I want to start drinking tea in addition to coffee.

[Eli]

Something with high caffeine content in addition to all the healthy goodness.. and of course easy on the taste buds would be excellent.

Thanks.

 

[Descartes]

You can't have high-caffeine and healthy goodness; it's a compromise. It's the catechins in tea that you want, and it's the catechins that inhibit the enzymatic processes that ultimately help create the Oolong and black teas. All teas have generally the same caffeine content, but it's the processing of "fermented" teas that ultimately results in more caffeine for your Oolongs and blacks.

In short, drink what you like.

 

[Eli]

I know there must be some tea drinkers around here.

I picked up some cheap Bigelow brand tea.. Green Tea with Orange Peel and Spice.. lol.. It's pretty good, but I am sure there are more sophisticated and good for you teas out there.

 

[ones3k]

Try to find some sort of caffene extract that you can mix into your tea.

 

[nakedfrog]

Off of the caffeine pill kick, or am I thinking of someone else?

 

[Descartes]

Originally posted by: Eli
I know there must be some tea drinkers around here.

I picked up some cheap Bigelow brand tea.. Green Tea with Orange Peel and Spice.. lol.. It's pretty good, but I am sure there are more sophisticated and good for you teas out there.

Roughly speaking, all teas are good for you. A few general rules:

1) Teabags are horrible. You are getting the absolute lowest grade tea possible, and a lot of times you're getting a lot more than tea; think twigs and leaves from plants/treas other than tea. Drink loose-leaf tea of a reasonable grade. I find the Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe to be the most readily accessible for a decent price.

2) White tea has more catechins as it's the least processed out of all the tea varieties.

3) The difference between white tea, green tea, black, etc. has to do with processing and not a different species of tea plant. White is processed the least whereas black is the most. Oolong teas come in the middle and are very fragrant but still have the herbaceousness of your greens.

 

[PingSpike]

I drink green tea sometimes and have started to drink camomile (?) decaf in the evenings. I'm trying to replace cookies with tea.

 

[torpid]

I've been drinking "chai" type tea, black tea with cardamom, ginger, etc. with 1/3 milk and 2/3 water. After boiling the milk and water with a cheap hot pot ($10 at target), I pour the liquid into the infuser area of the pot, which has about 1.5 tbsp of the tea+spice mix, and steep for a few minutes. Then add sweetener or sugar. Tastes pretty good.

Also been drinking pearl jasmine tea, which is loose leaf green tea soaked in jasmine then rolled into little balls that expand in hot water. That is the only jasmine or green tea I can tolerate regularly because of the bitterness of cheaper green teas. Somewhat expensive, though, like $15 for 4 oz. But 4oz should last maybe 50 servings? Don't need to add anything to this one.

These aren't going to be chock full of caffeine, though. But if you make a full pot of them and drink it over a few hours it's probably got a decent amount.

You could also try "thai iced tea" which is a bit more work. Oolong cooled and mixed with some sort of cream and sugar.

 

[Feldenak]

Forget teabags and get loose tea and a teaball.

I have a tin of Twining's Darjeerling that I like.

 

[z0mb13]

green tea FTW

it tastes good and its good for you

 

[tweakmm]

Does anybody have any good recomendations for a good and not too expensive loose white tea?

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: nakedfrog
Off of the caffeine pill kick, or am I thinking of someone else?

Nope, that was me.. yeah, haven't been taking them.. but I've been trying to make a conscious effort to be more healthy lately, and I figured tea would be a good step in that direction.

 

[Mill]

Coca Tea FTW!!!

 

[torpid]

Originally posted by: tweakmm
Does anybody have any good recomendations for a good and not too expensive loose white tea?

Define "not too expensive". I use a couple of internet sites, primarily enjoyingtea.com ... but I have not tried their white tea

 

[Descartes]

Originally posted by: torpid
I've been drinking "chai" type tea, black tea with cardamom, ginger, etc. with 1/3 milk and 2/3 water. After boiling the milk and water with a cheap hot pot ($10 at target), I pour the liquid into the infuser area of the pot, which has about 1.5 tbsp of the tea+spice mix, and steep for a few minutes. Then add sweetener or sugar. Tastes pretty good.

Also been drinking pearl jasmine tea, which is loose leaf green tea soaked in jasmine then rolled into little balls that expand in hot water. That is the only jasmine or green tea I can tolerate regularly because of the bitterness of cheaper green teas. Somewhat expensive, though, like $15 for 4 oz. But 4oz should last maybe 50 servings? Don't need to add anything to this one.

These aren't going to be chock full of caffeine, though. But if you make a full pot of them and drink it over a few hours it's probably got a decent amount.

You could also try "thai iced tea" which is a bit more work. Oolong cooled and mixed with some sort of cream and sugar.

I love the Jasmine Pearl teas. I'm drinking a cup right now in fact.

My favorite teas are as follows:

- Tung Ting Oolong
- Monkey Picked Oolong
- Darjeeling Pootabong
- A good Assam
- Green tea from the Taimu mountains. Sometimes called "White Monkey", and it's a fantastic light green tea.
- Gyokuro

I agree with you about the bitterness of green teas. It's more reason to get finer non-broken grades like Orange Pekoe and up rather than the Broken Orange Pekoe grades. More broken pieces == more exposure to water == uneven and/or overextraction == bitter/tannic.

 

[shortylickens]

I like Red Rose myself.

If I have to go to a coffee house I get the Earle Grey.

 

[Descartes]

Originally posted by: tweakmm
Does anybody have any good recomendations for a good and not too expensive loose white tea?

You can get them as inexpensively as ~$6-$10 for 2oz. A good white tea is good for multiple extractions (most quality teas are) as well, so you can often get as many as 3-5 cups out of a single teaspoon for every ~8oz.

I use Adagio or Teavana for my teas. I also grow some of my own, but that's not working out so well.

 

[TheWart]

Green Tea is really good, but for the best of the best you have to get Earl Grey tea...soo good.

I believe my fav brand is Ahmad's Earl Grey (I can't remember precisely, but it is an Arab company who imports it). Other good brands as well..I reccomend trying a few out. Some are stronger, some more flowery, some sweeter, etc.

 

[Jzero]

Originally posted by: Feldenak
Forget teabags and get loose tea and a teaball.

I have a tin of Twining's Darjeerling that I like.

Forget teaballs! The tea needs room to expand fully. A porcelian pot and strainer, yixing, gaiwan, french press or IngenuiTEA works best for looseleaf.

Eli - your best bet is to get away from caffeine anyway. It really brings nothing to the table.

I get most of my tea from Adagio and I can hook anyone up with a $5 gift certificate. Just send me a PM.
Full disclosure: I get 10 loyalty points if you redeem the coupon which is worth $1 off my next order.

 

[greys2k]

Agreed. 2 superb options are:

- pearl jasmine tea (avail @ McNulty's in W.Village - Christopher St *but not cheap*) or http://www.tenren.com/pearljasmine.html
- green tea (matcha powder) - works great in ice creams too http://www.tenren.com/choicgreente.html

 

[MichaelD]

I've been a loyal coffee drinker for 20+ years, and I still love my cup o'joe, especially when it's strong enough to strip paint off the wall. :Q

But, I've found that it tears up my stomach a bit. So, I started drinking tea. Almost as much caffeinne, but much easier on the gut.

I'm not a tea snob; I buy the Lipton tea bags and let them steep in boiling water for a good 5 minutes (water is almost black),then add about a tablespoon of sugar.

I find that it's still tasty even after it gets cold, unlike coffee, which to me is nasty when cold.

I've been on this tea kick for about 6 months now and I feel a little different. I find that I have more "normal energy" during the day, as opposed to "jacked on java" energy.

Tea seems to be better than coffee, at least for me.

Plus, it's easier to make. No filters to buy, no coffee maker to clean out.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I'm both a coffee and tea snob. I do like most unflavored black tea blends, but prefer either Twining's Prince of Wales blend or Darjeeling from any good company.

 

[IGBT]

..I drink a lot of gree tea in addition to black coffee.

 

[Ogg]

Ive got to agree with JZero, Adagio teas are excellent indeed....... theyre my wife and I's favorite.


But I still have a special place in my heart for Bengal Spice and Red Zinger!! Celestial teas I started drinking way back in the stoner college days

 

[Buck Naked]

I'm not much of a tea drinker, but I love marketspice tea.
example