Iced, with lemon and mint! I don’t drink much warm tea, but if I do have a cup, I like half n half with a little raw sugar in a cup of strong English or Irish breakfast tea, brewed at the proper temperature, to not extract the bitter flavors. Once in a great while, I’ll have some medicinal tea, which I drink hot and plain.
I do not love tea, okay maybe with a splash of alcohol I can rate it. Otherwise I don’t think there is something I can add to my tea then say I love it that way because I don’t even have time for that tea.
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What kind of alcohol? I’ve never thought of adding alcohol to tea (I like my alcohol cold AF for the most part). How does adding alcohol or anything increase the amount of time needed for said tea?
Thanks for enlightening me 
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Adding a splash of sherry to tea apparently used to be a thing back in the day. I’ve never tried it though.
Ew. Not a tea drinker, so however peeps like it have at it. I just don’t like hot booze for the most part.
I always keep my bottle of gin in the freezer, for you know, a martini. I guess by adding a shot of gin to a cuppa one can drink the tea sooner, so yes, I can actually see less time needed…
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Honestly, I think the only time I might have had hot booze is in a cocoa situation.
Hot sake is also pretty nice.
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I have read of tea with rum; though I have never tried it.
I like masala chai (and boo! to people who call it “chai tea”!), with ginger, cardamom, and black pepper. Plus milk and sugar but overall lighter than most people take it. I don’t have this every day.
In Chinese restaurants I like the green tea.
I have a few fancy teas (pu erh, a couple of others I can’t recall) that I drink occasionally.
I was given tea with rose petals and I like that too.
Around here iced tea is big, and I like mine mostly but not fully unsweetened.
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I have enjoyed mulled wine German, Swedish, Danish styles from time to time. Heavy on the spice, less on the sweet side.
As for tea, we’ve almost exclusively switched to tea from coffee. We drink them with the bags in our mugs, never steep and take out the bags. Guess we must miss our coffee and punch in our face taste! Strong PG Tips with a splash of milk or green tea with roasted rice brewed strong with nothing else for me, which accompanies my Asian breakfasts of noodle+tofu+languishing greens soups very well.
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I grew up with a mother who insisted on only tea as the morning beverage, generally Red Rose. My dad would sneak the occasional cup of Sanka; his parents were percolator coffee people. I was a tea with milk person until college, when hazelnut coffee became my gateway coffee. I am happy with either and, when BF turned out to be in the coffee camp, made that switch around 2000. That being said, I do keep a bunch of different teas (and herbal infusions) in the house for when the mood strikes. My go-to lately is the Harney and Sons dragon pearl jasmine (in bags, for convenience). I keep Twinnings green tea bags in the house for when I want that or when my mother is visiting now.
Never really been able to get into mulled wine, but that’s just my weird relationship with spices. I like them in foods, but not so much in beverages (looking at you Pumpkin Spice Everything).
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Ok, that’s fair. Although, if I drink enough of it cold (or whatever recommended temp) I’ll certainly get warm soon enough!
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I’ve definitely enjoyed hot booze in:
- hot toddy (more for when under the weather)
- Irish coffee (ok, maybe not really enjoyed since I can’t remember the last time)
- brandy in cocoa
- bull shot (which made me leery initially, but I loved it)
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I like spices wherever they can be shoehorned in, but I fully agree about Pumpkin Spice Everything and Anything. PS in judicious quantities in very specific recipes is OK. But OMG the way it has been put into just about anything and everything in choke-inducing quantities is … I run out of words here!
Cinnamon is not my preferred spice for sweets, so the cinnamon-forward PS profile in drinks, candles, etc. I dislike. I really don’t like cinnamon in masala chai for this reason, it starts becoming like PS. Same for nutmeg.
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Hot toddy is a rare exception, and for the same reason you mention. Altho I don’t tend to feel like booze at all when I’m under the weather.
My late BIL prided himself for his Irish coffees, and one fatal night I had one too many, so… never again.
As a German, I’m practically obliged to love Glühwein, but I hate it. It’s fine for the first two sips, then it just becomes shitty, cheap warm wine. I prefer warm mead, but also only in the context of German xmas markets.
And finally, Feuerzangenbowle is a rare treat, mostly for the ritual, tho.
I had to look up the bull shot. No thanks.
Hot sake alone or Hot sake with tea? I think matcha sake is pretty popular. Usually served cold though. I consider a matcha sake is more of a alcoholic drink than a tea drink.
Ah, I forgot about glühwein, which I do love. So cozy.
Hot toddy - black tea with spice (Bigelow Constant Comment or Lemon Lift, e.g.) - or other unflavored black tea with the following: in a very giant mug of hot tea add generous amounts of honey, fresh squeezed lemon and even more bourbon. This is a medicinal remedy for the cold and flu season.
I usually just take straight hot tea, regardless of type. I indulge in the occasional iced tea in the summer when it’s a good tea or if it’s milk tea, but that’s about it (I don’t really count the boba tea as true tea, but milk tea yes). Milk tea is the occasional indulgence when I’m snacking.
I have a lot of “mysterious” black teas I’ve inherited from the family - usually gifts, family members leaving leaves behind, etc. Some are labeled, but many are not and whatever they proclaim it to be isn’t always indicative of the type of tea (just blah blah “prized tea from Taiwan!” or something similar.
My go to though is usually (鐵觀音), which is sometimes considered a green tea, but there is a variety where it can also be made darker (it’s a type of oolong tea). I prefer the slightly middle ground variety that has a bit of both - the slight floral aroma, but also some of the robust dark taste. Nothing added.
The only time I add anything is when I specifically want milk tea, and then it’s the HK style which is evaporated milk and a bit of sugar. I do like a more HK style lemon iced tea too, which is just regular cold black tea, a lot of fresh lemon juice and with sugar to balance the tartness.
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I consider it as blue tea.青. For Oolong tea, I prefer the more “fresh” and “less roasted” type. A type of Oolong tea I really like the Oriental Beauty, but it smells and tastes quite different than most Oolong tea. Dongfang meiren - Wikipedia
HK milk tea is nice, but even then I tend to order mine with as little sugar as possible.
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