Hello all!
I’m here to ask for advice, I grew up in Sweden but I now live in France, and I haven’t been drinking tea since my student days (I the northern woods) really. So off I go and buy tea here in France and it’s just really mediocre. I mean tea-shop weighted tea, not supermarket tea.
I’m fairly confident the water temp is okay and so on, but less or more tea, the cup just tastes like I used old no longer very potent tea.
It’s like the fourth time in a bunch of years I’m trying.
A french family member drinks a lot of tea (she even have this fancy water boiler with exact temperatures, a gift because she drinks so much tea), and it’s always old tea bags in a big box, and they too if course has that hay-taste/no more “tea” in them, taste. Are the french tea illiterate or am I just unlucky?
Tea isn’t very big in France but it is picking up steam, at least in my friend group. So to some extent you might just be unlucky.
There’s three tiers of tea suppliers to me : supermarkets, tea chains (such as Kusmi or Palais des thés) and finally independent tea shops which have the best quality. Which tea shops are “the good ones” will depend on your location though.
My German friends have also remarked on disappointing French teas, and that almost every infusion is based around verbena and chamomile. Even if it’s sold as something else on the front, that represents typically less than 30% of the actual ingredients and is more verbena plus something.
I’m guessing based on the “hay” description that you’re more into herbal teas. I’m mostly a fan of black teas and Kusmi and Damman are my go-to French brands. My partner is more into herbals and in over a decade never found a really good option.
My only advice is to stock up when in a place that has the teas you appreciate. I personally load up on fruit teas during trips to Germany or Austria.
Thanks, yeah will try to stock up when I can!
BTW the “hay” taste is not something I appreciate, it’s like too old tea taste!
Yeah, I got that the hay taste is a negative. I feel like thats more likely to come from bad herbal teas more than black, so it was a guess that you’re into herbals.
Sorry I don’t really have any actually useful advice…
I agree with the other commenters, I have been a bit disappointed by the French tea shop quality.
Locally, after having tasted a variety of local tea shops, I resorted to buying at Palais des Tes. Marriage Frères is really good in my opinion if you have a way of getting them.
I bought mariage frères but that was like 15 years ago so I discarded it in my mind, will try out again because it was very good!