Let's talk about tea

katsucats said:
https://www.teavivre.com/qing-xiang-tie-guan-yin-oolong.html

I ordered from these guys before, but I'm not necessarily recommending the store. I assume you live in an Asian country where you could get tea for much cheaper. If not, you could find them at Asian stores. But one thing I like about online shops like this one is that they sell sample amounts of a couple steeps for a few bucks. It's not really worth it to buy in sample amounts, but it allows you to buy a bunch of different varieties without breaking the bank, to see what you like the best. I personally like Tie Guan Yin oolong (not exactly the one in the link).

Also, I would suggest buying the cheapest grade of loose leaf tea to start out. Lower/cheaper grades consists of broken leaves, but has a stronger, more rough taste. Most people like the stronger taste, and you should only explore more refined tastes after you figure out what varieties you enjoy generally.

As for tisanes (herbal teas), I don't know, it's kind of hard to find a lot of them here for cheap. I don't know if you live in the city or the suburbs, but if you have a little bit of backyard space, you might be able to just grow it yourself lol. For example, I have one lemongrass bush and a couple rosemary bushes that practically supply endless amounts. The Chinese supermarkets here sell roses, chrysanthemum, and magnolia flowers for tea use.

curlywurlie said:
Was just drinking milk tea and lurking through forums lol

Yeah! I love TEA - I have it twice a day. My family has it 3-4 times a day. I'm from the hills and my town is actually known for its tea farms so its really common to have it that many times or more

I think my favourite kind is milk tea, ginger tea, peach tea and lemon tea!

Instant tea isn't nice at all. I don't remember the last time I had that. It's definitely more effort to make fresh tea with tea leaves but over time you become super quick

OP, is that iced milk tea? I've never tried that...I like Iced tea but I usually have that only in cafes and don't prepare it at home

RandomFriday said:
The only drink I drink is tea. I very rarely (like once every few weeks) drink juice, Coke, or plain water. I would say over 95% of drinks I consume is tea.
Usually I drink either black tea or white tea. But I also like rosehip and pomegranate tea. Sometimes I drink herbal tea, but very rarely tho.
Edit: I dont put milk or sugar or anything else in my tea, just plain tea.

ren0080 said:
Ohhh okay, I converted the price in the site you linked and it's roughly 569 PHP here (about the same price as HG Gundam) and it's quite uhhhh... pricey for my wallet lol
I'll just do what you said and find a cheaper grade of loose leaf. Though, what kind of cheap loose leaf do you recommend? I saw a lot of variety and while it's good to try all of them to find my own taste, it's also good to ask opinions on what is the most beginner-friendly loose leaf. So, yeah, thanks in advance.

SuicideMaster said:
say what you want but coffee is still the best kind of tea

Poulain said:
I remember that I started drinking tea during the time I was watching Ouran Highschool Host Club. Lol

I only drink tea when I feel like it, as opposed to coffee wherein it is a part of my daily life already. One of the reason is that with coffee, I can take it without any form of sugar. For tea, I can't drink one without putting any type of sweetener on it.

As for milk tea, I used to drink a lot especially when it became popular here in our place. But I avoided it and would only drink once every quarter (I track it) to manage blood sugar.

Karinara said:
I am such a fake lover of tea. I like flavored black tea (like strawberry, vanilla, blackberry etc.), but I always put A LOT of milk and sugar on them. Sugar really makes the taste of the flavoring stronger.

I also sometimes drink green tea, but pretty rarely, I've had the same package for about a year now.

Now recently I bought this package that has different types of tea (different flavours of black, green, white and rooibos). Haven't tried it yet, but it is a goal to try more types, maybe find new favorites.

katsucats said:
That's why I suggested finding samples. The site would be 96 PHP for sample, which would still be expensive no doubt, since it's meant for a US market. I wonder if there are analogous sites for the Philippines market?

If you browse through Asian teas or even Indian teas, there are dozens of varieties separated by region, processing tradition, and even subtle variations in plant genetics. For example, there's Bi Lo Chun (Spring Green Snail), Long Jing (dragon Well), Tie Guan Yin (Iron Goddess), Gao Shan (High Mountain), Bai Hao Yin Zhen (Hundred Hair Silver Needle), Gunpowder, etc. It's all subjective, which is why I suggested finding whatever you could cheaply, or if a tea shop would let you try samples without buying them (I don't know if that's a thing there where you're from).

If you're interested in exploring teas, I'd recommend picking several varieties, whatever that you could find in supermarkets -- low grade, loose leaf -- and noting the differences and figure out which you like the best. And then once you appreciate the base flavor, in my opinion you could try things like adding sugar or other flavoring like vanilla, if you think it helps. I feel like if you start off with the vanilla, you wouldn't know what the tea tastes like. But of course, I'm a bit of a connoisseur. It's perfectly valid just to find a nice blend that you enjoy and stick with it, you just wouldn't know what each component contributes.

Ikan1a said:
I personally find plain tea kinda boring, especially herbal tea. But I can enjoy black tea & mint tea to an extent.

Milk tea is better though, perfect recipe for u all to try:

- Pour your milk in a pan
- Add the tea bag
- Add cardamom pods (or any other spices you want)
- Let the milk simmer on low heat WITH the tea bag in it & the spices, NO water!!
- Add your sugar
- Enjoy

If you want it more concentrated, simply let it boil for longer &/or add another tea bag. I personally like it CONCENTRATED.

I kinda find it disturbing when I think some people actually use boiled water & in the process (with hot chocolate too). It is A SIN in my book.



But all in all, coffee is the way to go for me. Whether black or with milk.

Luchse said:
Earl Grey and regular plain old black tea were always my thing.

Fatephile said:
Let's talk about drinks
Coffee sucks, tea is the best

babyaki said:
im not really a fan of tea but there are some i like

especially bubble milk tea, those are the best, the regular ones

also chrysanthemum tea in a box

Bloomberry said:
I recently tried some milk tea, it's pretty good. Other than that, I only drink tea at dim sum restaurants, and I don't really like it but I drink it anyway.

149597871 said:
Oolong tea tastes great, but in my opinion, anything that has high amounts of caffeine in it is unhealthy or, at the very least, unsuitable for daily consumption.

ren0080 said:


Is bubble milk tea different from normal milk tea?
If so, then I wanna taste that. It might redeem the milk tea for me.

babyaki said:


It's the same, just with tapioca pearls

Senseki said:
i used to be a big sweet tea drinker before i started having acid reflux problems. i'd probably rank it in my top 5 beverages.

i've also heard many good things health-wise about herbal teas. would love to try them.

Rinrinka said:
My favorite is just sweet Jasmine tea, good when served hot or cold :)

I usually drink hot one when I feel sick or when I'm bored of coffee.

I dont drink tea everyday tho, just sometimes.

ren0080 said:


Oh, then I might not like it too much then ooooof
But who knows, maybe if I tasted it again next time then I might like it.

babyaki said:


different places make it differently so you definitely should!

Malkshake said:
I also have acid reflux, but I just can't bring myself to give up sweet tea. Albeit, my reflux isn't that bad.

ren0080 said:

Milk is the best
For me at the very least lmao

RandomFriday said:
The only drink I drink is tea. I very rarely (like once every few weeks) drink juice, Coke, or plain water. I would say over 95% of drinks I consume is tea.
Usually I drink either black tea or white tea. But I also like rosehip and pomegranate tea. Sometimes I drink herbal tea, but very rarely tho.
Edit: I dont put milk or sugar or anything else in my tea, just plain tea.

Fatephile said:

At first I thought you were saying milk tea
But milk? Idk man, it tastes kinda funny

MilkShakeT said:
milk tea with chewy bubble and mango jelly :)))))

ren0080 said:


I always wonder why people found it taste funny tbh
It's probably because I add sugar in my milk lmao

But I agree, milk from convenience store taste weird. because it's soy milk
But certain brand of milks are pretty tasty even without sugar

Fatephile said:

If there are any in your region, I suggest you try water buffalo's milk instead of normal cow's.They usually taste better

ren0080 said:


bufallo milk? first time I'm hearing that
is it better than Cockroach milk? lol

Fatephile said:

Bruh reading this literally made me shake in my place
Whose idea was this even

ren0080 said:


Noice, I don't really like milk tea but I might try that because I like myself some mango jelly (or did I misunderstand and those two that you said are two different things? lol)