danube > writes:

> On Tue, 03 May 2005 20:58:19 -0600, Eric Jorgensen wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> Brook Bond is a cheap brand of tea in the UK, like PG Tips. As far as I
> know there are Indian companies around which buy these western labels
> (Tata, Hindustan Lever). There once was a debate whether Indian tea
> drinkers would pay premium prices for higher quality teas which are
> usually exported to the West. In my experience this is not the case, tea
> in India is usually with milk and plenty of sugar plus spices.

When I was in West Bengal a couple of months ago, I saw a few places
to buy Darjeeling with full vintage information (hopefully accurate,
but from what I heard, not necessarily in all the shops.) These shops
seem to have been around for a long time. I also saw, in a chain
grocery store in an upper-class neighborhood, several different
brands/grades of Darjeeling. These gave me the impression of an
attempt to gull naive shoppers, for there was no information on flush
or year. Aside from this, all I saw for sale was CTC tea marketed for
strength, not taste.

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