My new obsession!

[BrewRat]

I am new to the tea world. A friend has been buying tea from Teavana and I visited a store with him and tried a few of the sample teas. Some of them were extremely good, so a few days later I purchased a starter set from them (Teavana) with a Perfect Tea Maker, sample teas, etc. I am enjoying the sample teas very much and started researching tea on the internet and found Adagio and other retailers. I can't wait to try more varieties. The sampler from Teavana had Earl Grey Creme, Mate Vana, Rooibos Tropica and Rooibos Sweet Amore. So far my favorites are the two Rooibos teas. Now I want to try more types. If I like the Rooibos, what should I go for next? White, green, herbal???? I am interested in health effects and also just the pure enjoyment.

[Victoria]

Welcome, nice to have you with us.
Try some unflavored samples from Adagio.

[Dresden]

Welcome to TeaChat!!!

You'll find that Adagio, as well as several other online vendors, offer sample packs.

Each type of tea at the Adagio website has samplers for that particular type of tea.

Experiment, enjoy and take in all that quality tea has to offer!

[Chip]

B.R.,

+1, samplers are a great way to try a lot of different types of teas w/o overbuying teas that you may not care for.

Welcome to the forum, I am looking forward to seeing you around the forum.

[olivierco]

Welcome!

[bsteele]

Welcome, indeed.

[debunix]

A lot of retailers offer samplers--in the last year, I've ordered and enjoyed samples from Harney & Sons, Chado, Norbu, & Dens Tea. Except for the Dens Tea sampler of japanese teas, I was ordering a similar tea from each vendor--silver needle, ti kuan yins, loose puerhs. It was a great way to explore different teas.

I find unflavored roibos to be spicy, fruity, not too sweet, and probably the closest I've come to that in my regular teas are some of the young sheng puerhs, traditional roasted oolongs, and Dan Cong oolongs. Wuyi oolongs might be a good place to start, because they're pretty forgiving of variations in brewing time, temperature, and leaf to water ratios.

[BrewRat]

Thank you all for the warm welcome. I decided to order some samplers from Adagio. I have some oolong and green teas coming. I will post in the appropriate forum about them once I try them.

Bill

[teaforthetillerman]

Welcome to the forum BrewRat. I am also new to the Teachat and have found this site extremely helpful in tea advice and crediable vendors. This post caught my eye because I too started my tea journey at teavana. Is the teavana you are referring to located in Bridgewater? If so I recommend the Pi Lo Chun (green tea). It is moderately priced and very good. I really like green tea because of its distinct flavor and health benefits. In addition to the Pi Lo Chun, I picked up a Japanese green tea called Gyokuro Imperial, which I thought was very good as well. Good luck on your tea journey, I hope this was a help!

[BrewRat]

The Teavana I visited was in Rochester, NY, but I bought my starter kit from the website. I also ordered a number of samples from Adagio and I have been having fun trying them out. I really like the Rooibos teas, but I don't taste much difference between all the different flavors. I guess it doesn't matter that much since I like them all, I just wish the individual flavors were more pronounced.

At this moment I am drinking a Oolong Darjeeling from Adagio and I like it very much. Lightly sweetened with rock sugar, it is very smooth and drinkable.

I haven't dived into the green tea sampler I got from Adagio, maybe I should go there next!