Tea Pet Peeves

Thought this might be a fun topic, so long as it is done in lighthearted fun :)

1) When boxes of green tea (seems to always be the bags?) instructions tell my friends to use boiling water and let sit for 5 minutes... resulting in horrible tea that turns them off of green tea.

2) When you order a huge pot of tea at a tea room.. and the leaves are in it with no way to take it out.. by the time you and your friends are anywhere near the bottom it is getting plain undrinkable.

3) When you go to a tea store and ask for a recommendation for a good tea, and they suggest something that is not tea! :P (A real pet peeve of mine, but perhaps I am just a tea snob lol).

Fun idea. Do you frequent steepster.com? This would be a great discussion topic over there, too.

I'll have to think on mine .... no, wait, I know ... when non-teaists tell me "it all tastes the same."

2: I have yet to go there, although I have heard the name on more than one occasion. Will have to check it out soon I guess :)

3: Eww!! Just shuddered thinking about it.

Another peeve: People asking me if I want to try the ASS-m tea. Doesn't ound that appealing! :P

I live in Texas and we drink a lot of iced tea. I'm a hot tea fan, but many people I meet are only interested in what I would call "lightly browned sugar water over ice."

We do have some nice tea shops in my area, so I shouldn't complain, but over-sweetened tea is such a huge peeve!

I definitely agree with you on #1. I see several retail tea boxes or tins that lack instructions, especially for non-black teas. I actually did an advertising report on how this is bad for their businesses... because if consumers don't know how to make the finished product correctly, it is going to taste bad, and the consumer will blame the company. Then, the consumer will tell everyone else about their bad experience or at least not recommend that brand. Proper instructions are a must!

I guess a pet peeve of mine would be that I hear most non-tea-freaks only mention the health benefits of green and white tea or the weight loss properties of oolong tea (which aren't even true)... when I would much rather talk about the taste. ;)

>5 sarah-e:
sara-e, have you made the drive to Austin to visit the Tea Embassy on 9th St.? It's a 45 minute drive in for me (from out by Lake Travis), so I get in there about 4 times a year and stock up on loose tea.

Os.

>5 sarah-e: Sarah-e, I live in Texas as well, but in the Dallas area. There are a lot of Middle Eastern/Indian shops here that you can get some yummy tea in, especially jasmine tea!

Oh! And I'm so sick of sweet tea. They even have gallons of it at Whataburger and Taco Cabana!

When someone says 'High Tea' when they mean Afternoon Tea, I have to exercise extreme self-snob-control. I also need to avoid launching into a diatribe about the differences between the two, as most people just don't care.

Oh, I hear you, ladygata!

Tea with too much tannins - cheap tea in other words. Leaves a bad after taste.

> 9 & 10

Guilty! I can't help but correct it too. Though, I have to say, that High Tea as a meal is delicious... particularly when it features toasted cheese.

>9 PensiveCat:

I believe that this usage of 'High Tea' is related to the English working class convention of calling the midday meal 'dinner', rather than lunch, and using 'tea' to denote the evening meal, with may or may not actually involve the drink called 'tea'. This 'tea' meal was likely to be served in the early evening, and this is what 'High Tea' relates to.

I have a feeling that 'Afternoon Tea' is a light meal (sandwiches, cakes) partaken by those - probably of higher class - who have had lunch (or luncheon) around midday, and who look forward to an evening meal they know as 'dinner', served rather later than what the working class knew (know?) as 'tea'.

Unfortunately, I do not know any authoritative sources for these assertions, which are based on my personal experience only. I presume, ladygata, that your understanding of 'high tea' is that of a substantial hot meal - I remember a 'mixed grill' (bacon, (English) sausage, fried egg, lamb chop, fried tomatoes, black pudding) as being reasonably typical in hotels in the fifties? Tea was frequently drunk by the working class with such a meal, and this tradition continues today in the serving of fish 'n chips with sliced bread and butter and with a mug of tea.

You are pretty much correct, CliffordDorset. One description I read is that "high tea" is a meat tea; one serves meat dishes like mixed grill or liver and onions. In Henrietta's House by Elizabeth Goudge, a number of people are very late for tea, and the hostesses talk about "turning the tea high" as it gets past six o'clock. They add the meat dishes to the menu.

#13 I recognise the meal you refer to, CliffordDorset, from my own younger days; but I have difficulty imagining working-class people referring to it as 'high tea'. We just called it 'tea' (South Wales valleys). To me, the usage 'high tea' has a decidedly middle-class ring.

I'm certainly not against High Tea as a meal. It sounds hearty, and I'm guilty of actually liking British food (though my stomach might say otherwise.) I just get cringey when someone talks about having High Tea on a cruise or in a hotel, but I grin and bear it for the most part. Afternoon Tea just makes more sense, as it is commonly taken in the afternoon (I'm not averse to having it for dinner myself, as I love scones and little sandwiches nearly any time.) High Tea sounds like you're trying to sound high class, so it comes off as gauche. I really am a snob, considering I'm from working class Astoria. I guess there's a reason my borough is called Queens.

>15 alaudacorax:

Our evening's meal was called 'tea'.

We did not distinguish between 'afternoon' or 'high'.

Anyone else annoyed when people down a bottle of soda and then complain that tea is bland?

That tea vendors pander to gullible health-obsessed urban middle-class ladies. All teas are advertised with amusing uniformity as sweet, mellow, gentle, floral, delicate, refined and so forth on the one hand, and as reducing appetite, containing beneficial compounds, clearing toxins from the body and such inanities on the other.

When I first went looking for rooibos, I found some at my local supermarket. The package proudly stated that the product contains a cell-cleansing enzyme, and that's the kind of dishonest pseudoscientific rubbish that makes me leave without buying anything. When I first asked for gunpowder tea at my local tea shop, the proprietor said that the Temple of Heaven that they stock is more refined and mellow than the usual kind. I told her the character of the usual kind was just why I wanted some... the usual kind was unfortunately not available.

I hate the "toxin" rubbish.  Never mind that there might simply be a correlation between healthy people drinking tea more often than other beverages.  Unfortunately, people like seeing correlation as causation.

Arizona iced tea
Must I say more?

I used to like those, but then I met my husband and he showed me the error of my ways.

>20 justjukka:
Yes - 100% of dead people drink no tea at all. So, if you don't want to be dead, drink tea!

Os.

Alright, a new peeve.

Tea shops who only have tea bags. Bad tea bags.

:-P

IdentiTEA, that's really so annoying when you love something for its taste and people keep talking about its health benefits!

The most annoying tea thing here in Budapest is that at many places they think black tea = earl grey. And quite a few times I got that awful brew even after asking if they have really plain black tea...

I'm annoyed with supposed tea enthusiasts who over-brew green tea.

Hello all. All peeves of mine too.

#5 I'm from WV, and grew up drinking sweet tea. Although we just call it ice tea--the presumption, at least until the latter health-conscious days, was that it was sweet. But we brew the tea reasonably strong, and probably not as sweet. My mom used 2/3 C sugar to a gallon or gallon and a half of tea. When I went to college, I encountered friends from more southern states. Apparently the further south you go, the more sugar you use. My friend from Alabama made tea so sweet I found it undrinkable. Blecch!

Number one pet peeve is calling any herb, plant, fruit, or leaf that you dump hot water over "tea." If it didn't come from the tea plant, it's not tea!

>28 RitaFaye:
" If it didn't come from the tea plant, it's not tea!"

AMEN!! Tea (the drink) is a tisane made using tea leaves. All the rest are herbal tisanes, or some such. How the 'herbal tea' folks get away with such blatent false labeling of a food product escapes me.

Os.

I'm fighting too many other definition battles to get involved with that one, but yes, it's a nuisance.

Anyone annoyed with tea samplers?  They make great gifts, but unless you put it together yourself, the tea sits on the shelves for ages, and by the time it gets to the intended receiver, it isn't what I want my loved ones to associate with the flavors of tea.

I find the samplers no more annoying than most gift teas. It's dangerous letting friends and relatives know you like something; unless they understand it too you will be the recipient of the oddest assortment of items. I've been given a dozen or so strangely-flavored teas in the last few years. White grape tea has never appealed to me.

I hate it when tea pots dribble.

...or black tea, for that matter ;)

>33 Booknymph:
There is clearly an art to the design of a dribble-free pot. I once attended a lecture in the 1970s, given by the no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is Lancastrian (North British) engineer Dr Eric Laithwaite (now, sadly no longer with us), in which he reported the results of hydrodynamics research into just this problem.

He reported that a highly successful dribble-free design had been achieved. There was a problem though. The design had a sinuously shaped spout which, unfortunately, reminded all potential users of one of the receptacles then used in hospitals for the 'convenience' of men keen on urinary relief.

For some reason the design never gained popularity!

>28 RitaFaye:, 29
I'm a big herbal tisane drinker and just after reading that realized saying herbal tea could be obnoxious. SORRY!!!

>36 Rose_Weasley:
Well, I am a bit of a pedant (and joined the LT group for pedants!). Better to say 'herbal' tea, than to just call it tea. At least then we know what we're talking about.

On top of it all, since my post 28, I read Thoreau's Maine Woods, and he frequently refers to the various teas that the backwoods folks brew up from local plant life. So, if nothing else, using the word tea for tisane has a long history. I'll still get annoyed, but that's my problem.

Os.

#37 - I'm sometimes puzzled on Steepster, when I can't work out whether it's a flavoured tea or a non-tea tisane that is being reviewed; so it's not just pedantry.

Not that I'm a member of this group but I just noticed the comments about dripping teapots and couldn't resist. Would you buy a pair of shoes without trying them on? Would you buy a car without a test drive? And yet almost all of us buy teapots without checking to see how they pour. Wouldn't it be great if all shops selling teapots had a little sink available so that buyers could check this before they buy? I did once, in a large department store, ask if I could take a pot into the nearby 'facilities' to check the pouring and, somewhat to my surprise, the staff member was fine with that but I wouldn't expect to get away with it too often.

(Btw, here's why I'm not a member - that was a great teapot but after it broke I never bought another, just stick the bag in the mug. I am not worthy.)

#39 - I love that idea! You are worthy!

>38 alaudacorax:
Well, you're right there. I was in a restaurant a week or two ago, and I asked if they had an iced tea other than regular (I like iced tea with a bit of fruit flavoring added). My waiter named some flavored 'tea', but when I asked if it was real tea, she didn't know what I meant. When I asked if it was made with tea leaves, she not only didn't know, she couldn't figure out what I meant by the question, and the folks at the table with me got irritated at me for giving the waiter trouble. So I just ordered regular iced tea. Sigh...

Os.

>39 Booksloth:
I certainly agreed about the way teapots are sold. The same goes, in fact, for any piece of portable kitchen equipment I can think of. I remember an electric kettle that sometimes didn't always switch itself off. Somehow its spring-loaded lid would sometimes spring open, and it would then boil dry (if I hadn't caught it). I should say that I dumped it for a Breville, which has been superb!

Similarly toasters, etc. - they look good but do they ever burn the toast? Just imagine asking a shop it you can fill a stock item with crumbs!

I don't think there's a solution, short of snooping around neighbours' kitchens and asking for demonstrations.

>28 RitaFaye:

Heh. Was in a BBQ place in Kentucky this weekend with my daughters. The one who is local, ordered "half & half tea," the WV daughter ordered sweet tea. And yes! The sweet tea was almost gag-worthy. Even the half & half (cut with non-sweetened) was on the edge of too sweet.

When I specifically say "decaf herbal tea" and the waiter brings me "green tea" more than once and in several restaurants.

I hate when restaurants bring a pot of hot (no longer boiling) water with a tea bag on the side :)

Also, once I asked for Earl Grey and they brought Earl Grey Green tea. I didn't even try it - just made them take it away. It might have been nice, but it was the principle of the thing.

I almost never order hot tea unless it is at a tearoom-type place where I can get a whole pot. The warmish water with a nondescript teabag on the side just doesn't cut it.

Unlike DH, I almost never get iced tea, either, because of the horror stories I've heard about the lack of cleaning of the pots and the age of the brewed tea. My husband is fearless!

I grew up with 'sweet tea' in Kentucky, but left it behind when I moved to Texas, and was amazed to find that most folks took their iced tea with no sugar!

Now that 'sweet tea' has found its way to Texas, I find that I like about 10-20% sweet tea added to a glass of regular iced tea. The sweet tea has a unique flavor of its own, and 10% is about right for lightly sweetening the drink. I get a hint of the flavor I recall from my childhood, but without the empty calories.

Os.