tea thread

Bagged tea is shit. Do yourself a favor and buy loose tea instead.

>>8727499
>american
desu it's not going to make a difference on plebness
Most brits are tea plebs.
Bigelow is cheap and easy but serviceable if you just want something hot to drink and you're going to put a bunch of shit in it.
The "proper" way is water (at the correct temperature), and tea (for the correct amount of time, remove from water after), and nothing else.
But honestly, who gives a fuck if you're just buying cheap grocery store tea to drink something warm and sweet.

You'll probably get snobby replies, but what you're doing is serviceable unless you want to reeeeaaaally get into tea.

>>8727499
plain chamomile, jasmine green

>>8727532
brand recommendations? also, do you filter it or anything? or is it literally just hot water + fistful of sticks?

>>8727537
I see. thanks for the advice, that's kind of what I was expecting. was just curious if there were an equally ez-pz way that was clearly superior.

and the right temperature is just a bit below boiling, correct? I've been boiling water and letting it sit for about a minute before steeping.

>>8727579
The right temp depends on the kind of tea and can range from 160 F to boiling. But this fact is irrelevant unless you are buying higher quality tea (usually). What you're doing is absolutely fine.

Also, twinings is a decent enough brand. They do bagged and loose leaf.

>>8727499
I drink the Earl Grey black by Bigelow. It's fine. >>8727532 is probably right but I'm lazy. My mom got me a couple bags of loose tea but I can't be bothered to research how much to use with how much water. I have a French press I could use them in but just haven't gotten around to it.

>>8727591
Just use a teaspoon per cup. About the same amount as a bag would have. Hell, eyeball it and adjust it if it's too strong or not strong enough.

>>8727591
This. Bigelow's Earl Grey is tasty and it's ubiquitous in every office breakroom. And it's cheap.

Recently getting into teas lately since trying to avoid drinking soda. I like the black raspberry teas as well as the run of the mill Lipton teas (i bought the 312ct pack off amazon) to make iced teas as well as some Prince Of Peace oolong tea (200ct).

I had twinings' sampler thing from years ago and tried a bunch of them. I didn't like the chamomile because it tasted too flower-ly for me. The same with the peppermint.

A boss I used to work for was born in the city that makes/harvest dragonwell teas. Used to make me tea all the time, tasted pretty good. But it's kind of expensive for my taste. I like the twinings brand but even they are on the expensive side for me.

I like to make a pitcher at a time. I have a huge glass pitcher. I use 2 bags even when they suggest 3 bags. Since it's a glass pitcher I use warm water not too hot or it might break --- just enough to get the tea seeping a bit. I like my teas sweet so maybe 2-3 cups of sugar. I'll dilute it with filtered water and ice in my cup anyways.

>>8727579
See if there's any local tea shop, else look for online one. I live in Europe so maybe someone else can recommend a good US online shop. Price is a good indicator of quality, expect to pay at least 20 dollars per 100 grams for a good tea. It might sound expensive but good tea can be used for several cups. Generally the tea should be whole leaves, there are exceptions like matcha which is ground into powder. Green and white teas will cost you a bit more but I recommend that you at least try them. For green I'd go with sencha as a first-timer and white eh... I guess silver needle will do. I use a tea infuser for preparation, instructions for brewing time and temperature varies depending on type of tea but they should either be included with the tea or available on the website. I can strongly recommend a water boiler that let's you set the temperature if you find that you like green or white tea since they're brewed at a lower temperature than black tea.