Bottled Tea? The price of convenience.

[Richard Kilgore]

I was going through the checkout line at a Sprouts grocery store recently and noticed that the person in front of me had only two products in her basket. Two bags of potato chips and about 40 bottles of "organic black tea". At a dollar a 16 ounce bottle. Looked like a party in the making.

Certainly convenient - it's "organic" and convenient - just toss it in the trash or recycle the glass or plastic.

But how hard is it to make iced tea? $40 would buy the 160 - 180 grams of a good quality tea leaf needed and have money left over. And few if any of the bottled teas are made of anything but the lower grades of tea.

So, my bias is not subtle. But what do you think of bottled teas?

[baroness]

I totally agree, on the grounds of taste, environmental impact, and cost.

I find the bottled, let alone canned, teas to have no resemblance to real tea. Then there's the issue of the flavors and sweetners.

They are terrible ambassadors to the enjoyment of tea!

[Yajna Patni]

I agree with all that has been said above about bottled tea. I don't see how it is quicker either. how long does it take to throw water from a kettle onto leaves?

and i have no desire to lug heavy bottles of liquid around either.

All this said... i have an addiction. In the Korean store on the way to my old work they had bottles of what was called hong Kong milk tea in the cooler.

This stuff is heaven. I have asked a friend from Hong Kong how to make it, and he shrugs his shoulders and looks at me like I am insane and says, well, its tea with milk and sugar.

But this is more. Perhaps it is the sweet taste of pasteurization or substandard tea, or the plastic bottle leaching in to the liquid, but something is right. I drink this stuff by the gallon when ever I can.