I don’t drink coffee (or beer) but go through quite a lot of tea. I wouldn’t call myself a connoisseur, but rather simply opinionated. Certainly I am not a purist—I like a steel-cut black tea base that can withstand my lazy brewing without “burning” and a nice mix of spices that bring aroma and flavor.
When I have moved to different cities, finding a local supplier of loose-leaf teas and a favorite blend is almost as high a priority as signing up for a transit card.
Here in Amsterdam, I found Tea Bar. Fortunately, they had a retail store near one of our early apartments. Finding them online would have been less likely. My daily go-to is, fittingly, Amsterdam Blend. It’s a bit like a low-pepper chai, with spices inspired by the mercantile history of the city.
Normally I drink my black tea with a cube of sugar and a tiny splash of milk, just enough to give the tannins something to bind to besides my teeth. But when we broke up with Starbucks, Shannon and I needed something to replace our morning chai, and I began experimenting with the teas we had.
About my Starbucks breakupIt turns out that Amsterdam Blend with an unreasonable amount of honey and a large dose of Oatly oat milk is a very tasty drink for the morning walk.
Coffee is meh. Tea is good. Herbal tea is the goodest.
Mint, linden, rooibos or chamomile, no trace of sweeteners. I've stopped drinking black tea after my first (and thankfully the only so far) kidney stone at 24. Not a fun experience, so I'd like to not go through this again.
Tea drinker here too, but I'm a bit more of a plain tea drinker, my favorite is green tea for sure, although I have grown a fondness for jasmine. I mostly drink sencha and bancha, and I'm planning on trying genmaicha. When it comes to black tea I drink it mostly plain too, but it is the type of tea that I'm a bit more adventurous and I like spicing it, and sometimes I put sugar. I tried experimenting making chai with coconut milk, but it didn't turn out as I expected, next time I'll try making the coconut milk myself.
The Oatly oat milk brand has been a game changer for me. It provides the texture of milk without adding a noticeable dairy (or soy or nutty or coconut) flavor.
Experimentation will reward you! There is no right way to tea, only some right ways for you.
I'd like to try Oatly, but it is not sold here. I tried making oat milk myself, but it turned out terrible. I actually quite like the idea of vegetable milk and have tried making a bunch myself: soy, oat, rice, coconut and peanut. Of those the best ones are coconut and peanut. Unfortunately cocunut has a strong characterist flavour, so it doesn't work everywhere, but peanut milk is really very good, and has no noticeable taste, it's good even to drink plain, I recommend you try.