Another not whole leaf “whole leaf tea” in not-sachet (claimed to be sachet) filter bags from Pukka, a company whose marketing editors appear to be severely linguistically challenged—or not. (See Pukka Perfect Day…) I’m trying to be as charitable as possible, so in more closely examining the box, I found this sentence:
“We use sachets to protect the high essential oil content of our incredible organic herbs to bring you the fullest flavor.”
This text strongly suggests that the people at Pukka believe that the word ‘sachet’ refers to the sealed envelopes in which their old-fashioned filter bags are stored. So they appear to be boasting about not using the flimsy fold-over thin paper envelopes favored by firms such as Lipton and Salada. In those sorts of teas, of course, there is no flavor really to preserve, so why would they use a foil-lined or air-tight pouch or “sachet”, as Pukka prefers to call them.
This still does not explain Pukka’s further assertion that these “sachets” contain whole leaf tea. Are they suggesting that the tea is whole leaf because it came from whole leaves? But what tea does not begin as a whole leaf? In other words, if that is what they mean, it is vacuous and cannot be considered a virtue, and therefore a selling point, of this specific tea.
The tea base of Gorgeous Grey is said to single-origin Dunsandle, both organic and free trade. It brews up light golden brown, closer to yellow than orange or red, and seems closer to a Darjeeling than the stouter black (Assam-type) tea which I prefer for Earl Greys, as I drink them with cream.
Both the lavender flower, said to comprise a whopping 5% of the ingredients, and the bergamot and lemon essential oil are so light as to be virtually undetectable in the dried tea. I’d have concluded that this tea was just plain old, except that the “best before” date is: 2016.06.01. What? Another three years? I thought that tea was supposed to be dated for two years from production. Hmmmm….. Not chez Pukka.
This is a fail. Sorry. Charity can extend only so far.
