Kat, that tea sounds delicious! I love Chai tea especially. In what store did you find it?

Thanks for the recommendation:-)
DONNA

In the middle east cardamom with tea is a classic. We make it that way often, using just plain good black tea, and a few cardamom seeds tossed in the pot. Try it this way too: very simple and economical as well. You can find cardamom in 3 forms: a white pod that contains the seeds, the seeds alone, and ground. To make it with tea you want just the seeds. The ground cardamom will float so you don't want that. We take the tea ball out when steeping is done but leave the seeds in the pot to get stronger. They are big enough (at least for my pots) so they don't go through the strainer part in the spout but stay there. I add honey, DH drinks without.

Donna,
I found the tea at Safeway. The town I live in only has Walmart and one other small market, and I would rather take a beating than shop in either place. The town I work in is about 1/2 hour from home and has Safeway, SuperG and a Super Fresh, I like Safeway for the produce and they carry my Darjeeling tea that I can't get at the stores near my home. Plus Safeway sometimes has the Meyer Lemons when they are in season. It is a short trip to stop there after work. Hope you can find the tea, it is really good.
Kat

I've never heard of cardamom. I thought it was somebody's screen name. LOL

A good Persian option is 1/2 Darjeeling, 1/2 black tea, green cardamom and just a bit of rose water.

Carol

Carol, that Persian "version" (Sorry - I love rhymes:-) sounds so delicious. I do enjoy the flavor of cardamom in baked goods, but I don't think I've ever had it in tea. Can you sub the white pods for the black ones?

Kat, I don't have Safeway here, but I think I might be able to find that lovely sounding tea at the local Wild Oats Market. Perhaps my Publix grocery store even carries it, though I'm doubtful. I wish we could get Meyer lemons here, but they just don't do well, and I've never seen them in the markets in Central Florida. Odd, because most other citrus seems to grow so well.
DONNA

I haven't tried this one yet, but thought I'd post about the company...just because they seemed nice. When I worked at a small non-profit hospice, we always needed in-kind donations and much of that was tea. Numi Tea gave us zillions of tea bags, boxes of tea bags, individual bamboo boxes of tea and big bamboo boxes of tea. Normally, when we would ask for tea donations, we would get giant plastic bags filled with tea bags. Generous, but nothing fancy. The Numi guys really came through and the individual boxes were so pretty that we used them at a fund-raising dinner.
My favourite of theirs is a black Chinese breakfast. I'm not big on tea-bag-chai, but I do like chai concentrate from Third Street Chai....although, nothing really compares to my homemade chai!

The white pods are kind of papery. They are about pea-sized. You have to open them to get at the seeds. But the seeds are pretty easy to find already "peeled" or shelled. I don't know about any black ones, unless you mean the seeds themselves, which are kind of grey-ish black. Those are a little smaller than a peppercorn.

Cardamom is white, green, or black; each has differences in flavor intensity and nuance, like different cinnamons, etc. This info is paraphrased from Penzy's website:

In India where both green and black cardamom are used, it is an important ingredient in meat and vegetable dishes. In parts of the Middle East the seeds are mixed with green coffee beans before brewing. In Northern Europe (especially Scandinavia) white cardamom is used to season baked goods such as Christmas stollen, cakes, cookies, muffins and buns.

Cardamom is a pod consisting of an outer shell with little flavor, and tiny inner seeds with intense flavor. Fancy white and green pods have no splits or cracks in the shell, so the flavor keeps well. Stored in a glass jar, cardamom pods will stay fresh indefinitely. Shelled or decorticated cardamom seeds are inexpensive and flavorful, but sometimes need to be crushed or ground before use. Ground cardamom has an intensely strong flavor and is easy to use (especially in baking, where the fine powder is desirable). Black cardamom, long a staple in African cooking, was originally used in India as a cheap substitute for green cardamom pods. Black cardamom has a unique smoky flavor and has developed its own following over the years.

I stopped at a local eastern Indian market and picked up 3.5 ounces of whole green cardamom for under $6. The small jar of seeds only and ground each are about $9.

Here is a link that might be useful: Penzy's Spices

Thanks for the homemade tips, I will sure be trying them. Cardamom pods are part of the Penzey's order I am making and now I need to find rose water. I think King Arthur has that.

The Numi tea bags are great for work, I have already had two cups this morning! And I think this is better for me than the coffee I was drinking. For some reason the coffee had started to disagree with me. The tea is causing no problems and since ginger is good for the tummy, it's all good.

I was browsing on Amazon last night, there should be a support group for those of us who get into trouble on that site! I was looking for a new roasting pan, but couldn't decide on one. Anyway I found the Numi tea. I ended up ordering a case of 6 boxes of 18 tea bags and a case of 6 boxes of 25 tea bags of my fav Darjeeling. With free shipping! And the cost is less per bag than what I paid in the store. That should last for a little while! Early holiday gift to me.
Kat