As long as you don’t dump it into Boston Harbour ( Harbor )!
There are quite a few of us, actually. Check out these stats.
We appear to be consuming 4% of the world’s tea to 6% for the UK.
Odd to me that tea is associated as a UK product and we’re discussing purchasing it from there as it obviously can’t be grown there; anyone know any good retail tea distributors from a producing nation? Better yet, anyone know who’s supplying their tea to the UK department stores and if they sell the same stuff cheaper under a different name?
I was able to confirm that it was Fortnum and Mason. Bromley I will be trying that site. She was also looking for Jackson of Picadilly which I have never heard of.
If you drink so much of it why do you make such a mess of it? I am still traumatised by my experiences with American tea (you’re better than the French though).
I don’t know of any retail sellers from tea growing nations, but the Fairtrade brand is common here - and promises a fair price to the farmers etc.
How can you screw up tea? You put a bag in hot water. Is there something I’m missing? I can even do loose tea.
How do they screw it up? No idea. If I did I’d let them know. But if I had to hazard a guess:
Firstly I think they use pretty crap tea (Liptons is the big seller over there and I haven’t seen that in Britain in years).
Secondly I don’t think they use boiling water, just hot water
Thirdly they may put the milk in first (chaps, this is a schoolboy error)
And finally there maybe something wrong with the milk (is UHT common over there?)
It is the simplest of tasks, but they do royally bugger it up. And don’t get me started on ICED tea.
Mind you, we can’t make pizza. We boil it.
You have mentioned it in your own question. It is not hot but** boiling** water that should be used . And you are supposed to let it brew ( infuse ) for five minute, especially if it is made in a tea-pot.
Every restaurant I’ve ever ordered tea in has screwed it up. Generally the problem is that they give you a tea bag and a pot of lukewarm water. You have to make tea with boiling hot water, right off the stove. It should still be bubbling when you pour it over the tea leaves (or tea bag, if that’s what you’re using). If you use water that’s not hot enough, not matter what you do, your tea will come out like dishwater.
I can’t help thinking that the cultures that started tea drinking and which still cultivate the plants would think all of us were screwing up the process. I never see milk or sugar served at an East Asian restaurant.
It’s also my understanding that oolong and green teas, at least, aren’t supposed to be boiled.
In India, people will think you’re crazy if you ask for tea any other way than with milk and sugar. And if you ask for lemon, they’ll laugh in your face. Of course, Indians generally drink only black tea, not green tea or oolong.
I am not a big fan of Lipton’s either. For my buy in bulk orange pekoe I go with Tetley (for iced tea also) but I usually drink Earl Grey (twinnings).
My experience is just the opposite. Who ever I am with is usually done with their coffee before my tea has cooled off enough for me to start sipping without the room of my mouth peeling off. I don’t use milk so I don’t cool it off that way.
I have never, never seen this. I would have noticed. I don’t drink coffee and I don’t use milk in my tea. I have never ordered tea and been served it with milk already in it.
What is UHT? Most of the time they bring those little containers of half and half. You have to ask specifically for milk and then it is usually whole milk. Mad cow is extra. Like I said I don’t use milk. I used to when I was a child but somewhere down the line the thought of hot or warm milk gives me the willies. I drink it black or with lemon. And very strong.
OK I won’t. I want to, but I won’t.
Thats ok, not everybody here knows how to make pizza. Some people think it’s ok to put pineapple on it.
UHT = Ultra High temperature - ie sterilised rather than pasteurised. It’s the foul stuff that come in those little pots you get in places like fast food gaffs.
It’s the devil’s work.
You mean like Parmalat? In any restaurant (not fast food) that I have been in, if you ask for real milk you can get it.
I don’t know what Parmalat is (other than a huge Italian comapny that has just had an Enron type implosion).
In short UHT is milk that doesn’t need refrigeration - so it gets used in things like train buffet cars etc.
It’s poor stuff.
Nitpick - UHT on dairy products = Ultra Heat Treated.
Looks like we are thinking of the same thing. I’m surprised you don’t know it by that name. The first time I saw it was when I was stationed in Europe about 15 years ago and it was always under the Parmalat brand name. When I heard about their financial troubles I thought it was probably because their milk was so awful.
It certainly looks like we’re talking about the same stuff.
Parmalat went bust as they were basically corrupt from top to bottom (and bear in mind this is corrupt by ITALIAN standards!)
They’re not a brand that we see in the UK. If they’re known for anything over here it’s owning Parma football club (which is just as stuffed now).
Paramalat is what the US Army bought by the truck load. A brand of milk that they could store without refrigration must have seemed like a miracle to them. This was in Germany around 1990. I had never seen anything like it in the states. After I returned home I did begin seeing it but it has never been too popular. Dairy farms are pretty common throughout the country, so the need isn’t there.
I think you’ve hit the nail here. I read an article some years ago that talked about tea in the U.S., and it stated that suppliers send the good stuff elsewhere and what’s left over (“tea dust”) is sent here. No freakin’ wonder it tastes like crap.
Sure, in South Asia you get what we call “chai.” But East Asia holds the additives for the most part; for one thing people seem to have a general aversion to dairy products, at least used the same way we do.