Recently my local supermarket was out of Tetley British Blend teabags,
and I had to resort to buying the "regular" Tetley teabags, which I had
not used in many years and did not remember with much fondness. Later,
when I brewed a pot (using an extra bag to compensate for less tea per
bag than British Blend), I was pleasantly surprised. This tea was MUCH
better than I remembered. I did notice that it was now called Tetley
Classic Blend, whereas it used to be Tetley Original Blend, but I
thought that was just a change brought about due to some market
research. But then I found the following article on the web:

http://www.conntact.com/archive_inde...New_Haven.html

Apparently Tetley quietly discontinued its Original Blend about five
years ago and replaced it with Classic Blend, which is allegedly the
same blend that Tetley sells in the UK. I suppose they kept quiet
about it to avoid a "New Coke"-like fiasco. But the story makes sense
because Classic Blend is definitely not the Tetley I remembered. The
old Tetley had a very peculiar aftertaste. If they'd been selling
Classic Blend all along, I would never have stopped using it.

I still prefer the British Blend, which yields a stronger cuppa but it
is nice to know that the ubiquitous Classic Blend makes a reasonable
substitute in a pinch.

Pat