I have often lamented the fact that the quality of tea sold in American
supermarkets is so poor. Red Rose is the only "regular" supermarket
tea I can tolerate, and even that seems rather weak to me lately. I
have been ordering most of my teas online, buying PG Tips and Yorkshire
Tea in bulk. It gets expensive after a while, especially since I drink
so much tea.

While persusing this newsgroup, I saw some posts about buying tea from
Indian grocers. It had never occurred to me to do this before, but
since I like strong British-style teas, I thought I would give it a
try. There is an Indian grocer down the road from me. I had never
been in there before. They had quite an extensive selection of teas
from Tata/Tetley, Brooke Bond, and Lipton. They had Lipton Green Label
loose, which is a Darjeeling blend, and Lipton Yellow Label loose and
bagged. I had Lipton Yellow Label in Europe several years ago. It did
seem better than the Lipton sold in the US, but I only had it in hotels
and restaurants where it was not prepared properly with boiling water,
so it was hard to tell.

Anyway, I decided to try some of the Brooke Bond varieties, since I am
still somewhat biased against the Lipton name, due to the hellbroth
they try to dupe Americans into believing is tea. I bought some Brooke
Bond Red Label teabags, and a large carton (216 bags) of Brooke Bond
Taj Mahal. 216 Taj Majal bags cost $6, about 1/3 of what I was paying
to buy PG Tips online, and that does not include the shipping costs.

I have just brewed a pot the Taj Mahal and it is excellent. It is
extremely similiar to PG Tips; I would not be surprised if it were the
exact same blend packaged differently. And the price is certainly
right.

Next time I may try some of the Lipton teas just to see what they are
like. I have heard that they are far superior to the Lipton sold in
the US, not that it would be hard to accomplish that. I know that teas
are blended differently to suit local tastes, but I just cannot
understand why Lipton can't sell a decent quality blend at a reasonable
price in America, when they seem to be able to do so in the rest of the
world.

Anyway, much thanks to those who suggested the Indian grocers. I will
be buying a lot of tea there in the future.

Regards,

Rob

Lipton has a tea shop on the 11th floor (I think) of the Tokyo Prince
Hotel, just near to the Tokyo Tower and across the street from where I
used to work. I went there a few times. The staff was nice and
typically innocent. Like many places, all they know is their brand.
They were so impressed by my smidgen of limited knowledge that we had
to trade business cards and hopefully speak again soon. It will never
happen, but it was nice anyway. Lipton is crap. That is all there is to
say. Brooke Bond sells a lot here in Japan as well. Brooke Bond is also
crap. These companies blend away any genuine flavor that there is in
their teas by mixing everything from their former Indian, Sri Lankan,
and African slave colonies. There are how many tea producing areas in
Sri Lanka alone? More than a dozen major areas and all with very
distinctive flavors. Check the Sri Lanka Tea Board website at
http://www.pureceylontea.com/ The former imperialist view is that if it
isn't strong enough mix it with something totally different until the
water turns brown. Ugandan tea and Kenyan tea themsleves are quite
different. Who in their right minds would mix Assam and Uva? These
people have no respect for the tea itself and especially for the
ignorant American consumer. They sell the LOWEST grade of garbage to
Americans purposefully. Americans should boycott them completely. If
you want a good strong black tea drink what Indians drink - nilgiri
from south India. These people know more about tea than the English,
without a doubt. They don't add anything to it and enjoy it for what it
is. Nilgiri is, however, perfect with milk. It is sad that the ignorant
masses in most areas outside of South Asia will never hear of it. And
since these people have lost a good portion of their population and
industry in recent tsunami attacks I believe they could use your money
more than former imperial powerhouses who made their fortunes off the
toil of the third world.

Bitterly,

Rufus Firefly
Tokyo

I get all the BB brands you mentioned as loose tea. BB also has an
excellent darjeeling called Supreme. Lipton also has a Green Label
version called Connoisseur. It comes in tin cans vs paper for regular
Green Label. Unilever Lipton India is different than Unilever Lipton
US. If you compare the product lines you'd wonder if the two companies
know each other exist. Another good source of British brands is Arabic
markets which carries PG Tips and Yorkshire. If you live in a large
metro area and can shoppe around you'll find all the commercial name
brand teas from your country of choice in local ethnic markets.

Jim

Rob wrote:
> I have often lamented the fact that the quality of tea sold in
American
> supermarkets is so poor. Red Rose is the only "regular" supermarket
> tea I can tolerate, and even that seems rather weak to me lately. I
> have been ordering most of my teas online, buying PG Tips and
Yorkshire
> Tea in bulk. It gets expensive after a while, especially since I
drink
> so much tea.
>
> While persusing this newsgroup, I saw some posts about buying tea
from
> Indian grocers. It had never occurred to me to do this before, but
> since I like strong British-style teas, I thought I would give it a
> try. There is an Indian grocer down the road from me. I had never
> been in there before. They had quite an extensive selection of teas
> from Tata/Tetley, Brooke Bond, and Lipton. They had Lipton Green
Label
> loose, which is a Darjeeling blend, and Lipton Yellow Label loose and
> bagged. I had Lipton Yellow Label in Europe several years ago. It
did
> seem better than the Lipton sold in the US, but I only had it in
hotels
> and restaurants where it was not prepared properly with boiling
water,
> so it was hard to tell.
>
> Anyway, I decided to try some of the Brooke Bond varieties, since I
am
> still somewhat biased against the Lipton name, due to the hellbroth
> they try to dupe Americans into believing is tea. I bought some
Brooke
> Bond Red Label teabags, and a large carton (216 bags) of Brooke Bond
> Taj Mahal. 216 Taj Majal bags cost $6, about 1/3 of what I was
paying
> to buy PG Tips online, and that does not include the shipping costs.
>
> I have just brewed a pot the Taj Mahal and it is excellent. It is
> extremely similiar to PG Tips; I would not be surprised if it were
the
> exact same blend packaged differently. And the price is certainly
> right.
>
> Next time I may try some of the Lipton teas just to see what they are
> like. I have heard that they are far superior to the Lipton sold in
> the US, not that it would be hard to accomplish that. I know that
teas
> are blended differently to suit local tastes, but I just cannot
> understand why Lipton can't sell a decent quality blend at a
reasonable
> price in America, when they seem to be able to do so in the rest of
the
> world.
>
> Anyway, much thanks to those who suggested the Indian grocers. I
will
> be buying a lot of tea there in the future.
>
> Regards,
>
> Rob

Thank you. I've been finding the brands that I want but I've been
paying an inflated price for them. It never occurred to me to look in
the Asian or Arabic markets. Even if I had thought of it, I probably
would have assumed that they'd be equally expensive.

It's a pity that we can't get this quality of tea in our own
supermarkets. Even a brand like Red Rose, which I consider decent, is
not as strong as I would like, since American teabags are smaller and
contain less tea than British ones.

I really wonder sometimes if Americans aren't tea drinkers because the
quality of tea available in supermarkets is so poor, or if the quality
is so poor because Americans aren't interested in good tea. A
Catch-22, I suppose.

I am also beginning to think that the Lipton sold in the USA is
primarily meant to be used for iced tea, rather than hot. I can't
imagine why they'd deliberately blend such a weak, pale and astringent
tea otherwise, especially when the company has proved it can produce
better teas in foreign markets.

Anyway, thanks again for the leads.


Space Cowboy wrote:
> I get all the BB brands you mentioned as loose tea. BB also has an
> excellent darjeeling called Supreme. Lipton also has a Green Label
> version called Connoisseur. It comes in tin cans vs paper for
regular
> Green Label. Unilever Lipton India is different than Unilever Lipton
> US. If you compare the product lines you'd wonder if the two
companies
> know each other exist. Another good source of British brands is
Arabic
> markets which carries PG Tips and Yorkshire. If you live in a large
> metro area and can shoppe around you'll find all the commercial name
> brand teas from your country of choice in local ethnic markets.
>
> Jim
>

I second the choices of BB Supreme and Lipton Green Label Connoisseur (or
even plain Green Label). These are sold as 100% pure Darjeeling teas
(although blended from different gardens and flushes, for sure).

Still, these are great values compared to the single garden teas from Upton
etc. Definitely worth a try.

I wonder if any "insider" here has information on the gardens used by Lipton
and Brooke Bond for their blended Darjeelings ...
--
Aloke
----
to reply by e-mail remove 123 and change invalid to com

"Rob" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> Thank you. I've been finding the brands that I want but I've been
> paying an inflated price for them. It never occurred to me to look in
> the Asian or Arabic markets. Even if I had thought of it, I probably
> would have assumed that they'd be equally expensive.
>
> It's a pity that we can't get this quality of tea in our own
> supermarkets. Even a brand like Red Rose, which I consider decent, is
> not as strong as I would like, since American teabags are smaller and
> contain less tea than British ones.
>
> I really wonder sometimes if Americans aren't tea drinkers because the
> quality of tea available in supermarkets is so poor, or if the quality
> is so poor because Americans aren't interested in good tea. A
> Catch-22, I suppose.
>
> I am also beginning to think that the Lipton sold in the USA is
> primarily meant to be used for iced tea, rather than hot. I can't
> imagine why they'd deliberately blend such a weak, pale and astringent
> tea otherwise, especially when the company has proved it can produce
> better teas in foreign markets.
>
> Anyway, thanks again for the leads.