Thai Red Tea

[Elle]

I know this subject has come up here before, but...

Being iced tea season, i've gotten to thinking about thai iced tea again. No two sources I've found say the same thing about the tea used in it...some say there's actualy a variety of "red tea" that grows in Thailand, some say it's made with chinese black tea, others say that black teas are called "red" by some Asian peoples. And of course there's the various mixes, powders and concentrates dyed with food coloring. So far I've not been able to track down any reference to actual "red tea".

So this time I tried changing my search terms to "thai red tea leaves"...and got this:

http://www.bobateadirect.com/Thai-Tea-L ... r-310.html
http://www.bobateadirect.com/Red-Tea-Lo ... pr-46.html

I'm not sure whether the first link is actualy just loose leaves or if it has the spices mixed in but...actualy enough of the package is in English and I think I can make out the words "Ingredients: Cha Thai (product of Thailand)".

Anyone else think I'm on to something? (I'm not going to jump in and order from that site right away, the shipping is a bit pricey...maybe after I get paid next.)

Any Adagio tea buyer types reading this that can confirm or bust the existance of a thai "red tea" that doesn't involve added colorings?

[Space Samurai]

In China black tea is actually called red tea, hong cha. I've seen Thai tea packaged like that, and it did have food coloring.

Personally a pound of tea for $4 makes me uncomfortable. I'm not saying little asian babies had to pick those leaves, but its a possibility.

[Chip]

I ain't buying or drinking this stuff...I have seen pics of this stuff a while ago, red dyed leaf...

There is a another thread on this subject. Actually there are several...this was a "colorful" one. But you can also search the forum, pretty many posts on the subject.

http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?t= ... t=thai+tea

[Mary R]

Dang! Thanks for hauling out that old thread, Chip! I can't believe that vendor got so vicious--how horribly unprofessional.