Tip for any serious TEA drinkers!!!

[Dena]

As a former serious tea drinker, I feel your pain. DH eventually converted me to a coffee drinker. He roasts and grinds the beans and literally pulls espresso shots with a Pavoni. If it makes you feel any better, serious coffee drinkers can suffer too on cruises. We are both trying to give up caffeine now as it is giving us some problems. For us, decaf doesn't taste very good, and we rarely drink alcohol, so by the time of our next cruise, we won't even be "coffee totalers .". Which reminds me, I need to start a thread on the premium water package.

[Bridge Maven]

While some brands of tea bags are better than others, I didn't think any serious tea drinker liked tea bag tea. At home, we usually have around 15 different types of loose tea and brew a pot for breakfast every morning. Then we pour it over ice for ice tea later in the day.

 

Even though my husband loves Celebrity, it really bothers him that we can't get a decent cup of tea on a cruise line that is known for its food and he conveys this sentiment on his comment cards. However, as bad as their tea is their coffee is worse, so I usually forgo both of them on a Celebrity cruise. At home, though, or at a land based restaurant I don't consider a meal complete without either a good cup of tea or coffee. My beverage decision is usually based on which the restaurant does better - Tea at Indian, Thai, or Japanese Restaurant - Coffee at Italian or French restaurant.

 

BTW - even though I recommended bringing loose tea and a brewing ball to get good tea, I don't do it myself because it diminishes my enjoyment of a vacation if I have to do what a ship cannot do well.

[Despegue]

My wife and I are tea drinkers but will only accept LOOSE tea as the teabags' content is actually the Tea DUST of the sorting process (they really swipe Lipton tea off the floor in the factories after sorting out the loose tea). This include Lipton (ugh) AND Twinnings by the way.

 

Some Water is boiled and then poured in a pot with loose tea. it then must cool down and get VERY strong (concentrated). To pour yourself a cup of tea, fill a bit of the concentrated tea in your cup (to you rliking of strength) and then fill the cup with boiling-hot water.

 

We do like Akbar and Ahmat teas, but i guess they are difficult to find in the UK and US (mainly for the Russian market, which is actually the worlds largest tea-market)

[Allis154]

We always take tea bags with us, regardless of where we go. Nothing spoils a meal more than awful tea!

 

Our butler on our first Celebrity cruise, Alfred, suggested mixing English breakfast and Earl Gray to give a rich cup of tea...Love It!

[Longtonian]

The tea (Lipton's) is horrible, but not all tea bags are bad; for anyone in the UK try Rington's mail order, based in Newcastle on Tyne. Their Deluxe Extra Fresh tea bags are superb. Posh loose tea (eg Darjeeling - the "champagne of teas") does not cut the mustard with me.

 

On the subject of Celebrity coffee (the standard stuff) I think it is even worse than the tea. Mud dredged from the River Mersey mixed with ground charcoal would be more palatable.

 

Just one more complaint, while I'm in whingeing mood. You can't drink them (well I suppose you could at a pinch, for a hangover treatment), but the only other thing I can't face is the eggs. They are like the worst possible battery eggs you could buy at home. Organic, free-range they ain't and I worry about their provenance and age.

 

Other than that, Celebrity food and drink is great (though the bottled water is a rip-off):p

[smoosh21]

Always take my Sainsburys' Gold Label. In desperation, if I need to use the ship's bags, you need at least two to make something of a decent strength; they are truly dreadful.

On the subject of biscuits, we were once confused by something labelled "biscuits and gravy" which looked like scones served with a cream coloured gravy, served for breakfast I think.

 

Biscuits and gravy would be American biscuits (normally Buttermilk) with a sausage gravy. The Gravy is simply a roux, basically the base of the mother sauces of French cooking.