Can I still send tea bags from the UK to France?

I don’t doubt they do now.

Although I’m fussy about coffee for the same reasons (black esspresso, no sugar - you can’t hide the taste!) I admit to being a heathen when it comes to tea, pg tips teabags with fresh milk now we can get it. I’ve started drinking tea again to try and cut down the amount of coffee I drink!

And going back to the original question… No idea but I just ordered PG tips teabags from amazon.de

PG pyramid bags are bio degrable too unlike the polypropylene bags used by most others so you are doing a little bit for the planet as well!

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I do see the appeal of ‘builder’s tea’ - a bag left to turn the water Ronseal Mahogany. My old m 'n d drank that but I put it down to a lifetime in the Army, starting with 5 years of WW2.

I tried them on ‘real tea’. One Christmas I bought 1lb tins each of Earl Grey and a good Ceylon - Fortnum and Mason’s, mind. The tins went unopened for a year and a I sadly concluded that only builder’s tea would do for them.

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Do yet more for the planet and the people who grow real teas by giving up the stuff in bags and buy leaf teas. And do more for your appreciation of these by passing on milk.

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The polar opposite of a pot of The Afternoon Tea by Whittards - chai from a vendor on an Indian railway station. For anyone who has not had this, heaven and hell await. That is, the first glass is heaven, the second [because the first tasted so good] is hell.

I’ve seen them make it. A huge aluminium pot - maybe 20 litres? - full of boiling water. Into this they fling many handfuls of leaf tea - stir well. Then comes incredible amounts of sugar. It goes in by the bag full! Stir well. Next, can after can of condensed milk. Cinnamon, nutmeg …

Looks like a British builder’s tea. But the amount of sugar and condensed milk - :scream:

The thing is, in the heat and all, you really want a drink of tea. The first one tastes like nectar. The second on poisons you with sugar.

When the man trundles down the platform shouting "Chai! Chai! Chai! Chai! “Chai! Chai! Chai! Chai!” - just have one.

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Never see the attraction of earl grey, 1st I had it I thought the cat had pee’d in my cup. Green tea, Jasmine tea and lapsang all acceptable. I have poached a chicken in lapsang to give a different flavour but I’ll keep the milk in my PG.

I prefer ‘Miles’ loose tea made in a pot and left to steep for 7 minutes then poured through a strainer into a cup with saucer and a dash of fresh milk accompanied by 2 digestives and 2 rich tea.

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Were your cows on strike?

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Ha ha, no it simple wasn’t sold here for years, uht milk only so i stopped drinking tea for à decade!

I find that a bit strange andrew ,as long as I’ve been here there has always been pasturised milk

I agree with Andrew. I gave up drinking milk in tea and coffee too, but have never gone back to using it even tho’ the modern UHT is so much better and fresh easily available (at a price).

It only became easy to buy fresh milk around 15 years ago. Before that one could find fresh pasteurised milk only in a very few places or unpasteurised directly from a dairy.

Years ago, down south and where there weren’t many Brits, it was UHT or nothing (all to do with fresh milk not lasting in the heat), now you can get it anywhere along with so many other things that just weren’t on the shelves :wink:

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It must be a regional thing cos when I lived in Brittany there was always fresh milk.

Exactly, it’s regional. I spent a year in Brittany back in 2000/2001 and got fresh milk no problem. 2003 in Aix-en-Provence and no fresh milk anywhere, same thing when I arrived in the Aveyron too.

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I remember how vile it was back then! I now use Lidls organic milk and if you didn’t tell anyone they wouldn’t know it wasn’t fresh. I think early 2000s we started seeing fresh in the Aude but it was really pricey then! Fresh is quite good now price wise, not that much more. I think in super U it is 80c for their brand where back in the day I seem to remember paying something like €1,40.

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You’re absolutely right about the improvement in UHT! I still use fresh milk for the sorts of tea that have milk in but anything prepared using heat (ice-cream, yogurt, clafoutis…) I use the full fat bio UHT from U as I can’t tell any difference and, given my erratic life style, the fresh stuff has often gone off before I get round to using it :roll_eyes:

Depends which Earl Grey. Sally Clarke’s in Kensington Church Street sold 80’s in a flat pink box for 2 or 3 years that was the best Earl Grey I’ve ever had. I think it came from the West Country and had a bergamot from a specific place in it. I would love to find it again.

Most mainstream branded boxed Earl Grey’s can stay on the shelf for me.

Quite so. E.G, The Pelham Mixture and other scented teas don’t do well in bags because the volatile scents evaporate. Tea has, like coffee, wines - any foodstuffs - a quality curve from cash-n-carry to niche specialist. Earl Grey is an example of a tea that doesn’t lend itself to mass marketing.

I still have that problem only one I can buy are the posh ones from some farmers that only sell localy

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