I’m on a weekend vacation and forgot to bring my tea and the international grocery didn’t have it, so I settled for Darjeeling. I can barely notice the difference. It’s so subtle that it might as well just be a different tea brand.
If you don’t notice the difference, well, your loss. I take a nice Darjeeling or Assam over a British Zombie Tea any time.
This may be one of the most ‘first world problems’ worthy problems I’ve ever read…
edit: /S for the downvoting folks that take a shower thoughts post seriously
It’s a shower thought, dude. Also, there’s no such thing as Big Tea as far as I know.
Edit: I literally thought that in the shower and it amused me.
I knew a guy who looked into starting a tea growing business in Nepal. He was simplifying, I’m sure, but his answer in the end was it’s all controlled by the tea mafia!
Yeah, see I’d hardly know the difference from the $5 a box bags I buy to make iced tea in the summer.
–Barbaric Murican 🙂
I mean, your tea game is dire. Far too dilute, and made with cold salt water! Who would want to drink that. If that’s the best Boston can do, it completely explains why Americans don’t drink tea!
Well we had to make enough for a whole party. The salt was just a bonus knowing no true Brit would ever let seasoning get near their meal.
We accidentally built an empire looking for new seasonings! It got so bad we started naming our new dishes after where we stole the flavours from!
If you want to salt the tea, that’s your business, but at least heat the water first!
Fine. But I’m using the microwave to do it!
Acceptable. We understand that America lacks the infrastructure to support advanced equipment, like the 3kw electric kettle.
Thats what the dutch east India company wants you to think
😱
There is however a Mr. T, and he would indeed pity the fool duped by a Darjeeling flim flam done in his name.
The British empire has entered the chat (backed by a very heavily armed fleet of warships).
Sounds like you’ve been drinking some shit twinings level Darjeeling.
Alternative
I think the £3 bottle of prosecco I got from aldi and the £100 Champaign taste the same.
yeah thats definitely not true at all though. i dont like champagne or prosecco, but ive had good champagne and it absolutely annihilates cheap sparkling white
Exactly.
ah right, I didn’t understand you were kidding
More making an analogy.
Something like this at £40 per 100g will taste as different to ops Irish breakfast tea as the Champaign and the cheap sparkling wine.
yeah no shit but I thought you were saying that as your literal truth, that you couldnt tell the difference ✌
It’s probably because I’m British so assume I don’t need to use things like /s
nah, i hate /s. I’d rather have this back and forth once in a while than see /s’s everywhere.
Darjeeling is just a region where tea is made right?
It’s like my Keurig tastes the same as my hand ground coffee from Columbia?
Champagne is just a region where sparkling white wine is
madegrown right?Some regions just have the right mix of climate, soil, sun, temperature, precipitation etc that gives the product its cachet.
You’ve just proved the point, there are plenty of good regions for sparkling white wine which are not named Champagne.
Oh, for sure. I’d pick an unknown Cava over an unknown Champagne any day of the week. The thing is that humans have this inbuilt competitive thing - coffee, tea, wines, tobacco, potatoes, ganja, cheese, etc etc all have the same mythos around them. The experts want to class one particular product “best in class”. To the casual enjoyer it can often all taste/look pretty much the same. Also “industry best” does not have to equate with personal favourite. They can be two different things.
IBT is best tea and I will die on this hill.
Or maybe any hill. Perhaps I just want to die on some kind of hill? (/s btw:-P)
One sugar, splash of lemon, it is really great.
Often I will just drink it straight, especially if with a yogurt. Or a bit of creamer, whereupon you can still taste it through that and also with breakfast:-).
Try a single estate Assam, it’s what it’s made out of, but better
I’ve literally never seen or heard of that, but that does sound nice!:-)
This is where I get mine from: https://www.tea-and-coffee.com/buy-tea/location/assam-tea
Very reasonable, especially when you compare it to equivalent quality coffee beans. And you don’t need the equipment to go with it …
Nice!:-)
I’d have to assume that the Irish breakfast tea you had before just simply wasn’t Irish breakfast tea.
Darjeeling is one of the lightest teas, not good for much other than “afternoon tea and cakes at Gleneagles hotel” kinda thing
Try giving a cup of that to Bunny McGarry and see how fast he shoves a hurley up yer arse
do you mind me asking about the amount of tea you have used as well as the time you let it sit for? most black tea like darjeeling and blends of breakfast teas taste very similar if brewed too strong (i.e. too much tea or too much time). i like to use about a tee spoon full of tea for a mug size and let it sit for about 3-4min max.
I am confused as to why you spelled “tea” correctly six time in your comment, and then spelled “teaspoon” (a spoon used for stirring & measuring tea) wrong.
Not criticizing, just confused.
lol i wondered why i looked so wrong but couldn’t put my finger on it. truthfully though: “tee” would be the proper spelling in my native language and i haven’t had a cup of tea yet so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You appear to be missing an arm so I’ll forgive you… this time.
you dropped this \
(because \ is an escape character, you must use
¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯to correctly display ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)thank you very much for that fix!
They were probably using a voice dictate feature. You know how unreliable those things are…
They use a tiny wooden spoon made out of a golf tee, duh.
OPs reasons may be wrong, but the conclusion is nonetheless correct: Big tea did scam you.
I KNEW IT!
Tea bags – depending upon your locality – are also a large source of micro plastic consumption. I’ve switched to loose leaf but it’s ridiculously expensive and very worse.
Microplastic? I thought teabags were quite organic. Do you have a source on being microplastic?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49845940 https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/27/health/microplastics-tea-bags-study-scn-scli-intl/index.html
It’s a subject I follow more closely than most I bother with.
Sounds like the same study in both articles? And the BBC says it was specifically to ‘premium’ plastic tea bags?
The fabric ones should be fine then?
Edit: sealed with PLA which is industrially compostable, but not home compostable : https://www.yorkshiretea.co.uk/our-packaging No mention of how bad it is to consume.
Oh, those “premium” ones. Yeah, those are clearly plastic. Premium cancer dispensers.
But the… oh, yeah, even the “normal ones” are paper fiber “sealed with plastic”. Sometimes biodegradable, sometimes not, and sometimes not plastic.- FSC-Certified Paper Bags
Many of Twinings’ traditional string-and-tag tea bags now use paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). These bags are reinforced with plant-based sealants instead of conventional plastic. - Compostable Tea Bags
Twinings offers fully compostable tea bags in selected product lines. These bags decompose in home composting systems, making them convenient for eco-conscious consumers.
Amazing. Learned something new again and how I’m being poisoned by my lovely tea containers. Ain’t the world grand?
- FSC-Certified Paper Bags
I’d expect (and from experience is the case) loose leaf to be cheaper, since it requires less packaging.
Loose is usually higher in quality (depending on brand). The tea bags are usually just dust and basically production trash.
Good quality tea can also be brewed multiple times. And there you can make the price good again.
Say 12g cost 20€. Brewing 4g one time equals 5€ per cup.
If you brew the same 4g 5 times it reduces to 1€ per cup.
Some teas can be brewed up to 6 or 7 times but I had only luck with <5 times.I am not saying tea bags are shit but they arent good either. A local testing company in Germany also tested a high amount of heavy metals in tea like lead.
Loose tea isnt immune to that but may be less suscepticle to it due to less machine handling.
I think you got ripped off. Darjeeling has a different taste than Irish Breakfast, but I’m terrible at describing tastes.
Or I just don’t have a very sensitive palate for tea? 🤷♂️
Ha! That’s fair too.
Try scottish breakfast! Its similar to irish, but much darker and “punchier” imo. It’s my go-to when I’m out of coffee and need the closest thing to caffeinate up in the morning
I’ll check it out. Thanks!
Jesus somebody really hates you, don’t they? No matter what it is you always get at least 1 downvote.
Dear hater: If you’re reading this, please fuck right off back down your sewer-grated hovel.
A lot of people hate me. 🤷
IBT is on the stronger/darker side, Darjeeling is on the lighter side.
IBT should be rich, dark, high in caffeine, with a strong flavor that doesnt get overpowered by milk, or ruined by a little oversteeping. It can still be burned if you use water that’s too hot.
Darjeeling should be amber-colored, light tasting, moderate in caffeine, and should have some floral notes. The flavors can be drowned out by milk or oversteeping in my opinion. Best black and lightly steeped in sub-boiling water.
This is a great description of the difference between bold and light black tea! I never thought about the over steeping and milk overpowering aspects and it makes so much sense – thank you!
English breakfast tastes like Darjeeling according to Vampire Weekend: https://youtu.be/v0Jyn8uideU
I’d argue that most people can’t see nor taste the difference between similar products unless they are literally beside each other.
Many products, sure. And with many caveats; Earl Grey is clearly distinct from Darjeeling, although both are black teas, simply because of the added bergamot. I can tell many apples apart - I couldn’t name them in a blind test, but in most cases I can tell you which aren’t Honey Crisp - the textures and tastes are very different for many varietals of apples. However, I don’t think I could identify what kinds of apples are in an apple cider.
I’m sure you have your own examples. I’m not disagreeing with you, in general.
Are you comparing bagged tea or looseleaf? I feel like bagged tea tends to taste pretty similar, especially if sourced from a grocery store vs a tea shop.
Bagged. And that could be the case.
Seconded. Most grocery store brands are low quality tea. Think grocery store tea is to good tea as Folgers instant is to a decent coffee shop fresh grind.
Good tea isn’t easy to find, at least in the US.
If you can find a place that sells good tea loose leaf you’ll enjoy it much more and be able to taste differences.
Put four bags in the cup this morning. Now I can taste the difference.
Ouch.
I need the caffeine unfortunately.
That’ll work.
I love Irish breakfast tea, but I don’t think I’ve ever had Darjeeling. Will have to pick some up soon to compare.
FYI, the taste differences become far more obvious with better quality teas. Darjeeling, being a more subtle (and posh) tea show this strongly. It’s also a lot less tolerant of poor brewing.
For best results, don’t cheap out, and look up optimal brewing instructions.
Sounds like good advice, thanks.
Although I probably DO need tea that’s tolerant of poor brewing. I have small children (and ADHD) and am very bad about forgetting that I have tea brewing…
Before kids, microwaved tea is an absolute travesty. After kids, it’s an unfortunate necessity.
I personally have cheap(ish) teas that priduce a drinkable cup. I also have the good teas that deserve more care and attention.
If you’re interested, these guys provide the best tea I’ve found so far. (They also supply a number of the best tea shops in Bath). It’s definitely not cheap tea, but I currently have several kg of it in the house 😅
Right, I’m sorry but I’m sure that tea is nice. But it basically looks to me like a bunch of trust fund babies trying to do to the tea scene what hipsters did to ale.
I mean, their basic, everyday tea is 34p per bag. 30 bags for £11. That’s fucking nuts (not literally)
Doesn’t sound that dreadful until you compare it to, for example, Yorkshire tea; a perfectly good everyday tea.
4p per bag. 80 bags for £3. That’s 12X less, I think.
I’m all for a good cuppa but all you’re doing buying that stuff is funding some posh cunt’s lifestyle
Rant over
I know the sort of tea suppliers you’re referring to. Ive been disappointed by tea from quite a few of them. This isn’t one of them.
They are actually a small family business that’s been quietly working for over 100 years. They are basically a whole sale company aimed at the ultra premium quality market. They have a little stall in one of the guildhall markets, where they’ve been for decades at least.
As far as I’m personally concerned, their tea is worth the prices they charge. I also wouldn’t judge them by the price of bags. Them selling bags is relatively new. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn the teabags were hand made to order. When it comes to loose leaf, they are actually cheaper than some Twinings teas.
Ooh, that is pricey, but I bet it’s amazing. I don’t often treat myself to the good stuff.
Using leaf tea instead of bags means it’s more forgiving of over brewing. I’ve always assumed it’s because you have large pieces instead of the smaller bits plus dust you get in bags, but I have no idea really.
