Is black tea disappearing from supermarkets in Poland?

Gradually black tea, once the standard mainstay, seems to be disappearing from Polish supermarkets (maybe not only Polish ones?). I mainly shop at Carrefour and they feature a host of green teas, herbal teas and fake-fruit teas but good ol' Yunan, Ceylon, Madras and the like are getting hard to come by. Even Lipton Yellow mostly contains artificial, lab-produced lemon flavour. Has anybody else noticed this?

It's not good news and it's not understandable because black tea is actually quite healthy (probably healthier than most of these artificial-flavor teas). The best one, Polish (or Turkish ;) style was 'sypana z fusami' (loose black tea added directly to a cup mixed with hot water). Btw. it's harder to buy 'normal' beer in Poland too since the 'flavor' ones become more popular (for marketers at least).

They still sell black tea - it isn't disappearing at all.

What is hard to find is loose leaf Earl Grey with real bergamot oil. Since the white coats synthesised it Italian farmers and tea lovers have suffered.

I think ZAS, at Simply and Leclerc, may fit the bill. Natural AFAIK
zas-herbaty.com.pl/?p=169
(loose leaf version available in many Simplys)

M&S have it too, in Warsaw anyway.



I see no shortage of either in the shops. Black tea isn't disappearing and 'normal' beer isn't harder to buy.

Modern packaging gives green/herbal tea a long shelf life and it's generally sold in smaller packets - hence seeming like there's a lot. I don't think many people would want to return to the lack of choice that existed in the PRL years.

I drink a cup of tea maybe 2 or 3 times a year, being a coffee drinker. Though Rooibos is nice.

I should rephrase that. I've only just picked up a packet of Dilmah black leaf tea at Carrefour, there was also Bastek, a very cheap and nasty brand. But the place was loaded with lemon, quince, raspberry, you-name-it teas as well as herbal tisanes -- mostly fake-flavoured. The novelty teas were once simply that -- novelties. Now they seem to dominate the shelf space. Are they being pushed by the manufacturers (higher mark-up?) or do people actually drink the stuff?

The packaging takes up more space due to the smaller sized boxes and huge variety.


Probably.


Doubtless some people do - most people who buy it let it languish in cupboards until stale.

It's very popular with friends of mine in both Poland and the UK.
To be honest, I've never come across a Pole yet who drinks black tea.
I presumed until others said to the contrary, that black tea was disappearing from shelves due to lack of popularity.

They drink it but don't want to be called racists so they don't do it in public.. ;)

As Poland is in the top four consumers of tea in Europe, it's utter tosh about black tea falling out of flavor in Poland. Black loose is the base for mixing blends as is green loose. Although the quality of tea at the lower end is poorer in recent times due to the hike in prices, so packagers have been buying dust and broken leaf. If you look at age demographics you may find under 30's consuming coffee as a lifestyle drink.teadrinker

There's also (are was?) a tea belt and coffee belt in Poland roughly an east-west divide with coffee to the west and tea to the east. To some extent it parallels the demarcation line between the tsarist and Prussian partitions. I wonder if that is generally breaking down.

Going back to black tea, I have no data on actual consumption and was only making an observation of Carrefour, Biedronka and Żabka shop shelves. Black tea may be used to create many of the novelty blends, but when shopping for tea the novelties now seem to dominate and greatly out number regular tea. That wasn't the case even 5 years ago. Even those black-tea mainstays Lipton and Tetley are now mostly lemon tea and Earl Grey. Why would anyone buy a tea containing synthetic, lab-designed lemon flavour rather than squeezing a few drops of lemon juice into their glass or cup? The answer: commercial brainwashing. We have been Pavlov-dog-conditioned to: JUST REACH FOR YOUR CREDIT CARD AND WE'LL DO THE REST!

That's interesting and rings true - more coffee imports into Germany. The old coffee roasting factory in Poznan has been there for a century.


That's also true.


It's always been like that, Pavlov-dog-conditioned to make those new-fangled wheel things instead of just dragging stuff and stop smearing wode over your body like a decent hunter-gatherer should.

Excuse my ignorance, but what in heaven's name is wode? From context I assume it was something primitive hunters smeared on themselves to camouflage their whiteness and conceal their BO in that pre-Old Spice era from scent-sensitive prey.

That's the stuff. Blue I think (before my time - maybe certain posters would remember) - The point is that tastes and fashions do change over time. The black tea that you're lamenting the loss of (though huge amounts are still sold in PL) was once also a trendy innovation. Just as these flavoured ones are now nd in the future doubtless something else will be.

The difference if that black tea is essentially a natural product. The synthetically flavoured teas are lab produced by men in white coats. To each his own.

Most of them yes - and they taste like it too. Nasty stuff.

Some herbal teas though have a long tradition in PL and in Eastern Europe as a whole - Melissa and Camomile for example. Also the Polish taste for things that are fruit flavoured and sweet is nothing new.

Plus, tastes do change and after years of scarcity it's hard to blame people for choosing products that were unavailable before. I remember some people's wonderment a few years ago at seeing brown sugar for the first time.

Merged: Black tea being eclipsed by chemically flavoured varieties

A while ago I noted here that black teas were being displaced on supermarket shelves by more and more flavoured varieties, mainly chemically aromatised fruit and herb flavours. It was something every tea shopper could not help but notice but my contrarian Bully Brit adversaries claimed that was not the case. Now Rzeczpospolita has finally taken note of that tendency. The fact that something is called raspberry- or quince-flavoured tea means only that it is aromatised with lab-produced chemicals which never came within a thousand miles of a berry bush or quince tree.

ekonomia.rp.pl/artykul/706204,1226405-Herbaty-smakowe-zyskuja-w-Polsce.html

If you're fond of black tea Polonus, I do recommend the M&S stuff. Their teabags are 2g each, and the quality is very high. The best thing is that the price per gram is actually around the same as the utter rubbish such as Lipton.

@Pol3: unfortunately true! Although not a tea drinker (I drink coffee), I am often fooled by all those (on the label) promising fruit or whatever else flavored teas and I buy quite a lot of these ... beverages. They sure do smell "nice" but they have no taste so most often the boxes stay on my shelves for several months before I throw them away.... Since full of chemicals, I doubt they are "healthy" ;). However I like jasmine flavored green tea (only way for me to swallow green tea, which I hate per se).

@Delph: sure, if we want to drink good tea, good idea to go to M&S.

Never use messy, drippy teabags -- brew herbata only the classic Polish/Russian tea-essence style. In a small teapot you make a strong essence by drenching tea leaves with boiling water and let it steep at least an hour. Then you use as much essence in your cup or glass as you like and top it up with fresh boiling water. An excellent way to gauge the strength you want or need -- something potent to wake you up, something milder for grandpa or junior.

There's is certainly the best of the easily available brands. their extra-strong bags are good (but made for drinking with a little milk added).

The local brands (though certainly not disappearing - what a silly thread title) tend to be weaker and lower quality.

Known in Polish as bawarka (Bavarian maiden?), tea with milk is fed to nursing mothers (and not all of them can stomach it!), as it's supposed to promote lactation (probably an old wives' tale).

Bawarka tends to be much milkier than the way M&S black tea is meant to be drunk.

Saga and Lipton seem to be the biggest brands of black tea in Poland. Their bags contain less tea and are a weaker blend.

As far as I know they still sell well, despite the proliferation of foul flavoured teas. Green tea is becoming more popular and here are genuine health benefits in drinking this.

Yes, since not a tea drinker, I don't chase for the "top quality" and in the past, I have tried "local" brands. There are tasteless and to get a minimum of taste, need to put 2 bags in the cup and still not much taste.

Yes, M&S is probably among the best places for tea in Poland. There is among others an (English) brand of teas and herbal teas sold at M&S which is also sold now at Carrefour and Leclerc (health products section). I don't know the name. Packages are old fashioned, dark green, grey or light blue with big white writings. They cost 10 to 16 ZL. I have not yet but next time I buy food, I'll try.

That's how people like it in PL. They don't usually let it brew (just dipping the teabag in) so really it's just coloured water. One reason that other types may be becoming more popular than black tea - they just don't make it properly. Another issue is the number of people who reuse teabags - sales are therefore low. But not disappearing.

@Jon: Yes, I have noticed that. A lot of people I know here just dip their tea bags for a few seconds and do drink only colored water with often a lot of sugar ;). I'm on the extreme, I keep my tea bag in the cup until I finish drinking. I suppose it must be somewhere in the "middle"

On the rare occasions I use tea bags I do that, and not for reasons of economy. The second cup tastes better.


Hard core tea lady.
IMO tea bags are a complete waste of money. I put some loose Lipton Earl Grey tea into a cup and add water. Good quality leaves will settle at the bottom. No bags dripping all over the kitchen, no teapot to wash. It's so simple.

@Roger: since I normally spend 2 or more hours to drink a single cup of tea (or coffee), imagine the strength of my tea ;). That's the reason why I could not drink green tea, after soaking so long, it was so bitter that it was undrinkable. Now, I do drink green tea but I only soak the bag in the cup for max a couple of minutes (or less, I don't count).

I don't drink much tea anyway (only in the afternoon when too late to drink coffee (I can't drink coffee past 4 pm or I can't sleep)).