What's with the teabags ?

[KidKruger]

What's going on in the world of tea bags ???

At first I thought it was just me being overly fussy.

But then I noticed other people remarking in coffee bars and cafe's that their tea was 'too weak'.

Where I work there are 3 cafeterias and before I got round to politely mentioning that the teas seem to be extremely weak these days so effectively for the same money we're not actually gettin a cuppa anymore, they started offering 'one bag or two' in the tea !! An acknowledgement that teabags (several brands now I believe) are just not 'cutting it'.

I would never have concieved that the good old honest teabag which is DESIGNED to provide a cup of tea, would start failing to do so. It used to be that you'd have to give the teabag only a light squeeze to ensure a strong cup, or a proper crushing squeeze to guarantee a cuppa you could stand your fork in.

Did you notice this ?

It's an outrage and, along with the recession, marks the advent of a harsher world than the most cynical of us could ever have anticipated.

These comments are only in relation to 'normal' tea BTW (ie. builders tea - not the perfumed hippy stuff)

[SeanMacGabhann]

Hadn?t notice that issue ? but I think if I make tea myself I?m happier with it. Leaving it to others means the water is never hot enough IMO, and the result is just weak meh-ness

[Brendan]

I blame them. They are always doing things like this to us.

The bastards.

[KidKruger]

That's exactly it, they did it..

[Narnia]

They're doing it with tea leaves too. Something about the water to leaf ratio.

[KidKruger]

Either the tea is growing weaker (maybe less watering when growing?) or they're choosing to make the teabags with weaker tips.

Even making one at home I've noticed the bags are weaker. ie. PG

[cate]

Maybe they are buying cheap tea bags in order to save money or reusing some. Do you always get the tea bag in your cup, mug or pot? You could always ask what brand they use as well. I find the one in the red box to be good. Usually on special offer at Lidl or Iceland.

[KidKruger]

Good suggestion.

However, the brands are all the same, at home and the outlets I use (Tazo (red), Liptons).

[cate]

The red ones I use aren't Tazo. Maybe catering type ones are weak. I found those Everyday ones in the yellow box to be weak. Can't remember the brand. I still have a foil pack in my cupboard as an 'emergency' supply.

[hibbs]

Yorkshire tea bags are the best...when using other brands I end up using 2 bags per cup to make a decent cuppa.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Barrys tea. It's the only option

[Ridgley]

If you buy cheap teabags, then you tend to get weak tea canteens buy in bulk to save cost and it look like the river Thames I love a decent cup of tea no arty farty hippy tea just straight monkey tea(PG Tips) :)

[Michael Palaeologus]

Sainsburys Red Label.

Well done Est Dulwich, no off-colour references to "tea-bagging"

[Brendan]

Well not up until just then.

[HonaloochieB]

Yorkshire Tea - the leaf variety not the bag. But the bag if you're in a hurry

Also caffs should be shunned if they don't make leaf tea in a large metal pot with scalding hot water.

The animals looked from the cheap tea-bagged cup of tea and the gnat's jerry and saw they were one and the same.

[Mick Mac]

I like my tea really weak. Hate it when they leave the bag in and its already too srong by the time you get it out, or you get it in a hotel, a little teapot with about 6 teabags in it, too strong already, have to ask for more water.

That's just me it seems.

[The Minkey]

Yorkshire tea every time!

[computedshorty]

It might not be the tea perhaps its the size of the holes in the bag, poke a few extra holes in the bags.

[hibbs]

Oh go on then...when my boss asks me if I would like a cup of tea, he always laughs when I ask him for a double bagger.

Michael Palaeologus Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Sainsburys Red Label.

>

> Well done Est Dulwich, no off-colour references to

> "tea-bagging"

[ianr]

Not all brands contain the same weight of tea.

[HAL9000]

Most teabag manufacturers have introduced packs of 80 to 100 teabags which retail at what appears to be a significant discount to their regular product packs. Those packs are usually sold in pound shops.

Regular teabags can usually brew three cups of tea but the discounted teabags are designed to brew one cup of tea.

When a hapless regular teabag user stumbles upon a one-cup teabag the resulting brew will seem unusually weak.

[KidKruger]

I usually buy 40-80 packs and have done for ever.

There's certainly a loss of strength and it has coincided with the same symptoms in the cups of tea I drink from external outlets.

Based on what I have seen here today I shall try Yorkshire, 'Barry' (never heard of that !) and the red (not Tazo) mentioned earlier in the thread. A small mission for this evening, besides mangosteens.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Gasp KK! Barry?s tea is Cork?s finest!

You can buy it in a few shops on the Lane ? Irish Shop obviously or Val?s Grocers opposite the library are usually where I pick mine up

[cate]

Mick Mac Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I like my tea really weak. Hate it when they leave

> the bag in and its already too srong by the time

> you get it out, or you get it in a hotel, a little

> teapot with about 6 teabags in it, too strong

> already, have to ask for more water.

>

> That's just me it seems.

6 tea bags! The tea I forgot the name of is Typhoo. Really good builder's tea in my opinion.

[cate]

Barry's Tea has more than one type. There is a green box and I think the other colour is red. I have tried the green box and it was OK. I do think it depends on what the water is like as to what the tea is like. London water and especially South London is very hard. Rington's is another tea I like but really really hard to find here.