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i had a couple people at work recently ask me tea related questions. i was somewhat confused, and asked why they were asking me. i am, i guess, considered some sort of tea connoisseur by some of my co-workers. i guess this is because i have a teaball on my desk, and drink something other than orange pekoe. maybe it's because they can see my tea in my office. i didn't really think anything of it until i listed what i have around (list at bottom).

i'm no expert, so i went hunting for some more information on tea. combined with some things i have learned - here is some info and trivia:

my personal favourites? i like earl grey (the cream and royal are my favourite variations), russian caravan, and lapsang souchsong (traditional black tea, smoked over pine.) i'm becoming a fan of oolong quickly, as well as mate (now that i've resolved some issues)

• i do find loose teas are usually superior quality to tea bags. (most of the loose tea i buy is as cheap or cheaper than the bag version.)
  
• it's easy to oversteep white/green tea. stick to the recommended 1-2 minutes, or it's bitter. if you're water is too hot - you will also scald the tea, making it bitter.
• yerba mate is a coffee alternative, that offers a caffeine like chemical called mateine. it promotes weight loss, is rejevenating, helps with stress... what's not to like? tried it. hated it. finally found out why.... the water should be at 70–80 degrees celsius [160–180 degrees fahrenheit] and never boiling. trust me on this one - the temperature is extremely important to the taste. (i use a teaball & mug - haven't found a guampa and bombilla locally yet).
  
• forgot to clean your teeth? tea contains flouride. it has been suggested that 1.5 cups of black tea or 1 cup of green tea, consumed daily, contains enough flouride to reduce tooth decay.
• teas are blended after normal manufacturing processes. the best tea is unblended and will come from single tea estates.
• there are more than 3,000 different types of teas produced worldwide. tea can be divided into 6 main categories - white teas, black teas, oolong teas, green teas, compressed teas and flavoured teas. herbal teas are made from different plants altogether.

and the important stuff: caffeine

• there is minimal difference, chemically, between the caffeine found in tea and the caffeine you consume in a cup of coffee. in stark contrast though, the caffeine found in tea doesn't have the same negative effect on your heart and circulatory system as the caffeine in coffee does.
• steep your tea for approx. 3 minutes - a stimulating effect. steep your tea for approx. 5 minutes - a more calming effect. (black teas)

	In a 5oz/150ml cup of Tea Black Tea - leaf or teabag, brewed 1 minute Black Tea - leaf, brewed 3 minutes Black Tea - teabag, brewed 5 minutes Oolong Tea - leaf, brewed 5 minutes Green Tea - leaf, brewed 3 minutes Instant Tea 8oz. Iced Tea 120z can Decaffeinated Tea Herbal Tea In a a 5oz/150ml cup of Coffee Drip Coffee Percolated Coffee Instant Coffee Decaffeinated Coffee Caffeine present * 9-33mg 20-46mg 46-108mg 12-55mg 8-16mg 12-28mg 22-36mg 4mg None Caffeine present * 110-150mg 64-124mg 40-108mg Less than 5mg
	*The amount of caffeine found in a cup of tea can vary according to what type of tea it is, where the tea was grown, its' manufactured processes and the brewing times and methods used. Due to fermentation processes, Black and Oolong Teas contain more caffeine than Green Teas. Similiar sorts of variations occur when discussing the amount of caffeine that is found in a cup of coffee or in an amount of coffee beans. In general, you would have to drink 2 or 3 cups of cups of tea per day to equal the amount of caffeine found in a single cup of coffee because you need less tea leaves than coffee beans per cup. The smaller the tea leaf, the quicker the caffeine infuses from the tea leaves into your water.

the list (in my defense, this is from both home and work. duplicates removed):
loose:
canadian breakfast
china black tea
china green tea
china jasmine
china lung ching
china oolong
china orchid
china pu-erh
china tikuanyin
chocolate truffle
earl grey cream
earl grey royal
kashmir chai
kashmir tchai
kepta limited safari pure (kenya)
lapsan souchsong crocodile
lee valley - orange pekoe (premium)
monk's tea
rooibos vanilla cream
russian caravan
tata tea - select finest asam
yerba mate

tea bags:
bigelow - mint medley
celestial seasonings - bengal spice
celestial seasonings - chai (decaf)
celestial seasonings - chai: chocolate caramel enchantment
celestial seasonings - earl grey: victorian
celestial seasonings - english toffee
celestial seasonings - roastaroma
celestial seasonings - rooibos: moroccan red pomegranate
celestial seasonings - vanilla hazelnut
celestial seasonings - vanilla maple
celestial seasonings - white: earl grey
celestial seasonings - white: perfectly pear
english breakfast
freshpak - roobois
gloria jean's - darjeeling
grace (special select) - ginger
grace (special select) - ginger lemon
grace (special select) - ginger mint
lipton - ginger twist
london fruit & herb company - strawberry & vanilla
messmer - fennel seed
messmer - fruit & herb
messmer - green tea grapefruit
messmer - rosehip and hibiscus flowers
nabob deluxe - orange pekoe (with finest assam)
pc chai
red rose - orange pekoe
taylors of harrogate - afternoon darjeeling
taylors of harrogate - scottish breakfast
tazo - basic black iced tea
tetley - classic green tea
triple leaf brand - ginger
twinnings - earl grey


--
information taken from (and there's lots of additional)
tea rose lane
wikipedia (yerba mate)

caffeine comparison
tea rose lane