It always intrigues me what topics generate lots of comments.
Who knew putting sugar or milk in one's tea could be controversial? (Though as I said, I have met a few Britons who claim that the "only right way" to drink tea is with a little milk and no sugar).
Actually, what I take in my tea depends partly on the tea. Chai is pretty much the only tea I consistently put milk AND sugar in.
Green tea - no milk, no sweetener. I tried green tea with honey in it once and didn't like it at all.
Lady Grey tea (another of my favorites): no milk, no sugar. It tastes best to me that way.
Other black teas: sometimes take them black, sometimes put a little milk in them depending. Or, I will often put lemon in them. Especially if it's tea in a restaurant or on the train and they're using semi-generic tea bags, which tend to be a bit more astringent - somehow the lemon ameliorates that.
Herbal teas (well, the few that don't contain chamomile, which I'm allergic to): no milk, no sugar, and I usually steep them longer than recommended because herbal teas are so weak.
Oh, and the "Coconut Thai Pearl" or "Sweet Coconut Chai" or whatever Celestial Seasonings is calling it now is a decaf black tea - but it also has a little rooibos in it. I've never tried rooibos straight (from what I've read, I'm not sure I'd like it), but it's good mixed in black tea.
3 comments:
It is interesting how controversial food and drink can be.
There is no tea that I drink with no sugar at all. I use less in green tea than in black. I've also tried honey in green tea and didn't like it very well. Milk in tea just seems weird to me but I've tried it in Chai and in one of the Stash vanilla teas (I can't remember which one; they have vanilla chai, vanilla hazelnut and one or two others) and it was okay.
I've tried rooibos, to me it tastes like dirt.
I think it's because everyone eats and drinks, so we all have opinions on it!
I, for instance, put milk and sugar in all black tea (one lump). Nothing in green tea, honey in herbal tea (usually).
And, for the record, my tea-drinking habits come directly from British and Scottish forebears; while of course tastes differ everywhere, in Britain it is certainly normal to put milk and/or sugar in tea, OR to put lemon (and sugar? not sure). The old-fashioned habits were that the working classes drank their tea strong, milky, and sweet (especially men -- who, at least according to Agatha Christie's world, liked the most sugar), while the upper classes had a more varied approach (probably often depending on the exact variety of tea).
There, see? Lots of opinions on tea. I'm drinking some right now, actually...
:)
My tea drinking preferences mostly stem from how my parents had always served tea. And after that, I never really acquired a taste for adding milk and sugar. Then again, now that I think about it, I really prefer most foods "plain" without the addition of salt, sauces, or other condiments.
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