A nice peppermint tea will do me. I recently had a peppermint and cocoa tea and that was lovely

I find I need a change from any tea after a while, so I've temporarily gone back to the Aldi Gold. Punjana is another good one though.

I can't be doing with any of these fruity concoctions. I'm amazed they are allowed to be described as teas when they don't actually have any tea in them.

They're not, they're usually called "infusions" if you look.

I love tea and drink plenty of it, but I really can't distinguish between the brands. I've had PG Tips, Tetley and Yorkshire Tea over the last few months and it all tastes the same to me.

Well they all taste the same because all three of those brands use the same blend of tea (or very similar.)

Buy some decent loose leaf tea. Trust me, you can tell the difference. Hell, even just switch to Twining's Breakfast Tea for instance, you'll tell the difference.

Anything which anybody has made a cuppa for me to slurp at*

I'm a tea monster with a grubby palate; if it hot, with not too much milk, no sugar I'm happy.


*The caveat being; it's got to be 'normal' tea, none of this peppermint/fruit/herbal stuff. Tea from a tea plant, not other random vegetation.

Being new to tea drinking, the.. noveltea hasn't worn off yet. So currently drinking some Twining's 'Lady Grey'.. which was best before 2011 but still seems drinkable. Assuming tea just loses some flavor over time & doesn't really go off..

Lady Grey is an insult to Earl Grey in my opinion but each to their own

And no, tea doesn't really go off, just loses its flavour. Be careful with some types of Chai tea however as they may contain milk powder, which obviously does go off.

Earl Grey is on the to-do list. This stuff tastes kinda fruitea, and the Earl Grey says it tastes more of Bergamot. I have no idea what that tastes like though, so will find out later

Both Earl Grey and Lady Grey contain bergamot. Lady Grey is just fruitier.

Whilst on the subject can anyone recommend a good decaf Tea bag. I have tried the ones offered by PG Tips & Tetley but hate them. Are there any decent ones out there?

Hmm.. I can taste the lemon & orange, and also a bit of a lime flavor which I guess may be the bergamot. Quite impressed how much flavor and aroma these have retained though.

But can anyone recommend a 'simple' black tea? So far I've tried..

Whatever the NHS served
Waitrose silver
Waitrose fair trade gold
Lady Grey

Figuring I ought to sample a basic tea before I get too carried away with more exotic blends and flavours..

Ok, so I tried Earl Grey. Tasting notes.

An initial soapyness followed by a citrus hit.

Here endeth the note. I.. think I like it. It's a more subtle flavor than the Lady Grey which tastes a lot more citrusey to me

Waitrose Essential teabags £2.00 for 160, are as good as any for an everyday cuppa.

Quite enjoying Typhoo just now, it's got a nice, strong flavour. Twinings Breakfast teabags used to be nice, but I think they changed the blend a while back, fairly weak tasting.

Twining's Assam.

I was disturbed not to find Punjana in a large Tesco the other day. Then turning the corner, I noticed a display of various Irish-made produce on the end of the aisle - among which were three types of teabags from Barry's Tea.

I didn't try any, as I'm well stocked with tea just now, but if they're planning to carry it instead of Punjana, I will be very disappointed if it's not as good.

Barry's Tea is great but the one to go for is the one in the black box "Classic Blend". Sadly they don't sell it in the UK though.

Punjana is my favourite now. I used to drink Assam.

I'm on the Yorkshire Tea Gold now, very good. Would people say Punjana is better than this?

Gold is apparently a blend of Assam, Kenyan and Rwandan leaves. What I would say though is Yorkshire leaf tea is much nicer than the bags.

Does anyone also just put the leaves striaght in the cup (that's what I do) or do you have some sort of contraption?

Get ye to Tesco then, because I'm sure that was there. There were three kinds, and the one missing was the Decaf I think.

Thanks for the advice - if there had only been one sort there I would have taken it to try, but as often happens I was deterred by the amount of choice! I'll know next time.

No the black box version isn't on sale in Tesco. Only the green or red coloured ones unfortunately. There's many Tescos round here with Irish sections and I've checked them all.

Oh! There were definitely three versions where I was (Abingdon). I'm sure the decaf wasn't one of them, because I wouldn't have considered it. I remember thinking, how could I possibly choose one out of three. No, I'm positive the black box was there. It does show up on the Tesco website.

Barry's is my favourite, but thought it was only available in Ireland. I hate going to Tesco but I might make an exception for that.
I am intrigued by the love for punjana. I will seek it out.


I found a monthly tea box subscription the other day, think they post from India. The name escapes me and I can't afford it right now but it might be on my Christmas list.

Interesting. It wasn't for months on end, they must have added it. We only have the Irish sections in the Express stores round here. Is the Abingdon one a Superstore or an Express?