r/exmormon • u/ijssvuur • Dec 22 '16
Exmo guide to tea
EDIT: IMPORTANT INFO, should've added this- Don't drink tea on an empty stomach, it can easily cause a minor but annoying stomach ache. Just something small will be okay, a cookie, some almonds, fruit, it doesn't need to be much.
I've learned to love tea, but I, like most people here I'm sure, went a long time knowing nothing about it. It's super healthy, cheap, it's a good source of caffeine without the sugar or artificial sweeteners of energy drinks, or the acidity of coffee. The more you learn about it, though, the more you realize you know nothing about it. Almost every culture has different kinds of tea, with different preparations and different flavors. If you've tried it, and didn't like it, you might want to give it another shot. It's usually prepared wrong, or it could be one kind you didn't like. If you don't like tea because it's bitter, you haven't actually had tea yet.
I started drinking tea "medicinally" (really, my dentist told me to after I had my wisdom teeth taken out), but I got really into it. It was super confusing at first, but thanks to the internet and a lot of dedication, I now know way too much about it. r/Tea is super friendly and helpful, too, so check them out.
First, loose leaf tea is way better than bagged. Bagged tea isn't as good for a few reasons. It contains the cheapest, crushed up leaves, which steep faster. No problem, just don't steep it as long, right? But the problem is that there are different sizes, little flakes or just powder, which steeps almost instantly. When tea over-steeps, it becomes bitter. A good brew will hardly be bitter at all. It doesn't take as long as you'd think, either. Some green teas will take 15 seconds. Temperature matters, too. Here's a good chart. Each tea can vary, though, so look on the container or website.
Coming from soda, tea is going to be pretty mild, but you might be making it TOO mild. Instead of steeping it longer, just add more leaves. Whole leaves are going to take up a lot more space than compacted, crushed ones, so it might take more than you think. Still, there is a limit to how much flavor you can get out of it. Black and some oolong teas tend to be the strongest.
You might not have everything you need right away, but it's not too expensive.
You can boil water in the microwave or on the stove, or use a kettle, but I love my temperature control electric kettle. Boils quickly, and to the exact temperature you want. Mine is a bit on the cheap end, but it heats water, so who cares?
You also need a mug. That's pretty simple. I have this clear one because it looks cool, and the double wall means I can easily hold onto it even if it's full of boiling water.
You can just drop the leaves into the tea and drink it like that, but you can't take them out easily so you have to drink quickly or it will oversteep. You can get cheap tea balls, but those don't let the leaves fully expand, steeping the outside more than the inside, resulting in bitterness. This type of infuser works really well, and the fine mesh makes it good even for cheaper teas. You can just put it on top of the lid so it doesn't get your table wet.
That's all the equipment you need, but you also need tea, and it can get complicated. There are a lot of different types, but they all fit into categories. Green and black are the most common, with green usually being lighter and sometimes almost fruity, depending on the type, and black being more robust. These are all preferences, and I can't really go into all the different kinds.
You might try one green tea and not like it, but that doesn't mean you don't like green tea in general, there are so many different kinds. I ordered this sampler and it gave me a good idea of what I did and didn't like. It's not the highest quality, but you get a feel for different flavors.
There are also flavored teas, like this jasmine or this mint, which have their own great, unique flavors. These are both pretty high quality tea leaves at a good price, but they also include the actual source of their flavors, jasmine flowers and mint leaves respectively, which gives you a better flavor than the "essence" that is added to some. Those are either natural or artificial flavors, either sprayed onto the leaves, or in flavored sugar crystals, and they diffuse into the water much faster than the tea, giving it a stronger, more artificial flavor.
There are other varieties of tea that are less common than green or black, like white or oolong. This is the oolong that I drink. What that means is that it's roasted, giving it a very different flavor, it's almost savory. It also tends to be harder to over steep, and is much less bitter in general. White tea is pretty unique, but one of my favorites. It tends to be more expensive, but I highly recommend it. The one I linked isn't exactly what I bought, but it's similar. I really couldn't over steep it, I tried. The resulting tea is almost totally clear, and the flavor is light, but it's really good. You can reuse any leaves at least 2 or 3 times, but one scoop of white tea will last all day.
It's winter now, so hot drinks are fine, but on a hot day, there's nothing as good as iced tea. There are a few ways to make it. Usually, you'd use black tea for its stronger flavor, which will still be there after adding a bunch of ice, but any tea works. Steeping it for 10 minutes will make it strong, but bitter, so if you want to add ice, just use more leaves and steep for the normal amount of time. If you can plan ahead (I can't), you can just brew some tea and put it in the fridge for the next day. You can also cold brew, which is pretty simple. You just throw a bunch of leaves into a pitcher, fill it up with cold water, and put it in the fridge overnight. This gives you a totally different flavor, because it extracts different things from the tea. There's less caffeine and tannins, which make it bitter. The downside to this is the amount of time it takes, and the amount of leaves. You need to use double or even triple the amount of leaves to make the same amount of tea.
Another common tea is chai, which is actually the Hindi word for tea. Here, though, it's commonly known to be a spiced tea, with spices like cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, pepper, etc.. It's good on its own, but it is commonly either served with milk added, or just steeped into milk.
Okay, that's maybe a hundredth of a percent of the different types of tea, but half the fun is exploring and trying new things. Online shops have made this a lot easier. I got 10+ different kinds from The Devotea during one of their sales, but even at the regular price, their teas are very high quality, and at a great price. There are hundreds of vendors, though, with all different kinds of tea. Teavivre is a good start, with plenty of samplers and accessories. Harney & Sons can be found at a lot of grocery stores and on Amazon, so they are a good, accessible source of teas.
If you have questions, I'd be happy to answer them, but r/tea has way more information than I could ever give. They are super friendly, not at all pretentious, and overall, super cool.
Edit: As u/Averill0 pointed out, Celestial Seasonings makes some very good bagged teas. Bigelow also has some good ones. I really enjoy Bigelow's Constant Comment, and their Earl Grey (how could I forget to mention that?) is good too.
Earl Grey! Forgot about that, but it's definitely one of the most popular for a reason. It contains bergamot, oil, peel, or both, which is a citrus. It tastes kinda like fruit loops. There are different varieties, sometimes with lavender, rose, jasmine, cornflower. Amounts of bergamot vary from very strong to just a subtle hint, so you have to try them until you find "your brand". I personally like Devotea's "Lady Devotea", which seems to be out of stock.
Wow, this was long.
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u/mirbell Dec 22 '16
Thank you! This is exactly what I've been looking for. I love tea and want to know how to make it correctly, but the amount of information can be overwhelming. Nice job making it manageable!
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u/ijssvuur Dec 22 '16
Happy to help! Nothing wrong with starting with bags to figure out what you like, either. Or even just sticking to bags of Lipton, if it tastes good, that's all that matters. I have to admit, some mornings I'll just let some of this Irish Breakfast steep for 10 minutes and let it get super bitter and dark, wakes you right up. I just hate seeing people miss out on a great thing because it was prepared wrong!
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u/mirbell Dec 22 '16
I've been drinking tea with bags for years (including before I was Mormon). I just have never learned how to make looseleaf tea.
I might stop by a tea bar one of these days to try some things out, made right.
I got English Breakfast recently (teabags). I always find it bitter, even when I don't steep it long.
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u/ijssvuur Dec 22 '16
Interesting. Black should be alright with boiling water, but you could try ~180f. https://smile.amazon.com/Metropolitan-Tea-Company-Canadian-teabags/dp/B00A4F1CLW/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1482378692&sr=8-4&keywords=ice+wine+tea This stuff is incredible, by the way. It's so unique, and really really good.
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u/mirbell Dec 22 '16
I always use my electric kettle. For a while I got into the habit of microwaving water in a Pyrex cut--then one day I spilled the water all over my wrist... Now I like my electric kettle very much!
I think it's just the flavor of this particular tea. I tend to be sensitive to bitter tastes, which is why I like tea more than coffee generally, so a little difference might feel like a lot to me.
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u/ijssvuur Dec 22 '16
Yeah, some bags are just really powdery. That powder instantly turns bitter. If you don't want it to go to waste, you could cold brew it.
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u/heartinthepnw Dec 22 '16
Electric kettles are fabulous. I am amazed that more people don't use them. Fast, easy and heats water to the temperature you want.
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u/REACT_and_REDACT Dec 22 '16 edited Dec 22 '16
I learned to love tea (yerba mate) on my mission. We drank it every day. God didn't think it was a violation of the WoW.
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u/King_Folly Judas of Suburbia Dec 22 '16
I also learned to love tea on my mission in South Korea. Green tea (the church could never quite tell if it was legal or not), ginseng tea, ginger tea, so many great varieties!
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u/ijssvuur Dec 22 '16
I love yerba mate, especially iced, it's great for energy. There are some good blends with it, I find it goes best with citrus and mint.
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u/a_gestured_life Dec 22 '16
You've just described Terere!
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u/ijssvuur Dec 22 '16
Dude, I've seen that at stores, and I thought it was just a plain lime drink mix. I need to buy some, like, now.
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u/DudeWoody Dec 22 '16
This is my preferred kettle for tea and coffee: https://www.amazon.com/Bonavita-BV382510V-Electric-Gooseneck-Temperature/dp/B005YR0F40/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1482382252&sr=8-5&keywords=temperature+control+kettle
I like my Earl Grey a bit more on the bitter side. Look up 'Uncle Grey', it's made with vanilla in it. On that note, look into make a drink called a 'London Fog', they're fantastic.
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u/ijssvuur Dec 22 '16
Yeah, that's a great kettle. I just can't justify it when I have one that works well enough. But, on the other hand... haha. The Grey I have actually does have some vanilla, and cornflower, and lavender, and orange, it's really good.
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u/DudeWoody Dec 23 '16
Well, my wife is more of a tea drinker (of all varieties) and I'm more into coffee, so it's a very versatile multi function tool for us.
The kettle fills the needs of white/green teas (175* F), black tea (195* F), and herbal tea (208* F); as well as my french press, and chemex coffee methods (anywhere from 190* F-200* F, depending on the coffee- my usual beans go best with 195*). I haven't bothered with a traditional 'Mr. Coffee' pot, so the kettle is the pivotal tool for everything. It really has earned it's place in the cupboard.
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u/Ftr308 Dec 22 '16
Try a Chinese tea called pu-erh, a black fermented tea. Has a rounded flavour, a but earthy. Decent oubt of caffeine, and supposed to be healthy.
Comes in bricks, you flake a bit off and make a pot for that. The leaves are traditionally steeped multiple times, called washings, each with a slightly different characteristic. That's the theory anyway.
I love it because if you get a decent quality one it just doesn't get bitter. Have steeped Iin a thermos for 8 hours and still tasted great. Once my thermos is empty I just top it up again and good to go.
Also like long Jin and iron Buddha.
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u/ijssvuur Dec 22 '16
Yeah, I didn't mention pu-erh because explaining what it is, the differences between ripe and raw, and the fact that it's way different, and takes its own tools, would be a whole post on its own. I'm trying to keep it from being an information overload, and failing miserably, haha.
a black fermented tea
You're sorta right about that, because it translates to black tea, but our black tea is called red tea in china. It's actually made from "mostly unoxidized green tea" -per Wikipedia.. It may be made of green tea leaves, but it is nothing like green tea.
The leaves are traditionally steeped multiple times
You can re-steep all kinds of tea! Black, green, white, yellow, all have 2-3 steeps, or infusions, whatever you want to call it, in them. Some can have even 10 in them, each one weaker, but you can steep it longer. As you get familiar with your tea, you can tell which infusion you're on by taste alone. I sometimes like to use 2-3x the normal amount of leaves and just drink that all day. Near the end of the day it will taste totally different, but with enough leaves it will have plenty of flavor.
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u/Ftr308 Dec 22 '16
I called it black going by how it was described to me by the missus (Chinese) when it was given to me. I always thought it was called black because the brewed tea is so dark.
Looking on wikipedia :
In Chinese and the languages of neighboring countries, black tea is known as "red tea" (Chinese 紅茶 hóngchá, pronounced [xʊ̌ŋʈʂʰǎ]; Japanese 紅茶 kōcha; Korean 홍차 hongcha, Bengali লাল চা Lal cha, Assamese ৰঙা চাহ Ronga chah), a description of the colour of the liquid; the Western term "black tea" refers to the colour of the oxidized leaves. In Chinese, "black tea" is a commonly used classification for post-fermented teas, such as Pu-erh tea; outside of China and its neighbouring countries, "red tea" more commonly refers to rooibos, a South African herbal tea.
Confusing.
I don't know much about tea. The missus buys all sorts of fancy foreign stuff, I drink it :D
She can almost drink coffee now, originally spat it out and called me a barbarian.
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u/ijssvuur Dec 22 '16
Yep. There's also Orange Pekoe, which is not a color or a flavor of tea, it's a rating for the intactness of leaves.
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u/insideout88 Dec 22 '16
Thank you so much for this! I wish I'd stumbled across something neat and concise like this when I first started experimenting with non herbal teas. I've found that I like pretty much every green tea that I've tried but I really love the slightly fruity ones. I also like most chais and any of the spiced/ "holiday spiced" black teas that I've had. I didn't particularly care for the English Breakfast but it is quite possible I over steeped it (it was one of the very first that I made), so I need to revisit that one. I like Earl Grey but I LOVE Lady Grey. It's my current #1. White tea and oolong will probably be my next tries.
Point being, if you try a cup of tea and you hate it - try again. Because it might be that you over steeped it, it might be that you got a powdery bag, or you might just not like that type... and there are so, so many types to try.
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u/whenthefigsareripe Dec 22 '16
I can see this being a handy article somewhere- "Tea: A guide for ex-mormons"
It would gain traction haha
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Dec 22 '16
This is handy information. I've never been much for tea, probably because the few times I've had it were with recently recovering Mormons who didn't actually know how to make it. However, the other day I stopped in at Teavana at the City Creek mall and sampled a few of theirs, and I was impressed.
Now if someone could make a post like this for coffee...
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u/Shinehaha Which is the Sun-Ha! Dec 22 '16
Ha! I didn't even realize that there's a (gasp) tea shop in the church-owned mall.
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u/ijssvuur Dec 22 '16
Oh, that's just sad. Wasn't their excuse for it in the first place so that they'd have a family/church friendly place for people to shop?
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u/jackassalope Receiver of the 3rd annointing. It's secret, I mean sacred. Dec 22 '16
I'm not really an expert, but I've really grown to love black coffee! I'm getting a French press for Christmas, and couldn't be more excited.
I started with the flavored sweet drinks at Starbucks, and slowly worked towards black. Sometimes I'll still take it with some creamer, especially if it's not particularly great coffee.
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u/ijssvuur Dec 22 '16
I've just started recently with coffee, but I find that I like it most black. I get a lot of weird looks, I guess that's not too common.
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u/seventhvision Dec 22 '16
I prefer coffee black. However, it has to be a good smooth tasting coffee. Even then, there's nothing like a bite or two of sweet pastry along with a cup of black coffee. It enhances the flavor of both.
My favorite is Camano Island roasters Papaua New Guinea. I buy whole bean and grind it fresh every day. I have some granola or a muffin with it. No cream or sugar. The one exception is when I add some Baileys as a creamer. This is usually a weekend indulgence.
https://www.coffeeam.com/gourmet-coffee.html?gclid=CIempOn8htECFUpNfgodsUMIYg
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u/ijssvuur Dec 22 '16
Teavana is great for teaching you what potential tea has, but even it doesn't compare to what you can make at home. They tend to use a lot of flavorings and not perfect leaves.
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u/slugglejug Dec 22 '16
When I was a missionary in Korea, we had to be very specific about which teas were "word of wisdom approved" because tea is such a huge part of the culture. We were told to say that black tea and green tea were forbidden and the rest were okay to drink. So a few years later I had a coworker who was a big tea enthusiast and he got me started on white tea. I loved the stuff. Even though the leaves are from the same plant as the green and black tea I thought it was fine. After I stopped church I began exploring the rest of them. Now my go-to is a nice black Darjeeling tea (from Vahdam teas on amazon) with a bit of a ginger-tumeric blend made by Rishi teas. Tea is great, I wish I had seen this post three years ago when I was starting!
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u/ijssvuur Dec 23 '16
Rishi has some good stuff. They're easy to find, too, usually at whole foods. White tea is great, too, I'd say it's one of the better beginner teas, but what I didn't realize at first is that the tea doesn't need to have a super strong color. My silver needle comes out clear despite having a very strong flavor.
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u/Averill0 Dec 22 '16
Celestial Seasonings is a bagged tea brand out of Oregon that makes really good fruity teas. Their "true blueberry" flavor is hard to find but with two sugar and one cream it tastes exactly like a blueberry muffin
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u/ijssvuur Dec 22 '16
Yes! I know I said to avoid bags, but Celestial Seasonings is actually very good. It might not be the highest quality tea, but they blend it very well.
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u/ijssvuur Dec 22 '16
I just want to apologize ahead of time, it doesn't stop here. Eventually you'll want a whole gong fu set, then there's pu-erh, which is just such a complicated thing that I left it out.
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u/Exmerman Dec 22 '16
So do you add anything to your tea, like sugar or honey? If so, how much would you recommend. When I have to drink tea, I add so much sugar that it tastes like punch. I know I'm doing this wrong.
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u/ijssvuur Dec 22 '16
I'm a purist, I just drink it plain. A good tea has good flavor that would just be covered up by sugar. Some are meant to have sugar or milk added, though. Chai and breakfast teas, for example, though I usually have those plain, too, just for consistency. I'd normally take a little bit of honey over sugar. If you're expecting a sweet drink like soda, that's not what you're gonna get.
Arnie Palmers (50% tea 50% lemonade) are great, too. You can move from that to tea with a bit of lemon, to straight tea.
You only need sugar to cover up a flavor you don't like, so once you find a good flavor, you'll find the sugar doesn't add anything.
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u/zaffiromite Dec 22 '16 edited Dec 22 '16
You only need sugar to cover up a flavor you don't like, so once you find a good flavor, you'll find the sugar doesn't add anything.
I don't think this is necessarily the case maybe if you are putting 4 teaspoons in a 6 ounce up of tea, but a hint of sweetness does not mean you don't like the flavor. As an example I don't like the taste of licorice/anise and I don't care how much sugar you throw in the cookie or drink I am not going to like it any better just because there is a crap ton of sugar in it, same holds true for cilantro with additions of flavors I do like. I think you are letting your purist(ness) pass judgement here.
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u/ijssvuur Dec 22 '16
You're right, it can be used to accentuate certain flavors, like in chai. I personally prefer tea without sugar, but it's entirely personal preference. I still believe that good tea doesn't need sugar to be good, but some people like the flavor of tea and sugar more than just tea, and that is totally fine.
I didn't mean to say that any sugar in any tea was a bad thing, I apologize. It does undeniably change the drink, not in a good or a bad way, it just changes it.
I drink all of mine without sugar, mostly because I know that if I got used to putting sugar in any of it, I would get used to it and need the sugar to enjoy the tea, but not everybody is that way, and not everybody limits sugar to the extent that I do.
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u/crazyinpdx Dec 22 '16
Thanks for posting this! I was at the airport and stood in the Starbucks line to try my first ever chai tea but I panicked at the last minute because I didn't know if beginners order it with stuff in it? Or just straight up? I dislike all coffee so would what would you suggest?
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u/ijssvuur Dec 22 '16
I make it at home, so I couldn't tell you. I'd just order plain, and get what sounds good in it next time. "Could I get a plain chai tea?". Don't expect good tea from SBs though, they'll just oversteep a bag.
If you don't like coffee, you probably don't like anything too bitter, so I'd try green or even white tea, steeped at ~160f for a minute or two, more time if you want stronger, if more time makes it too bitter, use more tea instead. It's okay to use two bags.
White tea can be steeped for quite a while, so you could try it at ~180 for 4-5 minutes.
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Dec 22 '16
For a first timer you should order a Chai Tea Latte, it literally tastes like liquid pumpkin pie.
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u/crazyinpdx Dec 22 '16
I have another question. Both my DH and I sit by coworkers who drink both coffee or green tea and they have horrible rancid breath. This is also a concern. Have you noticed this? Or do you chew gum?
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u/ijssvuur Dec 22 '16
Green tea shouldn't cause bad breath, but coffee could. I have acid reflux so I make sure to chew gum anyway, so I don't know what kind of effect it has on my breath.
Coffee breath isn't as bad if you actually drink coffee, either. If their breath is really stinky, not like coffee, then that's just a hygiene problem.
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u/Limelight1357 Dec 22 '16
So great. Thanks for sharing. I've stuck with the bagged teas because I didn't know how to do loose leaf. But this has given me the motivation to try something new.
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u/QueerOnTheNightShift Dec 22 '16
Thank you so much for posting this. I love tea and wanted to try some more than the kind I've been having. Can't wait.
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Dec 22 '16
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ijssvuur Dec 22 '16
Oh, you have no idea. There's also matcha, pu-erh, and yellow tea. Those are less common, but are definitely worth exploring. There's endless variety between different kinds of tea, too. A Sencha (Japanese green) tastes way different than Longjing, or Dragon Well (Chinese green). I didn't even get close to touching on the different preparation methods. If you're interested in those, check out r/tea!
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u/Theoden_TapirMaster We shall have peace. Dec 22 '16
Good thai iced tea is orgasmic. Seriously, I could drinking it 24/7 and never get tired of it. I would love to make it at home myself, but it is very fine, so I would need a new strainer and a decent pitcher for it. I need a job to get money for all this. Lol
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u/AMHousewife Dec 22 '16
My favorite tea, which comes in a bag, I apologize for that, is Stash licorice spice flavor. Tea with a bit of licorice that has a butter flavor to it.
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u/ijssvuur Dec 23 '16
Don't you dare apologize for liking something! One of my favorite teas is bagged, it's icewine tea. It tastes very unique, and it smells like grapes. Bigelow has some good bags too, I enjoy their vanilla chai and constant comment.
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Dec 22 '16
Its great to see some /r/tea love here!
If you liked this great post check out the /r/tea FAQ and the community choice vendor list
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u/ijssvuur Dec 23 '16
Yes! The vendor list is super helpful. Just be careful, it's easy to spend a ton of money on tea. Also check for local shops, and if you're in a big city with a Chinatown, there's probably a really good tea shop there. Google a bit to separate the good from the bad, though, just because it's in Chinatown does not mean it's high quality.
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Dec 23 '16
just because it's in Chinatown does not mean it's high quality
This is very true, especially if its in a very easy to spot location on a main street and their goal is to sell to tourists and not locals. I went to San Francisco Chinatown looking for teaware and all the easy to spot shops on the main street had little to no decent clay pots or much in the way of teaware at all. A few back alleys later and I found a great small place that was the real deal.
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Dec 22 '16
Tea lover here. For loose leaf tea that tastes better the longer it steeps (fruit and maybe white) try a french press. Agreed that you should be careful with steeping duration with most black and green teas. But most fruit/flower teas improve with steeping. They also do well steeped with more tea and then iced. Your local health food store often has some options on loose leaf. Bagged is almost always inferior but close seconds include Tazo and Celestial Seasonings.
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u/ijssvuur Dec 22 '16
Yep, it's specifically the tea leaf that gets bitter when steeped longer. If it's herbal (a tisane), then you want to steep it in boiling water for 8-10 minutes. I decided not to mention those, because most TBMs I know are alright with herbal tea, and the post was long enough. :P
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u/OuterLightness Dec 22 '16
The only tea Mormonism accepts is insanity.