FoodBanter.com - View Single Post - Lipton-bashing (was "The truth about tea dust")

wrote:
> It is basically a bunch of B.S. This same comment has been being made
> for years, and it is just silly. Lipton, who is actually the company
> who most claim to use "dust" actually cultivates their own leaves...
> yet they just started to get into the loose tea market. So all these
> years what were they doing with the "real" leaves? They powder it to be
> able to make more money. It takes less tea per serving and the tea
> releases its flavor quicker.

---------> I agree. Lipton has actually sold loose tea for many, many
years BTW but the vast majority of the tea they sell is bagged.
Fannings and "dust" are used because they infuse more quickly, and
because anything larger does not have sufficient room to expand in a
standard tea bag.

Many commercial blends that are sold as loose tea are CTC and some are
only about a notch above being dust. Again, these teas were designed
to infuse more quickly than whole leaves, and to be more affordable to
the masses. They are not bad teas, per se. Personally, I don't like
using loose tea that is too dusty because it is too fine for the
strainer to catch it all. But I have also had very expensive loose tea
made from whole leaves that I did not feel was worth the price. In
some cases I actually preferred the CTC or even the bagged teas.

>
> I consider myself to be a tea purist and while I really enjoy a high
> quality tea, I am not on such a high horse that I can't enjoy a cup of
> Lipton when the mood strikes me.

I also like high-quality tea but could not possibly afford to drink it
exclusively, given the large quantities of tea that I consume every
day. I like Taylors and Twinings, which some look down upon, but there
is a limit to how much I can afford to spend on tea. I also like the
fact that these teas are blended for consistency. It's a great comfort
knowing exactly what to expect from a particular tea. Besides, the
Queen drinks Twinings and if it is good enough for her, it is good
enough for me.

I also like what many would deem to be "lower quality" teas sold in
supermarkets. I don't like Lipton (there's nothing wrong with it, I
just don't happen to care for it), but at work I drink Tetley British
Blend all day long. And at home I drink more PG Tips than anything
else. My main complaint about teas sold in the supermarket is not
their quality, but that I can't brew them as strong as I would like. I
cannot get enough flavor out of any 2-gram string & tag tea bag, which
is why I stick with Tetley British Blend and teas imported from the UK
that have more tea per bag.

Pat