Tea is one of the most popular drinks in the world. It has been a constant in various cultures and countries for centuries and has a wealth of traditions behind how it is produced and consumed.
It’s also a delicious and relaxing drink that you can enjoy all year round and is consumed in great quantities every year.
There are so many different blends of tea available and some of them can be acquired tastes, especially for people who are not familiar with tea.
If you’ve never had the chance to drink tea before or simply don’t know where to start, it can all be very confusing!
That’s why we’ve created this article to help. We’ve picked several tea blends that even beginners are sure to love. Whether you’re looking for black tea, green tea, or something caffeine-free, we have a tea for you.
The Best Tasting Teas For Beginners
Let’s take a look at our picks for the best-tasting teas for beginners to tea. These are the teas we recommend you start with as they’re the most popular and have the most accessible flavors.
English Breakfast
The most common form of tea that is consumed in the United States is black tea, so that’s where we’re going to start with our recommendations.
There are different types of breakfast teas that you can choose from but English Breakfast is the most common.
It’s designed to be drunk earlier in the morning so it has a strong but not overpowering flavor that makes it suitable for beginners.
As long as you don’t allow it to steep for too long you will find that English Breakfast is a well-balanced tea that isn’t bitter. It’s best served with some milk and sugar or sweetener.
One advantage English Breakfast has over many other types of black tea is that it doesn’t have too many flavors.
Many black teas have extra ingredients to add hints of herbs, flowers, or fruit to them but English Breakfast is pretty plain. This makes it a great starting point for beginners and suitable for every time of the day, not just breakfast!
Earl Grey
This is another black tea and is one of the more popular and well-known blends. It’s a great choice for beginners that do want a little extra flavor in their tea.
Earl Grey has bergamot oil which gives it a light and citrusy flavor. Some variations of Early Grey also have some lavender in but this only helps to bolster the flavor instead of overpowering it.
There are several variations of Earl Grey, such as Lady Grey, Duchess Grey, and others. We recommend that beginners should stick with Earl Grey and only branch out to these later. Earl Grey is best served with milk and sugar
Chai
Chai is a very popular offering in many coffee shops during the winter months and it’s a wonderful drink to make at home as well.
It’s a spiced black tea and although these spices can vary from blend to blend, they usually include cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, and ginger. You can see why it’s a popular winter drink!
It needs to be made with milk and how much milk you use will depend on how spicy the tea is and how much spice you want in your drink.
For the best chai tea, consider warming and frothing your milk first to make a delicious chai latte even the professionals will be proud of!
If you don’t have the time or skills for frothing milk though, you can still make a great cup of chai by adding some regular milk straight from the fridge.
Chai is usually best without any sugar or sweetener and we recommend it for beginners because the combination of spices is so delicious and sure to remind you of many festive favorites.
Sencha
After a few black teas, we’re moving on to green teas. Green teas are less oxidized than black teas and generally contain less caffeine.
They’re not caffeine-free, but they do usually contain less. Green teas have a lighter and more delicate flavor than black teas as well.
Like black teas, there are many different varieties of green tea. Some of these can be quite savory and bitter so we’ve chosen Sencha as our first green tea for beginners.
It’s one of the more common green tea blends and has a refreshing taste (see also: What Does Green Tea Taste Like?)that doesn’t have the bitterness of some other green teas.
Green teas are usually best served straight, with no milk or sweetener. You can add a sweetener or some honey if you wish, but you should never add milk!
Jasmine Green Tea
This is another fine and delicate green tea that we have no hesitation in recommending to beginners.
The green tea leaves are mixed with some jasmine flowers so you get a beautiful tea that is a mix of the unique taste of jasmine and the nuttier flavors of green tea.
Like Sencha, jasmine green tea is best served straight as well. You should never add milk to this tea and we would recommend no sweetener either, but you can add a little honey if you feel you must.
Rooibos
Most varieties of tea come from the same tea plant. Black tea, green tea, white tea, oolong tea, and others all come from this plant; they’re just processed differently once picked and this results in different colors and flavors.
Rooibos, however, comes from a bush in South Africa so it has a completely different source. This is also why other teas all have caffeine in them but rooibos doesn’t.
When it comes to rooibos, you have the option of drinking tea that is completely rooibos or blends that have rooibos and other ingredients such as herbs blended together.
We love straight rooibos tea and would recommend this over blends for beginners. Rooibos should be drunk straight without any milk or sweetener.
Tips For Beginners To Drink Tea
There’s more to drinking tea than just choosing the correct blends. If you’re new to drinking tea then there are a few more things you need to know and consider.
Choose Between Loose Leaf Tea Or Tea Bags
Tea is sold in either loose-leaf versions or in tea bags. Both of these methods have their own advantages and disadvantages so you might be wondering which is best.
When you use loose-leaf tea, the leaves are given more room to swell so you will get a better quality tea.
However, loose-leaf tea can be a little messy and you will need an infuser of some description to ensure that you can easily remove the leaves from your tea when the steeping time has passed.
Tea bags don’t allow the leaves to swell as much as when you use loose leaf so the tea won’t have a flavor that is as deep and rich. Tea bags are much easier and more convenient to use than loose leaf though!
The best option really depends on what is more important to you, taste or convenience. It’s a similar decision to whether you want to use ground coffee or instant coffee.
Don’t Over Steep Your Tea
Every blend of tea has its own brewing time. This tells you how long to leave your tea leaves in the water before removing them.
If you don’t allow the leaves to steep for long enough, you will get a weak cup of tea that doesn’t have the rich flavors it should. If you allow the leaves to steep for too long, the tea will become bitter and the flavor will be ruined.
When you buy any kind of tea the packaging will have instructions on how to make the tea. This is the same for loose-leaf tea or tea bags and for black, green, white, or herbal teas.
The instructions will advise you on what temperature of water is best and also how long to allow the leaves to steep.
The times are usually in a range, such as two to three minutes. Steeping tea isn’t an exact science so it isn’t something you time to the minute and second as personal preference does have an effect.
If you like your flavors strong, aim for the longer end of the times. If you like your flavors weaker and more delicate, head for the shorter end.
Typically, black tea and some herbal teas need the longest steeping times. Green teas can be steeped for shorter periods.
Start With Tea Samplers
One of the best ways to start your tea journey is to purchase a tea sampler. These are bundles of teas where instead of getting a large tin or dozens of bags of a single tea, you instead get smaller quantities or several teas.
They’re the perfect way to try several teas without breaking the bank. You can try a couple of cups of several teas and see which ones appeal to you the most.
You’ll have enough tea to make adjustments to brewing times and to try out milk and sweetener if you want, but not enough tea that you’ll have a lot of waste if you don’t like the teas included.
Many tea companies produce samplers of their teas as they know they’re a great way to get people to try their blends.
You can get samplers that are purely one type of tea, such as black or green, or samplers that have a mix of everything.
These are great for beginners but even experienced tea drinkers love samplers as well!
Final Thoughts
In this article, we introduced our favorite tea blends for beginners to drinking tea. For black tea, we picked English Breakfast and Earl Grey and for green tea, (see also: Earl Grey Tea: What Is It?)we chose Sencha and Jasmine teas.
We also chose a couple of other blends, Chai and Rooibos, for some extra variation. No matter what type of tea you want to try, there is sure to be a tea here for you.
We hope you enjoy our choices and our hints and tips.
