tea
I was eating at my local Denny's and when you ask for tea, they give you some hot water and two of the below tea bags. On the menu it says "Hot Tea / Herbal Tea" but the tea bags only say Lipton and don't say what kind. I am hoping to identify what type of Lipton tea this is. I know the inside has a number on the bottom which didn't help me in Google.
In the interests of science I gave this a try. Used a can of carbonated water, boiled in my kettle. There was no boiling water explosion, although I more than half expected one. It seemed to maybe boil a little faster, but that's more likely due to the fact that it's less liquid than I usually heat.
Being a tea fanatic I have a lot of flavored teas but I opted for PG Tips, figuring I would taste any difference a little more easily. I caught very little flavor difference from usual, maybe a little stronger but that could be chalked up to any number of things besides using carbonated water.
So yeah, I think carbonated water would probably work in a pinch. Probably don't put too much of it in the kettle, though. (A small part of me still suspects that had it been full it would have shot boiling water everywhere).
One type of tea style popular in Japan is Karigane (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karigane_(tea)#Karigane) Karigane tea is made from the stalks, not the leaves. This means anything that slips out of the teapot's strainer will be a stalk. This could be one of many types of Japanese tea: you can find Gyokuro Karigane (the stems and veins of Gyokuro tea leaves) or Hojicha/Houjicha Karigane (stems of tea leaves roasted in the same way as standard Houjicha.)
Stem teas tend to be a lighter, more delicate version of their heavier-hitting leafy counterparts.
You can also find blended teas, where there will be leaves as well as stems in the mix.
P.S. I like the "natural habitat" line :)
Best Answer
The webadress "www.ufs.com" and the text "This unit not labeled for retail sale" tell you that this is the tea mix Unilever delivers to restaurants, senior homes etc. The rainforest alliance logo is used for coffee and black tea, so it's not herbal tea. (That the menu lists both, only means both are available, typically for the same price; without qualifier a server will always assume "tea" = "black tea".)
As this paper wrapper does not give details, you could ask your server (tip generously...!) for package details or check the ufs website. My gut feeling is that it's the standard Lipton black tea:
... or at least a very similar blend.