4.9.14 Adam News&Info Tweet News

Anthony Callea ‏@anthonycallea 15h
REALLY loving the new Avicii / @adamlambert track...that opening verse get's me every time, Adam's vocals are #dope That's LA talk for RAD!

Anthony Callea is an Australian Idol winner and has a pretty good voice himself ... here he is singing the Prayer. SO nice to see other artists giving Adam some love.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd58QfrJ_Q0

It's all Lipton's fault!
The thread got a little side-tracked, but I learned today that Arizona is more than a state, this web site is just so educational, you never know what you will learn. I actually drink lots of tea and no coffee, so blind spot, I guess that I never found that out.

All non tea-interested folks can scroll right about now - hey the thread today would be not even 3 pages without this topic, sorry for a bit more about tea and tea culture below.

So for those of you who are still with me, here are a couple of links that demonstrate, how different the tea market really is in the US. The topics surrounding tea are different, the perceptions are different, the whole culture around it is different. We already discussed ice tea, so this now is about that small 15 % share that is predominantly hot tea.

First a little video - a song, about tea. Besides the original song, there is not much else British here (and it even ties to QAL, yeah - how is that): It's a tad obnoxious, sorry...



The US tea culture was totally foreign to me, when I first arrived in this country and yes, it is a totally different market here. The topics are different, i.e. in UK = the appropriate way to brew a cup of tea vs. US = the health benefits of certain types of tea (good for skin or whatever the newest gimmick happens to be).

The US divides into black tea, green tea, white tea, herbal tea (ok), but for each of these will offer tons of aroma variations that make this tea not taste like tea anymore, but rather like some fruit or some spice. In any hotel, there is an endless selection of these spiced teas, but you need to search to find a normal regular black tea. Usually, it does exist though and called English Breakfast tea or just black tea. It is the boiling hot water that commonly does not.

The different regions / processing methods / quality levels of tea though are totally not known or understood here. Pick any term or topic, combination or example: i.e. Oolong, Broken Orange Pekoe, Assam, Darjeeling - People will just stare at you if you try to discuss them. These differences are not appreciated at all. Standard American black tea is cheap tea dust and low quality leaves from any region that happens to supply tea. In fact, tea cannot be too strong, because the tea bags are left in the water, and if the tea were as strong as it is elsewhere, the drink would get bitter. The US has also got a fairly robust decaffeinated tea segment. That means even weaker tea than the already weak regular tea. I happen to like my tea weak, so this part was not so difficult for me personally to adjust to, but a few other challenges had to be overcome. And I still gladly go to an Indian or Pakistani store to buy loose tea, if I get the change to do so, but I have gotten used to dealing with the tea situation while traveling. The only thing that I cannot handle, is when a coffee pot is used to hold the hot water. Coffee and tea do not mix. The water will taste like coffee and the resulting tea tastes like dish water. Really bad!

Look, for example, at Teavana.com  and see what they consider to be types of tea and tea products. This webpage obviously targets the American uscale consumer and their type of interest, when it comes to tea.

It's a totally different tea business in the US.

Finallly, this BBC blog, reflects common perceptions from a British standpoint (and mocks it a bit) and then explains the differences. The comments underneath are also quite entertaining and educational to read.

www.bbcamerica.com/mind-the-gap/2013/01/08/how-to-do-tea-in-the-usa/

Enjoy.
And now I promise to be good and go back to posting bout Adam and Co. Promise.

#BGTB❤️ ‏@albano_payton 41m

Adam Lambert makes my ovaries explode pic.twitter.com/nO6pe79kST



Could not agree more. Wow!
Elton John Aids Foundation - so it's been a while - in fact right before Kiev concert, if I recall that right- or was it a few months earlier?