Has anyone here compared British/Irish tea to the Tazo brand they sell at Starbucks? It’s what I drink, and I can’t stand Lipton, either. I’ve never had a foreign brand, though.
[QUOTE=Chronos]
The strength of the tea is part of it, but not all. I can make American tea that’s just as strong as British tea, by steeping it longer, or using more. This does get more of the tea flavour, which would be good, but it also gets enough tannin to make it nearly undrinkable. I don’t know whether this means that the good tea has less tannin, or more of the other things, but it’s a definite difference.
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Oddly enough, I was going to mention the exact opposite experience. Now, I’ve had “British” upscale teas, and while I don’t know their provenance they were both strong and flavorful.
However, every time I’ve had “regular” British or Irish tea that was the real thing they consume over there, it’s been too strong without enough flavor. Whereas if I steep regular old American tea a very long time, I get really strong tea…that still has some flavor to it. Even regularly-steeped British and Irish teas are so astringest I can barely drink them.
We drink Lyon’s Tea at home and occasionally Bewley’s Tea, of which there’s a variety of types I think. I’ve seen Lyon’s Tea in an import store in Connecticut.
These tea connaisseur threads really are an “only on the Straight Dope” phenomenon for me. I’m bemused by all this earnest discussion of such a mundane beverage. I don’t care if you bring me a cup of tea made from leaves picked by Assamese virgins, brewed in precisely temperature-controlled water from a Himalayan mountain stream… at the end of the day, it’s just a cup of tea. There’s a limit to how good it’s going to be. It’s not champagne, FFS.
So how dark is a nice, strong cuppa? I think I’ve never liked tea because it always tasted like hot water with a pinch of some mild flavor. Help this benighted Seppo out!
I like the way my Pakistani neighbor made tea. She boiled milk and water on the stove with a handful of tea leaves, then strained it into cups. It was nummy.
[QUOTE=MonkeyMensch]
So how dark is a nice, strong cuppa? I think I’ve never liked tea because it always tasted like hot water with a pinch of some mild flavor. Help this benighted Seppo out!
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Depends on the tea. When I make tea, though, it’s anything but mild. One of my favorite teas is Good Earth Chai tea which is actually fairly spicy. Especially how I make it. I actually had a friend once need a cup of water to wash it down with because it made her eyes water.
[QUOTE=OpalCat]
I like the way my Pakistani neighbor made tea. She boiled milk and water on the stove with a handful of tea leaves, then strained it into cups. It was nummy.
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When I was six, before school I’d go over to a classmate’s house. Her family had immigrated from South Africa and were of Chinese descent. Her mother used to make us these huge mugs of tea & milk that had the most aromatic, almost meaty, flavor. She brewed it in a big pot on the stove. All my life, I’ve been searching for tea that tasted like that and I’ve never been able to figure out what kind it was. I can still smell it, though, when I think about it.
[QUOTE=mjg6]
But making ‘real’ tea involves all that boiling, pre-heating the pot, tea cosy, etc… not worth the effort these days.
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You’re kidding? It takes no time. Put the kettle on, swish out the pot with boiling water, toss in tea, put kettle back on to bring up to the boil again. Pour in teapot. It’s just as easy to make a pot as it is to make a cup… it takes only a few seconds to hot the pot.
[QUOTE=MonkeyMensch]
So how dark is a nice, strong cuppa? I think I’ve never liked tea because it always tasted like hot water with a pinch of some mild flavor. Help this benighted Seppo out!
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That’s my problem with eastcoastofthepond’s teas, but in reverse. When I brew them to the same darkness of American teas, they are pretty freakin strong. If you think American teas are too weak you might want to check the others out. (However, my opinion is that they are stronger, but not more flavorful, if you catch my drift.)
[QUOTE=Usram]
There’s a limit to how good it’s going to be. It’s not champagne, FFS.
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Ah, but there’s no limit to how bad it can be 
Mosier does Tazo do anything but flavoured teas? I’ve only noticed mulberry/cinnamon/blackcurrant/etc. in stores, but nothing I’d call regular tea.
cherry, welcome to regional dialects. You should not expect non-tea drinkers to realize that the real name of regular black tea is orange pekoe. All they hear is “orange” so they bring you weird fruity stuff. Next time just ask for regular tea, and you’ll get a lousy bag of Lipton
Right, all I’ve got in my pantry is Tetley and some loose leaf Keemun, so it’s off to get some Earl Grey for me.
All this talk of electric kettles… What’s wrong with boiling water on the stove in a regular kettle?
And nobody seems to have really said much about PG Tips other than that it’s a bit expensive and something about chimpanzees. Just wondering as that’s what I buy to drink, and I save the Lipton sawdust for when I want to tea-dye fabric.
Electric kettles are the bomb. They’re fast as heck, you’ve always got 'em on the counter, they can be stylish, etc…
I don’t need yet another thing cluttering up my counter.
[QUOTE=GorillaMan]
Milk is another problem. Note, milk. Not cream, not half-and-half. Whole or semi-skimmed milk is needed.
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I’ve never seen the point of adding milk to tea. I have the same objection to it as Orwell had to sugar (a point on which I have learned to follow his advice and enjoy it).
For me it’s very much the same as adding it to coffee. It cuts a certain bitterness, and it adds a richness. For the most part, it tastes better that way.