Barrys Gold from Ireland.

People asking me for a splash of milk in their tea get escorted out of my home.

Local loose-leaf. Although I do enjoy Ahmad Tea loose leaf. It’s very high quality for the price.

I try to buy local loose leaf.

If you are looking for a grocery store recommendations, I love Celestial Seasonings herbal teas. They have an amazing peppermint tea.

I’m almost always an earl grey drinker. For that, Harney & sons is pretty much my favorite, with Taylor’s being almost the same for my preferences, depending on which is fresher. The key difference that makes Harney better is the bergamot rather than the tea itself. It’s just a tad more aromatic and that matters a lot. However, if it isn’t fresh, Taylor’s matches the flavor profile very closely for me.

Choice organics is a close third place. The tea is just a tad less aromatic, and the bergamot is flatter. Still miles better than the stuff at the grocery store, even if you ignore freshness.

For breakfast teas, the only other hot tea I really drink, it’s Taylor’s mostly. I have some Harney’s on the shelf, but I like how the Taylor’s tastes with lemon better, and that’s how I like breakfast teas.

Iced tea, it’s tetley’s or GTFO if I have a choice. My wife is kinda swinging around to that now that she’s drinking southern style iced tea. She’s a Lipton’s fan, but tetley holds up better at the strength we make iced tea. Lipton gets bitter in an unpleasant way with the strength we brew at. Tetley also holds up better sweetened to the degree that southern style iced tea tends to have. I make mine way less sweet than anybody I know, but it’s still sweeter than my wife or her family ever did it.

Kinda funny. Hot tea, I barely add sugar, just a level teaspoon for a double cup. Coffee I go a little higher, but not much; a heaping teaspoon. But iced tea? It would work out to about 4 teaspoons per cup the way it’s usually made around here, with mine being a tad under 3. You grow up with that thick, strong, syrupy tea, and iced just doesn’t work without high sugar levels lol. Hell, I know some folks that add 3 cups of sugar to a gallon of tea and that’s just barely sweet enough for them.

Hence, we don’t have iced tea often because damn, you can’t drink like that regularly. It’s a rare treat.

But I’m an earl grey guy for the most part now. And I’ve tried something like twenty brands? I used to have a file with my notes in it, but deleted it by accident. I never drank hot tea until my wife moved in before we got married. She’s a tea drinker all day, but isn’t picky. I tried her bigelow stuff and was meh about it. Then I had some at her mom’s house during a visit I yankee land that was Taylor’s, and the experience was totally different.

When we got home, I used some savings to order a bunch of brands, and tried them all over a few weeks, taking notes and all that crazy crap. It just blew my mind that there was that much difference in brands, even knowing that it could be somewhat different in iced tea.

But, yeah, I found a few favourites and stick with them. One sugar, splash of milk and that’s my earl grey. One sugar, splash of lemon for English and Irish breakfast teas.

I drink all kinds of different tea. At the moment I often drink Keiko Matcha and lots of really beautiful green tea my friend sent me from Taiwan. I love to coldbrew green tea in summer. Greek mountain tea my parents bring me from crete. I also buy fresh mint to make tea from some of the fresh leaves and to dry the rest.

Besides that my favorite brand is The English Teashop in all forms it comes in and Cupper/Clipper.

Twinnings is my usual. Pukka, mostly for herbies, and various supermarket ownbrands (not each of them’s cheapest ownbrand mind you). Yorkshire is decent, PG tips OK but I never buy the latter myself.

Guizhou Mao Jian (毛尖) of various brands is decent too, if you can find it. More commonly I love an English Breakfast, Earl and Lady Grey, Rooibos, and various herbal concoctions.

Edit: nicest brand of tea I had was TWG, and they were amazing. Too expensive for me to ever buy for myself, though.

A tea shop in Seattle called miro. I get their English breakfast delivered in bulk across the country it’s so good.

I’m all about that pukka lemon ginger or their chamomile blends!

Lyon’s, the superior Irish tea.

I’m also a fan of Yunnan teas. Especially pu ehr (shou, sheng, compressed, loose, it’s all good) and Yunnan Noir.

All sorts of brands, I care more about which kind of tea it is than the brand

I drink Caykur Organic Turkish tea every day. It’s addictive.

Local to me, but Rare Tea Cellar makes some excellent blends.

Sari Wangi

Stash, usually lemon ginger

I’ve been drinking a ton of Tazo glazed lemon loaf tea. Herbal. Splash of oatmilk and rose syrup. Ugh so good. Bigelo Oolong is good too.