The tea thread

[TastyReuben]

[Mod.Edit: This and a number of following posts have been moved from another thread to form a new topic (MG)]

I now have to abandon my everything in Starbucks is absolute rubbish beliefs

I do like their hot tea. It isn’t (or wasn’t when I was going) the usual Awake! teabags - they’d moved to these…bespoke is the best way I can say it, teabags that were pyramid bags, but about twice the size of a PG Tips bag, and you got two.

I used to stop at a SB twice a week when I was going into the office those days to get it, but I had to stop and go to a different SB.

Why? Because the woman working the morning shift at SB used to annoy the crap out of me. My assumption was she’d just recently reentered the job market, because she was older, maybe 40ish, but had that annoying enthusiasm and cheerfulness a new worker who’s about 16 has, and I just couldn’t deal with that at 7 in the AM.

Twice a week, every week, I’d stop in, get the same order, and you’d think she would have recognized me after a while, but every single time, she’d give me my tea and say, “Let that steep fer five minutes, but don’ throw those teabags out after that - those’re made fer a second steepin’, so when ya get ta work, ya can have another cup!”

Every time. Every time for about three months.

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

I do like their hot tea. It isn’t (or wasn’t when I was going) the usual Awake! teabags - they’d moved to these…bespoke is the best way I can say it, teabags that were pyramid bags, but about twice the size of a PG Tips bag, and you got two.

I used to stop at a SB twice a week when I was going into the office those days to get it, but I had to stop and go to a different SB.

Why? Because the woman working the morning shift at SB used to annoy the crap out of me. My assumption was she’d just recently reentered the job market, because she was older, maybe 40ish, but had that annoying enthusiasm and cheerfulness a new worker who’s about 16 has, and I just couldn’t deal with that at 7 in the AM.

Twice a week, every week, I’d stop in, get the same order, and you’d think she would have recognized me after a while, but every single time, she’d give me my tea and say, “Let that steep fer five minutes, but don’ throw those teabags out after that - those’re made fer a second steepin’, so when ya get ta work, ya can have another cup!”

Every time. Every time for about three months.

Starbucks tea here is woeful.
The hot water isn’t hot enough, the tea doesn’t steep properly and the plastic coated paper cups they use add their own special flavour that’s really not beneficial.

I think that’s why I don’t like Starbucks. They sell hot drinks and can’t even make a cup of tea

 

[TastyReuben]

I think that’s why I don’t like Starbucks. They sell hot drinks and can’t even make a cup of tea

That’s the number 1 reason I get coffee when we go out for breakfast, because no one can boil water in a restaurant kitchen apparently.

I’ve told this story before, but here’s the condensed version:

My dad drinks tea, and he knows you’ve got to boil the water. We’d gone out to breakfast, he ordered tea, and he told the waitress to put the hot water from the coffee machine tap into his mug and heat it for a little bit in the microwave before bringing it so it was hot enough for tea.

She didn’t, she just brought it out in the little metal pot, so he sent it back and told her to heat it in the mug in the microwave.

She brought it back, and it was obvious she’d just refilled it from the hot water tap again, so he poured it in his mug, got up, and marched into the kitchen, found the microwave, and did it himself!

 

[caseydog]

I do like their hot tea. It isn’t (or wasn’t when I was going) the usual Awake! teabags - they’d moved to these…bespoke is the best way I can say it, teabags that were pyramid bags, but about twice the size of a PG Tips bag, and you got two.

I used to stop at a SB twice a week when I was going into the office those days to get it, but I had to stop and go to a different SB.

Why? Because the woman working the morning shift at SB used to annoy the crap out of me. My assumption was she’d just recently reentered the job market, because she was older, maybe 40ish, but had that annoying enthusiasm and cheerfulness a new worker who’s about 16 has, and I just couldn’t deal with that at 7 in the AM.

Twice a week, every week, I’d stop in, get the same order, and you’d think she would have recognized me after a while, but every single time, she’d give me my tea and say, “Let that steep fer five minutes, but don’ throw those teabags out after that - those’re made fer a second steepin’, so when ya get ta work, ya can have another cup!”

Every time. Every time for about three months.

Being Starbucks, the name she wrote on your cup was probably different every time, and never right.

The barista calls out my name... "Mister Faceybog." Mister Pastiepog." "Mister Macy's Parade."

CD

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

That’s the number 1 reason I get coffee when we go out for breakfast, because no one can boil water in a restaurant kitchen apparently.

I’ve told this story before, but here’s the condensed version:

My dad drinks tea, and he knows you’ve got to boil the water. We’d gone out to breakfast, he ordered tea, and he told the waitress to put the hot water from the coffee machine tap into his mug and heat it for a little bit in the microwave before bringing it so it was hot enough for tea.

She didn’t, she just brought it out in the little metal pot, so he sent it back and told her to heat it in the mug in the microwave.

She brought it back, and it was obvious she’d just refilled it from the hot water tap again, so he poured it in his mug, got up, and marched into the kitchen, found the microwave, and did it himself!

One of the most depressing sights when in a cafe is getting the teabag separately to the pot and watching nothing happen as it plunges into sub optimum water.

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

Apparently we drink over 100,000,000 cups of tea a day in the UK so it strikes me as an incredibly short sighted business model to not serve decent tea in a country of tea drinkers. They don‘t even sell basic decaf tea. Madness!

 

[caseydog]

One of the most depressing sights when in a cafe is getting the teabag separately to the pot and watching nothing happen as it plunges into sub optimum water.

Hey, if you order tea in Texas (or anywhere in the Deep South), you are going to get this question, sweet or unsweet? Then, you will get a big glass/cup of iced tea. If you want hot tea, you have to ask for "hot tea." That will confuse your server completely, but after consulting the kitchen, you will get a coffee mug of "hot" water and a tea bag, if they have tea bags.

It's much easier to just drink iced tea... and to be honest, Southern iced tea is pretty darned good. It is especially good on a blazing hot day, and we have a lot of those.

TastyR can beck me up on this.

CD

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

Hey, if you order tea in Texas (or anywhere in the Deep South), you are going to get this question, sweet or unsweet? Then, you will get a big glass/cup of iced tea. If you want hot tea, you have to ask for "hot tea." That will confuse your server completely, but after consulting the kitchen, you will get a coffee mug of "hot" water and a tea bag, if they have tea bags.

It's much easier to just drink iced tea... and to be honest, Southern iced tea is pretty darned good. It is especially good on a blazing hot day, and we have a lot of those.

TastyR can beck me up on this.

CD

I don’t mind iced tea but it’s hardly the same ball park.

A lot of the UK doesn’t function until they’ve had morning tea.

I don’t know a single Brit that goes abroad without tea and quite often a travel kettle.
The horror of discovering your hotel room does not contain a kettle and tea is enough to spoil a holiday

 

[TastyReuben]

They don‘t even sell basic decaf tea. Madness!

Hand to god, when we go to the UK, we have to bring decaf tea with us…wait for it…branded PG Tips that we bought here in the US, imported from the UK! Every time we’ve looked for it in the shops…nope.

 

[TastyReuben]

TastyR can beck me up on this.

Yea, it’s good, but two completely different things. One thing I miss about being a kid and not caring about your health is a nice big glass of iced tea with about a half-pound of sugar dissolved in it.

 

[caseydog]

I don’t mind iced tea but it’s hardly the same ball park.

A lot of the UK doesn’t function until they’ve had morning tea.

I don’t know a single Brit that goes abroad without tea and quite often a travel kettle.
The horror of discovering your hotel room does not contain a kettle and tea is enough to spoil a holiday

I understand. The last time I was in London, I met some people in a bar, and we were talking about Texas. It was a pretty upscale bar, so I decided to buy my new friends some tequila shots. I asked the bartender what kind of tequila they had, and she said they had "only the best" liquors. She pointed to a bottle of Two Fingers tequila.

Then I bought a round of beers for my new friends.

CD

 

[TastyReuben]

I don’t know a single Brit that goes abroad without tea and quite often a travel kettle.

That’s us. We have an “at home” kettle and an “on the road” kettle.

 

[karadekoolaid]

A lot of the UK doesn’t function until they’ve had morning tea.

Me. I have to have two large mugs of proper tea before I can get going in the morning. AND - no ratbags. It has to be proper, loose leaf tea, preferably Assam.
During the pandemic, I ran out and there was no way I could get any more. I had to drink coffee for a month.
Now Venezuelan coffee is extremely good, because it has the same environment as Colombian coffee. However, it just wasn't the same as a good cup of cha.
Iced tea, is an aberration.

 

[Morning Glory]

Hand to god, when we go to the UK, we have to bring decaf tea with us…wait for it…branded PG Tips that we bought here in the US, imported from the UK! Every time we’ve looked for it in the shops…nope.

I can get decaf PG tips tea here from most supermarkets but I'm not sure why I'd want to. Coffee has far more caffeine that tea. Unless you drink multiple cups of tea each day the caffeine is very little.

Anyway, you (I happen to know) commit complete tea sacrilege by putting cream in it!

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

Hand to god, when we go to the UK, we have to bring decaf tea with us…wait for it…branded PG Tips that we bought here in the US, imported from the UK! Every time we’ve looked for it in the shops…nope.

But they sell it in pretty much every supermarket. I can even buy decaf PG tips and Tetley in Spain
Although they don’t sell decaf in small shops, you do have to go to a larger supermarket and then you’ll usually get a choice of three or four types of decaf tea.
Failing that M&S always has a decent bog standard decaf.