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Perhaps the problem is the very different idea of what tea is? When I went to Croatia the first time I spent a while looking for what I considered to be tea ie the 'tea' that nearly everybody drinks in the UK, in the shop they had a multitude of teas but they all seemed to be herbal just as I was giving up I found tea as per the tea I am used to, they called it 'English Breakfast Tea'. In other words in foreign lands it seems that 98% of the tea isle is herbal and only 2% is what the British think of tea whereas in the UK the tea isle is 95% of what 'Johnny foreigner' calls 'English Breakfast Tea' (of all brands ie Tetley, PG Tips etc) and only 5% of herbal teas!
I have never been to Croatia so I don't know what their tea selections are typically like. I currently live in the US.
I specified in my other comment that my food store sells several brands of black tea, which is what nearly everybody drinks in the UK, or what you're calling "English Breakfast Tea". They have several brands of English Breakfast, English Tea Time, Irish Breakfast, American Breakfast, etc. The section is probably more herbal than black tea, but there's still a good selection of black tea that my English husband is satisfied with. I'd say it's more like 60% herbal, 30% black tea, and 10% green or white tea.
Yes, people say tea when they mean herbal teas that have no tea (either green or black) in them whatsoever. Tea: from leaves of Camellia sinensis or "tea plant".
I did not say or mean herbal tea, I specified black tea.
Daily (in the evenings) I drink Tetley's black tea. I make it in the drip coffee maker with the teabag in the filter basket and let the boiling water run through the bag into the coffee pot. After the water's run through I take the teabag out of the basket and put it into the tea in the pot to let it steep for 2 or 3 minutes longer then remove the teabag. It comes out perfect for me. To one mug of steeped tea I add 1 rounded teaspoon of sugar and a generous splash of 3.25% homogenized milk. Never coffee cream of skim milk.
I also really like smokey, tarry flavoured black Lapsang Sou Chong tea as a very special treat and that I do not make in the coffee maker. It gets made the traditional way by infusing it properly in a proper pre-heated porcelain "brown betty" teapot. I put the loose leaf tea portioned into a silver teaball into the pot with boiling water poured over it. I allow it to steep for about 7 - 10 minutes with a tea-cozy over the pot, but no longer than that otherwise it comes out bitter. I like lots of sugar in Lapsang Sou Chong, and drink it black.
Any other herbal infusions I make get made the traditional way by infusing in a teapot, they're not made in the coffeemaker.
I've never heard of anyone drink tea with cream. Do you mean milk?
Yes, I did use the word cream broadly. I did mean cream, milk, etc.... Though I didn't mean fake sweetener creamer like so many use over here in the US (thankfully those people usually just in bad coffee, not good tea)! Over here people will ask if you want cream(er), and if you really want milk for your coffee or tea you HAVE to specify milk.
And yes, all the Brits I know do use actual "milk". Though I do always picture my friend's husband taking the fresh bottle, and scraping the cream off the top for his coffee, and upsetting everyone else in the house (who wanted it shaken, and mixed in to make the whole milk).
OMG it was a thing! He did it to every bottle unless someone beat him to it He made try it once, it left oil on top from the milk fat eventually, but it was heavenly until it cooled.
I use half and half because milk cools it down to fast for me, and doesn't make it the right color. I use less to make it He-man colored if I use half and half. I'll use milk if I don't have half and half, and I will use straight cream if I want to live life on the edge, and in my friends memory
I buy mine online because I have never found a store that sells Yorkshire Gold.
One time, I bought American Tetley's when I saw it. I was so excited, until I tried it, and I was so underwhelmed.... I had to use 2 teabags per cup, and I still gave up, and just used it for iced tea making.
Twinings breakfast teas never really did it for me either.
Funny, everyone I know refers to tea when offering as: Do you want herbal tea, green tea, or just hot tea. Black tea is implied as hot tea.
I tried that 'green tea' but I noticed that every time I drank it, I'd feel itchy afterwards. I thought it was just me being weird, but apparently a number of people have allergies to green tea.
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