How do you take your tea?

Well, that's a complicated question with as many answers as there are tea drinkers and types of tea. While it's ultimately up to the sipper how to take tea, there are general guidelines to enjoying the best experience with a particular tea. If you're new to tea or new to a specific kind of tea, here are ten popular teas and whether they should be enjoyed straight with nothing in them or with the addition of extra ingredients.

Earl Grey Bravo

Add Anything? You may.

Generally speaking, black teas take extra ingredients well, mainly because the flavor of the tea is strong enough that it won't get lost among the new additional flavors. It's popular to add a little milk to black tea to mellow its flavor. Though Earl Grey is one of those teas that doesn't need to be softened in order to be enjoyed, many enjoy adding milk, sugar, and even lemon to their cup of Earl Grey. It's up to the sipper: enjoy Earl Grey straight or customize your cup!

Masala Chai

Add Anything? Yes!

Not only is adding Milk, honey, and other sweeteners to Chai acceptable, it's encouraged! While some people enjoy drinking Masala Chai straight, many enjoy it mixed with milk, sugar, honey, and even brown sugar or syrups! In fact, a popular way to prepare Masala Chai is to steep it in milk while it’s on the stove! This is a very customizable drink, so add away!

Matcha

Add Anything? People do, but please don't.

Let me explain: while drinks like Matcha Lattes are growing in popularity, be aware of what kind of matcha you're adding to your latte. If you're drinking a high quality matcha (like, for example, Uji Matcha), the flavor will end up getting lost if you add anything like milk, sugar, etc.

Now, if you insist on making a matcha latte (which, I don't blame you: they're delish), don't use high quality matcha that will get lost in the latte. Use a culinary-grade matcha and save the higher-grade matcha for drinking as they should be: mixed with nothing but filtered water.

Gunpowder

Add Anything? You may.

While I would discourage adding anything to green teas, Gunpowder Tea is an exception in some cases. On its own, Gunpowder Tea is great: it's got a kick with a mild smokey flavor, but it's not overpowering. However, this tea is also used in Moroccan Mint Tea (also called Maghrebi Mint Tea), a blending of Gunpowder and spearmint that can be sweetened with sugar; some even like adding lemon to their brew. Ultimately, whether to add anything to Gunpowder Tea depends on how you want to enjoy it: in its traditional Chinese form, it's best to leave any additional ingredients out, but as Moroccan Mint Tea, feel free to add sugar, spearmint, or lemon.

Lapsang Souchong

Add Anything? Yes!

Lapsang Souchong is a love-it-or-hate-it tea: either you love its smokey and piney aroma and flavor, or it's too overpowering and you can't get past the woodsy scent. As someone who typically doesn't add anything to tea, I made the mistake of drinking Lapsang Souchong straight and it... was not a good experience. What I didn't know is that it's perfectly acceptable (even encouraged) to add milk to Lapsang Souchong to mellow out its strong flavor.

If you've tried Lapsang Souchong and hated it, give it a second chance with a little milk: you might be pleasantly surprised.
If not, many say it makes a great marinade.

Spring Darjeeling

Add Anything? No!

Would you add sugar or milk to champagne? No: if you did that, you would miss out on the flavor of the grapes that go into making that very nice wine.

The same applies to the Champagne of Tea: Darjeeling. While Darjeeling is a black tea and black teas handle additional flavors well, Darjeeling is a mild black tea with delicate, nuanced flavors that can get lost with the addition of milk, honey, sugar, etc. Whether you're drinking Spring Darjeeling or Darjeeling Sungma Summer, save the milk and honey for a stronger black tea.

Sencha Premier

Add Anything? No!

Japanese teas are a truly unique experience. A cup of fresh sencha will be vegetal and grassy, like a lovely spring day after the lawn has been mowed. Adding something like milk or sugar to a cup of sencha will detract from that experience.

However, if you find that your cup of sencha is too bitter or astringent, you probably need to change the way you brew it (and don't sweat it if you mess up: Japanese teas can take practice to brew correctly). Instead of reaching for the sugar bowl or the milk in the fridge, consider brewing sencha at a lower temperature (sencha should never be brewed at boiling: brew anywhere between 165-175F) or for a shorter period of time (anywhere from 1-2 minutes. Personally, I brew for 90 seconds).

Silver Needle

Add Anything? Absolutely Not!

White teas by their very nature are delicate. It's the delicate nuances, aromas, and flavors that add to the white tea experience, all of which will get overpowered as soon as you add milk, sugar, honey, whatever. While there are a lot of flavored white teas (from traditional flavors like Jasmine Silver Needle to various fruity flavored white teas), skip adding the additional flavors of milk, sugar, or honey and enjoy the subtleties of white tea.

Ti Kuan Yin

Add Anything? No!

The characteristics of oolongs that draws people in are their different nuances and how they changes with subsequent brews.

A good oolong like Ti Kuan Yin can be brewed several times, with some claiming the second cup is better than the first. Because of that, oolongs are enjoyed entirely on their own without the addition of milk or sugar, which could mask those subtleties. For a true oolong experience, skip the milk and sugar when brewing the popular Ti Kuan Yin.

Golden Monkey

Add Anything? No!

It may be odd to say don't add anything to black tea, after all black teas tend to be strong and can take milk, sugar, or honey without its flavor getting lost in the mix. However, like Darjeeling, many Chinese black teas are mild with flavors that will get lost if any additional ingredients are added. Because Golden Monkey is mild with a soft cocoa flavor, you don't even need to add anything: it's ready to enjoy as is!