I brew green tea a lot differently. I start with not as hot water and brew for a few minutes. Just with black tea, it’s always ready for me after 45 seconds. Sometimes I go a minute or even up to 2 mins if i forget. But if I go past 2 mins it just gets noticably more bitter to me and not as good tasting to my buds.
probably part of the brew time difference for us is that I use loose tea, which lengthens infusion time.
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Most of my hot tea is fancy loose leaf stuff (with some Celestial Seasonings seasonal herbal tea and sleepytime tea thrown in there), but once it starts heating up down here (SOON), it’s going to hard pivot to whatever I can leave brewing in ice in my fridge. Sleepytime tea makes a surprisingly good iced tea (I think it’s about $2.50 for 20 bags?), but also harney & son’s tropical green tea (pineapple!) or literally any black tea with mint.
I’m also a coffee drinker on occasion, but what that looks like for me at home is getting a 10oz bottle of coldbrew, pouring 2oz into a tea cup and filling the rest up with soymilk for a little cold coffee-flavored beverage 
Since one costs about $2.50, that’s still pretty expensive in coffee terms at 50 cents a pop.
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By BF likes sleep time tea. I am going to hit the local Mexian Supermercado and buy a bag of chamomile flowers or whatever. Try them in the black tea. We also have green tea here but it’s 5 cents per bag… but beats the 25 cents per bag for name brand sleepy time tea.
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Isn’t the sleepy time tea non caffeinated?
Well they use green tea in it I think? Green tea has half the caffeine of black tea. Black tea is half the caffeine of coffee.
I think I recall green tea being in it along with chamomile and some other things. I am not sure though.
Yeah i think you are right no caffeine in it. I need to find out how to make our own really cheap.
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this stuff is sooooo good! also not frugal 
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I think that depends on how good you are at gleaning herbs and flowers!
I’m very invested in the sleepy time tea because I am about to start a job where I have to go to bed at 7:15PM two days a week (for 3:15 wake-up) and I am trying to come with strategies for it. I bought some expensive sleepy tea but it isn’t sustainable price
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Huh, interesting! I’m a big fan of buying bulk tea and mixing my own blend, but never thought to attempt this one.
Spearmint and lemongrass are super easy to grow in containers. I’ve had some going continuously (the lemongrass came from the supermarket and it rooted itself in water!) for like three years now. I didn’t even know you could use blackberry leaves. It makes sense though since red raspberry leaves are common and I use them! I’ve been throwing my blackberry leaves away. I should start drying them! And I do have roses, though I think I’d prefer to see them bloom—could collect the petals when the blooms are about spent though.
I did try to grow chamomile in a shared planter with yarrow, and that went poorly. The yarrow completely crowded it out and I got like two blooms. Maybe one day I’ll see if I can grow it alone, but I doubt it’d produce enough for a lot of tea even so! I think that would have to be a bulk buy.
Tilia flowers and hawthorn are beyond me though. Tilia is linden, the internet tells me? That sounds like an easy bulk buy. We take hawthorn already at my house as capsules.
My favorite homemade blend is for female balance and is red raspberry leaf, red clover, nettle, and decaf green tea (for the antioxidants), which I then scent with bergamot so it has an earl grey type thing going on.
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I am super impressed at the calculations and then stayed for the tea chatter and am now craving a cup of tea. It’s too late in the day for me now but I am absolutely making one tomorrow. Irish breakfast is delicious but we have loose-leaf english breakfast dilmah that is pretty nice. Not a huge selection at the moment as I had to stop caffeine when I am overtired (thanks kids for having the opposite effect on my hot drinks than others get to experience…)
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I’m mostly a looseleaf drinker but I’ll have to try this with bag tea sometime! How intriguing!
Can you normally drink your tea right away? I usually let a fresh mug cool for 20 minutes or so before I can safely sip it. (I’m perfectly happy to accept being weird in this regard.)
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I have to let mine sit before I can drink it! Otherwise I scald my tongue!
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I start sipping it like after 1 minute 
I’m super careful Yeah I’ve scalded my tongue before
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Most people probably prefer the taste of Tea to coffee. Probably tastes a lil better. Coffee is very easy and cost is lowest I’ve found. Wondering now if tea might be cheaper in some form. Usually I buy tea bags, but those are very pricey compared.
I buy a coffee maker costs about 20 bucks. Then a can of coffee grounds for $8. Lasts me about 45 days. 12 cups of coffee made daily. How does that compare to your Tea usage/habits?
365/45=8.11 x $8 can of grounds + $20 coffee maker from Walmart = $85 for the year.
Are you including the cost of any paper filters you might be using when brewing coffee? If you’re not using a paper filter, that’s pretty amazing!
Lately we’ve been buying tea from an Indian (as in India) grocery store. The tea is pretty cheap ($7.99 for 2 lb) and tastes good. This is loose leaf tea, and we re-use them until they have nothing more to give.
I personally don’t like tea bags. The paper leaves behind a residual flavor that I don’t enjoy.
I’ve never done a cost comparison between the two (tea and coffee). It would be interesting to do one similar to the OP.
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