Lipton Tea/Foam

I've noticed Lipton and Brooke Bond with this characteristic. I've seen it in other commercial teas with fines. I think it is little oxygen pockets with suspended infusion as a film. A simple swish will cause the appearance to go away. Lipton US (Brisk tea) is for making iced tea. I think Lipton India is perfectly ok for everyday cuppa. Lipton is just one of many commercial teas. I'd recommend British morning blends such as English, Irish, Scottish breakfasts.

Jim

Brooke Bond Red Label does the same thing for me.

I don't know.

Considered by whom? I think it's above average for mass-market, low-priced, bulk tea bags.

Is McDonald's food considered above- or below-average?

I had been using a microwave to heat the water. The water becomes very hot but doesn't boil. I just noticed that if I bring the water to a boil on the stovetop, the foam doesn't occur.

Personally, I think water that was microwaved produces tea with a different flavor profile than water heated conventionally. I prefer the taste of tea with the latter, although there are times (e.g., when traveling) when tea from microwaved water is better than nothing.

Anyone else have an opinion about this?

Regards, Dean

Dear Dean, I completely agree with you. I think the water itself has to be aerated (kind of like percolated) by using a kettle. The microwave only seems to rub water molecules together and makes it sort of flat, but I personally feel somehow that kettle water is more appropriate for the jumping element necessary in good tea preparation.

As for the foam, it is likely extremely fine dust and foreign particles rising to the top as bulk teas in the US and Europe are dust and refuse from the production room floor (personally verified to me by the Sri Lankan consulate two weeks ago). We can just barely regard that stuff as tea (percentage wise). This is just another reason why the US government tries so hard to keep European companies like Lipton from dumping their low-quality crap in the US by being the only country in the world with tea import regulations (that don't seem to work). Don't buy it. We should refuse that just like our founders did in Boston harbor. (And Charleston harbor for history buffs out there.) Viva la revolucion!

This is slanderous and ikllogical - you need to take yourself to a tea processing factory in one of the tea producing countries and watch the making and grading of tea - Dust IS a grade of tea! Or for that matter talk to an expert in the processing and grading of tea - why oh why do these urban myths continue - what volume of tea would need to be swept to fill the worlds tea bag production? Tea would need to be even more uneconomic for the producers then it is if that was the volume of waste!!

Helga snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com11/16/04

Dust is crap. The question of whether it's swept off the floor or lovingly produced for our consumption is irrelevant.

Surely that is just a subjective statement, after all a lot of the worlds tea drinking population enjoy tea made from this particular grade and they can't all be thinking "this is crap" as they drink their tea. Tea is a drink of the masses in many societies what right have any of us to condem how they might enjoy it??

I'm no devotee of Macha, but isn't this a little harsh?

--crymad

Helga snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com11/16/04

Yes, you are quite right. Dust is a tea for the masses, and it's crap. This is an objective statement of fact that has nothing whatsoever to do with my opinion, which might be different.

Michael

snipped-for-privacy@xprt.net/16/04 19: snipped-for-privacy@xprt.net

Macha is now officially excluded from the Tea Dust Crap catagory.

Viva la revolucion! (And yes, I realize it is a grade of crap and I realize the world's uneducated are duped into buying it and I realize that until they know what they are buying they will continue this and it is our job to educate them, so that at least they KNOW they are buying the absolute lowest grade product available anywhere.)

Rufus T. snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com11/17/04

No, Rufus. Macha is good with a long distinguished history. Tea dust crap is bad. The test: Do they muck up their Macha with milk and sugar?

Michael

Respectfully, Michael, I swear I've had good tea from a dust-filled teabag: recently produced by a quality company (e.g., Barry's), well-stored, with boiling water. Freshness, storage and water temperature are well more than half the battle for black tea, says my palate. I'd even order standard food-service supply bag tea at local restaurants if they were served and stored decently. They almost never are, of course.

Still friends,

Rick.

Rick Chappellcnfuu1$9cu$ snipped-for-privacy@news.doit.wisc.edu11/17/04

I say we vote him OFF THE ISLAND. Next.

Michael

PS: Someday, when we're sitting down to tea together, I'll tell you one of my dirtiest little secrets.

"PS: Someday, when we're sitting down to tea together, I'll tell you one of my dirtiest little secrets."

I'm guessing....you secretly love Lipton decaf with evaporated milk and three spoons of sugar? It's nothing to be ashamed of Michael, we...well we might not understand but we accept you anyway. Right people? :D

Melinda who not-secretly loves Williamson and Magore English blend in bags with milk and sugar at the moment. Alternating with sencha. I don't question it..::sigh:: ain't tea wonderful? :)

Oh dear Michael, Dust from crap? Don't live with this wrong information. I don't know who gave you this information. Just want to tell you this- this is wrong, very wrong.

I always enjoy good grade dust tea. Dust, BOP all of this graded tea can be better then many orthodox good looking full leaves tea.

Ripon Vienna,VA

Ripon,

Thank you for reminding me to mention to Crymad that Macha is truly a powder, but "dust," otherwise known as "crap," is composed of small bits of leaf sold for less than a handful of pennies a kilo for no reason at all beyond economics. The rich get richer and the poor drink dust. Sorry, Ripon, but my grandfather who was a tea merchant toward the end of the 19th century told me this, and I stick with his wisdom.

Michael

snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com11/18/04