Condemned by Zero for my lack of taste after revealingf my partiality for a cup of instant coffee I though we could look at tea. I'm a big fan of tea and recent years have seen an explosion in the number of teas available alhough it must be said some of that herbal stuff is pretty nasty.
Tea is cheap compared to coffee and consequently you can afford the best stuff to drink regularly. Not liking milk very much I tend not to drink the traditional British brew and favour the sort you can drink without milk such as Darjeeling, probably my favourite and green teas - Gunpowder is nice and I like e way the leaves expand in the pot.
Usually buy the leaf stuff from a really old fashioned shop in town but do have a supply of green tea bags for when speed is of the essence.
Thankfully the tea pod has yet to arrive and I quite like the ritual of making tea.
Any other big tea fans out there? Any reccomendations?
|
|
Me ? Teapig is my leaf vendor - their Builder's Brew is spot on. I vary my tea-bag. My current drink is Murroughs "panad Cymreig" www.welshbrewtea.co.uk/ although it is stocked by Asda will be buying direct from them - reducing food miles etc. A fine "panad" as they say around here.
|
While having the rather splendid (but pricey) afternoon tea in the Langham, I noticed that the tea (loose tea in a a large porcelain tea pot poured through a silver strainer) was rather large, i.e. the leaves were roughly chopped in chunks much larger than the packet teas one tends to get in places like whitards.
Can you get tea leaves, chop and blend your own?
|
>> While having the rather splendid (but pricey) afternoon tea in the Langham,...
>>
The last cuppa I had in the Langham, many years ago, was in a "builders " mug. In those days it was a BBC site and I was installing kit .
Yesterday the news was trumpeting that the Langham now has a suite for about £24K a night.
|
I believe good quality tea is whole leaf tea rather than "dust " used for cheaper tea bags
You don't need to chop the leaves, they are broken up, and you can certainly blend your own although I have never done it. I think green teas have larger leaves than black as the fermenting process in black teas leads to smaller particles. Gunpowder tea has rolled up whole leaves
The shop I go to has a number of its own blends. You need to go to a proper tea merchant like this one. They have and online service.
www.wilkinsonsofnorwich.com/Default.aspx
ps they do great coffee too but not pods - I wouldn't mention them if you ever visit the shop. ;-)
|
|
No particular taste for of beat teas but a pot and leaves are way superior to bags. Yorkshire Tea and a 'Chatsford' teapot with captive filter for the leaves does the day to day cuppas.
|
If you have to drink bagged tea, and we all do sometimes, then we've just recently swapped from Yorkshire tea to Dorset tea, which Waitrose have on special introductory offer at the minute (never would have tried it otherwise). Also Twinings straight tea or Twinings Green with Jasmine works well enough.
The Dorset is superior to Yorkshire to our taste.
Otherwise, loose leaf in the cupboard include rooibos, various African varieties, and a few oddities like fennel.
|
Mrs Z is a huge consumer of mint tea, usually packet but occasionally done the proper Moroccan way, with roughly chopped spearmint & packet green tea brewed in a pot (no Qudsi pot here I'm afraid) with sugar.
She also consumes ordinary tea, any request for how she would like it done is always answered the same way
Builders. No sugar..
|
|
A former colleague and friend of Corbyn drank this red-bush crap. What is that for ?
|
>> A former colleague and friend of Corbyn drank this red-bush crap. What is that for
>> ?
Well he is not going to drink blue bush tea is he.
|
|
I never thought of that. Dreadfully harsh stuff that stained the poor mugs it touched...maybe a metaphor for the real deal.
|
|
Try Lapsang Toushong-you can even get it in teabags.
|
|
I drink gallons of the stuff (probably around 10 mugs a day) made with Typhoo tea bags. Never really tried any of the poncy teas as I'm happy with what I use, and I am not a fashion victim :-)
|
Bit more than fashion Smokie...taste is what does it for me....a tea bag needs all the help it can get !
|
Tea etiquette? Milk first - gets scalded. Milk second - doesn't mix properly. Pot warmed or not? Steel pot or ceramic? Two or three teaspoons for two people? Wait two minutes or four before pouring? Winter tyres?
Come along chaps.
|
>> Tea etiquette? Milk first - gets scalded. Milk second - doesn't mix properly. Pot warmed
>> or not? Steel pot or ceramic? Two or three teaspoons for two people? Wait two
>> minutes or four before pouring? Winter tyres?
>>
>> Come along chaps.
Shmetiquette!
Mug.
Tea bag.
Pour on boiling water.
Agitate for about five seconds.
Remove tea bag (it can be used for a second mug of tea if necessary).
Add lots of milk.
Consume.
Repeat at intervals during the day.
|
>
>> Remove tea bag (it can be used for a second mug of tea if necessary).
>>
>> Add lots of milk.
>>
>> Consume.
>>
>> Repeat at intervals during the day.
Sorry folks, I apologise for my neighbour, he really isn't representative of us surreyites.
|
I should hope not.
Milk first.
|
>> Milk first.
Fine if you're using a pot. If making it Duncan style with bag in a mug then water is even further from boiling, tea is is wee coloured and tasteless.
|
>> >> Milk first.
>>
>> Fine if you're using a pot. If making it Duncan style with bag in a
>> mug then water is even further from boiling, tea is is wee coloured and tasteless.
Oh, I say! Steady on!
The water is CLOSER to boiling. As the water comes up to the boil. the switch thing trips out, one picks up the kettle and pours the absolutely boiling liquid onto the teabag in the mug.
Agitate the teabag in the mug and then the tea is more the colour of excrement rather than urine - if we really must make comparisons of this nature.
|
The tea is more the colour of excrement...
...and still they don't ask you to write the description for the packet?
Tea made in a mug is filth. The tea dust releases the bitter tannins so fast that you have to remove the bag before any subtler flavours have time to dissolve. A pot just needs to be properly warmed: if you can rest your hand on the outside, it's too cool and will steal heat from the tea. We put half a cup of water in ours and give it 80 seconds in the microwave while we wait for the kettle.
|
>> Tea made in a mug is filth. The tea dust releases the bitter tannins so
>> fast that you have to remove the bag before any subtler flavours have time to
>> dissolve. A pot just needs to be properly warmed: if you can rest your hand
>> on the outside, it's too cool and will steal heat from the tea. We put
>> half a cup of water in ours and give it 80 seconds in the microwave
>> while we wait for the kettle.
I am having a drink of tea, not some deep spiritual experience.
|
>> I am having a drink of tea, not some deep spiritual experience.
Some of us call it taste. As you have none of it, I'm not surprised you don't have a world for it.
God, Esher has gone down hill. I blame CFC
|
>> I blame CFC
>>
Wow. That's the best thing you've ever written on here.
5 Gold Stars.
You'd be amazed at the amount if stuff I can blame on them.
|
|
And you dont even live near their training ground, respek bro.
|
If you want to be bonkers, fill a china teapot with cold water, and boil in the microwave.
Add the tea and the presence of the tea disturbs the heat layers (microwave remember) and the contents will boil again all on its own.
Tastes rubbish though!
|
Put ants in the microwave. They run around between the wavelengths and come out as cool as they went in.
Mind you thats not very cool, they were pretty peed off to have been put there in the first place.
|
|
A serious point.... heating water in microwaves in cups can be dangerous - if there are no scratches on the cup you can get the water above 100C without it boiling, then when you disturb it it spontaneously boils and can dump half the water out of the cup. If you happen to be holding it at the time, or worse looking into, the results are not good! Always stir before removing the cup, in a position where you can get your hand away! Happened to me with a new glass jug, fortunately I didn't have hold of it at the time!
|
|
Thanks for the reminder Rich. Learned that one heating coffee for my commuter's flask years ago. Even more dangerous with viscous fluids like custard.
|
>> A serious point.... heating water in microwaves in cups can be dangerous -
And sometimes the handles can be slightly porous, and very very hot.
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 8 Dec 15 at 17:44
|
Do what I do.....
Tea or coffee?
You want tea, sorry I don't drink tea so don't know what colour it should be. Here's the kettle, would you like to make your own?
Easy!
Pat
|
>> Shmetiquette!
>> Mug.
>> Tea bag.
>> Pour on boiling water.
>> Agitate for about five seconds.
>> Remove tea bag (it can be used for a second mug of tea if necessary).
>> Consume.
>> Repeat at intervals during the day.
>>
As an already admitted Phillistine (see dairy milk thread) I agree with the above
It's only a cup of tea. At work there is not much time to do otherwise.
The days of civil service clients where a tea trolley went from floor to floor with a steadily stewing urn of tea are long behind us.
With the additional note that somewhere in the dark and distant past, 1972 sometime, I was part of a "scientific" experiment where we used a single teabag to make 12 successive mugs of tea in the prefects' room.
|
|
Er yuk! It's supposed to be a cup of tea, not a cup of luke warm milk with a hint of tea! I leave the bag in (you just have to watch it doesn't fall over as you empty the mug or it falls over and you get a tea tsunami in your face / down your front!) to make sure it's proper strong, and add just a hint of milk (like 1/4 teaspoon - or none at work, as a pint would last about 2 weeks). My mate likes the 'thin' tea so I only ever get half a cup at his house!
|
Rooibos tastes all right in Johannesburg, where the altitude prevents water getting to the right temperature to infuse black tea properly. Tastes like mud anywhere else, though.
The big leaf point (I forget who raised it) is important: big pieces of leaf release their tannins more slowly and allow other flavours to dissolve into the water. Builder's tea, made from tiny pieces of leaf dust, is the opposite: tannins and little else.
I'll follow up the Dorset tip. Yorkshire Tea is a bit buildery for me, although people do occasionally contribute it to the tea club at work (really just two of us with a teapot.) Home is strictly leaves, mostly from Drury of Covent Garden, who have a good range and an excellent, very fast delivery service.
And we like gunpowder too - thé perlé in France. Nice on a hot summer evening, and seems not to keep me awake or get me up in the night as some other brews do.
|
>> A former colleague and friend of Corbyn drank this red-bush crap. What is that for
Caffeine free. A South African girlfriend introduced me to it. I rather like it... occasionally.
|
>> Caffeine free. A South African girlfriend introduced me to it. I rather like it... occasionally.
Yes, agreed, occasionally. For me rooibos one of those teas you drink and think this is probably vile, I can't quite decide, and so you leave in the back of the cupboard to mature, and then you half remember it and think actually it wasn't bad, and you try it again and think this is probably vile, and so it goes on.
And then just sometimes it seems to work, probably because you've just swilled out your mouth with Oral-B or something two seconds beforehand, and that's the one you remember and talk about on forums, and then you also remember you've not had any since the spring.
|
>> A former colleague and friend of Corbyn drank this red-bush crap. What is that for
>> ?
>>
It is naturally caffeine free and goes well with milk/soya milk. I have it as an evening hot drink. Get it in bags from Aldi/Lidl.
|
|
Some years ago we had some nice tea in York... it was loose leaf. Ever since then we have loose leaf tea at home - much nicer than what you get in tea bags. We tend to drink Taylor's of Harrogate Gold.
|
Not too fussy about the brand, as long as it's real leaf unspiced tea, not green.
Pot is vital - I only use bags at work, but that's a sort of slum that doesn't count.
I've never gone for strainers - sort of family etiquette, I don't know why. There's a knack to decanting the leaves while sipping so that they stay in the bottom of the cup.
Strainers need those awful twee receptacles for draining them over.
Definitely tea in first, then the milk. You don't know how strong it's going to be, so you vary the amount of milk depending on the colour shade you want. An early cup will be weaker than a later as it has stood in the pot for longer.
I do possess my great grandmother's elegant casket tea caddy. There are two compartments, so that she could offer two varieties to guests. Also a cut-glass bowl and silver spoon, in case someone wanted a blend.
My father recalled there was an elaborate tea-ceremony. She would ring for a maid who brought a jug of hot water, and then she lit a silver spirit burner on the sideboard and poured the water into a special kettle that sat on the frame of the burner, like a ship's gimbals.
While it was getting up to the boil she unlocked the caddy (locked to stop servants pilfering it - tea used to be expensive) and blended tea in silver teapot(s) as required.
After brewing, she poured the tea. Milk in a jug also brought in by the maid - possibly a choice if available.
In rather vulgar contrast, there was a slop bowl for tipping away tea leaves before a second cup. Perhaps it was Dresden though and had a lid.
|
Your Great Grandmother had breeding Cliff and many years ago I was probably the maid:)
Pat
|
Whilst we talk over tea, we visited Gunsgreen House last summer. If anyone finds themselves in Eyemouth it's worth a visit. House of a tea smuggler, and there is a great system of chutes and tunnels all hidden away they used to hide tea in.
www.gunsgreenhouse.org/
Tedious anecdote 431:
There's also a great crawling tunnel in the basement. I think it was really aimed at six year olds, but even though there was a titchy door to get in (and a slightly concerning moment at a tight bend halfway, when I realised that if indeed I was actually stuck fast then I couldn't even reach my phone to summon help) I wasn't going to let that stop me. The girl on the cashdesk seemed a spot surprised when I popped up from near her knees somewhere and asked for the stamp in the book to prove I'd done it, but hey, what you going to do?
Last edited by: Crankcase on Mon 7 Dec 15 at 15:18
|
And while you are in the West Country pop over to Tregothnan near Truro where you will find the only tea plantation in England and you can enjoy a true English cup of tea.
None of this foreign muck :-)
tregothnan.co.uk/
|
>>pop over to Tregothnan near Truro where you will find the only tea plantation in England and you can enjoy a true English cup of tea.
e'e be Cornish tea my ansome. None of this 'ere foreign muck ;-)
|
www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2014/oct/03/how-to-make-tea-science-milk-first
or
www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/how-to-make-the-perfect-cup-of-tea-british-standards-institution-issues-new-guide-10050692.html
Furthermore a chap who makes his living teaching English etiquette said that one does not stir a cup of tea but gently waft the spoon backwards and forwards and then place the spoon on the far side of the cup ( on the saucer) and ensure it is parallel with the table edge.
Got that ??? Good!
|
|
believe it or not, there's nothing wrong with the brew in "Happy Shopper" T-bags! - and at 49p per 80 it's a bargain! - no need for "poncey" expensive named brews when it tastes good!
|
Yorkshire Tea for me. Obviously. Tea bag in mug, pour in semi skimmed milk, remove tea bag into second mug, Demerara sugar to taste. No class me.
Kettle on now after washing car for first time in months. Probably 4+ months, but I have been otherwise engaged. At least it's now Cleaned inside and out, ready to be left on a long term car park for the next two weeks!
|
|
I'm certainly adding that to my list of affectations, Henry, but should the spoon be placed bowl left or bowl right? And what if it's a round table? I'm not sure Arthurian Legend has passed the answer down.
|
Oh dear, Crankcase.. Now you have got me all in a dither and even more confused.
I do not recall if the left or right hand is used for the spoon.
I assume one would place the handle nearest to the "stiring" hand" ?
|
>>
>> I do not recall if the left or right hand is used for the spoon.
>> I assume one would place the handle nearest to the "stiring" hand" ?
>>
No, there would be a risk of knocking it with your grossly affected little finger.
The correct procedure is to dump the wet spoon back in the sugar bowl.
|
Sugar bowl?
Surely you pours straight from the bag. It's a bit of q knack but soon mastered.
|
>> Sugar bowl?
>>
>> Surely you pours straight from the bag. It's a bit of q knack but soon
>> mastered.
it is, but a skill thwarted by the huge brown lumps in the bag, left by those who put the wet spoon in it
|
"one does not stir a cup of tea but gently waft the spoon backwards and forwards and then place the spoon on the far side of the cup"
Is that before you pour the tea into the saucer and take a good slurp?
And what is the correct procedure on retrieving sodden biscuit when it fall into the cup. Should you use your finger or the spoon?
Is it acceptable to dunk a custard cream or should only plain biscuits be used?
I tell you this tea drinking malarkey is a veritable minefield.
|
Dunking while driving is in itself an art form. I can remember discussing the finer levels of it with GB before he was hyphenated.
Custard creams are to be treated especially carefully. An over exposed CC can break in the transfer manoeuvre and if separates and it lands filling side down on your trouser leg can often have, an albeit localised, but entirely similar to napalm attack consequence.
|
|
DON'T ASK A MAN TO DUNK AND DRIVE
|
|
We're not into all these posh-sounding teas. My missus buys PG Tips.
|
|
Ey up, what a lot of old biddies we are with our tea recipes and dunked hobnobs... i'n't it?
|
The classic builder's tea, on building sites - many years ago.
Builder raids pantry at home, so brew comes out of "housekeeping" and not builders pocket.
Takes a square of yesterday's newspaper: places spoonful of tea leaves, sugar to taste, and dollop of condensed milk. Screws up paper.
At brew time, scrapes contents of paper into mug, (normally unwashed - perhaps rinsed) and adds boiling water.
8o)
|
Fascinating new book for tea enthusiasts, "Empire of Tea. The Asian Leaf That Conquered The World", Ellis, Coulton and Mauger.
|
In the work kitchen the custom is to take a fresh spoon from the rack to fish the tea bag out , and then plonk the bag with spoon in the bowl next to the kettle.
The pile of slowly drying bags and spoons gradually grows, until the spoons run out, and then someone reluctantly dismantles it and washes the spoons. It's a bit like playing jenga in reverse.
|
Never tried red bush tea, but remember it as being the comfort brew for two ladies in a rather good South African feminist novel. Haven't a clue what it tastes like.
The two ladies in the novel were constantly doing good deeds, and they would then celebrate with a modest pot of the stuff. I seem to remember one of the ladies had a troublesome, scapegrace husband hovering around hustling for handouts... the other widowed I think. Very charming piece of work whose title I can't remember.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Tue 8 Dec 15 at 16:05
|
Y'all can also get honeybush tea. It grows only in small areas in the southwest and southeast of South Africa and has many similarities with rooibos.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclopia_(plant)
|
To AC
The Number One Ladies Detective Agency
Last edited by: neiltoo on Tue 8 Dec 15 at 16:37
|
Thanks neiltoo. Jolly good fun if you haven't read it.
Not Conrad or Dickens but a good light read, with pawky insights and a broad view of human life not neglecting the dark side. Might seem backward to rabidly militant types, but sod them.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Tue 8 Dec 15 at 16:48
|
I'm just finishing my afternoon tea. Herself left it brewing in the mug with a bog standard teabag thing.
As always I gave the teabag a squeeze and chucked it out, added a sprinkle of golden unrefined caster sugar and a big dollop of full cream (but homogenized, damn) milk and gave it a brisk stir.
I suppose the sugar is childish but I can't drink tea without it.
|
Gawd there's some pretentious beggars on here with far too much time on their hands!
Tetleys tea bag (Yorkshire in the lorry if I can steal them from the canteen!) brewed in the mug, add semi-skimmed milk and one sugar, stir, drink.
No time for Earl Grey or similar fancy stuff. Yuk!
|
>> No time for Earl Grey or similar fancy stuff. Yuk!
I like EG a lot, it has a distinctive taste. But I put sugar and milk in it, so there's nothing fancy about it.
|
|
My wife brings me tea. Not sure of her technique, but it's awfully good tea anyway. She's good like that.
|
>> I put sugar and milk in it
Tea has to have sugar in it, but not always milk. Saharan tea has sugar in vast amounts but no milk. They make it with green tea, small intense glasses of it, can upset yr digestion... great stuff for staying awake though.
My first morning in Egypt the hotel woke me with a pint glass of weakish, heavily sugared black tea. Beautiful... it was the pint glass that did it.
|
>> The Number One Ladies Detective Agency
Herself gave it to me ages ago, and didn't read it herself.
So it should be here somewhere, but I haven't been able to spot it yet. Perhaps it's upstairs, or in Bristol. Ting jus vanish innit? Hentropy mon to raaaaaas...
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Tue 8 Dec 15 at 20:51
|
You can get nearly 6 hours of the BBC TV series for about the cost of a paperback:
www.amazon.co.uk/No-Ladies-Detective-Agency-Complete/dp/B001TEKJX4
|
It's an entire series of books, by Alexander McCall Smith, which we found very entertaining.
The TV series was quite good, but I always find that the pictures are much better when you read books.....
8o)
|
Tea - R.P.
