English Tea Companies - I Don't Trust Em Much Anymore

by Nal
(UK)

The trouble is for UK drinkers it is all highly commercial, given our history with all the India Tea Companies back in the days of the clipper.

I don't much trust the old companies (like Twinnings or Whittards), there is too much negativity surrounding them and their history, and the tea is mostly rubbish if bought 'green' or any other way.

Perhaps today and onwards the chasm between the UK and China can be healed by excellent tea. If we realised, or I should say, when we all realise the depth of culture we often dismiss as 'Made in China', or fail to see past Bruce Lee when on the subject of martial arts, then the respect between the respective cultures may return.

For now most of us drink tea and don't know where it comes from: could be Kenya, could be India, sometimes China.

(But we think of Smoky Lapsang if we think of Chinese tea. British Tea is Indian Tea Company Tea, in a bag, served with British Milk!).

I remember when our occupation (if that is the right word) of Hong Kong came to an end in 1997 and we were watching the news on the television. I was about 10 at the time and I just could not fathom why English people would rule on some far distant shore.