I am a tea lover, a habit I picked up from my father, and most teas don’t come up to scratch for me. The reason is that I am looking for a specific flavor or aroma which is very hard to find or which only occurs inconsistently in some brews. My point of reference for this is the Canadian Red Rose Tea that I remember from my childhood, so as it tasted in the 80s and early 90s. At the time, it was touted by its commercials as an exquisite blend that was only available in Canada (see here, for example). And it was true, the tea really was good.
The flavor was strong and what I distinctly remember about it is an aroma or undertone that I can only compare to the faint aroma of sweet pipe tobacco.
Eventually, though, the brand was acquired by Unilever (and a separate American company, which still exists, established). Today, the Red Rose available in Canada is a completely generic tea. Nothing special about it.
Did Canadian Red Rose Tea still come as looseleaf circa 1992? At home as a rule, my father drank loose tea and for years I have assumed that was what I remember, but perhaps at the time, the bag tea was as good.
The closest I have been able to find to what I remember are: 1) certain Irish Breakfast Teas (e.g. Twinings’, but ONLY the looseleaf one); Dilmah’s Ceylon Supreme and English Breakfast Tea (only the loose one one and the one available in cafes, NOT the black tea sold to supermarkets). Twining’s (again looseleaf) Ceylon Orange Pekoe Tea may have some of this aroma, but is like a weaker version. At any rate, these listed teas are difficult to find or unavailable where I live and expensive to import.
Is there any record of how the original Canadian Red Rose Tea was blended before it became genericized? I have found information online that it was a blend of Ceylon, Assam, and Kenyan tea, but those categories are very broad; there are many more varieties, and different qualities of tea. Is there any way that this blend or its aroma could be replicated by blending specific tea varieties that might for example be available in tea shops selling loose tea?
Consider that you are older and your sense of taste and smell is likely not as good as it was in your younger years. There’s a pretty good chance that the Twinnings stuff is just as good as the old Red Rose.
I don’t have an answer, but a suggestion- order a wide variety of samplers from a reputable dealer. You can experiment with very bitter broken teas, to high end orange pekoe with a lot of flower. The tender pekoe leaves and flowers have a sweeter but milder taste. I’ve even tried all flower, no leaf at all. It was too floral for my taste. Irish blend tea is dirt cheap and packs the most bitter. Loose leaf teas from small tea shops are heavily marked up, you’d break the bank finding your blend.
My go-to is Upton Tea Imports. They do charge $40 flat to ship to Canada, but they’re the only vendor in this hemisphere that I will buy loose leaf from.
Yunnan Sourcing ships straight from China.They are very good, but I don’t get black tea from them often.
This reminds me: is there a tea merchant nearby that can do a custom blend for you?
My father smoked a pipe for most of his life. His favourite tobacco was a custom blend from a downtown tobacconist, who actually had Dad’s blend recipe on file. Every few months, Dad would go downtown, ask for his blend, and the tobacconist would blend it, right there, in front of him.
If a tea merchant has loose teas, perhaps they could do the same for you? It might take a few tries to get it exactly the way you want it, but it might be worth a shot.
I do know of a tea room where they make at least one of their own blends and it’s a different kind of tea that I also like very much, “Russian Caravan” (they make it from a certain Chinese tea variety, maybe Keemun or something similar, blended with smoked Lapsang Souchong tea). Perhaps if I described what I was looking for, they might be willing to consider it?
And if it as good as you remember, and if Red Rose’s name is not trademarked or copyrighted, then they may want to start making it in some more significant quantity and calling it Olde Original Red Rose Tea, even if its just targeting a nostalgia market.
That’s possible, but i was drinking some excellent Yunnan tea from … some coffee company that stopped selling tea, (maybe peets, before they rebranded their tea as “might leaf” and substantially changes their offerings) and I’ve bought a lot of other Yunnan teas trying to replace it, and i haven’t been satisfied. Then i found a 5 year old stash I’d brought to the office, and there it was, the flavor profile i remembered.
I’m now blending my own tea with part a generic yunnan from Rishi and part a pi lo chun from Simpson and Vail. Salt, Simpson and Vail stopped carrying biluochun (alternate name) but i found it from some other carrier, and theirs was actually a bit better. I’m currently working through my Simpson and Vail supply, though.
Even if you buy very expensive tea, it’s not all that expensive. And it’s kind of fun to buy a lot of teas and blend them. Of course, you can only do it with looseleaf tea.
@themapleleaf I’m not sure if you are in Toronto, but I would try something life https://sayteaonbloor.com/ in Bloor West Village. I haven’t been in for a while, but they are very knowledgeable and could likely provided a blend that matches. I also don’t recall RR coming in anything other than bags, but we weren’t a big tea household growing up.
There is a Reddit sub for tea you might read. I searched for Red Rose and noticed a few posts decrying the newer version so others seem to have the same experience as you.
Maybe I (or my father) conflated some other loose tea with Red Rose. Even so, I think Red Rose, be it loose or bag, was better ca. 1990 than it was after 2000.
For what it’s worth, my earliest memory of my father drinking tea is of him drinking one from a brass tin that had a brown tint and and an embossed elephant on it. I don’t know what brand it was but I vaguely recall trying it and it being rather bitter.
AFAIK Red Rose only ever came in tea bags. I don’t think it was ever sold as loose leaf.
'Fraid not. I now live in Prague. However, I will look into the shop you mention.
I had a few of those. Thanks, Grandma! She liked Red Rose, and she used to give the little figurines to my sister and I.
@themapleleaf , I’d second the suggestion of Say Tea on Bloor. I don’t know the establishment, but if they specialize in tea, are knowledgeable about teas sold in Canada (like Red Rose), and they ship overseas, then they may be able to help.
It sounds as if you are describing a lightly toasted tea. Try putting a little tea on some parchment paper and leaving it in the oven at about 200F for about 20 minutes. Then mix it in thirds with untoasted tea and see if it’s closer to what you are looking for. If so, then you’ll have to play with the process until it measures up.
There are people who toast teas for up to six hours, but they are usually starting with a green tea. The process above is more for refreshing a stale tea - which most teas are by the time we get them these days.
@Spoons - Great. I will look into Say Tea; perhaps they can help approximate what I’m thinking about.
@TruCelt - Didn’t know people roasted tea. That’s interesting. I wonder what that does to the flavor. The aroma I remember is basically a bit bitter but with this sweet undertone.