Photo by Muffy Aldrich
Muffy Aldrich's SALT WATER NEW ENGLAND

Tuesday, February 24, 2026

Tea and Biscuit Restock - The No Fuss, No Frills Edition

Photo by Muffy Aldrich

Weary from all the storms and the cold, this is not the time for the teapot and strainer kind of restock.  No loose tea here.  More nuts and bolts, think builder's tea.  

37 comments:

  1. Walkers Shortbread Finger Cookies with Bigelow Plantation Mint Tea for the win ... collars up, Preppies !!!

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  2. Pepperidge Farms Milano double dark chocolate cookies and Peet’s Breakfast tea

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  3. Pleased to see Yorkshire tea in there. Our daily drink and yes of course builders tea, very strong with a dash of milk

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    1. My next door neighbour hails from Belfast and runs on Barry's (the Gold). It is excellent for a builders tea with a splash of milk.

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  4. Classics don’t always need to be tweaked! Enjoy!

    Not quite a New England brand, but not far from the CT border in Millerton, NY - Harney & Sons has a wonderful range of bagged, sachets, and loose leaf tea.

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    1. Harney very much a New England brand despite the Millerton facility. John Harney of Salisbury Conn founded the company. His descendants now manage the company. They all live in the No’west corner.

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    2. Their Earl Grey is my favorite & the tin container is lovely.

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  5. Typhoo and butter cookies . Now that's a nice afternoon.

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  6. Good choices! We too are fans of Anna's and Earl Grey among others. Perfect for a mid-afternoon break during a cold winter's day.

    Kind Regards,

    Heinz-Ulrich

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  7. Taking a trip to London in two weeks. Recommendations for English tea brands to grab while I’m there?

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    1. Fortum & Mason is a treasure trove.

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    2. In England all the tea is better. Twinings Earl Grey in England is better than ours. Waitrose's own brand of tea is good. And of course there's Fortnum's teas.

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    3. Heartily second recommend Yorkshire Gold. We also like the Yorkshire Bedtime. Sends us off to sweet sleep.

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  8. May I please add to the menu of afternoon repast: Hot chocolate with buttered cinnamon toast ... ??? I, of course, would set the table with my beautiful "Pearl River" by Spode and Stieff Rose sterling. Collars up !!!

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  9. I always serve my tea in the Royal Doulton china with the handpainted periwinkles.

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  10. Yes, tea bags are no fuss. However, they are also likely leaching microplastics into your tea. Those nifty little steel mesh cylinders with ears that drop into your pot, mug, or cup for loose tea are quite nearly as no fuss and enable you to use loose teas. I like Upton, but there are certainly other excellent sources.

    Here is an AI summary on plastics and teabags:

    "[m]any tea bags contain plastic, specifically nylon or polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and can release billions of microplastic and nanoplastic particles into a single cup of tea when steeped in hot water. Even paper tea bags often use polypropylene for sealing, making them a source of plastic particles."


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    1. Life's too short!

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    2. The source of your information is interesting. Far more dangerous to human beings than a tea bag, is AI

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    3. Dear Vecchio Vespa, it's not only plastic. There are also chemicals in this paper (also in organic certified teas!), We use only loose tea, never teabags. Tea in teabags is worst quality tea (nothing new in the industry), containing also colour agents. It's easy to make an experiment at home, Lipton, Twinings and many others are turning black (literally) in few seconds after adding boiled water, good quality tea will first turn reddish, at the end to brown (black tea I mean), but it takes time and not such an artificial weird brownish black colour. If you use teabags occasionally-it's ok, if regularly - it's dangerous.

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    4. Oh I do love a self proclaimed expert, especially one who doesn't have a clue what they are talking about! As someone who in their working life worked for a company that supplied engineering equipment to many tea companies and spent a lot of time on their production lines and in their laboratories I can say without hesitation that this is nonsense! The suggestion that quality is lower in tea bags is patently untrue as is the suggestion that long term use of tea bags is dangerous. By all means correct me by quoting the court cases where people have claimed they were damaged by tea bags (or even the t.v. expose)

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    5. First, I made no proclamation that the tea in tea bags was inferior. In fact, I found some quite good. Second, I am not implying or stating that drinking tea made with teabags will result in actionable damage to the drinker. However, if you happen to be using bags that leach plastics at any level, you are probably making an unneeded minuscule contribution to the plastics in your system, and even minuscule contributions may accumulate. The ultimate effects may not be adequately and fully known, but why bother if there is a neat, quick, easy alternative that does not involve plastic? Third, if all you are after is a good cuppa, that is one thing. If you are interested in more options, I find the choices of bagged tea limited.

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    6. Dear Vecchio Vespa, I was responding to anon 7.02 A.M. and not your goodself.
      Anon 9.08 A.M.

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    7. I agree on those mesh, microplastic bags. I'm on my 3rd cancer and I don't need a 4th.

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  11. Lipton tea and Aldi Brand Fig Newtons...on second thought Major Dickason coffee ground fine and strong and Trader Joe's chocolate chip dunker biscotti.

    Will

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  12. Always only home-made Earl Grey (no excuses here, it's so easy and makes such a difference!) and Pan di Stelle cookies.

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  13. Anxiously awaiting my delivery from the British Food Depot to welcome spring--Heinz Beans, Cadbury Drinking Chocolate, some REAL Cadbury caramel eggs and some Walker's Cheese and Onion crisps! And some Wispa and Curly Wurly bars. Bring on the better weather! (US Cadbury sucks, way too much paraffin, might as well buy a Hershey bar.)

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  14. To anonymous 9:08: As it happens, I too used to work (as the business owner, no corp!), and still do with tea, herbs, coffee and cocoa beans suppliers. Organic certified, but indeed, only EU organic certification so yes, I know what I am talking about. No need to talk, just do this, what I recommended as a test. Unless you have something better in the US market than EU market (I doubt!). I am not a self proclaimed expert, from 2014 lots of products for private labels including sourcing, packaging and testing with professional laboratories. Lipton used to be ok something like 15 years ago, Twinnings opinion is based on my last experience few weeks ago, one of the hotels in Italy. Horrible! I have never seen tea turning artificially brown-black so fast, literally few seconds.
    Isabel

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    1. I'm sorry I actually don't follow any of this it seems like gobbledygook and I don't understand what point you are making?
      Anon 9.08

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  15. Yorkshire & Walkers! Our go to! Thanks once again! Cheers!

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  16. I miss Peek Freans. Very serious cookies.

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