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Said like a true "never had good tea in their life" individual.
Ok I’ll bite, I’ve had Brit coworkers try to draw me into their tea cult with Yorkshire tea which they “promised” me was like crack in a cup.
Note before you say I didn’t make it right I have an electric tea kettle with options for all tea types and I steep things like black tea for 4 minutes as is recommended.
It was… ok, not worth the bother if I’m honest. I’ll stick to matcha or Japanese green tea personally.
But I will yeet any British tea into the nearest harbor out of spite to being told tea is the best beverage ever.
I am sorry... They gave you Yorkshire tea and expected you to be impressed? Please tell me you are joking.
In Canadian equivalent it's like trying to take a foreigner to Tim Hortons. Just because it's the historical cheap swill choice of the masses one participates in out of habit doesn't mean it is objectively good.
Yes and not joking. They were from Leeds if that matters but even if it’s the timmies of black tea they’re the ones to blame. I tried I mean I love jasmine tea and green teas and black teas it’s just tea though not a cult.
It wasn’t bad just if I can invoke a phrase from my grandma it’s acceptable.
I am in the process of a long term tea vs coffee war with my partner. I love both but tea is easier on me. Both are rabbitholes and because they are cultural standbys a lot of people grew up with one or the other and like it more because of personal familiarity than actually forming a detached opinion.
A lot of friends over the years who "didn't like coffee" simply formed the opinion because people who didn't really know coffee gave them stuff that was kind of shit. Giving them something on the upper end of the spectrum or is just very different from their expectation can change people into full on coffee drinkers. It's more common in coffee because a lot of people actually don't like dark roasts or are sensitive to stale oxidized tastes.
Tea is generally harder to convert people to with as much enthusiasm because individual blends vary so widely that it can be hit or miss for individual tastes. You need to try people on like several blends over multiple days to find out their profile.
Yorkshire tea is one of the best mass market teas you can find.
Yeah, but if you are trying to actually impress someone it's not where you start. I buy Yorkshire when I am hard up for cash because I am already addicted to black tea and it's ridiculously cheap but in the realm of tea in general it's equivalent to the same supermarket coffees.
If you actually want to hook someone you give them the good stuff first to show them the experience to aspire. If it's coffee go to a roaster, buy whole bean, grind it yourself before brew and use good technique in prep or go to a shop that knows their shit to do it all for you. If it's tea go and spring for a loose leaf properly sealed, pay attention to steep time and ideal water temp. You want to see their eyes shine when they take their first sip with the realization of a new word opening up.
Give it like a few years and they'll drink Yorkshire of their own volition. If you didn't grow up with tea as a nostalgia you got to traverse a barrier and create a memory they want to relive in another way.
Actually having to search out specially selected obscure teas, relatively expensive equipment and follow stringent instructions on how to correctly prepare something will put most people off.
If someone wants to learn to play the guitar you don't go out and spend 1000s on a top of the range guitar and amp and pay Dave Grohl to give you lessons. You get a beginner level rig and see if you like it first, then graduate onto refining.
How on earth did you interpret I was suggesting you place that kind of burden on a beginner - are you mental?
No! You, the converter make tea for the convertee so all they need to do is put fabulous tea in their face and benefit from your experience.... Or just go to a good restaurant and have actually great tea. Point being is if you want someone to potentially like tea the burden of proof that tea is awesome is on you to prove.
Some might be swayed by giving them stale preportioned box tea that is formulated not to be awesome - just harder than average to fuck up with a long steep time because it's overroasted... But good luck.
I have converted non-coffee /tea people and it's not like they've never had tea before. Some people legit don't like it but more or have been trained to ambivalence because people have given them a lot of mediocre tea and sold them the idea that the mediocre was good. For those people it takes way more than another banal so/so experience solidifing their notion that tea kind of is just "okay" to actually get them curious.
To be honest, Yorkshire Gold is probably the best black tea you can get in US grocery stores. I have some kind of weird tannin sensitivity that causes it and most grocery store black teas to be painfully bitter, but it's a nice "try this and see what you think" tea.
I mean... It's grocery store tea. Same thing as grocery store coffee. It's in the mediocre range. To convert a non-tea person you need more than just giving them "okay". If you give someone who doesn't know tea a mediocre tea and tell them it's "good tea" you basically just increase the evidence that tea isn't all that and they don't see much benefit in seeking it out the same way they would if you go out of your way to blow their mind.
The reason Yorkshire Gold doesn't trip your sensitivity is because they roast it longer. It kind of destroys the individual character and flavor profile of the different tea varieties but it means that it becomes nigh impossible to oversteep.
I prefer loose-leaf tea as well. I can't tell whether I prefer a sweet and relaxing cup of silver needle or a whiskey-strength brew of gyokuro. Genmaicha with matcha dust during a work day is a great little escape, and you can't go wrong with a big-leaf Chinese black tea.
Ironically, the Brits conquered the world only to shut themselves out of every culture they could have learned from.
I think people are overselling it. Typical British tea isn't amazing and it isn't trying to be. It's more like a simple slice of bread and butter when you're feeling peckish but there's nothing else to eat. It just hits the spot. Once you've acquired the taste, you experience it differently. Spend an hour walking home in the rain, get home and change into your jammies, then curl up on the sofa with a nice cuppa. Then it's amazing.
Y’all are having black tea right before bed? That explains so much about the cognitive state that lead to Brexit.
Lead would also explain it.
My fav is sweetened fruit tea or sweetened masala tea, tho at that point I'm just drinking hot fruit juice and a fancy sweet dairy drink.
Irish blends tend to be better, IMO. Better yet, a good Yunnan black or pu ehr. Must Yunnan blacks that I've tried so far even stand up to milk quite well.
If you’ve a recommendation shoot your shot I’m willing to try it. I do refuse to steep black tea for a minute like they said, tastes like piss at that point and my tea ducky infuser gives me the look of disapproval.
Happy to make some recommendations. What flavors do you like and are you attached to tea bag/infuser or are you interested in gong fu/multi-infusion?
Jasmine, green and black generally are my go tos. I’m only attached to the tea ducky infuser just so I can sing the rubber ducky song while it infuses tea if I’m honest. I’ve no clue what the latter words mean if I’m honest. I’m a simple man, drip coffee and loose leaf tea or bags is fine by me.
That's cuz tea is shit.
Here's what I recommend: get some silver needle white tea - Yunnan Sourcing has good stuff - and a big tea strainer basket that goes in your mug. Boil the leaves for three minutes, but don't dump the basket, just put it aside. Drink the cup. Then boil them again for 3 minutes 30 seconds, drink, and boil for 4 minutes. See how that goes. If you get a big bag of tea, you'll be able to experiment.
I used to believe tea was trash too. That was because I was only drinking grocery store bags. Problem with those is the tea in them is stale, like breadcrumbs, and typically devoid of flavor. Broaden your horizons a bit.