Hey, folks! I’m fairly new to hot teas. I’ve been very much so enjoying my English and Irish breakfast teas, Earl Grey, and a few other Walmart specials. But I find that I think most of them taste weak, and i use multiple bags. I’d like to try a loose leaf, and maybe something a little stronger. I’m not a fan of green tea for the same reason, it feels weak/watery. I’m a US southerner, so I guess I sort of ruined myself to tea strong enough to get out the pot and slap you. Haha.
Can anyone recommend a sampler of stronger teas? I have a fancy kettle that you can set the temperature on if they need some specific temp, as I know some teas do.
Any help is appreciated! Thanks in advance!
What do you mean by weak then?
Much of the charm of higher quality teas come from the subtleties in the flavors, they won’t ever be overpowering. They can taste muted with age or improper dosing/brewing. And using too much tea and/or oversteeping will make the flavor profile saturated/flat, rather than be overpowering.
If you’re looking for a clear, piercing flavor to “slap you in the face”, you’ll probably want something with a lot of aromatics, like a smoky Lapsang, a reinforced Earl Grey or other flavored blend, maybe a Gunpowder with it’s bitterness, or even Matcha. In the herbals section, Hibiscus and many Rooibos blends might have something of what you’re looking for.
And you might want to pair it with flavor enhancers like sugar and milk/cream depending on flavor profile.
A Lapsang sweet tea, or a Matcha Latte might do the trick for you.
I do like earl grey. I’ll try the others. A smokey tea sounds super interesting!
By weak I meant watery, i suppose? The tea I grew up on was my mom’s and grandma’s southern sweet tea. Loose leaf Tetley tea, added to a cold water, brought to a boil, and steeped for 20 minutes. Add three quarts of cold water, and 2 cups of sugar. I can’t drink it that sweet anymore, but that strength of the tea I loved.
What I tend to drink in the realm of hot tea is Twinings Irish breakfast tea, 3 tea bags in about 15ish ounces of water, steeped for 7 minutes. I drink it with some sugar and cream. I’ve been wanting to branch out into loose leaf, as I’ve heard the quality and strength is much improved.
How did it go?
Haven’t ordered anything yet. Finances imploded a bit, will order when I get a chance.
No sweat. I was just curious to see how your experience went.
Take care!
I’m hoping to be able to order something in two weeks. It’ll be my last paycheck for 3 months, so Imma do something for myself. Haha.
Also, thanks for checking in. It’s very sweet knowing there’s someone vested in my tea journey! Hahaha
I don’t think you’ll get that type of strength from more tea or loose leaf tea, but you can always make an experiment:
Do 10x what you usually would, like 10 teabags to a cup of water, and let steep overnight. Then dilute that until you get the flavor you want. 1 parts concentrate to 4-5 parts water is what’s usually used in Russian tradition (with samovar and chainik), and the concentrate by itself might actually be bad for you if you drink a lot of it (like a whole pot, a cup is mostly safe).
If you want to be all scientific and advanced about it, you can also try to notice how the flavor profile changes with different concentrations.
But from your description I would guess that you’re after more punchy flavors, which are usually from blends with flavor oils (like the bergamot in Earl Grey) and/or the flavor enhancers. If you can’t do sugar, you could try Stevia or artificial sweetener to get some of that kick without it.
Lapsang Souchang is one of the most famous and smokiest teas, with a very clear smoky flavor that could work.
But beyond that, feel free to try loose leaf, but I’m afraid you’ve had to have very very bad/old teas for them to be watery at a bag steeped for two minutes, not to mention your recipes.