| Inquiry about Tea
Posted: 11/17/2007 6:24:09 PM | I have grown really used to making this Tetley brand tea. Now it is not available in my state anymore so I'd like a suitable replacement. This was not a really black tea, more of a deep amber. It was called Orange Pekoe.
I just read on Tetley Tea's Website that "Orange Pekoe" refers to the size of the tea leaf.
What is Orange Pekoe?
Contrary to its name, Orange Pekoe (pronounced "peck-o") is not a flavor, color or even a type of tea as one might assume. Pekoe and Orange Pekoe originally referred to the size of the leaves that were plucked, each leaf of the shoot having a different name. Presently these terms refer to the average size leaf used in a blend of teas. Tetley uses only the smallest and most tender leaves picked from the Camellia Sinensis bush to achieve the pure tea flavor we are so proud to serve.
Anyway every other Orange Pekoe I have ever bought never seems as smooth as Tetley's. Can anyone reccomend me a replacement? Preferably something I can find locally which shouldn't be a problem as I'm in a large set of cities.
How I make my iced tea:
10-12 bags per gallon, 20 minute steep, add lemon and sugar and I'd have my gallon of iced tea which fills two pitchers. Usually I'm set for the week.
I guess I can order Tetley's through their website but the shipping and handling is 150% of the cost of the tea plus the cost of the tea. Be stupid to pay 12 bucks a box for something that I used to get for 3, 2 on sale for a box of 100 teabags. For that kind of money I can and have bought better tea instead of waste it on shipping and handling. I've found wonderful tins at my asian grocery store of green tea, specifically Tikuanyin China Oolong Tea. $6 for 7 ounces. My other favorite is Pu-Earh-Tea which is a very smooth black tea, same price. Both are top shelf products and both great in their own way but nothing like Tetley's orange pekoe flavor I originally went in search of replacing.
Lipton's isn't even close.
Any suggestions? Specific brand names would be appreciated. | |
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| Inquiry about Tea
Posted: 11/17/2007 6:40:13 PM | | you probably can't get it locally, but I love Luzianne for iced tea. it doesn't cloud like others. Look at : http://www.thecajunconnection.com/luziannetea.html | |
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| Inquiry about Tea
Posted: 11/17/2007 6:49:32 PM |  You want TEA, then Go To The Source, CHINA, TAIWAN, JAPAN
Check out Orental Tea and figure that if you don't get 5 pots of Tea per Tea spoon of tea, then you got ripped off...
It is best to buy tea in Bulk, so you want a bulk supplier like Mountain Rose. web-site...
As long a your thinking of tea, you might consider other Flower Teas Like Jamica a good price on it is $5.00 per pound...
Also if you suffer from a weak amune system you might cosider ESSIAC it is a Canadian Cancer Treatment that really dose work...
As far as that American BullDung Tea is concerned, One you get into REAL TEA, you will find a happier healthier lifestyle... 
GOOD LUCK TO YOU... | |
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| Inquiry about Tea
Posted: 11/17/2007 6:57:43 PM | Random:
Now might be the time to try some english breakfast tea as it is similar to what you describe. Try Twinings and see if you like it. Most stores sell it--though it isn't as inexpensive as the brands you previously named. If you have a Job Lot type of store, you can often find a lot of high quality teas there --for less $.
Experiment & Enjoy  | |
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| Inquiry about Tea
Posted: 11/17/2007 7:09:05 PM | | Try Red Rose if you can get it in your area, I can get both Red Rose and Tetley in Florida and definitely prefer the Red Rose... | |
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| Inquiry about Tea
Posted: 11/17/2007 7:47:45 PM |
Red Rose Tea is a beverage company established by Theodore Harding Estabrooks in 1894 in New Brunswick, Canada. Its orange pekoe tea is said to be made from only the top two leaves of each tea plant sprig, thus ensuring the best quality.
from wikipedia.org
That sounds exactly like what I'm looking for. Unfortunately their website is down at the moment but I'll try an online search of a few specific stores. I think I saw that brand in a local market once.
"Mountain Rose" rang up about ten pages of B&B's and nothing about tea but the essiac tea sounded interesting.
Breakfast tea. I've tried many of those but none were quite as smooth or as suitable for making iced tea as Tetley's was. I used to drink a lot of Earl Grey, too, but burned out on it.
There is something about the amber color of that tetley's orange pekoe and its smooth flavor that specifically lends itself to making the best iced tea. Thanks for the responses! | |
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| Inquiry about Tea
Posted: 11/17/2007 8:56:17 PM | I love hot tea and drink it all day long if at home - it really relaxes me either in the morning, afternoon or evening. It doesn't keep me up like coffee or wire me up.
I can't say that I wouldn't try just about anything, but my favorites are generally in a flo thru tea bag or a pyramid tea bag.
Earl Grey is the one I can count on enjoying; Lady Earl too.
In a mood, I can drink Red Raspberry all day long.
Thou I love Green Tea Ice Cream, I really don't relish it as tea. Too weak.
I also do not care for Chinese Jasmine - the restaurant supply kind. Very weak and tasteless. | |
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| Inquiry about Tea
Posted: 11/17/2007 9:18:52 PM | | I love tea... but lately I'm addicted to the good stuff. No more tea bags for me... I'm sold on the real deal. | |
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| Inquiry about Tea
Posted: 11/18/2007 1:54:07 AM | some teas taste better with the type of water you have - and have even been developed for hard, soft, and sulfer type waters--some of the pricier UK tea sites have good info reads on them and well help you be able to pick out teas that you will like
i too have a hard time finding a smooth "blk tea"
my absoute fav is Scottish Breakfast - brand doesnt seem to matter much - its the blending of the two plants i think that make it sooo good | |
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| Inquiry about Tea
Posted: 11/18/2007 7:17:49 AM | I'm drinking a huge mug of it with my raw organic honey added to and snacking on almonds as I write this.
ladynred: I'm far from an expert on tea but my taste buds are real good and sensitive. So for smooth black tea I really recomend heading to the asian grocery and buying a whole leaf Oolong Tea. I believe you can get oolong in both green and black. Green is just picked soon while black tea leaves are allowed to sit to ferment on the plant. So be aware of that but for my money the oolong variety seems the smoothest of all the black teas I've tried so far.
Good for you, .marc, I'm always glad when I see we've encouraged beginners to move on and forward in their culinary adventures. Do you have a specific brand reccommendation? I know it's silly I am still looking for something in the old teabags when I've been a convert to loose leaf for two decades now but somehow nothing quite matches that Tetley Orange Pekoe for iced tea.
Nothing in the asian store goes by the name Orange Pekoe so I think they have a totally different wording and system of ranking the leaf size, but ironically I can find white tea. Which is supposed to be the smallest of all the tea leaves and part of the same ranking system, I believe.
I saw another one I have to try on a repeat of Martha Stewart's show recently, I believe it was a Japanese(?) Green Tea that was ground into a superfine powder. Of course there was a somewhat elaborate ritual but the bottom line was that it needed no steeping and no filtering. It was just stirring into the hot water with a custom flared bamboo whisk and drank. I asked for it in three oriental grocery stores and couldn't find anything like it. I should research her site for it. So far I haven't found it in wikipedia but I'm still looking. | |
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| Inquiry about Tea
Posted: 11/18/2007 7:36:23 AM | As I type my Chai is steeping.
I don't know that recommendations would help in this instance- when I need tea I take the Metro into Washington, D.C.) and go to a place called Teaism. They sell portioned, light tight bags from behind the counter.
Unless I want Jasmine tea.... then I go to China Town... because I figure that they would know good Jasmine tea when they see it in China Town... | |
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| Inquiry about Tea
Posted: 11/18/2007 8:54:47 AM | Also... what is organic honey?
I have a hard time understanding how they would control where the bees get their pollen.... unless they are enclosed field bees get their honey from more or less wherever they want. | |
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| Inquiry about Tea
Posted: 11/18/2007 9:20:07 AM | OP- i grew up on orange pekoe, it was all my folks ever brought next to nescafe's chicory coffee, the teabags came in this big box from, i think, mountain rose *sigh.. memories, i hope you find it
random entry - its called matcha tea .. i made a frappacino with it in the summer, absolute heavenly
marc - i found this explaination on the net ...
"Chemicals, drugs and antibiotics are not something we normally associate with honey. But truth be told, if you eat conventionally produced honey, you might be getting a dose of one or more chemicals every time you sweeten your tea.
According to USDA regulations, honey cannot be labeled certified organic if its production uses even traces of prohibited chemicals, drugs or antibiotics. Non-organic beekeepers routinely use sulfa compounds and antibiotics to control bee diseases, carbolic acid to remove honey from the hive and calcium cyanide to kill colonies before extracting the honey¹, and of course conventional honeybees gather nectar from plants that have been sprayed with pesticides. The Lancet, a prestigious international medical journal, reported in 1993 that conventionally produced honey may contain residues of these chemicals and should be used with caution², which is one of the reasons many of us jump for joy when we find a reliable source of certified organic honey"
happy tea drinking folks | |
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| Inquiry about Tea
Posted: 11/18/2007 3:15:24 PM | The best tea to us is Luzianne tea--they still use it at lots of restaurants-- I used
to run a truck stop in SC and got accustomed to that brand tes. You just boil
3 family size tea bags for 1 gallon tea and use 2 cups of sugar--actually a cup and
a half is plenty of sugar, but my family prefers 2 cups sugar.
We like to set the tea aside after it starts to boil with a lid on it and let it steep for
about 3-5 minutes makes it taste a little better too.
Try it and let me know how you like it.
kandi46 | |
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| Inquiry about Tea
Posted: 11/18/2007 3:56:51 PM | | I absolutely love Mighty Leaf tea- all varieties. The Vanill Bean is awesome. It is fairly expensive however i think its worth it. It comes in these beautful silk teabags with silk string...makes a wonderful cuppa | |
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| Inquiry about Tea
Posted: 11/18/2007 6:02:49 PM | Random...email me...I tried to email you but I guess my smoking, and my old age stopped me...LOL
I dont know a suitable replacement for tetley tea.....(thats MY tea too)...and would be happy to help you out for just the exact cost of the tea and shipping to send you several boxes...
In the south, Tetley is the number one tea...I understand your pain :-) | |
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| Inquiry about Tea
Posted: 11/18/2007 6:20:03 PM | I was just reading about all this tea talk and had to smile when I got down to thinknmansgirl's post. How sweet of you to make that offer. I love to see people do something out of the goodness of their heart and I can't say I see that very often anymore. Thanks for the smile.
Now i'm more of an Iced Tea drinker than a hot tea one. I use Lipton's Cold Brew tea bags to make a big ole pitcher. No lemon and no sugar. Love it! I don't care for flavored tea. When I drink hot tea I usually drink Chamomile (kroger store brand) or Green tea (kroger's also). | |
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| Inquiry about Tea
Posted: 11/18/2007 8:11:27 PM | Check out Dilmah tea. I buy mine at IGA. Its smooth like Mighty Leaf but not near as expensive. Dilmah is the brand name, not the type of tea. Its Ceylon tea.
As for pronounciation, it seems anything even partly British has multiple pronounciations ie scone or my fave, khaki. I was brought up to say it like 'karkey'. | |
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| Inquiry about Tea
Posted: 11/18/2007 8:24:38 PM | Hi there! I enjoy the full but smooth flavour of PG Tips orange peoke tea. I have tried Red Rose but I find that it is too dissimilar from the Tetley tea. Incidentally, the PG Tips is about 1/3 less costly in the stores as compared to Tetley.
Best wishes and I hope you are able to find the PG Tips! | |
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| Inquiry about Tea
Posted: 11/18/2007 8:33:39 PM | Hey all:
I am a personal fan of hot tea, but do enjoy iced tea on occasions out, at restaurants and such, because they have virtually NO selection, besides the nasty Lipton tea.
I fell in love with the tea you get in most oriental restaurants, Oolong. You can't get it from the supermarket, and let me tell you, unless you have friends who frequent an Asian Market and can tell you where it is, finding a seller is pretty much near impossible.
Most grocery stores sell white tea(isn't that made from the flower buds?), green tea, and the traditional selection of black tea. I happened upon the Asian Market in the Charlottesville VA area by asking all the Asian people I met where they bought their foodstuffs.
Oolong is between a green tea, and black.
I recently started enjoying another tea, bought from Barnes & Noble at their coffee bar, Harney and Sons Mango Black Tea. I brew my tea in a regular coffee maker, one oolong tea bag, and one Black Tea bag(I'm experimenting with different flavors from the Harney website: www.harney.com)to make one whole pot(12 cups)of tea--two tea bags made it way too strong. Of course, I'm not your traditional 4-6 oz. cup tea drinker, I usually use a 20-24 oz. glass, filled 5/6 of the way up, an eighth of a teaspoon of sugar, and some cubes of ice to take the heat off. Doesn't take me long to finish up the pot! I drink 2-3 pots at work. I love that stuff! I had to find some other warm beverage that gave me a small amount of caffeine, and didn't(like coffee)give me that 'hangover' feeling the next morning(so groggy I needed 2x as much coffee to maintain the level of energy from the day before).
Anyway, one poster referred to if it's good tea you should be able to get 'x' amount of pots from a single bag/serving/whatever, that could definitely be the case with the selection of the Black Teas found at that website! Much, MUCH cheaper to buy it online: for one tin of 1.4 oz. of bagged tea(30? sachets), at B&N=$8....online you can buy 4 oz. of the same tea, loose, for $6.50! One teabag(sachet)is equal to one teaspoon of loose tea, so I know I got a huge deal!!
I vouch for Harney and Sons!!! They also have a nice selection of fruit teas, which I think will be AWESOME in the Summer. Haven't tried them cold yet.... | |
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| Inquiry about Tea
Posted: 11/18/2007 9:05:15 PM | go to GroundGreenTea.com for the ground tea that is made in the japanese tea rituals. this is good tasting. Have been drinking it for about 6 months now. I can make it with cold water at work and enjoy it at my desk.
good luck with finding all your tea varieties | |
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| Inquiry about Tea
Posted: 11/19/2007 2:43:00 PM |  Wow, who would have thought it was that easy. Groundtea.com is exactly what was on the show that day. In my enthusiasm to try this I used my spice grinder and ground up some green tea I had on hand. Wow, what a caffeine kick I've got going now. Hope it doesn't last too late.
I fell in love with the tea you get in most oriental restaurants, Oolong. You can't get it from the supermarket, and let me tell you, unless you have friends who frequent an Asian Market and can tell you where it is, finding a seller is pretty much near impossible.
I had to laugh when I read that because I suppose for most it is true but for me I travel right through at least half a dozen asian stores on the way home and can get Oolong tea very easily as well as live softshell crabs and live lobster. It's actually easier and cheaper for me to shop in those places than it is to go to a regular supermarket. I'm glad to see you appreciate oolong as a superior tea. The stuff I buy looks just like the picture on the right at this site only much greener, fresher: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oolong_tea
Most grocery stores sell white tea(isn't that made from the flower buds?)
White tea is characterized by a unique manufacturing process where relative low heat and no rolling is applied. The formative stage is an extended period of withering, during which enzymatic reactions progress under the right temperature, humidity and air-flow. The key is to get the fresh leaves to mature properly with minimal oxidation.[1] White tea usually contains buds and young tea leaves, which have been found to contain higher levels of caffeine than older leaves, suggesting that the caffeine content of some white teas may be slightly higher than that of green teas.[2]
Wikipedia has hours of great reading on every kind of tea imaginable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_tea
Interesting article here, too, about how they even add tea extract to toothpaste.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/05/040526070934.htm
Dilmah. Interesting history of the ceylon tea:
The production of black tea in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) began after a deadly fungus called Hemileia vastatrix destroyed most of the coffee crop on the island. The coffee plantation owners realized that they needed to diversify. The Loolecondera Estate had long been interested in producing tea in Sri Lanka. James Taylor, one of the fathers of Ceylon Tea, had recently arrived on the Estate and wanted to be there for the sowing of the first tea crops in 1867. It was done on 19 acres of land. James Taylor was already experienced in tea cultivation. He had acquired his knowledge in North India. He carried out different experiements on cultivating tea on the verandah of his estate. He rolled the leafs by hand and fired the oxidized leaves on clay stoves over charcoal fire.
White Tigress: Matcha tea, many thanks! I was surprised to learn that is also the one being used to make green tea iced cream these days as well as showing up in other treats!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matcha
At the bottom of the page there is even a video tutorial about how to make it.
Thanks to all for the input and brand names, websites, and suggestions. Teawise, it should keep me busy and happy for years to come!  | |
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| Inquiry about Tea
Posted: 11/19/2007 4:33:20 PM | My local tea shop ships, and I have not run across a comparable selection of teas anywhere. http://www.taooftea.com
I'm not familiar with the tetley brand, but I've found the Qimun(Keemun) a nice smooth tea, it steeps to a deep red color, being more oxidized than black teas, but less than pu'er. The site mentions that Qimun tea is commonly used in english breakfast teas. | |
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| Inquiry about Tea
Posted: 11/20/2007 5:08:56 AM | I really like tea from Stash Tea.
But the best in my opinion is Market Spice tea.. Yummy stuff.. | |
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| Inquiry about Tea
Posted: 11/20/2007 7:08:55 AM | | we still can get it in massachusetts and i drink it every day | |
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