Field Stone Cottage Blog

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Hot Tea Month--Week Two

Its week two of the Hot Tea Month Blog-a-Thon graciously hosted by scrabblequeen. Now is the time to share our favorite teas! Do you prefer black, green, white, red or "herbal"? Do you like added flavors such as fruit, flowers, vanilla, chocolate or spices...or are you a "purist"?

My favorite teas are definitely black! Earl Grey (Twinings, to be really specific), Irish Breakfast, P.G. Tips. I've learned to like the smoky lapsang souchong that my husband, Andy, loves. And I have a black tea that a Turkish friend gave me a few years ago that I ration out because we've lost touch and I really don't know how to get any more of it. These teas I take strong and hot so that I can add a bit of milk and its still strong and hot! No sugar, thank you.

There a few "flavored" black teas that I like...primarily the citrus-y and spicy ones...but mostly I'm a purist when it comes to black tea. The flavored black teas, I take with a bit of sugar or honey.

Green tea is only tolerable with some flavor to mask the grass clippings taste. And at that its only tolerable. I am not a fan of green tea.

I like the red (rooibos) teas but they are not really teas. They come from an entirely different plant! And they have no caffiene! But I like most of them with a pinch of sweetness. My favorite is a lemon rooibos that I get at Tea Gschwender.

White teas are really from the tea plant but I think of them in the same way that I think of rooibos tea. I like them well enough but they are not really tea for me. I really am a black tea person! So you can probably guess that I am not much into herbal teas (tisanes! NOT tea) either. Herbals I mostly only drink "for medicinal purposes." Ginger is for a sore throat. Chamomile for an upset tummy. I hate peppermint tea!!

Well, I'm off for a nice, hot cuppa with my family right now. Its a perfect way to end the day!

5 comments:

Kim said...

My favorite is Twinnings Irish Breakfast Tea. I did just recently buy Twinnings Lemon and Ginger Herbal tea, and it was very nice.

Willow said...

I love Earl Grey tea too! When I was in London in 2008, I visited the Twinings shop! Oh it was wonderful!

I actually like the grass clippings taste of green tea. Weird, I know...

ellen b said...

There is still so much to learn in the world of tea. One thing I found out recently is that my body does not tolerate green tea at all. It bottles me up. I'm sticking to my black teas and herbals :0)
That turkish tea sounds interesting...

Kim from Hiraeth said...

My favorite (as you know) is half Earl Grey, half Irish Breakfast Tea. (My 'proprietory blend')

My second favorite is Organic Russian Caravan--the original not the smoky one.

I also like Rooibus Ginger. But of course, that's not tea.

Scrabblequeen said...

How fun it is to compare out likes and dis-likes. I too, love black tea....however, no Earl Grey for me! My friend's hubby loves Russian Caravan, and would probablu love Lapsang souchong too, I despise them both. My long-time nickname for Russian Caravan is "Old Sock" because that is what I think it smells like!