No this is not a tongue in cheek post about drama lmao. Thought I'd make a counter to the coffee post because I know there's got to be plenty of tea lovers here.

I'm hoping to get more into drinking matcha despite the cost since tea is less irritating to my stomach than coffee (as much as I LOVE coffee). I love a good tea latte depending on what tea I'm making. London fogs are pretty easy to make at home and are pretty good even without steamed milk.

Personal Iced lavender london fog "latte" at home: -Ice your insulated container while prepping (I have a stainless steel contigo tumbler just for tea) -Prepare 1 cup of tea: -1 bag Earl Grey (I use Bigelow), 1 bag Lemon lavender lane (I use celestial seasonings) -Steep for 10 minutes (You want it strong if iced and adding milk) -After steeping squeeze the teabags and add your sweeteners as desired, allow to dissolve. (allow to cool somewhat if you have patience that I don't) -Optional, add a dash of vanilla extract. -Remove insulated cup from the freezer and add a handful of ice to the bottom, your tea, and top with milk (any kind it doesn't matter, the Oatly Barista oatmilk rocks in general though)(additional thought: Frozen milk cubes would cool your drink much better if impatient to allow things to cool like me 😁). -Do the unhinged thing like me and cap your drink and shake because you're impatient and didn't let it cool and the drink may potentially explode out the top when opening (this probably won't happen or will be less intense if you cooled the tea beforehand).

If you want a stronger tea just double the bags and REALLY squeeze them out. Additionally, this tea can be made the same but simply diluted with more ice/water without milk for normal iced tea instead of a "latte", although it's really just milk tea unless you can steam the milk, I guess. If you have the means, steam the milk but I think you'd need a shaker to ice it down better since it'll be hot and won't be cooling the tea down.

Don't be me and use a glass type container on the regular just filling that B*** with ice and also chilling it in the freezer and dumping hot liquids into it. It never shattered and broke by me dropping it instead but still.

Please please give a fun little recipe or thing you make at home if you have it!

Mine have limited taste in teas, but the presentation is pretty standard. Tho mine will say cold tea in cold weather, and hot tea in hot weather.

Maybe someday the opportunity will come to sample the many kinds out there.

Def gotta save this post for some amped up cocoa tea when winter and fall comes around again! That and the sugar cookie sounds so good. Now I have some options other than the spiced apple tea I have.

For boba pearls I did get a kit that had microwave pouches (O's instant boba kit) that were REMARKABLY good for being an "instant" boba but this comes with syrup concentrate to make tea which is of course on the sweeter side but great for a quick treat. they were overall cheaper than buying boba at a store too so worth it for a treat. I did a quick google and saw a brand called Apexy that makes quick microwavable pouches. Id imagine they're already sweet as well.

And the always forgetting tea is my nightmare too lol but for Christmas I got a tiny contigo (The Streetersville 10oz mug) and it's actually been the perfect in between of a mug and the larger contigos. It still lets my drink cool to a drinkable temp but at a pace where I'll make the tea, forget about the tea, the tea is the perfect drinking temp when remembered lol. All the bigger ones I'm left waiting for it to cool down to not scald my face even when I forget it exists for a while. The lid can be taken apart easily too which is nice so I can actually clean the thing thoroughly. I hope this doesn't sound like an AD lol.

I gotta get a new glass bottle for cold steeping again though since my other one chipped around the mouth and I had to toss it. I like your cold steep method since its less work and less chaos than when I would dump hot tea over ice in the old glass bottle lol, less chaotic. I like strong tea though. If I have enough good, tasty tea recipes and methods I can really cut my sugar and overall caffeine from drinking strong sugared up coffee. I can tolerate low or no sugar tea so much better and it triggers reflux so so much less.

The contigo containers are the most ridiculously resilient tumblers I've ever had. I always like to tell the story of how I left one on the roof of the car and it got flung into the street and I demanded my BF go and get it even though he insisted to leave it and it was probably broken. Nope. Very small dent and no cracks in the plastic but I lost like 3/4ths of the coffee inside lol. It still kept things warm, so the double wall seal wasn't harmed either.

Also, I do have barely tea at home actually! I've been slacking on making it because it's a bit tedious and I don't have my large bottle to keep it in the fridge anymore. I have to shop for one so I can make big batches. It's the only tea I can guzzle without any sugar.

Caffeine certainly never has been an issue for me, but recently having heart palpitations and apparently PVC's according to my doc just at a quick listen to my heart I'm just trying to decrease my consumption overall. I'm sticking with a 1/2 teaspoon of matcha now and getting decaf coffee anymore and only early in the day.

I actually don't like tea. I'm much more of a Coffee person.

I like chai lattes. I get pods for the Keurig or I get a powder that I can mix with hot water. I actually don't like cinnamon though, so I am very picky with my chai lattes and try to get the ones with the least cinnamon.

im a boba fiend so usually i like black tea with milk and sugar lately ive been buying tea concentrate and just adding brown sugar and milk OR sweet cream creamer for iced

i also love thai tea and usually that's a super easy one to brew - i find that most teas say brew for like 3 minutes but they never taste very strong especially if you don't want a lot of things added in. thai tea usually brews very strong very quickly so i always bring some to work! i do prefer coffee tho but chai, thai and matcha teas are creamy so im a big fan.

i DO NOT like chamomile >: (

I LOVE thai tea. Honestly I probably should just get some mix or bags and make it in the mornings sometimes. Any specific brand you recommend? same for the matcha as I LOVE it! My bf hates it because it can taste/smell like grass and seaweed sometimes lmao! The last matcha I got was jade leaf artisanal ceremonial grade due to the price being reasonable and good ratings. Tastes fairly good to me especially since I don't wanna drop a fortune on green tea powder as I'm not some sort of connoisseur of tea, just wanna make a low sugar latte and have it not taste bitter.

Haha I know not everyone is an herbal tea fan but you seem passionate. Do you not like floral flavors as much or is it just the ONE herbal you don't like? My SO dislikes mint specifically in tea.

i buy wang derm thai tea usually from Cost Plus but it looks like it's available in a lot of places! Cost Plus is great for international food

honestly i do like most herbal tea i just don't like the chamomile taste for whatever reason so i totally get that!

i love and drink all kinds of tea - earl grey is what i often had as a child. my grandparents taught me to dip my biscuits (cookies) into the tea and i haven't eaten a biscuit dry since

i recently bought a box of Rooibos Caramel tea. real good straight. works well with milk too

when searching I found LA MOON TEA Blue Thai Tea Mix on amazon and it looks so cool! It'll do the color change thing if acid is added to the mixture! Go from blue to purple to pink depending on the amount :D Like litmus paper but liquid!

Biscuits with a good strong tea with milk is fantastic! I love having the biscoff ones or even biscotti with tea instead of coffee a lot of the time. That roobios caramel looks dang good btw I just googled it. Might have to give it a try. My go to for black tea is constant comment tea from bigelow. Nothing fancy but I like it better than just plain black tea.

Hah, I know about the context of the company, but I cannot resist the Celestial Seasonings' Honey Lemon Ginseng Green Tea on it's own. I can't get it in stores anymore so I'm planning to order the 18 pack, HA! But if you want a reaaaaally good one, Alistair's Afternoon Delight from Tea Punk Teas is soooo good! This one is good with honey and milk!

Idk what context you're talking about but if its something shady I know MOST companies anymore, especially older ones, are like that anyway. Not much getting around it.

I'll check out tea punk teas when I'm able!

One of the CEOS of Celestial Seasonings was part of a cult for a bit apparently? Keyword was, since he got out in 2002 which I'm thankful for since I was worried there for a while XP

Also Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride from the same company is super tasty! It's got a slightly sweet back flavor when you drink it, and you can bring it more to the front with honey/sugar! Of course, that one is also really good with milk, but it's also based on cookies so it's perfect :3

Ah well plenty of people accidentally fall into cults and such. Especially when emotionally vulnerable. Though I cant defend him if he started the cult lol.

Ooo that does sound nice though I have to check if milk thistle will affect any medications I currently take.

Have you tried the Jade Leaf matcha? It can be made hot or cold and I find that to be particularly delectable, not too sweet but definitely not bitter, so even if you over a bit overboard with the amount, it doesn't get the taste of grass clippings. I'd also recommend getting a bamboo frother/whisk thing like you see with traditional green tea ceremonies in Japan. Apologies if you already have, I don't mean to insult.

I love good tea, preferably loose leaf so that means having to go out on a limb to find it where I live. Chai or matcha preferably, any actual tea needs to be strong enough to take the spoon and smack me with it.

Jade leaf is actually the one that I bought yeah! I have a metal electric whisk though. I usually just make my matcha cold with a teeny bit of sugar and filled up with milk something like a latte just cold. Really just matcha milk I guess.

Oh! Matcha is normally already sweetened too. But matcha lattes are delicious, especially when ice cold and sweet.