Enjoy Your Tea: Don't Be Mythinformed

September 30, 2017

Enjoy your tea: 10 myths that get in your way Tea is a wonderful drink, with at least 3,000 varieties on the market. It’s inexpensive, with as wide a range of flavors as wines. Enjoy its variety and subtleties. Let’s start again. Just put up with your tea. It can be an awful drink, with hundreds of pretty packages on the supermarket shelf but all very much the same. They are bitter or bland or overloaded with a fruity flowery taste. Tea gets stale easily. Most of the differences between t

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Peter Keen

Peter has been a senior professor at leading business and technology universities across the world, including Harvard, MIT, Stanford, and Oxford. He is the author of over forty books and a noted international consultant and public speaker. Tea writing and education are his avocation, with a focus on helping tea lovers find the ones that fit their personal tastes at best value. He has a strong interest in the offbeat stories and social and cultural aspects of tea history. His latest book is Tea Tips.

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3 Comments

Jem McDowall
on October 3, 2017 at 3:29 pm •Reply

After 30+ years in the tea business I have never read such utter garbage in my life until I read the above article. Frankly the writer is in the “Foodbabe” category with respect to intelligent and informed research and discussion.

To promote your own (preferred) products and styles of tea you regard as higher quality is one thing but you don’t actually need to trash other sectors of the same industry by telling lies about them.

Please do the industry a favor: go away, research your article properly and then update it without the snide, psuedo-sensationalist, inaccurate garbage included above.
- Dan Bolton
  on October 24, 2017 at 7:03 pm •Reply
  
  Jem was not specific as to which facts put forth were inaccurate but several readers expressed concern that the article mentions that Earl Grey tea flavoring is made with a chemical used as antifreeze. Here are the facts: Propylene Glycol is found in many processed foods, thousands of cosmetics, and in some medications.
  The chemical is used to keep these products from drying out. Propylene Glycol also disperses flavoring evenly which is why its approved uses include Earl Grey flavoring. It should not be confused with Ethylene Glycol, a toxic compound that is also used as antifreeze.
  Here is additional background and some research articles on the topic.
  Propylene Glycol: The Complicated Additive with Potentially Dangerous Side Effects
  http://specialteacompany.com/product/almond-j-black-tea/
  Natural flavors and essential oils in tea
  http://www.tching.com/2010/11/natural-flavors-and-essential-oils-in-tea/
  Earl Grey Tea Flavor Concentrate (product description)
  http://www.theflavourist.com/earl-grey-tea-flavor-concentrate/
  Earl Grey Creme Blends (ingredients listed by manfacturer include propylene glycol)
  http://www.thefrozenbean.com/products/42/creme-blends/earl-grey
  Earl Grey Decaf (note propylene glycol was used until 2016 then replaced with an organic compliant flavoring by supplier)
  https://teaatthewhitehouse.com/products/earl-grey-decaf
  Earl Grey Tea Flavor Concentrate (product description by manufacturer includes Propylene Glycol)
  https://wizardlabs.us/earl-grey-tea-flavor-concentrate-by-tfa-4oz
  Earl Grey Tea (ingredients listed by manfacturer include Propylene Glycol)
  https://www.bestglycol.com/en/product/earl-grey-tea/
  Earl Grey Tea Flavour (ingredients listed by manfacturer include Propylene Glycol)
  https://www.chefsflavours.co.uk/perfumers-apprentice/3131-earl-grey-tea.html
  Earl Grey Coffee and Tea Flavoring (manufacturer lists Propylene Glycol as ingredient)
  https://www.naturesflavors.com/natural-coffee-and-tea-flavoring/62854-earl-grey-coffee-and-tea-flavoring.html
  Earl Grey Tea Flavored Flavor Liquid Concentrate (manufacturer lists Propylene Glycol as ingredient)
  https://www.rainbowvapes.co.uk/products/earl-grey-tea-flavoured-flavour-apprentice-liquid-concentrate
  Steam Spirit Vapor (manufacturer lists Propylene Glycol as a non-flavor ingredient)
  https://www.steamspiritvapor.com/earl_grey_tea_flavored_concentrate_p/earl-grey-tea-flavor.htm
Chris Lightfoot
on August 27, 2020 at 10:05 am •Reply

A useful review Peter, but rather cynical on the science. See e.g. “The Green Tea Book”, 1998 – some 150 scientific papers. Then the work of Y Hara since then. MANY times as much evidence as any other foodstuff with evidence on ant-oxidants. Black has about 80% the health values as Green, so never mind pushing green. Agree on the pretensions of the tastes – irrelevant to the health. I drink loose-leaf black straight in the mug: VERY strong and tasty, and the dregs go easily onto pot-plants! On Price? Bear in mind the price has hardly changed in 30 years – the producer is being shafted. The consumer wins. Chemicals – the consumer demands certification of being clean – with no extra cost!
And, Tea is the world’s MOST ecologically sustainable crop – APPRECIATE!