[Closed] Good Quality Tea

Clipper is very lovely and no need to arse about with teapots.

(That said, teapotted tea is nice, but not something I practice)

MrsT likes her Twinnings.
http://www.twinings.co.uk/teaware/teapots

I'm more of a Scottish Blend

Tea Bags these take some beating.

[img] [/img]

Get a taster/sampler from here and enjoy a range of teas you never knew existed: https://jingtea.com

The tea from Aldi tastes much better than Twinings breakfast which I used to drink. And it's won many awards as well as being a quarter if the price of other teas

Twinings English Breakfast Teabags.
No need to ponce about with tea pots or funny little fingers.

Waitrose's Assam and Ceylon teas are the best IMO. Better than those branded stuff.

I think I have tried all of them as I was going to benchmark the best UK tea to some that I was buying from abroad.

I prefer loose tea.

😀

Yorkshire Gold

Mmm thirsty

*puts kettle on*

Brodies of Edinburgh loose leaf scottish breakfast tea, a mixture of assam and kenyan, nice n' strong.

[img] [/img]

Ceylon tea is my favourite, lighter than Assam and a little more delicate. Sainsbury's used to do a Kenyan black yes which was nice, not sure if they sell it any longer though.

When I started drinking tea properly years ago I was told always to boil fresh water - never mix boiled and fresh or reboil water. And to pour the water on the leaves whilst it's still boiling. It does make a difference. But then so does the type of water you get out of your tap, filtered water makes a difference too.

Doesn't matter if you drink Typhoo if you enjoy it.

Thompsons Punjana FTW.
Makes a lovely cup of tea that tastes like loose tea despite being in a bag. You will never go back to Tetley floor sweepings .

http://www.djmiles.co.uk/ ain't bad, but I realised I was in withdrawl after spending all day drinking only their tea, and had to go back to Typhoo (& save the Miles for best). They also sell decent tea pots, with built in strainer, as those "FORLIFE teapots", look like they'll dribble to me

Cougar - Moderator

Plastic infuser with hot / boiling water ... never. How's the plastic taste like? Stainless steel is fine.

Always something, isn't there.

+1 for Clipper tea bags here.

Treat yourself to a sampler from [url= http://www.rareteacompany.com/shop/1/speciality-loose-leaf-tea/ ]the rare tea co.[/url]

Their RAF & lost Malawi are my favourites. RAF for breakfast and lost Malawi without milk in the afternoons. Although Braithwaites (Dundee) broken orange pekoe is my current brew and is also excellent.

Cougar - Moderator

Always something, isn't there.

Yep, we talking about drinking tea and nothing can be more serious then drinking a cup of tea ... or coffee.

Burn him!

😆

[b]Yorkshire Tea[/b]

Yorkshire Gold

+ 1

Just spent an awesome afternoon of anorakness at 216 Stand tasting all manner of MrTwinings best.
Came away with a bag of Lapsang Souchong, 2nd Flush Assam and Russian Caravan - if you can drink it without milk or sugar it's a whole world of tastes to explore and another level of geeky obsession to add to the list. 😀

Similar to Drac but the Ringtons Extra Fresh are my bag of choice, always brewed in a teapot and served in a bone china cup (it makes a difference).

Booths. Loose leaf. In a "Stump Pot" :-O

Yorkshire gold for when I CBA with going loose leaf.

A decent, TGFOP Assam loose for everyday drinking.

H.R Higgins and sons Japanese cherry green tea for something fragrant.

Silver Needles white tea for something delicate in the evening.

Fortnums Irish Breakfast for when I need to WAKE UP.... NOW!

I love my tea me.

I'd recommend something like a Yunnan Gold as a good starting point, should be familiar enough for you to enjoy, but different enough to spark an interest.

This one is my fave, and not bad value
http://nbtea.co.uk/store/black-tea/9-tippy-yunnan.html

Yorkshire tea is grim

http://www.t2tea.com/
This lot for a good selection

Waitrose's Assam and Ceylon teas are the best IMO. Better than those branded stuff.

I prefer loose tea.

A first flush darjeeling is absolutely fantastic, very different to your run of the mill tea, but you pay for it. Only bought it in India but a reputable tea merchant will be able to supply.

Drac - you need the proper water for Ringtons to work. My folks brought some down from Tyneside when I was living in Lincolnshire and the tea was awful when made there.
It doesn't travel well.

And to expand a little
For breakfast (currently now)
[img] [/img]
http://www.t2tea.com/shop/tea-2/flavoured-scented-black-tea/sydney-breakfast/
In the afternoons it's somewhere between
[img] [/img]
http://www.t2tea.com/shop/tea-2/flavoured-scented-black-tea/melbourne-breakfast/
and
[img] [/img]
http://www.t2tea.com/shop/tea-2/black-tea/orange-pekoe/

But occasionally I'll throw something exotic into the mix like
[img] [/img]
http://www.t2tea.com/shop/tea-2/white-tea/silver-needles/

slowoldman - Member

Waitrose's Assam and Ceylon teas are the best IMO. Better than those branded stuff.

This is bad. I find myself agreeing with chewkw again.

I prefer loose tea.

And again. Aagh.

mefty - Member

A first flush darjeeling ...

Darjeeling tea is nice but not suitable for those that prefer strong tea.

TooTall - Member

Drac - you need the proper water for Ringtons to work.

I found Ringtons average but certainly better than Yorkshite tea but not as good as Twinning.

The best Twinning is their Coronation tea which they stop producing. The tea comes in big black tin and after I tasted two cups of it I bought another tin but they stopped producing it ... so I stopped drinking Twinning. Other brands are so so either average or below average.

😀

ive recently downgraded from pg tips to morrisons red label teabags.

austerity or just bad taste, who can say.

Russian Caravan is lovely. The Whittards version is not too spendy.

Other brands are so so either average or below average.
Try the ones I linked to, much better than most and a huge variety.

Look up Bristol Tea.

soobalias - Member

ive recently downgraded from pg tips to morrisons red label teabags.

austerity or just bad taste, who can say.

EEeeewww red label tea ... I bought some and they taste as if they were produced in London slum city plantation. I would use it as compose to be honest. Yuck!

Do yourself a favour, if you have Waitrose, get some Waitrose Assam loose tea or tea bag (£1.50 per 227 grams). At least you will not have after taste in your mouth after drinking red label.

The ONLY red label tea you want is the Madagascar red label vanilla black tea. This is very good.

😀

mikewsmith - Member

Other brands are so so either average or below average.

Try the ones I linked to, much better than most and a huge variety.

Very expensive ... 😯

Too expensive for normal person like me. I have tasted some very good tea but normally they are marginally better IMO (price can double or more) or perhaps my smoker taste buds are dead I don't know.

Also if they are flavoured tea from China I would not touch it with a bargepole ...

I use a Morrison's On-The-Go travel flask all through the week, with Twinings Green Tea bags. Much nicer than regular teabags, as it stays hot for around six hours I don't like it tasting stewed. The Green tea is just right for me.

or perhaps my smoker taste buds are dead I don't know.

mikewsmith - Member
pointless then

Price is the killer there.

😮

Always liked Mackwoods tea after a visit to their estate!

http://www.mackwoodstea.com/productsrange.asp

For teabags, BETTYS Tea Room Blend or a daily Twinnings!

chewkw just saying not worth trying it if you insist on killing your taste buds, it's probably way cheaper than fags....

Too expensive

Proper tea is theft.

A morrocan mint tea is also a nice change to the normal teas! Especially when made with fresh mint and a little sugar!

What you want is some Suki Tea, the Belfast Brew is brilliant.

I worked with one of the folks from [url= http://www.cominsteahouse.co.uk ]Comin's Teahouse[/url]. Very enthusiastic about tea. She was frequently in search of the best teas from their farms of origin. I suggest you give them a go.

Very refreshing.
[img] [/img]
Forlife teapot was a great xmas pressie for my OH.

Morrisons english breakfast is not up to much, this present packet anyway. Their Assam was good but they stopped doing it.
Mint tea may be nice but it is not tea. It is a herbal infusion.

Try the ones I linked to, much better than most and a huge variety.

Cripes are you on commission or something? They make H.R. Higgins look positively reasonable.

Still, I'm actually almost out of Assam and the leaves on their site to looking promisingly tippy. I've ordered a tin, this better be good.

Moroccan mint tea is really tea, not the peppermint crap like those camomile ones.

Uses Gunpowder green tea and mint leaves, no milk and a bit of cane sugar

Ringtons do some lovely teas.

The Sainsbury Kenyan Teabags are also very good.

I drink a lot of Yorkshire Gold as well.

Cripes are you on commission or something? They make H.R. Higgins look positively reasonable.

For tea bags Aldi Assam is very nice - non of the bitterness you get with bog standard tea bags.
As a tip if you don't like the bitterness then don't squeeze the teabags as it's the fines in the tea that make it bitter.
Best tea we have is some loose leaf of a variety I cannot remember we got when in Sri Lanka a few years back, only for special occasions.

With a good infuser, I cannot see any advantage to a tea bag because lose tea always taste so much better in my opinion.

I like Darjeeling first flush myself, but it's expensive and may not be to your taste if you like strong English breakfast style teas.

TeaPigs make some nice 'quality time' bags .. way too much for standard use, but Yorkshire does me fine on that front, or Twinings Breakfast

Its all pointless, no matter wether it be leaf or bag, premium brand or supermarket specials, unless you employ the proper process for actually making the tea. I.e. no milk in the cup with the tea bag before the water. Not pre-heating your mug or teapot etc. You can only extract the best flavour with boiling water, by pouring the water into a cold mug or pot instantly cools the water and reduces the flavour extracted out of the tea leaves. Its amazing how much flavour you can extract out of the standard branded bags if you take some thought about the brewing process.

Taylors of Harrogate or Twinings Earl Grey is all I'd chose to drink...

If you really want to get tea-geeky, Imperial Tea and Coffee takes some beating. I used to shop there when I lived in Lincs. They do good ranges for sample packs if you want to try a few different ones.
[url= http://www.imperialteas.co.uk/ ]http://www.imperialteas.co.uk/[/url]

Brew Tea Co in Liverpool makes some nice loose leaf teas (rolled, not chopped too). and good pots for brewing them in too.

http://www.tea-and-coffee.com/

This is the place if you want to get proper tea. 10m brewing in a diffuser pot and you will never go back to teabags!!

Ceylon Orange Pekoe is the way to go

I'm going to be trying some new flavours, is putting sugar in a crime?

yeah, pretty much!

Drac and Pik n Mix win. Extra Fresh for me, but then I get 100 teabags of that every month as part of my wages. There are various other teas about, a couple of which have been mentioned in here, that are also good and happen to be blended and packaged in the same factory, but go in different packaging.

Not read any of the above but a big shout out to the Lidl Red Label.

Honestly up there with Yorkshire Tea, less than £2 for 180.

Source: I drink about 5 cups of a tea a day...

For all your tea-related needs:
http://www.teahouseemporium.co.uk
Lovely little shop, they have some gorgeous tea-pots, too.
Just not flying ones. 😉

also Pukka Cinnamon if you want to try something different, very tasty.

http://www.tea-and-coffee.com/

Best Earl Grey I have tasted.

wobbliscott - Member
Its all pointless, no matter wether it be leaf or bag, premium brand or supermarket specials, unless you employ the proper process for actually making the tea. I.e. no milk in the cup with the tea bag before the water. Not pre-heating your mug or teapot etc. You can only extract the best flavour with boiling water, by pouring the water into a cold mug or pot instantly cools the water and reduces the flavour extracted out of the tea leaves. Its amazing how much flavour you can extract out of the standard branded bags if you take some thought about the brewing process.

+1. I do this at work when getting a round in, unbeknownst to the recipients, and it occasionally gets a slightly surprised 'that was a nice cup!' type response. Definitely better than the cold cup, milk in straight away, leave-it-in-one-second and squash it hard against the side of the cup approach regardless of whatever budget bucket of tea bags they get in.