Good tea in USA

[jackflash81]

Hello there,

Hope everyone is good!

Us Brits love tea...well..many of us do..one think I have struggled with, is to understand why I could never seem to get a good cup of tea in the USA...even at peoples houses.

Is it the quality of the tea available?

So...I guess I am looking for someone who thinks they can make a good cup of tea, and who doesn't live in Europe....

For no other reason than it seemed a way to start a conversation!

 

[MichaelinChina]

Hello there,

Hope everyone is good!

Us Brits love tea...well..many of us do..one think I have struggled with, is to understand why I could never seem to get a good cup of tea in the USA...even at peoples houses.

Is it the quality of the tea available?

So...I guess I am looking for someone who thinks they can make a good cup of tea, and who doesn't live in Europe....

For no other reason than it seemed a way to start a conversation!

Aussies love tea too!

Maybe it's a relic of the British who invaded the country a couple of centuries ago.
Perhaps due to increased migration of people from other countries, as well as the marketing of coffee, that tradition of 'English' tea (which came from places such as India) has changed.
Here in China I am overwhelmed by the choice of Chinese tea (black and red and green). Some I've tasted are horrible. Occasionally, I will take the time and make it properly with the tea sets available everywhere. Small cups, teapot and wooden strainer-tray. I'd love one of those large polished wooden tree trunks seen in 'good' tea shops and used as a table. Often there's a carved Buddha in the corner.
Every day, I take a flask of tea to work, drinking a cup or two during breaks in classes. Everyone drinks, using these flasks, whether it be green tea, chrysanthemum or just plain hot water.
Lately, I prefer a Lipton tea bag in my flask with a couple of spoonfuls of sugar. No milk: black. I can get the special packs of assorted English teas here; six different kinds in one pack (Earl Grey, English Breakfast etc).

In Australia, an unbeatable cuppa is made from water in a blackened tin 'billy can' over a campfire of hardwood coals (gum tree), a few handfuls of black tea thrown in, then a gum leaf. When it's boiled the billy is grabbed by the handle and swung round and round in a windmill fashion, so the tea leaves, by centrifugal force, are made to settle on the bottom. A clear tea results.