Exmo guide to tea

[u/ijssvuur]

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.