"Peter Dy" > wrote in message
. ..
>
>
>
> Yeah, I can see some of the confusion. But if the tea is red or if the
tea
> is black, it makes no difference if it is not spiced (going by the
American
> definition of Thai Tea). I'm sure Earl Grey is usually made with a
certain
> type of tea leaf, but if it is not perfumed with whatever Earl Grey is
> perfumed with, it is not Earl Grey.
>

Some websites claim that the spiced Thai tea is made with red-leaf tea. I
suspect they think so because the colour of the tea is orange-ish. Even
Panta...singh (I always forget the name), however, has food colouring as one
of the ingredients, so I don't know where those websites get the red-leaf
tea idea from. AFAIK, it's a black tea. Kasma Loha-Unchit says so, too,
and I trust her. I should read what David Thompson has to say on the
matter.

> Who would want to drink unspiced tea made with Thai tea leaves anyway? Is
> it supposed to be any good?
>

The stuff I ended up buying one time didn't have much flavour at all, but I
may have not brewed it correctly. Then again, it may not have even been red
tea, but some other kind. I was having a difficult time communicating and
the person helping me may not have understood me very well. It may have
some kind of health benefit. It might not even be tea, but something like
rooibois (or is all red tea rooibois?).

> I'm not sure why people have a hard time finding Thai Tea (US definition).
> It's often not called Thai Tea on the label, though. But I've seen it
> everywhere I've lived, large bags of it, piled up.
>

In Winnipeg it was very difficult to find until maybe 4 or 5 years ago.
Even then there was only one store that carried it on a regular basis. Over
the last couple of years, the number of Thai restaurants has increased (we
have at least 7, maybe 8) so more and more people have become familiar with
it and want to make it at home. Most Chinese grocery stores carry it now,
but it isn't usually prominently displayed so it can still be difficult to
find within the store (it isn't always in the tea section, buy is usually on
a bottom shelf somewhere you least expect it).

> Rona, are you saying the Thai Tea I purchase here, which is made in
Thailand
> by Thai companies, uses black tea, but that in Thailand, black tea is not
> drunken (spiced or not)?
>
>

Oh no. People definitely drink black tea, both spiced and not spiced. I
think, though, black tea is not drunk very frequently. My relatives are
more likely to drink coffee, hot or iced, than tea (my relatives aren't
really indicative of what the general Thai population does, however). In
the supermarkets we went to, I noticed there weren't a lot of varieties of
black tea. The most common was Lipton--in both the black tea and instant
varieties). The instant section tended to be larger than the brewed tea
section, too.

>
>
> Yes, I remember that thread. Interesting. I drank Thai Tea (US
definition)
> several times in Bangkok; tasted the same as the stuff I get in the
States.
> I didn't try looking for it in stores though.
>

I drank it a lot in Thailand, too. In fact, the first time I ever had Thai
tea was in Bangkok. Or maybe at the golf club near Pattaya. Because I
liked it so much, my aunt and uncle ordered it for me everywhere (whether I
requested it or not). I wonder if spiced Thai tea is not as readily
available in Thailand because people just don't make it at home.
Considering the price one pays buying it from a street vendor, why bother?
I never got to buy it from a street vendor, though :-(.

rona
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