Tea

[Angrboda]

I hardly drink tea. I would like to get into to it but I don't know where to start. Any brand recommendations?

Depends on your poison. For straight blacks, I like Twinings. My favorites being Irish Breakfast and Lapsang Souchong, and they make a sampler pack, but the teas in the sampler are not as strong a blend. A good black to try is China Oolong, from either Twinings or Bigelow. If you like flavored teas or herbal teas, Yogi or Good Earth are good.

Some common other teas, Earl Grey, Orange Pekoe (actually a grade of tea cutting, but it's become standard to call the tea this; Twinings makes a fine one, and most plain teas without a blend name are going to be orange pekoe), Bigelow Constant Comment (a flavored tea similar to Earl Grey, but somewhat sweeter).

If you get to a place to buy loose leaf tea, some common teas are Assam, Oolongs, Pu-erhs, Green teas, and a variety of herbal teas. You can buy cheap infusers for loose leaf tea, or disposable infuser sleeves. If you're just starting out, I would recommend buying very small quantities of the more expensive teas, as that way you will be more likely to get an enjoyable example of the "type" independent of the variation and idiosyncracies of the less expensive teas. Some common descriptive words to watch for: floral, earthy, amber; these mean about what they sound, so if you don't like any of these characteristics, watch for the words in order to avoid them. (I don't like floral teas, but many oolongs have floral overtones.)

(I'm having brain block today, so I'm overlooking a lot of good teas.)