I’m an earl grey with honey man, but if I’m being honest, I’ve never really tried much else.
TL;DR
- Green: Gyokuro
- Black: Darjeeling
- White: Pai Mu Tan (Bai Mu Dan)
- Yellow: Yinzhen
- Pu-Erh: Sheng over Shu
- Misc: Yerba Mate (Instead of Coffee)
I’ll just boldly split that answer into some categories :D
Black teas: As my personal favorite I prefer Darjeeling teas, because of their flowery and mild taste.
As for my daily driver I mostly find myself drinking stronger black teas, like english breakfast or ceylon teas.
Green teas: My personal favorite for green tea is the Japanese Gyokuro, because of its strongly present umami flavour and general taste. This green tea gets its flavour from being hidden from the sun by huge black tarps some months prior to harvest. This procedure stops bitter substances from forming within the flower.
But because Gyokuro is a very pricey tea I find myself buying a Chinese green tea called Pi Lo Chun. It’s nothing like the Gyokuro that I love, but it has a flowery flavour to it.
I also love drinking and preparing Matcha. You shouldn’t waste money on cheap Matcha, only if you like to drink Matcha Latte.
Whites: For white teas I love to drink a tea called Pai Mu Tan (sometimes called Bai Mu Dan). It tastes somewhat fruity sometimes.
I’ve also tried a more expensive white tea called Silver Needles but I couldn’t really make out a difference to other white teas I’ve tasted. But that might also just be an error of mine.
Oolong: I really like Da Hong Pao. I haven’t tasted many other oolongs.
Yellow teas: It’s been a while since I’ve had my last yellow tea, but I remember buying a Yinzhen. It had a malty taste, that I really enjoyed.
Pu-Erh: I like the earthy taste of a good Shu Pu-Erh. Riper Shu Pu-Erh might even taste like chocolate. But when first drinking a Shu you might connect the taste and the smell to fish or algae.
Sheng Pu-Erh is more like a conventional green tea. With time passing, this tea will ripen and unlock new flavours.
I prefer Shengs over Shus.
Misc.: When talking about other kinds of tea I like substituting coffee with yerba mate. It keeps you energized longer and when drinking it correctly you can also drink it for quite a long time. My longest session was about 4 hours long before the taste vanished.
I’m no huge herbal tea guy, but I do like my camomile tea in the evening to calm myself.
Spicy chai latte
I always forget chai is actually a tea. I’m so used to western teas, I guess.
Funny, if you ask me about tea in general, I think of it as essentially an asian thing with a couple “regular” or “plain” western varieties. I guess it’s marketing doing justice to history for once?
I used to pride myself on my tea snobbery, sampling green tea varieties from the farmers market and using a ceramic infuser.
Then one day I stopped having time for all that and found that Constant Comment was actually quite lovely and available everywhere.
Black tea with orange zest and spices. Simple, but everything I really want from a tea. Lady Grey is good too.
Maturity
I live in a hot climate so my favorite teas are iced.
Iced oolong sweetened only with some lychee chunks is the only thing close to boba I can stomach. I also like a good iced jasmine green tea. Or just a strong green tea hot or iced.
Scottish Breakfast is my new favorite I put just a touch of oat milk in it. (no dairy for me)
I enjoy a good Irish breakfast, not sure what specifically is the difference between that and a traditional english breakfast. Just tastes smoother to me.
It has a different blend of teas.
Lapsang souchong
Ginger. But only because I refuse to call yerba mate “tea”.
Coffee is my favorite tea. 😆
Sadly, just can’t stand the stuff anymore. Grew up having sweetened iced tea for dinner every night. My wife always keeps different varieties on hand and I’ve occasionally tried different combinations of hot and sweet and milky. For my money, nothing touches a cup of joe. Give it to me black and bitter, like Dick Cheney’s original heart.
I’m similar in that I like black coffee. There’s a nice rabbit hole for people like us in speciality coffees too, so we don’t need to feel too left out!
What’s your favorite? I really like The Reanimator from justcoffee.coop. ❤️
I’ve dabbled with Death Wish but I’m not as young as I used to be. Afraid it’ll make my heart pop. 😆
I’m a sucker for variety and will drink whatever are the beans of the month from my local roaster (Kafferosteriet Koppar), but my all-time favourite has to be the Bridazul roasted by Kafferäven. Fermented beans are a truly special experience in my book.
Fermented you say. How does that impact the flavor?
It makes for a more acidic brew, which I personally really like. It’s quite fruity as well, while still definitely being coffee.
Based on your recommendations, it might not be your cup of tea (or in this case, coffee!), but it might be worth a try if you want to expand your horizons. I am personally not into dark roasts, being mostly a medium to light-roast person.
I’ve tried a great many different black and green teas, but my favorite is Constant Comment. I realize that makes me a barbarian low-life, but I genuinely enjoy the flavor.
Call me basic but jasmine green tea is up there
Lady Grey
Earl Grey in a pinch
Jasmine is top tier imo but I also enjoy chai
Black tea with some lemon and sugar.
This is how we drank tea in communist Poland when I was a child and I tried so many teas in Japan with the nice ceremony, Chinese green tea, american peach ice tea, English tea with milk, etc. But nothing comes close.
lemon and sugar
Ah, memories. I can’t drink that any more unless I don’t want to eat for several hours until my teeth stop being sensitive, but during my childhood it wasn’t just delicious, it was a way to bond with my older relatives.
Ah wait, there is one which is close, Indian chai, it’s so flavorful!
One more notable is marrokean peppermint tea, but it’s just to sweet.
Sencha Fukujyu. Loose leaf green tea with no added stuff. 70 degrees. Reuse leafs throughout the day. Brewed in a kettle that allows proper expansion of leafs.
Celestial Seasoning Bengal Spice
I also really enjoy this one. However, it contains no tea leaves so not a ‘true’ tea. ‘Tisane’ or ‘herbal infusion’ are the more precise terms.