Mariage Freres’ Wedding Impérial tea is the Best Tea in the World. It is rich, velvety, chocolatey, and caramel-y. I drink black tea the English way - with milk and sugar - but those who have drunk this tea straight up also say it’s pretty awesome. It is not very astringent (i.e. tannic), like some (cheap) teas that make you feel like all the moisture is being sucked out of your mouth. High tannic content is also what makes wine taste dry. Dry wine – good. Dry tea – bad. You can find Wedding Impérial bagged or loose here and here.
The worst tea in the world is what I call convention tea: Lipton tea bags with the same sugar and powdered cream that is served with the coffee. If you’re lucky, you get the little pots of liquid creamer. If you’re unlucky, you get tea water that's been heated in the coffee maker.
There is something even more industrial than Lipton. Remember those hot beverage vending machines from the 1970s? The beige ones with the orange and brown buttons?
ReplyDeleteYeah.
Let's see, there was a button for coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and chicken soup.
Yes, chicken soup.
There was no "cream" or "milk". Only something called "whitener". Hey, at least they were honest about it.
And, you could get extra whitener and extra sugar at no extra cost! Just by pressing the buttons repeatedly.
It was always intensely hot. And there was a poker card on the bottom of the paper cup.
It was like getting a drink from a mainframe computer.
- G
Don't remember the poker cards, but certainly remember the very same vending machines in the 80s! Somehow no-one ever seemed to query the fact that coffee, tea, chocolate & soup (yep, def remember the soup!) all came out of the very same nozzle! personally, I found that a bit off-putting!
DeleteAwesome information....It has made me more enlightened today.
ReplyDeleteI find tea to be very enlightening!
DeleteI tote Yorkshire Tea bags with me wherever I go, and have been known to buy bottles of milk and keep them on hotel windowsills where there's no minibar. I will not subject my tea to nasty creamers - it's far too important!
ReplyDelete