East Meets West: A Post for Tea-Time

I drink a lot if tea and enjoy a lot of tea, so I thought, "Why haven't I done a post on all that tea I'm always drinking?" Thus, the reasoning of this post. Also, I was bored. So, anyway, tea. Primarily I drink herbal non-caffeinated teas but lately, I've been experimenting with black teas and Chai tea. I have two primary tea companies I like, Celestial Seasonings and Stash. I also drink Lipton ice tea but it's not a primary favorite company. *winks*

First off, we have good old classic Peppermint tea. I drink a lot of this stuff, sometimes three or four cups a day depending on my mood and whether my stomach wants to play nicely that day. Peppermint tea is great for calming upset stomachs - one of my primary uses for it; it's also a very relaxing tea, very refreshing, and goes great with just about everything. I have it hot with chocolate cake, cold with sandwiches, and in the summertime it makes the best iced tea. Plus, it makes your breath smell good so having it with garlicy food is a wonderful idea. I have peppermint tea in the mornings, afternoons, evenings and sometimes even before bed. I also love mixing it with raspberry tea. My dad does that a lot too, though he adds other herbal "medicine" teas to the mix which I don't fancy much.

Lemon Zinger is a favorite of mine. Note: this and all following teas are not necessarily in order of most-least favorite. I love raw lemons; I use them to make lemon water, squirt fresh lemon juice on fish, and simply suck a piece of lemon and savor its unique sweet-and-sour flavor. Oddly enough, I hate lemon products like lemon cream pie, lemon cake, and lemonade. Anyway, this tea is lemony enough to satisfy me with a kick from the zinger to make me smack my lips, but its not too overwhelming to the point where my husband won't want to have some with me. One of my favorite things to do with this flavor of tea is squirt fresh lemon juice into it. It makes a refreshing iced tea in the summer and mixes well with orange tea and raspberry tea.

A delicious fruity tea, this was once my "absolute most favorite tea of all time!" But due to drinking it far too often over a period of deep depression, I've rather lost my taste for it. Since cherries are my favorite fruit, I cherish the hope of one day being able to drink and enjoy this tea again. In the meantime, mixing it with other berry teas such as raspberry is a yummy way to add new life to it. Also, a small amount of red wine adds a lovely smooth fruity texture to the tea and helps it to go down when you have a sore throat and wake up thirsty in the middle of the night.

Ah, Raspberry Zinger. My dad's favorite tea and the one I find the most useful when mixing teas. With a very raspberry taste and a zing to it that is quite delicious, this tea always finds its way to my shelf. It can be a little on the plain side by itself, but in a pot its wonderful and mixed with other fruit teas it's absolutely delicious! I like mixing it with Peppermint, Wild Berry, Lemon, and Cherry. Someday I intend to try it with fresh mint leaves and raspberries floating around in it. But for now, I'll just take it with my lemon tea.

My brother Adam's favorite tea, True Blueberry is a family favorite. With a pink color rather than red like lemon, raspberry and all the rest, it is set a little apart from the other teas gathered on my shelf. A smooth silky texture and a soft fruity flavor, this tea is wonderful all on its own. I sometimes mix it with other fruit teas just because, well, I can. It tastes especially good mixed with Wild Berry.

Wild Berry Zinger is the most versatile of the teas I have. A tasteful blend of strawberries, raspberries, cherries, blueberries and blackberries, this tea is wonderful by itself - whether by the cup or the pitcher. Its also great for mixing with other fruit teas; my husband loves mixing it with orange tea for me in the mornings. When its hot it has a certain hot tea flavor with all the fruit trying to compete for your attention. When cold, all the flavors have brewed, fought and settled down, creating an intense and luxurious experience for you with each swallow.

Tangerine Orange Zinger is another favorite flavor of my dad's. My husband likes it {though he isn't really a tea drinker; he just makes mine and then steals sips}. Personally, oranges aren't my first choice of fruit but the tea makes a sweet lovely change once in awhile. I like mixing it with lemon and my husband discovered that if he mixes it with Wild Berry, he gets happy kisses. *winks* Someday, if and when I remember, I want to try it with some fresh orange juice like I do with the lemon tea, and see how that turns out.

In the Rooibos line of teas, I've only had Madagascar Vanilla and that was some years ago. I do remember it smelling very good, very vanilla and yummy-like, but it didn't taste as good as it smelled. More of a mellow calm taste to it. I liked it though. My dad, not so much. *winks*

When I first had this tea, I thought I'd made a cup of raspberry and then was pleasantly surprised by the rich smooth sweet flavor of this delicious Red Zinger. I need to find it again and incorporate it into my tea shelf - somehow. It was so good.

This is raspberry iced tea - just like the regular raspberry with no caffeine {which is a good thing if you're me and tend to unconsciously drink too much caffeine} and is naturally sweetened with Stevia. Now, if I remember correctly, Stevia is that delicious sugar plant my siblings and I would eat like crazy while hiding out in the greenhouse. It's a delicious tea and my husband loves it. He had no idea tea could be so sweet. *smiles*

Wild Berry sweet iced tea with natural sweetener and no caffeine? I'll definitely take that! One of the things I love doing with this tea is to make a pitcher of regular fruity tea, such as raspberry and blueberry, then add one bag of sweet tea to the blend, giving it just enough sweetness to make you want to come back for more.

Roastaroma was a childhood favorite partly because of it's wonderful coffee-like flavor and robust taste, and partly because my dog's name was Roma. My siblings used to tease me that they were turning my dog into tea. Anyway, this tea is a family favorite with all my siblings and it's not hard to tell why. I haven't had it in a while so I've unconsciously started wondering about where to find it at. I will find it and then make my husband try it, all the while explaining, "Who need coffee when you can have this?" It'll spoil his efforts to train me to like coffee. Muhahaha!

My dad likes mixing this tea with raspberry. They used to make a mood calmer tea but stopped for some reason. I mainly like this tea because of the drawing of the girl and the dragon. It's okay though and is good for when you don't have any peppermint tea on hand. *winks*

I'm trying this tea for the first time today, right now actually. The vanilla is hinted at, though stronger than in other "vanilla" teas I've tried. The exotic spices are rather strong and....spicy. But it's good; I put some half-and-half in it to see if that changes the flavor and it made it a bit smoother, not really enhancing the vanilla like I'd hoped. The spices still come off strong. Maybe if I made it in a bigger cup - sorta like a less concentrated dose. *winks*

My husband loves chamomile tea. It's pretty much the only tea he voluntarily and willingly drinks. He likes it especially at night when he's trying to convince himself to fall asleep. I'd gotten an herbal sampler of tea that included this particular flavor and he really liked it. When we were out tea shopping last week, I reached for his regular chamomile and he redirected me to the honey vanilla instead. I haven't personally tried it but it smells good and makes his chamomile kisses taste yummy.

This and downward are the flavors I want to try someday. I figured, since I'm doing a tea post, might as well do a full-on tea post. Plus, I had fun looking up all the teas I want to try. *smiles*

I don't know if they're still making this one or not but I hope so since I love strawberries.

My husband loves oranges and orange juice so I thought, he'll love this particular flavor of tea.

I want to get my husband this tea for his birthday.

Now onto the Stash teas! At New Year's we were at a friend's house helping her out with her party and she had a big pot of chai tea. I loved it - especially after my husband doctored it up with sugar and milk for me. So I've branched out in my tea-drinking experience and have begun investigating chai tea. I really like this one so far, though at first sip I wasn't overly impressed with the intense flavors. However, now that I've gotten used to it and figured out just how much half-and-half and sugar makes it taste perfect, I love it!

This is probably one of my most favorite teas. Such a rich smooth sweet softly intense burst of flavoring with each sip. It's so delicious and wonderful; I have it hot in the mornings or evenings {it goes great with chocolate cake} and cold in the afternoons {mainly because what I didn't drink in the morning sat around all day waiting for me}. It's a beautiful tea. I go through it almost as fast as I go through peppermint tea - which, considering we buy two boxes of peppermint, is impressive.

I tried this a few months back, but I found it to be more mellow and quieter than I was hoping for. I passed it onto my family since they like tea too. It was good though, just not bold enough for me.

My mom originally got this tea {she loves mangos}, and while I helped make the solo box disappear, it didn't rock my world like other teas sometimes do. It was too plain and quiet; also, it had a weird after-taste. But mixed in with other similar-fruit teas, it worked really well. It just wasn't good by itself.

Now, while not a favorite, this tea is generally pretty good and I'll drink it uncomplainingly. It's kinda a holiday tea but great all year round. My dad loves mixing it with, well, other teas. *winks*

At first, I didn't like this tea. But after several cupfuls, I found myself enjoying it's unique blend of flavors and texture. It's smooth at first but with just a little kick at the end of the sip to keep you on your toes. It's very sweet and rather strong. It's good both hot and cold; I can't remember my preference for which I liked best.

Peppermint is a classic by anyone who makes it, but some companies have it down better than others. I like Stash's peppermint quite a lot and can easily substitute my usual brand for it without breaking stride.

A very minty blend of tea, it calms and soothes very well. I used to have it when I ran outta peppermint, wanted a change from the other bland teas leftover after the bold teas were gone, or when I was down-and-out sick or depressed.

My dad has a thing for ginger products and he really liked this tea. The ginger was too strong for me, but I used to make him pitchers of it mixed with regular lemon tea and the pitcher would be empty by evening. I suspect one of my brothers liked it too.