Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)So I grew up in a townhouse complex with my two best friends being Thai and Indian 1st gen immigrants... I grew up with about a fourth of my food being from their homes--we went to whoever was making the best food. Thai tea was a bit of a guilty obsession for us, especially in the summer. As I got older, the addiction grew, and I've brewed hundreds of gallons of it. That said, I bought this along with the Por Kwan when I couldn't get to my Asian market. The Por Kwan was much better, but neither was especially great; this one is GREEN tea, which Thai tea is NEVER supposed to be. The leaf quality is pretty awful--really dusty, the stems are ground in with the leaves (big no no, clearly cheaply made), and it's DEFINITELY been treated beyond the red dye--which our tea FROM Thailand and Sri Lanka actually didn't need, though admittedly, they weren't garfield orange, more like a pinkish peach, when the milk was added (when it's brewed correctly, GOOD "black" teas will be a lovely red shade; this would likely be a gross putrid yellow-brown without the dye)...
Some people probably add enough sugar to compensate for the chemicals in this, but I can't get over it. I could steep it for 1 minute, 3, or 5 or 10 and it would still have a scent and flavor I (admittedly my sense of taste and smell are keen) am repulsed by--just opening the bag, the smell of a cheap plasticware factory's toxic chemicals gently waved in my face like fresh paint. The bag has gone unused as a result... I'm about to toss it, since frankly, I can't trust something I know has had things added to it that make that distinct "not from nature" smell and taste so apparent to me, someone who admittedly mostly buys things like Silk Road prize teas (Drunken Concubine for example) from Angelina's--the only guy I've personally met who knows quite a lot more about tea than me is there, and he used to evaluate them all over China/Asia and gets the very best... Those chemicals, if you care, are probably a mix of intended additives and byproduct. They intentionally tend to add things likely mold/mildew inhibitors since transporting in Asia equals humidity (most of this is from China, shipped to Thailand sometimes or tagged product of Thailand if the company is in Bangkok, regardless of where the tea came from or how many factories were involved in its creation), along with the obvious pesticides in these cheaper teas. Then you have the reason this stuff is so cheap when good tea will typically be--even loose--$1-4 an OUNCE: the manufacturing process. I'm pretty sure this wasn't made in an especially clean plant, and that smell in opening the bag reminded me of places that just don't exist in America, places that remind me of why I DO buy USA goods 99% of the time. The water used to clean, the grinders... none are going to be especially clean by our standards, and much gets recycled, as water is costly in other parts of the world. The short reason I won't finish this or give it to anyone else is that all of that non-tea gets brewed right into the tea and goes into your body. I like my body AND tea too much to settle for less than great. The por kwan brand is much better, but... it's still not the bee's knees. Still, if I had to pick one, it is NOT this one. The other I can say at least most people should be okay with... I'd give IT a 3.5. I give this a 2 for MOST people to be fair since face it, most don't care about the nitpicking I am hyperaware of. Most don't teach medical sciences and work directly with ill patients, either, for a living, so most aren't constantly immersed in healthcare.
Whatever you get, I'll at least give this recommendation: we grew up using sweetened condensed milk--it's how they typically do it in Thailand, where fresh cow milk is expensive, very expensive--or sometimes evaporated in a pinch; the condensed really makes the texture best for adding ice; otherwise, it becomes extremely thin, which is a sad reality of many restaurants, which I'm presuming a lot of people base their reviews on; high quality Thai restaurants--and they DO exist(expensive doesn't mean high quality)--the ones Thai folks eat at--won't skimp on this detail, let alone use regular milk. Half and half *can* be a feasible option, but it's just not the same.
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