Having a cup of Assam tea this morning. I prefer coffee, but i'm out, so tea it is. My wife and i have a whole kitchen shelf full of loose teas. (This in a small New York apartment). I drink mostly Japanese tea with an occasional Indian tea. She drinks mostly Chinese tea.
Pan fired Sensha this morning.
This year and last I've only been drinking Tieguanyin. The two years preceding this I only had Longjing cha. Mainly this is because every couple of years or so I get the opportunity to visit local plantations and buy sufficient quantities of high quality leaves - and luckily I have friends who aid with both the selection process and the haggling!
Having said that, I do like Early Grey (no milk, lemon or sugar), and indeed if made well I find most teas palatable, as long as nothing is added but water (I know EG has bergamot, but that's my only exception).
Overall though I think that once I find a tea that sits well with me all day long, then I will kind of stick with it. Experimentation is usually reserved for overseas trips.
My monthly tea club box just arrived, so I have three different Chinese black teas (one made from Milan varietal dancong, two from Fujian) and one white tea from Sichuan. I get White2Tea's tea club and have really enjoyed pretty much everything I've got - other tea clubs are available!
The last couple of days we were drinking longjing.
Yorkshire Gold tops my list.
They aren't a US company: they're in China. They are just Western-facing so show prices in USD.
For UK looseleaf, have a look at what-cha.com - they have a great selection of unusual things. Also postcardteas.com and meileaf.com who have teashops in London as well as being online (but are generally on the more expensive end).
Also theteaguru.co.uk.
I normally use a tea bag due to convenience, but since I have around 6 kilos of compressed tea gifted to me by my son and I am out of tea bags, I think I'll spend October only drinking black Chinese tea.
I use a fountain pen and a paper planner - paperinkplan.wordpress.com
I think a blind taste test of the same tea, loose and bagged, is in order.
Currently drinking Whittards Big Red Robe tea. A powerful Oolong tea. Best drunk in small doses as it can bring on a tea hangover.
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