If you're a tea drinker >
 

I just bought fresh tea leaves for the first time from a new store springing up around the country called Teavana.

What a difference from the packaged tea most people buy.

If you love having tea try this store out. They just opened down in South Florida at Town Center Mall.

The only thing is the green tea looks like Marijuana when you take it home in a tea can. So don't get pulled over. Most cops would look at it and at first impression think you have a pound of weed in your car.

LOL :1orglaugh

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/teavana/

big tea drinker, im heading to south florida ill buy some

Cool I was looking for a place to buy loose green tea online. thanks KRL

You might want to go with FedEx for shipping. Fresh tea really has a punchy smell to it . US Postal Service sniffer dogs will probably alert on the scent of it.

:1orglaugh

I drink a lot of Yerba Mate... Got a kilo bag of the stuff, and prepare it with a french press.

The stuff does remind me of shake though.

Green tea is extremely healthy, I?m planning to drink less coffee and more tea.

Green tea straight from Japan...

Sounds good I'll look for this store in my area thanx

I drink a lot of rooibos tea... supposed to be better for you than green tea in some respects & it's naturally not caffeinated.

I just pulled this off of Dr Weil. I thought it was a very good read for those who are interested:

Both green and black teas contain polyphenols, or catechins, which have many wonderful properties. They protect your heart by lowering cholesterol and improving lipid metabolism. They guard against cancer by scavenging for free radicals that can damage cells and push them in the direction of uncontrolled growth. They also have antibacterial effects.

Tea makers prepare both kinds of tea from leaves of the white-flowered tea plant, Camellia sinensis, a bush native to Asia. But to make green tea, they dry the leaves after a brief steaming, instead of crushing them, piling them in heaps and briefly "sweating" them for black tea. (During this natural fermentation process, the tea leaves darken and develop a different aroma and flavor than green tea.)

Since fermentation destroys some of the polyphenols, green tea is thought to be best for your health. Green tea contains about 27 percent catechins, oolong is next with 23 percent, then comes black tea at about 4 percent. Unfortunately, herb tea, while it may be tasty and relaxing, doesn't deliver any polyphenols.

In laboratory tests, green tea has inhibited the growth of skin cancers in mice and protected against lung cancer in animals exposed to a strong tobacco extract. Human tea drinkers also showed less stomach cancer and stroke than those who didn't include tea among their habits.

There is some evidence that black tea shouldn't be written off, however. As reported in the journal Mutagenesis, green, black and decaffeinated black tea all had equally strong abilities to neutralize cancer-causing chemicals in the test tube, leading researchers to conclude that the fermented derivatives of polyphenols may be active too. Another study in the same journal found comparable anti-mutagenic and antioxidant activity among instant teas, a black tea and a green tea.

All of these teas also contain theophylline, a close relative of caffeine. This can be useful to people with asthma, because it acts as a bronchodilator. But people can become addicted to tea and the stimulating effects of theophylline, so I'd recommend keeping your enjoyment of this beverage to just one or two cups a day.

If you're not drinking caffeine -- in the form of coffee, black tea, green tea or sodas, I wouldn't recommend that you take up the practice. (You can still get the health benefits of green tea through decaffeinated forms.) If you are a caffeine drinker, I suggest you try to switch to green tea, at least in part. Drink it instead of that afternoon soda, or use it to replace a cup of coffee in the evening.

Big tea drinker here, I'll have to check it out when I get bacfk.

Probably been posted before but...

Monkey Picked Tea

I always joked about being addicted to tea. I drink at least 6 or 7 mugs per day. Maybe i am addicted.

:eek7

well, I make about a dozen cups a day for someone who drinks a lot of tea - does that count.

*shrug* who knew marry an Englishman would drink tea?

I have always sworn by Harney & Sons, through mail order... but I just looked and they do take web orders:
http://www.harney.com/

I only drink tea from the leaves; i'm drinking some right aamof! Earl Gray

:mad:

I only use TGFOP, GFOP, and FOP grade leaves. I really do not understand how people can buy those powder bags and actually think they are drinking tea since most are just fannings or dust.

I'm in Boca. . .I guess I should know where Town Center Mall is!

Anyways, Green tea has too much caffeine in it, for me. . .I'm hyper enough!

Yep same at least 6 cups a day of green tea. I think its having tremendous health effects. I feel completely revitalized since I started the tea regimine.

yeah, i switched to tea about a year ago. But i just stick to earl grey, wouldn't mind cheking out some new flavours though. :thumbsup

Hope everyone remembers that Orange Pekoe is not a flavor of tea.

I had a cup of Monkey Tea (picked by, not made from) the other day. It was pretty good but nothing special.

I love tea but have never made it from scratch from loose tea leaves. :(

I'm going to order from those links and give it a try. Any recommendations on how to brew and what kinds to try? The simpler, the better - I'm outrageously lazy. :thumbsup

I personally drink Earl Grey, by the bucket , but it skins you teeth after a while , I wonder what it does to your insides :1orglaugh

Grean Tea is my thing now and you should use hot water right before it starts to boil. 1 teaspoon per cup (8oz size cup). Brew no longer than 2 minutes or it will get bitter. I add pure raw honey for sweetening sometimes.

Many thanks! I'm going to order some (there's no way there's a loose tea store up here in the hills - though raw honey is VERY easy to get :)) and try it myself. I love drinking it in shops/restaurants and an Indian friend of mine makes the BEST Indian tea, but I've never tried to make it.

haha :1orglaugh

I like Oolong and Green Tea and there's this nice tea join in Chinatown here that I get it from. I know some people who recommend The Imerial Tea Garden.

Green tea :thumbsup Jasmine Teas :thumbsup

i just looove tea. can't get enough of it. i'll check into this new place - thanks for the heads up

Jasmine tea when you're sick is incredible.

good find KRL. i am going to check out the store you mentioned as i am in south florida too. i have been drinking tea since my last birthday (when my girl rocki hooked a sista up with a bad ass tea kettle).
thanks for the heads up :thumbsup

I drink tea daily... it's good for ya... but just not too much

I'm addicted to Egyption licorice tea
After trying it, I bought the remaining 5 boxes that was in my local supermarket.

The site offers free samples too.

earl grey is too addictive :1orglaugh

Just got an order in of "First Flush" Darjeeling...
Mmmmmmmmm. Good stuff.

The best of green tea - sen cha - I drink like 10 cups a day

I've been getting my loose tea lately from Trader Joe's and Peet's Coffee. Peets has a bunch of green teas in cool tins which are dated for freshness. Sencha is good - nice a mellow. It's the standard Japanese version. My current favorite green tea is Gunpowder. It's rolled into little balls for extra freshness and has a slighly smokey flavor.

Thanks for the heads up...I really need to switch over from the coffee/dew thing...:thumbsup

i usually drink a hell of a lot of madura green tea, but i've had two packets of regular madura to get through that my gf bought by mistake.. good stuff.. I still drink it with milk though - not just tea and water.

I like viet tea... good stuff :glugglug

Any body ever taste any good "see eu en tea"? I've heard its really tasty, but expensive as hell. Also if you get it out of season it doesn't taste or smell good at all.

:helpme

do you guys drink your tea with milk/sugar or straight up? I cant think of green tea with that stuff, and i cant think of earl grey without.

I did see KRL's note about pure honey, i'll have to try that one.

I'm a regular consumer of this type of green...

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/teavana/bancha.html

:thumbsup :thumbsup

milk/sugar nah... can't say I have

I prefer my coffee and tea straight :)

No sugar/milk/cream for me. Altho, if I do have sugar or cream in my coffee, it has to be a copious amount or it tastes like crap... So I just drink black.

you're most likely gay!:1orglaugh

guess I'm gay then dad- I like and prefer tea to coffee

I drink both, am I bi?