When I first visited friends in England, I discovered something I had never known about myself - I like tea. I guess I had never known this because I’m an American, and we make awful tea. You can go into any coffee shop in the US and get the most complicated coffee drinks, prepared with a French press with exquisite care, hand whipped cream, etc. But if you ask for a cup of tea, what do you get? A teabag and a cup of lukewarm water to dip it in! I’m excited about Tim Hortons expanding into the US, as they are supposed to be bringing their brewed tea with them.
So I didn’t know the joys of a properly brewed cup of tea until my wife and I visited our friend Peter and Krys. After we returned, I set about making a Proper Cup of Tea. I posted on the old Usenet group rec.foods.drink asking for advice, igniting a flame-war. I had no idea how passionate people were about when you put the milk in the cup - before you pour the tea in, or after. And the milk/no milk schism - Catholic versus Protestant has nothing on this crowd. More like Sunni versus Shia.
Assembling a set of “tea things” in the US is not easy either. You can find a kettle easily enough, but an actual, functional teapot is a bit more difficult. And I spent a day trying to find a tea strainer. All sorts of useless “tea balls” and other sorts of doo-dads were available to keep the tea from doing what it is supposed to do.
Anyway, I split my time between Chicago and Kansas City. The last tea I purchased in Chicago was some Brooke Bond Red Label. I ran out, and bought some Lipton tea. Looking at the Lipton, I’m shocked to see stems. The Brooke Bond was all small leaves, and when I empty the pot afterward, the leaves would have bloomed to ten times their original size. The Lipton had a much weaker flavor, and doesn’t appear to have bloomed to anywhere near the same size.
Did I just get a crappy batch of Lipton, or is their product consistently mediocre?
Full Disclosure: I’m in the milk and two sugars camp. Milk in the cup before, sugars after. Actually, since I’m on the Atkins diet (lost 30 lbs so far) my “milk” is cream, and the “sugar” is Splenda.
Lipton is the typical American tea, which is just another proof that, as you said, Americans don’t know good tea. Like many other American products, it’s not out-and-out terrible, but it’s consistently mediocre. I’ll drink it if offered out of courtesy, but I’d never choose it on my own. Bigelow or Celestial Seasonings is significantly better, though still far inferior to what you’ll see in the British Isles (at least, as far as proper tea goes-- They both make some very nice herbals).
The best tea I’ve found in the US is Stash. It’s more expensive than Lipton, of course, but really, when you get down to it, any kind of tea is pretty cheap, when you look at the price per serving and compare to other beverages.
Especially loose tea compared to teabags. The box of Brooke Bond lasted for a month making a pot nearly every day and cost three dollars or so. I can’t believe the additional hassle of running the tea through a strainer is such a pain that it’s worth the dramatic mark-up of a box of teabags. I’ll look for Stash, although I may just buy a couple more boxes of the Brooke Bond when I return home to Chicago. It’s not hard to buy European/UK products in Chicago - any brands I should keep an eye out for?
I’m a big fan of Harney and Sons English Breakfast tea. You can find it online, or in some specialty stores. Their other blends are very tasty if you enjoy other tea types, such as green or flavored. I’ve had mixed results with Stash teas, they are better than Lipton but not that hot.
I swear, we should have another tea exchange on the boards!
Lipton’s is close to undrinkable. And the habit of making it with sub-boiling water…
I’m a Yorkshire Tea man myself. And I would suggest stopping with the Splenda. I used to be 2 sugars in my tea (with skimmed milk) and as soon as I stopped I started tasting the tea. Now, if I stir my cup with a spoon that has previously been used to stir sugared tea, I can’t drink mine because all I taste is the sugar.
Lipton’s is truly the Budweiser of tea. I like Twinings myself.
By the way – anyone who likes tea should definitely check out the song “T.U.S.A.” by Masters of Reality. Basically, it’s a poem by Ginger Baker about the inability of Americans to make tea. The lyrics are great, but you really have to hear his delivery.
I am not British but many Brits have made me tea. The arguments surrounding the preparation always reminds me of the ketchup/no ketchup on hot dogs debate.* If you take your tea seriously this is going to give you a heart attack - go sit over there with the hot dog people and take your angina medication.
I put a tea bag (Twinings English Breakfast is my personal, every day preference - I know there’s better tea on this planet but I can readily find Twinings at the grocery store) in a coffee mug** and fill it up about 7/8 of the way with water. I put the mug in the microwave and set it on high for 3 minutes. When the microwave dings, I light up a cigarette. Five to eight minutes later, I use a spoon to squish the teabag against the side of the mug to squeeze out all the caffeinated goodness. I add at least one (but sometimes three - depends on my level of sleep deprivation) spoons of sugar and stir til it dissolves (that’s the big reason milk-first purists are full of it - I hate sugar sludge). Then I add milk (I prefer whole but generally drink 2%, so…) til the mug has a mug full. If I have some really good looseleaf tea (like that stuff some lovely friends sent me from Bath some time ago) I’ll forgo the microwave and use a kettle.
Whoa, did you hear that thud? Commonwealth types are dropping like flies. I don’t care. To my palate the stuff I make is perfectly fine - often better, in fact, because when I make my tea I can’t see the bottom of the cup. If you want to go through the whole kettle-teapot-fancytea ritual that’s fine, but - as far as I’m concerned, at least - it doesn’t make a signifcant amount of difference in the actual flavor.
If I drank the stuff straight up and compared it to fine wine instead of, y’know,
perhaps I’d have a different opinion, but I like my tea very strong with sugar and milk.
In my opinion, there are only three real things that make a difference when it comes to tea:
Boiling water. That’s why tea at American joints sucks ass. The water may well have been boiling when it was poured into that stupid little steel pot, but by the time the waitress brings it out you can take a bath in it. Result? Warm water the color of grampa’s upper plate soaking glass - the one who chewed Copenhagen.
You’ve read HHGttG, yes? Douglas Adams must have visited the US and tried either Liptons or…what’s that other crappy supermarket brand? Bigelow’s? Are they the ones who make that Constant Comment shit? Anyhow, GIGO. Avoid.
Your tongue. Make it how you like it. If a guest faints at the way you make tea, guess what the guest’s job is going to be for the rest of the vacation?
*It’s a fucking hot dog. Chillax!
**When Folgers coffe came out with their teabag things I gave them a shot and made the mistake of adding the bag to the just-out-of-the-nuker mug. Oops.
Are there specific UK items you’re looking for? You can find the stereotypical stuff like Marmite, Heinz Baked Beans, Weetabix, Branston Pickle, HP sauce, devon cream, treacle, golden syrup, etc., at places like Meijer, Treasure Island, and (I think, although I’m not positive on this last one) Whole Foods. You can also find a wide variety of cheeses, there, too, although the selection is better at Treasure Island and Whole Foods than Meijer, in my experience.
Plus, there’s British Accents up in Long Grove, IL (far NW suburbs) that seems to specialize in British foods, but I’ve never been there.
We have thistea pot, if you’re still looking for one. Very serviceable. I also suggest an electric kettle and a good tea pot cozy.
As for tea, we drink Frontier’s English Breakfast (it’s a natural products co-op…you can usually get that brand at health food stores or Whole Foods). In a pinch, we get PG Tips, which they have at our local grocery store.
My husband is Australian and he drinks tea like it’s going out of style. When we stay at his mum’s house, it’s ridiculous how much tea we drink.
I stay away from Lipton Orange Pekoe; it’s really terrible tea. Luckily, in recent years, American supermarkets have started to carry some good teas – Bigelow, Twinings, Stash. Our is also selling PG Tips from the UK.
Lipton’s flavored green and white teas in the pyramid bag are quite good, though.
Of course, it’s hard to get loose tea. But places like Teavana do sell it in bulk. Pretty good, and they have some nice tea accessories – teapots, strainers, etc. I got one of their “Perfect Tea makers” – a combination of teapot and strainer and it’s great to use at the office.
I’ve looked at Whole Foods. No luck there. I should look into Treasure Island and Meijer.
I’m able to find digestive biscuits, PG Tips and some other stuff at World Market. They are not very fresh, however: many of the items are either very close to or already past the expiry date. I’m still searching for a source for jaffa cakes.
If we’re going into procedures, I generally boil a cup of water (either on the stove or in a microwave, doesn’t matter, depending on what I have available) and add a teabag (I have a strainer, but can never find looseleaf). Stir in a teaspoon of sugar or honey, and wait until I can’t see the spoon at the bottom of the mug. Toss the bag, and enjoy.
Since I prefer mine without milk (it masks the flavor of the tea itself), I take no stand on whether it should be added first or last, but I also don’t get snobbish about anyone who does prefer milk.
Oh, and while (as I said) I’m no big fan of Lipton’s, it is far from the worst tea possible. That dubious honor would go to United Food Services, the stuff they have in the cafeteria here. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were made entirely of oak leaves-- There’s no flavor whatsoever in it other than tannin.
I’ll keep a look out for you. The Meijer off I-355 and Boughton in Bolingbrook has a section of its foreign foods isle dedicated to British foods. The Treasure Island in Hyde park has maybe two or three shelves’ worth of stuff.
Not really though. In my experience the vast majority of cups made in the UK are made in a similar fashion - although since electric kettles are ubiquitous the microwave isn’t used very much.
At work I have an electric kettle at my desk and a 16-oz mug from Target. I have an infuser very similar to this: infuser into which I spoon my tea, using this: really adorable tea spoon.
I’m surprised I like milk in tea, to be honest. I like my coffee strong and black (bitter is better!), and it wasn’t until I was introduced to cafe Cubano in SoFlo that I even thought about adding sugar.
A couple of years later I had my first “real” tea (straight up, of course - back then I drank French roast by the gallon) and I wasn’t exactly impressed - I thought it was lacking something - body or mouth feel or “oomph”. I kept upping the steep time but all that did was screw with the acid. I wouldn’t swear to this on a stack of bibles, but I’m pretty sure that when I was a teenager I read something in a Reader’s Digest Condensed Book (Catherine Cookson?) about sugar and milk turning tea into “a meal in a mug” and it was that memory which caused me to adulterate my tea, just to try. Took the flavors to a whole new level. For me, at least - De gustibus non est disputandum, as they say.
Hee, yeah, that’s why the whole “proper” bit confuses me. Most Brits I know or have seen on TV (granted, I don’t know THAT many, but still…) pour boiling water over a bag, wait, and add stuff (or not).
Not really though. In my experience the vast majority of cups made in the UK are made in a similar fashion - although since electric kettles are ubiquitous the microwave isn’t used very much.