So I drink a fair amount of tea to combat my self-diagnosed narcolepsy.
I like a wide variety of tea.
But . . . in restaurants, offices, hotels . . . I disproportionately find that they offer (a) plain old Lipton/Tetley, which is fine; OR
(b) if there’s a broader assortment, it will skew away from caffeinated tea, or at least from regular caffeinated tea.
I’ve probably been in five restaurants in the last few months where the tea selection included three or four herbal teas, and for caffeinated at most, Earl Grey. Now, I don’t mind bergamot, but it’s an acquired taste and Earl Grey is not always my tea of choice. Or, in lots of offices, the only, or one of the only, caffeinated versions will be that fruity/perfumy “Constant Comment” stuff.
Are more people than I think devotees of herbal tea only?
Are fewer people than I think interested in plain old (English Breakfast, Assam, Ceylon, call it what you will) black tea, and more than I think interested in the perfumed stuff?
Well, I buy Earl Grey because I like just being able to drink tea without needing milk/sugar to make it drinkable. I don’t care for breakfast tea because it’s too bitter.
This may accidentally answer your herbal tea question as well. “If the tea that I drink is not too rough then I don’t have to put sugar (which I try to avoid) in it.” I’ve never said something like that, but I can imagine it pretty easily.
I like black tea, but I don’t like Lipton much, especially hot. Thing is, Lipton’s got the black tea market so cornered, I think, that most people (in the States, at least) don’t think that there is anything else as far as tea is concerned. So, in a restaurant, hotel, etc., I would probably pick the herbal tea over Lipton. Maybe that skews the results. In fact, I don’t even usually order hot tea in restaurants, because I’m likely to be disappointed. I will order tea in Chinese restaurants, but of course, that’s green tea.
My favorite black tea is Red Rose, which I’ve never seen in a restaurant, and I don’t always see in the supermarket. That’s what I drink at home, though–and what my mother, sister, and sister’s husband drink.
I’ve always wondered if my tea preferences were out of whack, because you do see Earl Grey a lot, and I’d pick Lipton before I’d ever drink Earl Grey. Bleah.
Part of the problem is that most people in the US prefer coffee over tea, and many of those who do drink tea instead of coffee do it for various health reasons, be it to avoid the caffeine or because of the supposed health benefits of green teas.
If you’re lucky you get a Twinings assortment. If not, limp bags of Lipton and about a dozen fru-fru herbals. Bleh!
I’ll try not to go into a tea snob rant about how tea only comes from the Camellia sinensis plant, and peppermint, camomile, rose hips, and whatever else you use to pollute a perfectly good cup of hot water are tisanes.
Well, I can’t promise to try. But I’ll try to try.
Ceylon is of course still the standard, AFAIK. I gave up on herbal/flavored teas when one day I realized that the tea people are just randomly picking plants out of a hat now (I mean turnip tea and raspberry tea I can reluctantly accept, but no, not that banana and onion tea).
I usually pick out a tea a week. This month I started out with darjeeling, followed with iron buddha, gorged myself on berber whiskey* last week, and right now am sipping a cup of some blend my parents picked up when they were in Norway last month. They had to smuggle it into Australia inside a baggy, and without the original packaging none of us has any idea what the hell it is. Strong stuff, though. It’s 3am right now.
*is fancy Moroccan term for saying Really, Really Thick and Sweet Mint and Green Tea. I like going half and half. Google tells me it’s usually taken with a lot of sugar, so unless you’re a Splenda junkie like myself it’s probably not in your best interest to have this everyday.
I usually avoid ordering tea from restaurants just because most of them just Don’t Get It. I don’t want one little wimpy tea bag to make 2 cups of tea. I want a whole pot, dammit, and don’t make it weak, either! When they ask, “Do you want more hot water?”, I just want to retort, “What for, if I can’t have more teabags?”. Bleah. I’ll make my own at home. Mmm…Lady Grey, maybe?
I usually avoid ordering tea out because, in addition to the 1 bag for 2 cups, they often give you water for 1 1/2 and no place to put the bag when you’re done steeping. I have a real hatred for keeping the bag in while you drink it. Other tea at restaurants peeves include: getting those little half and half cups instead of milk (way to heavy for tea) and the grosses of all, hot water that’s been heated in a coffee pot and, thus, tastes like coffee.
Put me on the list of frustrated tea drinkers in America: I contend that the best way to drink most varieties of Lipton is to merely show the bag to the water – that way there’s no danger of it becoming immensely bitter.
I like Earl Grey, but unfortunately have developed an allergy to Bergemont.
When most people think tea, they seem to think Herbal and Decaf. WHY? WHY? WHY?
I like Oolong, Breakfast Teas (English or Irish, though I prefer Irish-- more body), Darjeeling and black Jasmine blends.
I like to sometimes dabble in Camomile, and the Zinger line from Celetial Seasonings. And though I really like most of the Republic of Tea Black Tea Blends, especially the Mango, I find it way to expensive to indulge in.
So, at a restaurant my tendency is to just order coffee with desert and let it pass. I’ve grown tired of trying to explain tea to people who can’t get enough coffee.
In December, I’ve been known to work at a tea shop at the local Dickens / Christmas festival, and the basic black tea there was PG Tips I found it odd that our black tea was genuine British tea, our Jasmine was a wonderfully fragrant specialty blend that we had a dickens (heh!) of a time obtaining and keeping in stock and our orange spice was Lipton.
As for teas here at work, I’ve got about 15 to pick from - plain ol’ Lipton black and green teas, plus Bigelow and Twinings ranging from decaf herbal on up to English Breakfast and Darjeeling.
Here’s some advice on making tea, including essays from such English luminaries as George Orwell and Douglas Adams.
To me, most bag tea tastes flat regardless of what fragrant junk they put in there to try to give it some kind of flavor. However, Mighty Leaf makes some damn good bag tea. The only bottled stuff I’ve found to drink is Honestea (I tried linking but it crashes Firefox, damnit). Don’t talk to me about Snapple; that stuff is more sugar than tea.
As for the OP, I think the reason flavored and herbal “tea” is so popular is because the standard teas that are available, like Lipton and Nastea, are just plain bad. Tetley is marginally drinkable, but I daresay that most Americans have never had a good cup of tea, either hot or (especially) iced. There’s a coffeeshop in Hollywood which I sometimes patronize while waiting for a movie which charges and extraordinary amount for iced tea ($3.25 as I recall), but it’s such bloody good tea, brewed from actual leaves, damnit (instead of sidewalk sweepings) that I shell out for it once in a while. Oddly, they don’t stock loose leaf for hot tea; it’s back to the bag stuff, in which case it’s Earl Grey or Irish Breakfast Tea for me.
I actually like Lipton’s Earl Grey and prefer it to Twining’s. The bergamot is a bit too pungent in Twining’s for my taste, even though they “invented” the stuff.
Quite a few of my UK friends swear by PG Tips, but I can’t understand that.
Fruity tea is terrible. If I want tea, I want the taste of tea - not strawberies or apples.
Here’s the site for Stash Tea. I got it from this board last year and gave it a try. Since then they’ve gotten my business.
At work I do my tea thing in the early morning when nobody’s looking. When people see you making tea they seem to brand you a “tea snob.” Geez.
One thing I’ve learned about using loose tea and an individual cup infuser…follow the directions. When they say 3 to 5 minutes, keep it to that. Longer steeping doesn’t make it better. It makes it bitter.
When in doubt, lean over and sniff it. If it smells ready it is ready.
Oh come now! I’m sure you and I are not the only ones to have a tea shop in our towns (or available online).
My mom grew up in India, so I’ve definitely got a taste for heavily miled/sugared tea, but my favorite teas are those that I can enjoy without all that (Earl Grey being one of the more obvious).
I do have to admit that I’ve had a hard time coming to love green tea. Most of the green tea I’ve had (even from ‘specialty’ shops) is just too bland. What’s green tea supposed to taste like?
Green tea is generally bitter with a very delicate flavor, hence the tendancy to add jasmine or other fruity flavors to it. (Nothing wrong with this, actually, so long as it is done to offset the bitterness, not cover it up.) Not sure what to tell you about it; some people just don’t like it. I’m not an expert on teas (sadly, a topic on which I have yet to read up on) but I assume this has something to do with the short period of oxidation relative to oolong and black teas.
Enough people are interested in real tea here in Lexington such that we’ve got a pretty nice tea room. Their menu changes every month as does the tea-unfortunately they only offer one at a time, but it’s quite good. There used to be a lovely place in Perryville but the tearoom portion of the business closed so they could expand their retail sales. You can order their teas online at the Elmwood Inn site. They’re excellent in my opinion. Plus the owner is a very nice fellow.
Green teas have a delicate flavor that may be tough to get used to. I tend to like the more strongly flavored green teas, like gunpowder (a smokey flavor) and genmai (has roasted rice and tastes kinda nutty). I started drinking green tea for health reasons and now I’m addicted (6-8 cups a day). Another thing to keep in mind is that green tea usually only needs to seep for 2-3 minutes compared to black teas. Many people let it seep too long and then complain about the bitterness.
Well personally I can’t get out of bed in the morning without having a very strongly brewed black cup of English or Irish Breakfast tea, with one sugar. I love the dark teas, but at night I sometimes have a Peppermint tea - good for the digestion and I like the taste. Nothing but Twinings for me.
I also like all of the Twinings line, but a favourite of mine is something they don’t have: Pu-Erh Tea. It is Chinese, but it’s not green tea. Most definitely not. Quite similar to black tea, actually, only, uhm, unique. The first time I tried it I thought it tasted of mud, but now I like it!
Kudos to Mrs Aruns for making me try it, and for insisting that I tried it again after I went “Bleah”.
