The Color (Colour) of Tea
vicki jean merriman
> I drink only green teas these days, used to drink Earl Grey, black but
>some honey, but now drink my Jasmine and Lung Ching straight. If you are
>drinking quality tea, why mask the flavor. If you are drinking cheap tea,
>why not buy a better grade?
I basically agree with this sentiment, but many people enjoy the flavor
of a strong cup of tea with a little milk added. It is simply a
different taste experience.
> With green teas, high quality tea will look almost like water when first
>made. The cheaper the tea, the darker it is. Really cheap teas like Lipton
>even put dye in to make it darker, for some stupid reason.
This I disagree with, as would many Japanese. The beautiful jade green
color of a fine tea to something to be strived for, it should not look
like water. Fine oolongs (not green, I know) like an expensive Formosan
or Ti Kwan Yin should not resemble water. A fine Genmaicha, with its
yellow green color, is lovely to look at as well as to taste.
My very expensive Pi Lo Chun is pale but certainly not colorless.
On the subject of dyes in Lipton, where did you hear / read this? It has
been years since I've seen a box of Lipton's but it seems that the box
said it contained 100% tea. In the States you have to mention when dyes
are added, don't you? The FDA does make exceptions for certain things;
is this one of them?
--
Vicki
Allyn Weaks
vmer...@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (vicki jean merriman) wrote:
> Harmon F Seaver <hse...@alpha1.csd.uwm.edu> wrote:
> >Really cheap teas like Lipton
> >even put dye in to make it darker, for some stupid reason.
> On the subject of dyes in Lipton, where did you hear / read this? It has
> been years since I've seen a box of Lipton's but it seems that the box
> said it contained 100% tea. In the States you have to mention when dyes
> are added, don't you? The FDA does make exceptions for certain things;
> is this one of them?
This seems to be an urban legend. There are no dyes in tea bags; no need
for it. The color and tannins come out so quickly and strongly because
there is a portion of very small particle size; stuff comes out at a rate
proportional to the surface area. It's called dust grade, and it's the
cheapest and lowest quality grade, especially if it's the dust from a low
quality tea to begin with. The dust is probably cheaper than dye!
In general, I agree that darkness of color is _not_ an indication of
quality or lack of it. A good assam is much darker than a light oolong,
but is not a worse tea, just a different one. And I've had some pretty
poor quality pale teas...
--
Allyn Weaks
al...@u.washington.edu