Choose me a char

[laverte]

i want to reduce my coffee consumption from four or five cups a day down to one. i would like to drink tea instead but i don't know all that much about it. i'm particularly looking for:

– A breakfast tea that will wake me up. i like the strength of PG tips etc but i find it rather blunt and i can taste the paper from the teabag when i brew it with boiling water. It seems to be a blend of mostly assam teas. Is that what i should be looking for in loose-leaf form? Would any other black tea be as satisfying? (i don't take milk or sugar in hot drinks.)

– An afternoon tea that will help me to wake up after my nap but ideally would be less strong than the morning tea. Something fresh and flavourful would be nice. Often to be accompanied by a chunk of dark chocolate.

– A late afternoon or early evening brew that has no theine and might help me to digest my dinner or prepare me to get to sleep. Sometimes to be consumed with a biscuit. Herbal teas frequently seem to come with dubious health advantages; has anyone found one that works?

In the past i have found that drinking tea makes me hungry. Any tips for avoiding this (or is it all in my head anyway)?

i'm quite into my speciality coffees so am eager to become every bit as much of a snob/bore about tea. All advice welcome, then.

[hobbes]

I'm not a great tea drinker (perhaps one cup a month) but I reckon you can't beat London tea or Yorkshire tea for breakfast. Depends on the limescale content of your water though. They're robust and designed to work well with limestone rich water.

Green tea for the late afternoon one, definitely. Great for digestion, not buzzy at all.

[hobbes]

I'm a big fan of this, by the way.
Black tea with fruit, rather than a fruit "tea."

[ad hoc]

If Yorkshire Tea or the other various UK brands don;t satisfy the morning one, then perhaps try Turkish? If you live in a place with a Turkish cafe or restaurant go and try it (the way it's made means that increasing/decreasing the strength is easy - the tea is made very strong and then diluted with hot water to taste).

(You can also buy Yorkshire Tea (and I assume PG Tips) as loose leaf tea.)

[Paul S]

I drink peppermint tea at work and would thoroughly recommend it. Ok it doesn't taste much of peppermint but it is warm, wet and gives me something to sip on during tedious team meetings or those hours when I am glued to my screen analyzing something which requires a lot of concentration. The problem with traditional teas is they contain caffeine which keep you awake. Peppermint tea on the other hand won't do that and is good for your stomach. Sparkling water is also a good thing to drink.

[WOM]

i want to reduce my coffee consumption from four or five cups a day down to one.

Why?

[laverte]

Doctors orders, more or less.

ETA: Fatigue is a very common symptom of MS. i've been trying to survive it in ways that are obviously not working so the doc and i have come up with a Plan.

[Levin]

I'd go for a pure assam for your morning tea. It may take a couple of attempts to find one you like (T2's tastes of soap).

Have you tried Oolong? It's halfway between green and black teas, the tea is a golden colour usually. Rich and biscuity but flavours vary a lot depending on origin and treatment. I'm a big fan of Iron Goddes of Mercy but mostly drink Dongding (Frozen Summit)

[WOM]

Ah. I'm currently on one large take out cup of coffee a day, but I keep reheating it as I go. Not elegant. And my tea consumption is generally your standard orange pekoe bags.

Good luck. I'd have trouble cutting it out entirely.

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

I gave up tea drinking over 20 years ago, as I was working in Pakistan, couldn't find decent milk (I need it to take the edge off the tannins), so moved to coffee - which I can drink black. I never went back to tea at all. I tried green tea once, but it just isn't 'tea'.

And then I went to a friend's house last year in Nairobi and he offered me a brew, which I accepted - thinking it was coffee. It was standard Kenyan breakfast-style tea, with a splash of milk (no sugar) - and that was me back on the tea trail. I hardly drink coffee at all now, and had a beautiful red teapot for Christmas from Mrs. VT.

I'm happy with standard tea blends, depending on where I am. Paned Welsh Brew teabags when I'm back in the land of song; Five Roses when near or in South Africa; Kericho bags when in Kenya or Tanzania, and Kilimanjaro Gold when I'm knocking round my Moshi home. Nothing fancy, round bags rather than square where possible (aesthetics, man) and no tags please. And I know I should go loose tea, but I honestly can't be arsed. Splash of fat-free UHT (I can't get decent milk here either), no sugar.

Off to the kettle now.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Excellent titling.

I drink tea once in a blue moon. Kinda standard, milk and one.

[Lobachevsky]

yorkshire tea or twinnings strong english breakfast tea are great for the stsrt up cuppa.

i like ceylon tean in the pm as its lighter.

Used to drink loads of coffee but now have it once or twice a week but buy lovely etheopian coffee imported by a friend.

[Aitch]

Yunan Gold, loose leaf. 3 litres a day.

[Moonlight Shadow]

Twinnings strong breakfast tea is a good cuppa

[Nocturnal Submission]

Doctors orders, more or less.

ETA: Fatigue is a very common symptom of MS. i've been trying to survive it in ways that are obviously not working so the doc and i have come up with a Plan.

I drinks gallons to tea but I'm an utter heathen with a totally unsophisticated palette who would probably happily quaff Lidl own brand tea if that's all there was. At present though we do get Yorkshire Tea which my wife likes. It's a little stronger than your average leaf but not massively so. If you want something lighter later in the day I'd recommend Darjeeling or Earl Grey.

As you mention fatigue I'd just say that I find tea a lot more invigorating than coffee. Maybe it just suits my physiology but it might suit yours too.

I like the tea well brewed but with a lot of milk (semi-skimmed) and no sugar.

[The Mighty Trin]

Yorkshire Tea, sourced from those well known South Yorkshire suburbs of Sri Lanka and Kenya. Or perhaps Rooibos? My ex tried to get me to like it, but I never could.

[Ginger Yellow]

char charforlaverte = 'A' + (random() % 26);

[Patrick Thistle]

I drink loads of tea. I'm a pleb who uses bags and makes it in the mug.

I like M&S "Everyday" tea. If you like it strong leave the bag in a bit longer. Sainsbury's own is good as well. Both are fair trade.

if I was going for a particular blend I'd always pick Ceylon tea. It has an almost but not quite lemony flavour.

[WOM]

Oh, and if you get bags, make sure they're paper and not those silky ones that are plastic. They did a study on those and found they release billions of micro plastic particles into the tea. You don't need that in your guts.

[Greenlander]

I'll second/ third/ fourth/ wherever we are now Yorkshire Tea. I'm not such a fan of the Gold variety and have never had need to try the Hard Water stuff.

My other shout is for Sainsburys Taste the Difference Kenyan Tea, especially the loose leaf if you like to brew a pot.

My wife is a big fan of Twinnings Lady Grey which is more of a citrus flavour than a traditional Earl Grey and can be drunk with milk. Before bed she swears by Pukka Organics especially the Nighttime which is lavender based.

[ursus arctos]

Another vote here for Yorkshire Tea as an everyday brew.

Twinings was always relatively easy to find here, but in the last ten years or so, less fussy English brands (Yorkshire, PG Tips, etc.) have started to show up outside of specialist shops.

[laverte]

One of my memories of the hostel my grandma used to run is the industrial sized box of Nambarrie’s tea bags that was kept in the kitchen beside the mounds of toilet roll. The essentials for a successful stay. i dread to think how much plastic they contained, although i am sure the gentle sailing folk stuck ashore in Oban were putting far worse into their bodies.

i have just been treated to a cup of matcha tea and i don’t think i will be repeating the experience.

Thanks for the tips so far and please keep them coming. i am particularly interested in investigating the Ceylon Darjeeling Oorang leads. i think i have had roobois and liked it, a vanilla taste iirc. Up my street.

[Amor de Cosmos]

I'm an everyday Yorkshire Gold drinker, but I do like a Darjeeling or Assam leaf now and again. Non-caffeine alternatives, chamomile before bed, "Golden Milk" (turmeric, cinnamon, cardomom, milk and honey) made a good coffee substitute for me. La Signora likes something called "Mother's Little Helper" (peppermint, lemongrass, hibiscus, rosehips, chamomile, valerian root and cornflowers.)

[elguapo4]

I've heard about these plastic tea bags but I don't think I've ever seen them, what brands use them?

[WOM]

I've heard about these plastic tea bags but I don't think I've ever seen them, what brands use them?

I buy my wife these frou-frou teas from a place called David's Tea and they use them. It's usually those gourmet 'sachet' bags, often shaped like pyramids for some reason.

She cuts the corner off and puts the tea into a metal strainer thing. Whatever they're called.