Strong tea

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Feb 22nd, '17, 04:49
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Strong tea

by jljiow » Feb 22nd, '17, 04:49

Can anyone suggest a very strong (builders) tea.
I'm currently taking some medication that has killed my appetite and taste and the only thing I crave is that ' tea ' taste.
Currently I'm using 2 Yorkshire teabags in a cup steeped for 1 min and distressed for 30 turns. No squeeze of course!

I wondered if there were a brew I could buy that would mean I could get this flavour but only use one bag to save some money :)

I call it my luxury tea...lots of tea, lots of milk, and sugar.... It's keeping me going at the minute
Thanks

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Feb 22nd, '17, 10:35
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Re: Strong tea

by CheekyChipmunk » Feb 22nd, '17, 10:35

jljiow wrote: Can anyone suggest a very strong (builders) tea.
I'm currently taking some medication that has killed my appetite and taste and the only thing I crave is that ' tea ' taste.
Currently I'm using 2 Yorkshire teabags in a cup steeped for 1 min and distressed for 30 turns. No squeeze of course!

I wondered if there were a brew I could buy that would mean I could get this flavour but only use one bag to save some money :)

I call it my luxury tea...lots of tea, lots of milk, and sugar.... It's keeping me going at the minute
Thanks
Hi there,

I'm not sure that I'm qualified to comment on the type of tea you are describing (bag black tea with milk). However, if you are after a strong tasting tea, might I suggest a raw puerh tea? Not only does it have many health benefits, but many are more invigorating than black tea (it seems this might be welcome in your medicated state) and contain an array of flavours from malty sweet to bitter and smoky. For sweet I suggest yiwu area teas, while on the smoky/bitter side look for wild/'purple' teas or areas such as lincang, dehong or ban zhang (if price is no obstacle).

Hope this helps!

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Feb 22nd, '17, 17:51
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Re: Strong tea

by cwj » Feb 22nd, '17, 17:51

Hello there.
Have you thought of using one of those mesh infusers you can use to brew loose tea in a mug?
I don't know if Yorkshire Tea offers loose leaf tea, or how committed you are to that particular brand, but an infuser basket would give you the chance to experiment with the amount of tea and make it quite strong.
You could pour in a large amount of leaf, add water and produce a very strong cup in a short amount of time.
Best of luck to you! :)

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Feb 23rd, '17, 02:41
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Re: Strong tea

by john.b » Feb 23rd, '17, 02:41

An interesting question. The problem here is the assumptions: a tea that tastes similar to the conventional black tea bags is sought after, but strong enough so that one bag replaces two, with cost as a primary concern. It's probably unworkable. Conventional tea bags vary some in flavor (in quality, I guess), but they would contain similar amounts of relatively comparable ground black tea and tea dust, so none will be stronger.

It would be possible to brew better versions using loose tea by varying lots of inputs, especially the tea used, but it's hard to imagine the cost not going up. It might be possible to just buy tea bags from a less costly source, to get a better deal, but you might also consider how the cost of the same tea in loose form compares. Because that should be a less ground-up tea it might be hard to get the same mileage out if it as with tea dust, in the bags, but it's something to consider. Check out Amazon's options for that brand:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&key ... k0y4atsy_b

Feb 23rd, '17, 06:49
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Re: Strong tea

by Bok » Feb 23rd, '17, 06:49

Cheaper than a tea bag? :)
Only way is to buy a cheaper brand which in all likelihood will be only worse and probably bad for your stomach... PG Tipps are cheaper and I personally can not "stomach" them any longer.

One thing I can think of - by the Yorkshire tea I assume you're in the UK- is to try some of the teas in your local Turkish grocery. Turkish tea is usually meant to be brewed strong. Mostly those are Assam blacks.

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Feb 23rd, '17, 14:28
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Re: Strong tea

by kuánglóng » Feb 23rd, '17, 14:28

Bok wrote: Cheaper than a tea bag? :)
Only way is to buy a cheaper brand which in all likelihood will be only worse and probably bad for your stomach... PG Tipps are cheaper and I personally can not "stomach" them any longer.

One thing I can think of - by the Yorkshire tea I assume you're in the UK- is to try some of the teas in your local Turkish grocery. Turkish tea is usually meant to be brewed strong. Mostly those are Assam blacks.
Actually Turkey is the fifth largest tea growing region in the world and the second (ex-first) largest importer of Sri Lankan/Ceylon teas - Assams don't play that much of a role there.

Feb 23rd, '17, 18:59
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Re: Strong tea

by Bok » Feb 23rd, '17, 18:59

kuánglóng wrote:
Bok wrote: Cheaper than a tea bag? :)
Only way is to buy a cheaper brand which in all likelihood will be only worse and probably bad for your stomach... PG Tipps are cheaper and I personally can not "stomach" them any longer.

One thing I can think of - by the Yorkshire tea I assume you're in the UK- is to try some of the teas in your local Turkish grocery. Turkish tea is usually meant to be brewed strong. Mostly those are Assam blacks.
Actually Turkey is the fifth largest tea growing region in the world and the second (ex-first) largest importer of Sri Lankan/Ceylon teas - Assams don't play that much of a role there.
Oops, my bad I knew it was one of those, remembered wrong...

For that Turkish touch, add some Kardamom to it, usually available in the same shop

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Feb 23rd, '17, 23:12
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Re: Strong tea

by john.b » Feb 23rd, '17, 23:12

This is a bit of a tangent but an interesting one. Turkish people drink black tea brewed strong with sugar only, don't they, and not milk? Or maybe even holding a sugar cube in their teeth and drinking black tea past it, unless I'm remembering that from somewhere else. Are there any other differences, in how they brew it, or particular ways the tea is ground or prepared?

Feb 24th, '17, 03:14
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Re: Strong tea

by Bok » Feb 24th, '17, 03:14

john.b wrote: This is a bit of a tangent but an interesting one. Turkish people drink black tea brewed strong with sugar only, don't they, and not milk? Or maybe even holding a sugar cube in their teeth and drinking black tea past it, unless I'm remembering that from somewhere else. Are there any other differences, in how they brew it, or particular ways the tea is ground or prepared?
As I mentioned, a lot of times they add a few Kardamom seeds to it. Usually prepared in a Samowar like the Russians do as well, so a strong concentrate which brews the whole day, when served, hot water is added.

Tea leaves are either loose, or more often crushed or even a grainy tea dust

Feb 24th, '17, 13:12
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Re: Strong tea

by JAndrews2 » Feb 24th, '17, 13:12

If you have a grocery store near by that sells South Asian food you can often find strong black loose tea for very very cheap... like $5-10/pound cheap sometimes (a pound of tea is like 120-150 bags of tea). If you're adding a lot of milk and sugar the brand probably doesn't matter all that much.

I think I have this right now and it does the trick: https://www.amazon.com/India-Ctc-Leaf-T ... an+ctc+tea

Also: https://www.amazon.com/Brooke-Taj-Mahal ... 1MNZBT56JR

A little fancier: https://www.amazon.com/Ahmad-Tea-Black- ... 1292772011 (but I find Ahmad by the pound for like $8 locally)

Get a mesh strainer if you don't like bits of leaf in your cup, because these will all be crushed or at least very small, torn leaves.

Feb 26th, '24, 10:17
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Re: Strong tea

by CCC » Feb 26th, '24, 10:17

jljiow wrote: Can anyone suggest a very strong (builders) tea.
I'm currently taking some medication that has killed my appetite and taste and the only thing I crave is that ' tea ' taste.
Currently I'm using 2 Yorkshire teabags in a cup steeped for 1 min and distressed for 30 turns. No squeeze of course!

I wondered if there were a brew I could buy that would mean I could get this flavour but only use one bag to save some money :)

I call it my luxury tea...lots of tea, lots of milk, and sugar.... It's keeping me going at the minute
Thanks
I drink a lot of Yorkshire tea both in bags & loose. We live in the US but visit England often so I bring it back. I have found that some packaging has larger bags than others, more tea per bag therefore a stronger brew. I steep for 3-4 minutes for more flavor. And as others have said, buy loose tea, you can vary the strength and is less costly. A stainless steel basket brews the best loose tea in my opinion. I drink mine black so don’t know what milk & sugar does to it except reduce the tea flavor. Hope this helps.

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