Brooke Bond Choicest
Its been quite some time since my last posting and indeed – my last review. In that time I’ve switched jobs, Christmas has been and gone and its a brand new year.
I’ve decided to hit the ground running though and start the year off with a tea review of Brooke Bond Choicest Blend. I found this quite difficult to get hold of after a friend recommended it some weeks back but during a trip to London I managed to pick some up in an old tea shop with some out of date merchandise!
Brooke Bond Choicest Blend is a well balanced blend of the traditional English breakfast tea. It has a full bodied flavour without being too bitter and with a little milk is the perfect start to a busy day.
The company that bought the Choicest Blend brand of tea from Brooke Bond had a major accident in 2005 making this tea very hard to get hold of. If you do manage to get hold of it though then you’re holding onto something quite valuable!
review
black tea, brooke bond, review, tea
Tetley started its life 1822 when two brothers, Joseph and Edward Tetley started to sell salt in Yorkshire. They started to sell tea as well and became so successful that they set up, in 1837, as the tea merchants, “Joseph Tetley & Co.”. They moved to London in 1856 and set up “Joseph Tetley & Company, Wholesale Tea Dealers”.
Tetley was famous for being the first company that launched tea in tea-bags in the UK in 1953.
In terms of sales in the UK they’re the third largest but in the world they are the biggest by volume and only second biggest by revenue (to Unilever – owners of PG Tips).
Enough History! How does is taste
Mediocre at best but as a supermarket tea its not all that bad. Being owned by the huge Asian tea group Tata they have massive resources and contacts to produce some truly great tea and they succeed to an extent by creating an average blend of tea that manages to refresh and invigorate at the same time. Its got a richer colour than Typhoo or PG and you can feel that in its body. A much more substantial tea and worthy of a:
3/5
review
black tea, review
Continuing on with my series reviewing the most popular supermarket teas of the UK I’ve now come to PG Tips. PG are the second biggest tea merchant in the UK and were first established in 1930 by Brooke Bond who originally called it Digestive Tea. It got this name due to teas claims of aiding digestion but after the second World War the government decided to put a stop to this claim and so the name was changed to Pregestee.
A silly name I’m sure you’ll agree!
As time went on the PG delivery drivers shortened the name to PG and the name stuck. So thankfully they became PG Tips in the 1950’s.
How does it taste
Better than Typhoo but still a poor quality tea. Its the tea rival at our office where Taylors of Harrogate is drunk by the decent tea drinking folk and the evil Morlocks drink PG Tips while feasting on the bones of children and murdering innocent people.
I’m not saying PG Tips causes this – but its is a definate link!
PG has a very clear and crisp taste. With little body it doesn’t cope well with too much milk and adding sugar can kill the taste almost entirely. Although it’s technically a Breakfast Tea it lacks the punch and so I’d say its lacking Kenyan black and rolls more towards a low quality light Ceylon.
Having said that it is much better than Typhoo so I’ll give it a:
2.5/5
history, review
black tea, review
As part of a new series reviewing the major UK supermarket teas I thought I’d begin with Typhoo. Typhoo was first created back in 1903 by John Sumner – a Brummy. He was well versed in tea due to his fathers publishing of a book about the first tea trade missions to China and so was at home when him and his father set up a pharmacy/grocery business offering tea and other such things.
Unfortunately Mr Sumners legacy has been trashed when it comes to taste and decency. Although it is now the most popular tea in the UK outselling even the great Yorkshire Tea by Taylors of Harrogate. Its taste can be described only as wood-y, bland, tannic and dirty. I’ve never come across such a foul concoction in my life as a Typhoo tea. In fact it almost killed me once and it saddens me that its the most popular tea here.
I’d never drink Typhoo and I strongly recommend no one else does either.
A pitiful 1/5
history, review
black tea, review
Well its not exactly an easy question to answer due to the huge variety of teas out there and how exactly you want to measure health benefits.
If we say the health score of a tea is based on its levels of antioxidants (flavinoids, catechins) then we could draw up the following table…
| Pos |
Antioxidants |
Tea |
| 1 |
400-600mg |
White Tea
 |
| 2 |
300-400mg |
Jasmine Tea[1] |
| 3 |
300-450mg |
Green Tea |
| 4 |
130-200mg |
Black Tea |
| 5 |
60-80mg |
Rooibos ‘Tea’[2] |
| 6 |
? (low) |
Instant Tea |
| 7 |
20-110mg |
Iced tea[3] |
[1] Jasmine tea’s base is green tea and its total antioxidant content is boosted by the presence of jasmine.
[2] Although Rooibos isn’t of the same species and not strictly a tea it is commonly reffered to as a tea. Now although many have claimed it has a higher antioxidant content than tea this isn’t true although it does contain a variety of unique antioxidants.
[3] The general consensus is that iced tea is the most heavily processed and thus least antioxidant rich of the teas. However, Lipton do claim that their tea with lemon contains an unusually high amount of flavinoids. How much we believe this is up to you.
(Hakim IA, Hartz V, Harris RB, Balentine D, Weisgerber UM, Graver E, Whitacre R, Alberts D. Reproducibility and relative validity of a questionnaire to assess intake of black tea polyphenols in epidemiological studies. Cancer Epidem Bio & Prev 2001; 10:667-78).
Antioxidant Activity of Black Tea vs. Green Tea (Ki Won Lee and Hyong Joo Lee) Department of Food Science and Technology School of Agricultural Biotechnology Seoul National University Suwon 441–744, Korea
health
black tea, green tea, health, iced tea, science, white tea
Tea
Not many people know this but there’s an organisation in China called the Chinese Tea Culture Research Centre and they have an official list of the 10 famous and premier Chinese teas. Without further ado – here they are:
Puerh
- Yunnan Puerh – One of China’s oldest teas and also one of its favourites due to its health benefits.
Green
- Xi Hu Longjing – a green tea from Zhejiang province.
- Dong Ting Bi Luo Chun – green tea from Jiangsu province.
- Huang Shan Mao Feng – green tea from Anhui province.
- Tai Ping Hou Kui - another from Anhui province.
- Lu An Guapian – and a third green tea from Anhui province!
- Xin Yang Mao Jian – from Henan Province.
Oolong
- Da Hong Pao – an Oolong tea from Mount Wuyi, Fujian Province.
- Tieguanyin – an Oolong tea from Fujian Province.
Black
- Keemun – the only black tea in the list from Anhui province.
Yellow
- Junshan Yinzhen – a yellow tea from Hunan.
facts
black tea, china, chinese tea, green tea, yellow tea
I’m always on the look out for information like this – as a big fan of black tea I’ve always been weary of the constant good press of green tea over its black cousin. I’ve always believed there’s a place for both in a healthy diet.
So I was very happy to read a recent newsletter from the UK Tea Council stating: “Black tea has the same effect on endothelial function as green tea”.
It goes on to say:
British Journal of Nutrition has shown that black tea improves endothelial function to the same degree as green tea despite having a lower catechin concentration.
In laymans terms? Black tea is just as effective an antioxidant as green tea!
For women during pregnancy then its best to go for the green tea as this contains less caffeine overall and its been shown caffeine can be a risk in larger quantities.
Good news for black tea fans!
health
black tea, green tea, health
After much anticipation I recieved my tin of Portsmouth tea all the way from the US. I was expecting great things and I wasn’t disappointed, in fact I was more than impressed!
You see from opening the box the quality and thought thats gone into the product. From the inset letter-head instructions on brewing the various varieties to the polished aluminium tin the tea leaves came in.
This was tea provided by tea lovers for tea lovers.
Now the tea I recieved was Kenya Black. I’m more of a black tea than green these days and this was a welcome addition to the collection as it provided a refreshing and smooth taste. Portsmouth tea provides tea in loose leaf form and I’ve always advocated the use of leaves over bags except for when convinience and speed are necessary. The leaves settled well in cup allowing you to drink without straining. It must be noted that I always leave my leaves in the cup to infuse throughout the whole drinking process rather than filtering it out. In this way I believe you get a more varied spectrum of intensity as you’re drinking the tea which adds to the whole experience.
Normally I use filtered water as the water in Stoke can sometimes be a little hard but I decided to give it the hard-water test and skipped the filter. Very nice! Even when challenged by high-lime levels in the water this tea still shines through.
I’ve had this tea 9 times so far and every time has been a pleasure. The taste is fantastic and I feel pampered everytime I reach for it because the quality is tangible from tin to cup.
Its for all these reasons I’m going to give them the maximum score:
5/5
You will love this tea!
review
black tea, merchants, products, review
Gray for the Americans I believe?
A FINE tea with a definate citrus twist. Often goes nicely with a bit of lemon or on its own. Milk is a definate no-no but sugar is a little more acceptable but not by much!
Its very similar to Earl Grey tea but has extra orange and lemon zest in it – hence the citrus.
I always feel a little self concious (as a man) drinking Lady Grey. It feels worse than buying a gin and tonic! At our office I keep a box of Lady Grey on the shelf with the cup. When I shuffle in there for some I look like your average anaorak-clad flasher grabbing it quickly form the shelf and shuffling about with it as discreetly as possible.
Alas I am rewarded with a fine brew. I recommend it to all those brave enough to give it a go!!
Indcidentally. My foray into the world of tea began with Lady Grey so it has a special place in my heart.
facts, history, review
black tea, lady grey, tea, varieties
