If you’ve decided you’re “not a tea person,” it might be worth giving tea another shot.
Maybe your first experience was a basic black tea that tasted too bitter, a green tea that wasn’t your thing, or a cup that had been steeping for so long it could practically stand on its own. That doesn’t mean all tea is off the table.
Tea can be fruity, creamy, chocolatey, refreshing, spicy, sweet or even inspired by your favourite desserts. You can drink it hot, pour it over ice or add steamed milk and turn it into a cosy tea latte.
So, the best tea for someone who doesn’t usually like tea probably isn’t one universally loved blend. It’s about starting with flavours you already know you enjoy.
You may not dislike tea. You may simply not have found your tea yet.
Start With Flavours You Already Love
Instead of starting with a particular type of tea because it seems like the obvious choice, think about the flavours you already reach for.
Love fruit? Start there. Always order a latte at a café? There's tea for that. Have a sweet tooth? Dessert-inspired blends might be more your speed.
Finding a tea you enjoy can be a lot easier when you start with what you already know tastes good to you.
If You Love Fruit, Try Fruity Tea
If you gravitate towards berries, citrus, tropical fruit or refreshing drinks, start with fruity tea.
Fruit-forward blends can feel more familiar to new tea drinkers because the fruit can take centre stage rather than a strong traditional tea flavour. Depending on the blend, you might find notes of peach, mango, berries, lemon, pineapple or other fruits.
They’re also incredibly versatile. Brew your tea hot when you want something cosy, or chill it and pour it over ice for something cool and refreshing.
If cold drinks are more your thing, don’t force yourself to become a hot-tea person first. An iced fruity tea might be the cup that finally makes tea make sense.
Browse Tealish’s loose leaf tea collection to explore different flavours and find one that sounds like you.
If You Have a Sweet Tooth, Try Dessert Tea
Tea and dessert aren’t as far apart as you might think.
Dessert tea takes inspiration from the flavours you might expect to find behind a bakery counter or on a dessert menu. Think chocolate, vanilla, caramel, cake and pastry-inspired combinations, except they’re brewed into your cup.
This can be an especially fun place to start if the words “plain tea” don’t exactly spark joy.
Rather than trying to convince yourself to enjoy something because it tastes traditionally tea-like, look for flavours that already sound delicious to you. A creamy vanilla blend or chocolatey tea may be far more approachable than jumping straight into a traditional green or black tea.
Tealish has plenty of blends inspired by the sweeter side of life. Explore the Dessert Tea collection to see just how close your afternoon cup can get to dessert.
If You Love Lattes, Try a Tea Latte
If your favourite drinks tend to come with steamed milk and a layer of foam, meet the tea latte.
Adding milk can soften a tea’s flavour while creating the creamy texture you may already love in café drinks. Earl Grey can become a London Fog, chai pairs beautifully with warm milk, and dessert-inspired loose leaf teas can make rich, flavourful lattes of their own.
Tea lattes are also easy to customize. Make yours stronger or milder, choose your favourite milk and add sweetness to taste.
If you’re curious, Tealish’s guide to making a tea latte at home is an easy place to start experimenting with café-style tea drinks in your own kitchen.
If You Prefer Refreshing Drinks, Try Iced Tea
Sometimes it’s not the tea you dislike. It’s the steaming mug.
Tea can taste quite different when it’s chilled, and fruity blends in particular can shine over ice. The result can feel lighter and more refreshing, especially if you naturally reach for cold drinks.
Try brewing a flavour you already like, letting it cool and serving it over plenty of ice. From there, adjust the strength and sweetness until it tastes right to you.
Tealish’s Iced Tea Essentials are a great place to explore blends that work beautifully chilled.
If You Like Trying Everything, Start With a Tea Sampler
Still have absolutely no idea where you fall on the tea spectrum? That’s fine too.
A tea sampler gives you the chance to experiment with different flavours before settling on a full-size favourite. Try something fruity one day, creamy the next and dessert-inspired after that. You might even discover that the blend you wouldn’t have picked on its own is the one you end up craving.
For tea beginners, sampling can also help answer a surprisingly useful question: What don’t I like?
Maybe fruity blends are your thing, but earthy flavours aren’t. Perhaps you discover you prefer creamy teas with milk or bright blends served over ice. Once you know what you enjoy, choosing your next tea becomes much easier.
Why Flavoured Tea Is a Great Starting Point for Beginners
One of the easiest mistakes to make when getting into tea is starting with what you think you’re supposed to drink rather than what actually sounds good.
There are no bonus points for forcing yourself through a cup you don’t enjoy.
Flavoured tea opens up a much wider range of possibilities, from fruit and flowers to vanilla, chocolate, coconut, caramel and spice. For someone looking for the best tasting tea to start with, those familiar flavours can make exploring tea feel much less intimidating.
Loose leaf tea also gives you plenty of room to experiment. Adjust the strength, steeping time, milk, sweetness or serving style until you find what works for you.
That’s what can make flavour-forward tea for beginners so approachable. You’re not learning to like tea because you’re supposed to. You’re figuring out what you actually enjoy drinking.
How to Make Tea Taste Better When You’re Just Starting Out
Even a tea you’d normally love can taste less-than-great when it isn’t prepared properly. Luckily, a few small changes can make a big difference.
Start by following the brewing directions for your blend, including the recommended water temperature and steeping time. Leaving some teas to steep for too long can bring out more bitterness than you bargained for.
Then, experiment.
Try the same tea hot and iced. Add milk if the blend suits it. Turn it into a tea latte. Add a little sweetness if that’s how you prefer your drinks.
You can also adjust how strong you make your tea. If your first cup feels too intense, use a little less tea or follow the recommended steeping time more closely. If the flavour disappears once you add milk, you may want to brew it slightly stronger.
Most importantly, don’t judge the entire tea universe by one cup. If you don’t enjoy a particular flavour family, move on to another. Tea is much too big a category to write off after one awkward first date.
Finding Your Favourite Tea Might Take a Little Experimenting
Finding your favourite tea is a bit like figuring out your coffee order. Most people don’t walk into a café for the first time already knowing their exact roast, milk, syrup and espresso preferences.
Tea deserves the same room for experimentation.
Start with flavours you recognize. Try them hot and iced. Play around with milk or sweetness. Sample a few different blends. Eventually, you’ll start noticing patterns in what you reach for again.
Maybe you’re firmly on Team Fruity. Maybe dessert-inspired blends win. Maybe your gateway into tea turns out to be a ridiculously frothy latte.
And that’s part of the fun.
If you’re ready to explore, browse Tealish and start with the flavours that already sound good to you. The best tea isn’t necessarily the one everyone else loves. It’s the one that makes you want another cup.
