I’ll throw in here.....
I’ve been drinking loose leaf tea daily for about 10 years but don’t pair it with cigars so can’t speak to that aspect.
You don’t need much to get started, just grab some sachets like these
View attachment 127371Or if you confident you will stick with it get one of these, best infuser I’ve been able to find.
View attachment 127376If you are into fruity or sweeter tasting teas you will find an almost endless selection of herbal/flavored teas out there but that’s not my thing so I can’t speak to them.
With regards to straight teas they are catagorized by how oxidized they are with white and greens being unoxidized, oolongs partially oxidized(10-70% usually), and blacks being fully oxidized. Pu’er is a fermented and aged black tea that is a beast all on its own. If you plan of pairing with cigars you might want to look at the oolongs and blacks that can stand up to a strong smoke.
Much like with cigars it takes time to build a tea pallet. I’d suggest you don’t go for the small batch high end stuff right away as you would be hard pressed to taste the difference between that and a good solid mid-end. The real serious tea enthusiasts brew their tea in multiple infusions and follow the flavor as it develops over 4-6 mini brews. I don’t have time or patience for all that and brew western style, one infusion. Good tea leaves will stand up to being used one or two additional times before they are done giving flavor so if you want a second cup you can use the same leaves. 95% of the caffeine is released in the first infusion so for additional cups caffeine is not a concern.
If you have a tea store close it is nice to be able to have a cup brewed for you to try before buying but if that is not an option just buy a few you are interested in 1 or 2 ounce packs. 2 ounces is often the smallest pack you will find, I expect to get 20 or so servings out of that. I prefer my tea a bit strong and make it in 16oz mugs so 2oz could well get you more.
I’d suggest trying
www.rishi-tea.com. They are a bit high end but they have a lot of stuff they sell in ‘teaser’ size. The teasers get you 2-4 servings and is a good way to sample different stuff to get an idea of what you like. Once you do try
www.theteaspot.com, much cheaper and good quality. They do more with flavored teas but have some of my go-to teas at solid prices. If you do end up trying Rishi I’d grab teasers of
Ancient Golden Yunnan
China Breakfast
Earl Grey
Iron Goddess of Mercy
Jade oolong
Jade cloud
Plus whatever flavored teas interest you if they do. That should get you a good sample of general flavor profiles of strong blacks(China breakfast), malty blacks(ancient Yunnan), medium oxidized ooling(iron goddess), lightly oxidized oolong(jade oolong), a standard green(jade cloud), and earl grey just because it’s good and the one flavored tea I drink. Dark oolongs are a treat as well but they don’t habe the ruby oolong in teasers now.
Just my 87¢