Author Topic: Hey Tea Drinkers! What's you favorite hot tea? (Read 4245 times)

Mikey · « **on:** February 05, 2009, 11:30:50 AM »

Presently my favorite bagged tea is Salada Green Tea with either Red or Purple anti-oxidants. Presently my favorite loose tea is a girly tea, Pineapple Dreams Fruit Tea packaged by Wing Hop Fung.

LeeAnne151 · « **Reply #1 on:** February 05, 2009, 11:38:12 AM »

I prefer most of my teas iced. No sugar or sweetener or lemon. Ever.

I love Earl Grey. I often order it hot at restaurants and then ask for their biggest pop cup full of ice and make my own. It is soooo good. Stash makes a double bergamont version. The bergamont in Earl Grey is a Spanish orange not the flower, bergemont.

I'm also fond of Stash Peach Tea iced. There is a commercial iced tea called Paradise Tea that is fabulous. Both the Cheesecake Factory and the Claim Jumper have "tropical" iced tea which is either Paradise or a similar brand. They garnish with orange slices instead of lemon and it is fantastic.

I do love Oolong and Jasmine tea hot and English Breakfast.

I sell tea wholesale and have access to a lot of it, loose and bags. Loose tea is much higher quality. They do make the bags with what is left from all the other grades of tea.

I detest herbal teas. Taste like hot Kool Aid to me. I don't like them iced either. Not a fan of green tea either or Rooibos though I used to get a lemon chiffon rooibos iced at a tea room customer that was great. Sadly she closed.

MikeW · « **Reply #2 on:** February 05, 2009, 11:58:23 AM »

Any tea that I can ring for, and not have to make myself is a good start.

China tea I buy here, but for India tea - preferably Ceylon, I have a care package sent me from South Africa from time to time. The brand is 'Five Roses', but it is just your basic no-nonsense tea - something akin to Earl Grey or English Breakfast Tea here. Never did get into the flavours much.

When we first arrived in the U.S., many moons ago now, the family plonked themselves down at a table alongside a hiking trail, in the Georgia heat, and ordered tea. The waitress appeared with this tall pitcher of cold stuff. We were politely explaining her error, in that we had ordered tea. She came back with "Exactly, tea". it was like a scene from a movie - we had never even heard of iced tea, and were expecting a steaming pot.
Lesson learned -

American - Tea and hot tea
English - Iced tea and tea

Mike

Joyce · « **Reply #3 on:** February 05, 2009, 11:59:35 AM »

Earl Gray.

And this funky stuff I found at the Asian Market, has ginger and hibiscus in it, other stuff too.

Desertponder · « **Reply #4 on:** February 05, 2009, 12:11:51 PM »

Probably would be Hedley's Orange Spice.

Its hard to get here. Big Lots will get it once in awhile so I stock up and then ration it out.
Most of the time I just drink Fair Trade Ceylon.

Once in awhile I like Sleepytime but it tends to upset my stomach.

Brian · « **Reply #5 on:** February 05, 2009, 12:16:14 PM »

Long Island Iced Tea!!!

LeeAnne151 · « **Reply #6 on:** February 05, 2009, 12:22:27 PM »

I drank a lot of those in my younger days but I'm not man enough now....

bunny56lbc · « **Reply #7 on:** February 05, 2009, 12:42:36 PM »

Sleepytime ,Honey Vanilla Chamomile ( made by Celestial) & Orange & Spice ( Lipton) with a teaspoon of Splenda
for sweetner .

bonnie

Kittyzee · « **Reply #8 on:** February 05, 2009, 12:44:33 PM »

Earl Grey and Green Tea, but my favorite regular tea is PG Tips...good and strong with Splenda and milk

casey · « **Reply #9 on:** February 05, 2009, 12:52:29 PM »

Celestial Seasonings Almond Sunset, Peppermint, Peach-Apricot or Vanilla-Hazelnut. Casey

Teresa · « **Reply #10 on:** February 05, 2009, 02:45:06 PM »

Tazo - Chai for me, Calm for the older teenager and Wild Sweet Orange for both teenagers . . . . But I also like some loose teas, especially those that I mix myself in the herb store . . . .

Lynda · « **Reply #11 on:** February 05, 2009, 04:54:04 PM »

All I drink is tea - iced or hot; I don't drink anything carbonated and can't stand coffee. For hot tea, I love love love Tazo Chai - they also have a decaf version, but it's hard to find. (Mikey, you can find Tazo at Whole Foods, and most Super Targets.) I also drink a lot of the Republic of Tea varieties - blackberry sage and mango ceylon are my favs. (Those can be found at Bristol Farms Market in Long Beach.) I use the Paradise Tropical tea for iced tea, and I used to buy it at Von's. Now of course, the nice man in the brown truck brings these things to me, as they aren't available anywhere in Arkansas...boo hoo.

Esther · « **Reply #12 on:** February 05, 2009, 05:19:08 PM »

Gallon jugs of unsweetened Tradewinds (The Original Kettle Brewed Tea). It also comes in sweetened or Extra Sweet. I dilute it by maybe a third with water. It costs about $3.79 a gallon. That's cheap drinking. Funny, I seem to have issues with caffeine but this doesn't seem to bother me.

LeeAnne151 · « **Reply #13 on:** February 05, 2009, 05:39:05 PM »

Lynda
Where do you order your Paradise tea? I'd be happy to have Brown bring it to me if I could find it.

PondmaninAL · « **Reply #14 on:** February 05, 2009, 06:02:09 PM »

If I want a hot beverage, I drink coffee or cocoa. If I want tea, it's got to be really sweet and iced. I'm a Southerner, I was raised on sweet, iced tea.

rdrboone · « **Reply #15 on:** February 05, 2009, 06:12:52 PM »

My favorite tea, lately, is Stash 'Chocolate Hazelnut'. I know that it sounds like a weird flavor combination, but with some splenda and a little half and half, it is delicious. I, also, like Earl Grey and Lady Grey.

Ruth

Lynda · « **Reply #16 on:** February 05, 2009, 06:45:00 PM »

LeeAnn: I've ordered from several places, this is one of them and I think the least expensive: http://www.cw-usa.com/tea-paradise.html

Roark · « **Reply #17 on:** February 05, 2009, 06:47:18 PM »

I'm with Joyce. Earl Grey hot with a squeeze of lemon!!!

Roark

Julles · « **Reply #18 on:** February 05, 2009, 06:50:21 PM »

I'm alergic to coffee (puts me to sleep!, if you can believe that) and can't handle the caffeine in colas or other sodas. I love tea!!

Twinings Earl Grey, and this jasmine tea that comes in a school-bus yellow square tin that I get at the Vietnamese/Chinese grocery store. After that, the Baltimore Tea Company's Chai, and also their Della Robbia. And then from the British Store I get a good brand of raspberry tea and the same brand of apricot tea.

But... I have come to the conclusion that caffeine does strange things to my body. Get too jittery on cokes, coffee makes me feel drugged, and I've come to believe that the caffeine in tea effects my blood pressure, so have had to give it up. Timely topic here, because it was just last week that I finally took all the tea out of the pantry and replaced it with herbal varieties. I was kicking and screaming, though, and couldn't bear to part with the teas yet, so I moved them down to the deep freeze in the garage. After six months there, I'll probably be ready to give them to a girlfriend.

It'll take a while to get used to the herbal teas, and I really miss the process of brewing loose teas in a pretty tea pot.

Lynda · « **Reply #19 on:** February 05, 2009, 07:52:19 PM »

Julles, I drink caffeinated teas in the morning, but switch to decaf by 1:00 in the afternoon. Tazo makes decaf Chai, although the only place I've been able to find it is on the internet. The Paradise Tropical comes in decaf as well, and that's what I use for iced tea. You can also get decaf Constant Comment.

I have never been able to convince myself that herbal "tea" is really tea.

marla · « **Reply #20 on:** February 05, 2009, 08:52:08 PM »

I mix Chai and Green tea together for my mornings, the rest of the day it's water.

purplepshn2004 · « **Reply #21 on:** February 05, 2009, 09:16:59 PM »

Well, originally being from the North, I never got into tea. Now that I've moved down south, I am starting to get used to tea.

I'm with Scott (PondmaninFL), if I want something hot, I drink coffee, usually 2 or 3 large cups of it in the morning (got away from adding the sugar, but getting too used to adding those delicious cold flavored creamers - my fav is Hazelnut), and sometimes cocoa later on in the day.

Since I'm fairly new to tea, I either drink Lipton's Green Tea with Citrus (prefurably diet) or I buy the Great Value Sugar Free Iced Tea with Peach in the little containers that you mix with water. When our southern friends come over, I make them a big picture of the tea bags boiled in water, lots of sugar and lots of ice to cool it down.

Well, that's how it is here...

Julles · « **Reply #22 on:** February 06, 2009, 05:50:53 AM »

It's hard finding real tea that is decaffinated, in interesting flavors, and virtually nothing in loose leaf. In bags, I do have a peach and a raspberry, made by Bigolew's, and a Twining's Earl Gray.

Other than that, decaff choices are pretty much only herbal.

Jerry · « **Reply #23 on:** February 06, 2009, 08:58:12 AM »

"Smooth Move"

miguynmkoi · « **Reply #24 on:** February 06, 2009, 09:48:43 AM »

Loving a new tea discovery...Normally not a tea drinker I discovered a fabulous tea while traveling through China from the area of Hangzhou. This is a grade A tea named Dragon Well (English translation).

I love the taste and the nutritious value is a bonus. It calms and soothes the savage beast (

) and helps lower cholesterol levels, cleans the kidneys (less bathroom runs!

) and great for diabetics. Definitely no caffeine - a friend (cannot drink anything caffeine after breakfast otherwise bad sleep) has proven when she drank it after dinner, was able to sleep all night long (less bathroom runs!).

Now I definitely cannot drink the teas I grew up drinking

LeeAnne151 · « **Reply #25 on:** February 06, 2009, 01:38:45 PM »

I drink a lot of decaf black teas, I don't like herbal tea at all.

I forgot about Constant Comment, that is one tea I drink hot and it does come in decaf as well.

If you want higher quality loose teas, Market Spice does sell on Amazon. They do offer decaf loose leaf teas. Their signature blend "Market Spice Tea" tastes like chai with citrus but it is sweet though not sweetened. I don't care for it because it is too sweet but it is by far their most popular tea. (I sell their tea wholesale here in Oregon)

I also sell Luxe Tea and they have a website where they sell retail to the public. They have flavored decaf black teas as well.

http://www.luxetea.com/default.asp

Stash tea does sell decaf loose leaf teas on their website:

http://shopstashtea.com/teadecaf-50g.html

Annette, Dragon Well is a green tea and it should have caffeine for sure unless it is decaffeinated which I would doubt. It is already expensive and the decaffeinating process would make it prohibitive.

Lynda, thanks for the link to the Paradise tea.

Julles · « **Reply #26 on:** February 06, 2009, 05:58:05 PM »

Thanks, LeeAnne. And guess what? My brother gave me a gift certificate to Amazon.com for Christmas, and I was thinking what in the heck am I ever going to spend it on, since I'm not much of an Internet shopper.

Well, if I can find decaff Chai, I'm gonna cash in the gift certificate!

LeeAnne151 · « **Reply #27 on:** February 06, 2009, 06:09:26 PM »

Stash has decaf Chai on their website, looseleaf. I was just looking at it.

http://shopstashtea.com/193079.html

Here are the teabags on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Stash-Premium-Decaf-Spice-18-Count/dp/B000CQG8M6/ref=sr_1_22?ie=UTF8&s=grocery&qid=1233972420&sr=1-22

JimMcD in SVAZ · « **Reply #28 on:** February 06, 2009, 06:45:59 PM »

Earl Grey, and the best of that blend was Bigelow Estates Earl Grey, which I haven't found for years.

Mikey · « **Reply #29 on:** February 06, 2009, 09:34:27 PM »

Quote

I'm a Southerner, I was raised on sweet, iced tea.

Scott: My first visit to the South was to North Carolina in about 2001. While eating at a restaurant I ordered iced tea. When it was served I did what I always do for a large glass of iced tea and I immediately emptied two bags of Equal into the tea and stirred...... You know the rest.....

Annette: Wing Hop Fung in Monterey Park carries Dragon's Well green tea. This site carries their products: http://search.store.yahoo.net/cgi-bin/nsearch?catalog=winghopfung&query=dragon&.autodone=http://www.asiachi.com/nsearch.html&Submit.x=9&Submit.y=7