Re: Current Tea Trend in the US -- Flavored Teas and Tisanes

Americans are addicted to sugar and sweetness. You'll find that all the flavorings tend to make the brew sweeter (eg, green tea with peach flavoring). Americans (and I am one) have the taste sophistication of a 12 year old. 5% of the population drinks 90% of the wine, and I'm sure that

I agree with those who have posted before me, I only drink unflavored teas. The only thing I ever add to tea is milk, and only to a strong black tea.

However, I currently work part time in a coffee/tea shop (primarily coffee and espresso) and while we carry some 15 varieties for customers to choose from I barely sell any, and 90% of the tea drinkers want something flavored, raspberry and plum are particularly popular. With two exceptions (a woman who wisely bought half a pound of the Oolong we carry, and a British lady who ordered a proper irish breakfast blend with milk), most simply stare at the shelf with the tea canisters and are completely lost. A lot of people ask me about gunpowder tea, but never order it.

Your post makes me think about the spirit of adventure or the lack thereof. Think back to when you first drank tea. Wasn't it because you knew someone or had a role model who did? I did. Mom drank coffee (yuck), Dad drank Lipton (yuck) in restaurants, and both drank green tea in Chinese and Korean restaurants (probably Japanese, too, I can't recall at this moment because we frequented mostly the Chinese and Korean). At home, Dad drank buttermilk (yuck) so my choices at home were limited to water, juice, and milk.

When I got older, my friends drank Coke (yuck) and because I got into Dennis the Menace comic books, I tried root beer (and liked it).

Feeling more grown up as an older teen, I tried Lipton again with variations: lemon/sugar/milk (all yuck). So, I gave it up and stuck with root beer or green tea at restaurants later branching out to 7Up and Sprite. That was it. Every coupla-few years or so, I tried coffee candy or ice cream just to see if my taste buds changed before trying the beverage again. They didn't.

The only reason I started discovering teas on my own is because a friend's mom served me Constant Comment, her favorite tea, which opened my taste buds to the realization that not all teas tasted like Lipton or green.

Correlated, but not in any particular way connected to tea, a girlfriend and I were in Germany for a few days. When we went to eat, she couldn't understand how I could order something strange and different. My response was that we were in Germany and I wanted to experience it which meant eating the local food. Besides, the Germans ate it and they obviously were all right. It wasn't as though we were in a Third World country or had to boil our drinking water.

She always ordered pizza. Even though I offered a taste of my food, she refused and stuck to her pizzas. Never even a schnitzel. If pizza wasn't on the menu, we went where it was.

So, getting back to tea, maybe the flavored teas are popular because of the flavoring. People know peaches and raspberries and plums. They don't know tea, but they're willing to try something that's associated with something familiar. The more adventurous will go on to explore other offerings on their own: unflavored, unsweetened, blacks, blends, greens, whites, etc. The less adventurous won't unless they know someone else who does or there's a media role model to set an example for them to follow. That's why I give samples of everything I order to two tea friends because if I didn't, they wouldn't try loose tea on their own and didn't, before I came along, even though they already enjoyed their supermarket teas. As a result, one has been converted to loose teas exclusively. The other's favorite is Twining's Lady Grey decaf'd, so is slow to tip over the edge.

My 2 cents.

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My opinion: Thanks Phyll. It does seem that some very worthwhile discussions are taking place in the Universe of Blog, which also provides opportunity to include photos, etc. I'll have a look as soon as time permits.

Meanwhile, like Lew, I've been drinking tea tea to the exclusion of other "teas" for the most part, but realize that this is not a necessary attachment. I was recently introduced to rose tea, replete with rose petals. Only the most arrogant corner of my mind rejected the taste. I hated the rose petals in red tea just as my mouth and nose were enjoying them hugely. So, who am I to get in the way of my nose's pleasures?

Michael