Tea

[Reverend Tap]

I'm a big green tea fan...I have to say, my all-time favorite is genmaicha (Japanese green tea with toasted rice and barley), which is especially good after a rough workout. Jasmine green is also very nice, and available practically everywhere. I'm also becoming quite fond of golden monkey (an oolong, I believe) since my brother sent me some looseleaf. Two others I'm just starting to get into are puerh (double-oxidized black tea...rather tanniny, but a very good complex flavor and supposed to be quite good for you) and matcha (Japanese powdered green tea, the same stuff used as the flavoring agent in good green tea ice cream).

Of course, I do not do as the heathens do and adulterate my tea with milk or sugar.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Jasmine green is nice, pomergrante green is good too.
Some "herbal" teas can make you feel real good.

[David Jamieson]

Hot to warm. But not the tepid kind. yuck!

[Lucas]

i like black tea

[SimonM]

Tie Guan Yin

or

Alishan Oolong

[TenTigers]

tiet guan yum and bo lay cha are my faves. Bo Lay has the added benefit of reducing cholesterol, and aids in digestion.

[GeneChing]

If you're just talking types like green, oolong or whatever, that's not like talking varietals.

Right now, I'm drinking some tieguanyin that was kindly gifted by one of our contributors. I'm not sure about the actual pedigree of it since he didn't give me all the facts. It's quite good tho and I'm not a big tieguanyin person.

At home, I'm drinking some lu jian pi lo chun which is really fine. I confess, I liked the name lu jian (green sword - after the shape of the leaves). I've also got some organic snow peony white at home.

[Zenshiite]

I'm a huge fan of Pu-erh. I've been using Tao of Tea's tuocha pu-erh and it is the best. Nothing else really does it for me...

[Syn7]

i like a clean smooth black tea... doesnt have to be expensive, but im not into the super cheap stuff... its all about steep time and water temp... i like that kenya kamba, its good for making chai... but its nice on its own too... you can pick up a pouch for less than 10 bucks... makes like 80 cups or something like that...

[Raipizo]

I like white tea quite a bit, not gonna commercialize something but i usually go to http://www.naturalremi-teas.com/ for my tea. It's not very expensive, lasts awhile and has lots of other healthy dietary stuff. I heard White Tea is about the best tea you can drink.

[richard sloan]

I'm a big green tea fan...I have to say, my all-time favorite is genmaicha (Japanese green tea with toasted rice and barley), which is especially good after a rough workout. Jasmine green is also very nice, and available practically everywhere. I'm also becoming quite fond of golden monkey (an oolong, I believe) since my brother sent me some looseleaf. Two others I'm just starting to get into are puerh (double-oxidized black tea...rather tanniny, but a very good complex flavor and supposed to be quite good for you) and matcha (Japanese powdered green tea, the same stuff used as the flavoring agent in good green tea ice cream).

Of course, I do not do as the heathens do and adulterate my tea with milk or sugar.

we make gen mai cha and it usually gets some looks as the graphic bears a swastika.

I like it a lot, on occasion I'll use an organic honey from Jamaica as a sweetener.

check out these sick cups:

http://www.korean-arts.com/tea_ware/..._strainers.htm

I got a couple sets, each for a different tea.

[Ronin22]

I'm a big green tea fan...I have to say, my all-time favorite is genmaicha (Japanese green tea with toasted rice and barley), which is especially good after a rough workout. Jasmine green is also very nice, and available practically everywhere. I'm also becoming quite fond of golden monkey (an oolong, I believe) since my brother sent me some looseleaf. Two others I'm just starting to get into are puerh (double-oxidized black tea...rather tanniny, but a very good complex flavor and supposed to be quite good for you) and matcha (Japanese powdered green tea, the same stuff used as the flavoring agent in good green tea ice cream).

Of course, I do not do as the heathens do and adulterate my tea with milk or sugar.

I'll second Matcha. I use to do Bai Hao Yinzhen (silver needle) and Bai Mu Dan but my schdule was getting tight and the prep time for the tea took too long so I switched to Matcha which takes not even half the time plus you get the added benefit of ingesting the whole leaf and not just the water it's steeped in. When I do have time I hit up the cheaper Gong Mei....

In my opinion Ippodo and Hibiki-ahn have the best Matcha

I also take my tea naked sorta speak. I read from Dr Weil that if you add milk or surgar it counteracts the benefits you get from Matcha/ Green/ White tea, something about chemical reactions or something like that.

[PlumDragon]

I know very little of varietals and all that, but I *love* trying new types of teas, especially in the winter, and my wife just bought me a new traditional cast-iron set that Ive been using unrelentlessly the last couple weeks.

I keep on hand a bag of loose-leaf Lu Cha Green Tea, a bag of loose leaf Pu Erh, and a bag of Wu Long Cha Oolong tea. I also occasionally enjoy grabbing a few grams of good Bo He (Field Mint) and making some tea with that. Its come quite handy during periods when my wife feels sick and feverish--releases the heat almost instantly...

Of course, I do not do as the heathens do and adulterate my tea with milk or sugar.

A friend and student purchased a bag of Green Tea Chai for me while he was in hawaii. While I enjoy the spiciness of Chai, I find it is much more balanced with the addition of milk...

I agree sugar is no good, but I do enjoy some good wildflower honey in certain teas.

[Reverend Tap]

A friend and student purchased a bag of Green Tea Chai for me while he was in hawaii. While I enjoy the spiciness of Chai, I find it is much more balanced with the addition of milk...

I agree sugar is no good, but I do enjoy some good wildflower honey in certain teas.

Oops, I stand corrected. Yeah, chai does need milk. That's the only one it goes in, though, and actually some house-recipe chais I've had do very well even without it.

[SimonM]

I actuall have managed to learn a bit about varietals. It comes from my time in China, where people DO take that stuff seriously.

I also know a bit about varietals of coffee. I am more of a coffee conniseur than a tea conniseur.

To date my favorite coffee is Celebes Kalossi.