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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: a decent cup of tea
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Crazy Cat Lady
Shipmate
# 17616
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Posted
I have noticed that the Anglican church seems to run on tea, and I have drunk some truely dreadful cups of it. So I would like to propose an obligatory training course on how to create the perfect brew, that rejects the tyranny of the tea bag. Do you agree?
If like me you are a total tea snob, you might also like to share any recent ventures in the world of tea. I currently have black tea with chunks of chocolate in it - unusual but not as unpleasant as I thought it might be. It felt appropriate for this weekends's annual major munch of chocolate.
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'They called me mad, and I called them mad, and damn them, they outvoted me!"
Nathaniel Lee
Posts: 52 | From: Suffolk | Registered: Mar 2013
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
In this house, all the tea comes from China. Either bought in situ or via specialist websites. If you want a cup of White Jade Mountain Iron Butterfly you're in luck, otherwise...
Not that I am the tea drinker (but get me on the subject of Real Coffee). But I'm interested in it as a social phenomenon, coming from a background where no visit, however brief, could go on without a cup of tea and a slice of soda bread.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
Expect internecine war to break out here shortly as people start arguing the best way to brew tea.
I am black tea (as in no milk, thanks*) only person and am present am really into Jasmine tea although I do not use a thermometer but just let the water cool slightly. For those wondering why Jasmine, it is harder to make a really dreadful too strong cup.
Jengie
*this originate with milk intolerance not tea snobbery.
[ 30. March 2013, 21:21: Message edited by: Jengie Jon ]
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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The Rogue
Shipmate
# 2275
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Posted
Not a Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy thread, then.
There are zillions of correct ways of making tea and each one is right for someone. To expect the people who make tea at church get it right for all of us is clearly ridiculous. If it's that horrible, don't have any. Or even apply to join the rota - there may be a long waiting list.
I have my tea black and have found that there is less that can go wrong. I drink Earl Grey at home and whatever-was-on-offer-at-the-time at work. Tea bags at both because they are easiest.
[ 30. March 2013, 22:37: Message edited by: The Rogue ]
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If everyone starts thinking outside the box does outside the box come back inside?
Posts: 2507 | From: Toton | Registered: Feb 2002
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busyknitter
Shipmate
# 2501
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Posted
I tend to go with George Orwell's method
A Nice Cup of Tea
[Fixed the link. jedijudy]
[ 30. March 2013, 23:20: Message edited by: jedijudy ]
Posts: 903 | From: The Wool Basket | Registered: Mar 2002
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
It must be made clear at the outset that I am a total tea snob and consumer, drinking upwards of 6-8 cups per day. I cannot restrain being opinionated on this topic. I love tea, and my personal heaven will have lakes of it. My start on this was my father who always had a beer mug (pint) with tea for breakfast, some of which he usually poured over his oatmeal, a queer custom for a German raised in Singapore. This was refined 35 years ago by my wife's grandmother who lived to 93 and drank 10 cups of tea per day. She was more opinionated than I about it. Out-englished the English we thought. I miss her tutelage even these 20 years after she died.
There are 2 different drinks: Tea and teabag. They are as alike each other as kissing your lover and an elderly unwashed relative. Teabag tends to be made of tea dust, while real tea is made of whole or very mildly broken leaves. IMnsHO (ns=not so). Jesus serves tea in Heaven while Satan serves teabag in Hell or maybe worse, herbal tea which is a complete lie, as it is not tea. Things not made of the specific tea plant are not really tea, and adulterants like lemon, milk, and fruity flowers are aimed at masking tea of inferior quality.
I currently have the following on hand: Keemun - Chinese and apparently a favourite of Queen Victoria, can be made strong and never bitter. UVA Highlands - from Sri Lanka, it is like an Assam but can even better mask bad water, and more caffeine for cold days. Kenilworth - also from Sri Lanka, from an estate of this name. I also have several different Chinese Oolongs at hand. Oolong is somewhere between the green and black and with different temperatures of water, can be brewed 4 or 5 times. I have a small bit of very smoky and extremely nice Chinese Lasang Souchon left, which is like drinking a peaty Scotch without the alcohol.
The most expensive pound of tea I've ever bought cost about $400.00. But that's 200-220 cups, and maybe close to 500 if rebrewed, so the cost is very deceiving. This was a hand rolled tea, where they rolled up 3 to 5 leaves at the tips of branches. The genuine Golden Monkey, with the legend that the Chinese people who grow it live with their monkeys and send them up the dangerous cliffs to pick the tea. The tea was excellent but I've never had the chance to buy it again. I order most of my tea in Canada from Murchies.com (Vancouver).
One of my dreams is to go on a tea tour to China and India, which would be like a wine tour, only better. And yes, when I go on trips, I always have my own tea things with me. Restaurants are usually incompetent, often with water at wrong temps, sometimes even worse things, like bringing a little pot of water with a packet of teabag beside it. And even worse is tea water carried to the table in a vessel previously used for coffee, a criminal offence. In public dining situations, better is to have the beer and smelly cheese. Or the plate of the day with some plonk or canned caffiene (pop, which is what we call what many Americans usually call soda- fizzy and sugary hell).
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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
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Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
I had a tea thread here a few years ago.
I am given to understand that tea must be brewed in a pre-warmed pot and if it is Earl Grey, the milk or cream goes in the pot first.
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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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Uncle Pete
Loyaute me lie
# 10422
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Posted
Uva (not UVA) is a province of Sri Lanka, and is indeed high-hills tea.
Not completely high, but pretty good.
These days I stock up on South Indian high hills whole-leaf tea (both black and green) 500 grams costs about $3.50. I have also, from time to time brought home Darjeeling clonal tea. Darjeeling is on the other side of the subcontinent and nearly as north as you can get in India, so I have never been there.
Having had a long time of drinking tea, Indians know how to brew tea. Even the shabbiest of road side stands will give you a decent glass of milk chai (the usual way to make it).
In the paper this morning was an article about a gentleman who went to the railway station to receive his wife. While waiting he ordered a glass of tea which turned out to have a dead lizard in it. So there are exceptions but I assure you these are few and far between.
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Even more so than I was before
Posts: 20466 | From: No longer where I was | Registered: Sep 2005
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
I drink Redbush and love it! Many people turn their noses up but I really enjoy it, and better for my arthuritis as it is low in tannin.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
These days I usually opt for herbal teas. But now and again I like a cup of Assam for preference. It has a beautiful rich warm colour and a good flavour.
I'm not too keen on putting milk in tea and there are some that it doesn't suit at all. I used to enjoy a cup of Lapsang Souchong on a Sunday morning with breakfast and the Sunday papers. The smoky aroma and taste are quite different to mainstream tea, though not everyone likes it.
I also think that a bit of honey is nicer than sugar (and probably better for you) on the rare occasions when I feel tea needs sweetening.
Gunpowder was another one that I used to like but possibly more for the fun of dropping tiny green pellets into a heatproof glass jug, adding boiling water, and watching the pellets unfurl and expand until the jug seemed to be filled with a forest of green seaweed. As green teas go it was quite enjoyable.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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ArachnidinElmet
Shipmate
# 17346
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by no prophet:
<snip> herbal tea which is a complete lie, as it is not tea. Things not made of the specific tea plant are not really tea.
Technically true but, especially in these parts, if I start saying, "I'm sorry but I don't drink tea, only herbal infusions" I'm likely to get either quizzical looks or a punch in the throat.
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'If a pleasant, straight-forward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle manoeuvres' - Kafka
Posts: 1887 | From: the rhubarb triangle | Registered: Sep 2012
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Doublethink.
Ship's Foolwise Unperson
# 1984
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Posted
Poirot always went for tisane.
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All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome. George Orwell
Posts: 19219 | From: Erehwon | Registered: Aug 2005
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Pomona
Shipmate
# 17175
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Posted
Agreed that honey is nicer than sugar for when tea needs sweetening. I like Yorkshire Tea (how I wish they'd make it fairtrade) or Waitrose Gold Blend. Hate Earl Grey, it's like drinking perfume.
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Consider the work of God: Who is able to straighten what he has bent? [Ecclesiastes 7:13]
Posts: 5319 | From: UK | Registered: Jun 2012
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Porridge
Shipmate
# 15405
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Posted
Ah, tea.
I live in New England, where probably more tea is drunk than in the rest of the U.S. together.
I do have tea bags, but they're only for some sort of as-yet-unencountered emergency.
I drink various teas, but the making of it must be approached with care:
1. Fill traditional Rockingham teapot to brim with fresh cold water; set in microwave for 3 minutes; turn pot 90 degrees and give it another 3 minutes to almost boiling.
2. Bring kettle-full of cold fresh water to boil on stove.
3. Empty pot into dishpan for washing-up; spoon in three generous spoonsful of loose leaves.
4. Pour water just off the boil over leaves in pot.
5. Cover pot with tea cozy. Let stand about 5 minutes.
6. Remove cozy. Pour tea through stainless-steel tea strainer into giant mug. Sniff; it'll remind you that Life Is Good.
7. Replace cozy. Drink tea. It's good to be alive, isn't it?
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Spiggott: Everything I've ever told you is a lie, including that.
Moon: Including what?
Spiggott: That everything I've ever told you is a lie.
Moon: That's not true!
Posts: 3925 | From: Upper right corner | Registered: Jan 2010
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Rowen
Shipmate
# 1194
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Posted
Heaven is ...
Yorkshire Gold.
Yorkshire Red
Yummmmmmmm.
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"May I live this day… compassionate of heart" (John O’Donoghue)...
Posts: 4897 | From: Somewhere cold in Victoria, Australia | Registered: Aug 2001
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Crazy Cat Lady:
I have noticed that the Anglican church seems to run on tea, and I have drunk some truely dreadful cups of it. So I would like to propose an obligatory training course on how to create the perfect brew, that rejects the tyranny of the tea bag. Do you agree?
You can get acceptable tea from a bag. Not tea-snob quality perhaps, but it can be quite reasonable. The usual sin is to make it with water that isn't hot enough. The two key sinners here are Americans, who (generalization alert!) seem to like to make tea with water of an appropriate temperature for brewing coffee, and the large urn boilers, which people never seem to actually boil properly.
Tea needs to be made with actual boiling water, not just "hot" water.
Posts: 5026 | From: USA | Registered: Feb 2013
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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
These days,, it's a bit hot here in the high desert of Ambridge. We drink mostly ice tea with or without sweetening.... This depends on whether or not we are at the home of my father in law. Or not.
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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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Ad Orientem
Shipmate
# 17574
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Posted
The proper way of drinking tea is English style: black tea with milk, sugar being optional. Never been into green tea. Don't mind Earl Grey Russian style, that is with a bit of jam.
Posts: 2606 | From: Finland | Registered: Feb 2013
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Og, King of Bashan
Ship's giant Amorite
# 9562
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Crazy Cat Lady:
I currently have black tea with chunks of chocolate in it - unusual but not as unpleasant as I thought it might be. It felt appropriate for this weekends's annual major munch of chocolate.
A local tea company produced a dark breakfast tea with dark chocolate that was supposed to appeal to coffee drinkers. It was ruined for me from the start, as I had my first taste the morning of one of the nastiest hangovers I have ever had, when I had been drinking a local brewery's chocolate stout the night before. Just that hint of chocolate had me breaking out in boozy a sweat.
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"I like to eat crawfish and drink beer. That's despair?" ― Walker Percy
Posts: 3259 | From: Denver, Colorado, USA | Registered: May 2005
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balaam
Making an ass of myself
# 4543
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by leo:
The oddest tea I have ever drunk was in an Asian kitchen in Leeds at 5am before setting off to my friend's (Sikh) wedding in Coventry.
His mum put tea, milk and sugar all in the large teapot and stewed it.
I've had similar, but with ghee instead of milk. Not to my taste is putting it mildly.
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Last ever sig ...
blog
Posts: 9049 | From: Hen Ogledd | Registered: May 2003
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fletcher christian
Mutinous Seadog
# 13919
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Posted
Japanese tea fan here with favourites being ariake midori and gyokuro. I like the greener oolongs too, like milky wu.
I remember watching a tea processor on tv rolling and cutting these beautiful leaves ready for drying and a woman was moving around the factory floor sweeping up the old tea dust and putting it in crates. When asked what they did with all the old tea dust, the manager sheepishly replied, 'Oh, that's for British tea bags.'
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'God is love insaturable, love impossible to describe'
Staretz Silouan
Posts: 5235 | From: a prefecture | Registered: Jul 2008
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Spike
Mostly Harmless
# 36
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sir Kevin:
I am given to understand that tea must be brewed in a pre-warmed pot and if it is Earl Grey, the milk or cream goes in the pot first.
No no no no no no no. You do not put milk in the pot and never under any circumstances serve tea with cream.
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"May you get to heaven before the devil knows you're dead" - Irish blessing
Posts: 12860 | From: The Valley of Crocuses | Registered: May 2001
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Spike
Mostly Harmless
# 36
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by leo:
The oddest tea I have ever drunk was in an Asian kitchen in Leeds at 5am before setting off to my friend's (Sikh) wedding in Coventry.
His mum put tea, milk and sugar all in the large teapot and stewed it.
I once had a Kenyan flatmate who boiled it all together in the kettle. It tasted disgusting and completely knackered the kettle.
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"May you get to heaven before the devil knows you're dead" - Irish blessing
Posts: 12860 | From: The Valley of Crocuses | Registered: May 2001
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
Recipe for really terrible cup of tea
Take 1 cup of cold water, insert teabag, put into microwave, cook on High until water boils. Remove from microwave and extract teabag. If no fresh milk, use soya milk (this is guaranteed to curdle).
You could probably also use evaporated/condensed in place of fresh/soya milk if you like it sweet.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
Ah, tea! It's how I start every day!
It has become increasingly difficult to find good loose leaf tea here. Thank goodness The Republic of Tea doesn't have everything in teabags. My favorite of their loose teas is Tea for the Queen of Hearts...black tea with rose buds and petals! It's impossible to feel grumpy when sipping this aromatic mood lifter.
If I run out of loose tea, Stash had pretty decent bagged tea.
And yes, I do brew it properly in a warmed pot!
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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Psmith
Shipmate
# 15311
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Posted
Reading this thread, I decided to make a pot of tea; the last of my Quang Zhor Milk Oolong. I a fair number of others on hand, mostly black and not flavored, but also a few pu-er's, a category as yet unmentioned. It is an aged tea from China, and has a distinctly earthy flavour.
All are loose-leaf (apart from the compressed pu-er cakes).
As a rule, I drink tea without milk or sugar, and only at home. I've never tried church tea; the coffee is a decent example of that beverage, while the tea come from bags.
Posts: 81 | From: Toronto, Canada | Registered: Nov 2009
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Porridge
Shipmate
# 15405
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Posted
Tea with cream: ![[Projectile]](graemlins/puke2.gif)
Tea with evaporated milk:
Tea with lemon: sometimes just what's needed to jump-start a morning.
I've just been given some black tea from Dammann frères in Paris (since 1692, it says on the box). Black teas from Sri Lanka (70%) and India.
Heaven.
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Spiggott: Everything I've ever told you is a lie, including that.
Moon: Including what?
Spiggott: That everything I've ever told you is a lie.
Moon: That's not true!
Posts: 3925 | From: Upper right corner | Registered: Jan 2010
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Galilit
Shipmate
# 16470
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Posted
Twinings' Lady Grey
Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime
Fresh spearmint leaves in hot water with a slice of lemon and a little local honey.
Green tea with jasmine
The main thing is the cup.
The design and colours have to suit the mood you are trying to maintain or generate. So sometimes a Starbucks flask, sometimes a pottery mug, sometimes a china cup
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She who does Her Son's will in all things can rely on me to do Hers.
Posts: 624 | From: a Galilee far, far away | Registered: Jun 2011
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
I was a student in Tübingen, Germany in the 1950s. The water there had so much lime in it that it was cloudy. By trial and error I discovered that Darjeeling tea went better with the lime than anything else did.
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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Pomona
Shipmate
# 17175
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by balaam:
quote:
Originally posted by leo:
The oddest tea I have ever drunk was in an Asian kitchen in Leeds at 5am before setting off to my friend's (Sikh) wedding in Coventry.
His mum put tea, milk and sugar all in the large teapot and stewed it.
I've had similar, but with ghee instead of milk. Not to my taste is putting it mildly.
Indians make masala chai by steeping the tea and spices in milk. Tibetans take tea with yak butter and salt.
I have seen Americans refer to taking tea with cream - which I must say sounds far more disgusting than either of those two options!
The water in Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire is horrible and ruins tea, unfortunately.
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Consider the work of God: Who is able to straighten what he has bent? [Ecclesiastes 7:13]
Posts: 5319 | From: UK | Registered: Jun 2012
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Hedgehog
Ship's Shortstop
# 14125
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by jedijudy:
It has become increasingly difficult to find good loose leaf tea here. Thank goodness The Republic of Tea doesn't have everything in teabags.
Ah, yes. The Republic is a joy. I am exceptionally fond of its Golden Yunnan. In fact, I think I might make myself a cup right now.
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"We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and the world, and that being good and decent are worth it."--Pope Francis, Laudato Si'
Posts: 2740 | From: Delaware, USA | Registered: Sep 2008
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Galloping Granny
Shipmate
# 13814
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Posted
We were once given some sample packs of tea and I fell for the delicate Nuwara Eliya – offered as 'the champagne of Ceylon tea from the highest tea plantations'. Unfortunately it did not appear in local shops except for one specialty shop, where it was prohibitively expensive, but dear Mr Fernando's premium single origin Dilmah is a pretty good substitute.
Most of what I drink is unashamedly bagged and in a Dunoon bone china mug, drunk moderately strong (3 minutes for Dilmah) and without milk or sugar. I've been offered lemon with milk-less tea but after one trial I decided it was nothing but a spoiled lemon drink.
(I love my brown pottery mug too, but that's for hot chocolate.)
Offered tea when I'm visiting, I say 'Yes please, as long as it's not Earl Grey.'
My parents would have a cup of tea in bed before getting up in the morning but I prefer to drink my tea with food – between meals with a biscuit or piece of cake. This would be one reason why I'm not as skinny as I was in my youth.
GG
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The Kingdom of Heaven is spread upon the earth, and men do not see it. Gospel of Thomas, 113
Posts: 2629 | From: Matarangi | Registered: Jun 2008
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
Back to the OP, whilst there are indeed lots of methods that are right for some people, there are some methods that are wrong for anyone, and they are frequently used in the making of church tea, and even worse in the case of coffee.
The main crimes according to my taste buds appear to be:
1. teabags that have been in a cupboard in an open box for years.
2. when the pot starts running out, adding another few bags and boiling water, with the spent bags and the stewed tea in the pot.
Both result in the sort of thing that makes you glad you generally only get a piddly little cup rather than a proper mug.
Current gaff actually has a café as part of the building. A proper one, where people actually go and drink tea and coffee out of choice. This resolves the problem. Granted you have to buy it, but since the café is part of our ministry (for want of a better word) we consider it as an offering.
I digress.
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Porridge:
Tea with cream:
Tea with evaporated milk:
My wife's alcoholic (and presently deceased) great aunt served tea that had been made sometime in the prior 10 days, boiling on her wood stove. The white(ish) cups were lacquered with what looked like the glaze of old gasoline, the tea itself was dark and cloudy, looking like like cocacola with a spot of dishwater. The most bitter thing ever, which I know only from the smell of it.
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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
\_(ツ)_/
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
There really is very little excuse for this sort of thing.
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Bob Two-Owls
Shipmate
# 9680
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jade Constable:
I have seen Americans refer to taking tea with cream - which I must say sounds far more disgusting than either of those two options!
The two Americans that lodged with me a year or so back had heard of a Cream Tea and assumed it meant tea made with cream. They were delighted to find out that the disappointment of having just ordinary milk in the tea was more than compensated by the addition of scones, clotted cream and jam. Tea as a snack, meal or drink was something they just had to learn the hard way ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
As for tea, I love a good cup of tea, mashed using a tinplate teapot with water boiled on a primus stove and poured into blue and white enamel mugs half way up a mountain. It sends the blood to the knees and you can almost hear Rule Britannia playing as you pose manfully with one foot on a rock, gazing into the distance.
One good thing about being a Buddhist is that the tea is generally excellent.
Posts: 1262 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by no prophet:
quote:
Originally posted by Porridge:
Tea with cream:
Tea with evaporated milk:
My wife's alcoholic (and presently deceased) great aunt served tea that had been made sometime in the prior 10 days, boiling on her wood stove. The white(ish) cups were lacquered with what looked like the glaze of old gasoline, the tea itself was dark and cloudy, looking like like cocacola with a spot of dishwater. The most bitter thing ever, which I know only from the smell of it.
When I was a teenager one of the elders in the church had been an apprentice at some factory maybe fifty years earlier. He told of how they used to brew tea in a bucket and stir it with the brush handle. He said it never tasted the same once they got rid of the broom!
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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snowgoose
Silly goose
# 4394
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Posted
Usually a PG tips teabag, with sugar and lots of milk. Sometimes I make jasmine or Earl Grey (loose) in a teapot. My husband drinks his (invariably PG) seriously stewed, black with a little sweetener. Stewed as in letting it steep, then keeping the bag in the cup as he drinks it. Yuck.
A lot of people I know make tea in the microwave, which results in something barely drinkable.
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Lord, what can the harvest hope for, if not for the care of the Reaper Man? --Terry Pratchett
Save a Siamese!
Posts: 3868 | From: Tidewater Virginia | Registered: Apr 2003
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la vie en rouge
Parisienne
# 10688
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by snowgoose:
A lot of people I know make tea in the microwave, which results in something barely drinkable.
This is an unpardonable sin against tea, very frequently committed by the French. Microwave tea is nasty. The water doesn't get hot enough, and it gets foam on the top. Eeeeeew. If one is not possessed of an electric kettle, heat the water in a pan on the hob, please.
I love tea and get through industrial quantities on account of how French coffee does dangerous things to my heart rate. I enjoy the rigmarole of teapot/milk jug (shaped like a cow)/proper china cups and saucers (I also have silver plated teaspoons but only use them for guests because I don't personally sweeten my tea), although I have to explain to French people that this delightful English stereotype isn't actually what most of my compatriots do.
A lot of people don't realise that tea has actually become very chic in France. You can get very good tea here, but it's expensive. For English tea, I thank the pantheon of Heaven for the dawning of Marks & Sparks on the Champs Elysées selling proper strong builder's tea at sensible prices. Before that I (and all my English friends) used to import vast quantities in our suitcases every time we went back to the UK. For lighter teas, there are some very nice ones available here. I just got some heavenly green tea from my local organic shop, flavoured with pear, lychee and rose.
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Rent my holiday home in the South of France
Posts: 3696 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Ariston
Insane Unicorn
# 10894
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by la vie en rouge:
quote:
Originally posted by snowgoose:
A lot of people I know make tea in the microwave, which results in something barely drinkable.
...although I have to explain to French people that this delightful English stereotype isn't actually what most of my compatriots do.
For lighter teas, there are some very nice ones available here. I just got some heavenly green tea from my local organic shop, flavoured with pear, lychee and rose.
That whole "disappearing English tea ritual" was something of an inspiration to one of my favorite living potters, Joanna Howells, who, upon figuring out how many people were buying her (admittedly spectacular) teapots just to put on display—because "who has time to make tea anymore?"—made a whole series of new pottery forms, including a tea set based around teabags based on modern designs and ways of life. Useful, cool, and artistic commentary at the same time, no?
Oh, and la vie? You forgot vervain et menthe on your list of delightful French teas. Not that I'd know anything about that at all.
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One thing I've noticed, with the exception of fletcher christian upthread, is the lack of love for green (or white) teas, and only one oblique reference to Puh-erh (what else costs $400/lb—or sometimes that much for an ounce!). Now, don't get me wrong, I adore me some Lapsang as much as anyone else (or probably even more), and there's a great (and somehow cheap!) Nepalese tea I adore (Guranse—think of what the flavor and especially smell of a first flush Darjeeling is like, but at the strength and power of, oh, Lapsang's pine smoke), but spring is coming. Time to switch from those strong and drafty blacks to asparagus, fresh grass, and using the tea whisk whenever I try to make matcha. While I may use a low-grade sencha from a Korean grocery store for my everyday green, it's quite good enough for every day and has none of the "dig out the thermometer, timer, water cooler, and special tiny teapot" multiple-infusion fussiness of, say, a gyokuru...nor the astronomical price tag. And yes, before you ask, I do have the frippery for making teas I can't afford. It's what happens when you're a potter.
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“Therefore, let it be explained that nowhere are the proprieties quite so strictly enforced as in men’s colleges that invite young women guests, especially over-night visitors in the fraternity houses.” Emily Post, 1937.
Posts: 6849 | From: The People's Republic of Balcones | Registered: Jan 2006
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
Ah, the pottery...that I can identify with.
You know the Big Conference freebies? The black bag? The pen? The paperweight? The squeezy thing with the sponsor's logo? The polyurethane trivet depicting First Nations' ancestral totems?
Well, a star among these has to be the purple sand pottery teapot - inscribed with delegate's name - from that time in Yangxian.
We have never actually used it (it would be a shame to take it out of its little embroidered satin bag/brocade box) but we do have a couple of other sets of pots, cups, tray and tools which we have used.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariston:
One thing I've noticed, with the exception of fletcher christian upthread, is the lack of love for green (or white) teas, and only one oblique reference to Puh-erh (what else costs $400/lb—or sometimes that much for an ounce!).
I did mention Gunpowder. I refrained from mentioning Japanese Green with Rice, which is best served in little bowls because it's so much prettier, but which is quite interesting for a novelty. Green teas are more thirst-quenching, IMO.
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Uncle Pete
Loyaute me lie
# 10422
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Posted
I guess that I am invisible to Ariston. I also mention green tea (of the Indian variety).
I drink tea, by preference, what kind I drink depends on how I feel on any given day.
I drink coffee out of necessity when out and about. Few restaurants or kiosks in North America understand the art of tea brewing.
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Even more so than I was before
Posts: 20466 | From: No longer where I was | Registered: Sep 2005
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bib
Shipmate
# 13074
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Posted
I have discovered the Australian grown Madura brand tea which is low in caffeine and minus tannin.It produces the most refreshing cuppa I have experienced. I buy the English Breakfast variety for preference which is made with freshly boiled water. I like to pour a small quantity of milk into my cup before adding the tea as I can judge better how much milk to add when done in that order. Tea also tastes much better when served in a fine china cup. I don't know whether the rest of the world has discovered this amazing tea.
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"My Lord, my Life, my Way, my End, accept the praise I bring"
Posts: 1307 | From: Australia | Registered: Oct 2007
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
Lady Grey is my tea of choice in the afternoon. More delicate flavour than Earl Grey. Very refreshing.
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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Pine Marten
Shipmate
# 11068
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Posted
I like a big mug of 'proper strong builder's tea' (to quote la vie en rouge), with just a dash of milk added after the tea. No sugar. Dainty little china cups make my fingers tremble with anxiety about dropping the blasted thing. And I'm afraid I can't abide Earl Grey or any other perfumed liquids - ugh.
However, herbal teas are a different matter, and although I have to be the mood, I quite like those now and again, as long as they have a strong fruity taste and are not insipid.
But the thought of microwaving tea --
![[Eek!]](eek.gif) ![[Ultra confused]](graemlins/confused2.gif) ![[Waterworks]](graemlins/bawling.gif)
Oh, and no tea before midday, morning (especially first thing) is for coffee...
[ 04. April 2013, 18:04: Message edited by: Pine Marten ]
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Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. - Oscar Wilde
Posts: 1731 | From: Isle of Albion | Registered: Feb 2006
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Hedgehog
Ship's Shortstop
# 14125
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariston:
One thing I've noticed, with the exception of fletcher christian upthread, is the lack of love for green (or white) teas, and only one oblique reference to Puh-erh (what else costs $400/lb—or sometimes that much for an ounce!).
Guilty as charged as to green or white teas. I just can't bring myself to like tham. Pu-erh, on the other hand, is what I use to treat myself when I feel I deserve it.
You know, it is a pity that PeteC is not contributing to this thread.
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"We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and the world, and that being good and decent are worth it."--Pope Francis, Laudato Si'
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
Nothing beats a white tea for refreshment. I do like stronger teas, indeed quite a lot. But the delicacy of a white tea is truly refreshing. With a touch of sugar, thank you. Honey is too strong for white tea.
As for Lapsang, why anybody would care to drink the boiled contents of a chimney sweep's shoe after he'd been slogging through the bogs is beyond me.
(Edited because traipsing is far too delicate for that vile concoction.)
[ 04. April 2013, 18:23: Message edited by: lilBuddha ]
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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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ArachnidinElmet
Shipmate
# 17346
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Posted
Green tea: yum. I'd agree that it is good for 'thirst quenching'. I'm still working on white tea, have only tried it once and am unsure at the moment. It's a little more tea-y.
Has anyone tried any of those hand-tied artisan tea ball things? The ones that open out into lotus flowers or peacocks on contact with hot water. I've always wanted to try one, but don't drink black tea.
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'If a pleasant, straight-forward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle manoeuvres' - Kafka
Posts: 1887 | From: the rhubarb triangle | Registered: Sep 2012
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