Black teas are brewed in boiling water for a longer time. Green teas usually much shorter and in cooler temps (165 degrees or so). . White teas are intermediate.

You would be surprised at how much you might come to like different types of teas when brewed right and especially if you use good quality leaves rather than bags.
A very good company that I use a lot (and have no personal interest) is http://theteaspot.com/ which is out of nearby Boulder, CO. The people are so nice and knowledgeable and you can buy samplers for nearly all the varieties.

My own personal favorites (and I have many) are Mango Tango (black), Meditation (white), Green Jasmine, Boulder Blues (green) and their oolong teas.

I drink lots of them iced with no sugar or cream. They are really good when brewed with just a bit of care. And each variety has different health benefits.



Enjoy!

I had no idea there were different temps and times for the teas. Thanks

including brewing temp/time charts. And a cheapo tea or coffee thermometer will help a lot.

http://www.atlanticspice.com/

Good prices and I have had no complaints about the quality.

Mint, rose hip, lemon grass, ginger, etc.

My favorite tea source: http://www.republicoftea.com

Although I drink both strong with no sugar. If you like sweet coffee, I can recommend a tea for you to try, have you had the Good Earth sweet spicy tea? I really is sweet with no sugar! Loaded with sweet spices. It's really delicious.

If it tastes too bland try some English or Irish breakfast tea and load it up with cream and sugar if you iike -- try one teabag per cup (not for a whole tea pot) at let it steep 5 min or so, it should be pretty tasty! I love Irish breakfast tea with oatmeal.

Brew it up: Boil the water, drop the bag in the cup and pour the boiling water in afterword.

Wait for TWO minutes. You can swirl the bag or sing an irish jig if you know one (optional).

Add a little sweetener and half and half to it.

Enjoy.

Completely replaced my relentless espresso addiction.

And my breath doesn't stink like dead coffee.


If you like this, you can go get loose leaf tea and go crazy with the nuances of tea.

I used to, but seeking nuance is too much work for me...

Its cold, in ice, with cream and yummy.


**Note the little balls in this drink are tapioca..very yummy!

And, if you like "candy coffee", you'll probably love Thai iced tea.

Twinings is an English brand, and it is a good start that is relatively easy to find. If you are going for the jolt, try English Breakfast or Irish Breakfast (which is a type, not a brand). There are more stimulants in tea than caffeine. It takes a while to get used to them.

Read up online on brewing tea, for about five or ten minutes, and learn how to do it correctly. It makes a difference

Oh, be kind to your stomach. Use cream, half and half, or milk. Cream is best.

Sweeten to taste. But don't use honey; this isn't herbal tea, honey alters the taste, and not for the better.

Give it a few weeks. If you find that you like it, explore and try others.

Good luck.

I recommend spiced chai. You can find it sold in aseptic packages (like parmalat milk comes in) in many supermarkets or Target/Wal-Mart, mix it 50/50 with hot milk for a warm beverage or cold milk over ice for a cold beverage. Note that this is not chai teabags, it's a spiced pre-brewed sweetened concentrate.

I like Oregon Chai brand best, but Tazo (which is a Starbucks brand) is also pretty good. I make my own but that's a different post, a complex time-consuming ordeal I don't feel like getting into right now.

Or you can get a small chai tea latte in many coffeehouses. Go with the small because it's very calorie-heavy. This is very-much not bland and watery, it's rather spicy actually.

you can go in and sample a lot of things without spending money and it might be a good starting point. They can usually explain how to brew and enjoy tea too.

I drink all my coffee and tea straight with no cream or sugar and it really helps to have good stuff.

You can get a lot of mixtures at places like Teavana too - I find I like breakfast blends and anything with lots of caffeine but you can get things (that aren't actually tea but brew and drink the same way) from heavy to no caffeine.

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They now make Constant Comment green tea that's even better... if a little more
difficult to find (it's sold under the Bigelow brand, which can be found in almost
ANY grocery store).
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It's the only tea I'v e ever had that (for me) needs no sweetener of any kind (it's
based on orange peel and spices).
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I still like it better than any tea other than one I spice up by myself.

And to REALLY make it special, sweeten it with apricot marmalade instead of sugar or honey. A hundred million Russians can't be wrong! It can entice even the most confirmed coffee drinker!

Iced tea some people call it 'sweat tea' but they are strange and probably pod people.

You're gonna be up to your ass in alligators any minute.

I make my tea strong enough to hold up the spoon, just like my Irish grandmother.

I use tea bags. And quart jars. I found a lovely decaf green tea with pomegranate. I boil water, use two tea bags per jar and fill jars half way. Remove bags after 5 minutes at the most and fill jars with cold water. Chill in fridge. Lasts for days.

What's the brand, I'm always looking for good tea!

Teavana has good quality, as do some little tea shops. I love Jasmine Pearl, hot. The temperature really is important.

My Southern self, though, loves Luzianne tea for making iced tea. I only drink sweet tea when I'm back home but a really good black tea with boiling water poured over the bags, steeped a bit and diluted to taste can be a thing of wonder. Doesn't keep, though. I hate most restaurant tea outside of the South.

For loose leaf tea (I highly recommend it);

Tea........................Temp (F°).............Time
Herbal Tea...............212°.................... 3 to 5 min
White Tea ..............180°.................... 4 to 6 min
Green Tea...............180° to 190°..........3 to 4 min
Oolong Tea..............190° to 200°..........2 to 4 min
Black Tea................190° to 200°..........3 to 5 min
Pu-erh Tea..............190° to 212°..........3 to 5 min

Excerpted from Adagio Tea http://www.adagio.com/?SID=5f6fb9333f824c302c70b053cd2e80bc

Weight
Using too much tea will make your tea bitter and your wallet empty. Too little tea will bring a weak cup and a sense of longing. The volume that is considered the "golden ratio" of leaves to water is one teaspoon of most tea leaves (approx. 3 grams) per 8 ounce cup of water. Please note this is for a traditional 8 ounce cup. Most mugs are around 10 to 12 ounces. Here's where it gets a little complicated. A large, open leaf tea like a White tea or some Oolongs may require two or more teaspoons to equal 3 grams. Broken or tightly rolled teas like Gunpowder may pack significantly more into a single teaspoon. At the end of the day, perfection is less important than keeping an eye on the leaf size and adjusting based on your taste preferences.

http://lifehacker.com/5812578/the-coffee-lovers-guide-to-tea


I *love* Earl Grey, hot (cue Jean Luc Picard) with a smidge of honey and lemon. Incredibly good. And so is Darjeeling tea.

I'm trying to drink more green tea for the health benefits.

Usually loose-leaf teas give better flavor, but I drink regular old Twinings Earl Grey in bags. Good stuff. Make sure the water is HOT and let it steep a few (3 or so) minutes.

Do you have a tea shop, like Teavana, near you? You could always go in and ask for some samples, or whatever teas they have that are popular with coffee drinkers -- Teavana-like stores will make special blends for you to try.

from Bigelow:
http://www.bigelowtea.com/Catalog/Product/36/102/31/Earl+Grey+Green+Tea.aspx

I drink so much of the stuff I have a "subscription" for it from Amazon.

That way everybody knows your classy!

Sometimes combine it with green tea with a little sugar.

Plus you get a cute little ceramic figurine in every box!

I have been drinking Red Rose for about 40 years.... I have a lot of those little figurines!

I love that more than I would the tea (I am sucker for stuff like that)

Try English Breakfast Tea. Use boiling water. Steep about 5 minutes. Add sugar and cream like you do for your coffee.

I like Bigalow English Teatime brand. You can find in most supermarkets.

Thank you for the idea!

Powdered tea, and I mean Wholly powdered green tea. They powder the entire leaves for maximum benefit.

Dump a packet in ice water with your preferred sweetener (splenda, in my case).

...I recommend THIS tea to you.



http://www.amazon.com/Rishi-Tea-Organic-Black-3-3-Ounce/dp/B001E5E20O/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339727258&sr=8-1-spell

This is actually a good price for a 3-pack. If you have a Williams-Sonoma by you, you can buy a single tin.

This tea is FAR from bland and watery.

It's a coffee drinker's tea. Look for this SPECIFIC brand.

everyone has been so helpful... I am excited to try new things!

It's flavored with bergamont, so it has a nice citrusy flavor to it.

It's from the Pike Place Market in Seattle. It's delicious, and you don't even need to add sweetener to it. I have only ever had the black version in bagged form. Now, it comes in decaf, white, green, and Rooibos (red). You can also buy the white and black in loose form.

http://www.marketspice.com/store/category/everything-cinnamon-orange/page-all

You can also purchase it from amazon.com.

This is the same tea used in the Japanese tea ceremony. It is very bitter. Often they will give you a little sweet to bite on, after you taste it. But it comes in a powder form. Its very, very green, and best when 90 degree water is poured over it, and whisked up into a fluffy froth.


It is very expensive. I get a small tin of it for 35 dollars at Japantown. The powder is often used to make green tea ice cream, which is very, very yummy! Most good Japanese restaurants will serve green tea ice cream as a treat. Some with strawberry sauce poured lightly over it in strands. Matcha is my favorite, though for regular tea, one must try Pu Erh, which is a Chinese brown tea, that has a mild soothing flavor.



http://japanesegreenteaonline.com/matcha.htm <----Matcha tea can be ordered here.
http://www.tenren.com <----------- great place to order Asian teas.

I personally recommend Stash Tea and Republic of Tea, especially Stash's decaf green tea and RoT's blood orange tea (with a black tea base). You can find both of these are higher-end grocery stores.

The best thing about really good hot tea is that you don't get the oiliness that you get with mainstream tea, Lipton, etc. I can drink that stuff cold, but that's about it.

Adagio Tea is another good company to look at--they have a brewer called ingenuiTEA that's great for brewing loose tea. I use mine a lot.

Many of the tea companies that are online have free catalogs--sign up and you'll have some great reference materials to review. And of course, you'll need a teapot, and something to carry tea in when you leave home, and a travel mug, there's lots of fun stuff that goes with tea drinking. The best thing I've ever bought was an electric kettle that turns off when the water's ready. Then I can just pour it over the tea, and it's done in a couple of minutes. Saves me a lot of time.

Good luck--I hope you find something to enjoy! I have a cabinet full of tea, and it's never enough!

It has a distinctive smoky flavor that's unique.

I'm drinking some iced Lapsang Souchong as I post this. Some may point out that you have to acquire a taste for this tea.