Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Tea Thread

As is often the case around here, the idea for this thread came from another thread that had been hijacked in this direction. Check out some of our colleague's tea preferences there.

The medic8r clan is often brewing hot tea - weekend mornings, after work, after dinner with a movie. We have a tea box that I got for my wife one Christmas from Island Rose teas - it came with a variety of 120 bags. At the moment, you can see it on the company home page. Gail especially liked the Orange Fountain, an herbal tea. The Long Island Cola was my favorite. However, I don't often do herbal tea. Mostly I go for "real" tea.

My favorite styles, usually bought from one of the big companies like Twinings, are Darjeeling, Ceylon, Chai, and English Breafast. My current favorite is The London Cuppa, which I find rich and satisfying - a little more interesting than the old favorites above. I got it at TJ Maxx, which is my favorite place to buy discount tea (and coffee).

Any other tea takers out there?

I can’t even remember when I started drinking tea. My mother use to make sun tea and that’s all I ever drank for years. It’s still the majority of my consumption. Right now I’m drinking a “veggie shake” the base of which is two cups of green tea. I hate veggies so I drink a days supply when I get up in the morning.

Lately most of my tea consumption has been the herbal variety. My two favorites are kava and passionflower.

I don't drink much hot tea because I haven't found anything worth drinking. I'm look forward to finding something good from this thread. Thanks guys.

As I was saying in the other thread, I pretty much exclusively drink The Rebublic of Tea now.

My favorites:
Earl Greyer (Hot)
Republic Chai (A very versatile tea, can be served iced or hot, with sugar, milk, or both, and a taste everyone should enjoy.)
Cranberry Blood Orange (Wish this one came in full leaf without having to buy a pound of it for $42, but I just may do that.)
Lapsang Souchong (A very interesting tea, it's smoked over pine embers, and as one person put it "tastes like a forest fire". Not for everyone, but if you want something different. Sherlock Holmes drank it.)
Acai Green Tea (I don't know what it is, but every time I make a cup of this, my sense of smell gets jacked up. That's good because it has a wonderful aroma and taste. Supposed to be very good for you too.)
Wuyi Oolong (Oolong is somewhere between black and green. This is probably the smoothest tea I've ever had. Make it in a clear glass tea cup and admire the color too.)


I've always wanted to try Republic's "rare" teas. Both the Rare Tea Collection, and Imperial Republic Tea have prices that sail above $10 an ounce. I feel like the M60 owners, drinking their regular teas. How can anything be better than what I'm getting already. But at the same time, those hand-tied blossoming bundles, are not going to make the tea taste any better, just as the real wood finishes don't make the speakers sound any better. But you can't fault the presentation.

Oh, and if at all possible get all your teas as loose, full-leaf, not bagged. Some people use little screen balls to hold the loose tea, but I prefer to let the leaves unfurl in this cup, although the little slots in the infuser insert are a bit hard to clean (but I've found sliding a sheet of paper through them does a good job).

Awesome a "bag" thread.

Where's Medusa when you need her?

Should be a bagless thread (or threadless bags, as Republic's round bags don't have strings) if you take my advice and go with loose tea.

I like the Republic of Tea that I have had: I picked up tins of bagged "Emperor's White" and "Orange Blossom White" at either TJ Maxx or World Market a while back. I take the tins to work and have tea there.

My wife's favorite tea is jasmine, and the best I've had so far is loose pearls from Teavana. I remember being excited and surprised to see that store open at my local mall when I was in Virginia.

If it's good enough for Captain Picard it's good enough for me:

Earl Grey Tea....make it so....

I drink a lot of tea and have tried everything from the grocery store teas, flavoured teas to the expensive loose teas you can buy on the internet. Still my favorite tea is just the good ol` standard orange pekoe brewed extremely strong with a bit of milk. I like everything except for some of the green/white teas, rooibos (yuck!), earl grey I am not to fond of but I will still drink it.