Dangerous Thinking

I’m a bit fanatical about coffee and tea.

Along with a couple of friends and acquaintances, I’m forever on the trail of the perfect dense, syrupy, short expresso. That’s cool. Coffee is a brilliant part of Lifestyle with a capital ‘L’.

My tea fixation places me somewhere amongst those who choose to fart in enclosed public spaces. You see, I insist on having leaf tea. Now, that just isn’t cool.

Have you tried to buy leaf tea in a supermarket? There’s about a shelf and a half at floor level, if you’re lucky – and you know the significance of the positioning? Yep. If it ain’t at eye level, the product is marginal, at best.

None of the supermarkets are stocking my favourite Ridgways Organic tea any more – except in those dreadful teabag things that make the brew taste like cardboard. The range (I shan’t honour the supermarkets with the word ‘choice’), in most places, is PG Tips, supermarket own brand and Twinings.

And now Twinings are losing the plot. Not only are they getting Stephen Fry to pitch us the benefits of Builders’ Tea Teabags (or whatever it’s called) on TV, but along with the box redesign, the loose tea is now in a plastic inner bag, not the metallised (or was it waxed?) one they had previously. Whatever it was, it jarred.

This may be akin to the wine buff’s revulsion at plastic corks and screw tops, but I’m left feeling that the experience of getting some nice tea has been devalued. And, to give this piece a proper marketing focus, I think Twinings are probably misunderstanding the people who buy their leaf tea.

People who care enough to mess about with with leaf tea almost certainly need to be engaged with, flattered, understood. Or we will go off and find a specialist outlet that sells loose tea.

End of market?