what are your cupboard essentials and semi-essentials?

ok, i think i have tried a few teas across the different kinds now to be able to say for now but it is bound to become more brand specific and the list more diverse as i encounter more great tea!

my essentials:
earl grey
jasmine
genmaicha
chamomile
mint
rooibos (i like it with cinnamon+vanilla, havent tried plain)
any unflavored black/blend (for making weak teas stronger, diluting strongly flavored blacks, or mixing with herbals)

semi-essentials:
constant comment (bigelow)
samurai chai mate (teavana)
sencha kyoto cherry (culinary teas/ets)
lapsang souchong
flavors: rose, berry, more to come

im still in the process of finding good unflavored teas that really grab me. ah, imna start a new thread on that :)

The teas I always keep in stock are Earl Grey, a blend of Darjeeling, a blend of Assam, gunpowder green tea, sencha green tea, matcha, white tea pearls, spearmint or other mint tea. To me these are the basics and you can either drink them plain, or blend them with other teas, ingredients or flavours to make a new tea.

I have, over the years, found teas that I’ve liked so much that I’ve told myself “I will always have a stash of that tea!”, and then six months later, the tea gets discontinued. This has happened more times than I can count on one hand, which I suppose is what I get for liking and patronizing Teavana. (I kinda can’t help it—they’re the largest tea retailer in my area. T-T) Here are some of the teas I love and will keep around for as long as I can (the discontinued ones are marked with a *):

Teavana:
Almond Biscotti*
Earl Grey Creme
Sweet Oolong Revolution*
Emerald Bamboo Forest*
French Spice Quartet
Rooibos Peach Bloom*
Cha Yen Thai

Then there’s a smattering of teas from other companies:
Highland Coffee’s Sunny Slopes and Fiji
Metropolitan Tea Company’s Ciao Amaretto and Monk’s Blend
St. Dalfour’s Organic Peach
Revolution’s Sweet Ginger Peach
Twinings Earl Grey, Winter Spice, and Spiced Apple Chai (the last one is limited edition, so I’m pretty sure we’ll run out of that one before it comes back)
Books, Beans, and Candles’s house chai blend
Red Stick Spice’s Jasmine Blueberry (I think this store supplies with Mighty Leaf, but I’m not certain…)

I try not to be brand specific but sometimes certain brands can pull off the flavors or just have better quality than others. My essentials by tea type are:
Guayusa
Green tea (varies in flavors just as long as I have geen tea)
Genmaicha
Chai
Matcha (flavored and unflavored)
Oolong
Rooibos
Chamomile
A lavender blend of some sort
Herbal blends for the evening (varies)

My semi essentials would be:
White tea (even though I almost always have some in my stash)
Mate
Pu’erh

I know I am missing something…..it will probably come to me later

Nothing yet on the essentials list as I am still tasting samples new types etc
Semi-essentials Peach & Ginger ETS englishteashop , Kir Royale – Whittard.
A lot of fruit/herbal blends of teas,several fruity oolong, a darjeeling, a ceylon, a few breakfast teas…

I have to have genmaicha and hojicha. I’m also becoming quite enamored with Harney and Son’s Tropical, and bought an extra tin so I’d have one at work and one at home.

At the moment, I feel I couldn’t go without some good bancha and mao feng. And a bit of strong oolong for dessert. :)

There is always some kind of earl grey in the house, and Red Rose teabags. I almost always have oolong, lapsang souchong, and Adagio’s yunnan gold. I’m out of lapsang right now, though :’(

So far, this is what my list would be:

- A bagged mint tea
- A bagged lemon tea
- A loose, straight mint tea
- A chocolate mint tea of some kind
- A Cream/Creme EG
- A caffeinated and non-caffeinated pear tea
- A caffeinated and non-caffeinated caramel tea
- A strongly flavoured pineapple tea
- A strongly flavoured coconut tea
- A strongly flavoured lychee tea
- A strongly flavoured raspberry tea
- A Rootbeer tea
- A straight Genmaicha blend
- A straight black I can have for breakfast with milk
- Jasmine Silver Needles
- Something fruity to cold brew
- Several varieties of Mate (Fruity, Dessert/Indulgent, Mint)

My semi-essentials rotate, but as far as I can tell for the moment, my essentials are:
Harney & sons: Queen Catherine, Paris, and Sugar and Spice
Butiki teas: caramel vanilla assam, cantaloupe and cream, rose violet calendula oolong
The tea merchant: French earl Grey
Dellaterra: their chocolate mint tea (whatever incarnation), grandma’s pumpkin pie, blueberry crumble
David’s tea: (maybe semi-essentials): blueberry jam,
Fantasy Island, White Chocolate Frost