Green Tea Forum

jsph27 · Posted: Sep 04, 2007 4:29 am Post subject: me = noob

I just started drinking tea (mostly green). I've mostly been getting stuff from Krogers like Stash, Lipton, Celestial Seasonings, but I want to get more "real" tea. From what I've read the supermarket stuff is nothing compared to whats out there.

I don't really know what I'm doing though (search function didn't help me much either because of this) so I'm basically asking what is the next step? I'd rather stick with teabags for now, unless you guys think I should try and brew tea myself. Also, are Lipton Pyramids worth it?

syntheticpanda · 2nd Degree Black Belt Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 198

While the idea of the pyramid bag is a step forward, allowing leaves to more fully expand, as far as I know Lipton still puts the same small fannings (teeny bits of leaves) and dust from their other tea bags into their pyramid bags. I'm pretty sure it's just a gimmick for them.

Unless you're going for pure convenience, the taste of brewed loose leaf is far better than anything you will ever get from the standard teabag. The sponsor of this forum does have some higher quality teabags (meaning, the same tea you would normally brew loose, just in a bag) you can try, though. I haven't tried them personally, but I hear they are pretty good.

Chiran Kagoshima Green Tea Bags

Ed · Posted: Sep 04, 2007 8:16 am Post subject:

Hi jsph27,

The Panda speaks the truth - loose leaf is really the way to go. If you are drinking your tea in a workplace where you won't have the facilities to brew a good cup of tea in a proper teapot, then you might try some premium teabags from this site or a similar source that gets their tea fresh from the manufacturer.

But if you can, go with the loose-leaf. And please don't let all of the technical talk around here make you nervous about brewing loose leaf tea. It is not hard at all. We get a little carried away trying to brew a perfect cup and we like to experiment. But the truth is - if you can boil water then you can make a great cup of tea. Just don't steep it too long and you'll be fine. The instructions on this site will give you the basic idea and you can go from there. Good fresh Japanese green tea is really wonderful. I'd drink it all day long if the caffeine didn't make me go bonkers. Cool

Good luck!