Favorite British (England) teas?
Although American, I enjoy British and Australian/New Zealand literature and Police/Detective TV mysteries series shows (Inspector Morse, Inspector Frost, Lynley, Lewis, Dalziel and Pascoe, Vera, Sherlock, No Offence, Unforgotten, Doctor Blake, Midsomer Murders, etc. ) and some of the dramas, also. I notice that in every show/episode (especially the British (England) ones) tea
is offered to and accepted by someone, be it the cop, detective, grandma, serial killer - whomever.
So, I’d like to know:
What classification of tea is mostly consumed by
the British (black, green, oolong, white)?
And more importantly:
What brand names/ ‘model’ names (ex., Twinings/Earl Gray, etc.) seems to be the favorite overall?
I would like to try some of them if for no other reason than to drink them while viewing the episodes!
Tetley and PG Tips are the most popular. Black tea. Teabags. You couldn’t go into someone’s house and expect them to even know what white, yellow, or oolong tea is. Green tea can be bought in the supermarket, and almost never is.
That can also be said of most American homes but the supermarket tea bags are different. Not many Americans know what real tea is or about the six types of tea. Nor do they realize that tea can be expensive for the good stuff just like wine or such.
And as for fermented tea, well, in all honest, people are better placed to understand that the aliens have landed.
Yes the majority of American tea retailers do not carry puerh teas. I asked the owner of Simpson and Vail why he didn’t stock puerh. I don’t actually remember his answer and got the feeling he simply didn’t have an understanding of the puerh market. Having seen his operation I think he really has no place to store multiple tongs of twenty or thirty teas anyway.
If you ever see them pouring from a teapot and using a strainer, then they’ve got some loose leaf (less common, but my parents did that). And if it is loose leaf, it is quite likely to be Twinings- English Breakfast, Darjeeling, Earl Grey. Maybe Orange Pekoe but I think that got harder to find in most shops for quite a while. If they’ve got a full tea set out and lace doilies and things it is more likely to be loose leaf.
Otherwise, yep, teabags and breakfast blends. If they just show up with a mug it was probably a teabag.
ETA: should specify that the orange pekoe was a Ceylon.
Resident “British” here…..
The tea will be black tea from a bag. English breakfast is the name / type. Virtually always taken with a bit of milk, sugar is to personal taste. Brands: PG Tips, Tetley, plus the supermarkets own brands.
Here is a link to Amazon (for info only… I don’t know if the price is fair)
https://www.amazon.com/PG-TIPS-Original-Tea/dp/B078872RFK/ref=sr_1_2_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1537796110&sr=8-2&keywords=tea+pg+tips
I have drank some of the British tea bags and they seem a little stronger to me than most of the American ones. They also seem much lower quality than the average loose leaf but that goes for all tea bags except a few like Lupica.
English Breakfast tea – at any time of the day? Not for just breakfast?
Thanks, so much for your information and opinions.
Not sure which I will try first but I’m leaning towards loose leaf:
PG Tips and Twinings & English Tea Store for English Breakfast.
I usually drink loose leaf teas from China.
I found Yorkshire Gold to be a step up from PG Tips. Not like anything sold in US supermarkets. For a long time it was my everyday tea at work before I gave up and brought in a teapot.
I believe PG Tips is the most popular brand in the UK at the moment, with Yorkshire Tea coming in second. Of the two, I find that PG has quite a bright taste, which seems quite refreshing on the first sip, but it quickly becomes a bit metallic. I prefer Yorkshire Tea myself, which is more malty; Yorkshire Gold is the upmarket version, and better still.
All of these teas tend to brew quite strong, because of the CTC process they go through. They are really blended to be taken with milk, as far as I know. Teabags are more popular, but loose leaves brewed in a pot are a lot better. The stuff that goes into teabags is often little more than dust.
Teas commonly available in the supermarket are not especially of high quality, so if you are looking for something a bit better, perhaps a blend from Whittards or somewhere like that might suit eg 1886 blend, which is a typical “English breakfast” type tea, but with a little more depth of flavour.
Hope that helps…
Added Yorkshire Gold to my list.
So, milk is usually added to PG tips, Yorkshire and to any of the English Breakfast brands?
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