Tea & Pipes

[dsturg369]

I'm rather new to the hot tea club but I'm really liking the pairing with my pipes & tobaccos. Usually, every night after work for the past couple of months, I steep some tea to enjoy with my PA & MM cob. I haven't tried anything really fancy... Bigelow's Earl Grey and Twinings' Earl Grey and English Breakfast teas are under my belt, with the Twining's taking the lead so far. I have some Twining's Irish Breakfast and China Oolong on order, so we'll see how that works out.
Of all the tobaccos I've paired with my new found hot tea drinking, my fav thus far is PA. It's strong enough to hold it's own without overpowering the teas and still maintain a great Burley taste while not creating an ill taste of the tea of choice itsef. A good, primarily VA blend like Hal O' the Wynd or Orlik Golden Sliced would be my 2nd choice.

 

[sparroa]

I honestly haven't paired any teas with tobacco yet so I don't know how it works but I'd be willing to bet the straight VAs would be my favourite.

 

[johncorosz]

The most bang for the buck in a bagged tea! Hands down this is the strongest tea I have found online in bags. The taste profile is always "there" and you will never get a muddy flavor but a strong pronounced taste of what your looking for. I encourage anyone with a few extra dollars to give a few a try if you like a hot beverage on a cool day, this being fall after all.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=numi+tea
I speak from drinking almost every brand in teh local US grocery stores and online stores. I also have purchased many from the Uk that are fine as breakfast teas but they are not "special" in the taste department. Perhaps they have their own version of Numi but I have not seen it yet. Once you see the lineup they offer you will agree that you can find some great pairings to match with the perfect bowl of baccy on a cool autumn day! ​

 

[buster]

I gave up coffee about three months ago. Now I buy bulk green tea and picked up a stainless tea pot. We had an electric kettle so I am set. I make a pot at night and that is turned into ice tea. A fresh morning pot to get me going. I mostly drink Chinese style green tea and some brown rice green tea (from Japan) to mix it up a bit.

 

[photoman13]

I want to try some of the bagless tea.

 

[lankfordjl]

I recommend Earl Grey Supreme and Chocolate tea from Harney & Sons (www.harney.com). It's a wonderful company and the strong English and Irish teas are good with English tobacco blends.

 

[photoman13]

That looks like some good stuff lankfordjl.
Here is the place I went but they are a little pricey.
Here is a blend that I loved.

 

[johncorosz]

Oh wow...thank you for the link!

 

[photoman13]

Yeah I haven't bought any either lol. I just sampled it there.

 

[lankfordjl]

Harney & Sons have some really nice gourmet teas as well.

 

[johncorosz]

I forgot to thank you
Got it bookmarked already!

 

[photoman13]

Oh I found out there is an upside to using bagless. You can reuse the tea a few times. My mom said she does it and it still tastes great.

 

[bobpnm]

One of my favorites is Black Dragon Pearl from Teavana. It comes in a ball. You drop it in the infuser, pour hot water over it and let it steep for four minutes. It opens up into what resembles ribbon cut tobacco. It has a natural slight sweetness. Great stuff. Second cup is just as good! Great stuff! Nice with everything I smoke.

 

[lraisch]

I find that tea can be a good accompaniment to a pipe unless I'm smoking a blend with a heavy dose of latakia.
I enjoy most teas (except gunpowder) and I favor blends like PG tips, Yorkshire gold and Bewley's Gold blend, but I particularly enjoy Lifeboat tea.
For iced tea, give me plain old Red Rose.
I have noticed that the quality of the local water makes a considerable difference in the teas I choose.

 

[fshu2]

i like Irish breakfast in the morning with my pipe any toby that fits me at that point but my go to tea is any Chi with some Irish Cream.

 

[maxpeters]

I went through the trouble of searching for "the" tea for me, about 20 years ago, when I found I could no longer drink coffee. I went through all the black, white, oolong and green varieties I could find locally. I'm sure there are some I didn't try, but I did try quite a few. I finally settled on black. Most any black tea.

I also tried quite a few tea pots and brewing methods. These days I just use Lipton, or English Breakfast when I want to splurge. One little baggie in a mug, and into the microwave for 170 seconds. One level tea spoon of sugar and a little milk, and it goes just fine with anything I happen to be smoking at the time.

 

[fshu2]

just had some random black tea that one of my roommates brought back from england. it is phenomenal smooth but strong.

 

[hobie1dog]

Can anyone find the original tea thread?

 

[johncorosz]

Well I am going to make the "big switch". I went on Amazon and looked at prices for loose leaf tea and the hardware needed. In fact it appears that in the long run it is a cheaper way to go in making loose leaf tea. Also I went on a tea forum for a few hours and did some reading. It appears that the tea folks are crazy like us. They are drying all kinds of stuff out and dehydrating then making there own custom tea blends. So, I think this maybe some fun as time goes on if I get into it. For now though I am putting together an order of about 100 bucks on the tea tools and the loose leaf tea through Amazon.com.
bergamot tea will be the tea of choice as I am getting two 44oz. bags of the stuff but a great price on super high quality tea. So far my bagged bergamot tea goes wonderful with many of my flak tobaccos.

 

[photoman13]

That sounds like fun.