Tuesday Tea: What's your best tea tip (favorite cup, best flavors, go-to brands)?
Let's share a nice cuppa
Tea elicits strong opinions, and rightly so. The perfect cup of tea, brewed and flavored just the way you like it, can turn an entire day around. (But maybe tea isn’t your cup of tea, and you prefer coffee? That’s nice, too.)
There are lovely tea shops here in Prague, so we have excellent leaf tea in our pantry. But sometimes we get lazy and use Marks & Spencer bags. The loose tea is better, but the bags are quicker. In practical terms, that means when we’re on deadline, it’s bags, and on leisure, it’s leafy.
Dave says…
I like a nice cup of Earl Grey with one sugar cube in my favorite orange mug.
Mel says…
I alternate between decaf Earl Grey and decaf English breakfast with two sugar cubes and oat milk. My current favorite mug is from the Letnà Letná circus festival.
Years ago (actually, it was 1985 come to think of it) when I was a young American working as a live-in au pair in Paris, France, a fussy little man I had worked with in San Francisco contacted me to say he was in Paris on his yearly visit and would I like to do some sightseeing with him. We spent quite a bit of time together during his visit and I learned a lot from his knowledge of Paris. Plus he paid for everything and we always went to lunch, so that was pretty great too. He always ordered tea (Earl Grey) and he always set the annoying beepy timer on his digital watch as soon as the tea started steeping. I finally asked him why he bothered with that. He said he wanted the tea to steep exactly two minutes because at two minutes he got the full flavor of the tea without the bitterness that would creep in with longer steeping. I was skeptical. I'd never been a fan of tea. It needed sugar to taste good and I didn't like sweet drinks. When I went to cafes I'd have a grand creme (espresso in a big cup with foamy milk) during my time in Paris. But later I tested Roger's tea technique. What do you know, the bitter flavor that made me not like black tea was not present when I stopped steeping at two minutes. I could just add milk and the flavor was rich and smooth. And that's the story of how I learned to like tea.
At this time of year, I have already begin on holiday teas: Comfort and Joy plus Tea of Good Tidings both by Republic of Tea. Other daily favorites are Double Bergamot Earl Grey by Stash, Fruits D'Alsace by Harney & Sons, and Bold Black Chai by Republic of Tea. A little sweetner, but no milk.