Tea, lovely tea

I wish there was a tea shop like yours, Tellyfier, near me.  One of my favorite stops we made on our trip to Florence was a shop much like what you've described; they had hundreds of blends, so many they had a number-based organization system and a pamphlet you'd leaf through while going from container to container smelling them.  Their supply ranged from black tea blends to white and green teas, to herbal tisanes, to fruity blends.  Oh, it was heavenly!  We got a handful of citrusy black tea blends that are the best I've ever had.  I'm jealously guarding the little supply we have left, because, as great as this stuff was, I'm not flying all the way back to Florence just to get more.

Meanwhile, in the US, I will do what I always do when discussion of tea sourcing comes up: bang the drum for Todd & Holland.  My grandparents moved when I was in high school, from the old family home in a residential part of River Forest, IL to a condo closer to "town" (such as it is there).  We were always desperately looking for something to fill the time when rattling around visiting them, so, after a few trips where we were like, "What is that sketchy-looking storefront around the corner there?  It says it's a tea shop, but really, it looks suspicious...", we finally walked in.  And it turned out to be the most incredible tea shop, with the most incredible people working there, and it completely changed my life.  Twinings tea bags?  Pfft!  NO MORE!  It's been well over 15 years since our first trip to the store, and probably 10 years since we've been able to shop in person there (their website is great), and they still know us and our preferences by person.  People around here keep trying to talk up the Teavana store at the local mall and I'm like, "Why would I bother with that, even though I could go in person, when I've got Todd & Holland??"

Mr Tea and I drink the fuck out of tea. Not surprising, as he's Russian and that's what you do when you're Russian. He averages about three cups a day, so to make it affordable we buy Twinings in bulk from Amazon.

However, we definitely splurge on good shit from time to time. We found a little shop on St. Simons Island off the coast of Georgia called Serenitea that had lovely blends. I'll order their Earl Grey sometimes and be gifted with some of the best smelling tea I've ever found.

And I'll knock Teavana for their cost and pretentious attitude - the one time Mr Tea and I went together, I thought he was going to burst into flame in annoyance as the little girl serving us went on about how to properly prepare the blends we bought. "It's tea. You put it in a pot and pour boiling water over it. Done."

However, for a chain store they do make some decent, fresh blends. Their Golden Monkey is stupid expensive, but very tasty.

I forced myself to not buy any more tea until I was nearly out of the (many, many) bags/tins in my office desk drawer. I really did have an absurd amount. But now, six months later, I found that my tea stash was nearly gone! So I placed an order with American Tea Room and got their ginger black tea, coconut black tea, and milk oolong. I love milk oolong - it's my favorite - but it's so hard to find without artificial flavors. This is the best one I've found so far, even though it's crazy expensive ($39 for two ounces). 

I've just finished up a cup of the ginger black, which was quite nice. It's warm and slightly spicy, perfect for a chilly November morning. I was pleased to see actual bits of dried ginger root and nothing more in the bag, aside from tea. I don't know what kind it is, some sort of assam, I think. I'm about to try the coconut black, which smells absolutely divine. I was floored when I opened the bag and it was literally half shredded coconut, which explained the intense aroma that hit me as soon as I breached the seal.

American Tea Room did also throw in a quite generous sample of Earl Grey Sterling, which is their Earl Grey mixed with Silver Needle. I don't usually like Earl Grey but I'll give this one a try at some point just to see what it's like.

I've bought from Adagio before and they have some nice solid teas, but there's a lot better out there so I'm always on the hunt for something more. Teavana is overpriced and I don't particularly like their blends. Again, I don't really care for artificial flavorings or too much nonsense, although I'm a sucker for a good herbal tisane.

Spices and Tease out of Grand Central Station in NYC has some pretty fun blends. I like their white chocolate chile in particular. David's Tea is pretty good but I don't like the wait time for shipping, and I feel they're a bit expensive for what they have to offer.

Fffffffffffff I love genmaicha. It's got such a rich, nutty, lovely flavor. I almost bought some but decided to make myself wait until I've gone through my current haul.

Also, this coconut black tea is delicious. It's not too sweet at all, and the coconut is pronounced without being overwhelming. 

I feel stupid boring next to you people. The only flavored tea I like are my lord and lady Grey, otherwise I only drink tea flavored tea. Assams and Ceylons are where I sit usually.

The puffed rice green tea I'd pretty good, tho. Nutty and less grassy than your typical greens. I love green tea flavoring, but that soapy greenness can be a bit much without sweet or nuttiness to cut it.

I am very fortunate to have a kitchen with a little bit of counter for a 'coffee station' (i.e. a place to put your coffee maker with a cabinet above for mugs, creamer, etc.). However, since I don't drink coffee, it has become a spot for me to display my collection of teas and store my tea paraphernalia.



I've gotten tea from all over the place - mainly gifts, souvenirs from travel, and from the gourmet food aisle of Marshall's. If I'm buying tea at the grocery store, I get Twinings Ceylon blend and Bigelow's Constant Comment Orange Pekoe (fond memories of drinking that before trekking out into the Chicago winter for my college classes). I just got some Pomegranate Rooibos and Detox blend from a company I've never heard of called Or'Gourmet Inc. The packaging is nice and it was only $5, so worth a try. I also have:

• Nilgiri Tea Emporium Lasa Lamsa - "a mixture of Lasa, freshly picked Assam CTC tea, blended with the right proportion of Lamsa, India's pioneer brand in flavoured tea" imported from Hyderabad for making chai
• Ahmad English Breakfast, English Afternoon, and Earl Grey - also good for making chai, I got a gift of these in little tins shaped like English post boxes
  
  
• Ippodo sencha - a nice, smooth green tea you can get at Japanese grocery stores, though I got mine as an omiyage from a Japanese friend
  
• East India Company "The Infamous Joseph Clark's Gunpowder Tea" - When I saw an EIC boutique in Oxford Circus on my first trip to London, my jaw kind of dropped and I had to take a souvenir (though I wondered how my ancestors would feel about it). This is Chinese green tea. Only had it once and it was meh, but the tin is quite lovely. Their Earl Gray is pretty good, but not worth the colonial guilt.
  
• Royal Milk Tea - This Japanese concoction was my favorite treat out of the vending machines - basically canned black tea made with condensed milk. I was excited to see that they have an instant mix at Japanese grocery stores and it's pretty tasty - though probably full of preservatives.
  
• Charbonel et Walker Drinking Chocolate - This is may be my favorite chocolate of all time. Whenever I've been in London, I pick up a box and it doesn't even last me the trip home. Sometimes the gourmet aisle randomly has it, so I lucked out with this.
  
• Plus some random bags of herbal, mint, etc. for guests who don't like real tea. I display these in a carved wooden letter sorter somebody brought back from India.

I want to try Kusmi and Todd & Holland. Harney & Sons hasn't impressed me, but maybe I haven't tried the right thing. Teavana looks stupid, but I'm okay with Argo if I'm out and about. Not into genmaicha or kombucha. 

moimoi, bite your tongue for including kombucha in with tea proper. Anything that includes a slime mold shouldn't count.

I misread that as "ESPECIALLY tulsi", and was backing slowly away... 

Soba tea is where it's at. Lifemate's family knows I like it, guaranteeing that it will be given to me forever along with monaka and Oshidori milk cake.

BOOOO!  I was going to order some of the beautiful citrusy teas we loved so much from La Via del Te in Florence for Hugs for Christmas, but their website doesn't seem to allow for shipping to the US.  Now we're just going to have to steep tea out of lumps of coal or something instead.  Bah humbug!

My doctor recently banned me from being in the same room as caffeine, which isn't a huge deal I already had medical issues which forced me to consume it very sparingly anyway. But I miss my occasional hot beverage, so I went in search of some herbal teas. I bought Watermelon Lime Zinger from Celestial Seasonings......all I will say is that it makes my jaw ache. Something is just not right about that concoction.

However, the CS Bengal Spice is fantastic! Great substitute for chai, especially when I add a little creamer. I positively devoured this morning's cup and I already want another.

Of course the box says you can prepare it either way, but yeah you're probably right and it's meant to be iced. 

Yesterday I re-organized our tea supplies to fit in a smaller space:

English breakfast
green tea
chamomile
ginger
mint
miscellaneous Japanese
empty teabags (roll your own, cowboy)

I've been sick for the last five days, but on vacation until today.  I don't normally make tea at home, actually, which is kind of weird, but whatever.  I got in this morning with some of Todd & Holland's Sao Paulo Sunrise blend (black tea, I want to say Ceylon-heavy, with dried orange pieces and orange oils), steeped up a big pot of it, and OH MY GOD NOTHING HAS EVER BEEN MORE DELICIOUS THAN THAT FIRST SIP OF TEA WHILST IN THE MIDST OF THE WORST COLD EVER KNOWN TO MAN.  I felt human for the first time since getting sick.  Oh, tea.  ::happy sigh::