My favorite tea is the turkish tea

How should I prepare Chai tea?

Got some recently and I've been drinking it straight, but I can really see that adding milk or cream would help the spices shine through.

Any suggestions would be awesome.

>>3972312
>Chai tea

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this motherfucker right here

>>3972315
What is your opinion on it? Obviously, you have some sort of negativity towards it, but I'd like to know more.

I just saw it on the shelf at my grocery store, and it looked interesting, so I thought I would give it a try.

>>3972320
chai just means tea
it's like saying queso cheese

>>3972329
but i fucking love me some queso cheese

no seriously; when you say chai where i live you mean indian tea

>>3972329
Yeah but in Mirka it now refers to a specific preparation of tea with like. Oh well.

DRINK GREEN TEA E'ERYDAY

>>3972329
chai doesn't mean tea, that's like saying tomahto means tomayto.
they are regional pronunciations of the same word.

>>3972342
im sorry what?

Is there anything wrong with bagged tea as opposed to open leaf tea? Also what brands do you all recommend? I'm open to buying online

>>3972345
There's nothing wrong with it, it's just generally of lower quality with more generic flavors.
Like you're not gonna have an easy time finding really good, woody green tea in a bag.

Chai tea, here in the US, is a type of indian tea that is heavily spiced.

I realize that Chai literally means "tea", but that is just how it is referred to here.

On a side note, "chili con queso", which is literally cheese with chilis, or "cheese dip" is ofter simply referred to as simply queso.

The more you know.

Now semantics aside, can anyone give actual feedback on the preparation of chai tea?

Otherwise, I wouldn't mind a few teas to try. I'm knew to the whole tea scene.

Texasfag here.

>>3972344
茶 is the character for tea.
in some parts of china, that was pronounced te.
in other parts, it was pronounced cha.

>>3972312
When I did masala chai I boiled it in milk and then added sugar to taste and strained it into the mug. Not my favorite though. I much prefer it done with water and unsweetened.

Or better yet, some fresh green tea that's astringent and brews a deep green, strong tasting cup. That's the best.

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I make this everyday.

>flavored tea

why would anyone do that?

>>3972329
This is like Ukrainian ryba fish

>>3972348
>Chai tea, here in the US, is a type of indian tea that is heavily spiced.

not just in the US.
yuropoor here.

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>>3972399
An Indian flatmate of mine did his like this, too.

Black tea and milk is the god of all tea. But in between, herb tea like melissa, sage or nattle. Recently bought "Pineapple Tea", witch is basically dry fruit with hibiscus and rose hip. Tastes decent.

>>3972418
Don't forget the salsa sauce.

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> Be southerner
> love me some unsweet iced tea
> old southern grandfather makes best iced tea
> ask him "granpa, how do you make your tea"
> he tells me buy brand x, and then do a, b, and c
> 1 month later
> buy some brand x
> "I'll just read the box instruction to see how the plebs are doing this"
> box has the EXACT SAME directions granpa gave me
> that sly dog
> his face probably

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Every-now and then I make a pot of "chai spiced tea" you can do it with just about any Indian spices you have at home and tweak your own recipe. The only real "musts" are black pepper corns, cloves, cardamom. 96% of the recipes out there for it are complete garbage though.
found a black gunpowder tea at Tea Hause. Gotta love those lighter fermentation black teas.
Anybody have an interesting or modern loose leaf tea they like? (please no herbal infusions)

that face when you see all those gross herbal bag teas your mom has been stockpiling for years.

>>3972465
>chai spiced tea

just call it masala chai, christ.

>>3972471
you forgot the quotes. They're there to emphasize the muddled language. I just call it "chai" most times.

>>3972465
I spice my tea with garam masala. Burns your fucking throat but it's great this time of year to warm you up, and I swear it opens me up when my asthma gets iffy.

>>3972465
Is that...JMs Kermit?

My favourite is probably Longjing... Really delicate fresh flavour. I went to Hangzhou, to visit the plantations there. Even drank some made with water from the Dragon Well that the tea is named after.

Pu'er is nice too. Went to Yunnan to sample lots of that. Both the raw and ripe versions are delicious.

Besides that, some Oolong can be good... I prefer Oolong from Taiwan to mainland China's Oolong, Taiwan is still using the traditional methods to produce it.
Hong cha is great when you're tired of green teas... And Ceylon teas can be pretty good - I went to the mountainous parts of Sri Lanka to taste some of them at the plantations there.

I'm not a big fan of flavoured teas, although I don't mind a bit of Earl Grey sometimes... And I did just sample a flavoured Rooibos that wasn't too bad for a tisane kind of thing...

Would I be a fool if I bought spearmint tea and expected it to taste like spearmint gum?

>>3972342
>regional pronunciations of the same word
This fucking guy again.
It is no longer the same word. Chai is NOT the same word as te. They may refer to the same thing, but they are no longer the same word.

Jasmine dragon pearls are delicious.

Just sayin'.

>>3973846
umm not really. It tastes like spearmint. It's a shitload stronger than gum, though, spearmint tea will make you feel like...YOU'RE STANDING ON TOP OF MOUNT EVEREST!!!

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>>3973874
I laughed harder than I thought.

>>3972564
Hangzhou is such a beautiful town

I remember drinking a type of Pu'er but it was wrapped in an orange/clementine skin

forgot what it was called. It was pretty delicious

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Fortnum & Mason Earl Grey trumps everything.

chai (tʃaɪ)

— n
tea, esp as made in India with added spices

>>3973938

I disagree.. Mariage Freres Earl Grey is superior.

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Jasmine or bust.

Ceylon forever

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Picture of my tea stash! I was reorganizing my desk area, thought I may as well.

Shitloads of Teavivre samples in the front, some matcha, sencha and genmaicha too, a row of dessert teas from Della Terra Teas, earl grey and a coconut black in separate jars on the sides, some from Butiki Teas and a back row of Adagio (all tisanes) and 52teas.

I've been highly preferring oolong lately - going through my honey-soaked Tie Guan Yin and the milk oolong samples from Teavivre pretty quick, but the orange blossom-scented one from Pekko Teas has been my staple. I actually just came across a porcelain gong fu set that I must have been given at some point while cleaning the house today. So now I'll be trying to brew them non-Western style.

>>3973910
Yeah, it is... Beautiful lake-front town... And all the tiny tea plantations, as you head up the hills into the mist...
It is also the site of the China national tea museum :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_National_Tea_Museum

I visited there, and picked up a tea seed I found lying around near their plantation... Smuggled it back into Europe... I haven't tried germinating it, we don't really have the altitude here in the Netherlands.

Nearby Suzhou is lovely too, with all the hidden gardens and such... Hmmm actually Suzhou itself was a dump, but the gardens were incredible...

>>3974491
Jasmine flavoured tea can be pleasant enough, but it's usually made with lower-quality tea...

>>3972329
Whatever Chai means in India, it doesn't mean elsewhere. In England it refers to a blend of spice infused tea. The origin of word is irrelevant. The sound has been taken, and has been given new meaning.

To speak of "Chai Tea" is a perfectly correct way of expressing.

Still drinking Nepalese Himalayan View as my everyday tea.

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>>3973969
>Mariage Freres Earl Grey
>French > English

Surely you jest?

>>3975014
>Mariage Freres Earl Grey

It's actually not that bad...

But I must admit, being Canadian, I am rather biased towards the Brit's Fortnum and Mason if only because in my mind
Earl grey = England

drinking some peach white right now

>live in Alaska
>have an indoor tea plan
>Pick leaves once a week, roll and dry them
>Mix with some dried peach
>Dericious

I got some bamboo tea the other day! I'll post pictures when I wake up tommorrow.

I got one in pomegranate flavour too.

I'm unsure how to describe its taste, but its nice by itself.

My favorite brand of tea is TAZO.

How I prepare my Chai: Boil some water, put it in the cup with the tea bag already in there, let it steep for two minutes and thirty seconds, put a teaspoon and a half of sugar (if I'm on the run, I use three packs of equal or two packs of Sweet n' Low. I hate Splenda), stir, and enjoy.

Sometimes you don't even have to use sugar because Chai is the type of tea you can drink on it's own without any modifications.

>>3972312
I do it:

1 cup of water, 1 cup of milk/milk equivalent (I used vanilla soy, as I’m lactose intolerant), 1 tbsp of sugar, 1 tbsp of chai (I used the entire GM packet).

Boil water and sugar together in a saucepan until sugar dissolves into water. Into a syrup.
Add the chai, then simmer for 5 minutes.
Add the milk, simmering and stirring.
When it comes to a boil (be careful that it doesn’t boil over!), turn the heat off and let it sit for a long time. Like 7-10 minutes long. I let it sit for around 8-9 or so.
Strain and serve.

It's a recipe taken from a kashmiri chai, but I use it on all my chai-like teas. It is delicious, and makes sugar the sugar and milk don't just taste like add-ons that dilute the flavor.

>>3975219
sorry about those parenthesis, forgot to take them out. They weren't mine. But GM = Golden Moon Teas, and they have a really good kashmiri chai.

>>3974833
Not when you make sure to buy from a vendor that's trusted. If they sell a great white tea and then a jasmine-scented version of the same exact tea alongside it, it won't be lower quality.

Tea pleb here, what's the difference between Earl Grey and Lady Grey in terms of flavor and preparation?

>>3975226
I always thought it was the lavender. Apparently the Twinnings variety of Lady Grey is "black teas, Seville orange, lemon, bergamot, and cornflower" vs. Earl Grey, which is just bergamot and black tea (sometimes cornflower) usually.

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I'm having a cup of Bailin Gongfu black right now and it is the best black I've ever had. I'm fairly floored, really loving the extreme malty, chocolate, caramel tones.

High Mountain Oolong is best Oolong.

OP of the other tea thread. I have a french press which I use to make coffee. I know of people who use it for tea and what not to.

>>3976186
You usually don't want to use the same French press as you do for coffee as you do for tea though. The coffee flavor really sticks to them, in my experience, and you don't want that getting in your tea.

My favorite tea is the Turkish Tea.

So...

I saw this thread and i've always been interested in tea. I've always wanted to buy some but i don't know where to start, i asked my friend for some suggestions but she said that it depends on what you like. But i don't know what i like so, please, someone just give me a suggestion, something you would think anyone would like.


tl;dr: New to tea, looking for suggestions.

Drinking loose lipton black tea because it's been sitting in the house for a long time.

It tastes alright but it's rather bland. Not much flavor to it. Then again it's been sitting at my house for a while...

>>3976896
black teas from india, oolongs from taiwan and green teas from china or japan.

>>3975111
Please tell me you've had actual masala chai before and you just prefer this way. Otherwise you're missing the fuck out.
You can usually buy premade masala at any Indian grocery store but my family prefers to make our own with peppercorn, ginger, cardamom, anise, etc.

Boil water and masala together for a couple minutes, then turn the heat down and steep the tea right there in the pot. Add milk and heat until warm, strain and serve.

>>3976896
I don't really think there's a straight tea that "anyone" would like. Loads of people like infusions and blends (masala chai and earl grey), but I don't know of a certain plain tea lots and lots of people like.

To help you though: pick up an Assam (black), Keemum (black), Darjeeling (black), Tie Guan Yin (oolong), Pouchong (oolong) and a gunpowder green.

If you don't have a local tea shop to buy from, there are lots of online retailers. Harney & Sons and Adagio are both good starter choices, and both of them offer sample sizes.

I really think the best way to "start" on tea is with infusions and blends though, for most people. Then you start developing your taste for the tea, wanting more of it and less of the artificial taste, and when you migrate to "real" teas you're even more appreciative of them.

3 sugars and a Twinings everyday teabag with semi milk.

>>3976896
actually I will even give you a nice shopping list if you do decide to buy from H&S:

Organic Assam - $2
Darjeeling - $2
Wenshan Baozhong - $4
Da Hong Pao - $5
Gunpowder Green - $2

And their shipping is $5.5, so that's about a $20 purchase. This is at least 20 cups worth, even if you don't resteep (which you should).

PG Tips
Mug
Add boiling water
Stand 2 minutes
Squeeze teabag gently with teaspoon and remove.
Add milk and sugar to preference.

The industrial strength tea that built the British Empire!

>>3976126

I love me some loose leaf tea.