..but not specifically peppermint tea - interesting!

Now that I'm thinking about it, spearmint tea might be good too.

And settling the stomach, but I don't like it for recreational tea.

There is a tea made by "Yogi" called Throat Coat, which is awesome hot or cold and is great if you are speaking, singing have a sore throat or just want to drink it for fun. I am not sure what is in it but it is naturally sweet and yummy!

Yes, ginger tea! I like to make a mug with half skim-milk / half water, then use sweetener in it once it's hot. So gooooooooood...

Ginger root, lemongrass, hibiscus.

I like super expensive green tea from China, but for the everyday cup it's almost always Stash's Lemon Ginger.

Can you get that at the grocery store or do you need to order it from somewhere?

but we're in the Pacific Northwest and Stash is out of Portland, so it might be more rare elsewhere.

Here's their website for more info (I am NOT affiliated with them, I swear!) :

http://www.stashtea.com/

I will have to look for that one!! Lemon Zinger is a good one too. I like lemon anything!!!

The leaves are rolled into pellets which unfold when wet. It's a richer Green tea, higher in caffeine and antioxidants.

nt

I'm a southern cracker, sue me

I try to avoid sugar now...well...at least in tea...lol.

was buying it from Whole Foods and then I thought...wait
this is a basil - i ought to be able to grow that. then I did.
We were buying it because hubby was worried coffee was upping his blood pressure
this tea is good for that.
fabulous stuff

..now I hear it's supposed to be bad for your eyes or something...who knew!?

Can't grow anything though, because I've got cats that destroy plants. Never tried basil tea - i'll keep it in mind! thanks~!

From Pike Place Market. It's black tea with orange and spices. Delicious! Needs no sweeteners.

I have many kinds to fit my chai mood.
A cheap green tea I bought in Chinatown.
Lime tea from Numi.

That sounds intriguing!

A very strong lime flavour. Great hot or cold.

I prefer Yunnan. On occasion I like Queen Victoria's Blend (green and black). I get them from a tea shop near here. Every time I go in to get more, I ask for a sample of a couple of teas I have never tried before. This time, I got a sample of Tarajulie (Assam, India) which I like a lot and will probably get again.

As a former coffee drinker, I prefer a tea that has a strong, earthy fragrance and flavor. I don't put anything else in it, just the tea.

If you want to learn more about tea, find your local tea shop and go experiment. The one I go to has a whole wall of jars of tea. They are very willing to help select something you might like.

You get to see how fresh the tea is before you buy it. Some people who know the difference can tell different quality levels as well by looking. As you mentioned, you also have knowledgeable people who can help and tell you the best way to prepare it.

I've got some made up of dried apples, citrus, white tea, and other great smelling stuff... much better than late night food in your tummy!

Usually English Breakfast tea. But there's an herbal tea that Celestial Seasonings makes during the holidays that is gingerbread flavor and yummy; and also caffeine-free. I'd drink it year-round, hot or iced, if I could get it.

When I was a little girl, I used to spend the night with a friend at her grandmother's house, and we would have tea and toast for breakfast, and she always gave us Eagle Brand condensed milk for our tea. Whenever I smell condensed milk, it takes me back to my childhood.

Ok, I'll be on the lookout for the gingerbread tea. I didn't know they had seasonal tea. Sounds yummy with the Eagle brand! Thanks.

nothing but the best.

Irish Breakfast is verrrrrry, gooooood! Yummm.....now i need to make some!

It was in Hangzhou, China where many consider the best green tea in the world comes from.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longjing_tea

It reminded me a lot of Napa valley. The Chinese don't fuck around when it comes to tea.

I'm mostly a coffee guy, so tea is not my forte, but I do like to dabble a bit. As far as hot tea goes, mostly what I drink is green tea these days, although I do like others. I don't drink that much tea, but when I do I like it to be the best I can get my hands on. The tea I bought in China is hard to get in the US because it isn't exported, at least by the plantation I visited. It was their highest quality they make. Even with my limited experience, what I can say is that you do get what you pay for with tea. Top shelf teas, which tend to be expensive, have more body and flavor than less expensive teas. It's rather like coffee in this regard. There's simply no comparing the experience you get from drinking a freshly roasted top shelf coffee prepared correctly and a cup of Folgers brewed in a Mr. Coffee.

Extraction temp of the water is important. For green tea, you don't want to use boiling water. I use 180 degree water for most green teas. I preheat my tea pot or gaiwan with hot water before I use it. With loose leaf green tea, you can get about 3 steepings for each batch of leaves.

I lived in Taiwan where a lot of the best tea comes from. The word "tea" is even from the Taiwanese (Fujian/Hokkien) dialect "dei2" (second tone).

The tea I had on the plantations there was floral and exquisite. The laughed at how foreigners drank big cups of tea instead of savoring it in tiny cups.

All in This Tea is a 2007 documentary film co-directed by Les Blank and Gina Leibrecht, about Chinese tea. It follows the American tea connoisseur David Lee Hoffman as he travels to remote tea-growing areas of China. Hoffman attempts to interest Chinese tea growers and distributors in fair trade issues, and explores the importance of terroir and organic growing methods in both the quality and future sustainability of the Chinese tea market.

http://www.allinthistea.com/

Good information to be gleaned from David Lee Hoffman's site:
http://www.silkroadteas.com/servlet/StoreFront

I learned there is a whole lot more about teas then I thought possible. I'm a serious coffee drinker, but my eyes were open to a few types to tea that I think I could dig.

I'll take a look at the film..while I drink some tea!

at least as far as trying out a lot of teas and a lot of blends that you can then narrow down to a few favorites and find elsewhere if the mall is inconvenient.

They also have some kick-ass accessories for making tea. Stuff you can enjoy getting into the ritual of the making of the tea. And other stuff that is purely for convenience (like the brewing thing that has a spring-loaded bottom that you fill with your tea and your hot water and let it steep per instructions then set it on top of your mug so the tea drains out into the cup and gets strained on the way down)

I drink all mine straight - no sugar, no cream. Love breakfast tea in the morning and herbal, caffeine-free tea at night....so many different kinds but I like the stuff with dried fruit in it to give me a kick of flavor - strawberries and blueberries especially.

I am very fond of the rooibos and mate' teas.

black tea (the Chinese call it red tea, because the liquid is red), green teas: jasmine, Oolong and peppermint tea.

no decent tea shops anywhere within reason around here, although a few of the the organic ladies think they are, so I get my tea in the soopermarket and when something's on sale I load up.

Earl Grey tops my list, with English Breakfast and Lady Grey close followers, but they aren't that good for iced tea. I have a jar full of generic black teabags that makes the best iced tea and don't know what I'll do when that runs out. I was in National Wholesale Liquidators a few weeks ago and found some grey market black tea that is probably the best I've ever had for hot tea, but I'm not going to trek back to New Jersey just for that.

Green and white tea are iffy from the soopermarket, but I still drink them sometimes. They seem to lose freshness faster sitting on the shelves.

The only tea I was able to drink was my aunts. She put 3 cups of sugar per gallon made.. it was bad ass. Also went well with pancakes. haha, but seriously tea isn't all that great. Being from Alabama, I get weird looks when I say that.

make a ginger lemon tea which is out of this world.

But if you want a brand, I like Red Rose quite a bit. Very tasty, and the little ceramic animals that come free in every box are cool too.

It's Chinese and it is a white/green tea.

Yield: 1 Large Pitcher (NOT Fernando Valenzuela size!)

Ingredients:

4 cups water
4 cups lemonade
4 black tea bags
1 cup fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup Wild Turkey Bourbon
1 1/2 cups American Honey Liqueur

Preparation:

In a large saucepan, boil 2 cups water.
Remove from heat; add 4 teabags of black tea.
Steep 8 minutes; discard teabags.
Add 2 cups cold water and lemonade; transfer to pitcher and chill.
Add fresh basil leaves. Using a wooden spoon, crush basil until fragrant.
Stir in Wild Turkey Bourbon and American Honey.
Serve over ice.

That 1/2 cup Wild Turkey got my attention.

My problem sleeping ruined everything, I laid awake worrying every night and then dozed through my classes. Finally in my 30's I started drinking sleepytime tea.
Too bad I can't go back in time to when I was a kid and change my whole life just by getting to sleep nights.

Stash Vanilla Chai Decaf. Decaf Constant Kvetching (Constant Comment).

Don't like Earl Grey or English Breakfast, which is what they often have in hotels.

A little bit of organic honey and some fresh lemon.

This gives better ginger flavor.

I also like to add slices of fresh lemon while the tea is steeping.

Then add honey...yummy!

I like all kinds of tea: Numi tea company has quite a few good ones; The Tao of Tea also has some good blends - Ben Shan (Green Dragon), Rose Petal Black; I have also liked tea from Honest Tea - I tried their Assam Black.

A good company that has quite an assortment of teas (black, green, flowering, herbal) is Mountain Rose Herbs. They have a web site, and my past experience is they are fast shippers as well. If I could afford it, I would purchase a new tea accessory from them. It is a Tea glass, for brewing tea on the go.

And I agree with the poster who said, "Any tea that hasn't been stapled to someone's hat first." Down with the (misnamed and misinformed) Tea Party!

Ginger root in the tea...I'm definitely going to have to try that. I'll look up some of those countries you mentioned - thanks.

The black jasmine tea. It has such a wonderful fragrance.