Ted Jones wrote:

> I came across this at the local Indian grocer recently. Have any of you
> tried this product? Is it worth a try?

I spent three months in Bangalore over the fall and winter; Brook
Bond is the staple tea we used to make chai (sugar, milk,
cardamom and tea) with. It's not a fine tea by any stretch of
the imagination: it doesn't seem to be tea leaves, but rather
little black granules of tea. For true south Indian chai, the
quality of the tea came in second to the amount of sugar and
milk, it just needs something in there to make it darker.

Brook Bond seemed very popular there (ie, ads and mass marketing,
and tea stands), but if one were going tea shopping for a
connoisseur you'd look for a first-flush or second-flush
Darjeeling or Assam style. Those "real" teas look and taste
completely different. BB seemed to me to be the "Lipton" of India...

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