Time for a tea break? The best and worst blends have been rated
Source: Choice
Aussies take tea seriously.
Maybe it’s the lingering British influence, or continuous injections of fervour from similarly tea-obsessed multicultural communities, but tea is often a staple of meal times or ‘coffee’ breaks.
If you’re finding your usual blend is just not up to scratch or want to try something new without risking your tastebuds, you’re in luck.
Choice has put people on the frontlines, taste-testing 32 supermarket black teas to reveal which tastes the best and the ones to avoid buying.
Their judgement should be pretty spot on, with experts including professional tea tasters, tea judges, and other tea industry professionals.
“Tea is a popular beverage, perfect for biscuit dunkers and cold mornings,” Choice editorial director Mark Serrels said.
“There is an overwhelming number of brands and varieties out there to choose from, so we’ve taste-tested over 30 black teas so you know which one to add to your trolley.
“Our expert judges blind taste tested each black tea and gave each one a Choice Expert Rating determined by assessing colour, aroma, overall flavour, aftertaste and mouth feel.”
So which teabag came out on top?
That would be Aldi Just Organic Black Tea, with an expert rating of 81 per cent.
The win puts the supermarket’s beverage offerings on a hot streak, with its Lazzio coffee beans scoring Aldi an international nod from the Golden Bean Awards last week.
Tied for second place were Tetley Extra Strong Tea Bags and Coles Tea Cup Bags, each with an expert rating of 73 per cent.
While Choice didn’t provide specific feedback behind each rating, the top-three teas all had floral notes in their respective flavour profiles.
The strength of the tea was not a deal breaker, with the top three scoring intensity ratings between 54 to 57 per cent.
If it’s a strong tea you’re after, the judges scored Australian-grown Nerada Single Origin Black Tea and Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire Tea Proper Strong Black Tea as the strongest teas in the test, with each given an intensity score of 71 per cent.
Not all teas were up to scratch.
Queen Victoria Strong English Breakfast had the worst rating out of the teas tested, achieving just 36 per cent.
In another blow to the brand, Queen Victoria English Breakfast came in second-worst with a rating of 42 per cent.
Rounding out the bottom three was Madura Premium Blend, with a 45 per cent expert rating. Interestingly, this tea scored much higher in a previous Choice taste test, with a 76 per cent rating.
Again, Choice didn’t provide exact feedback for the teas, but something that the bottom three all had in common was earthy notes in their flavour profiles.
The results also showed that the price tag doesn’t really matter when it comes to a cup of tea; the cost of the top-rated teas came to between two to six cents per tea bag, while the worst-rated teas cost between 11 to 12 cents per tea bag.
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