TeaChat

I was over at a friends home recently. She was telling me how she ordered Twinings tea from their USA site, but through a special "Direct From The UK" link after hearing a British Twining's fan complain about the lack of quality in the tea, under that brand, she found in the U.S..

To drive her point home my friend invited me into her kitchen.

First, she had me smell a tin of Earl Grey she ordered from the Twinings USA site.

Then, she had me smell a tin of Earl Grey she ordered from the Twinings USA site via their "direct from the UK" link.

No exaggeration, the later had a scent several times as strong.

Either Twinings is sending stale tea to the US or they are starting off with lower quality tea.

... one comes over on the slowwwww boat ... while the other comes over on the slow boat! Or are they just dumping crappy tea on the colonies.

Good news, we don't have to buy Twinings.

That's very interesting. I lived in London for a year and one thing I noticed is that the amount of tea per bag in the UK boxes is greater than the amount of tea per bag in the US packages--maybe because they assume you're using them for a pot vs an individual cup? Earl Grey is one of those teas where you would definitely notice a difference, for sure.

I usually bought Twinings Assam tea, which just isn't readily available here.

i once read perrier water sold in the usa has more carbonation than perrier in france since americans have developed a taste from drinking american carbonated soft drinks and expect stronger carbonation. this may be similar in reverse; the english market expects a stronger earl grey taste than the newer tea drinking usa market. just a thought.

Twinings may actually sell different blends for different audiences. Some of the large, multinational tea companies do this...when you buy a tea with the same name in a different country, or intended for a different market, it's not the same.

For example, I've found that the basic Lipton tea sold in Indian stores, imported from India, is much more interesting (to my tastes) than the stuff normally sold in the US.