(Part 3) Best black tea according to redditors
We found 350 Reddit comments discussing the best black tea. We ranked the 214 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 41-60. You can also go back to the previous section.
search for an "ice tea maker" on amazon from mr.coffee, hamilton beach, west bend. they all make models that brew 2L-3L properly every time. i still use an old mr.coffee TM3 model which is cheap and works great even after 1,000 brew cycles. trust me, i know what i'm talking about - i drink 2-3L each DAY. I use standard dirt cheap 8-12cup coffee filters when brewing loose tea in the TM3. once you find the model you like, double check pricing at walmart.com as they often sell kitchen gadgets at a deeper discount with cheap ground shipping.
be mindful of your sweetener since you drink so much. years ago i switch from sugar to cheap kirkland(costco) sucralose(splenda) which helps keep weight off and my teeth from rotting, but if you don't want artificial, then your only choice is Stevia which may take a while to get used to it's leafy aftertaste. I suggest cheaper bulk Stevioside 90% powder, not any commercial brand. i flavor my tea with an extra ounce per cup of milk, pink grapefruit juice, cranberry juice, or peach nectar, whenever I find them on sale, so no need to buy exotic tea blends, as any robust black or green will do.
one additional suggestion is to be mindful of your tap water quality. i use a counter top canister filter for under $30 that will last for years, and totally removes the chloramines(ammonia taste) from my NYC tap water.
I recommend brewing with broken piece loose teas, not full leaves, since broken pieces will agitate better in a 8-12 cup filter and give you a deeper richer full tea brew flavor and color. my favorite high volume best value black tea brewing would be Dilmah http://www.amazon.com/Dilmah-Ceylon-Loose-4-41-Ounce-Boxes/dp/B00112GBO0 or for a wide flavor blend try Taylors; http://www.amazon.com/Taylors-Harrogate-Yorkshire-8-8-Ounce-Packages/dp/B001E5DXY0 and you only need 1 gram per 8oz cup while measuring i recommend using a cheap $10 digital postage scale since you need to measure by weight not volume(spoons). if you don't want to deal with filters and weighing, use http://www.amazon.com/PG-Tips-160-Bags-17-6/dp/B000YB7XQ4 at a ratio of 1 bag per pint, so for a gallon or 2L-3L i use 8 bags - these are large cotton bags that leave the tea room to agitate - unlike most commercial paper tea bags that can only seep.
in my daily ritual the way my TM3 works is the pitcher is double the capacity of the brew water hopper (presumably so you can add ice cubes to the pitcher). so I double cycle brew the same leaves till my 3L pitcher is nearly full, then I transfer it to any 2L-3L size liquid serving or storage container and add my sweetener there. I use gallon plastic screw cap jugs, but you can go with glass by using http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000DE9B5 to keep the brewed tea liquid from new air exposure. by using air sealed containers you can stock up to a weeks worth of tea in your fridge before a fermentation taste is noticeable on pre-sweetened with splenda or stevia - with sugar the fermentation taste is noticeable by the forth day.
I'm quite a fan of Stash Premium Earl Grey Black.
My friend, I may have the perfect tea you. I assume you know that "cheap" tea will have its limitations.
I recommend Ahmad Aromatic Earl Grey. Cost about $11.00 US D for 500 grams.
I once described this tea as "like a princess smoking a cigar". I think that is an a apt description. The company describes this tea as Ceylon flavored with bergamot. It is a loose tea comprised of shiny, black flakes and some finer particles. You will need a fine mesh infuser for this.
The tea is a little rough but you quickly adapt to it. The flavoring is very strong though so it might not be the best thing if you just like a hint of flavor. I don't recommend brewing for more than 5 minutes as it does become bitter. However, this tea is one of the few Earl Greys that taste good if you let it get cold.
https://www.amazon.com/Ahmad-Tea-Aromatic-Loose-Ceylon/dp/B00136MKEO/ref=sr_1_3_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1525346689&sr=8-3&keywords=Aromatic+Earl+Grey
Try English Breakfast or Assam if you can get them where you are.
Some people have Earl Grey with a dash of milk too, which has a nice citrusy taste.
We drink plenty of tea without milk too, if you like peated whisky or smoked foods then maybe try Lapsang Souchong?
I'm sure the folks over at r/tea have plenty of recommendations too!
You can always buy a sampler box to start and try them all out.
There is such a thing as instant tea, IMO it tastes like raw sewage sifted through a moldy coffee filter but it is out there. Tea bags in most cultures I'm familiar with are more seen as a convenience so people can easily make a single cup of tea at a time instead of having to brew an entire pot.
You can certainly buy loose tea, but it tends to be more expensive and a bit harder to come by and is usually bought in specialty stores and whole foods stores. That said, if you're buying a quality brand of tea you'll find very little difference between the loose tea and the tea in the teabags
I've already got a pack of this at home, it's pretty good too.
Time to see how the coffee shop's hot cocoa is, I guess.
I always use Constant Comment to make iced tea. I used to use Lipton Orange, but it was discontinued and this is the best replacement I have found.
I use the Nissan Tea Thermos to steep and store hot tea at work. I also added a good electric kettle and my favorite tea to make the work day fly.
It varies. It's not usually cheaper to buy bottom-end loose tea than bags (I can get 100 bags of grocery-store-brand tea for about $2.50), but it is usually cheaper (sometimes much cheaper) to buy decent tea loose than in bags. (Really good tea is not usually available in bags at all.)
It's especially cheap if you buy in bulk - you can get a kilo of Yorkshire Gold, the equivalent of probably close to 500 tea bags, for about $30.
Here's a 4oz tin of loose leaf Paris for $7.49, with free shipping. Is Amazon showing you a shipping fee for that?
From what I hear Twinings is the best stuff state side. They should offer both types quite readily. Also
I know I'm replying to this really late and you may never see it but try Stash Earl Gray Tea. Or, for even more Bergmot you can go for the Stash Premium Double Bergamot Earl Gray
I've not had the double bergamot but the regular stuff by Stash is really good and has an amazing fragrance. I was sent some in a coffee tea exchange and have really liked it.
Pandora's Mystery Summer Box of Goodies!
I like board games and ultimate frisbee and spending time with my family and computer games and running and rambling and making lists!
Simple pleasure is rocking my son in the morning. Sometimes he wakes up when I go kiss him goodbye before work. All he wants to do is glomp me and have me rock him. Best moments ever.
This is wonderful, regardless of weather. Best flavor ever!
Thanks for the contest, friend!
This kind!
i only brew tea to drink it later once cold, so my opinion may not be relevant for most posting here. i used to drink http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00112GBO0 but the price went up 50% this past year, so i started looking around for a similar tasting assam&ceylon, similar potency (1g:8oz) alternative. i found this at my local indian grocery http://www.amazon.com/Tetley-Loose-Leaf-Tea-31-75-Ounce/dp/B001VIIXXQ to be a worthy substitute which is slightly less leafy and also keeps longer (does not ferment) in my fridge enabling me to make larger batches less frequently. the typical Adagio sipper posting here won't be impressed, but if you consume 100g of tea per week (6 gallons), you are looking for the best neutral pH robust malt:leaf tea flavor money can buy, and that blue box Tetley loose suits my needs perfectly - the Indians shopping at the Patel brothers grocery chain can't seem to get enough of the stuff, and they come from a former British colony that grows a quarter of the World's tea production. an additional bonus with that Tetley is it's dust free fanning size baked spheres of leaf - agitate well in my 82°C/180°F Mr.Coffee Tea Maker, thus helping liberate all it's best tea notes. if you buy either Dilmah or Tetley, http://i.imgur.com/xHMfop8.jpg make sure you transfer it to another sealed container once you open their foil pack, as the box they ship in does poorly for storage and reuse. I have not found any Chinese or Japanese blacks to like, as I generally find them to be bland, leafy and over priced just because they are whole or broken leaf - when compared to dark malty fanning or orange pekoe size Indian blacks. unlike most posting here, i don't like leafy tasting tea, which is why i only sample whites, greens, and won't use stevia as a sweetener. the only chinese teas i regularly drink are dark oolong.
Not really a supplement, but Bulletproof Coffee is incredible for keeping your energy high.
(https://www.upgradedself.com/Bulletproof-Coffee-Starter-Kit-Brain-Octane-Edition)
If you're not one for coffee, you could always try Yerba Mate Tea (http://www.amazon.com/EcoTeas-Organic-Yerba-Loose-5-Pound/dp/B0012BSLWU/ref=sr_1_1?srs=5856181011&ie=UTF8&qid=1380594143&sr=8-1&keywords=yerba+mate)
In terms of supplements, I personally take Athletic Greens, krill oil, iodine, vitamin D, and vitamin K-complex (links below). You can set them on a subscription and never think about them again.
https://www.athleticgreens.com/v5
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013OULGA
http://www.amazon.com/NOW-Foods-Vitamin-5000-Softgels/dp/B0032BH76O/
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004GW4S0G/
http://www.amazon.com/Pure-Encapsulations-Iodine-Potassium-Iodide/dp/B0017HS34A/
Twinings makes a bagged variety, you can also get it from The Tea Table for pretty cheap. I have a tin from Tea Forte.
I'm a tea fanatic, have had teas that cost 100 for a pound and ones that cost 10 a pound, all said and done this tea is amazing and honestly taste more in the range of 30-40 dollar teas.
http://www.amazon.com/Ahmad-Tea-Aromatic-Loose-Ceylon/dp/B00136MKEO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1454215113&sr=8-1&keywords=Ahmad+Tea+Earl+Grey+Aromatic+Loose+Tea%2C+Ceylon+Caddy%2C+17.6+Ounce
I'm haven't tried enough english tea, but out of the ones I tried, This one is my favorite
If you like Black Tea, 200f water sounds about right. For greens/whites, you'd need to let it cool for a couple minutes before steeping, not a big deal.
If you're trying to phase out your caffeine, look into Rooibos (Red Tea). It's not technically a tea, and is naturally caffeine free. It's also very easy and forgiving to brew, and can be reheated/kept for a while without becoming bitter.
When I first started drinking tea, I was fond of Celestial Seasonings 'antioxidant' green tea, which is very light and fruity. Bigelows 'Constant Comment' was my favorite black tea; it's an orange spice tea. These brands are very easy to find.
I also enjoyed Liptons mandarin green tea. Stash teas tend to be very good too, from my experience. I dunno if they're as easy to find as the other brands, but they have them at target, so they're not exactly rare.
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Basically: Go to your favorite store and find the tea isle, browse for things which look delicious. I find target has a pretty good selection of teas, moreso than most grocery/chain stores.
This is a really good decaf, but it's practically a dessert.
Any brand of rooibos also makes a good decaf.
Green teas with fruity flavors are probably good for a novice tea drinker; citrus fruits, blueberry, peach, mango, etc.
Black tea I am far from an expert on. If I am drinking black tea, it is usually because I have run out of green, and so I end up trying to make some generic 'iced tea' teabags into a hot beverage. I used to love orange spice tea, but now it just tastes wrong to me.
Edit: Sweeten with honey for better results. I like my tea unsweet now, but it took a year or so before I could enjoy it without sweetener.
These are just my preferences:
I like black tea.
I'm not a fan of green tea or chai.
Herbal tea, red tea, and white tea are hit and miss.
If you're drinking it straight and not liking it, I'd strongly suggest a spoonful of sugar. I know the meme is advocating cutting sugar from drinks, but let's be realistic. 19 teaspoons of sugar in a bottle of pop vs 1 teaspoon of sugar in a cup of tea. You're cutting 95% of the sugar you drink out of your diet.
The stuff I drink the most is Bigelow Vanilla Black Tea.
I'm also a fan of Oolong (the same hot black tea you get at most Chinese restaurants).
Lipton used to make an INCREDIBLE Bavarian Wildberry Black Tea that they discontinued. I'm still pissed about that. It was my favorite. :(
English breakfast is another strong black tea that tastes really good when sweetened or great by itself if you're not wanting that sweetened taste.
Your miles may vary. I honestly suggest you try all the different types, sweetened and unsweetened. You should also try iced tea and see if you like that. The only tea you should avoid is sweet tea. That shit has more sugar in it than pop does.
With all the variety, I'd hope you find more than a couple you like.
Oh, and don't be discouraged by hot tea just because you have to heat up water. You can get a regular tea kettle for like $10 and make 3-4 cups at a time (for you and guests), get a used coffee maker and just have it heat the water for 1-2 cups, or nuke a mug of water for 3-4 min in the microwave.
Sorry this took so long. I actually had it 99% typed up yesterday and got busy cleaning my house. Never posted it. That's my bad.
I get cold brew tea (http://www.amazon.com/Celestial-Seasonings-Cool-Peach-40-Count/dp/B000E671Z2/ref=pd_bxgy_gro_img_y) and brew it in 32oz containers. I try to drink 2-3 a day since I'm so bad with water. Sometimes I'll make hot-but the cold brew is horribly convenient.
Celestial Seasonings Ice Cool Brew Iced Tea, Peach, 40-Count Tea Bags (Pack of 6) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000E671Z2/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_uKDoub0CZNHKS
That stuff is great - it's not expensive at the store
If you're used to sweet stuff, I suggest something minty or vanilla. My first tea after I found I couldn't drink coffee was a french vanilla black tea by Lipton. Also, try Zen green tea with mint by Tazo.
You can read all you want about it (I encourage you to do so) but the best way is to try stuff. If it sounds good, there's a chance it is.
It is indeed an actual flavour my friend, Lipton do it. Relevant
[Taylors of Harrogate's Yorkshire Tea] (http://www.amazon.com/Taylors-Harrogate-Yorkshire-Gold-Loose/dp/B000F40966/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top) is really good. I got it recently as my morning tea and it makes a nice strong cup. Also, it goes great w/ milk and sugar.
You can buy Yorkshire tea on Amazon in the US:
https://www.amazon.com/Taylors-Harrogate-Yorkshire-Teabags-Pack/dp/B000F42E6O?th=1
I thought: Impossible to get in my country. Instead Amazon Italy sells it. There's everything everywhere, except for good snus.
https://www.amazon.it/dp/B000GFYRHG/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_0aw9AbXXFBNYK via
This would save my life.
Very NSFW, but totally hilarious: oglaf (Start with Start for the most hilarity.)
Either this face mask or this one! I use face masks all the time and the company came out with these two new ones that I have yet to find in stores yet! I'm dying to try them!
Also, this French Vanilla Tea I had it at a spa a couple months back and have been trying to find it in stores ever since! I'm about to suck it up and order it online.
Oh man. I went through a phase of tasting every earl grey out there.
I settled on Taylor's of harrogate for everyday consumption (50 bags per box) and smiths lord bergamot for when I want to feel special (I get bagged, but loose tastes a lot better). Smith's is #1 on taste.
http://www.amazon.com/Smith-Tea-Lord-Bergamot-15-Count/dp/B004L4CQDA
http://www.amazon.com/Taylors-Harrogate-Earl-Grey-Count/dp/B000MNB3VU
This Earl Gray is great at seven bucks per 50 teabags https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000MNB3VU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_mFlNxHObGN7oz?th=1&psc=1
In my tea wishlist, there is a mint tea that is good for my mental well-being. When I was a child, and I was sick or upset, my grandma on my dad's side, and my mom, both would make me fresh mint tea with a dollop of sweetened condensed milk.
Now I drink and make tea all the time, and enjoy doing so. I find it to be an art form, a luxury, and a de-stresser. Anytime I am upset, the situation can be made a little brighter with some tea. And when I am sick, or particularly upset, mint tea with sweetened condensed milk is a big help. It is a comfort tea, and makes me feel worlds better, or at least, if I cry, makes me feel better afterwards.
Loose leaf tea is great! It's so much better. Bigger leaves and less fine particles (fannings) mean it will be less bitter. Those little pieces steep really quickly, and make it bitter and almost metallic.
There's also temperature and steep time that you have to look out for, and adjust to your taste. Some greens only need 15 seconds of steeping in 160f water, while some blacks are best in 200f for 2-3 minutes.
I didn't know at first, but color varies a lot. A green can be ready when it's almost totally clear, or a dark green color, but most will be a yellow color (the result is often called the liquor or broth).
One of my favorites is an irish breakfast tea, with like a tablespoon full of leaves for a really strong but not at all bitter tea.
Sometimes people will intentionally steep tea for a long time, then add warm water to dilute it.
Check out r/tea, it's the coolest and most relaxed sub ever. "Oh, you like cheap lipton tea bags? That's cool, whatever you like!".
Tea balls suck, by the way. They don't let the leaves expand and mix evenly.
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01ABVM226/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1 This is what I use, and it's great.
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/ya/ref=oh_aui_i_sh_post_o17?ie=UTF8&ac=od&ii=&ij=&noi=&of=&oi=&oid=105-5075213-2947460 This is my mug. The infuser came broken, but it's great watching the water mix and change color.
Edit:
These are some of my favorites that I've gotten off Amazon
This is some of the best Jasmine tea I've had, and it's super cheap. I got mine for $8.
This is some really good mint tea, good balance, really refreshing.
This is a good oolong, which is really good and way different from most other teas. It's roasted, which gives it a unique flavor. This is the black dragon (Oolong is actually Chinese for black dragon), which tastes more like a black, but they also have a green dragon oolong that is more green, if that's your preference.
That's just what I've gotten from Amazon, but the best stuff I've gotten is from The Devotea. They had a crazy 75% off sale so I just bought some of everything, and it was all consistently very good, very high quality.
This kettle has saved me a lot of trouble, it works really well once you figure it out, and you don't have to worry about boiling water and letting it sit for 3 minutes or something, you just push the button a couple times to choose the temperature.
Oh I got this!
(Note, all of these will last you a good bit, especially if you get more than one)
Also, I know this is a Amazon heavy site, but I also want to suggest Adagio. They have A LOT of tea for really good prices, and you can actually get samplers of any tea for really cheap. I love just get a boatload of samplers. Each sampler contains around 10 cups of tea so that's also a great deal in itself. They have an entire page of sampler collections. I specifically want to suggest the Chai Tea Sampler, the Herbal tea Orchard Sampler, the Oolong Tea Orchard Sampler and the Green Tea Sampler. You also can't go wrong with just going around the site and picking and choosing, although you do save a few bucks with a sampler pack. They also like to just throw samples at you while you're checking out.
If you find you want to get something on Adagio, I have a 5 dollar off coupon I can give you.