Supermarket tea?

[Jasmin]

Just out of curiousity: What kind of tea are the supermarket teas? You know, just the regular 'black' teas in bags? The ones they use for iced tea and you get at breakfast places with milk or lemon?

[Rainy-Day]

Mostly ceylon possibly with some cheap nilgiri and assams. Maybe a mix of all three.

[Margules]

That's actually still rather upscale in terms of bagged tea. The largest exporter is actually Kenya.

[gingkoseto]

Of all the generic black tea I've tasted (India, Ceylon, Turkey, Kenya), Kenya tea is actually my favorite, although it's one of the cheapest.

Last week at a friend's home I had some trader joe organic black tea bag (that 365 something brand). It's probably the best teabag I've ever tasted, better than some low level loose leaf tea. But the package doesn't say where the tea is from. I was very much impressed by the teabag and has written whole food to ask for the production location of the tea. I very much suspect it's from Kenya.

[silverneedles]

365 is whole foods

[skywarrior]

Just out of curiousity: What kind of tea are the supermarket teas? You know, just the regular 'black' teas in bags? The ones they use for iced tea and you get at breakfast places with milk or lemon?

I tend to think that they're sweepings off the floor.

Probably whatever is cheapest.

[brad4419]

Probably whatever is cheapest.

+1

I have heard Kenya is the main place but really could be any black tea dust and fannings they find for the lowest prices. This makes me wonder If someone were to call a teabag company If they could even tell you whats in it.

[sneakers]

Lipton, Tetley and other cheap teas can contain as many as 40 teas, in order to maintain the same flavor all year round. They're made from fannings, the dust that sifts through the bottom row of screens in the sorting process. For the most part they're undrinkable, but a few of the Twinings are not as bad. When forced to drink the awful stuff in a restaurant, I add a little sugar.

[sneakers]

There are some fascinating videos on Yourtube showing how tea is processed. Search around there, as I've lost the URL's.

[teacast]

Whatever is cheapest, definitely. They just want to get those fannings (blaaah) out there!

[sneakers]

What station does your tea broadcast? WFTOP?

[teacast]

Hahah yes . No no, I do a video review podCAST reviewing tea . Thus TeaCast!

[bsteele]

What station does your tea broadcast? WFTOP?

http://www.instantrimshot.com/

[teacast]

Good call @bsteele

[entropyembrace]

I´ve read that a lot of the supermarket teas in North America actually come from Argentina and other South American countries...