Where have all my tea-lovin' pals gone?

Help! Someone has abducted all the members of this group. They aren't around anymore to post about this thing we all enjoy called tea. If found please return to this group page.

I'm here....it seems a lot of the groups have been quiet lately.

*waves*

I'm here, just don't have much to say.

{{Trying t think of something really controversial to say to get things going...}}

ok, I failed at that. Controversy and tea do not go together maybe.
I did however, read a nice little article on the Guardian about a tea buyer in China.
I will shamelessly send you to my blog article about it for the link to the full article.

I haven't posted much to begin with, but since my tea shop closed down, I've been too bummed to talk about tea.

Awww, sorry to hear that, codyed. Better luck in your next venture!

Woops! I seemed to have implied that it was my tea shop. I was simply a patron. :)

I'm around, but school started up this week and that effectively shut me up!

I haven't had my tea today. For shame!

I'm here, though the weather here in Phoenix (still over 100 degrees most days) has me drinking iced tea until October.

I envy your restraint (not having tea yet today). I think I'm addicted. Life doesn't work for me without tea. I think it's very true what Sheridan Le Fanu says in his story Green Tea - for me at any rate - that everything gets "done" on something; and for me it's tea.

Yes, I am a Tea addict- Dark, strong English Tea will only do, with lots of warmed whole milk and just a teaspoon of sugar. I grew up on English Tea. My Mom served it to me and I found when my daughter turned 11 I would make it at dawn in our RV in Seattle (we worked in a State Park on the Puget Sound). It was a simple routine that started a bond and ritual. She's just entered 9th grade and how dare I?, for one of the first times I slept in this morning. Last night Elisabeth says: "Mom who will make my tea?" She can do it, but Mom making it is special.

I'm still here just busy at work. What's a good tea to drink at work? We have an electric water kettle and most people make coffee. But I'm weird and coffee seems to put me to sleep. I can drink a cup and 15 mins later I'm so sleepy even my co-workers notice. So I would like a nice cup of tea, any suggestions?

Hi ElissaMcG - What a terrific thing to do with your daughter. My mother gave me my first cup of hot tea when I was seven and had measles. She always drank hot tea instead of coffee, and I often think about her when I make tea today.

LA12Hernandez - whatever tea you drink at home! If you don't have a filter or similar for loose tea there are a lot of recommendations for bagged teas in the favorite tea thread.

Thanks I'll go to the Favorite Tea thread.

Aww, I love the mother/daughter tea stories. I remember the first cup my mother gave me. She's a tea junkie and drinks it all day long. One day, when I was about three, I insisted that I wanted some too. So she waited until it cooled a little and poured some into my favorite little Hello Kitty cup for me to try. After that, it became a special treat until I was about ten or so. I think she wanted to make sure I was old enough to not burn myself before she let me drink it regularly. Now I drink it all the time - including right now! :-)

You know Tetley's British Blend is the greatest tea. It's better than Twinings and very strong. If you are adding milk steep for 5 mins. But if you are working you might try what I do. I work at Chef's Catalog in their store and we have a very fancy kitchen in back for Colorado Springs' Chefs to do cooking classes. We have everything, even a very nice electric kettle, but we never got the microwave delivered....so I usually don't have time to heat up some whole milk for my tea or keep it warm by reheating. So, I have found if I have it straight with no milk, even cooling, it tastes very good. It also gives the nice caffeine jolt. Try only steeping 3-4 min. though. A more milder taste is better when not adding milk, with a bit of sugar:)

Thank you, I can actually get Tetley's British Blend here in central Texas. And thanks for the tips I'm going to try it.

I am here now but I was sampling tea throughout the UK and absent. I know it is not the most posh tea but I do like the Whittard Original I brought back it is just a good strong black tea blend but it doesn't seem to get bitter. Other than that I have still been drinking Matcha pretty regularly having found more in Chinatown yes I know why Chinatown but they had it.

I may have to try the Tetley's British Blend. I usually use Twinnings Irish Breakfast as my standard black tea (when I am making *gasp* tea from a bag).

I've been over at TeaChat, and the "Hot English Guys" thread in the Hogwarts Express group. ^_^;; I've been pretty busy otherwise, too, and haven't been on LibraryThing as much as I used to.

I've been off LT mostly, between getting married, moving, and enjoying the tea I picked up on my honeymmon. I do owe you all a bit of information from my England trip - which hopefully I'll get up in the next day or so!

Yes (gasp!) Tetley's British Blend is in bags, but they compensate with more tea in the bag...it's better than Twinings English Breakfast Tea in the pot. But you know what I really liked was a tea friends from England sent to me called Tips...that I haven't found. It also had a great decaf version...which I can't find anywhere that doesn't taste of dishwater. Any Decaf English Tea out there that is good???

I live in a pretty good area for food stores. I can find almost all the typical supermarket teas within 30 minutes of where I live. Tetley's, PGTips, Twinings, etc. I haven't found Yorkshire Gold, but most others I can find. I'm not a fan usually of Celestial Seasoning or Bigelow teas, but some are okay.

Yorkshire Gold is one of my favorites too, along with Typhoo and Barry's, none of which I can get around here. I've been ordering them from Goodwood's with good results. For a while, Typhoo was available locally, and seemed to sell pretty well. Then it just disappeared. Evidently Twinings and Bigelow offer excellent stocking incentives to grocers because that's pretty much what's on the shelves here for English teas.

I've been around :/

been a fan of Barry's Gold for my every day tea, but I just ordered some Barry's Irish Breakfast because they say it is stronger than the Gold...we will see.....

When I was in Tea and Sympathy a few months ago, my friend was asking me about the teas on the menu. I said Typhoo was really strong but good. The waitress, who was English as most of them are there, said actually it's considered one of the milder teas. Wow I guess it doesn't take much to knock my socks off!

Wow, I wonder what she would think a strong tea is?

Maybe coffee?

Thanks for getting us going again. I've been struggling in a murk of deadlines and family stuff. Thank goodness for strong tea!

re Message 22 by ElissaMcG, probably you have PG Tips in mind, which is a great tea if you need to use teabags and like your tea on the dark-and-handsome side of the spectrum. In the US you can find it in most upscale groceries, and it seems you can buy it online here and there too.

>30 Nycticebus:
as usual, you can find PG Tips on Amazon...

'The dark and handsome side of the spectrum'...yes, that describes my tea leanings...

#30

PG Tips is showing up at not-so-upscale groceries too, as long as it's in a decent sized town. (Tea selection at my parents' is non-existent.)

I like that quote...is that yours?'The dark and handsome side of the spectrum'...yes, that describes my tea leanings...

Yes, I've been away... not just from Tea! but from LT entirely. So nice to be back!

No apologies. I volunteer with the local Red Cross chapter and we participate in a national call center that ramps up after major disasters. So I've been talking to people affected by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike for the past three weeks. My tastes have run more towards strong black coffee to get me going in the morning, and I'm starting to put hot sauce on everything ('cept the tea and coffee). But my last shift will be tomorrow and then it's back to what passes for normal around here.

Should probably make myself a nice pot of tea and spend a few hours with a good book to reward myself.

What should I make? Caitmaire (4) wanted controversy... That might fire up a little debate.

Irish Breakfast with a touch of honey.

34: Hmm. I'd say a cup (or better yet, pot) of top quality oolong - http://www.plymouthtea.com/flortikuanyi.html for example. Sorry LA12, but I just not a fan of Irish Breakfast, so I can't second yours.

To be honest I was going to say oolong but I couldn't spell it. I get mine from a Chinese food store, At least the lady behind the counter says it's oolong,it is written in Chinese I think.

I'm not a fan of Twinings. I order PG Tips online for my "everyday" tea. I live in Boulder, CO and the "Bolder Breakfast" loose tea from the tea spot is a nice and strong black tea blend for the morning when I need to get going. I like oolong in the afternoon.

Twinings as an everyday tea doesn't really do it for me either (I've got my good old Yorkshire Tea for that), but I do love their weird and wonderful speciality teas and infusions. On my last shopping trip I bought their "White Tea with Pomegranate" (very nice), "Cherry and Cinnamon Tea" (herbal infusion, also very nice) and "Camomile and Spiced Apple" (about to try this now with my breakfast). But my all-time favourite afternoon tea when relaxing at home is a nice cup of Lapsang Souchong.

I work at Chef's outlet in Colorado Springs in the retail store and we just had the woman from the Tea Spot in to do a Demo last Sat and give samples. I'm finicky about my Black tea and when I tried "Bolder Breakfast" I thought drinking it straight it was too odd tasting (it is supposed to have a chocolatey undertone). But then I thought that's silly, I'd probably not like my favorite Tetley's British Blend either without milk and sugar because I brew it very strong. So later when I had time I dipped into the kitchen and added a bit of cream and sugar and it was very good, but different. I was too busy to savor it for a minute. I'll have to get some and try, the Red Rocks tea was very good also (without milk) it is from Roobos (sp?)...we do sell it in the store, I'm not sure if it is in the catalog.
We were supposed to have a cooking class tonight with the Tea Spot Lady, "Cooking with Tea" but I think it didn't draw enough interest and was cancelled....too bad, it looked interesting. Too bad you all aren't closer to Colorado Springs, we would have enough for a class!

Message 33:
I like that quote...is that yours?'The dark and handsome side of the spectrum'...yes, that describes my tea leanings...

It's not a conscious quote of anyone, although who knows what phrases I've taken in over the years without realizing it. Anyway, it's everyone's now!

Hello Tea Drinkers,,
I wanted to let you know if you live by a Barnes and Noble all their tea should be 50% off,,they are changing the tin designs,,also does anyone know of a good scone or tart cookbook,,,thanks...

Devon

This one's nice:
Jane Pettigrew's Tea time : a complete collection of traditional recipes

though it's more than just scones & tarts :-)

then there's Crumpets and Scones, and Scones, muffins and tea cakes : breakfast breads and teatime spreads.

Just an update....Chef's Catalog at the retail store in Colorado Springs is running a Cooking with Tea class in November with the Rep from the Boulder Tea Spot....any Tea lovers in Colorado Springs????We need 4 to run a class.....

Wow, this group keeps getting abducted. I'm surprised that we don't have superhuman abilities from all the testing the aliens do to us when they take us away. :) Come back.... I like discussing tea things with you.

So what teas would you put in a gift basket for a person just learning to appreciate the wonders of tea.

Hmm...honestly I would put in some Twinings english breakfast to give them something basic and not too extravagent to start with. I would also put in a good jasmine. Probably do one from each group: black, green, white, oolong, chai, etc. I don't know if I would put in Lapsang Souchong or some rooibos' because they are kind of overwhelming, IMO. Eight at the Fort sampler from Harney is $2 and is made from eight teas. I was surprised to really be able to pick out the different tastes in that blend. Usually I just let people smell the tea and pick what they want to be honest. For some reason people feel comfortable with something they like the smell of.

I'm having to send this basket so I can't get any real feedback. The English Breakfast sounds good and so does a green and white tea. I also thought of a shortbread cookie or maybe a jar of marmalade. What do you think.

I'd go with an assortment of teas and the shortbread cookies. Also maybe a nice cup to drink the tea from and maybe a book to read with it? :)

Oh a book. Great Idea. Any suggestions? She likes cozies, because she reads before bed.

Buckingham Palace Garden party English Tea, Niagara Peach Green Tea, Pai Mu Tan White Tea, Soursap Black Tea--------all from www.Cupteavity.com--------all excellent choices for someone who is just getting into tea.

As for the book, perhaps Christie's Bertram's Hotel, as the characters enjoy their tea at Bertram's.

> 51 mstrong
Thanks for the suggestion and the site. I've even found some teas to try for myself.

>52 mstrust: mstrust
Bertram's Hotel sounds perfect.

Thanks everyone She's really going to love this gift.

Many tea merchants have pre-selected gift baskets which are very nice; I know that Simpson & Vail does for sure. They usually include two or three teas, some cookies, sometimes a jar of jam or marmelade, and, for the bigger baskets, sometimes tea infusers or china.

Mariage Freres has marvelous tea-based jellies, which are definitely something out of the common for a gift.

Bertram's Hotel sounds perfect. Also Death by Darjeeling which is the first in the tea shop mysteries and is very cozy and loaded with tea info. My absolute favorite bisquit to eat with tea is madelines from Starbucks.

Hello Tealovers hope everyone had a nice Holiday and a great New Year. Any new teas to talk aboiut? Has anyone heard of Octavia? Wholefoods used to carry it. It's loose tea, that came in a metal oval container. I haven't tried on-line, I was just wondering if anyone knew of a store that carried it. Has anyone tried the tea's from Gevalia coffee. It's an on-line coffee club, and they have some nice English Breakfast tea, and some herbal teas that are nice.