile is a relative of ragweed and can cause allergy symptoms and can cross-react with ragweed pollen in individuals with ragweed allergies. It also contains coumarin and thus care should be taken to avoid potential drug interactions, e.g. with blood thinners.

While extremely rare, very large doses of Chamomile may cause nausea and vomiting. Even more rarely, rashes may occur.

Good Luck.

__________________
Football season is here

Try Chai. It's spicy and yummy with cream and sugar and it's good hot or cold.

It's a little known fact that if you add milk to your tea (herbal or 'real tea') you are destroying any benefits you might hope to derive from drinking it.

Anyway, milk in tea is, IMO, an abomination!!

I drink Celestial Seasonings Sleepy Time Tea (chammomile) in the evening. I like Earl Grey for daytime. I also drink Celestial Seasonings Candy Cane or Peppermint with a little sugar.

I like Stash's Chai Spice Black Tea, an Earl Grey, Harrod's Assam (haven't had that in years!) and most anything by Tazo, including their orange Pekoe. I have tried Roobis but find it too sweet.

Culpeper - your comment about milk in tea reminds me of the line from The daVinci Code, "Would you like milk or lemon in your tea?" "That depends on the tea."

Apparently, with Earl Grey, lemon is appropriate. Who knew? I like milk in my Chai, but prefer my Earl Grey straight up. Can't drink Earl Grey in the am, though.

Love plain brewed black tea iced, unsweetened with lemon, but can't make a worthwhile sun tea - to get the flavor I get too much tannin.

One radio personality suggests drinking black coffee in the morning and switching to tea for the rest of the day. I didn't catch what teas were recommended, so I'm really not helping.

How does milk destroy the benefits of tea?

I'm no scientist, but I gather there is some sort of chemical reaction.....

Studies say that adding milk to black tea might reduce some of its healthy properties by destroying the antioxidants benefits. Drinking tea with milk may not be good for the heart and diabetes. But there is no proven fact that it does affect any of the tea antioxidants benefits by adding milk. They are still studying that about tea.

For right now there is no correct answer.

__________________
Football season is here

If you live near a Trader Joe's I really like their Irish Breakfast- better than Twinings and others. And cheaper too!

Herbals I like:
Sleepytime Vanilla
Tension Tamer
Sugar Plum Fairy (seasonal tea from Celestial Seasonings)
Chammomile

And they believe milk may block the heart disease helping effects of tea but so far say the other benefits seem to still be in evidence. Good thing, I love a bit of milk in my black tea!

My everyday tea is a gunpowder green from Taiwan (Formosa in the tea trade). I buy it from historical reenacting supplier (Fort Boonesborough in KY) but it is available in many grocery stores as well. Gunpowder tea leaves are rolled into little balls that suposedly look like gunpowder. The rolling helps keep the leaves intact during shipping. They usually have a delicate smoky flavor, but don't worry, there is NO gunpowder involved.
For a change, I love oolong tea. It is more complex and tends more toward the bitterness that coffee drinkers crave.
White tea is the most delicate, and a special treat. It is the very tip-top leaves, and has a grassy, herbal flavor.
Whatever tea you choose, steep it approptiatly. The best tea will be bitter and astringent if steeped too long. Even cheap tea bags are drinkable if only steeped 3-4 minutes. DO NOT leave the tea bag in your cup as you drink.
Loose leaf tea can be rebrewed. After straining or pouring off your first cup of tea, pour fresh boiling water over the leaves. Steep the correct time, and strain. I get two or three steeps off one batch of leaves. As long as the leaves are still damp, you can wait a few hours between steeps.

I love tea.

__________________
www.thewefthandedweaver.com

White tea with mangrove honey. What a nice combination of grassy flavors.
Your body metabolizes the caffeine in tea differently than it does other caffeine's. Which is why you can go to sleep after drinking tea.
Thank you, Culpeper, for the nice tea lesson. It was very accurate and enjoyable to read. Have you read the tale of how Japanese tea was discovered?
(I did a paper on tea, it's history, etc, etc, in culinary school)

__________________
Nina's Grammy

I'd like to hear the tale!

Has anyone tried American Classic Tea? It comes from the only tea grown in the US.

Years ago my journey lead me to bulk teas. I buy once every 4 to 6 months wholesale teas online. They come by the pound, I do them a few pots a day we all share. Rooibus African Redbush tea, no caffeine no proven affects for any medications said to be much higher in antioxidents than green tea NO CAFFEINE...google if you wish the stats...I would rather not say and have controversy...hehehe There are the green tea diehards, now I must be kind at all times. I drink chai as a treat not a tea. Peppermint Tea from fields in Oregon, fruit teas with wheat grass and berries/fruits....yummy, Lemon Balm I dry myself, Nettle tea I harvest myself as well. I do grow mint teas but just got set up with that last year. I rarely drink black teas and sometimes white tea with florals.

On a box of English Mint tea one day years ago, I read the history of teas, their version. They explained the majority of teas in the cheaper brands especially are made from tea dust or scraps, particles of tea left after the premium tea leaves are harvested. This tea they explain has stems and other debris. I wasn't too thrilled but when I broke open a tea bag and compared it to their tea....it was not a comparison you would like me to describe. That was the last time I bought teas from the grocery store. You can buy very inexpensive teas in bulk rich freshly dried tea leaves for the most satisfying cups of tea you will ever have. Putting milk in your tea may be a no no but I suggest brewing tea leaves and forget the cheap bagged teas! I can't go back now. I was at a tea/coffee shop meeting the ladies who wanted to buy some plants locally and had a cup of their tea, I could hardly drink it....

Exception to bagged teas I won't buy are the premium teas made from TEA LEAVES. If they state this then you can trust a better tea in your cup. Time has limited me to one small cup of coffee in the morning and that is it. My teas must fill in the rest of what I used to enjoy! Trader Joe's has some nice boxed teas made from tea leaves!

__________________
Thank you kindly,

Romy "Island Girl"
[URL="http://www.romysrealm.blogspot.com"]