As several posters have stated, tea bags contain "fannings" (dust) and broken leaves from the grading process. Still makes a good cuppa, but for purists, leaf tea made the old fashioned way with teapot and strainer plus tea cosy is best. My personal favourite is , but  and  come close. Tea prices at supermarkets in Thailand are expensive by comparison to the UK. I have been fortunate to have a friend who brings copious supplies from England on his frequent visits.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_leaf_grading

As several posters have stated, tea bags contain "fannings" (dust) and broken leaves from the grading process. Still makes a good cuppa, but for purists, leaf tea made the old fashioned way with teapot and strainer plus tea cosy is best. My personal favourite is , but  and  come close. Tea prices at supermarkets in Thailand are expensive by comparison to the UK. I have been fortunate to have a friend who brings copious supplies from England on his frequent visits.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_leaf_grading

And one to avoid:



[emoji51][emoji51]

Note the “ cheesy “ emojis so as not to upset those unfortunate folks born on the wrong side of the Pennines .

[emoji51][emoji51] ( better throw another couple in just in case !! )

10 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

From google:

 

Most of Greater Manchester lay within the ancient county boundaries of Lancashire; those areas south of the Mersey and Tame were in Cheshire. The Saddleworth area and a small part of Mossley are historically part of Yorkshire and in the south-east a small part in Derbyshire.

colinneil is right, Manchester is actually in the county of Greater Manchester, formed in 1974.

Historically, it was in Lancashire.

 

I heard that the red box tea from Tesco was actually produced by Tetley. (just talk no evidence ????)

When possible I also get Tetley when visiting Pattaya area, shops around there have it imported.

Sainsburys Earl Grey imported via my suitcase????  

All this talk of a good cuppa, made me think of.....

18 hours ago, Just Weird said:

No tea made with bags is worth drinking compared to leaf tea as it's made with tea dust, not leaves.   Twinings English Breakfast and Earl Grey loose leaf teas are good places to start.

Although born in England, I stopped drink tea when about 8 years old as I came to thoroughly dislike the taste.   From the age of 16, I have been involved with the cuisine arts and during my extensive travels have been to many countries where tea is brown and prepared for market.  Yes, tea dust/sweepings from tables and floors are commonly used for making tea bags.  Cheap stuff sold for large profits.  Anybody who uses tea bags is only fooling themselves they are drinking real tea, they are not.  Most people are not even aware that all tea comes from only one type of bush and the English took some of them from China and started to spread them around the world, as they did with rubber trees, and many other things.

'nuf sed.  plamuk aka travellingchef

3 minutes ago, faraday said:

All this talk of a good cuppa, made me think of.....

 

No tea cosy???  Tut tut....

13 minutes ago, ratcatcher said:

colinneil is right, Manchester is actually in the county of Greater Manchester, formed in 1974.

Historically, it was in Lancashire.

 

All the same to me mate, all Lancashire as far as I'm concerned. 

I have developed a taste for single estate Chinese green teas. They can be amazing. And they are readily available through ebay, and can be shipped to Thailand either free, or at low cost, without any customs duties. I buy them by the kilo. Usually about $60 a kilo, which goes a long way.

 

When I used to drink black tea, I would also order online and get access to amazing estate grown teas in bulk. Far better than the teas in the bag. 

 

 

organic-jasmine-pearl-green-tea__63229.1501615431.png.jp2

organic-jasmine-pearl-green-tea__63229.1501615431.png.jp2

8 minutes ago, blazes said:

 

No tea cosy???  Tut tut....

It's on his head. As every tea drinker knows, it's impossible to see a tea cosy without at some point, putting it on your head.  

12 hours ago, Baht Simpson said:

They also do a box called Tesco Original which I find to be pretty decent. 115 baht for 80 bags.

Now that was good tea but not seen it for about 3 months .  Their imported English breakfast tea is fine or is it like the beer and wine ....one gets used to it ?

I buy from M&S - they have loose tea and also a couple of varieties of tea bags. The Gold and extra strong ones make at least 2 cups of tea.

Surprisingly they are not much different in price to Liptons, considering their strength. 

 

 M&S often have heavy discounts in their food hall which make the tea even cheaper

 

+ Yorkshire tea,my daughter brings a 1200 bag ,every year

 that Liptons tea is the worst tea ever,I am sure it was not

like that when Thomas Lipton started his shops in the UK,

then it went to USA, where it's most likely used for Lemon tea.

regards Worgeordie

Why not try Tesco finest range ,   Earl Gray or English Breakfast.  both about 180 Bhat for a 100 teabags.  

On a visit to Mae Hong Son 6 months ago I bought a selection of their local teas, excellent change from my Tetley’s, wish I’d bought more.

17 minutes ago, faraday said:

All this talk of a good cuppa, made me think of.....

Bootifull . Nothing more to add.

19 hours ago, FruitPudding said:

Which tea do you drink? 

Teekanne Assam. Used to buy Assam, Kenyan from Whittards of Chelsea in Bangkok, but their shops became poorly stocked.

 

Also liked 5 Roses from South Africa, Only saw it one time in Thailand.

 

There is a truly excellent Oolong packaged in Thailand. Can't remember the brand name.

 

All the English Breakfast blends here are horrible.

 

Sorry to bust your tea prejudices, but I'm American.

13 hours ago, trd said:

Tesco Finest from Lotus. They have English breakfast, Earl Grey and Ceylon. It's as good as Twinings and half the price and most importantly available here.

 

 

I concur.... Tesco's Finest is excellent for this philistine, particularly my daily cuppa - Ceylon.

 

1 hour ago, bignbad said:

This one is good, but they have not had any on the shelves of my local Lotus-Tesco for months now, I am hoping it was just a stock error!

It's still there bignbad but they have changed the packaging. 

Why do you suppose it is, that nearly every restaurant in Thailand has only Lipton yellow label tea? It is truly horrendous tea, and an abomination for most tea drinkers. There are other teas available. Is it strictly cost and convenience? Or an astonishing lack of creativity and intellectual juice? 

19 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

I bring back supplies from the uk on my six monthly visit, usually Tetley’s or similar ( brought back PG Tips one time and found it weak ) .
TBH anything other than Liptons will suffice, I only drink one cup in a morning and then green/jasmine tea in an evening, very rarely a Tetley’s in the evening.

Haven’t seen or tried them myself but have heard that Tesco sell a Special Blend ( ? ) that’s palatable, of course won’t be as cheap as the uk .

I think that Tescos English Breakfast tea is really good, thought the best is Tetley one cup.

I concur.... Tesco's Finest is excellent for this philistine, particularly my daily cuppa - Ceylon.
 

I'd always been an English breakfast tea fan but I actually prefer the Ceylon now.

Why do you suppose it is, that nearly every restaurant in Thailand has only Lipton yellow label tea? It is truly horrendous tea, and an abomination for most tea drinkers. There are other teas available. Is it strictly cost and convenience? Or an astonishing lack of creativity and intellectual juice? 

Liptons is ghastly. To me it doesn't even taste like tea.

19 hours ago, Just Weird said:

If you've had tea made with tea bags, you've had tea dust! Rip one open and have a look. 

 

If you have problems with floating leaves, you're probably not using boiling water.  Water from the hot water dispensers so popular here is not boiling.

Very true, I done away with the hot water dispenser for that very reason.

Considering how big the tea bag market share is, there must be an awful lot of tea dust lying on the floors of the tea producers. Massive amounts. Or perhaps the producers make their own "dust" from lower graded tea.

 

The so-called Yorkshire tea I bought recently was in tea bags, not loose leaf. Do the tosspots from Yorkshire concede that this is an inferior product? Practitioners of tosspottery from Lancashire are welcome to respond. ????

 

Tosspottery - n. Of middle English origin, but exported to former Great Britain colonies such as Australia, New Zealand and America, where it flourishes alongside other great British relics like drongoes, tarts, hoons, bogans, skinheads and soccer players.

15 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Why do you suppose it is, that nearly every restaurant in Thailand has only Lipton yellow label tea? It is truly horrendous tea, and an abomination for most tea drinkers. There are other teas available. Is it strictly cost and convenience? Or an astonishing lack of creativity and intellectual juice? 

My first encounter with Liptons 'tea' was in Finland, when presented with a cup of hot water with a Lipton's tea bag on the side.....  Consequently, on future holidays I took my own tea bags. Edit - and knew better than to order a cup of tea from any restaurant/vendor etc.!

 

I'm pretty sure those decrying teabags are 'tea snobs' - as although I continued to drink tea for my first couple of years here, I eventually gave up as it just didn't taste the same as back home.  I'm not sure whether this is because of the water or milk.

11 minutes ago, Baht Simpson said:

It's still there bignbad but they have changed the packaging. 

I was about to post same ????

I use two 't' bags after the first day as they (all brands) seem to lose their 'oomph' in the humidity.

 

My wife buys dried green tea leaves from a local source which to my surprise is delicious on its own or with lemon. We fill a flask or two some mornings and find that it stays fresh all day and is particularly refreshing when the weather is hot. It comes in a 4" foil sachet @ 3 for THB 100.

Love rum.

17 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

Very true, I done away with the hot water dispenser for that very reason.

Coming to think of it so did I!