What's in Lipton Teabags??

[mbanu]

Also, in 2014 they changed the process, pressing the leaves to extract "tea essence" and then adding it back before drying.

That's interesting! It sounds a bit like the trick that Celestial Seasonings perfected with their herbal blends, of flavoring herbs with essential oils of those herbs (like mint tea flavored with mint oil) to imitate the quality of more expensive versions. I would imagine this wouldn't be in every country, though. Lipton is notorious for changing the blend on a country-by-country basis while still calling it all "Yellow Label". I also imagine that this might cause issues with certain countries' labeling requirements -- how do you label "tea-flavored tea"?

I'd love to hear from a Lipton's blender, though. Are they still hiring from the same pool of classically-trained British-tea blenders, or are they looking more at chemists now? I suppose it must be a bit like the modern beer industry...

[Nis]

I also imagine that this might cause issues with certain countries' labeling requirements -- how do you label "tea-flavored tea"?

Doubtful. First of all, it sounds like the essence is added back to the same batch of leaves it came from and so would never be considered an additive in any way. Even if it came from a different batch, it would at most be considered a tea by-product - which again doesn't have to be declared.

Orange juice is a good example of how this works. Most, if not all, mass produced orange juices have so-called "flavour packs" added to them, since otherwise they wouldn't taste of much. And because these flavour packs are considered an orange by-product (they mostly come from orange peels), they don't have to be in the ingredients list.
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-tu ... ange-juice
https://www.cooksillustrated.com/taste_ ... ange-juice