Re: Question for English tea drinkers

He is a pastor and would spend several months in England as an exchange pastor. He would pastor their church and they would come to the US to pastor his. I'm not sure where exactly he was when he was there.

I'm not so concerned with finding the exact tea he drank while there, as getting him something that is distinctly English.

Thanks,

Blues

Hi Blues,

Go and get some PG Tips tea bags then, that´s typical English. I´m sure, that there are loads of online English grocery stores or Indian (Asia) shops in the US which offer you those original PG Tips packs (one with 80 bags will do -- in England, it´s about 1.99 GBP). Put four or five bags in a pot, pour one litre hot boiling water over the bags, stir for one minute or less, remove the bags while sqeezing them for at least two seconds, serve the tea to your uncle with good, fresh, fat milk and he suddenly will believe, he´s back to England again.

Bye, Matthias.

I would love some suggestions on how best to give him a trip back to England in a tea cup.

Thanks, Blues

Hi Blues,

Go and get some PG Tips tea bags then, that´s typical English. I´m sure, that there are loads of online English grocery stores or Indian (Asia) shops in the US which offer you those original PG Tips packs (one with 80 bags will do -- in England, it´s about 1.99 GBP). Put four or five bags in a pot, pour one litre hot boiling water over the bags, stir for one minute or less, remove the bags while sqeezing them for at least two seconds, serve the tea to your uncle with good, fresh, fat milk and he suddenly will believe, he´s back to England again.

Bye, Matthias.

Apparently I have not kept up with the trends in England for the last time I was there, they would not think of using a tea bag! Miles

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Don't forget the biscuits for dunking :o)

Derek

Hi Miles,

They do it all! Also the famous Tea Rooms at the great hotels prepare their tea using tea bags now ... and why not? The PG Tips pyramid bags are really good, also the round ones made by Tetley or other bags you can find in the UK. Tey all are very much bigger and use better paper than the double-chamber bags with the string you´ll find outside the UK. As I travelled to Britain, my landlady prepared a traditional five´o´clock tea-time to welcome me. The tea there (served in nice porcelain) was the best I´d ever drunk before. So, first I didn´t believe that this was made from PG Tips tea bags which I was told by her later. I argued with her about tea quality and the disgusting habit of using tea bags (actually I tried it, because my English was

-- believe it or not --- much more worse than it is now). So while we argued, she wanted to test me and the day after she prepared tea from PG Tips loose leafs and also from bags ... and I failed the test, I didn`t recognize which one was better or which one was made from tea bags. I had to burry my prejudice about "using tea bags is just producing brown water but not tea". So, ´cause this tea was still the best I´ve ever drunk, I decided -- a little bit irritated -- to stay by the PG Tips bags. The second astonishment was, as I saw how the tea is prepared (I only knew the "a spoon full of tea per cup and one for the pot and let it infuse for 3 to 5 minutes"-method). From that time on, I do it in the "one-minute-stir-and-squeeze"-way. Later I saw, that other folks in the UK did it the same way, but mostly in a mug, not in a pot. They offer you "a cuppa" and a few moments later they serve you a mug with a very nice and strong tea. So I also learned to like Tetley very much. From this time on I drink my tea brewed from the nice tea bags of PG Tips and sometimes Tetley.

Bye, Matthias

Are you saying that some teabags in jolly old England do not contain virtual powder, that they actually contain decent tea which didn't make it to the final screen? Miles

Thanks for all the comments. I did find a local shop that has some Twinings of London loose and bagged tea. Is their tea any good?

Thanks, Blues

On 15 Jul 2003 10:12:48 -0700, ms snipped-for-privacy@web.de (Matthias Scholz) spoketh thusly.....:

Typhoo Tea (both loose and bagged) also makes a very robust cuppa.

Tee

Twinings has many many varieties. It seems to be universally available in the hotels that I have stayed in on the Continent and USA. I think this is because they do that flashy box thing where several varieties are all neatly stacked in their individually coloured sachets. I look for the "English Breakfast" and this has usually been OK.

It's hard to be definitive because in my opinion the taste of tea depends on the water (flavour and temperature) that it is made with. Some teas work better than others.

Mind you, when you are presented with a cup of water that is already off the boil you tend to treat the resulting beverage just as liquid and accept any taste that it has (accepting the horrible mint flavoured stuff I had to drink in Germany when they ran out of "Schwartz tee")

Derek

I think Twinings gets a lot of mileage from the Royal Seal that they've managed to obtain: "By Appointment of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.." In general, I've found that to be a pretty good indicator of quality of goods in general, but I'm sure there's a lot of horse trading and "donations" that go into awarding those seals. One time in Japan, someone saw me drinking a cup of Twinings and wondered why I, as an American, was drinking British tea. I guess this was unusual to him for some reason. I simply turned toward him and deadpanned that I had special permission from the Queen. He was satisfied and moved on.

Bert

"Miles" wrote

Apparently I have not kept up with the trends in England for the last time I was there, they would not think of using a tea bag!

I'm not surprised. After all, tea bags were invented and patented by the English.

(Yes, I know Americans prefer to think that tea bags were discovered by mistake by compatriotes. But, in my book, mistakes are just that, mistakes. Inventing is a volontary act.)

"blues Lyne" wrote

They are fine.

Their best is the "Vintage Darjeeling Tea". But this one is almost never sold in the US.

"English Breakfast", "Queen Mary" and "Earl Grey" are your best bet.

Stay away from the regular "Darjeeling Tea".

Twinning is selling a sampler box with six of their tea blends. Could be interresting if you want to try them before making your final choice.

Yep, PG Tips and Tetley bags contain the same tea you can buy as loose tea leafs. They don´t do this "the good tea for the loose tea and the crap for the bags"-thing. But Tetley as well as PG Tips are CTC Broken, so nearly Fannings, which says by the way nothing about the tea quality but only about the richness. It´s only because the Brits prefer a quicker brew.

Matthias

Here, in Canada, Twining is one of the most affordable tea you can buy (~6$CDN/100g). I would be very surprised if their Earl Grey was flavoured with anything but real bergamot oil.

Just to say how perceptions can differ...

I did pick up some Twinings loose English Breakfast tea. It's a good strong breakfast tea. I won't be seeing my uncle, I'll be sending him a package. I found a place in the US where I can order some PG Tips pyramid bags and some biscuits and such, so I think I'll do that. They also had some samplers from Ahmeds of London with nice packaging I could add also.

Thanks

Blues

Bagged stuff is a chemical additive.

Keith

As far as I am familiar with (german) food laws, especially the declaration orders, this does most probably mean 'artificial aroma', otherwise it would have said 'natural' or (at best) 'Bergamott-oel'. According to these orders strawberry aroma made from shredded wood can be called 'natural aroma' because its made from a plant ;o) no kidding...

All the best, Ralf

That´s right. The German law means:

- Bergamotte-Aroma = artificial bergamotte flavouring (chemical product, often waste products of the chemical and pharmaceutic industry).

- natuerliches Bergamotte-Aroma = flavouring made from (a) natural substance(s), e.g. wood, meat, plants, cotton etc. (strawberry flavouring (natuerliches Erdbeer-Aroma) is in fact made from wood; it is a waste product / by-product of the paper industry and is found in every strawberry yoghourt, ice etc., ´cause real strawberries aren´t aromatic enough and far too expensive).

- naturidentisches Bergamotte-Aroma = laboratory build molecules, which have chemically the same structure as the ones above, in fact a

- natuerliches Bergamotte-Oel = real natural oil of the bergamotte

Matthias

Well... germany is paradise for food-technicians ;o)