Red Rose Tea

Hi Betty, how about blending your own rose tea ? Just get some dried rose buds and blossoms (pesticide free as opposed to many ready-mades) or better collect them yourself, dry and mix them with a tea of your choice and enjoy ! In some of the readily available rose teas the buds have been already mixed in during the final manufacturing steps (firing, ...) and/or synthetic (yuck) rose oil has been added but I'd just give it a try, did it myself some years ago (buds from the garden + Keemun) and liked it a lot.

Just my 2ct, Karsten / Darjeeling (back to the hotel and a pot of Thurbo 2nd DJ)

Hi, Karsten.

Thanks for your reply, but Red Rose is a brand name; there aren't actually any roses in it, just black tea.

Betty.

I have noticed pretty much the same thing about Red Rose tea. Right now I am drinking Tetley British Blend (with lemon and sugar) when I am not drinking the good Chinese tea. I consider tea with lemon and sugar a "comfort food" even though Swee-Touch-Nee tea was all I ever has for years.

WEL

I've had the same experience with Red Rose. I thought it was just me. I drank it for years, because it always made a strong, flavorful cup. But lately it does seem to be pretty lifeless. I agree with you about Tetley British Blend. I stocked up on it the last time my local supermarket had it on sale. I don't like it as much as the Indian teas like Taj Mahal, but it is ideal for brewing a single cup - not too strong, not too weak. Lately this is what I've been drinking all the time at work.

"Pat" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

Hi Betty,

Have you ever thought about trying the Taj Mahal that Pat mentions? It's strong & flavorful (maybe too much for some American tastes), and available in the Middle Atlantic states (at many Indian/Pakistani markets and some Russian ones -- of course if you can't get to any of these ethnic sources conveniently, the point is moot.) Goes well with milk & sugar or honey, and accepts chai spices gratefully :-) . If you do elect to try it, use a large cup to brew it so as to make the taste a little less strong -- there is a lot of Asssam tea in each bag.

Ozzy

Mpfhh, guessing too loud again ...

I have never heard of it before. There is an Indian market nearby. I will check and see if they have it and give it a try. Will also try Tetley British Blend - I know for sure I can get that. I never tried it because I don't care for the regular Tetley much, but maybe this will be better. We'll see which one I like better. I am still a little sad about ending my "relationship" with Red Rose. As I mentioned before, I have strong emotional ties to this brand and it is like saying goodbye to an old friend. But I guess it is time to move on. Thanks for your help.

That's OK. This is what I was talking about:

Pretty soon you will be glad to end that relationship, Taj Mahal, Lipton yellow label, PG Tips, Typhoo, Twinnings, Tazo, or even Republic of Tea are all great leaps in quality from Red Rose. Even so, these teas that I've listed are still just the bottom rung in quality of tea... and a great start into appreciating a little better tea. All of the teas that I listed are also fairly redily available.

You'll never look back.

- Dominic Drinking: "Beauty" oolong

Dominic T. wrote: , Taj Mahal,

Dominic,

How would you rank the teas that you mentioned? Do you consider them all to be more or less equal in quality?

Personally, I would rank Taj Mahal, Lipton Yellow Label, PG Tips and Typhoo as more or less equal in quality - and would recommend the Taj Mahal and Lipton over PG and Typhoo for those in the US, simply because they are much cheaper.

Twinings, Tazo, and RoT are generally considered to be higher quality than the others you mentioned, although this, like everything in tea, is open to debate. Twinings is the only one I would bother with out of these three. Tazo and RoT are outrageously overpriced, IMO. And while RoT does have a lot of limited edition teas, I think most of their blends fall into the mass-market category, though they would never admit that. Granted, they do use whole and broken leaves as opposed to CTC. But most of their selections are fruit-flavored, which I don't like. Their British Breakfast and Earl Greyer are good, but not worth the money they are asking for them. They don't taste any better to me than Twinings does.

Just wondering what your thoughts were.

Red Rose isn't actually a rose tea. It's a low-grade CTC, probably mostly low-altitude Ceylon teas in the blend. Mostly sold for iced tea use in the US. It's very light, about as much as Lipton's but without quite as much of the bitterness up front.

--scott

Well I pretty much agree with you, except that the average US tastes tend to not like Taj Mahal at first... it is a little different than what they are used to if they only drink Lipton/Red Rose/Tetly/etc. So me personally I would say my ranking goes: Taj Mahal, PG Tips, Republic of Tea, Lipton Yellow label, Tazo, Typhoo, then Twinnings. But I think for the OP and most American tastes it would go: PG Tips, Lipton Yellow Label, Tazo, Republic of tea, Twinnings, and Typhoo.

I think Republic of Tea can be pretty decent and while high priced is as close as many Americans get to quality tea and one of the few teabag teas I can palate without anything added like sugar or honey on its own merit as I do with my loose teas. I find Tazo to be basically junk. I'm also no Twinnings fan, and people in my office didn't like my Typhoo, but they all love PG Tips, and they are straight teabag squeezing US Lipton drinkers.

- Dominic Drinking: PG Tips w/honey (sore throat)