Do Everyday tea blends mostly contain Kenyan tea?

[leena6]

I used to mainly drink Assam or Ceylon tea before moving to the UK, where I starting buying various Everyday blends. This was primarily because they are cheaper and I was a student on a budget!
I always found the taste a little bitter and lacking in flavour and wondered why this was the case with the Everyday teas, as neither pure Assam nor pure Ceylon tasted like this.
Recently, I purchased pure Assam tea again, and the flavour and the after-taste was lovely.
Most (not all) Everyday blends contain a bit of Assam tea, usually mixed with Kenyan or Ugandan tea, I think. I was once told that Kenyan and Assam have a similar flavour, but maybe this is untrue. Is Kenyan the stronger of the two, hence bitter in comparison?

[mcrdotcom]

I used to mainly drink Assam or Ceylon tea before moving to the UK, where I starting buying various Everyday blends. This was primarily because they are cheaper and I was a student on a budget!
I always found the taste a little bitter and lacking in flavour and wondered why this was the case with the Everyday teas, as neither pure Assam nor pure Ceylon tasted like this.
Recently, I purchased pure Assam tea again, and the flavour and the after-taste was lovely.
Most (not all) Everyday blends contain a bit of Assam tea, usually mixed with Kenyan or Ugandan tea, I think. I was once told that Kenyan and Assam have a similar flavour, but maybe this is untrue. Is Kenyan the stronger of the two, hence bitter in comparison?

I can't really contest to the origin of the tea leaves but processing and tea leaf quality probably play a big role in that. If the everyday blends are cheaper, then the tea is probably of a lower quality and thus bitter (stronger doesn't have to mean more bitter). I've never really been a fan of blends.

[ethan]

Putting tea into individual-use tea bags or 100-gram packaging etc. is big business. There are companies w/ vast amounts of tea from various countries, mixing different amounts of teas for many brands to meet specific demands, which may not be what others consider concern for "quality".

Tea-dust is a major health concern at these factories which have wonderful venting systems to keep this dust out of workers' lungs & eyes. The dust is not thrown away. As much as 35% is added to some mixes of tea, not just to keep cost down but also because it darkens the water quickly & thoroughly which makes a favorable impression on many consumers.

Talking about what is being called "Everyday" tea here, I remind you that even if a package listed Assam, it could be Assam tea-dust.

Until several years ago I drank several cups of Salada, Tetley, Lipton, or Red Rose tea (w/ milk) everyday. A big treat would be the same cheap leaves & dust flavored w/ bergamot (Earl Grey). Once familiar w/ how much better an experience can be had w/ a bit more $, I am no longer satisfied doing that. That's probably how it is for most people.

[leena6]

I had been having lots of Yorkshire tea and Twinings blends. Even though I'd read several good reviews about them, I didn't really like the taste as much as the Assam/Ceylon teas that I used to have earlier.
A friend told me that most supermarket blends are primarily made of Kenyan as it is (apparently) the cheapest to procure. I doubt that's true though, as I'm sure the best quality Kenyan teas are expensive, too.
The Assam that I've purchased is from Taylors of Harrogate and is absolutely delicious.

[Evan Draper]

https://www.uktradeinfo.com/Statistics/ ... Table.aspx
Looks like UK still imports 3 times as much tea [by value, you're free to fiddle with the figures] from Kenya as it does from India, the runner-up. Kenya has made some strides in specialty product in the last few years, but that doesn't affect their mass market product. I've heard Argentine tea makes up the lion's share of the supermarket blends here in the States.

[Alex]

Here's my everyday blend

http://www.cantonteaco.com/canton-engli ... t-tea.html

[ClarG]

I have heard this as well.

I know that Yorkshire brand tea does have Kenyan tea in it. Both the black tea and green tea are like this.

[Evan Draper]

And the limited experiences described don't sound sufficient to sustain a generalization that "Kenyan tea is not as good as Assam"; I would counter-propose that "cheap tea is generally not as good as more expensive tea", affected by all sorts of growing and harvest factors, the least significant of which is strictly country of origin.

[ClarG]

And the limited experiences described don't sound sufficient to sustain a generalization that "Kenyan tea is not as good as Assam"; I would counter-propose that "cheap tea is generally not as good as more expensive tea", affected by all sorts of growing and harvest factors, the least significant of which is strictly country of origin.

Yes, I know that Stash tea uses Argentine tea, and Kenyan tea in their blends. They also use tea from Malawi.

I have family and friends who enjoy weak tea steeped only for 1-2 minutes, or bagged tea since they want a quick cup of tea so they buy and use stash tea. I also sometimes use it for those purposes as well or take it with me while traveling and staying in hotels.

If you would like I can tell you the stash tea blends that have Kenyan tea in them. I actually did contact them and asked this.