I recently read reviews about a small tea firm in Mie Prefecture, Japan. For the most part reviews were highly favourable, though a few buyers were rather bitter that their experiences did not match their expectations. On one occasion the buyer attacked the product as tasting “cheap and not good”. The product, in this case, being a 1 pound, 1 ounce bag of gyokuro that sold for £27.00 in proper currency. Gyokuro, for those not overly familiar with Japanese teas, is a shade-grown green tea that is among the more dear. Because it is processed somewhat differently than a typical sencha, a more potent tea, brewing recommendations are somewhat different. To obtain the same strength as an average sencha, twice the amount is needed. If one does not take into account the differences, it seems readily apparent that there will be unavoidable disappointment.
Furthermore, if an average lapsang souchong runs £8.00 for just over an ounce and a tolerable Darjeeling goes for £2.00 per ounce then it should be clear that 17 ounces of a higher-tier tea for £27.00 is rather on the low end. After all, a ceremony-grade matcha costs approximately £15.00 per ounce and the inferior cooking-grade costs a mere £9.00 per ounce.
In case anyone is wondering why I am prattling on about the price of tea and the occasional idiot whingeing about not buying gold for the price of lead I will try to make my point now. The whinger was a septic; probably someone who has the pretension of being a connoisseur. I by no means suffer from this delusion, although I humbly claim to be able to note the difference between Lipton’s at a cheap American restaurant and tea at Claridge’s.
Boadicea's Chariot 
Hello Christopher, I’m a Tetley man, me.
Now I know we have pretentious coffee drinkers worldwide; I dislike coffee immensely and would rather drink tar. I had no idea that there were tea drinker poseurs as well. it’s enough to make me want to rattle my china. 🙂
(belated Happy Birthday, Smileys)
TR: I’m a Taylor’s of Harrogate man.
Yorkshire Gold is my standard cuppa. Oddly,
while I prefer loose-leaf teas Yorkshire Gold
I always buy in bags. The loose-leaf tea is finer than most
and leaves a lot of sediment.
Sometimes coffee is good. Bad coffee is simply bad.
Most major brands in North America do not make even a passingly decent
coffee. Starbuck’s always tastes like sugar-coated burnt coffee and Caribou,
the Minnesota favourite, tastes like someone diluted burnt coffee. German and Swedish
brands are consistently the best.
Yes, there are pretentious tea drinkers. In the US it seems as if people are cretins
who think that fourth-rate tea is well enough or prats who somehow think they’re
superior as humans because they spend 10 quid on a cup of mediocre tea.
Christopher, may I be excused for pointing out that ‘connoisseur’ is the conventional spelling and while your man could be a septic (as in tank), he is more likely to be a sceptic? 😉
Five roses for me, the box claims that my tea is hand picked in Ceylon (?) 🙂
Oh, it also comes in handy little packets, straight out of the box and dunked into my mug, no messing about with leaves and strainers here.
However the rest of my family drink Roibos tea, grown on the slopes of Table Mountain (some say) it has a distinctive ‘bush’ taste
The important thing is to read Miss Mitford on the subject. The pot must be pre-heated, the milk poured first, followed by the tea, then the sugar (to taste). While drinking the smallest piggy must be held erect out of sheer excitement.
Five roses is around here and must be the most disgusting tea EVER!.
How strange Chris, we too drink Yorkshire Gold, it is by far the best buy without going into stratospheric prices.
Starbucks coffee is a ranking obscenity! Chris can you get Tony’s coffee? Their songbird shade organic is potable.
Funny that, it’s considered one of the better (and more expensive) of the mass produced teas down here.
We have no coffee in the house, haven’t had for over 20 years now, one of my close family members has an eczema condition, the diet excludes citrus and caffeine amongst others. I have 2 mugs of fresh ground coffee every morning at my regular breakfast stop, it’s just across from our local roastery (I can almost smell it as I sit here :)), that’s me, 2 mugs and I’m all caffeined up for the day!
Since I loathe tea, whatever the label, I really can’t comment on which brand is best.
I visited a tea plantation in China, where we were told that one should never, ever boil the water. Fortunately, by that time I had learnt that if I emptied my cup it would be refilled… I took one sip of the brew on offer and decided that tea in China was just as awful as tea in any other country – my cup was left almost full.
I’m a coffee drinker – with absolutely no pretensions to being a connoisseur.
I was highly amused to hear Clement Freud, one of the Britain’s first ‘celebrity’ chefs describe the best way to impress one’s guests…
“First”, he said, “Take a coffee bean and put it under the grill… then serve instant coffee.” I think he was right – it’s the smell of the coffee in Starbucks and other coffee houses that puts me off.
At the risk of being accused of inverted snobbery, I cannot abide the coffee served in places such as Starbucks, Cafe Nero etc. Not only do I not like the coffee, I hate the trendy smugness of the places and the people who work and the customers who visit them.
No pissy Nespresso machines or other fancy coffee makers for me. I prefer it from a stove percolator or a plunger.
I like both tea and coffee, with lots of milk, hot, in the case of coffee and full cream, always. And no lezzie tea, ever. Earl Grey hovers just below the lesbian band and I will drink it occasionally, but Rooibos, camomile, mint, etc no. Builders tea is what I like.
Nothing wrong with builder’s.
CO: it does not surprise me at all that you drink Yorkshire Gold. It’s strong and potent, but it’s a high-quality tea and it doesn’t taste bitter; even if it’s been brewed for rather too long. More and more people seem to want to make it their standard, the other brands increasingly disappointing. As for coffee… I order German and Swedes brands from a small business owner in Ohio who stocks them. No need for any septic atrocities for me. In case I want something more potent, I simply request that a friend sends me coffee from Brazil.
Boadicea: in China, where green and white teas are most commonly drunk, water should not be boiled as it would destroy the tea lives and ruin the taste. For those of us drinking black teas the water should be boiled as the fermentation changes the properties of the leaf. The Chinese also merely run water through the leaves. The taste is delicate and faint, but it has to be as it would otherwise be bitter.
Soutie: tea leaves are almost invariably picked by hand. They’re delicate and not all leaves are suitable for picking.
Janus: I do not know what you mean about my wonderful spelling. 😀
I’ve never been able to work out why instant coffee tastes meaty like Bovril!
You should try the tea in Wales, so strong that the spoon stands up!! And that’s without the sugar!
Good for Bara Brith and not much else! Puts hairs on you.
Christina, I use Yorkshire Gold for soaking the fruit for my Bara Brith.
So do I! Never, but never, get tempted to buy Welsh Brew (Paned Cymreig) for making Bara Brith, it ought to come with a health warning it is so strong, comes out black!
I swear every farmhouse I know has a bit old brown bess pot sitting on the back of the Aga stewing ALL day, they just add water. After a few years one is able to control the wincing as it goes down!!! Which is where the recipe comes from in the first place!
One has to consider one is dead lucky in some that you get a clean cup.
I have a story about that, no time now, must away to visit, but will tell it later, check back.
Many old French kitchens, especially in the country, used to have a coffee pot kept warm all day with the occasional addition of water. All day – perhaps all week.
For the fixated of our cherished tea-drinkers, this is quite useful:
http://www.tea.co.uk/a-social-history
For cherished tea-devotees, so to speak: http://www.tea.co.uk/a-social-history
Oops, a second cup!