John To be honest, I'm not a huge "tea-jenny" - I prefer coffee! I picked Tetleys because they are the most common & popular tea in the UK. In general, you can assume that Tetleys cater more for the mass market whilst Twinings aim for the speciality market. However, as well as the Tetleys, I have some Clipper green tea teabags in my cupboard. Like your Twinings teabags, they contain 2g each (25 bags/50g) (I should probably mention here that unlike the vast majority of UK goods, they are dual-marked with 1.76oz. That's (ummmmm) a nice rounded 1.1264 drams each.) With regard to the different sizes we are encountering, I would suggest that there are 2 possible explanations:- 1) UK prescribed quantities do not apply to goods intended for export. The most obvious examples are Scotch whisky packers, who bottle to 70 cl for the European Market and to 750 ml for the US market. Who is to say that the tea is actually packed in the UK anyway - It could be packed at source in Sri Lanka/India/China etc & the UK sizes are the exception rather than the rule! 2) As I've mentioned before, the UK prescribed quantity system is ending for most packaged goods next week. A blind eye has been turned to any goods that have "converted early" during the last year or so. I saw my 1st ever "600 g New Size" loaf of bread last week. In addition (and I had to look this up), there are additional sizes permitted for loose tea packed in tin, glass or wooden containers - these sizes include 100 g & 200 g Just to show the ridiculous extent to which tea weights are regulated, here's the full list of current permitted sizes for tea sold in the UK Tea in a tea bag, namely a permeable sealed bag, containing tea, which is intended to be immersed in water in the course of preparation to drink. 50 g, 125 g, 250 g, 500 g, 750 g, 1 kg, 1.5 kg, 2 kg, 2.5 kg, 3 kg, 4 kg or 5 kg. [Note In the case of tea in a tea bag the prescribed quantities and quantity marking relate to the contents.] Tea, other than instant tea or tea in a tea bag. 50 g, 125 g, 250 g, 500 g, 750 g, 1 kg, 1.5 kg, 2 kg, 2.5 kg, 3 kg, 4 kg or 5 kg, and in the case of tea (other than instant tea or tea in a tea bag) packed in tins or glass or wooden containers, in addition 100 g, 200 g, and 300 g.
--- On Mon, 30/3/09, John M. Steele <jmsteele9...@sbcglobal.net> wrote: From: John M. Steele <jmsteele9...@sbcglobal.net> Subject: [USMA:44238] RE: Tea To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu> Date: Monday, 30 March, 2009, 10:22 PM That's very interesting. I buy Twinings tea, and I had always assumed the offerings here were the same (or a subset) as offerings in the UK. After reading your remarks, I looked at both my own stash, and their website. The offerings in the American line in teabags are all based on 2 g/bag. In the past they have had a mixture of offerings 20 count x 2 g, and 25 count x 2 g. They appear to be standardizing in the US on the 20 count, (40g). They also sell 50 count and 100 count, all 2 g/bag. Loose tea is offered here in 100 g, 200 g, and 500 g tins. (The 100 g replaced a 4 oz tin a decade or so ago.) This is not to dispute what you say. In fact, they have a "direct from England" line on their websites. In that line, teabags are either 50 count 125 g, or 80 count 250 g, and loose tea only in 500 g tins (I have never bought any of those, I think the line is new.) --- On Mon, 3/30/09, Ken Cooper <k_cooper1...@yahoo.com> wrote: From: Ken Cooper <k_cooper1...@yahoo.com> Subject: [USMA:44236] RE: Tea To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu> Date: Monday, March 30, 2009, 5:00 PM Jerry In the UK, tea is not usually sold by liquid measure. However, in supermarkets & specialist tea shops it is sold by weight (just add boiling water!) Tea is another product that is currently subject to prescribed quantities. Current pack sizes include 125g, 250g, 500g, 750g & 1kg Tea in teabags must not include the weight of the teabag as part of the product weight - only the net weight of the tea inside. >From this, we can calculate that a standard Tetleys teabag (the most popular >UK teabag) contains 3.125g of tea. This is another area in which the soon to be abolished prescribed quantity regime previously protected UK consumers. One wonders whether the abolition of prescribed quantities might result in Tetley changing from a pack of 40 teabags weighing 125g to a similar looking pack of 40 teabags weighing 100g? Obviously, such a change would not be noticed by those that pretend not to see the metric weights on such packages. --- On Mon, 30/3/09, Jeremiah MacGregor <jeremiahmacgre...@rocketmail.com> wrote: From: Jeremiah MacGregor <jeremiahmacgre...@rocketmail.com> Subject: [USMA:44217] RE: Downsizing beer glasses To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu> Date: Monday, 30 March, 2009, 2:59 AM Do you also like the fact that tea and other non-alcoholic drinks sold in the UK are rounded liters? Jerry From: Stephen Humphreys <barkatf...@hotmail.com> To: U.S. Metric Association <usma@colostate.edu> Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2009 2:01:29 PM Subject: [USMA:44203] RE: Downsizing beer glasses I like your thinking!!! ;-) ;-) ;-) (gsoh) From: trus...@grandecom.net To: usma@colostate.edu Subject: [USMA:44185] RE: Downsizing beer glasses Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 08:39:49 -0500 I guess I'm ignorant of Jerry's and Stephen's facts because I am a teetotaler. But now that I know all this, all I can say is, geesh! I'd love to work in a British hospital pharmacy. If you folks are so rigorous about measuring suds, I would think your pharmacists and pharmacy technicians would the best on the planet. ----- Original Message ----- From: Stephen Humphreys To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: 29 March, 2009 08:19 Subject: [USMA:44182] RE: Downsizing beer glasses UK pubs have large drip trays and it's part of the ordering of a pint to see it filled to overflowing. Yes - they actually do fill then overfill.. And yes you are actually correct (cause for celebration) that only some pubs have oversized pint glasses that have marks. It's been said on this very listserv that anything more than a 5% head would be technically illegal. You're special 'pint' would - of course -fall foul. Having said ALL that - this "war" you've mentioned a few times today - it isn't happening in the pubs. Apart from the mix of imperial and metric I've never heard of a fight breaking out regarding being served a pretend metric size in a pint glass - it really really does not happen - seriously. And as I said - if you believe you have been short served you can ask for a top up - they're not going to turn you away citing some measurement war where they are on the opposite side - or something equally daft. I'm a cider drinker - cider does not form a head - so I always get my full measure ;-) One of the drinks I had last night was bottled (not draught) cider. As it happens it was not one of the more famous pint glasses. Yes - I had a 350ml bottle of Aspall cider. Strangely enough I did not refuse to drink it due to it being in a metric bottle. I chose metric. (Well, in reality I chose a cider I wanted and knew I liked which happened to be in metric bottles). Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2009 20:56:32 -0700 From: jeremiahmacgre...@rocketmail..com Subject: Re: [USMA:44168] RE: Downsizing beer glasses To: barkatf...@hotmail.com; usma@colostate.edu I would tend to believe Pat's explanation. I'm sure everyone else does too. All you have said is that beer CAN be sold in oversized glasses. This does not mean it is. You also say that one CAN ask for a top up. Again that doesn't mean people do. Somehow overfilling a glass so it over runs the brim doesn't sound right. It makes for mess and makes the glass slippery, making it easier to drop and cause a hazard. Also, product is wasted and that can add up to liters of lost beer that goes down the drain. Who pays for that? You just don't want to accept that when you ask for a pint, you are only getting 500 mL of liquid, not a milliliter more. Maybe now you would like to discuss how wine and spirits are sold in rounded metric sizes in UK pubs. Of course a pro-choice person such as yourself would never order such items for fear of having to utter the word milliliter. Jerry From: Stephen Humphreys <barkatf...@hotmail.com> To: U.S. Metric Association <usma@colostate.edu> Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2009 8:39:55 PM Subject: [USMA:44168] RE: Downsizing beer glasses Pints in the UK can be served in oversized glasses (showing pint markings) or with 'brim' amounts. You can go back to ask for it to be topped up if you think that the pint is not a legal pint. In reality the bar server tends to pour beer into a glass so it overruns the side - giving you the full pint. I've never seen a pint as small as 500ml. Ever. 'Heady' drinks are poured in a specific way - eg Guinness. There's a 'knack'. Esp in the case of guinness the white head forms part of the 'experience'. Sometimes a shamrock is 'drawn' into the head. In some areas of Northern Ireland this is seen as 'politically incorrect' ;-) . Drinks like cider and lager tend to be headless and don't have the same issue. I would suspect cider and lager are the most asked pint style drinks. Some pubs are now doing 'third' pint drinks now. My favourite one is. From: pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com To: usma@colostate.edu Subject: [USMA:44162] Downsizing beer glasses Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 07:16:44 +1100 On 2009/03/29, at 2:45 AM, Jeremiah MacGregor wrote: I'm sure Pat can tell us that the pint is still spoken in pubs in Australia, but no one would use it to mean a specific amount and thus the term has become generic. Dear Jerry, Sadly, it is true that the word, pint, is still used in Australian hotels. And it is still used, as it is in the UK, to hide a long period of downsizing by the beer companies in collusion with government consumer affairs officials. Let me explain what I mean. Years ago when a pint was served in an Australia or UK hotel or pub, the beer was served in a 22 ounce container to allow for a pint of beer and for a suitable 'head' of froth. Likewise a half pint of beer was served in an 11 ounce container to allow for the 10 ounce half pint and the appropriate head. Some time ago, in the order of 50 years I suspect, lobbyists from the beer companies were able to convince legislators (or was it regulation writers) that a pint of beer could be served in a pint container that held a pint of water when filled to the brim of the glass.. The law makers suitably rolled over like little puppies to get their tummies tickled and, in both Australia and the UK, if you asked for 'a pint of beer' in the last 50 years you would have received very close to 500 millilitres of beer with about 70 millilitres of 'head'. I leave to others to calculate this roughly 10 % gain in profits by the beer companies deceit over this period of time. The next part of the campaign, as I observe it in the 21st century, is to downsize the beer glass from a pint (568 mL) to a rounded 500 mL glass. Naturally to do this the beer companies will need to reduce the size of the 'beer pint' even further. The Guinness company has already begun this process with their 440 mL can designed with enough beer to fit into a glass that holds 500 mL of air to the brim of the glass before you pour in the 440 mL of beer and the 60 mL of froth. I have noticed that this campaign has, so far, been tried in Australia and in Singapore. To answer Jerry's question a little more directly, it seems to me that the use of the word 'pint', and its continued encouragement and support by beer companies, is to maintain the illusion that drinkers are getting more beer that they actually receive. As a side issue, the word 'pint' is a relative to the word 'paint' from the time that Roman soldiers demanded that a paint mark be used on the side of (opaque ?) beer containers so that drinkers could check that the level of liquid beer was 'up to the paint'. Paint was gradually changed over the last 2000 years to the word, 'pint'. But you will note that the rapaciousness of beer makers and sellers is not a new thing! Cheers, Pat Naughtin PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, Geelong, Australia Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com/for more metrication information, contact Pat at pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe. Share your photos with Windows Live Photos – Free. Try it Now! 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