There's a common belief in Poland that the very same goods (down to package/barcode) sold in countries west of it (Germany in particular) are much better in quality than the ones sold domestically. It's especially common when discussing cleaning chemicals - people believe that local products are diluted, or sth. I don't know whether this is a case of "grass is greener on the other side" or it is based on reality.
(And there's one exception to this I've heard of - some people believe here that Lipton tea brought from US tastes much, much worse than one bought locally ;)).
There is one place in the US that has a tea culture, and it's an iced tea culture. Lipton would most likely sell tea that meets that demand and let's the rest of the tea drinkers cope than, even if it does make a cup of something not entirely unlike tea for people who were raised on the stuff.
Its a historical artifact. The US is the one country iced tea is consumed more than hot tea. This dates back to the revolution and the resentment of tea taxes that lead to coffee being the "patriot's drink". Iced tea became popular in the 1900's.
I laughed when I read what you said. Lipton reminds me of when I would get sick as a child and that is what my mother gave me (this was back when Lipton was the tea there really wasn't much else around at that time.)
In the Czech Republic there is a similar common belief – that the goods that foreign compainies sell here are lower quality than what they sell in richer countries.
Often this just a matter of brand labels being slapped on whatever goods are available or manufacturable locally. The brand gets to enter a new market for cheap and the manufacturer gets to sell for a higher price without changing the product. The consumer gets...disappointed.
Same in Romania. It might be linked with our communist past. Back then some goods were not available to the public, they were only produced for export, but you could still get stuff that was 'refused for export' if you knew the right people.
I think that regulatory oversight happens on the national level, at least in Czechia it does. An also, food can be low quality but ok from regulatory point of view (fast food, some non-organic food, etc.).
Food control in the European Union is done at the national level, but the member countries coordinate a lot. Also the EU parliament puts up the regulation that has to be transformed into national law.
>(And there's one exception to this I've heard of - some people believe here that Lipton tea brought from US tastes much, much worse than one bought locally ;)).
Could this be because the US version is sweetened with HFCS instead of the beet sugar used here in Europe? I've heard similar things of American colas.
Lipton tea doesn't necessarily mean pre-sweetened. They also sell bags. It does not seem at all unlikely to me that Lipton pushes lower quality tea in the US market than in markets where people are used to higher quality.
(And there's one exception to this I've heard of - some people believe here that Lipton tea brought from US tastes much, much worse than one bought locally ;)).