I've been focusing primarily on flavored teas and up-market blends. Today I want to talk about how to find good, basic tea for people who don't like or want flavors or who simply want to be able to buy something off the shelf in the market.
You can never go wrong with Twinings for simple, basic tea. Twinings English Breakfast and Twinings Irish Breakfast are good, solid, basic teas, without non-tea flavors. They can be found in pretty much every supermarket I've ever visited. Both are blends; Irish Breakfast tea tends to have a heavier mix of Assam tea than English Breakfast. If you're able to find it, Twinings does sell a pure Assam tea that is excellent. I've not been able to find it in supermarkets, but Amazon sells it for $12.00 for 50 bags. (http://www.amazon.com/Twinings-Assam-Strong-Mighty-Bags/dp/B004YADQZI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389729465&sr=8-1&keywords=Twinings+Assam)
Mighty Leaf carries some excellent basic black teas, including Organic Breakfast and Darjeeling Estate (http://www.mightyleaf.com/tea-pouches_black-tea-classic/). I've been able to find Mighty Leaf in stores like Shop Rite, King's and Wegmans. Mighty Leaf's Organic Black is my go-to tea for when +Rhiannon theCurious , who loves extremely strong dark tea, visits.
Republic of Tea's British Breakfast (http://www.republicoftea.com/british-breakfast-black-tea/p/V00586/) can also be counted on to deliver a flavorful, solid, dependably quality cuppa. I find that Republic of Tea blends are very good for busy people who can't always watch the clock to take the tea bag out. I've gotten called to an hour-long meeting just after making a cup of tea, and found the resulting cup to be highly drinkable despite having left the tea bag in.
I find Bigelow's teas to be very hit or miss. Some are excellent; some are cloying, nasty and over-flavored ("Constant Comment" being the ur-example of a bad Bigelow tea). Still, Bigelow's basic blacks are a huge step above having to drink Lipton.
Starbuck's Tazo Awake tea is serviceable if nothing better is available, but you need to be very careful about how long that tea bag steeps. It moves quickly into undrinkable sludge if brewed too long, and there's a small window of opportunity between "not strong enough" and sludge.
I'm a big fan of twinings earl grey decaf or green tea with jasmine. Both taste good hot or cold and need no sugar or milk.
ReplyDeleteI was raised in an irish heritage home and tea is the end of every meal with milk and sugar. I discovered the straight tea route the first time i did Weight Watchers and it works well for me.
For a non-flavored but very complex and very rewarding tea, I suggest a pu-erh.
ReplyDeleteI'll even helpfully note that the first steeping can be 10 seconds and should be nowhere near a minute or especially not two or *especially* not three. It...was an eye-opener when we didn't realize that, first time around. My friends and I tried to be civilized about it, but it really did come through strongly with "stables".
Don't do that ;) 10 seconds on first steep. Then 15, then 20 or 25...you can actually get a *lot* of reuses from pu-erh and my friend and I typically have a day or even a weekend with numerous steepings, often 10 or more. The color changes (obviously), the flavor changes...it doesn't get weaker per se, especially since the initial steepings are so short.