TeaChat

Hello. I have a general question about mainstream black teas such as PG tips and Liptons (and others).

Lipton's states that their tea is orange pekoe and pekoe cut tea.

PG tips special blend says it's ceylon and kenyan black tea. I'm not sure what the plain PG tips is , but I'm sure the ingredients are generic also.

in your opinion, do these generic brands purposely not mention which black teas they are so that they can use any brand they want to obtain a certain "taste". Or maybe they dont' mention it because people won't be interested in that. (unlike me)

which black teas specifically do you think they use?

I really don't mind the taste of liptons, but I don't like the idea of drinking "generic" tea.

Aw, Lipton, Twinings, PG and crew aren't really trying to pull a fast one or anything. It's just that people expect them to taste a certain way, so they use lots of different teas from lots of different places to obtain a consistent end product. And because teas from the same place can differ in taste from harvest to harvest, they constantly switch the ones they use in their blend. If they don't, consumers tend to go a little nutty, like the guy from Save Twinings who insists their Earl Grey tastes different than it used to.

The History Channel's Modern Marvels documentary on tea explains the whole blending thing much better than I can. It can be found online in its entirety here.

Lipton and other big tea-bag companies try to keep a consistent flavor from batch to batch, so their customers always get what they expect. Each harvest is a little different (just like any fruit or vegetable crop), so maintaining a constant "formula" of teas would not necessarily keep the flavor constant as well. To do this, they need to reconfigure their blends, and it would be nearly impossible to reprint their teabags and whatnot to keep up with the changes.

This is shown in the history channel special on tea, which you can find by searching around in the forum. It's pretty interesting, imo.

Mary, Mary. Always one-upping me!

Mwah-ha-ha! I win!

Seriously, though...our psychic connection is starting to freak me out. Stop reading my mind!

thanks for the link and replies. it makes lots of sense.