"Cheap Tea" and Freedom

(This image courtesy of http://www.dreamstime.com/.)









In my claim to be a "tea snob", I realize some would scoff at assigning me that title. I regularly commit atrocities true tea aficionados would be horrified to see. For example:

• I use tea bags most of the time, as opposed to loose-leaf tea. Why? Tea bags do tend to contain a lower quality tea. In the processing of tea, the larger pieces of leaf are reserved for "higher grade" loose leaf tea, and the smaller pieces that are sifted out are stuffed into "tea bags". I usually can't afford loose-leaf, and when I want a cup of tea I don't have time to prepare loose leaf. I argue that there are many good teas in tea bags - not all, but there are many. The key to enjoying "cheap" tea is knowing how to prepare it. More on this later.


• I am not a purist. I firmly believe that some types of tea are best with milk, or sugar, or both. Not all, but some. If you want a cup of tea, you shouldn't feel guilty for drinking it with milk because that suits your taste better! You'll still receive all the benefits.


• I drink herbal. I still can't bring myself to call it "herbal tea", because there are no true teas in herbal infusions. And I am extremely picky about which herbals I will consume, but I do drink them.


• I make tea with tap water - unfiltered, unpurified, undistilled.


• I use an electric plug-in kettle instead of a stovetop kettle. Here is one area I rather regret, because it is so pleasant to pour water from a metal kettle and to hear it whistle when it is hot, but it takes much more time and electricity to heat water on a stovetop.

That said, I believe the key to enjoying "cheap" brand-name tea lies in experimentation. In my experience, many people that "don't like" tea have tried some random dollar-store bag, plunked it into warm water, and declared it "disgusting". But they have failed to take into account quite a few things:

• How long should the tea have been steeped for to bring out the right amount of flavor for the proportionate amount of water, and for that particular type of tea?


• Should this tea have been tried with milk? Sugar? Both? (Personally, I never take lemon in my tea, but I would try it if I thought it would bring out the taste!)


• What should the temperature of the water have been for the kind of tea it was?


• How much tea was contained in the bag? If there was a lot of tea, it should not have been steeped for very long. If there was not very much tea, it may have required a very long steeping time.

Of course, it is possible to make a great cup of tea without doing anything special, and it is possible to experiment various ways and find that there is nothing that can make a particular type of tea worth consuming.

Bottom line: Do whatever works for you. Tea is not a set of rules. Buy the cheap stuff. Experiment. Find out which teas you like, stock up, share them with friends. Develop a "library" of your favorite teas in your cupboard for every mood or time of day. Tea isn't about what the snobs say is "good" or not - it's about what you like, what you enjoy.

So enjoy!