Kusmi tea from Paris - Prince Wladimir - the best!

actually, i just cleaned out my tea drawer this week and got rid of all the boring, old(er), and not-so-good teas that were collecting dust. thankfully my colleagues are willing to drink them, so i did not have to toss them out. and since i gave up coffee for lent (ouch), i have two teas in rotation right now. i've been starting my day with either mighty leaf orange dulce (with a splash of milk and a little honey), or teavana's chai/chai tea blend. delicious! we should all spread the word - dont bother drinking those overly fake-flavored teas you find in most grocery stores. spend a little more and buy the more naturally aromatic ones. it's SO worth it.

I'm loving Yogi ginger tea, which I just happened upon at Big Lots for $2.00! Should've stocked up, as it's delish!

the www.Englishteastore.com (no affiliation) sells lovely teas. I'm currently enjoying their China rose petal blend (From Taylor's of Harrogate) as well as my favorite black currant and black tea blend, I've also had their Monk's tea blend and it has a lovely hint of vanilla. For the record I don't drink coffee at all, so I need tea variety to not get bored :)

If you're willing to throw down some $$, Fauchon Blend should fit the bill nicely.

@laffcat - wow, I'd have been all over that deal, too! That's great tea.

EVERY MORNING I have a cup of Yorkshire Gold with sugar & cream.

Lots of ideas for this one... Yogi Ginger Tea and Yogi Kombucha Green Tea are wonderful - the Kombucha, flavored with lemongrass and spearmint, is energizing and comforting, and great if you're usually not a fan of green tea, like me. You can also get a fine assortment of loose teas from Seredipitea.com. I recommend the Ruby Sipper, which is a tisane (fruit tea) made from blood oranges and roasted pears. Twinnings Lady Grey tea is lovely for fans of bergamot. And I still love Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime. Nothing beats it when you need to wind down.

mostly oolong

Lady Earl Grey by Twinnings is one of my favorites lately

Constant Comments by Bigelow

Meditative Mind by Tea Spot (Boulder but youc an order online- my fave)

Almond Cookie (black tea with amazing spices) from Spice and Tea Exchange in Sarasota (you can order online)

Ahmad flavored teas are heaven! Try the Strawberry or the Mango! It's the only brand I drink!

I love Revolution Tea's Sweet Ginger Peach. It's the most delicious and refreshing naturally sweet black tea. Throw a little honey in there, and it is pure sipping bliss!
I found it initially at Fresh Market, but recently saw it at Kroger!

chamomile with lavender, it's so delicious!

I was always an Earl Grey fan - but just recently had the best tasting tea I have ever had....Wedding Imperial Tea by Mariage Freres in Paris - it has notes of chocolate and caramel - astounding and worth every penny. Dean and Deluca carry it in the states.

I love uptontea.com! Right now I'm alternating three teas: Darjeeling SFTGFOP1, Formosa oolong choicest select, and Young Hyson, a green tea from China. Wonderful.

I am on a rose tea kick -- I order it from Mariage Freres as well as Colonial Tea Company (from Sweden). It is a lovely, flowery tea and in both cases, never overbrews to become bitter.

http://www.mariagefreres.com/Vitrine/sommaire.php?page=sommaire&lg=fr

I am also addicted to Marco Polo, which is flowery.

My favourite spring tea is called "Spring Blend" and is released only in spring by the Tea Emporium out of Toronto. Contact them to ask when they will start selling it...
http://www.theteaemporium.com/home.php

Colonial Tea Company also has a superb rooibuis tea, Good Hope, combined with berries. Lovely, refreshing and caffeine-free.

http://www.thecolonialteacompany.com/

mighty leaf tea is my favorite - most teas have a bitter aftertaste to me (even when not oversteeped), but none of the mighty leaf teas do. orange dulce is my #1, but i've never been disappointed by any of their teas.

Cheriey - I live in Sarasota and bought many Christmas gifts from The Spice and Tea Exchange!! Did you see their large chunks of pink salt? Great gifts for gourmands!!

My favorite favorite tea is jasmine green tea. Numi makes my favorite. The smell is just perfect.

I drink mostly chinese teas, usually dragon well green tea (sai wu long jiang) if I can find early spring harvests for a reasonable price. Otherwise, I also enjoy most oolongs (guong yin or even wu-yi) and puer teas (sometimes with the chrysanthemum blend that lightens it up).

Oh, I love tea. I drink it daily and prefer it to coffee. So, I have a lot of teas that I just can’t live without.

My absolute favorite is

Jasmine Pearl Green Tea
It is a unique tea that is rolled up into little balls and scented with Jasmine. It is on the expensive side but I have brewed the same leaves 2-3 times and it still tastes lovely.

http://www.indigo-tea.com/jasminepearlsgreentea.shtml

I recently got the chance to try Strawberry White Tea and I just loved it! I am not normally a fan of fruity teas but this one was light and wonderful. I got it from Indigo Tea locally in Minneapolis/St. Paul Area.
http://www.indigo-tea.com/strawberry-white.shtml

I also drink Matcha, a powdered green tea, every morning! I’ve had it several ways but I usually drink it with water or milk. I got mine directly from Japan so I do not have a good source for you!

Lastly, if you like roobis teas, Herb and Ginger has a ton of great flavors. I have tried their Summer Mango iced.
http://www.herbandginger.com

Mariage Freres....Bourbon (red tea with vanilla) and Casablanca (green tea with mint).

I enjoy harvesting my mint plants for tea.

I never trust someone who doesn't like a good cup of tea. Silk Road tea: http://www.silkroadtea.com (no affiliation, just damn good tea!) is possibly the best tea shop ever! My personal favorites are the hand shaped green Dragon Tears green tea, Alchemist's Brew herbal and of course, Silk Road Chai.

if you are serious about tea, this place will be your next obsession: http://americantearoom.com/index.html

i am in there at least once a month to stock up on vanilla black tea, masala chai noir, brioche (tastes like a warm yummy buttery pastry,) and martinique which is a green rooibos tropical blend (amazing iced tea.)

I'm really into teas with caramel tones in them these days. My everyday favorite right now is Harney & Sons Indian Nimbu Darjeeling while I'm rationing out the last of my Caramele tea from Lupicia and getting ready to buy some Vithanakanda Estate Ceylon. The Nimbu is super smooth and soothing and the Caramele feels like a treat when I take it with milk.

Smith tea:
http://www.smithtea.com/shop/

Beautiful stuff. Drinking chamomile right now.

Chrysanthemum oolong, good quality jasmine, and ginko. Pretty much anything from the Asian food store. And Lady Grey is always good too. I love that hint of orange.

I have a tea affliction and have staged an intervention and am allowed to buy no more tea until I have reduced my current stock to less than 1/6th of my pantry shelf space. Yes, that's right; it's spilled over the door full of shelves into the other door.

That said I am lucky enough to have two shops in town that get great loose-leaf teas. I recently had some gyokuro that makes me sad that I can't restock it, and the clouds and mist tea (another green) from that store is also a thing of beauty. I favor oolongs on the green side, too, like tung ting and bao chong, but am currently branching out into some more heavily fermented ones, like shui xian. I also have some red dragon pearls that are quite lovely, like a gunpowder green in form but made out of a sweet black tea. I like interestingly processed teas, too: hojicha for a pleasantly crisped green and lapsang souchong for a smoky black. Puerh is also amazing, with a lot of variety; I have a lovely brick, a few kinds of loose leaf, and some that was dried in grapefruit so it has a wonderful citrus flavor. I don't have much white tea for some reason; when I'm buying tea again I'm going to investigate it further and see if I can find a variety I like as much as I like the others. I'd also like to pick up some more Indian tea. See? It's a sickness.

In addition to this we stock decaf green in bags and a big selection of tisanes, for those times we want hot beverages without caffeine. I really like tulsi tea for that, both plain and flavored with ginger, and chrysanthemum flowers, and dandelion root. Some of these do double-duty as medicinals: dandelion root is good for the digestion, and slippery elm tea is a nice sore throat soother.

For not feeling so well or just to clear my head, I love Yogi's medicinal teas (Echinacea Immune Booster for example).
Also LOVING rooibus (african red) teas ... which are naturally caffeine free by the way (I try to only drink caffeine in my morning cup o' coffee).
Have fun shopping==wish my tea drawer was empty.
humph.

I'm in love with earl grey and mint tea.
My favorite earl grey is Revolution's Earl Grey Lavender tea. It's yummy and smells amazing!
I usually drink Twinley's Plantation Mint after my morning coffee to freshen up my breath. (Who enjoys having coffee breath?) :]

I'm also fully on board the rooibos train, after having it as a panna cotta (at Craigie on Main in Cambridge, MA). A few places here near boston stock teas from MEM tea importers, and their rooibos is amazing. Starbucks' vanilla rooibos by Tazo is pretty good too.

Tazo's wild sweet orange tea is like drinking heaven. I have overcome my addiction to Fauchon, their house blend. Now there's a new spice store in town and they will be carrying loose tea, so I am back in trouble.

I'd like to add Japanese Genmai Cha to the list. It's green tea with toasted rice. It's soothing and the toasy note is great especially if you don't like the astringent quality that green tea sometimes has. I don't have a particular brand I like, just something I pick up from the nearest Asian market or sometimes the Asian food section of the grocery store although the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf chain has a nice loose leaf genmai cha.

My current favorite tea is Black Dragon Pearl tea from Adagio. At night, I take a cup of their Peppermint herbal tea. Perfect on those long winter nights.

Rooibos chai and mango ceylon. The latter is from Republic of Tea. Delicious!

I love this post as I have been looking for good loose tea to try.

My favs for bagged teas:

Celestial Seasonings: Bengal (delicious spice but sadly decaffeinated), Sleeptime Extra, Tension Tamer

The Republic of Tea: Ginger Peach

Tazo: Zen(green tea with lemongrass and spearmint) and Awake(black tea) These bags are best for larger cups. Drawback for me, since I like the demi cups, and tend to forget to remove tea bags.

Stash: Earl Grey and Peach Black Tea (so lovely for summer iced tea)

Good Earth: Original and Seven Spice Chai (was the best bagged Chai I ever found but I can't find it anywhere anymore. Sad days.)

Bigelow's Mint something to add to my regular iced tea- the mint is so wonderfully cooling. Don't use the Plantation Mint, its not the same at all. :-/

This post is making me dream of lovely iced teas... Can't wait for warm weather!

Stash makes a lovely pomegranate-raspberry green tea.

I'm also really enjoying a nice cup of Twinings black tea with mint (a blend of spearmint and peppermint). It's well balanced and perfect for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up. Twinings recently released a bunch of black tea blends.

When it comes to straight black tea, Twinings and Stash are pretty much all I ever drink anymore.

Stash makes the only bagged black tea chai blend I like. It doesn't have too much anise like some pre-blended chai does.

In the evening I like citrusy and/or spice herbal tisanes.

I had a really nice Yogi brand that was a rooibos chai (also not too heavy on the anise). It was caffeine free but I haven't been able to find it again!

Ahmed Tea's Broken Leaf Assam is absolutely amazing, as well as their Ceylon. I enjoy their Jasmine Green Tea as well. I have a beautiful China Rose Black Tea as well from a local tea shop. I second the wild sweet orange from Tazo which si surprisingly good.

Stash Wild Sweet Orange is my all time favorite. I've always preferred Orange Spice tea and such, and for my birthday my best friend got the Stash brand and I fell head over heals for it at first sip. I want to hide it from my husband and not share!

Caribou Coffee has new teas coming out next week! Very exciting news.

Right now I'm drinking two cups of Yogi Peach DeTox every day, less for the effects and more for the flavor, it's so spicy and delicious. I use each bag twice. I usually drink a cup of Celestial Seasonings Bengal Spice with milk every night too, also spicy and delicious. As for loose tea right now I have Teavana's rooibos tropical, which I tihink I might enjoy more when the weather gets warmer as it is fruity and floral.

PG Tips "special blend" is my every-day tea. Robust, flavorful, with lots of caffeine - what's not to love. (It basically takes like the regular PG Tips, but richer & darker.)

I cannot start my day without a cup of PG Tips with sugar and milk. I got a Kusmi tea variety set for christmas that I'm still working my way through, and I love a cup of earl grey in the afternoon.

@tmunar
I started drinking genmai-cha a couple months ago, and agree the nutty/toasty flavor is great.

I also drink a lot of a Chinese green tea called Lung Ching or Dragon Well. The brand I like comes as loose leaf tea in a green cylindrical container with goldfish on it; no English writing, but some Chinese characters that I interpret as "West Lake Dragon Well"; I assume West Lake is the brand(?). I make this stuff by the liter and drink it all day.

I like three teas especially.

Earl Grey when I want light with nothing added.

English Breakfast for those times when I want to add a bit of sugar & milk into a strong brew.

Peppermint, really the only herbal tea I like (and I've tried SO many).

My local specialty tea shop sells a blend of black tea with almond pieces, orange peel, apple pieces, cornflowers, cinnamon & cloves. It is perfect for the cooler months that are coming up in the southern hemisphere.

They also have a green tea, cherry pieces and rose petal blend which I love for warmer months. It tastes great as an iced tea too.

Mmm tea!

sencha green tea and barley tea!

I really enjoy Twinings Lady Grey. I know that's a pretty obvious choice, but its lightly floral and sweet, so you don't need to add sugar, just milk!

Loose tea. Best company out there: Rishi Tea.
www.rishi-tea.com

My personal favourites include...

Japanese Greens:
Gyokuro
Organic Sencha
Organic Kukicha

Pu-erh Blends:
Organic Fair Trade Pu-erh Ginger
Organic Fair Trade Pu-erh Vanilla Mint
Organic Fair Trade Pu-erh Blood Orange

White Teas:
Organic Fair Trade Moonlight White
Organic Osthmanthus Silver Needle

You'll love them!

My favorite is Revolution's Dragon Eye Oolong. Peach is always a favorite, and I still have some nice hibiscus tea. I'm also a fan of Sunflower jasmine tea (in the yellow-orange tins).

I drink mostly black teas--my go-to tea for most of the winter has been the "Subterranean Homesick Brews" blend from Adagio Teas. (A blend of assam, ceylon, and puh er dante teas, and the perfect start to my day.) I also just ordered a blend from there to try, which is chocolate, caramel and hazelnut. I'm quite excited to get that! I've also been drinking the vanilla tea from Twinings (and sometimes their Ceylon/Darjeeling/Irish Breakfast teas when I have them), and when I'm in the mood for decaf, I've been going with either the Twinings English Breakfast, Adagio's decaf ceylon, or Stash's Creme Caramel, depending on my mood.

Mighty leaf tea all the way-it is not powder, whole leaves! But I also love celestial seasonings...and republic of tea...and traditional medicinals...
Who am I kidding, I just love tea :)

I teach tea! And I agree with OhCha all the way, Rishi is wonderful!

Iron Goddess of Mercy – This was my gateway tea, and I contend that if I was on a dessert island and could only bring one tea with me, I would be happy with the Iron Goddess of Mercy. For me the highlight of this tea in particular, is the apricot aroma released when the water hits the tea leaves.

Sencha Superior – I love the mouthfeel of this Sencha, it’s thick and brothy without any astringency.

Keemun Golden Buds – I find Chinese black teas to be fascinating, and this is no exception. I know that I’ve steeped this tea perfectly when I get a beautiful brown sugar maltyness that reminds me of the Mugolio we occasionally carry at the deli.

Cheers and Happy Sipping!

Does anyone have recommendations for herbal teas? It's hard to keep track of which are caffeinated and which aren't. I can't have caffeine, and I'd love some great recommendations.

One of my favorite tea companies is Harney and Sons, they have a great selection of teas. http://www.harney.com/
My favorite is the Pomegranate Oolong or White Peach or African Autumn. In fact there isn't anything I've tried of theirs I haven't liked!

I recently read about this amazing syrup that turns any cup of black tea into a strong chai, thus avoiding those horribly weak chai teabags.

Currently, Bigelow's English Breakfast & Seattle's Pike Place MarketSpice signature tea are my favs

I went to a high tea at the Drake Hotel in Chicago and fell in love with blue peacock tea. It was hard to track down but I found that Mighty Leaf makes it. You can buy it on amazon or their website but I asked my grocer to order it since they carry other Mighty Leaf products already. It's light and refreshing and has this crazy flavor that I can't put my finger on.

I'm loving Mariage Frères Metis tea right now. It's rooibos with fruit (blackcurrant if I'm not mistaken).

My new favourite is actually the Passionfruit blend from Starbucks (for serious.) I buy it in tins to make at home. It's delicious.

Thank you all for all of these new leads on where to get tea. One of my favorites is Mariage Freres Earl Grey French Blue - does anyone know where to get it in the US? With all these tea drinkers isn't it time for Mariage Freres to open a shop in the US? My latest tea find is not a tea, but a gadget - a plastic tea pot (sort of) that sits above your cup and empties into it. Much easier to clean than a pot. Adagio makes one, but I found a similar one in Bloomingdales for $13. Great article, terrific comments, now will someone change that picture to get rid of that tea bag!

I have about 40 different kinds of tea in my tea cabinet... My go-to faves are Zhena's Gypsy Tea (from Whole Foods) Coconut Chai, this pineapple mint tea from Brazil that a friend of mine brings to me, PG Tips, Candy Cane Lane (an Xmas tea with vanilla, mint), and Earl Greyer from Republic of Tea... also, I always keep a huge jug of Red Zinger from Celestial Seasonings in the fridge with a shot of agave syrup.

out here in Manhattan there's this shop- Purto Rico coffee and teas http://www.portorico.com where i stock up on my basic favorite teas- Earl Grey and English Breakfast.

I know this is un-tea snob of me- but I love Celestial Seasonings: Chai, Vanilla Ginger green tea, and the honey white tea.

I also really like adiago teas as well as teavana sometimes- they do have interesting blends.

I am loving white peony tea. I drink it with 1% milk. So delicious!

I rotate osmanthus black, sencha, ti guan yin and jasmine pearls. Since I sell wholesale tea, I will admit to rotating in smaller batches of other things I'm testing (mostly greens) in addition to the above. A nice gyokuro is good for the morning too, but should be steeped at a fairly low temperature (I usually go 140-ishF) to bring out its full nuanced flavour while avoiding astringency.

I second the Fauchon blend. I think it might be the best blended tea combination ever; but it is frakking expensive. Kusmi has a lovely violet black tea (not cheap either). It is fragrant, but doesn't make you feel like you are drinking a bottle of perfume.

Mariage Freres has the best tea blends basically ever. Expensive, but totally worth it.

For cheaper, but consistently great loose tea Adagio is where it's at. What's real nice is that other tea drinkers rate the tea blends and the description Adagio provides is pretty spot on.

My favourite lately is a "Bedouin Chai" which is like a regular Masala chai, with sage added to it. Gives it almost a savoury quality which I know sounds a little gross, but is actually great.

Other than that have also been drinking more green teas to try and go down on my coffee intake. When I'm feeling ill I make an infusion of big chunks of fresh ginger, cinnamon sticks, lemon, allspice and honey that is really good chilled as well.

I have tried reeeally hard, to like fruit teas. They smell lovely but always taste like weak ribena or something I brewed with the contents of the compost heap!

But I love a proper English cup of tea! from a pot preferably. My favourites are:

Marks and spencer gold

Sainsbury's red label decaff

Clipper teas

I always buy fairtrade tea.

Teavana's Samurai Chai and White Ayurvedic Chai are amazing, and converted my non-tea drinking friends into believers.

The Republic of Tea's Be Well Red Teas are really tasty - my favorite is Get Happy. And it really does perk me up.

Yogi's Bedtime tea is amazing- it puts me to sleep in about twenty minutes, and I feel rested in the morning.

@PunchNYC -- I buy Mariage Freres online from their webshop. Everything arrives within a week, and I find the prices cheaper than in the stores.

I'm a tea freak, and my favorite place to order teas is Upton Tea Imports, http://uptontea.com. They have 420 varieties and great prices, complete with reviews and recommendations. You can get anything there in any size packet. Great stuff.

I'm a tea freak, too, and I totally recomment TeaGschwendner, http://www.teagschwendner.com/US/en/Homepage.TG

They offer a huge range of teas of all kinds and lots of them are organically grown.

I also really like Harney and Sons teas. My favorite is the Cherry Blossom.

Oh, and can't forget good earth tea! It's herbal/non-caff, sweet, spicy, delicious. I love drinking with a touch of milk.