Best Tea

[NormanD]

Try it without sugar for a week. You'll never go back.

Yes, I did that, and it worked - 30+ years. Only after reading Orwell, though. Almost made me go off to fight Franco.

[howard male]

Adam wrote -

Try it without sugar for a week. You'll never go back.

Although I had sugar in my tea up until my late teens one of the worst things you can do to me now is put sugar in my tea - that first sip is a horrible shock of indescribable unpleasantness - I'd rather you just punch me on the nose.

Norman wrote -

I've heard the milk first/last debated as a class issue (half seriously), mainly along the lines of Con's "posh" considerations.

A Cup and saucer (though obviously not bone china, unless it was a Sunday or relatives were visiting) was always more working class when I was young. Mugs were never used, or even known about. Jam jars maybe, but then you'd really be on the skids.

I seem to recall mugs replacing tea cups from around the mid 70's onwards - maybe all those thick-necked thuggish mugs killed off all the dainty tea cups in the same way that the bigger grey squirrels killed off all the red squirrels.

I see the gradual introduction of mugs to the UK as being contemporary with duvets replacing blankets, and Chinese takeaways replacing Wimpy bars.

[Dominic]

I gave up sugar in tea and coffee in 1974 when there was a shortage.

My parents usually have loose India & China tea, a spoon or two of each in the pot. I assume the China always used to be Lapsang because visitors would comment (or complain) about its smokiness.

I have relaxed my lifelong coffee habit since my sister (an "Earl Girl") visited in the summer. I now have a double espresso when I get to work and a tall mug of Earl Grey in the afternoon. No teapot etiquette at Sterns World Cafe, just a tall mug of hot water, an organic teabag on a string and milk in last.

[Dayna]

Do you like herbal tea at all?

I like some type that is called Sleepy Time, wheich has a mixture of herbs like chammomile, that help you relax.

I have a lot of nights where I don't sleep good but tow cups of that feels like someone turned off the switch. I imagine it's better for you than sleeping pills.

[Rob Hall]

Try it without sugar for a week. You'll never go back.

Yes, I did that, and it worked - 30+ years. Only after reading Orwell, though. Almost made me go off to fight Franco.

I thought that you had fought against Franco. Another myth shattered.

[nikki akinjinmi]

I don't claim to know anything about what is the best tea, but I do know during a trip to Valrico, Florida I noticed there were quite a few tea shops providing things like vanilla tea, rose tea, redbush tea and numerous other flavours, and I was surprised how much I wanted what I would call an ordinary cup of tea, when rarely I drink the stuff at home. I can stomach Earl Grey, and regular tea but I don't know about the rest of it. But apparently tea shops were all the rage at the time, according to my friend.

[Gordon Neill]

Normand claimed:

Almost made me go off to fight Franco.

I don't think Charlie would approve of that sort of behaviour. Just because you didn't like his records, there's no need for violence. What next? A punch-up with Clodagh Rogers?

[Dayna]

I hope I can drink tea with you guys some day. I guess I'll have to learn to like it without sugar. LOL.

But, I like iced tea that is sweet, especially Southern sweet tea. That is the best.

[Rob Hall]

In my experience, when abroad and I want a cup ordinary tea, I find that most places do something called English Breakfast Tea which, while it may not be of the same industrial strength as PG Tips, is at least recognisable as the same thing: "it's tea Jim, but not as we know it".

[Adam Blake]

Just don't try it in the USA, is all...

Actually, to be fair, California's OK but New York and Seattle - forget it...

[tulsehill charlie]

Howard would clearly be provoked into a Ricky Hatton by this, but the most interesting cup of tea I've had lately was in a Malaysian cafe off Portobello Road (not Edinburgh). It was very strong and very sweet, made from evaporated milk and Ceylon tea poured from a great height. Very spicy - I thought there was something like cinammon added, but was assured that it was only the tea.

[Ted]

Almost made me go off to fight Franco.

I'd back you against Sam Mangwana, Norman, but Franco was quite a big bloke..

[c hristian]

So, is PG Tips drinkable for the American then? I try to stay away from industrial strength anything, as a rule, but these workgroup meetings that I webcast, with doctors going on and on about god knows what, compel me to drink huge amounts of coca cola and/or espresso to stay awake and alert.

Dayna, I used to drink Sleepytime stuff, and we still have them, but it's more my son than me. I don't need too much encouragement to nod off to sleep these days.

What would you suggest that is sold in the US approximates the tea, both fine and ordinary, that the UK drinks?

And finally, is there a tea store online (or in the Wash DC area) that you recommend?

It's funny. Lipton tea is sold in just about every grocery store and restaurant here. Having not known better, I would drink it, and it was, and is, you know, not extremely unpleasant, tastes vaguely like this taste I know that is called tea, and you know, is better than coffee any day. But then I saw this graduate student from India (workign at a university at the time) use 4 Lipton tea bags at once. My wife and I , we don't use that much, but we will usually use 2 Lipton teabags, and the result is in fact, quite pleasant. Something closer to what I describe as a "proper cup of tea". Mind you, I have loose tea leaves and a french press and all that. I do use it, and enjoy it very much, but you know how we over here are always in such a rush. And Wash DC is no exception to this. So loose tea is usually reserved for the weekends. Tea on the way to work is in bags.
Recently I've found tea bags in a circular tin, in Whole Foods (the leading supermarket chain over here of organic foods) called British Breakfast. I don't remember the company. It's one of the many teas here claiming that every person who is/was born and/or resides in the UK drinks exactly this. Who am I to disagree with this claim? Anyway, 1 bag of this makes for what I again describe as a "proper cup of tea". (It's strong and tasty enough to bring me my tea experience.)

I remember my first adult experience with loose tea. I got Twining Irish Breakfast. It was a beautiful taste and caffeine rush. I loved it.

I've had some "Russian Caravan" tea with a smoky flavour. That was wonderful too.

But as I remember back now, I tell you, the best tea in the world that I've had was made and served to me by my old college friends from Turkey. Let me tell you! If you have not yet tried Turkish tea, you DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE MISSING!! Run, don't walk to your closest Turkish restaurant and see if they prepare tea the traditional way! This stuff will knock you out!!! (I think sugar is optional , but I can't be sure anymore.)

[Dayna]

There was lady from India that made a cup of tea for me from loose tea. I don't know what kind it was, but it was good.

Still put some sugar in it though. Maybe I'm just a sugar addict or something. LOL

[Rob Hall]

So, is PG Tips drinkable for the American then? I try to stay away from industrial strength anything, as a rule, but these workgroup meetings that I webcast, with doctors going on and on about god knows what, compel me to drink huge amounts of coca cola and/or espresso to stay awake and alert.

PG Tips is the bulk-standard default tea over here. I'm trying to think of a clever comparison, but I can't. It's certainly not, in any sense, a "gourmet" tea experience. I'm not one, but I'm sure there are people who sneer at its even being considered a tea in the first place. You can get about 5 or 6 popular national brands of ordinary tea over here, and then there are lots of "own brand" labels. Plus, there's a handful of better quality brands of tea - Twinings, for example - who do a range of more exotic varieties. But, as with almost anything (such as music) there's no one "best" - it's all a matter of taste. My preference is for a strong tea, with just a dash of milk added afterwards to give it a dark caramel colour; I stopped taking it with sugar sometime in my early 20s. The convenience of bags wins out over the messiness of loose leaves, I'm afraid, and I believe that the tea suffers for this, but not enough to make me change my habits.