I find Assam better than English breakfast. Darjeeling is probably my favourite tea, however.

Suggestions: look for a small individual shop rather than a supermarket or chain of any sort and try its teas. You should be able to find some really lovely tea that way (at least in England).

Yes, that would be the way in England, but remember- I live in Coffee Land, aka the States. And not just Coffee Land, but the Capital- California, home of the cappuccino.

(California, Coffe Land's Capital of Cappuccino- try saying THAT three times fast.) ;)

My sad point being that it's nearly ALL big markets (Wal-Mart) or chains here, especially in So. California. The Coffee Bean, a coffee chain, also has tea under "The Tea Leaf" label, and it's better, but still very much cappuccino-infulenced, if you know what I mean.

Assam... that's a black tea as well? How is that for you? And yI know you're English, Ghostmaker, so I'll raise an old demon- milk or no, and when in the process for you? I don't use any myself (yet, I drink soy and somehow that'd seem to go poorly with it) but I like a good deal of controversy. ;)

There's no tea like PGTips

As a general rule, for the teas I drink:

Milk in:
Assam.
English Breakfast.

After the tea.

No milk in:

Darjeeling
Lapsang Souchong
Earl Grey
Lady Grey

Although I do sometimes put lemon in Earl Grey (rarely do I have one to hand though)

Biddis, I quite agree. Who else could get such a lot of tannin into a single cup?

The real controversy is about scones with clotted cream and jam. Is it a long "o"? Which goes on top, the clotted cream or the jam?

always scone with a short o song, don't tell me your a scoooooone kinda guy ghostie

song?? where did that come from - sound is what i meant

pg tips... now here in the States Lipton is king, I know the two are related somewhat,how closely is your call, as they're both English companies...

Ah - cultural wars, excellent.

Tea - English Breakfast, made in a pot, milk in the cup first is the best - that way you add hot to cold, and don't burn the milk.

For speed, tea bag in the mug, boiling water, milk at end - that way the te brews quicker, although you burn the milk that way.

Earl Grey with no milk for the odd change.

Scones - short 'o' otherwise the fastest cake in the world joke doesn't work..

And butter then jam for me - I can't stand clotted cream

... is this a serious topic? just seems a pun to the Boston Tea Party to me. (google or wikipedia it if you don't know what I mean)

I prefer classical Earl Gray, milk optional
other than that there's a brand of seasonal teas (don't know the name) that's also nice and goes really well with honey

I am fairly easy. I like a wide variety of teas and, living in HK, drink a lot of Chinese tea... Some very delicate stuff too.

just got home from China, and attended a traditional tea ceremony. I brought some "dark dragon tea" with me.

it's some sort of olong variant, with lots of ginseng. back in the day it was so expensive that only the emperor was allowed to drink it, hence the name drak dragon

emigrate

Earl Grey... milk optional? Milk is not an option with Earl Grey.

I am a scooooone. As in "stone"

Words with "...one" where the "o" is short tend to be verbs, such as "gone".

TGM - but then the joke doesn't work, and if the joke doesn't work there is something very wrong with the world.

I'm guessing you would have a 'barth' not a 'bath' as well...

I don't feel snooty; my mother is a Brit so I learned to drink it and make it before I ever learned coffee existed. I generally have at least 1 cup of Twining's "Irish Breakfast" tea a day, easily the best blend I've found - milder than many black teas but not as insipid as a pekoe, with a touch of peppery flavor to it that makes it pretty distinctive.

I drink plain tea most of the time, I perfer white tea through

Has anyone here had Ceylon White?

Pete U: I live in Surrey. You can work it out from there.

sweet tea (not over coffee mind you). never had sweet tea until i moved to the southern US and now i dont wanna live anyplace that doesnt have it (or coffee for that matter) and uh...ill take a short 'o' for my coffee.

yuck

TGM - That explains it :)

Are you northern Pete U?

@Ghostie - then how do you explain bone, phone, drone, alone...

2 x Tetley teabags; 1 sugar; water and let brew (or just give the bags a good going over with a teaspoon); add milk (not cream) - perfect.

As in "he droned on and on and on and on and on and on and on..." I should not have included alone though as I can't think of a verb form for it. Phoned is the vernacular for called on the phone, bones is slang, so I guess drone was the only true verb of the bunch and it is also a noun.

grrrr boned

Tea? Not a chance! It's only appeal is caffeine, but once you go in that direction you might as well take a caffeine pill, since the drink tastes awful. Coffee is just as bad.

I'm English, but that doesn't mean I have to buy into tea.

Twinings, Tazo, Bigelow, and some Celestial Seasonings are my favorites. I never use milk or sugar (with one exception I'll cover in a moment) and I MAY on occassion use some lemon.

Preferred flavors:
Earl Grey (Twinings is #1, but Tazo is excellent too and Bigelow's works in a pinch)
Spiced Orange (CS's Mandarin Orange Spice, Bigelow Constant Comment, and Tazo's Wild Sweet Orange)

Overall, Tazo makes the best of the green and herbal style teas, while Twinings knows Black Tea like nobody's business.

Both Twinings and Tazo sell loose leaf teas if you have the necessary equipment to take advantage of them. I use loose tea at home, but I have to settle for tea bags at work.
Chai (Tazo Organic. Period. I may add milk and sweetener depending on my mood)