As far as I can tell, Darjeeling and regular old Irish breakfast tea essentially taste the same. But the former is more expensive. I think I've been scammed by Big Tea.
As far as I can tell, Darjeeling and regular old Irish breakfast tea essentially taste the same. But the former is more expensive. I think I've been scammed by Big Tea.
I'm on a weekend vacation and forgot to bring my tea and the international grocery didn't have it, so I settled for Darjeeling. I can barely notice the difference. It's so subtle that it might as well just be a different tea brand.
IBT is on the stronger/darker side, Darjeeling is on the lighter side.
IBT should be rich, dark, high in caffeine, with a strong flavor that doesnt get overpowered by milk, or ruined by a little oversteeping. It can still be burned if you use water that's too hot.
Darjeeling should be amber-colored, light tasting, moderate in caffeine, and should have some floral notes. The flavors can be drowned out by milk or oversteeping in my opinion. Best black and lightly steeped in sub-boiling water.
This is a great description of the difference between bold and light black tea! I never thought about the over steeping and milk overpowering aspects and it makes so much sense -- thank you!
If you don't notice the difference, well, your loss. I take a nice Darjeeling or Assam over a British Zombie Tea any time.
OPs reasons may be wrong, but the conclusion is nonetheless correct: Big tea did scam you.
I KNEW IT!
I'd have to assume that the Irish breakfast tea you had before just simply wasn't Irish breakfast tea.
Darjeeling is one of the lightest teas, not good for much other than "afternoon tea and cakes at Gleneagles hotel" kinda thing
Try giving a cup of that to Bunny McGarry and see how fast he shoves a hurley up yer arse
One time a friend brought me some good quality, loose leaf Darjeeling tea. The box said to drink without milk or sugar, so I thought I'd give it a try.
I am now a convert to plain black tea. That stuff was good!
A few years ago I got myself a nice tea maker with adjustable temperature and brew time. Then I got some nice Assam tea, brewed a pot, and it turned out so nice I decided it didn't even need milk. Then I ended up on a wikipedia spiral and found out that the Brits apparently started putting milk in their tea when they started drinking Assam tea, after being used to milder Chinese teas. Heh.
Sounds like you've been drinking some shit twinings level Darjeeling.
Alternative
I think the £3 bottle of prosecco I got from aldi and the £100 Champaign taste the same.
Look at this fella, drinking tea on their weekend vacation. 🙄
Are you comparing bagged tea or looseleaf? I feel like bagged tea tends to taste pretty similar, especially if sourced from a grocery store vs a tea shop.
Bagged. And that could be the case.
Seconded. Most grocery store brands are low quality tea. Think grocery store tea is to good tea as Folgers instant is to a decent coffee shop fresh grind.
Good tea isn’t easy to find, at least in the US.
If you can find a place that sells good tea loose leaf you’ll enjoy it much more and be able to taste differences.
I think you got ripped off. Darjeeling has a different taste than Irish Breakfast, but I'm terrible at describing tastes.
IBT is best tea and I will die on this hill.
Or maybe any hill. Perhaps I just want to die on some kind of hill? (/s btw:-P)
One sugar, splash of lemon, it is really great.
Often I will just drink it straight, especially if with a yogurt. Or a bit of creamer, whereupon you can still taste it through that and also with breakfast:-).
do you mind me asking about the amount of tea you have used as well as the time you let it sit for? most black tea like darjeeling and blends of breakfast teas taste very similar if brewed too strong (i.e. too much tea or too much time). i like to use about a tee spoon full of tea for a mug size and let it sit for about 3-4min max.
I am confused as to why you spelled “tea” correctly six time in your comment, and then spelled “teaspoon” (a spoon used for stirring & measuring tea) wrong.
Not criticizing, just confused.
They use a tiny wooden spoon made out of a golf tee, duh.
They were probably using a voice dictate feature. You know how unreliable those things are…
English breakfast tastes like Darjeeling according to Vampire Weekend: https://youtu.be/v0Jyn8uideU
I'd argue that most people can't see nor taste the difference between similar products unless they are literally beside each other.
Many products, sure. And with many caveats; Earl Grey is clearly distinct from Darjeeling, although both are black teas, simply because of the added bergamot. I can tell many apples apart - I couldn't name them in a blind test, but in most cases I can tell you which aren't Honey Crisp - the textures and tastes are very different for many varietals of apples. However, I don't think I could identify what kinds of apples are in an apple cider.
I'm sure you have your own examples. I'm not disagreeing with you, in general.
This may be one of the most 'first world problems' worthy problems I've ever read...
edit: /S for the downvoting folks that take a shower thoughts post seriously
It's a shower thought, dude. Also, there's no such thing as Big Tea as far as I know.
Edit: I literally thought that in the shower and it amused me.
Thats what the dutch east India company wants you to think
The British empire has entered the chat (backed by a very heavily armed fleet of warships).
There is however a Mr. T, and he would indeed pity the fool duped by a Darjeeling flim flam done in his name.
I knew a guy who looked into starting a tea growing business in Nepal. He was simplifying, I'm sure, but his answer in the end was it's all controlled by the tea mafia!
Tea bags -- depending upon your locality -- are also a large source of micro plastic consumption. I've switched to loose leaf but it's ridiculously expensive and very worse.
Microplastic? I thought teabags were quite organic. Do you have a source on being microplastic?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49845940 https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/27/health/microplastics-tea-bags-study-scn-scli-intl/index.html
It's a subject I follow more closely than most I bother with.
I'd expect (and from experience is the case) loose leaf to be cheaper, since it requires less packaging.
Loose is usually higher in quality (depending on brand). The tea bags are usually just dust and basically production trash.
Good quality tea can also be brewed multiple times. And there you can make the price good again.
Say 12g cost 20€. Brewing 4g one time equals 5€ per cup.
If you brew the same 4g 5 times it reduces to 1€ per cup.
Some teas can be brewed up to 6 or 7 times but I had only luck with <5 times.I am not saying tea bags are shit but they arent good either. A local testing company in Germany also tested a high amount of heavy metals in tea like lead.
Loose tea isnt immune to that but may be less suscepticle to it due to less machine handling.
"Tea" inside tea bags is just dust from the tea factory floors. Micro plastics are the least of your concern.
Darjeeling is just a region where tea is made right?
It's like my Keurig tastes the same as my hand ground coffee from Columbia?
Champagne is just a region where sparkling white wine is
madegrown right?Some regions just have the right mix of climate, soil, sun, temperature, precipitation etc that gives the product its cachet.
I love Irish breakfast tea, but I don't think I've ever had Darjeeling. Will have to pick some up soon to compare.
FYI, the taste differences become far more obvious with better quality teas. Darjeeling, being a more subtle (and posh) tea show this strongly. It's also a lot less tolerant of poor brewing.
For best results, don't cheap out, and look up optimal brewing instructions.
