Lipton-bashing (was "The truth about tea dust")

I fully agree with everything you've said. I hope someday people will finally lay this "floor sweeping" notion to rest. I find it funny when folks try to talk down on certain teas, like kukicha, "twig tea", seen as a peasant drink not worth a cent and now highly regarded.

By no means am I rich, but I manage to drink almost exclusively higher-quality teas. In PA we have stores called 'Wegmans" which has one of the most amazing tea selections of anywhere I know plus a great variety of asian stores. Wegmans allows purchase of any quantity of loose tea, and while some may be $39.99 lb., $10 worth of Jasmine Green Pearls will last a nice length of time. I drink between 4-8 cups a day of tea and rarely drop into a lower grade tea unless I actually want it. I also tend to get two brewings from my tea if I want to stretch it.

PG tips, Twinnings, Tazo, Republic of Tea, etc. I don't see as that low of quality... although I'm not a Twinnings fan at all. I also tend to shop in small Asian markets where I get an incredible value for my money and most of the time can get world class teas at supermarket prices.

I'm new 'round here, but can appreciate anyones personal tastes and life is WAY too short to get up in a bunch over someones tea preferences over the internet ;) I really just hope to share some of my personal knowledge of the subject and I rarely find others to talk tea with, even being a IT guy by trade it never "clicked" to turn to the internet to have some discussion about tea.

I don't have a quality problem with supermarket tea at all. In fact, My notion of iced tea is lipton. Just what I grew up with. I've tried using other teas for iced tea and it just isn't right. My only gripe is that in the end, it is often no cheaper gram for gram than something better.

I like Lipton's Green Label Darjeeling tea, sold lose (not bagged) in cans in local Indian groceries.

I think the existence of good conversation on Usenet these days is nothing short of a miracle.

For me, I don't mind Lipton's iced. I've not really tried much else, although I've been meaning to try a higher-grade tea in iced tea. As for hot, I don't like it as much. This sweeping thing seems to be largely a myth. Maybe its grounded in something that used to be true and over time it has been exaggerated. Smaller leaf being faster and possibly more efficient is consistent with what happens if coffee is ground more quickly. I do wonder if tea dust can easily become bitter without shortening the extraction time. I've found that many people let their tea bags sit around in the cup far too long...

Steve

I've never had the problem with bitter iced tea (I usually use the sun tea method, 4 bags to a gallon of cold water, stick it in the sun until it looks like tea...) but can imagine problems with hot water. I have a decent CTC assam that I drink, and it is about perfect in 45 seconds. If you let it go more than about 2, it gets pretty bitter. OTOH, those lipton bags don't have much tea in them, so I'm not sure how far wrong you could really go. Sub par, yes, but I don't know if you could make the cup all that bitter with the little bit in them.

Well, I do my part to raise the bar a tiny bit. It really shouldn't be such a rarity to actually have meaningful discussions.

My personal favorite higher end iced tea is jasmine green tea wth a natural sugar (raw sugar, chinese rock sugar, or honey) I use Jasmine Green Tea "pearls", but a mid-grade jasmine green from the asian market works well too.

Darjeerling and Assam do OK as iced teas too. I have a strawberry sencha tea that is great its filled with dehydrated real strawberries.

I agree. I often wonder how people can leave a tea bag in the mug for the entire time it takes to drink the tea. At home, I remove my tea bags from the pot after four or five minutes - and try to do the same at work, although I sometimes get busy and leave it in a few minutes too long. I don't know how anyone can drink such a bitter brew, even with a lot of sugar.

As for iced tea, I like almost any tea iced. I drink mostly hot tea, but if I get tired of a certain kind or just don't like it very much, I use it for iced tea. I brew my iced tea in the refrigerator overnight and it seems to come out the same way regardless of the type of tea used.

----------> We are gettting a Wegmans around here soon. I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the tip.

----------> I have also started visiting local Indian markets for tea. I like the Brooke Bond Taj Mahal brand, which tastes just like PG Tips at a fraction of the cost. I want to try some other kinds once my current stock runs out.

As for Twinings, I don't know if you've ever tried any of their teas blended for the UK market, but they are MUCH better than their export blends. You can buy them online. That is how I get all of my Twinings. I can't drink their US blends anymore.

Justin Holmes wrote: OTOH, those lipton bags don't have much tea in them, so I'm not sure how far wrong you could really go. Sub par, yes, but I don't know if you could make the cup all that bitter with the little bit in them.

Oh if you squeeze them you can get all the Bitter you ever wanted. or if you let them sit for half an hour. LOL My mom and dad used to squeeze all the life out of their Liptons tea bags and drink it with milk and sugar. Grandpa, (Ever the englishman) used to love loose tea but used bags the most often, I guess for convenience. I can't remember whether he squoze his or not. LOL

My sister and brother told me about 20 years ago that if we didn't squeeze the bags the tea wouldn't be bitter. My first step to gormet tea. LOL

Kitty in PA

Yes as I mentioned below someplace I drink the Lipton red label (Is that right? I get it mixed up...maybe yellow label) CTC assam from my local Indian grocer as well. It's not so much cheaper than what I can get from, say, Uptons, but it is local so at least I know I won't run out of my basic Assam mainstay. That's saying a lot when in other communities I have only been able to find the usual Lipton teabags, or Red Rose, or Luzziane (sp?) or even National Cup. I look at it this way though, when I was a kid, my folks drank coffee almost exclusively. I was lucky to get any tea at all, even if it was Liptons decaf (what I called "green tea" at the time, due to the color of the box I guess) with milk and sugar. So...there are worse things than Lipton, like say having no tea at all. In a pinch you can brew two bags I suppose.

Having said that, bag-wise when I do drink teabags (which isn't really very often anymore) it's Tetley's or PG Tips too. Typhoo is interesting, it definitely tastes different to me than the PG Tips.

Aloke, is the Green Label Darjeeling that comes in the box (loose but in a plastic bag in the box) also reasonably good? The store near me carries that too, but I haven't bought it because I was wary after recently buying some cheaper darjeeling (a store brand) and seeing what can pass as darjeeling these days...

I also agree with the comment about fannings being harder to brew because of them falling through the strainer, I have that problem too. Right now I just ignore it...if I get really annoyed I'll probably buy a nylon strainer (like a Chatsford) to steep it in.

Melinda

If you buy the can, it will be sealed under the lid. They also sell "refills" that are in sealed paper packaging with aliminium lining.

As far as I know, the real Lipton Green label is very consistent and good Darjeeling. It's like some single plantation 2nd flush tea. They blend different flushes and plantation products to create a very repeatable consistent product.

Having said all that, I have switched over to Makaibari 1st flush at 3x the price. But I still think the Green Label is a good price point for getting used to Darjeelings.