I'm having a bit of a tea renaissance at the moment. I've been trying to quit drinking soda, but I'm not ready to give up caffeine (just nasty, fattening sugar water), so I've been reveling in my small collection of good teas - Earl Grey, Earl Formal (with lavender, yum), and Lapsang Souchong - from Cafe Moto, the best coffee/tea purveyor in the universe, and I just bought myself a nice Lenox stoneware tea set (it was on sale, couldn't resist). Now I'm dying to get down to Moto and pick up something that'll put a little more variety in my daily cup. I neeeeeed some English Breakfast - I have the teabag variety, and it's just not cutting it. There are so many other tempting varieties to choose from, though: chai, jasmine, Darjeeling, sencha... oh, the possibilities!
I also found out that I've been brewing tea the wrong way for years. I was letting my water come to a big-ass rolling boil - WRONG. Turns out you want your black tea to be somewhere between 195-205ºF, and green tea should be even cooler. After I read that, I wondered how much of a difference it would really make, but when I tried it, it did have a noticeable effect! Definitely brings out the flavor better. To add insult to injury, I was brewing it way too long. I like my tea strong, but brewing it longer is not the answer. I mean, I never let it go over 5 minutes, so I wasn't absolutely killing it, but I think cutting it down to 3-4 min. keeps the astringency to a minimum. If I want it stronger, I need to use more tea. Problem solved. Also, I mentioned teabags. I don't think I'll ever give those up completely - they're not ideal at all, but they'll do in a pinch. Good for tea emergencies. Sue me.
What I have no problem chucking in the bin, however, is all of those "Christmas blends" that show up in stores with cute little drawings of snow-covered houses and promise a festive blend of spices for a cold winter night. Bah humbug. I guess it's great if you like cinnamon-flavored water. Why didn't I just sprinkle some cinnamon in a hot cup of water? Why does the FDA allow this to be called tea at all? What are birds? We just don't know.
Not really a big fan of orange-flavored teas, either. I can deal with Constant Comment, but that's about it. What I
really hate, though, is when people put milk/cream/sugar/honey/anything into their green tea. The blog Tea Guy Speaks (which you should probably be reading instead of this if you have any interest in tea) was just talking about this, and I totally agree. I'm usually not a very judgmental person; I'm big on "live and let live" and all of that, but people: if you wanted a glass of milk, pour yourself a fricking glass of milk. If you don't like plain green tea, then you just don't like green tea. Period. There's no point wasting money on green tea if you're just going to pour half the fridge into your mug along with it. I have no problem with a little milk or sugar going into black tea (not a big fan of sugar myself, but I find it acceptable for others) because you can still taste the tea through the additional paraphernalia. The same cannot be said for green tea. I will make a couple of exceptions: go ahead and chug your green tea lattes from Starbucks and your bottled Lipton diabetic-coma-inducing sweetened drinks. I don't know what's in those things, but you can hardly call it tea. I still think it's a waste of money, but at least it's not a waste of decent tea. Bottom line: if you're gonna drink good green tea, TASTE. IT.
