In addition to coffee daily, I also drink an Irish Breakfast tea and usually 1-2 cups of various others later in the day as well (this winter season I’ll do mint, chamomile, probably Rooibos or Oolong, whatever I happen to find for cheap).
An electric water kettle was given to me as a gift (but they are cheap anyway I thought?) and it’s so super fast and easy. I don’t really know what I’m doing - just pour, steep for ~1 min, then drink, repeat:-). For breakfast tea I add creamer, for the rest nothing. I’m sure I could do more like put those large packs in something airtight.
What do you rock, in terms of tea🍵?
Daily is dependent on time of year for me. I tend to not like hot beverages during warm whether, with the minor exception of coffee with deserts and I still let the coffee cool some.
That being said, I’m having a cup of earl grey as I’m scrolling lemmy right now, and I have a cup almost every day during cooler weather. It is, however, a recent thing. I never liked hot teas, but I have a thing where I retry things I don’t like (but not things I hate) every now and then because I discovered that my tastes can change without any attempt at making it happen.
Last winter, I decided to try some of my wife’s hot tea, which she does drink every day, all year round.
I found that I found it less meh than I used to, so I tried some other types she had around. I discovered that, while I’m particular about how I like specific teas, I very much enjoy hot tea in general now.
Before, green tea was the only one I would choose to drink hot, and only at Japanese restaurants.
Now, I prefer Earl Grey, it’s my favorite tea. I take it with a single sugar and splash of milk. Not cream, milk
I also very much enjoy English and Irish breakfast teas single sugar, splash of lemon.
Other teas vary, but lag behind those in how often I would pick them instead of those. And, I tend to always want a single sugar, no matter the type. Green tea I drink either plain, or with a few drops of honey, but no sugar.
I tend not to like flavored teas as much, though I can tolerate them if I want a hot drink and there’s nothing else.
I’m not too picky about preparation. If I’m really wanting to savor a special tea, I boil the water separate, use filtered water only, carefully time the steep, and such. But for day to day drinking, I’m using a microwave. 2 minutes thirty, with the bag in, and the little bit of flavor that’s lost is not a problem to me. But I wouldn’t do that with loose tea at all, even with reusable bags. If I’m reaching for loose tea, I want every bit of flavor and scent, so it’s precise.
But even with the fancy teas, I’m not sweating how the water is heated at all, and I’m not fanatical enough to worry about seconds of steep time.
I never got into Earl Grey for some reason. Irish Breakfast is strong enough to have flavor even with food, and I guess I got used to it, enough to enjoy it even without (in fairness I usually use a bag twice, which makes the flavor weaker:-).
I never add sugar but then again I usually have something with the tea, perhaps a yogurt, in which case I also add no creamer, or eggs for breakfast, in which case I do add creamer.
Herbal teas are supposed to be a bit bitter. As a child I always hated bitter, but now I love these flavors.
I miss green teas. You used to get it for like a dollar in Japanese restaurants, but now that it’s tripled in price for whatever reason I never do it anymore. Soups either - I used to get one every time I went but now I just never do. Post-pandemic pricing definitely changed how I eat things, especially “out”.
Don’t feel shame in using a microwave (then again, I know nothing, so don’t listen to me there:-) - so long as the water boils and then starts to back off from that, it’s mission accomplished.:-)
But with the bag in - that works?!? Well if you enjoy it, I suppose it must.
Yeah, the bag in does lose some of the strength of the bergamot for earl grey, but other than that, the difference isn’t enough to notice in bagged teas. Like, maybe if you were blind tasting side by side, you could tell that the same tea wasn’t the same microwave vs normal steep, but I couldn’t tell which was which. The best I can describe is that the microwave is a little less tannic, but a little less floral as well