Newbie, Where to start?

Hey! Welcome to the wonderful world of tea! I’m new to this website as well, so I can’t help you much with that part, but I do love talking about different kinds of tea as well as health-related things (being a nurse means I end up doing plenty of that).

What kind did you buy, and where from? My personal preference is always for loose leaf tea over bagged stuff. I’ll admit to being a bit of a caffeine addict, though.

A lot of steeping techniques seem to boil down to however it tastes good to you. Same for bagged vs loose or decaf or not, organic or not. Whatever concerns you, you can take into account, pretty much. Purists will say always loose leaf, always X amount of tea to X amount of X type of water at X temperature for X time. But you’ll find if you start reading reviews here that most of us tend to experiment with samples, find the way we like the tea to taste and use that, regardless of experts or merchant instructions. There is no wrong way to make tea as long as it turns out tasting good to you!

If you worry about the chemicals that may be in teabags, use loose leaf. If you have caffeine sensitivity, look for decaf options. The best I’ve been able to glean in my research is that there is really no actual way to decaf your teas at home. Now, which teas have the most caffeine is sometimes a matter of debate. Same for health benefits. Benefits of various teas are debatable – the science isn’t settled for everyone. :)

Someone a long while back here on Steepster linked this: http://www.teaclass.com/ It seemed to me like as good a place as any to start if you want to learn. Not that asking questions here won’t get answers. But sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know so you don’t know the questions to ask! :)

Search for some of the teas you have had already and like. Follow the people who have reviewed them. You’ll branch out soon enough and follows tons of people and get swamped with reviews and putting things on your wishlist and then the true obsession will start. :)

Oh, and welcome!

RE: decaffeination – this is a good read http://chadao.blogspot.com/2008/02/caffeine-and-tea-myth-and-reality.html TLDR, if you want to decaf your tea, you need to steep it over 10 minutes and pour it out and drink the next batch. Most teas would be pretty terrible at that point. In the end, if you don’t want caffeine, switch to a herbal tea (Not mate – that is often labelled a herbal and it has loads of caffeine)

In the end, like any weight loss – replace high calorie things with lower calorie. Tea is a good swap for sugary drinks, provided you aren’t adding a bunch of extra calories to your tea like milk and sugar.
I like matcha (high caffeine) for preworkout before I lift weights.

Welcome! Figured I’d pop in quick and round up some links from the Steepster discussion boards that could be useful. Hopefully they help.

http://steepster.com/discuss/6207-beginner-to-tea-where-to-start
http://steepster.com/discuss/6750-new-to-drinking-tea
http://steepster.com/discuss/6250-new-here
http://steepster.com/discuss/6082-new-to-teas-and-wondering-about-organic
http://steepster.com/discuss/3051-english-tea-drinker-after-beginners-advice
http://steepster.com/discuss/9608-tea-knowledge-sources

Good luck!

Losing 10 lbs in 11 days is INCREDIBLE, but also can be unhealthy. Don’t try and lose weight at that pace, as a gradual decrease is a healthier way to lose weight. Whatever you do stay the course, and set small goals. Tea is a great way to fill your taste buds and help with a healthy life style. Like anyhing else moderation is the key. Good luck and stay motivated.

Your story is similar to mine. I started drinking tea when I wanted to kick my soda habit and lose some weight. When I first started I went overboard, trying everything, but eventually I found what really worked for me.

First I’d start with what kind of tea do you like – black, green or white? There are also “herbal teas” that don’t really contain tea, but are more of a fruit tisane. I generally think of green tea as the “healthiest” but the fact is I prefer the taste of black. I’d recommend trying them all, but if you find one you prefer, stick with that. They all have various health benefits, and if you drink the one you enjoy the most, you’re more likely to keep the habit up long term.

Once I decided my favorite was black tea, I tried lots of different teas and found I liked flavored teas (and certain flavors in particular). Don’t buy too much of any one kind at first. Look for samples or samplers where you can try just a little and see which ones you enjoy. The variety (and ability to change flavors as the seasons vary) was very appealing to me.

As for loose leaf vs bagged, find which one works better in your lifestyle. I find there are more high quality choices in loose leaf, but I still like bagged for when I’m traveling or sometimes at the office. Again, if you find a kind that isn’t too much trouble and fits your lifestyle, you’re more likely to stick with it.

Organic is good if you care about that, although it may cost more and limit some of your flavor options. If organic isn’t the most important aspect of your lifestyle change, then I’d wait until I had narrowed the tea world a bit before worrying about that.

Likewise with caffeine, if you haven’t had issues with caffeine before, I wouldn’t worry about low caffeine tea at first. If you want to lower caffeine, you can also look at trying rooibos or honeybush teas – they’re made from a different plant than traditional “tea”, but are also reported to have many health benefits.

I tried to give up soda for years, but never could. I just never found water (even flavored seltzer) a satisfactory substitute. But once I got into teas (hot tea and iced tea), I didn’t miss soda at all. Good luck!

Getting rid of soda is great. Especially if you drink diet. I always cringe when people say they are on a diet and then ask for diet coke.

Tea is awesome because there are sooo many options. And the list keeps growing! I’ve been drinking tea for awhile but I’m still discovering new tea. Like yellow and purple! Green tea is great for losing weight but also probably the hardest to get into because of the grassy flavor. But there are plenty of flavored green teas out there to try.

Just try to stay away from tea with sugar.

What I think is the best way to get introduced to tea is to go to an online store that has an option for a small sample packet to be shipped to you. Before you start experimenting it’s usually best to follow the directions on the packet, and things like temperature and steeping times really do make a huge difference. If you brew green tea in freshly boiled water, it will not taste as good as using a slightly cooler water.

Once you’ve tried different kinds, you will start to get a sense of what kinds of tea you like, and what kinds you don’t. From there you can start learning more about those types of tea and ordering some higher quantities of teas that you know you like, and then maybe a few more samples of things you think sound good.

The thing is that for me at least, the quest for new teas to try doesn’t really seem to end. There’s so many teas in the world that it seems like there is always something new out there. Sometimes you’ll hit, sometimes you’ll miss, but one of the most fun parts of drinking tea is discovering a new one that you absolutely love.