Wednesday TeaDay 9/30/09 Flavor me this?

[Chip]

Good TeaDay everyone. Please come, sit a spell and share what is in your cup throughout the day.

Yesterday we discussed "tea blends." You can still vote and discuss yesterday's topic.

Today's TeaPoll and discussion topic. Again, today's topic has been avoided mostly due to personal prejudice. So today, do you partake of FLAVORED teas/tisanes. whether they are commercial preparations, personal concoctions, or perhaps Signature Blends? Please share with us.

I am looking forward to sharing a flavorful TeaDay with everyone. Bottoms up.

[Victoria]

Several yeses here, but then again the frequency is rather limited. Not on any regular basis.

Yes, commercial preparations: Like jasmine infused greens and oolongs, magnolia too. And rose white is a favorite.

Yes, personal concoctions: I have been known to add rose blossoms to oolong and whites.

Yes, other blends: I do like the Adagio cucumber white.

Yes, tisanes: I like a couple of tisanes I keep on hand for late evening when I can't have caffeine.

[Drax]

I don't purposefully buy flavored teas, so I tend to drink them only if they are given to me (I think a number of Tazo teas fall in this category; they had a blueberry white tea or something that wasn't too bad, but it's been awhile). I think that I would have to have somebody else prepare flavored teas for me, just in case I'm doing them incorrectly. Every time I've tried jasmine-flavored teas, I feel like I'm drowning in perfume. Somebody had recommended trying them cold, and I suppose that might work, but I haven't gotten around to trying that.

I had about 30 minutes free time total yesterday, and I opted for some additional sleep last night, so all of that means that I'm still working on this silver tuocha sheng... I guess that's not a bad thing.

[Trey Winston]

I like the rose white known as First Love, which evokes feelings of summer for me. That's the only flavored tea I drink these days.

Got a shipment of White Peony in the mail last night. So of course I'm having Dragon Well today.

[olivierco]

The only flavored teas I drink are jasmine pearls and jasmine silver needle.

No tea today.

[gingkoseto]

My favorite flavored tea is Bi Tan Piao Xue (snowflake on green lake), a jasmine green tea from Sichuan. It has whole jasmine flowers or jasmine petals in the tea and when brewed, the tea leaves sink to the bottom and flower petals float on surface. It looks, smell and taste all nice

I've noticed a difference in flavored tea between Chinese market and western market. In the West, people seem to well accept flavored teas made with both real flowers/fruits and plant essential oils or fragrant oils. In China, people only like tea flavored with real flowers (jasmine, osmanthus, rose...) and fruits (such as lychee). Jasmine tea is very popular in Northern China, Sichuan porvince and among Chinese Muslin people (Hui people). There are large jasmine producing regions to supply relevant tea producing regions.

[depravitea]

Every time I've tried jasmine-flavored teas, I feel like I'm drowning in perfume.

No kidding lol it's like a funeral in a cup.

I don't do favored too often. If I step away from my norm, it's usually for an herbal, but stuff like caramel, or chocolate teas, not too interested in. I can't see how that stuff doesn't overpower the leaf.

[Victoria]

Every time I've tried jasmine-flavored teas, I feel like I'm drowning in perfume.

No kidding lol it's like a funeral in a cup.

Well there is a big difference between tea that has been infused with jasmine or other florals and ones that have additives. Still you have to enjoy the fragrance or you won't like it, even if it is light.

Here's a great article by Jing Tea UK on Jasmine harvesting:
http://jingtea.wordpress.com/2009/08/13/guangxi-visit/

I would love to try their Jasmine Silver Needle. Sounds really nice.

In my cup this morning : Koucha from Yuuki-Cha

Have a nice day everyone!

[brlarson]

I don't drink flavored teas but I have tried some.

I like the jasmine-flavored greens that I've tasted but they have too much caffeine for me, they make my heart pound.

Also I have tasted an osmanthus se chung oolong that had terrific balance, but I wasn't moved enough to buy any.

The only tisanes that I drink are Sleepytime and Peppermint and only occasionally, but I do keep both on my tea shelf. Is there such a thing as a flavored tisane? Is Sleepytime a flavored tisane? If it is then I'll have to change my answer.

Last October, Space Samurai posted a pointer to another blog that quoted George Carlin's feelings about fruit-flavored tea. In case you missed it here is a URL to the source blog: http://mysteepedidentitea.blogspot.com/ ... arlin.html

Adagio's Ali Shan in my cup at the moment.

B

[Geekgirl]

I love a good quality jasmine pearl, especially for iced tea. At the office, my go-to tea is Lupicia's Momo Oolong Super which has slices of white peach in it. I brew this in my infuser because I just can't wreck it, it's very forgiving.

Mostly, I drink tea unflavored, without additives, but infused and scented teas are a nice change of pace sometimes.

Hubby left for Spokane today to go see his sister. She has been in the hospital for over a week with Swine Flu - almost lost her. But she is on the mend now, so he is taking his mom and other sister up to see her.

I head out for Boise on Friday morning for a funeral on my side of the family. I'll see y'all around TC though because I wrangled myself a netbook for the loooooong airport wait. Heh.

[geeber1]

I like Adagio's Cinnamon tea on a frosty winter day.

Another favorite is Sweet Flower Oolong from TeaSource, which has Osthmanthus in it. I like it because it's not overpowering, in fact, I had to ask them about it. (Their product descriptions leave a bit to be desired!)

Other than that, I'm not much into the flavored teas, but like GeekGirl said, they are nice for an occasional change of pace.

Irish Breakfast at home this morning, and a TeaSwap Yunnan here at work. I can't read the writing that is on the bag, so don't know where it's from or what variety, but it's good!

[Chip]

Like many of us, my roots are in flavored tea. Back then I tried almost anything. Today, I will occasionally do a personal concoction, but even that has been pretty rare.

My motto is, drink what you like, like what you drink. So, while I may have opinions of flavored teas in general, I understand there are differing tastes of tea drinkers.

Began the TD with A bit of Sae Midori I had placed back into cold storage, brewed it up strong and rich, realllllly outstanding and full of umami. SweeTea quite liked it while Gandalf mistook me for a salt lick. He said I had excellent umami ...

[CynTEAa]

Flavored teas are fun! Even more so now that I get to create them [muahhaha!] I appreciate when they are high quality and done well. When Christine blended Birthday Tea I could not get over how much it tasted like a cupcake to me. The perfect substitute when I crave something sugary but shouldn't have it.

Hope you are all having a great TeaDay - Sencha 1st Fl in my cup, the water could have been a tad hotter for it but here's always another infusion.

[Jack_teachat]

Not really a flavoured tea person but would be interested in trying some really good Jasmine someday.

Currently drinking the second of my three sheng pu samples from Yunnan Sourcing. In the gaiwan now is some 2001 Li Ming "Ba Jiao Ting Yun Wu" - Some very plesent notes of leather on the nose with hints of liquorice, sweet golden syrup and just a hint of smoke on the palate with a long sweet finish. Quite alot of sweet bitteness or "kuwei" remains into the finish however, and so a few more years would probably see this one settle down a little!

Jack

[Victoria]

Wow I found some '09 AliShan from Hou De in my drawer at work.
A nice surprise for this busy workday.