FoodBanter.com - Newbie Tea drinker question

BabyJane Hudson > wrote:
>> A good Assam or Darjeeling would also
>>do the trick, as far as tasting good and waking you up. These take
>>milk and sugar well, too, at least the second-flush Darjeelings (i.e.
>>summer pickings) and any of the Assams.
>
>Do the teas, above, require milk to taste good or to bring out its
>best flavor? Also, I like to sweeten my tea and use Equal. Would honey
>be better and if so, why? (I'm trying to learn)

Most folks will tend to drink both of them with milk, but I think there
are a lot of assams and darjeelings that can hold up perfectly well by
themselves.

If you don't want to drink with milk, I'd be more apt to suggest trying
china black teas like yunnan or darjeeling types.

Constant Comment is a Ceylon base tea with orange and clove added. If you
like it, you may also like the Uva-grown Ceylon teas as well.

>>My teapot is a Chatsford, from Upton's. It comes with a strainer
>>basket, so that you don't have to manually strain the tea. Very handy.
>>I'm sure others here will have lots of suggestions, but they will
>>probably all be focused on loose-leaf.
>
>What is the benefit of loose-leaf over tea bags? The obvious answer
>would be the amount you could use, but at this point, I would be
>afraid I might use too much, or too little, and not know based on the
>amount, the proper steeping time.

One major benefit is that it costs a lot less money to use loose teas
of similar grade. Another is that a lot of better teas are only available
loose. Perhaps the most important is that you get better circulation of
water around the leaves when they are not all stuffed into a little bag.

Considering that a good basket like the Chatsford or Republic of Tea
models is under five dollars, I think it's a good investment.

And, if you decide you like your black tea with cloves and orange peel,
you can toss it in yourself and make it exactly the way you prefer it.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."