I Love Tea!

I, too, love the legacy jingles. I couldn't find any relating to the topic (now I got ♫Roto Rooter♫ stuck in my head), so I'll just put this here:

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I'm the same as you regarding strong tea. When I use tea bags, I always use 2 per cup, cover the cup with a saucer, and let it steep for at least 5 minutes. If you can see the bottom of the cup through the tea, you're doing it wrong.

Regarding exotic teas: you can buy reasonably priced loose tea online. And I always mention the local ethnic markets. Chinese and Indian markets sell teas at a very good price...like everything else they carry. I've mentioned buying fenugreek seeds in 6 oz. bags at the same per-ounce price as buying a 20# sack at Amazon. Then there's the authentic spices, rice, produce, beans, etc.

 

The infuser @Yvonne Smith recommended has me making teas again. I've been using it to make an after-dinner Teeccino dessert drink, and for the past week or so I've been making regular black British tea a couple of times during the day. I was grocery shopping in town today, stopped by the Chinese market and picked up a fresh container of Jasmine tea. I'm just sitting down with my first cuppa.

It helps me to continue to cut my coffee consumption way back (I'm at 1/2 of my long-term intake)...and that doesn't take into account the fact that I'm diluting the coffee with brewed chicory.

 

I'm running low on my English breakfast tea, so I went by the Indian market today and picked up a couple of different teas that the woman there said she blends together.



All of the teas I'm use to are dried shredded leaves. Both of these are teeny tiny BBs. I've never had loose tea like this before. It's very odd. I had to look at the package to make sure I got real tea and not some type of "alternative hot drink substance."

I made a cup when I got home. It's OK, but I either need to up the quantity or brew it longer, since it came out a little weaker than I'm used to. Both of these got good reviews on Amazon, for what that's worth.

 

@Yvonne Smith started a thread about a coffee substitute named Teccino. The are made with barley, chicory, ramón seeds, carob and other things. I've really been enjoying them. They have teas as well, although since Teeccino is made from neither coffee beans nor tea leaves, I'm not sure how they differentiate between "coffee" and "tea." I think the only difference is that the "tea" is in a bag for steeping.

They refer to both their teas and their coffees as "herbals." Some have dandelion and some have mushrooms they refer to as "adaptogens." I'm not well-versed in what this is. They are not classic herbals with oils that may cause heartburn.

I've been drinking them for months now to cut back on my late-day caffeine consumption. The prices buying direct are often a little cheaper than buying from Amazon, and there are a few Teeccino products sold on each site that are not available on the other. I add a little instant chicory to mine to add body. Anyway, since you mentioned barley coffee, I thought you'd be interested in this.

 

The floral type teas always seem to give me heartburn. I think they have oils in them that disagree with me. Jasmine tea is an exception.

 

After sending Tetley an email inquiring as to the nature of their manufacturing process, I came across what might be the answer on Reddit (the internet is a magical place.) There is a tea processing method referred to as Crush, Tear, Curl (CTC.) Here is what CTC "loose" tea looks like:



I have some Chinese "gunpowder" tea that is rolled into tight pellets, except it uncurls when it is brewed. This stuff looks like a pile of coffee grounds after it's brewed. It's "different."

Since this is interesting tea information, and the Wiki page is relatively short, I'll paste the whole thing here. summarize it.

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Crush, tear, curl (sometimes cut, tear, curl) is a method of processing tea leaves into black tea in which the leaves are passed through a series of cylindrical rollers with hundreds of sharp teeth that crush, tear, and curl the tea into small, hard pellets. The first CTC machine was brought into service in 1930.

Today, most black teas produced use the CTC method. CTC orthodox has a finished product that is well suited for tea bags, as the product quickly gives a dark brew. [The CTC method allows for high quality teas to be offered in single-serving tea bags.]

CTC-type teas now enjoy a near-monopoly in South Asia. Over 80% of tea production in India is of the CTC type. In the export market, particularly in the CIS, the Middle East, United Kingdom and Ireland, CTC teas continue to be the most highly in demand.

The drawback of the CTC method is that it tends by its nature to homogenize all black tea flavors. It is easy to adulterate a more expensive CTC-type tea with inexpensive and generally mild lowland teas of the same process. Whole and broken leaf teas by contrast are quite varied in appearance, making adulteration more difficult.

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So CTC seems to be the norm these days, albeit with some compromise of quality. The second cup I made tastes fine, and without doing a side-by-side comparison, I would not consider the CTC to make an inferior cuppa.

By way of comparison:
-The Wagh Bakri (Indian) CTC tea is $6.50 per pound.
-The Tetley CTC tea is $8.50 per pound.
-The English Breakfast loose tea I've had currently sells for $16-$21 per pound.
-Other loose black teas sell for $40-$70 (and higher) per pound.
--None of the tea websites I've bought from sell CTC tea.

It's possible that the higher cost of the loose teas is at least partially attributable to the lack of economies-of-scale.

 

I get a thirst for tea a few times a year and might drink more tea than coffee for a week or so, but then I'm back to coffee. After a while, it seems that tea just isn't substantial. Coffee is easier, anyhow. I drink at least a few cups of tea a week, more if I can count iced tea.

 

I got my English Breakfast tea yesterday. What a world of difference!! I am too ashamed to admit how old my existing stash of this tea was...let's just say it was north of 10 years. The fresh batch tastes better.

I only use about 60% of the amount I use when brewing the cheaper CTC, so that narrows the cost difference by quite a bit.

I got the English Breakfast tea at EnglishTeaStore.com, where they also sell British candy, chocolates, cookies, biscuits, cakes, puddings, jams, spreads, clotted cream, teacups, etc.