My Favorite Hot Beverage

I love tea, it is my favorite hot beverage!!! I drink tea all day long. Usually I have an Earl Grey for breakfast, one or two green tea in the afternoon and a green tea with mint after dinner.

I have tried so many brands and the best tea for me come from Mariage Frères, a well-known company for the French Art of Tea.

It smells so good and tastes even better. I like tea that have been enhanced with subtle fragrances of rose, bergamot, citrus and jasmine.

I have always at home all these different kind of tea, they are my favorites:

Thé au Tibet: Black China tea scented with vanilla, jasmine, mandarin orange, rose, and bergamot.

Thé à l'Opéra: Green tea with fragrance of red berries and precious spices. 

Thé Casablanca: Green tea with Moroccan mint and bergamot.

Thé Vert Provence: Green tea with lavender, rose petal and black and red berries. (I was born and raised in Provence so when I smell it, I feel like I am in Provence on a sunny spring day)

Thé Earl Grey: Premier black China tea with bergamot.

Thé sur le Nil: Green tea with citrus fruits and spices.

And around Christmas I have a blend of spicy tea with orange, almond, vanilla and Christmas spices.

Most of the tea come from China, India and Japan. But as well from Turkey, Africa, South America and Russia. There are so many varieties of tea: white, green, blue and black.  

But each tea is different, subtle delicate and refined. Steeping time and water temperature are very important. And the best quality comes in loose leaves.
It needs to be store in a metallic container because tea doesn't like air, light and humidity. It is better to use filtered water to preserve the tea flavors and scents.

Here is a simplified table of how to drink your tea:

Type of tea        Water Temperature           Steeping time

 Black tea               95˚C - 203˚F                   4-5min         

 White tea              70˚C - 158˚F                    10min

 Green tea         70/90˚C - 158/194˚F             1-3min

A lot of friends tell me "how can you drink tea. It's like drinking hot water that tastes so bitter". I ask them what kind of tea do they drink and their response usually is "pouring boiling water over tea bags from the grocery store". But after having tasted a very good infused tea they change their opinion about it. And now when they come to my house most of the time they ask for a tea instead of a coffee!!