Or can good tea, tea worth tasting be found in tea bags.


Here in the household we have anumber of teas around; some are decent
and others are just used to flavour plain water.

In the later category I'm going looking soon for a box of tea bags
(some here find a tea bag and mug of hot water the way to go), so I'm
hoping to get steered towards a decent brand and away from the obvious
Nestle product.

China Black
Green
Oolong & or
Jasmine all strike a suitable chord- any recommendations?

berk

If you can compare the same loose leaf and bag for the same brand. I
think FooJoy is a good example of the same taste in both. Another
brand is TenRen but I can say their export bags dont equal domestic
loose. Try the bags in a well stocked Asian store. I think youll
find something you like. Dont forget the British blends like PG
Tips. There is always the tea sock, spoon, ball.

Jim

I'll second FooJoy but while it might equate to their loose it still
doesn't mean it is very complex or "high-end"... it is, however,
always good. I have a few teabag brands that I prefer over many loose
teas; Yamamotoyama sencha, SeaDyke Brand Fujian Oolong, and Teck-Soon
Osmanthus Oolong. Another tea that I have to have is always some
Luzianne.

You are never going to get the same flavors and mouthfeels and aromas
from a teabag compared to most loose tea, but sometimes what is
produced by the teabag is good in it's own right.

- Dominic

Thx S.C. & D., btw, TenRen is one I had tried before with mixed
results. A Puh'er (in the bag) when purchased from Oakland's
chinatown- back around oh say 1998 or so was a welcome surprise, an
attempt last year to reproduce it from a Ranch 99 supermarket in the
Diablo Valley was a disappointment.


I'll take the sugestions with me the next time I got tea crawling.
Thx again.


berk

Here are two websites selling tea bags containing whole leaf tea:

http://www.teahometw.com/usa/TeahomeEnglishCatalog.htm

http://tinyurl.com/lxtxfp

It exists. Problem is that flow through a teabag isn't very good, so you
have to grind up the tea very finely to use a bag. Some of the larger
bags and open-mesh nylon bags are better than the usual filter paper
ones.

But overall, the bag just winds up costing you a serious premium over loose
tea, and doesn't really buy you any actual convenience.

Get a cheap infuser (the People's Brew Basket is just fine) and get one
of the inexpensive loose tea samplers from Upton's.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

I don't get the recommendations of Foojoy here. I have had some okay
teas from Foojoy, but the absolute best I have ever tried from them is
just okay. And most of them were just plain nasty. Admittedly that's
just for the loose teas; I have never tried the bags, but I cannot imagine
the bags will be any better.

The Sea Dyke Oolong isn't bad at all. There isn't a lot to it but it's
entirely inoffensive.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

I basically said the same thing you are... FooJoy is always OK. It is
never going to be terrible, and on occasion they have a few standouts
that easily eclipse most other tea bags of the same type. It is
inexpensive, easy to find, and far better than much else out there in
it's range. I'm not sure which you find "nasty" but I really have
never come across one.

As for the Sea Dyke or any other tea I mentioned, inoffensive is about
what you are shooting for. It isn't some terrible brew that has no
taste or that of sawdust and it is similarly never going to blow you
away if it is a category you are very familiar with at a higher level.
But the average person or new adventurer can get the basics down just
fine of each variety and style from these types of teas. Sort out
general likes/dislikes and then pursue those favorites in more depth
and eventually into loose versions of increasing complexity.

It's kind of like asking a guitar legend about your new $150 Fender/
Yamaha/Ibanez/etc., the knee-jerk reaction is to trash it in every way
because of how poorly it compares to the high-end gear and fit/finish
they are used to. But in their hands it can produce music "good
enough" for 90% of ears out there, sure it may not have the sustain or
honey sweet tone or stay in tune after some abuse to reach 100% but it
is good enough. Same thing here.

- Dominic