Tea or coffee?

I personally prefer tea over coffee. I didn't drink coffee until the past couple of years (and only latte with lots of milk; and only very occasionally). I feel that coffee is too bitter so it's difficult for me to drink. I also find it hard to fall asleep if I drink coffee in the evening. 

A couple good/interesting tea recommendations to try: (1) lemongrass tea; (2) Taiwanese bubble tea; (3) milk tea with ginger (but self-brewed with fresh ginger) ; (4) honey and aloe vera tea; (5) a variety of loose leaf tea
(compared to those made out grocery-store tea bags, I much prefer tea brewed from original ingredients or loose leaf tea)

How do you take your tea?

Coffee is bitter, but it has caffeine in it  I only started drinking coffee when I was 24 and started working night shifts and needed something to keep me awake! I never drink it after 6pm (unless I’m on a night shift) as otherwise, as you said, it makes it difficult to fall asleep!

Thank you for the herbal tea recommendations. The Taiwanese bubble tea seems particularly interesting, what ingredients are in it?

How do you take your tea?

Coffee is bitter, but it has caffeine in it  I only started drinking coffee when I was 24 and started working night shifts and needed something to keep me awake! I never drink it after 6pm (unless I’m on a night shift) as otherwise, as you said, it makes it difficult to fall asleep!

Thank you for the herbal tea recommendations. The Taiwanese bubble tea seems particularly interesting, what ingredients are in it?

Thank you for giving me good tips and ideas :-) I tried making ginger coffer earlier. I put a piece of peeled ginger into a coffee mug and soaked it in boiling water for 10 minutes before adding the coffee. It tasted good, better than the Beanies ginger coffee, this had quite a kick to it. It also made my mouth go rather numb though :-(

Bergamot Tea seems good, I wonder if it's possible to make Bergamot coffee? Likewise for Lemongrass and Turmeric. I'm going to have to get inventive with my coffee making! Thanks for the links, I'll see if I can get some hints from those.

Thinking about it, I have had bubble tea before, I got some from a stand at Westfields shopping centre a few years ago. It was nice. I imagine that you could only get it from a shop as it looked like it might be a bit complicated to try making at home!

I'll have a look at the link for yifangtea too, do they sell fruit/herbal teas? I'll look.

The sugar seems interesting! I might get some!

Kitsune said:

How do you take your tea?

I think it depends on what kind of tea I'm having. I would usually add milk for black tea (since it's slightly more bitter with more caffeine), boiling black tea with ginger and adding milk and sugar is really good (learned it from some friends from India). If it's other kinds of tea, like herbal tea, I would usually have it plain or add honey (instead of sugar). I have some good loose leaf oolong tea, and usually just add hot water and that's all (it's really fun to watch the leaves expand). I had some earl grey loose tea from Whittard, and it has bergamot and flower petals in, so I sometimes drink it without adding anything to sample all the flavours, but sometimes add milk and drink it like a traditional British tea. I also bought previously bought lemongrass & turmeric tea from the east India company when I went to London and it's great and relaxing just to drink it without adding anything. 

https://www.whittard.co.uk/tea/how-do-you-brew/loose-tea/earl-grey-loose-tea-MSTR314583.html?cgid=loose-tea#start=1

https://www.theeastindiacompany.com/products/relax-lemongrass-turmeric-50g/

Kitsune said:

Thank you for the herbal tea recommendations. The Taiwanese bubble tea seems particularly interesting, what ingredients are in it?

It's quite difficult to make Taiwanese bubble tea at home I think, so I usually just buy it from shops outside. It requires the right temperature (I think in stores they have hot tea but add ice cubes and shake it to cool it down really fast, and then filter out the ice cubes to serve to customers), good grasp of milk-tea proportions, and a container (kind of like a cocktail shaker) to shake the milk, ice, sugar, and tea. I think the ingredients typically are good quality loose left tea, milk, and sugar. The pearls are tapioca pearls cooked with brown/muscovado sugar, though I slightly prefer the grass jelly. 

I would recommend this shop if you're in London: https://www.yifangtea.co.uk (you can scroll to the bottom of the page to see the types of tea they have for sale)

They not only have bubble tea, they also have lots of fruit teas too (I am also a fan of fruit tea). The fruits they use for their fruit teas include subtropical/tropical fruits that are quite popular in Taiwan (like passionfruit and pineapple). They also have really good quality sugar too (like sugar derived from wintermelon and sugar cane).