types of tea

Somehow this week has ended up as the unofficial YumSugar tea week. We've had tea party plans, tea definitions and all sorts of things tea related. The other day I broke out the difference in standard tea types, and today I thought I'd talk about a few of the more common tea blends.

Chai - The style of preparing black tea (although it can be made with green or oolong) with milk, sugar, and spices (including cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, pepper and allspice).

Roobios - A flavorful, caffeine-free herbal tea made from a South African shrub. Also known as red tea.

English Breakfast - A full-bodied, robust black tea blend.

Irish Breakfast A full-bodied, malty black tea. It has a strong dark potent character, sometimes compared to stout beer.

Earl Grey - A tea blend with flavor and aroma derived from oil extracted from the fragrant bergamot orange.

Yerba Maté - An herbal tea that is popular in South America, made by steeping dried leaves of Yerba Mate.

Darjeeling - Strong bodied black tea from the province of Darjeeling in India.

What's your favorite kind of tea? Let us all know about it below!

This week PartySugar is planning a lovely tea party so I thought I'd take a minute to talk about the different kind of teas. If you don't count herbal teas, all tea surprisingly comes from the same plant (Camellia sinensi); the different types of tea are a result of how the leaves are processed once picked. Herbal teas come from an infusion of fruit and herbs (like chamomile, rose-hips, mint) and not the tea tree. So what are the different kinds of teas? Well, there are four basic types: black, green, oolong and white. However there are a few others as well. To learn how to tell them apart, read more