TeaChat

No, in this case I think he means just cutting the sweetener out: I think you may grow to appreciate good tea without sweetener and milk. Putting milk and sweetener in Chinese/TW tea was sacrilege up until recently, and the Indians only use milk and sugar because they learned to from the British. Prior to that, Assam was consumed without sugar.

Oolong (sans Splenda and milk) will actually be good for you in a number of ways.

I also agree with Chip on the temperature for oolong. A little below boiling helps get almost all of the flavor out without the bitterness.

The PersonaliTEA looks like a decent deal and Adagio do own this site, so you're helping keep TeaChat going. Your green teapot will even match the site!

I haven't washed the teapot yet so I haven't used it. I hope to enjoy the oolong plain. I'll definitely try it a few times plain to see how I like it. I only have a sample of it so I don't know how many cups I can get out of it.. But if I like it I will definitely order a 3 or 4oz tin. Would you recommend I get that tea on another site or is adagio's price fair? They have 2oz for $5 and 16oz for $24. No size in between. Seems they are out of the 16oz right now.

Yes, pretty much what Jay said.

Bottom line, as I mentioned above, if you view tea as simply a beverage, then adding whatever to it becomes less and less of an issue. However, drinking tea in its pure state sans any additives will give you a positive alternative to high calorie or additives that may be not so healthy.

And alternately, if you are (contemplating) drinking tea as an aficionado(a), then pure is the only way to go. Since you have tried the additive route (as virtually all of us have), I say be open minded and give pure an earnest shot. You may surprise yourself with what you discover.

Often, flavors, additives are like training wheels for tea until we learn how to ride and discover the pleasure and excitement that true, unadulterated tea can bring.

... from my perspective and having been there and done that ... this equates with subbing something bad or less good with something much better for you mind, body, soul.

Having grown up with iced lemon tea (popular in HK and sweetened), Snapple (mint was always my favorite) and Chinese tea side by side, I never questioned drinking Chinese tea unsweetened since we always drank it that way. I have never felt the desire to sweeten it. When it comes to iced tea or sweet tea, however, I have to have sugar in it (and definitely not Splenda: I can't do artificial sweeteners and several of them wreak havoc on my system).

I think you'll find good oolong has a mild and natural sweetness all of its own. I haven't tried any of Adagio's offerings since I'm on the other side of the world and surrounded by physical tea stores (five within a one-minute-radius of my office), but as many here will suggest, trying a variety of teas from different sources will help you refine your tastes. You may find something that knocks your socks off!

Hang out here long enough and you may end up gung fu brewing bitter young sheng pu erh and enjoying it!

I just wanted to chime in and restate some of what they said.

Just don't be afraid to experiment with the brew times and temps. They change can taste dramatically, and while they might suggest a certain brew time, there's absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying it a different way.

The wonderful thing about tea is that its a personal thing, and finding your preference is part of the enjoyment.

Thanks everyone for commenting. Now that my teapot is washed I'll make some tea and see how I like it. I think I'll make the oolong first. It intrigues me the most out of the two samples I received. I'll comment here on how I feel about them.

Hmm, well I tried the Darjeeling from Adagio. I steeped about 3 tsp for 3 minutes for about 12 or so ounces of boiling water. I didn't quite enjoy it as much as I had hoped. It was very complex like I assumed it would be but it just wasn't for me. I did finally add splenda in order to enjoy it more, and it worked. Though I still didn't find it as nice tasting as the previously reviewed Chamraj Nilgiri.

The leaves surprised me being quite long and there were plenty of golden leaves in the bag. It looked so pretty. Though kind of hard to measure accurately (using a teaspoon). I don't have a digital tea scale. I might look into getting one. Not sure yet.

The color of the liquor was beautiful, light and brightly colored. I will try it again in a few days to see if anything changed in my experience with it. But I most likely won't buy anything larger than a sample later down the road unless I notice my tastes changing.

It was a bit of a disappointment for me.

There's a lot more tea out there to try.

If at first you do not succeed, try try again ... and again. Brewing new teas can take some practice, fortunately the practice is fun.

But you may not like every tea you try ... but giving a tea at least several tries is worthwhile.

Consider a decent quality Chinese green tea with jasmine or some other flower added: you'll be drinking good green tea plus some traditional "sweetner". I think jasmine tea is a great gateway drink!

Agree on the green jasmine: that's all my mom and my siblings drink at home unless I'm around! My mom loves oolong now, but won't touch pu erh after I told her how shu is produced

I'll be trying the formosa oolong probably tonight or tomorrow. I'm not sure if I'll be up tonight long enough to prepare a cup or two of tea. My medicine is kicking my butt (I'm sedated a lot).. Perhaps I'll try it tomorrow. I'm excited about trying the formosa. I initially went to try the formosa but once I got the tea out of the bag and into my teapot I realized I had opened the darjeeling. So I was a bit disappointed at first but I wanted to try that as well.

I can't think coherently right now so I'll sign off here. Thanks for your input guys, I'll read this again tomorrow perhaps when I'm not so sedated.

HUGS
Brittany

Sounds like fun medication

LOL yes it was different. It made my head spacey and my thinking kind of difficult. It didn't last long though. Probably lasted a few hours. I ended up falling asleep and it wore off. I take the medication for anxiety but it is mostly used for neuropathy. I had just increased my dose due to pending anxiety I could feel happening. I wasn't expecting any kind of sedation or anything like what I experienced. That was the first time I had increased the dose. My GP wants to increase the dose of it due to my muscle pain I get daily. But it's my psychiatrist who prescribes it. It worked for my muscle pain which surprised me.

I have an EMG test coming up in 5 days. It will test my nerves to see if there is nerve damage from my diabetes. So we'll see how that goes.

I'll try the oolong probably today. I haven't been drinking much tea lately. I just haven't been feeling well due to my chronic pain. So we'll see if I get around to trying it.

I'm sorry to hear about your medical issues! I pretty much only medicate with tea, natural herbs and Chinese medicine, but I'm in pretty good health (knock on wood)!