I never really got into drinking tea. As someone who has to get rid of the soda addiction...

I never really got into drinking tea. As someone who has to get rid of the soda addiction, I thought about drinking tea as a routine. Can someone tell me about it effects, what's the best tea and general advices? I have no idea

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There's no real reason to stop drinking soda. I mean, if you buy the absolute cheapest bulk case of tea you an find maybe you'll save some money but that would probably be not fun.

You're trying too hard with that bait

People say green tea is the best. Personally I like chai more than anything, even if it's a meme tea. Also, what am I supposed to do with my teabags after I make a cup?? Just throw them out? Or put them in water and let them sit for awhile?

Squeeze all you can and throw it . I actually use loose tea so I boil it with milk and water and strain it .

>Squeeze
Don't do that
>boil it
Christ, m8, no

I'm making indian chai ,not normal tea.
By squeezing I meant after it's been sitting for a while to get more out of it .

I just made a cup of green tea and it tastes really bland. Like, barely more than water bland. Water was boiling, I let the teabag sit for about 5 minutes. Are you supposed to do something else besides just dab it a little in the water and let it sit?

Try milk tea , I hate all water based teas it's all just bitter water

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this is a good place to start
(most) bagged teas are shite
buy loose leaf

Bought lose leaf tea for my kombucha and holy shit it is better than the bagged crap.

Compost them...or mix them in with potting soil.

You should try some of the flavored teas then.

water for green tea should not be boiling
also the tea might have just been crap, green tea from teabags is generally mediocre at best

If you're serious about getting into tea, then you simply must get loose leaf stuff and not tea bags. What you do with the leaves is not as consequential; gongfu brewing (high leaf/water ratio, short brews, many infusions) arguably gives you better tea, but it can be inconvenient depending on your preferences (e.g. if you want to add sugar or some other sweetener, which I can't blame you for if you're used to soda). Get a gaiwan, a Western-style teapot, or some of your own empty bags to fill.

>Can someone tell me about it effects
Tbh I don't notice any psychoactive effect from tea, or from coffee, yerba mate, or caffeine in general; can't comment on that aspect. I just like the taste, and the health benefits are a bonus.

>what's the best tea
Once again, very much a matter of preference. There are so many places where tea is grown, so many categories and varietals and all manner of more subtle considerations like aging, that it's a lost cause to pinpoint the Tea Pinnacle. You can get a fair bit of decent tea without spending too much money. Even when considering high-end, luxury teas, when you calculate how much a cup of it will cost you in the end, it's likely a cheaper habit than soda. Try a bunch of it! I recommend sampling a silver needle, a Wuyi oolong (e.g. Da Hong Pao), and maybe a Yunnan black to start. These are all rather difficult to replicate in a tea bag, and provide a very different tea experience than you are used to.

Good luck making the switch, user! It's a fun little world, tea.

floral teas are my personal favorite
jasmine is classic but you can only go up from there

great post, remember to always check the leaf grade of the tea you're buying. try to get at least OP (orange pekoe)

Very nice reply. Thanks a lot.

A true soda lover isn't going to replace it with tea. One is cold and sparkling and refreshing, one is warm and dull.

Can I make better iced tea than this for less money? It's so cheap and delicious I have a hard time believing it's worth the trouble making my own. I'm not lazy and I try not to waste money. I just really like it.

what op really needs is some cheap strong black tea until he gets used to being without soda. there's so much sugar in soda that he literally can't taste anything because his taste buds are so saturated with the sweetness of sugar.

my advice is to get a big reusable water bottle, or even a thermos, and make something strong like irish black tea and sip on that all day or when you have a craving for soda, but with meals you should only drink water. do this for at least a month and you won't be able to drink soda again because you'll see how overly sweet it is, it will feel like you're drinking syrup.

Try seltzer water too. The Kroger brand is cheap, delicious, and has a good selection of flavors. I drink it when I want the feeling of beer but also want to behave myself.

There's no reason to stop drinking soda. A can a day keeps you well below the daily recommended sugar intake for a perfectly healthy lifestyle as defined by the USDA and WHO. If a can of soda pushes you over that limit, then the problem isn't the soda, it's the rest of your sugar-rich diet.

Also, sweet tea has just as much sugar as soda.

It's good to hear that my input is appreciated! I should add a quick primer about online loose leaf sources. Yunnan Sourcing is fantastic, but it's hard to recommend it to people who are totally new to tea; the selection is gargantuan, and while it's rare to encounter a truly bad YS product, it is also a challenge to navigate and narrow down your search. But it's well worth perusing in any case. If you do choose to buy from there, Steepster is a nice place to find review and tasting notes for teas that would otherwise be blank slates. There are two (or more?) sites; Yunnansourcing.com has a wider selection and slightly lower prices, but it ships from China, which can take a while and maybe give you customs trouble depending on where you're based. Yunnansourcing.us is great if you're in America, as I am, with most of the same products and about the same cost when shipping is accounted for. YS is mostly known for their pu-er, but they have a good reputation for Chinese oolongs and Yunnan black teas as well.
Anyway, for inexperienced drinkers I highly recommend What-Cha as a starting point; it's based in the UK but it ships pretty promptly to North America (can't speak for continental Europe or other regions), and it has a much smaller but more accessible and well-curated selection than YS. It's a nice way to pick up perfectly decent loose leaf teas from all over the place (not just East Asia, but far-flung growing regions like Georgia and Malawi that aren't well represented in the market).
If you're in the UK you can also give Mei Leaf a shot- can't speak for them from experience, but they're generally well regarded. ML has one of the more popular teageek YouTube channels, and I and many others can thank those guys for their informative and passionate work.
There are loads of other worthwhile teamongers out there, but what I have provided should be a good starting point.