Note: definitely true, especially my aesthetic preferences, and the speculative historical synthesis.

There are some hedonic treadmills which, even after I've climbed them, let me enjoy the entry-level experience. In the case of tea, the entry-level experience[1] is a cheap tea bag of black tea. Sadly, tea does not have one of the nicer treadmills. Having spent the last few years exploring high-quality Chinese tea of various stripes, a cup of tea brewed from a mass-market tea bag is relegated to emergency situations where I'm unable to brew my own. My claim is that this is not driven by obvious economic factors, but is an accident of history that is quickly righting itself.

Bottom-shelf tea bags produce low-quality black tea. (The proof is trivial and is left as an exercise to the reader.)

Why so?

CTC stands for "crush, tear, curl", and is a mechanical method of rapidly oxidizing[2] tea invented in 1930. The resulting brews tend toward the astringent, tannic, and unsubtle. Fine if you're adding milk to it, but sort of unpleasant otherwise. If you're drinking black tea from a mass-market brand, it's almost certainly CTC tea.

Americans, today, are not buying CTC tea because it's cheaper. [...]

The original text contained 12 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
November 17th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/NvGGp3ASHXtt7xXdZ/why-is-american-mass-market-tea-so-terrible

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Why is American mass-market tea so terrible?” by RobertM

LessWrong (30+ Karma)

“Why is American mass-market tea so terrible?” by RobertM