I actually order the Fairmont black tea (Tea at the Empress) from the Fairmont store and usually grab a few teabags for the road when I stay at Fairmont hotels. I never thought I would pay exorbitant prices for merchandise on a hotel website, but... I do.

They have a decaf blend, and while I haven't tried it, all of their other teas are very good. I'd give it a shot. They have loose tea and teabags, and apparently they went to a lot of trouble to produce a drinkable decaf.
http://www.fairmontstore.com/product...emID=FM-501-WS

My mother has been forced to change, and as a lifelong teaholic, has discovered Marks and Spencers own brand as her decaff tea of choice.

Between it being winter and all this talk of tea, I wouldn't say no to a Hot Toddy right about now.

Favorite tea for me is Organic Vanilla Rooibos from Davids Tea, mainly most type of Rooibos I enjoy.

You might like to share that in this purpose built thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/dinin...d-tisanes.html

I love tea. Drink it almost every day. I love Bushell's from Australia. To me, makes the best cuppa. I try to take several bags of it with me on trips around the country so I have something other than Lipton or whatever they have in the hotel.

A nice cup of tea
 

I have taken to having a nice cup of tea a few afternoons a week. I don't know if I should be worried at increased caffeine addiction or pleased at additional Britishness.

Now would also be a good time to read George Orwell's essay, A Nice Cup of Tea, if you haven't.

I enjoy that essay and also a cup of tea. I have to drink decaffeinated or herbal, so no worries about a caffeine addiction. Since I even have a porcelain cup and a tea ball at work, I'm going to lean towards a touch Britishness for me.:p

It's just after 3pm here in Blighty and I always enjoy my afternoon cuppa at this time.
Afternoon tea for me tends to be a bit lighter than the strong stuff I have in the morning - currently sipping a nice Darjeeling.
I do hope you make the tea properly in your household with a teapot warmed first and loose leaf rather than tea bags.
As for the milk first or second argument - well now that's a whole other can of worms I won't even begin to open !

If I'm at home, that is exactly how I do it. At work, I have to resort to using a tea ball in my cup, instead of using a teapot. Thankfully though, the water dispensers at work do have boiling water, and I don't have to settle for the hot water from the coffee machine.

My mother recently hooked my wife and I to regular tea drinking. She makes the most glorious cup of tea - Indian style, with milk (usually whole).

We use an Indian brand, Wagh Bakri, that I buy from an Indian grocery store. It is an unknown mix of black teas. I have read that the best black teas are exported from India to Europe, so it was surprising she gave it high remarks. My mom says it is the best tasting tea brand she has had and I trust her judgement.

I was 100% with you until you mentioned milk!

I make it with tea bags at the office - I'm partial to PG Tips at the moment but I usually like Earl Grey.

Just enjoying some nice Lapsang Souchong (loose leaf of course) now. How delightful.

When at home I have a couple cups of tea (Earl Gray) in the morning but not in the afternoon or evening. When traveling at hotel it could be morning or aft or both, but I don't drink tea in the evening.

Cheers.

Early in my freshman year, my new advisor invited the newbies over for afternoon tea. I was offered milk or lemon and I said both. I was given a chance to modify but I stood my ground. Over the four years, he was a great friend and mentor. And I never made that mistake again.

Good, evening is for whiskey.

I've never understood the allure of Earl Grey. For me, the orange peel (?) and bergamot mask the flavor of the tea. Heretical though it may be, I use a 16 ounce ceramic mug (pre-warmed) with a "sipper" lid, a heaping teaspoon of loose tea (a variety of Black teas or Irish Breakfast) in the bottom with a heaping teaspoon of "Turbinado" sugar, "Not quite" boiling water, and steeped long enough for the tea leaves to settle. No milk, but from October through April, I have fresh Meyer lemons "in bulk" from my daughter's trees, so I often drop in a slice.

In the off season, both preserved in sugar and North African style in salt, Meyer lemons form an almost un-matched luxury.

In my previous job I would gauge my lunch break based on my cup of tea. It generally took 20 minutes, uninterrupted, to drink the cup. When the cup was gone, lunch was over, and I would resume doing regular work. Lunch would begin promptly at 1 PM, and if I was lucky I'd be done eating my now cold sandwich at 2, and the tea would be gone by 3 PM. This wasn't because of being lazy, it was simply because I would get interrupted so much. And for the record, nothing tastes quite as bad as cold earl grey where you left the tea bag in.

So you like your tea with cheese...

I agree about the Meyer lemons. I have killed every tree I have planted so you are lucky to have them.
But Earl Grey is just a heavenly combination of flavors and there is something intoxicating about bergamot. I do tea bags and love the organza ones from Tea Forte. I love the smell of coffee but not the taste so tea is my caffeine delivery system.

A friend snobbishly told me in response to my stated affection for Earl Grey that the blend is made with inferior quality tea, and the bergamot's purpose is to mask the taste.

I said I didn't care. I still like Earl Grey.

Richard Feynman did the same thing, taking both milk and lemon at an afternoon tea (or something such)--as related in the book, "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surely...g,_Mr._Feynman!

So you are in good company.

(I'm not going to ask about the spelling of your screen name--:D )

My backup blend has been Lady Grey.

You'll have to excuse me, I need to go brew a cuppa.

Your friend is, if I may say so, wrong. He's just not buying the right kind. I'm a great fan of Earl Grey and start every morning off with a cup or two. I buy mine here:

https://www.teegschwendner.de/en/teashop/bestseller/2179/earl-grey-no-69

And having tried pretty much everything out there, it's my favourite. Luckily I'm in Germany very regularly so we never run out.

"Earl Grey, hot."

You can also get Picard's tea cup (having used it I would advise against it, single wall, and a small handle plus a hot liquid. Very uncomfortable.)

Captain Picard is probably the reason I first started on Earl Grey. Then, I discovered I liked it.

This post was the start of a thread in OMNI, which was moved to Dining Buzz.

I have merged it with the o.p.'s previous thread on the same subject :)

cblaisd
Co-Moderator, Dining Buzz

I have recently converted to Kusmi, which has wonderful blends of teas (as well as tisanes). I am partial to Anastasia in the morning, as well as a wonderful black tea with violet blend (I like floral blends). In the afternoons, I like their Rose Green tea blend as well as Prince Vladimir, and at night, their Linden tisane is divine.

Hah! The full circle, I guess.

I went to a bakery in Durham the other day and they had a drink called a London Fog. It was basically a tea latte made with Earl Grey tea. Quite tasty it was.

Interesting you should mention Kusmi. I tried it for the first time a few years ago at the Siesmayer Cafe in Frankfurt. I had asked for Earl Grey and they brought me the Kusmi Anastasia which I liked so much I bought some later that day. Since then I've always had a blue jar in my house but I've found that I don't drink it every day as it's just too floral and perfumed for me. I've reverted back to TeeGeschwendner's Earl Grey No 69 which, as I stated above, is just the best EG I've ever tasted.

I do enjoy the irony of finding that the best EG teas (for my tastes) are blended in Germany and France, whereas in the UK many/most people seem to be perfectly happy with 'builder's tea' made from a cheap bag with plenty of milk and sugar.

Dutchy's earl gray from Waitrose's is my favorite tea. Quite sweet with an orange flavor. Other wise I need a tiny bit of sugar in my tea.

A friend of mine who is originally from Hanover told me that there is an active tea culture in northern Germany, from the many tea merchants there that historically also supplied the British Isles.

I happened to be at her house when her parents visited from Germany. They didn't speak English, but I remember trying to help her mom with the tea only to encounter a chorus of "Nein! Nein!" each time I did something wrong. :)

I just discovered TeeGschwender has two US stores (in Chicago - who knew?) and a US website. I ordered 100 grams of the Earl Grey #69. Yay!

I hope you'll like it. I can honestly recommend it as the best EG out there. It's a perfect blend in my opinion.

6-7 cups of green tea a day, with sugar and lemon.

Dragonwell, genmaicha, sencha, and, every once in a while, gyokuro.

Enjoying a cup at the moment, as it happens. Dragonwell, which is my favourite.

If any of my upcoming trips go through Shanghai, I'm heading out to West Lake to see where the best stuff comes from.

I do like genmaicha.

Thanks for sharing this. I will have to stop by one of their stores next time I'm through Chicago. ^

I've never really liked Earl Grey and the myth may well be accurate.

My absolute favourite is Keemun, but it's quite difficult to obtain nowadays, so I'll settle for Lapsang Souchong and even that is becoming more difficult.

As for tea bags, well they're ok for builders' teas but, for proper tea, you must use a pot and leaves.

For a fabulous selection of coffee and tea available worldwide.

http://www.algcoffee.co.uk/index.php...egory&path=562