I was amused to read that Britain's love for tea may be "cooling off".
Last week, one of Britain’s oldest tea firms, Typhoo Tea, collapsed after a drop in sales.
. . .
Tea sales volumes have fallen by 4.3% compared with two years ago, according to analysts at NielsenIQ.
And a recent survey by Mintel suggested less than half the nation, 48%, now drink tea at least once a day.
. . .
Polina Jones from NielsenIQ says while people "are not falling out of love with tea per se", the landscape is changing with huge offerings from bubble tea, herbal teas, kombuchas and energy drinks attracting the younger generation.
. . .
In 1974, the average family purchased 68g - about 30 tea bags - of tea per person, per week. By 2023, that had gone down to 19g - about 10 tea bags – per person, according to government figures.
There's more at the link.
I have to laugh at the weekly purchase rate of teabags per person in the UK. My wife and I are both tea addicts, and order our supplies in bulk (we prefer Ahmad Tea, which has many blends that suit our tastes). The last order I made, in April this year, was for eight hundred tea bags, and I'm about to put in another because we're down to only a couple of hundred on hand! We usually order from them once a year, and enjoy the arrival of a large box filled with tea scents and goodness. (Our daily tipple is their English Tea No. 1; I have a mug of it next to me as I write these words. We also enjoy their decaf, Darjeeling and some herbal teas.)
I've never been able to get used to iced tea. I know that in the USA, probably more iced tea is consumed than hot tea, particularly in the south; but I grew up with hot tea, even in the hottest climates in Africa, and I'm afraid I'm set in my tea ways. My wife, on the other hand, while enjoying hot tea, also drinks lots of the cold variety.
Oh, well. Time to put in my next order with Ahmad, and restore balance to the tea-drinking universe!
Peter
21 comments:
My favorite tea was tea I had in Russia. Super strong.
Perhaps it's because the current population prefers other things to tea....like goats milk. I don't think the camel jockey's are as into tea as the native English are.
Reading the article, it sounds like bad management and bloat as much as lower demand that did it in... Unfortunately that is not uncommon these days.
Jonathan
Thanks for the post and links Peter. We love their English No1 as well but have gone without the past couple years as our local tea place stopped carrying them and I never thought to look online. It'd be nice if Ahmed sent you some free tea for helping them make a sale :)
Decades back the Army ruined coffee for me. When the Brits came over for war games they introduced me to teas. Haven't looked back. I'll have a gander at Ahmad Teas. I drink Earl Grey Supreme from Harney & Sons. Buy it loose and go through a pound a month.
Have you tried making your own iced tea, versus premix? There are brewing machines that make it easy.
I find tea bags to be weaker then in the past. I believe the tea companies are trying to save money on how much tea they provide.
Iced tea done right is wonderful, and just the thing for when it's hot enough to make one sweat a lot. Poor iced tea is "suboptimal". Brewed only, and fresh, please. It can go stale and tastes nasty, and restaurants don't always know or care.
Ah ... I love a good strong cuppa in the morning. As my English grandmother used to say "strong enough to trot a mouse over." Loose tea - not tea bags. My own personal favorite, which was the brand recommended by the owner of an Indian grocery that we used to frequent is Wagh Bakri International, which is also available in 2 pound bags from other middle-eastern/Indian groceries, and from Amazon.
I grew up on Lipton and Tetley tea. Though my dad and mom had coffee for breakfast, my dad thought tea more appropriate for kids. As an adult I drink coffee mostly, though occasionally like a cup of "constant comment" tea.
Darn. That explains why I can't find Typhoo at the local import emporium anymore. I like a strong black tea for mornings, and milder teas for afternoon/evening (sleep is good, ja?).
TXRed
Typhoo Tea died a long time ago.
What went tits-up and is being sold is basically just the brand and a obviously struggling brand-management team.
The core of the business had been outsourced a long time ago.
The management claims damages at the former Wirral plant complex was the final straw, breaking Typhoo's back.
It would seem a prudent question why those damages happened, were they even Typhoo Tea's losses, where was the insurance coverage, and how a UKP 21m write-off could occur from an unused plant?
Would seem that the small management team (said there was just over two dozen actual Typhoo Tea employees in any capacity left) use the Oct 2nd 2024 damages as an excuse to recognize losses that accumulated from long before?
Typhoo was assassinated by Charter Accountants (CPA types for the USA reader) and MBAs who cut the company away down to a brand-management and minor administrative management residual.
This works until enough things change that the residual is not adaptive enough to match market expectations.
British industry has a virtual battlefield of fallen brands. Brands that didn't die in combat with viral competitors, rather than died from self-inflicted "friendly fire."
Supreme apparently knows that the loss numbers provided to the media are either fabrications to cover undisclosed unrealized prior losses or some sort of hemorrhage that they can quickly put a stop to.
Otherwise they wouldn't drop UKP 10m to buy a UKP 10m-30m annual loss, now would they?
You import enough people that don't like tea and there you have it...
^What danielbarger said.
They're not drinking tea, because there's few Brits left in Britistan.
QED
Exactly!
My wife has been ordering from Adagio for years and years. They have an amazing assortment of straight and blended coffees that come in YUGE bags of loose leaf. And when we were shipped off overseas, they still sent via the FPO, which was difficult to find. She even orders a few that I like (I'm Southern, so sweet iced sun tea is my preferred method of drinking the leafy beverage). Being overseas in Asia, though, I had to buy a coffee roaster and order beans direct to fix my own caffeine addiction, because good coffee in SE Asia made Charbucks look super cheap, and that's before the tourist trap Kopi Luwak. Wagu beef, on the other hand, was the same price as USDA Prime, so I guess there were trade offs.
I don't like hot drinks any time of the year, although I can be convinced to have an occasional mug of hot chocolate in the winter.
I make iced tea from scratch, just standard supermarket tea bags, lemon juice and some sugar, same recipe my mom used since the 1960's. We drink lots of it, even the husband, who is otherwise a big coffee drinker.
A Pot of Tea, Robert W. Service You make it in your mess-tin by the brazier's rosy gleam;
You watch it cloud, then settle amber clear;
You lift it with your bay'nit, and you sniff the fragrant steam;
The very breath of it is ripe with cheer.
You're awful cold and dirty, and a-cursin' of your lot;
You scoff the blushin' 'alf of it, so rich and rippin' 'ot;
It bucks you up like anythink, just seems to touch the spot:
God bless the man that first discovered Tea!
Since I came out to fight in France, which ain't the other day,
I think I've drunk enough to float a barge;
All kinds of fancy foreign dope, from caffy and doo lay,
To rum they serves you out before a charge.
In back rooms of estaminays I've gurgled pints of cham;
I've swilled down mugs of cider till I've felt a bloomin' dam;
But 'struth! they all ain't in it with the vintage of Assam:
God bless the man that first invented Tea!
I think them lazy lumps o' gods wot kips on asphodel
Swigs nectar that's a flavour of Oolong;
I only wish them sons o' guns a-grillin' down in 'ell
Could 'ave their daily ration of Suchong.
Hurrah! I'm off to battle, which is 'ell and 'eaven too;
And if I don't give some poor bloke a sexton's job to do,
To-night, by Fritz's campfire, won't I 'ave a gorgeous brew
(For fightin' mustn't interfere with Tea).
To-night we'll all be tellin' of the Boches that we slew,
As we drink the giddy victory in Tea.
Try un-bagged leaf tea. In a proper warmed teapot. Using what a whisky/whiskey drinker calls "branch" water (no added chlorine, aluminium compound, and all the rest of embuggeration chemicals added to tap water) boiled in a kettle, added to the pre-warmed teapot. Then add a teaspoon (how did it get that name?) of leaf tea per person plus "one for the pot" to the near boiling water. Put a tea cosy on the pot and after a few minutes (5) pour through a tea strainer into your cup. Milk, quantity to drinkers taste, is put into cup either before tea or after.
Then you experiment to find your preference for milk in cup first or after, strength of tea (number of spoonfulls) and type / brand of leaf tea.
Then cut open a teabag and wonder why they dare call that dust " tea."
Please excuse the unintentional non-US of A spelling, but I did my best. (See " aluminum"). E.g. "tap" might be suspect.
Keep on doing what you are doing Mr Bayou. Much appreciated.
The most important thing in any UK army tank, etc, or decent sized aeroplane is the water boiler (pressurised to attain a proper boiling water temperature) For tea.
Camel jockeys maybe not, but Turks love it. Chai. Hot and strong in a glass big enough for a decent measure of whisky. With lots of sugar. No milk. Glass rim held between first finger and thumb. Because of heat of liquid.
I was told that it would be refreshing on a hot Turkish day. And it was.
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