I like making my own spice teas. I'd share my chai recipe but I think it's still with my mum across town.
I tried an interesting recipe using almonds and spice with gunpowder green awhile back. It amused me, but the husband made a funny face when I gave him a cup.
One bit of advice: please don't boil green tea. It annoys me so much when people in coffee shops do that. It ruins it, really.
Twinnings loose teas are pretty decent for the price, and for greens, I suggest looking around a local Asian market. Honestly, right now I've been drinking mostly bancha, though. Black tea wise I like assam, or Stash brand earl grey.
Catch from the board of beauty
Such careless crumbs as fall.
- Edna St. Vincent Millay
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Funny English, yet good advice (for Chinese tea).
And, yes, I have many of the odd implements on the site.
A rightly brewed, lightly fermented, green, oolong tea will do amazing things to your head (nose, tongue, throat, brain). Honestly, it's like being a parent - you can't imagine what it's like until you've tried it. You'll wonder why it's not illegal.
Don't get me wrong. I like many of the Western tea styles, but quality Chinese tea is freakin' amazing.
Daniel
It's my opinion - highly regarded (and sometimes not) by me. Peace y'all.
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This reminds me of a story I once read. In the story England and France are at each others throats and England decides to conduct covert operations to destroy all the grapes and wine in France. France nearly buckles under the strain but, recognizing the culprit, engineers the destruction of all England's tea. It's a humorous tale but I can't recall the name or author. Robert Sheckley maybe?
I recently got this:
at that bastion of all evil, Wal Mart. It's the Sunbeam Tea Drop teamaker. It doesn't make the BEST tea, but it's pretty good, and very easy. I love that it has a warming plate, because there's nothing worse than when your tea goes cold. You can use it for bags or loose (I haven't tried it with loose tea yet because I keep forgetting to buy some). It has different strength settings, but I honestly don't know how well they work because I keep mine set at "strong".
Decaffinated tea is a necessary evil for me, because while I love to drink tea in the evenings, I also find sleep is very refreshing. I drink caffiene in the AM, but have to stick with decaf after about 2 pm or so.
Wash your hands. Cough and sneeze in your sleeve. Stay home if you are sick. Stay informed. http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu for more info.
In Canada at one time the champion of teas was Salada Orange Pekoe, maritime blend, when brewed properly this tea would stand the Bluenose on it's end!
I can remember in the 1950's my mom here in Canada shipping boxes of that tea to relatives in England, and the United States, they couldn't get enough of it. And when our American cousins came north to visit, the tea pots, yes tea pots, were going twelve hours a day!
I don't drink a lot of tea but on slow Sundays I like to brew a small pot and sit back and read the weekend newspapers.
MarkB
Everybody has a photographic memory. Some just don't have film.
Lambchop wrote:They have instructions for tea preparation. Do use the electric kettle and don't microwave! The water needs to be bubbling. If you have a good quality tea, it won't be bitter unless you let the leaves sit in the water for a long time.
Agreed. The microwave trick is for tea bags only. If you get
some good loose tea, definately boil the water in a kettle!
They're fun to talk to on the phone too because they'll talk to you about where the tea comes from, and the different tea growing estates around the world with whom they do business. I wouldn't have thought of tea as a hobbie, but I guess it could be
When I was in Senegal they used to make tea by taking a small tea pot and packing it to the brim with loose leaves then adding a few shot glasses worth of sugar which they heated over a charcoal fire with great ceremony. When fully brewed, cooled a bit then rebrewed to its true perfection it would come out as an inky brown, sticky sweet hypercaffinated liquid. It was actually very tasty but I could only handle one half filled shot glass worth a day.
Flyingcursor wrote:This reminds me of a story I once read. In the story England and France are at each others throats and England decides to conduct covert operations to destroy all the grapes and wine in France. France nearly buckles under the strain but, recognizing the culprit, engineers the destruction of all England's tea. It's a humorous tale but I can't recall the name or author. Robert Sheckley maybe?
Not Sheckley - it was in either a Heinlein short story book or another anthology. I'd guess mainstream 60's SF, but I can't place it. Was it in a Nebula Awards anthology? I'm so confused. This is going to torture me 'till I find it in the Woollcombe Library of Dog Eared Pulp. There goes my afternoon.
Edit: More on the topic, I'm a 10-cup-a-day coffee drinker (there's a fair-trade roaster down the street), but I enjoy making my own chai. Highest quality tea, good pepper, and perfectly roasted cardamom are essential parts. In a pinch, though, a tablespoon of garam masala (unground) and a tetley bag function OK. A little tamarind juice for sweetener and you can fool.. ...well.. ...nobody.
Last edited by Chiffed on Fri Feb 24, 2006 3:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Flyingcursor wrote:This reminds me of a story I once read. In the story England and France are at each others throats and England decides to conduct covert operations to destroy all the grapes and wine in France. France nearly buckles under the strain but, recognizing the culprit, engineers the destruction of all England's tea. It's a humorous tale but I can't recall the name or author. Robert Sheckley maybe?
Not Sheckley - it was in either a Heinlein short story book or another anthology. I'd guess mainstream 60's SF, but I can't place it. Was it in a Nebula Awards anthology? I'm so confused. This is going to torture me 'till I find it in the Woollcombe Library of Dog Eared Pulp. There goes my afternoon.
Not to hijack the thread (but I made the thing, so I guess I can), but Heinlein is wonderful. Favorite short story of his is "All You Zombies---." So wonderful. I've read both Stranger In A Stange Land and The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, and I'd beg you not to make me choose a favorite.
And, speaking of vintage Sci-Fi, I'm reading A Canticle for Leibowitz at the moment. It's hilarious and entertaining, and not what I would consider typical Sci-Fi at all.
Canticle is an approved Grade 8 novel in our schools here, but is rarely used anymore. Too bad - the world needs more bookkeggers. And at least 1 more can 'kraut.
This thread contains the biggest concentration of tosh about tea that's ever been assembled in one location. In Britain we drink good, straightforward, strong tea. We formed the greatest empire since Rome. The two facts are not unconnected.
Tamarind juice, rice in tea bags, microwaves? Gimme strength willya?!
Steve
"Last night, among his fellow roughs,
He jested, quaff'd and swore."
They cut me down and I leapt up high
I am the life that'll never, never die.
I'll live in you if you'll live in me -
I am the lord of the dance, said he!
Tell us something.: So, please write a little about why you are interested. We're just looking for something that will make it clear to us, when we read it, why you are registering and that you know what this forum is all about.
SteveShaw wrote: In Britain ...We formed the greatest empire since Rome.
Steve
George Bush might disagree with you. That is if he spoke some truth and admitted he and his pack of white collar mobsters were trying to build a new "Pax Americana."
Check out the signatures on this. A short quote "we need to accept responsibility for America's unique role in preserving and extending an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity, and our principles."
*thread unraveling*
Daniel
It's my opinion - highly regarded (and sometimes not) by me. Peace y'all.
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