Tea on board

[Moo1957]

I am not a coffee drinker, but love good tea. Does anyone know what type of tea is served in the MDR and Lido? Just plain Lipton, or some choices like Earl Gray or English Breakfast? We are aboard the Zuiderdam this Saturday and need to bring some teabags with me if the former. Thanks!

[Crew News]

I am not a coffee drinker, but love good tea. Does anyone know what type of tea is served in the MDR and Lido? Just plain Lipton, or some choices like Earl Gray or English Breakfast? We are aboard the Zuiderdam this Saturday and need to bring some teabags with me if the former. Thanks!

 

PG Tips and Bigelow teas are available in the MDR and Lido Market.

[david,Mississauga]

Someone else will no doubt be able to give you the name of the brands. They were all horrid and I prefer to forget them. There was a rumour that PG Tips was available in the lido, but I didn't bother as we had brought our preferred brand: Tetley. The nationality of passengers on our Alaska cruise about a year and a half ago was mostly British, Australian and Canadian, so the complaints about tea were frequent. I gladly shared my Tetley with those who had not brought something palatable.

 

You will be wise to bring your own tea - and perhaps a tea-pot as well. They were in short supply. We managed to get one every morning for breakfast in the Pinnacle, but there were very few in the MDR. Getting boiling water is another problem. Even at the much-ballyhooed Royal Dutch tea, vaguely hot water was poured over a tea-bag in a cup. We found the water in the Neptune Lounge to be satisfactorily hot to make tea.

[Moo1957]

Thanks to both of you!

[rkacruiser]

I found a nice selection of tea to be available in the MDR, Lido, and during Tea Service.

 

Others may disagree, but I found the Cranberry Apple Tea to be delicious.

[rkacruiser]

I found the selection of teas aboard in the MDR, Lido, and during Tea Service to be satisfactory.

 

Others may agree, but the Cranberry Apple Tea is delicious, in my opinion.

[AV8rix]

And to expand a bit on what Crew News said:

 

In addition to PG Tips, the selection of Bigelow teas is very extensive in the Lido, practically any type you wish. They used to present a selection in the MDR but now if you order tea in the MDR you need to specify what you want (EG, darjeeling, etc) and they will bring it.

 

If you're in a Neptune Suite the lounge will have a selection of fine Harney & Sons teas. And that's also the brand that is used in the Pinnacle Grill.

 

The other poster (david, Missisauga) may have sailed during the interval that HAL was provisioning the AWFUL Fields and Selects brand teas. There was a long thread about it here on CC. I had one cruise during that time but, having seen the thread, I brought my own from home. But that miserable time is over.

 

Hope this helps.

[baggal]

Recently off the Zuiderdam. In the MDR there was a large selection of Bigelow teas which you could chose from. I had Darjeeling every night. It was perfect for me.

[grayjay]

On our cruises with HAL in 2016 ( Prinsendam,Eurodam, Koningsdam) we had a good selection of Bigelow teas as well as Tetley's and PG tips tea bags. We were very satisfied even if we missed the old HAL brand ( the tea bags with the Holland America logo) because we liked their taste best. Even the water was hot enough for a decent cup of tea...

The brand we didn't like though were the teas in the Dutch Café on Koningsdam - tasted like dish water in my opinion ( forgot the brand) but as yopu had to pay for those teas and the coffee choices were excellent we didn't bother and used the Lido to get our teas and coffees in the Café on board.

[Bamaman1]

I drink massive amounts of ice tea. Wonder what they have for that onboard?

[Bamaman1]

I drink massive amounts of ice tea. Wonder what they have for that?

[cbr663]

I drink massive amounts of ice tea. Wonder what they have for that?

 

While I have never had ice tea on any HAL ship, my guess would be that it is made from a commercially available powdered mix, like most of the other complimentary beverages.

[ellieanne]

While I have never had ice tea on any HAL ship, my guess would be that it is made from a commercially available powdered mix, like most of the other complimentary beverages.

 

 

If it is made from powered mix, I would be very surprised. I find the iced tea on board very good. I think it used to be brewed from a syrup and it tasted very metallic, but on my last cruise it was fresh brewed and was actually some of the best iced tea I've had. It is unsweetened for which I am very thankful. I find sweetened iced tea vile. But if you drink your iced tea sweet, you might not like it as much as it can be difficult to get the sugar to dissolve well in the cold tea.

[geoherb]

I was on the Zuiderdam earlier this month. I had green tea every morning for breakfast in the dining room. During the day, I'd make my own iced tea in the Lido with the Bigelow decaffeinated bags. The problem was that the one working hot water dispenser wasn't at the beverage station with the one working ice maker. And the ice maker was frequently overwhelmed at times. They had a bin of ice cubes, but I always wondered about sanitation with it. In the evening, I'd have one of the herbal teas at the end of dinner, either the lemon or Sweet Dreams.

 

Sometimes the hot water they'd bring for tea in the dining room tasted too much like coffee. It was never quite bad enough to send it back.

[Btimmer]

The iced tea I've had in recent HAL cruises (3 last year) were made from a concentrate (I've seen the plastic bottles).

 

We enjoy Mint tea at dinner, but they generally seem to run out of it. In the mornings, we're green tea fans.

 

Tim

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[TrolleyGirl]

The Explorations Café also serves tea, but the is a cost associated. I believe the brand they have is Tazo.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

We bring our own ginger tea on every cruise.