The best kinds of tea?!

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Black tea is a good substitute for coffee as it has the higher levels of caffeine over other teas. Loose leaf tea with the use of an infuser will give you the most flavorful tea, but if you're looking for a brand of bagged tea - TZAO and Yogi are good.

Personally made the transition from coffee to tea a year ago.

The question of what teas are best are a matter of personal taste. One person's favorite may not even be liked by another. You said that you like teas that taste sweet, and not herbal. You also said you want to use tea as a substitute for coffee.

One recommendation I would make, however, is to buy LOOSE TEA. Tea bags may be convenient, but you're paying for the packaging and not the quality of the tea. If you buy loose-leaf tea from a reputable tea company, you will be surprised by how much better it tastes. There is really a world of difference. If you want to get into loose-leaf tea, you might want to buy a tea infuser or a tea filter. Any tea company that sells loose-leaf tea will also sell these filters, and they can be very inexpensive ($7 for a very good one, much less for others).

I run a tea rating and review site, http://ratetea.net . You might find some useful information on there, because you can read reviews that other people write, before buying something. If you want to learn about different varieties of tea you can also check out the listing of styles of tea: http://ratetea.net/style.php - I would particularly recommend looking at oolong tea: it can be milder than black tea, but it often has less of the vegetal or herbaceous quality that a lot of green tea has. But you might like some green or white tea too. Also, if you like the roasted quality of coffee, you might want to look at hojicha. It's a roasted tea, but it is very low in caffeine.

Which company to buy from? There are so many good ones out there. My personal favorite is Upton Tea Imports (http://www.uptontea.com/ ) and they have a huge selection. And some of their teas are 125 grams (which makes 40+ cups) for $5 or $7 or sometimes even less.

Besides tea, I would also recommend checking out Yerba Mate. Yerba Mate is another caffeinated beverage. It tastes naturally sweet, which is why I mention it, and it comes in both green and roasted forms. The roasted form may be a nice substitute for coffee.

Good luck! There's a wonderful world of great tea out there, and it can be fun to explore it and try new teas!

Tea is not going to be sweet like sugar, but there are varieties that are fruitier than others. My two favorite vendors for tea are the Republic of Tea and Teavana.

Republic of Tea (http://www.republicoftea.com/) will send out catalogs and they have been sending a sample teabag with lately.

Teavana sells bulk tea and can be found online or in malls (http://www.teavana.com/). Being able to have them pull down a variety and smell them is wonderful!

If you are looking for a substitute to coffee, try Maté. Teavana has some great varieties and it contains a stimulant similar to caffiene, so you still get your zing! My favorite right now is the Raspberry Riot Lemon Maté tea from Teavana. I sprinkle a little bit of stevia sweetener in it and am good to go!

Happy sipping!

I've written some answers here before about the various kinds of "tea," and how to change their flavor, brew them to taste best, etc, if you want to check them out as well. Here are at least a couple:




HTH

I make green tea with honey and a few sweeteners. So addicting and pretty good for you. I also love chai tea...mmmmm. And sweet black tea.

well there's sweetened Lipton tea.
and then you have green tea.

try a sampler pack first. they have many kinds out there. you'll soon gravitate towards ones you like.