HIDDY

Just made the missus a cup of tea.....no she didn't just want normal tea it had to be one of the bags out of the presentation box someone had given her. After ten minutes humming and hawing she finally decided which one to try.....Cranberry & Sanguinello Orange.

Anyway it got me thinking. I had a look at my last BA F menu and found that BA seem to offer their passengers more of these odd concoctions than they do normal tea varieties.
Peppermint, Lemon, Ginger, Blackcurrant, Ginseng, Vanilla, Camomile are all offered in First. Do BA feel they need to be hip by offering these ghastly things or are there people out there who actually enjoy drinking the stuff?

Hotels also offer them on the complimentary tea tray....now you're lucky if you get one Tetley amongst the horrors.

C-130

In the concorde lounge at T5 I was offered the tea or champagne menu. This was in Feburary/March of this year. I tried all of the teas (I am a big tea connoisseur). And was pleasantly surprised.

BA just don't know how to brew the tea properly and properly get the flavour from the leaves. Which disappointed me. Now if only they offered some Scottish breakfast tea and not English Breakfast Tea.

And just a side note on my return from JFK in March I asked for Breakfast tea and was informed as it was a night service only earl Gray was available. I had a slight chuckle at that. As in my opinion it is just names or am I incorrect?

Feroze

Earl Grey is apparently only available in First. CC in Club World have been more than happy to fetch a teabag or two on those services that I've flown that have First, but more often than not I manage to fly on routes/days that are 3-class!

PS: I only let Earl Grey or Darjeeling pass my lips....

SFOSpiff

On the plus side, tea packets are small and lightweight, so taking a variety of them doesn't get in the way like food or drink options.

I'm curious though - does unused tea have to be destroyed on arrival in foreign countries like the rest of the food and refuse items?

ag51

I often have a Peppermint tea after the main meal - freshly made in a mug or a teapot depending on J or F. Sometimes try a fruit tea in the lounge, but invariably disappointed - they always smell nice, but taste of very little.

OPebble

Highly unlikely as the tea is a dried leaf in a sealed packet.

Doesn't happen with the coffee sachets.

alasdair_m

They are all lovely

kirky

My wife drinks them!

We also have to 'export' boxes and boxes of the damn things (not BA's!) to S-I-L in Vancouver, as they aren't subjected to them there.

Talking of Canada and specifically BC, for an area which (used to) be proud of it's British ancestry, THEY CAN'T MAKE A GOOD CUP OF TEA!

Tea bags are half-size and make gnat's pss and then they put CREAM in : puke smiley :

catandmouse

Making tea in a plane is always going to be tricky as the water boils at a lower temperature because of the lower cabin pressure. A good cuppa needs to be made with water boiling at 100°C.

arcticfox

Slightly OT - one thing I always relish getting onto a BA flight after an extended period abroad is that first, good, strong British cup of tea. Very few countries (and no airline I have yet found) can match a proper British cup!

Your thread also reminds me of GF around 6 months to a year back who offered a range of "Tea Forte" teas (fruit and otherwise) which I absolutely loved. They seem to have vanshed now - anyone know what happened, or were these "enhanced" too? The Twinings just aren't on the same level!

I must admit I do love the range of Fortnum & Mason loose leaf teas available in T5 - while not necessarily cheap, they go a long way and are well worth the extra.

Swanhunter

Not sure I'd describe any of those flavours as hip. More likely to be drunk by slightly wierd old people. Still I'd rather have a flavoured tea than a traditional British brew, which has to be one of the more unpleasant things I've ever drunk. Take perfectly decent tea, ruin with milk and too much sugar to produce warm, sweet baby formula. Ghastly.

henners

I've said it before, but the "no tea that isn't builders' tea in WT" policy is one of the more infuriating CW product differentiators... I've taken to bringing my own camomile tea bags when I'm at the back of the plane.

Cheetah_SA

Not unless it's rose hip tea!

Hoch

I always bring my own tea with me when I fly longhaul, even in F. We have a Twinings tea caddy
that contains four compartments. I put tea bags in two and sealed loose tea in the other two.
Never had an issue with the CC keeping the caddy during the flight and using that tea. But, of
course, I brew the loose tea as I think that is asking too much

H

BA304

I do

Mostly Moroccan mint and rooibos but also jasmine and ginger.

Something like "cranberry and sanguinello orange" probably wouldn't appeal to me as I find fruit teas can sometimes be very sweet.