This New Year, try a New Tea
If this is you, start off the year by trying a new type of tea. You might be pleasantly surprised! Here are some thoughts on which teas to try out first:
- Fruity tea drinkers. This represents somewhere around 80% of the new tea drinkers IMHO! If you enjoy a fruity herbal tea, try drinking a fruity true tea. This means a fruity green, white, oolong or black tea. Herbal teas have great health benefits as well, but by adding a tea that comes from the tea plant, you’ll be adding new and different health benefits from the herbals. And you’re just missing out on some great tea! One other trick: try something like our ToLife White tea, which is a combination of Rooibos (fruity herbal) green tea and white tea.
- Black tea drinkers. Many people grow up drinking black teas – like an Earl Grey – so they continue drinking them forever. I recommend trying an Oolong tea. Oolongs are technically between a green and black tea in terms of fermentation and have some of the taste and benefits of both. So if you like black, you’ll probably enjoy Oolongs as well. If you only drink iced black tea, try icing a fruity Oolong or even a white tea. You might be suprised by how much you like it.
- Green tea drinkers. There’s another group that was introduced to green tea at some point (maybe during those college years) and hasn’t veered out into other types of tea. I would recommend trying white teas or maybe an Oolong. White teas are slightly more difficult to make than other teas (you need to get the temperature close and they are easy to oversteep), but you’ll probably like them.
- Chai tea drinkers. So you like a little spice in your life, huh? If you’re hooked on chai, I would just recommend trying other chais. There are white chai teas, black chai teas and green chai teas. Each has its own unique qualities, so branch out a little. You might also like something like Azteca Fire, which is a spicy tea with a different taste, or a Mate tea.
- Rooibos tea drinkers. This is typically similar to the fruity tea drinkers above and the advice is pretty much the same. Try drinking a fruity green, white, oolong or black tea – maybe even ToLife, which does have Rooibos included.
- Coffee drinkers. And if you like teas, but still have a cup of coffee in the morning, this is the year to quit! Kick the habit with MateVana, one of our best coffee replacements, or a strong black tea like English breakfast (add a bit of milk to make it more coffee-like).
What’s the point? The reality is that each tea has its own health benefits. For example, straight teas typically don’t have many vitamins and minerals, but herbal teas do. Only green teas have EGCG in them. Oolongs do a phenomenal job of keeping cholesterol a little lower. In other words, each tea has at least one unique reason to add it to your diet. So resolve to drink some new teas this year!
If you stop by a Teavana store in the mall, we’ll be happy to suggest individual teas and even give you a few drinks to try out. Explore the world of tea – you’ll be glad you did.
And if you have a suggestion for someone stuck on one type of tea, please add it in the comments!
Interesting post–thank you for the little kick I needed to try something new this year. I’m a chai drinker, so I’m going to be branching out a bit and trying to discover some new flavors.