The other night I was at the Indian market and wanted to pick up a
regular grade Darjeeling for work use. I was met with two options,
Lipton green label or TATA. I went with Lipton green label since I knew
what to expect... but I was wondering if anyone had any insight as to
the TATA and if it would have been better. They were exactly the same
price ($3.99 for a medium sized box of loose tea.)

I read a bit online that TATA bought out Tetley and is India based...
but that didn't help me with quality/taste info.

Thanks,
- Dominic

Difficult to compare. I buy them interchangeably. TATA has different
variety. As does Brooke Bond. Make sure they say Darjeeling on the
package. Some also say "Export Quality".

Try them out. You can't be risking that much for $4.
--
Aloke
----
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"Dominic T." wrote in message
ups.com...
The other night I was at the Indian market and wanted to pick up a
regular grade Darjeeling for work use. I was met with two options,
Lipton green label or TATA. I went with Lipton green label since I knew
what to expect... but I was wondering if anyone had any insight as to
the TATA and if it would have been better. They were exactly the same
price ($3.99 for a medium sized box of loose tea.)

I read a bit online that TATA bought out Tetley and is India based...
but that didn't help me with quality/taste info.

Thanks,
- Dominic

Wondering if you can get Makaibaris "Apoorva" in the US. IMO one of the
nicest ready-packed DJs out there, quite a bit of punch-body-briskness,
bio-dynamically grown and fairly cheap.

Make sure they say Darjeeling on the package.
I´m afraid that´s not enough, even with TATA (it should say something
like "100% DJ", otherwise welcome to the flavor of Doaars and Terai
teas). Only 10000 of those 40000 tons of so called and labelled DJs
sold worldwide per year come from Darjeeling.
Look out for the "Darjeeling logo" (google for an idea of what it looks
like) of the Indian Tea Board to be a bit more on the safe side.

Best,
Karsten [N 53°13' - E 7°46']

Wondering if you can get Makaibaris "Apoorva" in the US. IMO one of the
nicest ready-packed DJs out there, quite a bit of punch-body-briskness,
bio-dynamically grown and fairly cheap.

Make sure they say Darjeeling on the package.
I´m afraid that´s not enough, even with TATA (it should say something
like "100% DJ", otherwise welcome to the flavor of Doaars and Terai
teas). Only 10000 of those 40000 tons of so called and labelled DJs
sold worldwide per year come from Darjeeling.
Look out for the "Darjeeling logo" (google for an idea of what it looks
like) of the Indian Tea Board to be a bit more on the safe side.

Best,
Karsten [N 53°13' - E 7°46']

wrote:
Wondering if you can get Makaibaris "Apoorva" in the US. IMO one of the
nicest ready-packed DJs out there, quite a bit of punch-body-briskness,
bio-dynamically grown and fairly cheap.

Make sure they say Darjeeling on the package.
I´m afraid that´s not enough, even with TATA (it should say something
like "100% DJ", otherwise welcome to the flavor of Doaars and Terai
teas). Only 10000 of those 40000 tons of so called and labelled DJs
sold worldwide per year come from Darjeeling.
Look out for the "Darjeeling logo" (google for an idea of what it looks
like) of the Indian Tea Board to be a bit more on the safe side.

Best,
Karsten [N 53°13' - E 7°46']

Thanks for the info, I have never seen "Apoorva" in any of my Indian
markets.

The other night I had a wonderful conversation with the owner of our
local Indian restaurant after our meal about life in India, food, tea,
and politics... I thought you might be interested. He was telling me
how he just returned and he was there for a month, and how he hadn't
even seen a glimpse of a cloud and it was in the 90's. We began talking
about how the high-tech industry is really taking off (since I work in
IT) and he was explaining how it is starting to introduce stress and
faster paced life as well as the need to work through the night due to
the time difference to here for phone support. He also explained to me
why their tea goes to Russia (which was news to me). He stated that
they trade Coffee, Tea, and Cotton to Russia on a sort of barter
economy in exchange for arms. America only sells on a credit like
system and is partially responsible for the bankruptcy of Pakistan, and
India wants no parts of that. He was also talking about President
Bush's latest trip there and the motivation behind it from their
perspective. All very interesting, and I could not disagree with one
word the man said. He spends 3 months here in the US and 1 in India all
year, and travels the world as well. I found it also interesting that
of all the cities in the world, he picks Prague as the best by far. We
had a great conversation and he was pretty impressed with my knowledge
of India which is what got him to open up to me, he is normally very
quiet and reserved. I had a blast and it was like I had been to India
after hearing his insider's tales of the food/history/culture. It is
now on my short list of places to travel to for sure, I have much more
respect and understanding now.

- Dominic

Lew wrote:

Sorry, but I found it disappointing. It had briskness, sure, but not
a lot of what I think of as Darjeeling character...
It's possible that at the grocery in Calcutta where it was bought the stock doesn't turn
over fast enough for it to be fresh,

Lew´, that might be the reason. I used to drink it as breakfast tea
for some time, but my packs were definetely fresh, IMO a real DJ for
little coin.
I agree that some Sikkimese (only one estate - Temi) or Nepali ! teas
surpass Apoorva in terms of quality but at what cost ?
Any info (grade) on the Sikkimese tea you mentioned ?

Karsten [N 53°13' - E 7°46']

Dominic wrote:
I found it also interesting that of all the cities in the world, he picks Prague as the best by far.

I guess he´s not alone with that one. A truly terrific place to kill
some time (and beers).
Arrgn, that leaves me pondering over a potential favorite city of mine
....

OT ... schnipp ...
- Georgetown/Penang - Malaysia, my old favorite
.... Malaysian multiculture at it´s finest, some of the best food I
ever had, people (girls), colonial architechture, the ocean, a good
selection of chinese teas and most probably the best selection of pipe
tobaccos in Malaysia

.... (Tromso/Norway, Mandalay/Burma, Yangshuo/China, Inverness/Scotland,
good old Darjeeling, Kathmandu, Vancouver, Longyearbyen/Spitsbergen,
Donegal/Ireland, ... soo many more, but then Í enjoy life in the
sticks more than the cities.

Sorry for messing up the thread but what are your favorite places ?

Karsten [N 53°13' - E 7°46']

writes:

Lew wrote:

Sorry, but I found it disappointing. It had briskness, sure, but
not a lot of what I think of as Darjeeling character... It's
possible that at the grocery in Calcutta where it was bought the
stock doesn't turn over fast enough for it to be fresh,

Lew´, that might be the reason. I used to drink it as breakfast tea
for some time, but my packs were definetely fresh, IMO a real DJ for
little coin.
I agree that some Sikkimese (only one estate - Temi) or Nepali ! teas
surpass Apoorva in terms of quality but at what cost ?
Any info (grade) on the Sikkimese tea you mentioned ?

Actually it was Temi. I got it in Gangtok last year in one of the
small shops in the big street that shuts down to vehicular traffic
late afternoons. I can't remember the price, but it seemed, like some
other teas' prices, shockingly low at the time.

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html

wrote:
Sorry for messing up the thread but what are your favorite places ?

Karsten [N 53°13' - E 7°46']

Hey it was my thread, I can take it in any direction I'd like!

My personal favorite places are domestic. Assateague/Chincoteague
Island, Maine (any of it), and Ridgway, PA. Ridgway is a little
mountain town where I was fortunate enough to grow up in while it was
still pristine, now it has lost it's innocence but still my favorite
place on Earth. Time stands still while there, there are elk, bear,
mile after mile of deep forrest, and even more miles of some of the
best fishing known to man. A truly unique place. I prefer out of the
way and rural areas, tourist traps hold no interest for me.

My goals to still hit are Guangzhou, Okinawa, India, Burma, London,
Jamaica, and Hawaii.

- Dominic

On 27 Mar 2006 10:38:36 -0800, wrote:

what are your favorite places ?

California! Great place, very sunny, always something going on.

Ian
--
http://sundry.ws/

Ian wrote:
California! Great place, very sunny, always something going on.

Dang Ian, used to live there (South San Jose / Santa Cruz area) for
some time and couldn´t agree more.
Time to come back for a while (and work on my rrrotten english).

Karsten [N 53°13' - E 7°46'] (hot water in cup, Soledum in inhalator
and 2ml of a homeopathic immunemodulator in my late night syringe,
yummie

On 27 Mar 2006 14:40:29 -0800, wrote:

used to live there (South San Jose / Santa Cruz area) for
some time and couldn´t agree more.

I think the Minutemen are from that area. (The band, not the
soldiers.) Can't say I saw much of that area. I was always down in
Anaheim and Orange.

Ian
--
http://sundry.ws/

wrote in message
oups.com...


Make sure they say Darjeeling on the package.
I´m afraid that´s not enough, even with TATA (it should say something
like "100% DJ", otherwise welcome to the flavor of Doaars and Terai
teas). Only 10000 of those 40000 tons of so called and labelled DJs
sold worldwide per year come from Darjeeling.
Look out for the "Darjeeling logo" (google for an idea of what it looks
like) of the Indian Tea Board to be a bit more on the safe side.

Do you think that even mainstream companies like Lipton, Tata, Brooke Bond
would be "cheating" and misusing the Darjeeling moniker?
--
Aloke
----
to reply by e-mail remove 123 and change invalid to com

Aloke wrote:
Do you think that even mainstream companies like Lipton, Tata, Brooke Bond
would be "cheating" and misusing the Darjeeling moniker?

Yes. For example if the pack doesn´t say "100% Darjeeling" you can be
pretty sure that the better part of those leaves has been plucked
somewhere else. As mentioned before that doesn´t necessarily mean the
stuff is bad.

Karsten [N 53°13' - E 7°46']

Could you pull your strings ad find out which plantations are mostly used to
make popular products like Lipton Green Label and Brooke Bond Supreme teas?

Or is it too mixed up and impossible to tell?

--
Aloke
----
to reply by e-mail remove 123 and change invalid to com

wrote in message
oups.com...
Aloke wrote:
Do you think that even mainstream companies like Lipton, Tata, Brooke Bond
would be "cheating" and misusing the Darjeeling moniker?

Yes. For example if the pack doesn´t say "100% Darjeeling" you can be
pretty sure that the better part of those leaves has been plucked
somewhere else. As mentioned before that doesn´t necessarily mean the
stuff is bad.

Karsten [N 53°13' - E 7°46']