BA tea
 

Technical question, but not for Tech Log:

why does BA tea, in whatever cabin, taste like it has come from an urn in a Salvation Army hostel?

Are the FA's sent on some specialist course?

We are supposed to be the biggest tea addicts/aficianados on the planet, so why can't they do better?

The water for the tea was passed by the manager of hot beverages at waterside, also his under manager and assistant manager and the assistant to the assistant manager and their secretaries have also passed the water.....thats why it tastes like.....it's just been passed. :)

Water boils at 100 Celsius, sea level pressure. The cabin of a jet in the cruise is at 8,000ft, the water boils at a lower temperature. Try it at home; get some cheap tea bags (you don't think the airlines use best Assam leaves do you?) and make a pot using luke-warm water. Ahh, so like the airlines you can almost smell the stale air-conditioning!

No no no Herod! In some airlines tea is not that bad! And BA's not even the worse: try Alitalia's if you are brave! Tastes like if someone had washed socks in it!

[ 25 February 2002: Message edited by: flyblue ]</p>

On a similar note - I vote BA for having the worst transatlantic coffee! - I think BA must be just about the only carrier to serve instant coffee in business class! - All US carriers serve fresh coffee in Coach!

What? <img src="eek.gif" border="0"> Instant coffee? Surely not....?

herod, while your explanation no doubt correct, there is still a big difference onboard between tea that has been made with water that has actually boiled and tea that's made from water just heated in the coffee maker.

Easy way to see if the airline has real "kettles" or not is to check the surface of the tea. If the tea is frothy, it's been made with water that has NOT boiled. <img src="frown.gif" border="0"> . .Revolting taste that, I agree!

. .------------------------------. .Tea Lover :)

I remember being shown around a BA Concorde on the ground once at LHR; many of us were amazed to see one of those dreadful "Nesspresso" machines aboard; the man from BA said that such units were "reserved for first class passengers" on other BA aircraft!

Maybe it's a British thing, though - I think that BM's coffee (and tea for that matter) is equally bad!

[ 25 February 2002: Message edited by: 1261 ]

[ 25 February 2002: Message edited by: 1261 ]</p>

I think you are right - BA fail to appreciate that the British are finally taking their coffee as seriously as the rest of the world. Some catching up is needed.

On BM I tend to drink Earl Grey - Its the only hot drink which I can stand on their flights.

This all may seem trivial and pedantic but when you are paying so much for a ticket (BA JFK-LHR in J, $7,600) I think a decent cup of tea and coffee are not unreasonable requests!

Tyke, in that case I'd enjoy having you for a pax!. .For early flights I always bring from home six Earl Grey teabags, enough to make the first 2 pots of tea on board. Plus home made tea cosy to keep pots warm. http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/embarass.gif. .Other FA's take the p!ss :) but the pax appreciate it. . .Nice to see it confirmed here.http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/thumbs.gif

Now that's what I call dedication to your job.

You make me look forward to returning to the UK and if I ever get an unexpected mug of earl grey I'll introduce myself!

What Mrs 40 doesn't say, is if she drinks the first pot herself! Personally I take along mint tea bags - don't seem so temperature sensitive but being a mean b. don't offer them around too much...

BTW I remember the arguments about whetehr you should put milk in first (MIF) or tea in first (TIF) but I guess that's academic in flight.

Japanese Green tea (JGT) used to be refreshing a while back but American Black coffee (ABC) is still sometimes needed...

After all these abbreviations we had better not mention the old TWA beverage either...

Exiled Tyke, please do! I'm always hoping to find a ppruner among the SLF!

Few Cloudy, I would if I had half a chance <img src="wink.gif" border="0"> . .But the frantic earlies between AMS-LHR, AMS-CDG, AMS-FRA etc leave one with precious little time to look after the passengers, let alone enjoy a nice cuppa oneself.. .It's H2O gulped straight from the bottle mate; that's quickest! LOL

Nice leisurely cups of tea are drunk at home, while quietly ppruning away......... <img src="tongue.gif" border="0">

BMI coffee doesn't seem to bad to me, it's Kenco stuff I think and it seems to sustain me in the early morning hours. Hate to think how many cups I drink in a month, early duties would be impossible without it!.

I don't have to drink it.....

I could give it up anytime I wanted...

Couldn't I?.......

(The tea is foul though !)

[ 26 February 2002: Message edited by: Max Angle ]</p>

Depends where you uplift the water as well.

Water uplifted in the South of England produces dreadful tea (water in the South-East is particularly dreadful, London limestone Artesian well and all that) whereas water uplifted in Scotland is far superior and produces a reasonable cup of tea.

The explanations are helpful as to why tea tastes so bad. I do not drink tea on any airline.

There are a number of reasons apart from the taste. I am alergic to coffee (even the smell makes me feel nauseous) and some have been known to use coffee jugs for tea ...

Also, I like strong tea and a pot has to be made average strength. I have yet to find an airline that can brew a decent cuppa and they probably outght to give up! <img src="confused.gif" border="0">

On EZY they offer you a large plastic cup and a Tetley's tea bag. They fill it with hot water and that makes a reasonable (not good!) brew, as you can let the teabag 'stew'.

So, I no longer drink tea on flights. I simply drink more alcohol. This is for the simple reason that I find I get less drunk when at FL370. <img src="tongue.gif" border="0">

All the warnings about how alcohol affects you more at altitude have always amused me. I should point out that, on the ground, I get 'tipsy' very quickly and cannot 'hold' my drink at all. I actually drink very little alcohol - unless I am paxing! <img src="cool.gif" border="0">

Perhaps you folks know some others who find this reverse effect?

[ 26 February 2002: Message edited by: PAXboy ]</p>

Good to know I am not the only one to have been perturbed by the sludgy brown liquid.

Flaps, I have seen plenty of frothy tea - good tip. I admire your dedication to duty, and wish I travelled on your flights. Sadly on those sectors, I tend to be upfront in my little BE33 !

The BA coffee in J, last time I walked past the galley at breakfast time, was Nescafe instant. I tend to agree that for a few grand they could throw in a decent cup of filter. But I get more upset about the lack of fresh (i.e. non-pasteurized) juices. Again, these are available only to those travelling in First. And while I'm at it, I'm pretty bored of the business class champagne (Piper Heidsieck N.V.) which is a tasteless mush of excess fizz...!

J couldn't have put it better myself. Agree with you on all counts!

The tea bags are huge catering type things one per pot. The pots are all identical (whoever has the contract must be making 'pots' of an entirely different kind), because of this its easy to use them for coffee on the first round, then tea second round. It's well nigh impossible to rinse them out properly - we can invent a remarkable machine to fly anywhere but it appears beyond the wit of man (and it must have been a man), to invent a sink that drains properly.

Catering are meant to rotate the pots after every flight - but the same old pots go round and round sector after sector, getting grubbier and grubbier.

Have I put you off yet ?

finally, in order to serve 300 + pax quickly you can't wait for the tea to 'mast' as my old granny used to say. You simply swirll the bag about with a spoon, haul it out and plop it into a plastic glass and using a second glass squeeze the bag's soggy content back into the pot.

There, now you know.

Abbracadabbra abbracadee, make this coffee into tea.

Sorry tonyt but the sinks and the drain lines are perfectly adequate for liquids, It's the combination of tea leaves, coffee grounds, milk and the various juices tipped down them that bungs 'em up.. .The engineers then spend many a happy hour with rods, compressed air, old throttle cables, and various chemicals trying to get them flowing again.

Tonyt,

At the risk of having this thread closed, because it mentions Swissair, some years back, when I was there, they had pots marked Coffee and pots marked Tea. Probably OTT and a huge waste of recources but it did improve the beverage!

My thanks to all for the grisly details <img src="frown.gif" border="0">

I shall stick to the brandy, for breakfast in particular.

As a long term consumer of BA tea ( yes I know it explains a lot!) I have come to the conclusion that the CC who brews the tea answers for the quality. The worst cuppa I ever had was on a BAR 737 from MAN. The CSD who made it admitted that she had never drunk tea in her life and hadn't a clue! Last nights offering out of ANU on a 777 was absolutley fantastic - just like I would have made at home. Interestingly the crew were JMC....

SAS developed excellent, lightweight and ergonomically sound coffee pots a few years back which hold a bit over a litre.

If memory serves right, our mob then asked them if we could copy the desing, and got permission. We have (earl <img src="wink.gif" border="0"> ) grey pots for tea, and blue pots for coffee.. .Never a problem to keep them apart, so the tea doesn't get that totally http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/pukeface.gif coffee taste.

gas path, while you are correct in that the sinks,if not abused by ourselves, do drain, it is on many aircraft a problem of design & blockage. Often the drains are difficult to reach properly with the spout of the pot, the drainage area too shallow, or as you say, blocked by us stupidly pouring OJ down it.

Another bit of info: the water boilers/hot cups bo. .th the covered and the open type, are the greatest cause of burn injuries among FA's. Unplugging a jug of boiling water from a sticky socket causes the water to slop over your hand whichever way you do it.. .Next bit is pouring the boling water from the no-spout kettle into the top of a tea pot. Slightest bit of movement from the aircraft and once again you've managed to pour scalding water over your own hand. <img src="frown.gif" border="0">

tonyt, not trying to teach granny to suck eggs here, but we let the tea "mast" while we serve the first round of coffee on long haul. On short hops we make the tea before take-off to give it a chance to get some taste, hence my silly tea cosy to keep it hot. Just an idea.

Amazing, 22 posts about Tea & Coffee! :)

Abraham Lincoln said, "If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; if this is tea, please bring me some coffee."

Huh, all this time I thought they didn't have airplanes back then! :)

I used to buy the Rombout individual filters - about GBP 2 for 10 - hey presto, fresh ground coffee by the cup (for me - then pax wondered why there was a smell of fresh coffee from the galley!)

Why BA cant load plastic 'cafÉtieres'(as used in m-way service areas) with a pack of ground coffee for F/J , lord knows - you may even find some of the great WT unwashed willing to pay for a decent pot of coffee - come on EZY - be the first !!

KLM/LH/Austrian all use the pillow packs of fresh coffee all through the a-c - some uk charter airlines use instant tea which I am told is not too bad by tea drinkers - as someone has already commented, stick to Brandy for breakfast!!

Funny you should mention that, ITSINTHELIFT. At the risk of outrageous plugging, Buzz sell those little pots of filter coffee (2 cups worth) for about £1.50 a throw.

Not much of a coffee fan myself, but Mrs. SXTY tells me they're very nice.

Agree with J-Class on the BA champagne: bring back Charles Heidsieck!!!

Although I do not drink coffee, I have noticed that EZY serve very stong smelling stuff. I do not know what it is but when my neighbour is handed a cup of it, they seem very pleased! The smell is so strong, that I have to cover my nose!

In this case, EZY seem to win for both Tea and Coffee. Unless, of course, we have Madam Flaps on board! <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

We Froggies in J have individual tea bags of 6 different kinds (Earl Grey, Yunnan Imperial, Darjeling, Lapsang Suchong, Mint, forgot the sixth) that the pax can chose from. We use thermic pots with instant coffee or espresso (american or italian style) from the espresso machine (on demand, we don't carry the machine in the cabin :) ) . Pots are the same for tea and coffee but they are only used for one kind throughout the flight (we have brown stickers for tea and black for coffee). . .In Y we use the individual teapot bag which is not that bad and instant coffee.. .The Champagne is Laurent Perrier in J and Krug in C at the moment, but they rotate as well as the wines. We serve free 1/4 Lanson Champ as aperitif in Y. Last night I had a pax from Canada that kept asking me for "that sparkling white wine". He got his Champagne but had to swear first to call it its proper name <img src="eek.gif" border="0"> . .PS . .MUCH better to put the milk before the tea. And if you fly to DEL don't forget to buy your tea at Mittal store at Sander Nagar market.

[ 28 February 2002: Message edited by: flyblue ]</p>

flyblue - is this Air france? If so I want to fly with you - sounds much better than BA Y & J (but of course I would miss the beds in J). BA is also Krug in C. BA Concorde apparently has a list of about 12 champagnes from which they choose one per flight - oh for the good life. Always wanted to try Pol Roger Cuvee Sir Winston Churchill myself but then one has to have dreams!

Would still like to know who the joker is at BA who thinks we all want to drink Piper Heidsieck N.V. in J? They must be getting a huge bulk discount on the stuff. I've given up drinking it now its so dull - perhaps that's what they want!

[ 28 February 2002: Message edited by: ExiledTyke ]</p>

Just re-read this - now I feel arrogant and pompous - didn't think I'd ever see the day when I would complain about the quality of Champagne on flights which I can't even afford to buy my own tickets on. I think I've now booked my place in hell!

Exiled, we all have preferences <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

It is AF indeed. The beds in J are the same as BA (I flew in J with BA), but in C I believe on AF they are much better. We call it 180 (°) because they become a real bed, with pillow and duvet. I found the BA quite uncomfortable, even if I must admit it is the only negative thing they have in this class. Their F/A are so friendly and the service excellent, especially the scones and cream for tea :) . .If you happen to fly in J or C in AF, try the liqueurs, especially Cognac and Armagnac.

British standards Institution standard BS6008 (ISO 3103-1980) "Method for preparation of a liquor of tea for use in sensory tests" should be the last word on the how to brew a cupa question. But I'm sure it won't be.