bloody tea bags

[Jim GM4 DHJ ...]

but they spat on it....

[The Natural Philosopher]

Pay some extra for massive marketing campaign - Yorkshite tea. Pay less for really good tea - Waitrose essentiall English Breakfast..

[charles]

I like M&S Strong Tea

[Jim GM4 DHJ ...]

tea is tea to me

[No Name]

no its not.... its like saying cheese is cheese or engine oil is engine oil!

Tetleys I consider to be dish water...

the half decent black teas would be PG Tips, Yorkshire, Twinings etc.

[Andrew]

Buy tea-bag squeezer from pound shop

[Andrew]

You cannot squeeze the tea bag using those silly plastic stirrers that most take-away places supply, so the tag is necessary to dunk the bag up and down and then remove it.

[Andrew]

Sainsburys red label is just fine for me, with semi-skimmed.

[tabbypurr]

Yuck. I tried that once.

NT

[nightjar]

On 20/08/2020 14:58, Andrew wrote: ...

The bag traps tannins inside it. Squeezing the bag forces them out and makes the tea more bitter.

[Dave W]

+1 I have standardised on Waitrose looseleaf Darjeeling. I like it either with Waitrose whole unhomogenised milk or without milk.

The leaves grow enormous with hot water and make a bit of a mess in my food recycling bin.

[Andrew]

How does tea made with loose-tea manage then ??

I'm sure I saw a program that said you should leave the tea to brew (loose or bags) for 3 minutes.

One of those Gregg Wallace 'In the factory' programs.

[Andrew]

Do you like/hate Marmite ?.

The water greatly affects the taste of tea. I get somewhat hard water from Southern Water, while folks in Scotland generally have softer water, I believe.

[Chris Hogg]

So the pores in the tea bag are fine enough to filter tannin molecules? Really? It's the tannins in tea that give it its flavour. If you squeeze the tea bag, you get more of the same. If you think it tastes bitter, then add more hot water and dilute it.

[Tim Streater]

Correct. Except it was five mins. I was doing three, upped it to five, tastes better.

[The Natural Philosopher]

+1 LOL!

[nightjar]

No. Tannins do diffuse out. However, the concentration of tannins is much higher inside the bag. If you squeeze the bag, those tannins get forced out and create a more bitter and acidic flavour compared to the one the tea blenders intended.

[nightjar]

They blend the tea to suit the way it is going to be made.

[Dave W]

Tea bags in cups taste more bitter than if brewed in a teapot and then poured out. The bitterness seems to sink to the bottom of the pot and doesn't get to the cup.