Brooke Bond Choicest Blend Review

Overall Rating

Subtle but robust flavour, lasts well in the pot.

Horrid little round teabags for the bagged variety.

Brooke Bond is an excellent blend, and one of my long term favourites. The rich, complex taste is welcome at any time of day, and it brews well with hard or soft water. Most impressive is how long a pot of Choicest Blend retains a satisfactory flavour. A cup poured 45 minutes after the pot was made can taste almost as good as one poured as soon as the tea has brewed.

The one serious flaw with this brand is that the spacious, rectangular teabags formerly used in the bagged version have been replaced with diminutive round bags that are too small to let the leaves brew effectively. Unilever, the owners of this brand, have made it clear that the change was made to shave costs off the production process, and not to improve the product. It's ironic that PG Tips, Choicest Blend's mass-market stable-mate, is packaged in 'pyramid' bags - surely the penthouse suite of teabags - while the more refined blend languishes in the janitor's closet.

A great tea, but if you're going to try it, do yourself a favour and buy it loose.

Members' Comments onMr Tea's Review

• Ambika on 7th Sep 2005

  Does anybody know where I can buy Brooke Bond loose tea, can't find it anymore.

• fuseman on 18th Jan 2006

  I agree that this is a good tea. However apart from the emotional aspect of using loose tea I rather doubt if many people could tell the difference between loose tea, tea in a round bag, or tea in any other shaped bag.
  
  I challenge Mr Tea to a blind tasting test!

• Foommen on 5th Aug 2007

  I confirm all that mr tea has written, and agree wholeheartedly about the Brooke Bond Choicest Blend tea bags. The move to round bags was a disaster, as there is less room to brew.

• Mr Tea on 13th Aug 2007

  Unilever have offloaded this brand to Gold Crown Foods Ltd. If you do a search for them on Google, you will be able to get their telephone number, as I can not leave it on Review Centre.
  
  They may be able to help with your enquiry. Good luck.

• Tiggersteel on 31st Aug 2007

  I found this review helpful because...he has pointed out that Unilever have done this to shave off costs of producing it, but how about marketing the product in a way that encourages us to buy? You can buy a product if you can't find it! Come on Brook Bond, here's a challenge you shouldn't pass up!!
  
  Cherry Steel, Skipton North Yorkshire.

• NoelJealous on 27th Aug 2008

  I thought everyone knew that tea was best in square bags. The round bags became popular when Tetley started advertising "helps the flavour go round" or something like that. Also it looked nice at the bottom of a round cup before water was added. However, the main reason for the popularity was that there was no choice. Nearly all brands of tea were suddenly in round bags because they were produced in the same factory. Several times I returned Choicest (6 bags) complaining that it was the wrong tea. My claim was justified and I was refunded with an apology for not finishing one brand run properly before starting another brand's run. Also I imagine low paid workers having their joke and thinking we couldn't tell the difference.
  I fail to understand how round bags can save money since each circle must use a square of paper with four corners thrown away.
  Since Gold Crown Foods of Liverpool had a fire in 2005 I've been drinking TeaDirect (Fairtrade) which is the next best thing to Choicest Blend.

• bfreigang on 19th Jan 2009

  Who cares about the shape of a tea bag! I have a much bigger problem. I live in Switzerland and can't buy Brooke Bond Choicest Blend here and I'm unfortunately not able to find any online shop that could send it to me. What a disaster!
  
  I'm Swiss, but my great-grandfather was a butler in England. He brought Brooke Bond Choicest Blend into our family almost a hundred years ago with the result that my parents, my uncle and I are totally addicted to it. Who can help? We pay a good price!