Tea Snobbery for Beginners, Part 1

Tea is some of the best stuff on earth. That's probably why billions of people all over the world drink it every day.

Right now, my cupboards at home are filled with a variety of tea from all over the world...Black, White, Sencha, Matcha, Pu-Erh, Raspberry, Apple, Mariage Freres, Dammann Freres, tisanes like Rooibos... I can't get enough of the stuff.

But, it wasn't always that way.

When I was growing up in the Southern United States, if you drank tea, you were drinking Lipton.

Though Lipton has come out with a lot of new flavors in the past decade, Lipton's flagship tea is an orange-black pekoe tea blend.

I'm not sure how old I was when I decided Lipton was subpar, but I remember when it happened.

I was out at dinner with my family. We were eating Chinese food. As usual, we ordered hot tea. (You can't have Chinese food without hot tea.)

As I and everybody else around the table began to sip the tea, we noticed something was different.

"This must be that green tea," my mom said with a Southern twang as she placed her empty tea cup on the table.

"Hmm, green tea," I thought. "Tasty."Bottom line Green tea at a Chinese restaurant changed my life; it turned me in to a tea snob.

If you are going to become a tea snob, you first have to get acquainted with what's around you--start small as they say.

Once you've acquired a taste for the good, cheap stuff, you may decide to stop there.

If not, go on to Step 2 of the Tea Snobbery course.

The list

Celestial Seasonings
Price: ~$3 a box

Where you can find it: Supermarkets

Info: Celestial Seasonings is known to have more flavors of tea than most other tea companies, with new flavors being launched nearly every month. Some flavors do not sell well, and many flavors are discontinued at some point or are replaced with a new tea marketed for a higher success.

For example, Melatonin PM was replaced with the incredibly popular Sleepytime which is one of their highest selling teas. Each box of tea is illustrated with often whimsical paintings or drawings - a different image for each flavor, intended to represent the feeling the tea produces to the consumer.

The boxes also feature inspirational quotations from famous authors. In the past Celestial Seasonings has also offered decorative tins advertising their teas.

In 2002, Celestial Seasonings won the prestigious "Tea Drinkers" award.

Review: This tea is just good. If you're new to the limitless deliciousness of tea, this brand is a good starting point; it's also cheap enough that you could buy and try all their flavors without going broke.Tea from tea swaps Price: Varies

Where you can find it: Swap sites

Swapping tea always warms my heart and my belly. If you're like me and you like getting mail and surprises, you should check out a tea swap. If you're passionate about a particular type or brand of tea and you want to get the word out, it's a great way to evangelize your favorite brand. My favorite tea swapping site is swap-bot.com.

Stash/Tazo
Price: $4-5

Where you can find it: Starbucks, hotel lobbies

Info: Stash Tea Company is a privately-held tea company headquartered in Tigard, Oregon, a suburb of Portland. Stash Tea originally operated out of an old Portland Victorian style house, supplying loose herbal teas and bulk herbs to natural food stores. Starting in 1972, the company broadened its focus to include bagged teas and then began to sell a full line of traditional, specialty blend and herbal teas directly to fine restaurants and through a mail order catalog to consumers.

In 1993, Stash was acquired by Yamamotoyama Tea Company.

Today, Stash Tea is enjoying steady growth and has become one of the largest specialty tea companies in the United States, with products available through foodservice, grocery stores, tea and coffee shops, club stores, mass merchandisers, natural foods stores, mail order and the Internet. It has a mail order catalog with more than 200 teas

Tazo Tea was founded in 1994 by Steve Smith (who retired from Tazo in 2006) along with his business partners Stephen Lee and Tom Mesher. Lee and Smith had co-founded the Stash Tea Company in 1972. Stash was sold in the fall of 1993 to Yamamotoyama, a Japanese tea company.

Smith used his corporate connections within the food services industry to convince many restaurants, food stores, and tea houses to carry the new Tazo Teas. Smith approached Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz in 1998, seeking further investment partners.
The company was purchased by Starbucks in 1999 for $8.10 million.

Review:Stash and Tazo are pretty common. Though I've had better, they consistently get the job done. Hard workers always deserve credit.

Outlet store tea
Price: $4-7

Where you can find it: Marshalls, T.J. Maxx (T.K. Maxx in the UK)

Outlet stores are good places to try out a variety of teas from all over the world that you won't find at your favorite supermarket.

Free teaPrice: Free to you

Where you can find it: freebie sites, tea.gourmetfree.com

You can get free sample sometimes on freebie sites. My favorite place to get the real deal online for free is Gourmet Free -Tea. You can get gift cards to use on your tea habits. This is where I've gotten a lot of my pricey Mariage and Dammann Freres for free.

Originally here: http://www.squidoo.com/cheaptastytea