Finding your first loose leaf tea
Six teas chosen for being forgiving rather than impressive. Every one of them tolerates imprecise water temperature and an over-long steep, because the first loose-leaf purchase should not require equipment or technique to be worth it.
Who this is for
Someone ready to buy loose leaf and unsure which of the hundreds of names to start with.
What you should come away with
One category you know you like, bought loose, brewed without a thermometer, and better than the bagged version of the same thing.
Leg 1 · Black, the safest start
The most forgiving category. Boiling water, three minutes, very hard to ruin.
Starting point. Everything after this is measured against it.
Assam’s malt with the edges taken off. The golden tips add honey and body without the astringency that makes ordinary Assam demand milk.
Why this step follows
The tips take the edge off. Once the malt is familiar, the untippy second flush is the same tea with its astringency intact.
Heavy, malty and openly sweet, with the golden-tip character that first flush lacks entirely. It takes milk better than almost any other tea and is the backbone of most breakfast blends.
Leg 2 · Green, by the gentlest door
A change of category. Toasted rice and roasted leaf mask the vegetal notes that put most newcomers off green tea, so the format changes before the flavour does.
Starting point. Everything after this is measured against it.
Toasted and comforting, with the rice doing most of the aromatic work. The story that it was a wartime economy measure is widely repeated and poorly evidenced; what is clear is that the rice reduces the cost per cup.
Why this step follows
The roasted rice masks the vegetal notes that put most newcomers off Japanese green tea.
Vegetal and savoury at once. Brewed cool it leans sweet and broth-like; brewed hot it turns sharply astringent, which is the single most common way people decide they dislike green tea.
Leg 3 · Oolong, where loose leaf pays off most
A third category, and the one where buying loose makes the biggest difference — rolled oolong needs room to expand and cannot work in a bag.
Starting point. Everything after this is measured against it.
Extremely floral and light-bodied, with the aroma doing nearly all the work. Useful as the low-oxidation anchor of the oolong range: put it beside Oriental Beauty and the breadth of the category becomes obvious in one sitting.
Why this step follows
The lightest oolong to the reference rolled one. Almost a continuation of green tea, then a step into the category proper.
Creamy and intensely floral, with essentially no astringency. The aroma in the empty cup after pouring is part of the experience and is often more striking than the liquor itself.
Read alongside
- Choosing your first tea
Named teas rather than categories, chosen by what you already drink. There is no single right first tea, and starting from what you like now works better than starting from what is celebrated.
- How to brew loose leaf tea
Moving from bags to loose leaf changes three things: how much you use, how much room it needs, and what you do with it when the steep is over.
- A tea guide for beginners
What to know before buying anything, in the order it becomes useful. Most of the difficulty in starting with tea is not the tea — it is that the vocabulary assumes you already know things.