Question for tea drinkers.

[Burning Petard]

I started to headline this with 'question for knowledgable tea drinkers' but i realized that most anybody (even Liberty) probably knows more about tea than I do. So here goes: is Black tea cheaper than orange and orange peko tea?

Today I made a big batch of iced tea the way I usually do, beginning with a bunch of Lipton tea bags. I noticed the box was marked 'black tea'. I remembered that it had probably been marked that way in my grocery store for a while. When I was much younger and first started making my own tea, I bought Lipton tea bags and it was marked 'orange and orange peko tea." Eventually I got brave and tried something called 'constant comment.' I could recognize it did have a different flavor, not better, just different. I stuck mostly with Lipton tea bags. Then my adult son and his mother, (who was also my person of opposite sex sharing living quarters) introduced me to loose tea in little metal boxes of various types and I decided for hot tea I liked some of the 'green' stuff in particular and most any of it better than Lipton tea bags.

But I am lazy and for a gallon of iced tea at one time, I use Lipton tea bags. Is it now something different than what it used to be as orange and orange peko?

snailgate

[Scooter]

Tea Leaf Grading

Orange pekoe

Orange pekoe (/ˈpɛkoʊ, ˈpiːkoʊ/), also spelled pecco, or OP is a term used in the Western tea trade to describe a particular genre of black teas (orange pekoe grading).[6][7] Despite a purported Chinese origin, these grading terms are typically used for teas from Sri Lanka, India and countries other than China; they are not generally known within Chinese-speaking countries. The grading system is based upon the size of processed and dried black tea leaves.

The tea industry uses the term orange pekoe to describe a basic, medium-grade black tea consisting of many whole tea leaves of a specific size;[6] however, it is popular in some regions (such as North America) to use the term as a description of any generic black tea (though it is often described to the consumer as a specific variety of black tea).[8][9] Within this system, the teas that receive the highest grades are obtained from new flushes (pickings).[10] This includes the terminal leaf bud along with a few of the youngest leaves. Grading is based on the "size" of the individual leaves and flushes, which is determined by their ability to fall through the screens of special meshes[2] ranging from 8–30 mesh.[11] This also determines the "wholeness", or level of breakage, of each leaf, which is also part of the grading system. Although these are not the only factors used to determine quality, the size and wholeness of the leaves will have the greatest influence on the taste, clarity, and brewing time of the tea.[12]

When used outside the context of black-tea grading, the term "pekoe" (or, occasionally, orange pekoe) describes the unopened terminal leaf bud (tips) in tea flushes. As such, the phrases "a bud and a leaf" or "a bud and two leaves" are used to describe the "leafiness" of a flush; they are also used interchangeably with pekoe and a leaf or pekoe and two leaves.[13]

Etymology

The origin of the word "pekoe" is uncertain. One explanation is that it is derived from the transliterated mispronunciation of the Amoy (Xiamen) dialect word for a Chinese tea known as "white down/hair" (白毫; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: pe̍h-ho).[14] This is how "pekoe" is listed by Rev. Robert Morrison (1782–1834) in his Chinese dictionary (1819) as one of the seven sorts of black tea "commonly known by Europeans".[15] This refers to the down-like white "hairs" on the leaf and also to the youngest leaf buds. Another hypothesis is that the term derives from the Chinese báihuā "white flower" (Chinese: 白花; pinyin: báihuā; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: pe̍h-hoe), and refers to the bud content of pekoe tea.[citation needed]

Sir Thomas Lipton, the 19th-century British tea magnate, is widely credited with popularizing, if not inventing, the term "orange pekoe", which seems to have no Chinese precedent, for Western markets. The "orange" in orange pekoe is sometimes mistaken to mean the tea has been flavoured with orange, orange oils, or is otherwise associated with the fruit, which has no relation to the tea or its flavor.[6] There are two explanations for its meaning, though neither is definitive:

1. The Dutch House of Orange-Nassau, the royal family since 1815, had long been the most respected aristocratic family of the Dutch Republic. The Dutch East India Company played a central role in bringing tea to Europe and may have marketed the tea[when?] as "orange" to suggest association with the House of Orange.[14]
2. Colour: the copper colour of a high-quality, oxidized leaf before drying, or the or orange hues in the dark dried pekoes in the finished tea may be related to the name.[16] These usually consist of one leaf bud and two leaves covered in fine, downy hair. The orange colour appears when the tea is fully oxidized.

[Big RR]

Thanks Scooter; you learn something every day.

And if I recall correctly, Constant Comment is an orange flavored black tea made by Bigelow.

[liberty]

Personally, I prefer the taste of black tea, but green tea is undeniably better for your health, particularly for kidney function. The body benefits more from green tea than from black tea or coffee.

Black tea became popular in the West largely because it was easier to process and ship, and its flavor profile suited the English market, especially when combined with cream and sugar.

However, depending on your personal health, it might be wise to avoid both coffee and tea, especially if you're prone to kidney stones or similar issues.

[Big RR]

As a coffee drinker, I tend to like the stronger teas (other than when I'm in the mood for green tea) when I drink tea, but I recall having a tea once in an Asian restaurant called lapsang souchon tea, and it tasted like creosote infused in tar; we finished the pot, but I doubt I'd ever drink that again.

[BoSoxGal]

I quit coffee for a while but took up the habit again last winter after reading repeatedly how good it is for both gut and brain.

Every day I consume 12oz coffee, 12oz blueberry green tea, 12oz hibiscus tea, and 12 oz dandelion tea. Sometimes 8-12oz chamomile tea in the evening.

My focus is on the nutrient profile of the plants involved and how much they can do for my gut and brain so I don’t do much black tea anymore only because there isn’t a lot of room for it with everything else I’m drinking - but I do like it. My grandma always had that Rose tea with the little figurines in the box does this ring bells with anyone? I think it was a black and orange pekoe blend.

[Big RR]

I recall that with friends who had tea drinking families; it was Red Rose tea ("the tea drinkers' tea"). I think it was a standard blend like Lipton, so it may well have been black and orange pekoe.

I haven't seen anyone who had it in years, so I am unsure if the figurines are still included in a box.

[BoSoxGal]

Yes, Red Rose - that's the one! Apparently they still do the Wade figurines to this day. https://redrosetea.com/pages/red-rose-tea-figurines

I have a Wade lighthouse figurine that belonged to an elderly WWII veteran/POW that I cared for early in my caregiver days - he gifted it to me when I expressed delight over seeing one like my gram used to have, she had a collection which my uncle just tossed in the garbage when she died.

[Sue U]

I recall that with friends who had tea drinking families; it was Red Rose tea ("the tea drinkers' tea").

I think it was advertised more specifically as "the tea Canadian tea-drinkers drink." But that was back before the war with Canada.

[Big RR]

I recall that slogan, but there was a jingle (and one of my curses is recalling almost every jingle I have heard):

Brighten up with Red Rose,
the tea drinkers" tea.
Flavor oh so cheery, you just gotta be...

now I can't get it out of my head.

[Scooter]

For decades, Red Rose ran a series of ads featuring Brits drinking Red Rose tea and preferring it to British tea, and expressing their disappointment when they learned they could only get it in Canada ("Only in Canada? Pity!")

[Big RR]

I had a great autn0 by marriage, who came from England and would only drink "Tetley tea with half and half". When we were kids we used to make fun of this (when she wasn't around, of course). Actually, I appreciated the loose tea in England, especialy when I first began going over (in the late 70s/early 80s) when the coffee was undrinkable (it did get better in the mid 90s, and you can get good coffee there now). A brewed of good tea was something to be savored.