tea

i am certainly a big fan of tea, so i have a question for all you tea drinkers...  What kind of tea is most favored in England?

English breakfast is the standard, with Twinings and PG Tips being the two most common brands.

Earl Grey is probably right up there as a second place contender tho.

I have been told that in England every region has their own favorite brand of tea.  Supposedly there are teas made to coordinate with the waters...  In Northern England Rington's is a favorite...as in Yorkshire, it is Yorkshire teas...  I am not sure about the other areas...  but I am stating so from my fiance Tom who happens to be a complete tea-aholic and he swears he can tell if a tea does not match the water it is made in.  He hates my water (understandably so) and I know in his mind that is main reason he refuses to think of moving here...LOL!

ok, i see.  I actually favor twinings myself, irish breakfast is good.  I drink it with milk and sugar.  Its actually easy to find here in the U.S., any large supermarket will have it, though it is imported.

Lady Grey is my wife's fav. Personally not into hot drinks of any kind.

We drink the PG tea. It's funny how I never drank it in the US and I have it every day here.

Just a warning, the tea they sell on trains is gross.

We drink the PG tea. It's funny how I never drank it in the US and I have it every day here.

Hah! me too! in hawaii i drank mostly fruit punch and water.  only when i came here did i start drinking more black teas. i like earl grey, though hubby's family like english breakfast or pg tips (those giant boxes at the stores!)

luckily for me, twinings came out with a bunch more herbal and fruity teas here.  currently my fave is the orange, mango and cinnamon, though it really tastes more like passion fruit, and not much cinnamon!

a side note on the water...evian leaves a lot of white gunk in the kettle, but tesco own brand does not. running tap water through a filter helps a little in keeping the limescale cleaning down!

We have pretty decent water down here in the Southwest, so any tea is pretty good, however, our preference is either Clipper Tea or a brand from the Co-op. Both of these teas are part of the "fair trade" products and are grown by small farmers in Africa, so they receive more money from the sale of the products.  There's a large range of fair trade products and the Co-op is a good place to get them.

There are a number of other popular brands that haven't been mentioned yet - like Tetley.  Their cartoon TV ads are nearly as well known as the chimps that PG tips use.  There is also Liptons tea, and Marks and Spencer's tea is also good, my mother swears by it.

Generally I think that you'll find that the tea in the UK is stronger if you brew it the same way that you did in the US ([/i]i.e[/i]. the leaves are more highly flavored) as it is designed for drinking hot, with milk.  At least that is what my wife says.

Me?  Now I'm in the US I've gone native and only ever drink it iced!