LONDON // Forget rioting and looting in the inner cities, England's middle classes are rising up in rebellion … over a nice cup of tea.
Trouble has been brewing since Twinings, the company credited with introducing the English to the pleasures of tea drinking three centuries ago, decided to slightly alter its 180-year-old recipe for Earl Grey.
Rumblings of discontent among traditionalists have now reached boiling point in a Facebook campaign, with dozens of aficionados using some blooming strong language to describe the new tea.
One incandescent contributor described it as "foul-tasting dishwater", another as "utterly gross".
Jane Smith fumed over the moment she first tasted the new blend: "I took a big gulp expecting it to taste lovely and 'bergamotty' but to my utter dismay [and horror as I nearly spat it out] it tasted like lemon cleaning product - vile."
Julia Wilson wrote: "It stinks, rather like lemon Fairy Liquid, and is unpleasant to taste. I threw the contents of my box out into the compost."
The postings on the Bring Back the Original Twinings Earl Grey Tea page have led to several people saying they were scouring the country to find shops that still carry old stocks of the original blend.
But the company, founded in 1706 when Thomas Twining opened London's first tearoom in The Strand, remains unmoved by what it clearly regards as the proverbial storm in a teacup. It points out that since it introduced the new blend - with a hint of lemon and a little more bergamot orange added to the black tea, and branded The Earl Grey as opposed to plain Earl Grey - sales have gone from 57,976kg in April to 63,070kg in July.
Lindsey Williams, the company's brand manager, told this week's Grocer magazine that the decision had been made to tweak the blend when market research found consumers wanted a more refreshing blend.
"As with all changes to blends, our new Earl Grey has undergone rigorous consumer testing, receiving strong preference feedback over the previous blend," she said. That, though, is unlikely to pacify the malcontents in England's shire counties.
"Bring back the old recipe that was refreshing and flavoursome. I cannot describe how awful this new tea tastes," demands one of the posts.
Not that anyone quite knows how the Earl Grey blend - named after Charles Grey, the prime minister in 1831 when Twinings first started marketing it - came into being. One theory is that gifts of tea and oil of bergamot oranges were dispatched to Earl Grey by diplomats in China. The tea supposedly absorbed the bergamot flavour and, on arrival in London, the flavour was deemed to be absolutely spiffing.
The only snag with this story is that similar teas were believed to have found favour among London's tearoom set at least 20 years earlier. But whatever its origins, Earl Grey is proving that it is still capable of getting in hot water today.
dsapsted@thenational.ae
Switching%20sides
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If you go
The flights
There are direct flights from Dubai to Sofia with FlyDubai (www.flydubai.com) and Wizz Air (www.wizzair.com), from Dh1,164 and Dh822 return including taxes, respectively.
The trip
Plovdiv is 150km from Sofia, with an hourly bus service taking around 2 hours and costing $16 (Dh58). The Rhodopes can be reached from Sofia in between 2-4hours.
The trip was organised by Bulguides (www.bulguides.com), which organises guided trips throughout Bulgaria. Guiding, accommodation, food and transfers from Plovdiv to the mountains and back costs around 170 USD for a four-day, three-night trip.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The%20specs
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RACECARD
6pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-1 – Group 1 (PA) $50,000 (Dirt) 1,600m
6.35pm: Festival City Stakes – Conditions (TB) $60,000 (D) 1,200m
7.10pm: Dubai Racing Club Classic – Listed (TB) $100,000 (Turf) 2,410m
7.45pm: Jumeirah Classic Trial – Conditions (TB) $150,000 (T) 1,400m
8.20pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-1 – Group 2 (TB) $250,000 (D) 1,600m
8.55pm: Cape Verdi – Group 2 (TB) $180,000 (T) 1,600m
9.30pm: Dubai Dash – Listed (TB) $100,000 (T) 1,000m
Indoor Cricket World Cup Dubai 2017
Venue Insportz, Dubai; Admission Free
Day 1 fixtures (Saturday)
Men 1.45pm, Malaysia v Australia (Court 1); Singapore v India (Court 2); UAE v New Zealand (Court 3); South Africa v Sri Lanka (Court 4)
Women Noon, New Zealand v South Africa (Court 3); England v UAE (Court 4); 5.15pm, Australia v UAE (Court 3); England v New Zealand (Court 4)
The bio
Date of Birth: April 25, 1993
Place of Birth: Dubai, UAE
Marital Status: Single
School: Al Sufouh in Jumeirah, Dubai
University: Emirates Airline National Cadet Programme and Hamdan University
Job Title: Pilot, First Officer
Number of hours flying in a Boeing 777: 1,200
Number of flights: Approximately 300
Hobbies: Exercising
Nicest destination: Milan, New Zealand, Seattle for shopping
Least nice destination: Kabul, but someone has to do it. It’s not scary but at least you can tick the box that you’ve been
Favourite place to visit: Dubai, there’s no place like home
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
The Uefa Awards winners
Uefa Men's Player of the Year: Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
Uefa Women's Player of the Year: Lucy Bronze (Lyon)
Best players of the 2018/19 Uefa Champions League
Goalkeeper: Alisson (Liverpool)
Defender: Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
Midfielder: Frenkie de Jong (Ajax)
Forward: Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Uefa President's Award: Eric Cantona
French Touch
Carla Bruni
(Verve)