Black English breakfast tea daily, nothing added. I hate that I don’t like coffee in the least because tea just doesn’t have the higher caffeine I could use.

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
I like tea. Always had inexpensive stuff though. Cream and sugar. I’m a black tea guy, never warmed up to the green teas and whatnot. I even like Lipton tea bags. lol

I drank a lot of Lipton while working in Britain (PG Tips too). I have yet to find another tea I like better than plain old boring, pedestrian Lipton. I prefer coffee to tea, but sometimes the smoother ramp is preferable to the whee / crash of coffee though.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
I don’t like it the way I usually encountered it in Britain because it was too strong for my taste, and was obvious why they like it with milk and sugar.

Milk & sugar? Ewe gross!!! I have seen lots of people add milk to tea, but I don’t recall ever seeing anyone add sugar. I can’t imagine. Maybe a little sugar in the gross, burnt, bitter, gas station coffee that you have to gag down because it’s late, you have miles to go, you don’t have no-doze, and it’s all that available, but I can’t imagine polluting tea (or decent coffee) with sugar. Yikes!

quote:

Originally posted by Dzozer:
Canada

Tea Time at the Empress Hotel in Victoria BC is an experience...

That it is. Scones and clotted cream, etc…

quote:

Originally posted by 6guns:
I rarely drink tea and as a result, don't have any in stock right now, which brings up another question. How long does it keep before going bad...or weak or whatever might happen to it? Do you refrigerate it? I've had it both sweetened and unsweetened and with milk. I do prefer my iced tea unsweetened.

Lipton has evolved their packaging. I remember the box with three rows of tea beads, each with an individual paper wrapper. Then they went to just the string with a tag on it, still in the three rows with the dividers. The last change I’ve seen is the same string with the tag, but instead of three rows loose in the box with two dividers between, they now have three wrapped stacks with a Mylar-like (if not actual Mylar, I wouldn’t know, around each stack. Where I used to jam the whole box into a gallon ziplock freezer bag, I now take out one wrapped stacks at a time, cut the end open, and stick it in a quart freezer ziplock bag. Before closing the bag, I squeeze out all the air I can. It seems to help it last a lot longer. I’ve never tried refrigeration. I don’t know whether it would help or hurt. I prefer my iced tea unsweetened, and mixed with lemonade. Think Arnold Palmer, but instead of 50/50, 40/60 or even 30/70 tea/lemonade.

If I recall correctly, Lipton is orange pekoe and really just uses tea leaf scraps; basically tea leaf dust. Buy at least PG Tips or something that uses something close to tea leafs, not bit and pieces.

According to the Internet:

“According to the UK Tea & Infusions Association (UKTIA), about 57% of British tea drinkers add dairy milk, and a further 10% add plant-based milk. [tea.co.uk]”
“Focusing specifically on traditional black teas (like English Breakfast), around three‑quarters of Britons add milk ….”
“A YouGov poll (2022) found that about 26% of British tea drinkers add sugar to their tea.”

I never spent a huge amount of time in the UK, but when I was there I recall lightener and sugar always being available for adding to the tea.

And have we ever heard of “sweet tea” that’s popular in the American South? It’s not made with Ovaltine.

One wonders why the UK are such avid tea drinkers if they can't enjoy it plain (like perhaps Japan or china/taiwan) and find the need to add milk/sugar. I wonder if they care about how the tea is actually produced like Japan does. The care taken to making gyokuro level green tea borders on fanatical obsession.

I recall reading that a British practice for brewing tea was to use one teaspoon of loose tea for every cup that a pot would hold, “plus one for the pot.” And I think the brew time was something like 10 minutes. That makes some strong! tea based on how I like to drink it. I tried that method with green tea once and the result was undrinkable. When a black tea brew can end up darker than I’ve seen some restaurant coffee to be, milk/cream and sugar makes a lot of sense to me.

I don’t know much more about British tea preferences, but based on the number of different Twinings tea containers my wife collected over the years, I would say that they are probably pretty discerning about the subject.

At one time I liked to add honey when drinking black tea, but I gave that up a long time ago.

Steep for 10 minutes!?!? Wow, that's very long.

I've understood for black tea: 1 teaspoon per cup (6oz?), 212F, 3-5 minutes depending on taste. Correct or not, I generally adhere to that. 10 minutes sounds bitter and cold. And I usually use that teaspoon to make about 4 cups (one at a time, just keep adding water). Miserly.

Green tea, especially gyokuro, I believe is 160F for about 1 minute. The amount to use is heavily debated though. Ironically, there is some belief that for fresh tea leaves, more results in a flavorful, sweeter cup. I never tried that outside of sampling in a store. I'm very miserly with green tea given its cost.

But these days, I drink black tea, usually straight (sometimes, I'll add a dash of milk/sugar or lemon or lemon/sugar - more for a change rather than the taste). For some reason, I've taken a liking to Irish Breakfast (whatever it is over standards like Earl Grey, English Breakfast, Darjeeling and others). It suits my aged palate I guess. I don't know if the Irish tea customs / preferences are different from those of the English.

I may try one of those tea places; expensive at $40 a person. But perhaps they can shed some light on customs and background behind them (like how long to steep, why add milk/sugar and how much to add, etc).

The German tea video above was interesting.

I have been getting my tea from the Tea Spot in Colorado for some time, and was just given (another) pound of their gunpowder green. The brewing suggestion is 175° for 2-3 minutes. I hadn’t noticed that before, and the temperature struck me as fairly cool; 160° is obviously significantly less. Where I live the temperature of boiling water is about 195° so that’s what I use by default without making any effort to catch it before it gets that hot or cool it after boiling. What I have been doing recently is to watch and limit the brewing time to limit the caffeine content.

Oh, yeah: Another thing I recall about the method I mentioned was to prewarm the pot with boiling water to keep the pot from cooling the brewing water when it was added. I usually brew in a Pyrex container that I don’t prewarm, so I suppose that cools the water some from the original 195°. Something to check sometime.

Interesting.

Here's one of the (gyokuro) green teas I use (sparingly now). The instructions indicate 60C (140F) water. The sencha I have indicates 70C (160F) water; I checked that others indicate 80C (176F).

Perhaps as tea approaches black from green (gyokuro (60C) through sencha (70C) through bancha (100C) to black tea (100C)), the steeping temp increases. But if so, why, I don't know.

https://ippodotea.com/collecti...kuro/products/ippoen

Yes, the pot is advised to be warmed. As are the cups. That's part of the Japanese tea ceremony as well. The temp of hot water falls dramatically when put into cool containers. I only do that for gyokuro, not for any other type of tea. I do it for coffee though (I pour hot water into the cup, pour it out, then pour coffee in). I like my coffee hot.

Wow! At $40 for 50 grams, you are definitely a tea connoisseur. The teas I get run $30+ for a pound and sometimes free shipping after X amount in the order. It would be interesting, though, to try that tea you like.

Like I said, I drink black tea now.

No income in retirement means some life changes (some of which are good and long overdue).

Also, I think it used to be half that price; it's gone up dramatically over the past 5 years or so. I think this global fad with green tea and matcha is driven up prices. I hate these fads.

BTW, I think that the serving size if 10g so you only get 5 servings per bag... (well, you can reuse the 10g to make 3-4 cups but it weakens quickly).

sigfreund: this may not be to your preference but it's been a decent japan sourced tea for me at a more reasonable price.

It's a black tea (not a green tea so common from japan) but it's considered a "wakoucha" or a japanese style black tea.

To me, it's minimally astringent with a subtle but nice sweet fruity/floral flavor and aroma. Not sure really how to describe it.

It's not green tea. It's not gyokuro quality. But it's a mild, flavorful, black tea from japan (ie - not china or india).

https://a.co/d/08CTJpfd

This discussion reminds me of this scene from NCIS!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZGuCwTF46o

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
But it's a mild, flavorful, black tea from japan (ie - not china or india).

All things to recommend it; thanks.
I do drink black teas, especially oolong or lapsang souchong, just not often, and if I drink too much they will get to me in a way that I can’t really describe.

I'm not sure I've ever tried lapsang souchong. I'll look into it in the spirit of broadening my horizons.

I really like oolong (from Taiwan especially). It's my go to at dim sum, along with pu ehr and chrysanthemum (or some combination thereof).

Lapsang seems to taste best on a cold, cloudy day when I want something stronger-flavored than usual.

Yeah, I know: Someone will ask, “Why not coffee?” and the simple answer is that I don’t really like coffee; it’s just something to drink at a restaurant when I want a little boost with the flavor carefully hidden behind lots of cream and sugar. And tea in a restaurant? Nah.

I tried letting English breakfast tea steep for 10
Minutes with a slice of lemon.

It’s fairly pleasant. Not the same as the moka pot mud I prefer - but much easier on the mind, etc.