How do I tea?

[rhiannonstone]

Tea friends:

I am spending way too much on delivery boba and Thai iced tea, and have decided that it's silly to not learn how to make them myself the same way I did with coldbrew and espresso drinks. So I want to buy a couple good black teas (Assam? Probably? I think?) to start experimenting with.

Just like with coffee, I don't believe that drinking it iced or with other flavorings means you should use the crappy stuff, so I want the good stuff. Affordably so, especially until I learn how to not ruin it and confirm what I like, but still the pretty good stuff.

But I am like a little baby in tea land, where there are many, many different options for purchasing tea and I don't know how to assess whether the names I recognize are the ones actually worth trying, or whether $25 for 2 oz. is in fact a reasonable price.

Where should I start?

Please consider this a solicitation for any and all tea-related advice you'd like to share.

Comments

[ivy]

My reasonably-affordable favorite place is the New Mexico Tea Company. I like their Assam if you're looking for stronger black tea, and they have many blends as well if you want flavoring.

[rmd]

Upton Tea sells my favorite Irish breakfast tea (an Assam blend), but they also sell their tea in little samplers at a reasonable price. I drink a lot of tea, but I'm not much of a tea gourmet - I like my Irish breakfast tea with milk and sugar.

I'm in the odd position where I've ended up with a bunch of teas I'm unlikely to drink. (A combination of buying tea to try it and it's still not as good as my usual, because sometimes I am a creature of habit, and people leaving tea with me or Upton sending me random samplers because they'll throw those in sometimes.) If you'd like, send me your mailing address and I can mail you a bunch and you can try things out.

(I'll be curious about your results with Thai iced tea!)

Little different but amazing fancy beverages

[threemeninaboat]

For fancy tea latte time, I like this one, fruity and delicious:
https://www.tazo.com/us/en/products/lattes-iced/green-tea-matcha-latte.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuja_tea
I get the same brand pictured at the bottom at the asian market. Winter with hot water, summer over ice and bubble water.
They have "jujube flavor" I don't like that one, it's like raisins.

I can't find this stuff very often, I could just order it.
https://shop.celestialseasonings.com/the-godfather-tea-latte-concentrate/p/cel-529856&c=celestialseasonings@concentrates

I love jasmine tea with lemon and honey.

I love mint tea with honey.

In the summer, I love an arnold palmer...