@lydiaconwell Ah ok, black tea. Kinda like ceylon tea, or maybe even sorta english breakfast (since that is a blend of various black teas, including ceylon, I believe). Generic black tea. I guess that's what English Breakfast tea is for us, that's the most generic type tea you can buy over here.

@lydiaconwell Or maybe not 'most generic' but at least 'most usual' or 'most abundant'.

@trinsec Actually, English Breakfast is pretty much like the normal everyday tea you get. But English Breakfast only seems to be made by Twinings. Most normal tea is sold as 'tea' no particular type.

@lydiaconwell Aha. Here 'English Breakfast' is sold by Pickwick. I actually don't know if other brands call it the same name or something more generic. I tend to buy Pickwick after having tried various other brands, because that one leaves behind the least residue.

@trinsec If you make tea in a pot, you get less residue in your cup and less bitterness too. You can use bags in a pot. But you have to warm the pot first with some boiling water.

@lydiaconwell Right, the supermarket's home brand (of the supermarket I most frequent to) has it as 'Zwarte thee, Engelse melange'. So more generic, but same concept. And Pickwick actually shows it as 'Original English', but the little bags have 'English Breakfast' usually iirc. Oh cool, there's a Twinnings too, with English Breakfast. And holy shit that shit is expensive! And there's a Lipton with English Breakfast as well. And that concludes me checking my supermarket's inventory website. ;)

@lydiaconwell After all this... I usually get Ceylon tea. That's also black tea, but a little bit less harsh than English Breakfast/English melange.

@trinsec So much to know about tea!

@lydiaconwell Yeah. I am actually pondering if I should try some more tea tastes. At least not the fruity ones like strawberries and such, I don't like that I already know that.

But.. is ginger tea tasty? Dunno, but I see I could buy it. It's even 2nd for half price for the organic tea section. If that's cheaper than the normal tea counterpart I might take a peek at that.

@trinsec I'll tell you what a nice tea is. Technically not a 'tea' but nettle tea is pretty good.

It's a bit like mint tea -- but without the mintiness. Like a softer mint.

Nettle is nice.

Ginger tea - just put a piece of fresh ginger into a cup and pour boiling water over it. That's nice too. Can do the same with lemongrass.

@lydiaconwell If I'd use a piece of fresh ginger... you mean I should cut out a piece off the whole ginger and then basically soak it in boiling water? Or how does that work?

Nettle.. lessee that should be uh... brandnetel probably. Right, brandnetelthee. Mm, I'm actually curious to that now. It's not called thee here, apparently, but 'kruideninfusie' means herb infusion. It's on sale too, in the organic section. Huh, you know what, I might actually look at that too.

Will skip on the lemongrass though. I'm not so fond of citrus-y tasting tea. Tea shouldn't taste strong at all for me.

@trinsec Nettle isn't strong, but it's refreshing and no caffeine.

Yes, you cut a piece of ginger, cut off the skin, and just pour boiling water over it. It isn't very strong but if you grate the ginger it will blow your head off. So you can pep it up a bit if you want.

Masala tea is nice too if you like strong tea. You simmer black tea with a few spices, milk, for 5 minutes, then add sugar to taste. You just need cloves, cinnamon stick, green cardamon - that sort of thing.

@lydiaconwell That 'no caffeine' would help. Then, if I do like the taste, I can have some nice hot tea before going to bed. Right now I definitely shouldn't get tea after 9pm, and that might be a bit too late already. Would be nice if I could... so yeah, definitely going to check out that one.

The ginger sounds easy enough, I'll buy a new bit of ginger then on my next shopping trip.

Masala sounds like something I'd love to stay away from, though. :D

@trinsec Masala tea is a bit like a dessert. Every once in a while is nice.

@lydiaconwell I've bought nettle tea and ginger-withsomethingelse-withsomethingelse tea, and even a piece of ginger itself. I'll try the nettle this evening probably. Just thought I'd let you know!

@trinsec 😥 I feel under pressure ...

@lydiaconwell Why? I am the one who has to taste this, not you! 😋

@lydiaconwell I've tried this nettle tea.

My first impressions is that it doesn't taste awful, so that's good! It was a bit blander than expected, maybe I need to learn this taste or add some honey. But even with 3+ minutes infusing it doesn't taste bitter like black tea, so honey is probably not even necessary at all. Just need to try it out some more.

The aftertaste was pretty fine. It even seems to have something sweetish aftertaste, even though I've not added any sweeteners.

The result is that I'm willing to try this more times. I still have a bunch of teabags left, so I definitely can get to experiment with it some more. Might be a nice solution as a 'tea before going to bed' thing!

@lydiaconwell I've got this 'ginger green tea with a twist of matcha & turmeric' from Clipper and I've tried it out. It was edible, I can drink it, so that is saying a lot coming from me. ;)

I can taste that this is a whole lot more 'herb-y' than the nettle tea, but it's doable. It's also not too strong, but it's stronger than the nettle. I still have to try this out some more, but I guess it's another potential before-bed-tea.

@trinsec Sounds nice. Turmeric is very good for you.

The piece of fresh ginger to make tea is a good hydrating tea you can drink all day. It's more like flavoured warm water. Nice though.

I'm still a big fan of nettle tea.

@lydiaconwell At this moment I'm favoring nettle over this ginger tea, but both are ok in my book. I have yet to try out the fresh ginger, that'll be done another day. Maybe on tuesday, I sure could use a refreshing hydrating tea on that day so who knows!

@lydiaconwell I've tried the tea where i simply put in a piece of ginger. I have to say... I was pleasantly surprised. This is something I can definitely drink often.

I'm currently enjoying the nettle tea again. I'm glad I've got some nice alternatives to the strong black tea.

@trinsec Yay for tea!

@trinsec When you go to the supermarket in the UK you will find the English Breakfast tea in the specialist section with the Ceylon and Assam, etc.

But the generic section will be full of brands and is much larger.

@lydiaconwell In our supermarket, the teas are with the teas. All kinds, tastes, colors, and flavors. Not really a seperate section for a subset of teas.
Maybe there might be organic teas in a seperate organic section elsewhere, but I have not checked.