Price Chopper had a fantastic deal, a case (12) of Arizona Green Tea for only $5! I am becoming mildly addicted to green tea and normally buy a bottle a day.
I have decided to ditch buying it by the bottle and instead finding instant or tea bags. I've never had much luck with these before, anyone know of some that actually taste like the real thing?
On a perl related note, my most commonly used modules.
If you drink a bottle of green tea a day, you should certainly look into using real green tea (either loose or bagged). Not only will you pay less, but it will probably taste better.I have decided to ditch buying it by the bottle and instead finding instant or tea bags. I've never had much luck with these before, anyone know of some that actually taste like the real thing?
I strongly recommend not using the "instant" green tea, or the green tea that comes pulverized like gunpowder in a tea bag (like Lipton, Tetley or any other miserable excuse for "Tea"). If you like the convenience of tea bags, then look into a higher quality tea vendor, like The Republic of Tea, Tazo, HonesT, Fortnum and Mason, Whitford or the like. When tea is bagged, it does need to be smaller (to increase the surface area and allow the liquor to be extracted). But it doesn't need to be pulverized and low-grade.
Some of the newer (admittedly Yuppie) tea producers offer a wide variety of green teas, including flavored green teas.
If you're really serious, then seek out your local tea merchant. There's likely to be one in any large city, and generally on the web as well. Not only are you getting a quality product, but you're supporting local business (and not some big Yuppie marketing company). The local tea merchant will probably sell only loose leaf tea, and if you want to brew it by the cup, there are a wide variety of options, ranging from tea balls, in-cup strainers, and disposable fill-your-own tea bags. (Don't use a coffee strainer; the tea needs to infuse in the water.)
My current local tea shop is Teaism in Washington, DC. They have a very nice varitey of teas (both green and black), along with some products that are reasonably hard to find. I also like The House of Tea and Torreo (a coffee/tea shop), both in Philadelphia. Vancouver, BC, has a number of great tea shops; I especially liked T on Broadway.
Tea shops tend to focus on real tea. If you like the flavored green teas, you're probably going to stick to the packaged tea vendors: TRoT, Tazo (owned by Starbucks), Fortnum and Mason, Whitford, Eastern Shore, HonesT, etc.
