As a good southern girl I can’t argue that one of the best beverages is sweet tea, emphasis on the sweet. It shocked me that while on Catalina Island (off the cost of Los Angeles, California), I was looked at like a crazy person when I asked the waiter at a burger joint for a sweet tea. “A what?” he asked me. I looked at the Canadian I was sitting with and he laughed. “They don’t have what you want here. Just get a pop.” As a seasoned traveler he knew what sweet tea was. Perhaps I’ll post my full California traveling adventure in a later essay, but back to the topic at hand.
Sweet tea is a wonderful drink. I enjoy it regular, decaf, with lemon, with half tea and half lemonade; it’s versatile. But have you ever ventured deeper into what Tea has to offer? There are other varieties of tea beyond the standard sweet tea. Shocking I know, but hang with me for a little bit and I’ll whet your taste buds for some adventure.
To begin, I’ll throw some examples at you and then guide you through the growing world of Tea. As I write, I am sipping a hot Tazo Lotus Green Tea. I also enjoy White Blueberry Blossom, Passion, Aruba, Chamomile, Lemon Ginger, Chai, Earl Grey, African Red Bush, Sweet Cinnamon Spice, Wild Sweet Orange, etc., etc. Those are only a few of the plethora of variety available. Now that you know more than Sweet Tea exists (I’m certain some of you thought I was joking), I’ll introduce you to some of the more popular brands commonly available.
If you were to look at the tea and coffee isle in your local grocery store you are likely to see the following brands of tea: Lipton, Nestea, Nescafe, Luzianne, Celestial Seasonings, and Bigelow. Of these, I would only recommend Celestial Seasonings and Bigelow for hot teas and with some reservation. Celestial Seasonings offers a wide variety of teas and flavors. They are readily available and inexpensive. They make wonderful Rooibos tea, and many of their fruit teas can be brewed hot and made into iced tea. I especially recommend making them into iced tea because with other brands flavor is lost owing to the fact that they were intended to be enjoyed hot and it takes too many bags to be worth the cost. Bigelow makes excellent varieties of Chai Tea and flavored teas. I prefer their Chai over other more expensive brands. The flavor is smooth, sweet, has presence and is controllable without being as bold and difficult to brew correctly as Tazo for instance. Bigelow also offers very cute Teapots and other accessories including a Vera Bradley inspired teapot for those of us bitten by the Bradley bug. While you can purchase Bigelow Teas online, I wouldn’t recommend it because they are significantly pricier than purchasing it in your local grocery store. But for anything more exotic or finer, I would move on to more elite brands.
Tazo Tea has been made popular by Starbucks and for good reason. Tazo boasts a large inventory of excellent black, green, and herbal infusion teas. They named many of their teas based upon the mood you should drink it in or wish to induce. For instance, Tazo’s Calm Tea falls into the herbal infusion category and is made with a chamomile base. Lightly sweeten Calm Tea with honey and you have a naturally caffeine free, soothing tea to calm nerves and relax the mind. Tazo offers traditional teas such as their Green Tea, Earl Grey, and Chai. For the price, you can’t get a better cup of tea. I also highly recommend their website because it is interactive, fun, and interactive. Tazo can be purchased at Publix, Target, Albertson’s, and Wild Oats as well as many other local stores. It can also be purchased at Starbucks, but it is usually a bit cheaper at grocery stores like Target.
The over 300 year old British tea company of Twinings is another excellent choice for a cup of hot tea. The Twinings teas offer some of the same, but many different varieties from Tazo. I haven’t met a cup of Twinings I didn’t like. Twinings also offers a fun and interactive site where you can explore their teas. Twinings is a bit more expensive and harder to find, but is available at various supermarkets listed on their website. They offer recipes on their website for how to brew their tea and various drinks you can make with their teas. If you were to host a traditional English tea party, I would recommend Twinings as your brand of choice because of their years of experience preparing tea for the British. As a side note, I believe America lost respect for teatime during the revolution when we chucked crates of the stuff into the Boston harbor.
The final brand we’ll touch on is The Republic of Tea. They are fairly pricey by my standards, but they offer higher quality and more rare teas. The Republic of Tea provides the connoisseur with loose leaf teas and rare varieties from estate tea gardens. The teas they offer have flavor and are quality. I enjoy this tea at a local café, but I don’t usually purchase any for myself as I can’t justify the cost.
Now that I have introduced you to some of my favorite and more popular brands of tea available, go exploring. Instead of your traditional caramel macchiato, ask the barista to recommend a hot tea. Remember to sweeten and don’t leave the tea bags in too long. In my next article, we will continue our exploration of the world of Tea and delve into the different varieties available.
