"Where there's tea, there's hope"

[tempestbella42]

Has anybody tried African Rooibos or Red tea? I never put milk or sugar in my tea, and for those who do I would suggest trying this without either.

Fantastic! Sweet almost like it has sugar already added. I'm not at all a fan of non-tea-leaf tea like herbal. This I really like!

when i was staying with my LDS side of the family i got intriduced to thes.. (they dont drink caffine) and really like it...thanx for the reminder!

 

[BinkieBaumont]

"I never get a "Hit" out of Coffee, but after a long afternoon of shopping, to make a pot of , Russian Caravan, or Lapsang Suchong, kicking ones wingtips off, and settling on the couch with a "Little Teacup" it truly is pure "Bliss!"

 

[Lady Day]

My tastes have condensed since last I replied to this thread.

double strong Earl Gray (almost exclusively)
double strong Irish Breakfast (to brake the rut)
double strong green (rarely)
strong white tea (when the mood strikes, so smooth...)

Thats about all I drink, about 3-5 cups a day. Dont like herbal, or 'flavor infused' crap *yuck*

The leaf, hot water, and on occasion, soy milk and sugar.

Im simple.
LD

 

[kamikat]

My morning cup is a jasmine oolong and my evening cup is a decaf vanilla. I was hesitant to try the vanilla, but got a sample of it in a pack from adagio.com. It's a great, hot, sweet drink that can stave off dessert cravings if one is trying to watch his calories.

 

[kamikat]

Has anybody tried African Rooibos or Red tea? I never put milk or sugar in my tea, and for those who do I would suggest trying this without either.

Fantastic! Sweet almost like it has sugar already added. I'm not at all a fan of non-tea-leaf tea like herbal. This I really like!

Rooibos is said to calm the digestion! I drink a blend of Rooibos, peppermint and chamomile whenever I'm having tummy trouble or with a meal that might cause a problem later lol My GI doctor actually suggested it.

 

[John in Covina]

I enjoy tea now and again. Summer and Iced Tea are linked for me. Occasionally I get something different from a tea place in Clairmont that's on the street of their little "downtown" just down from Rhino Records. Some of the local supermarkets will have a selection beyond the store brand or Tetley and Lipton. Bigelow teas have a good line up of breakfasts and herbals. I have come to like Earl Gray and Lady Gray teas a lot in the winter. I have a skin reaction to chamomile teas!:eusa_doh:

Two semi-factoids that are associated with tea:
During the building of the US continental railroad, the Chinese railroad gangs were noted fpr having generally better health and much less bouts of stomache aliments because they drank tea and always boiled their water before brewing the tea.

Drinking hot tea with hot meals is supposed to promote better digestion, where as cold beverages causes the fats and oils in the dishes to linger longer in the digestive track, worse for the diet. I try to stick with hot tea when dining at an Asian restaurant.

 

[Missy Hellfire]

As a follow up to my initial query, I have noticed from going through the thread that mine got tagged onto that there are myriad ways of taking one's tea and a lot of these seem to be cultural.

I was reminded of an American lady who I was acquainted with who used to make her tea as she liked it in her teapot, tea, milk, sugar and the lot used to go into it and guests would help themselves to the completed beverage. Is this usual practice in the US? Also I note that many people speak of putting cream in their tea, again is this normal or am I missing something in translation and do they mean milk? There also seems to be a huge difference in preferred brewing times.

Here in the UK the tea drunk in most profusion is usually of the black variety, made with boiling water and brewed in the pot, away from a heat source, most often for no longer than 5 minutes and stays in the pot black and the milk (always milk in my experience, hardly ever cream) and sugar if taken is added in the cup to the taste of each drinker. Milk may be either warm or cold but is most usually cold or sometimes a slice of lemon is added in place of milk. As I mentioned previously there is a constant disagreement about whether to put the milk in the cup before the tea or vice versa. Much like Binkie, I do love the ritual of it all and if a biscuit or a slice of cake can be snaffled along with it, all the better!

How do YOU do it?!

 

[John in Covina]

I make the pot as plain tea of what ever type and let others put in sugar, milk or lemon on there own. (I could not imagine to make either tea or coffee and presume to know how others like theirs. Heck people will tell you how they like their martini's or that they want unsweetened Iced Tea so they can set it up the way they like it.)

 

[tempestbella42]

my family are all tea drinkers... so when my great grandma was alive (she died in the 1980s at 101) we had to be careful when making her tea in the pot....she hid her tabs as theyre called in Northeast uk (cigerettes ) in there from the nurse/doctor...also when teabags were first introduced she emptied everyone of the bags into the caddy.....:eusa_doh:
this shw did for months until my grandma (her daughter convinced/showed her what to do,,

 

[rumblefish]

How do YOU do it?!

Plain-ol'.
When I say "regular tea (or coffee)" I mean without anything in it. Apparently the industry standard it the US for "regular" is milk and two sugars.

 

[LordBest]

It depends on the tea. Some teas with a stronger tannin need a dab of milk to help bring out the flavour. I never put in sugar, though I have no objection to it. Even if it is only for myself I set out a tray with pot, strainer, milk jug, cup and saucer etc. Wouldn't do to let standards drop. No teabags in this house.

 

[kamikat]

I was reminded of an American lady who I was acquainted with who used to make her tea as she liked it in her teapot, tea, milk, sugar and the lot used to go into it and guests would help themselves to the completed beverage. Is this usual practice in the US?
How do YOU do it?!

No, proper etiquette dictates brewing the pot black and each adding to their own cup. However, if I'm the only one drinking, I will add sugar (don't care for milk) to the whole pot out of laziness. As to the milk vs cream issue, when I worked in a high end coffee and tea house, I was told that cream is for coffee and milk is for tea and never the other way around.

 

[John in Covina]

Cranky, me?

Plain-ol'.
When I say "regular tea (or coffee)" I mean without anything in it. Apparently the industry standard it the US for "regular" is milk and two sugars.

***********fftopic:
Most places you'd only have to say: coffee, black.

Regular did mean with milk and sugar, but to be honest, I haven't been to a place where they added the milk and sugar for you in a zillion years. Usually they have a sort of condiments bar for that and you mix your own nowadays.

When I go to a Starbucks type place I have to say leave room for milk or they fill it to the rim with high priced, scalding coffee that was picked by pymies in Kenya and stored in skins made of the walleroni gazelle wrapped individually with tutupu leaves while they ferment. Then washed with volcanic enriched water and roasted with thousand year old cypress tree fired roasters. Mmmm... Nutty!

 

[BinkieBaumont]

Office "Tongs"

"Last week in my office, we were thinking of ways to ask co-workers in other Departments of the Organisation to visit & meet us and see what we do.

I Suggested "Afternoon Tea" so each day this week we are inviting guests to "Take Tea" with us between 3.00pm and 4.00pm its Wednesday and the crowd is getting B I G G E R each afternoon.

We all take turns in creating a "Tableaux" mine has been "Art Deco" with my Heatmaster Teaset. co-workers are arriving with their own inferior tea in chipped mugs, only to have it whisked, away, and replaced by "Teacup and saucer" in fine china, and the question milk or lemon?

"Oh look "Sugar Tongs" was one delighted squeal ,ooooh! A 3 tiered cake stand, was another remark "

We are having a guess the smile contest with prizes!!! such fun!!!

hope to post the pics on the weekend
__________________

 

[zombi]

I love tea. Many kinds!

I drink a lot of plain black tea with soy milk & turbinado sugar. I also drink a lot of plain herbal mint or plain green. I also have a lavender white tea I drink before bed a lot of the time, and I prefer mate to coffee in the morning.

I also tend to make medicinal herbal teas so I go through various amounts of various kinds -- changing with seasons and ailments, naturally!

 

[BinkieBaumont]

"Last week in my office, we were thinking of ways to ask co-workers in other Departments of the Organisation to visit & meet us and see what we do.

I Suggested "Afternoon Tea" so each day this week we are inviting guests to "Take Tea" with us between 3.00pm and 4.00pm its Wednesday and the crowd is getting B I G G E R each afternoon.

We all take turns in creating a "Tableaux" mine has been "Art Deco" with my Heatmaster Teaset. co-workers are arriving with their own inferior tea in chipped mugs, only to have it whisked, away, and replaced by "Teacup and saucer" in fine china, and the question milk or lemon?

"Oh look "Sugar Tongs" was one delighted squeal ,ooooh! A 3 tiered cake stand, was another remark "

We are having a guess the smile contest with prizes!!! such fun!!!

hope to post the pics on the weekend
__________________

"Here are a few Photographs from the five "Afternoon teas" held at the Office "

Tuesday was my turn!! Cucumber and egg, Cucumber and Camembert "Ribbon" sandwiches, made by me, "French Fancies" by Mr Kipling ( well! he does make exceedingly good cakes!) Choc Chip cupcakes from coles in Claremont

Wednesday was Miss Fitz's turn tiny darling cupcakes!

Thursday was Scones with "preserves" and King island cream

same cake stand, this time modelling Miss Macey's Raspberry cheesecake slice

Friday was a bit of a panic, I had Krispy Kreme flown in from Melbourne (why do they refuse to open an outlet in the Swan River colony???) this was curtsey of make a wish foundation, $20.00 per Dozen, with $5.00 going to make a wish ( it was H U G E)

http://www.makeawish.org.au/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=893

Guess the Smile Completion ! I'm number 10, number 3 was Tom Cruise as a red herring!

 

[Miss Neecerie]

I am currently fortifying myself for my long day ahead with a giant cup of PG Tips (egads a tea bag! Run for your lives!) in semi-builders style, that is, very strong with just enough milk and sweetener to get by, and it will get darker as i drink it, having left the tea bag in.

I have a solid day of stressy running around ahead of me and need the pick-me-up

 

[Sir Dobbs]

I feel that tea is a sorely misunderstood beverage. As one who has tried literally hundreds of teas, I can speak to the benefits of developing a palette for the beverage.

A typical cup of tea in America fails at every step. Importers purchase cheap, poorly processed leaves. They put the leaves in bags, the bags in boxes, and store them like they were rocks - as if time, temperature, humidity, light, and oxygen won't affect the product. Then, we proceed to boil some water, throw a bag of green tea in our stainless travel mug, close the lid, and carry around our bitter, health-neutral fashion statement with the leaves immersed in scalding water for x number of minutes or hours.

To enjoy tea in its proper capacity, one should do the following.

1. Purchase loose-leaf tea from a reputable, tea-focused merchant. They must be sold in an opaque, airtight container! Beware the glass jars. They make for easy observation of the leaves, but the product will be stale. Nothing warms my heart like walking into a tea shop that sells from vacuum-sealed bags or stainless cylinders.

2. Pay close attention to the tea's brewing instructions. Correct steeping time, leaf-to-water ratio, and temperature must be observed religiously. NEVER boil water to make green, oolong, or white teas! Only black teas or tisanes (infusions like "herbals," yerba mate, or rooibos that don't come from the camellia sinensis plant) can tolerate this.

3. Never sweeten oolong, green, white, or puerh teas. The beautiful thing about these teas are their subtleties. Additions will make it nearly impossible to appreciate these. High-end, unflavored black teas should not be sweetened or experience milk either, but I'm not about to say there is only one correct way to drink Earl Grey or Irish Breakfast.

There are other principles I abide, but these fundamental steps are enough for a thoroughly enjoyable tea experience!


This "Tea 101" video is a swell introduction to the subject. [YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dmd3DNQO1I&feature=player_profilepage[/YOUTUBE]

 

[DC3]

Earl Grey
English Breakfast
Constant Comment (also makes the best iced tea)
IMHO

 

[Matthew Verge]

Tetley, please! One sugar and two milk, or black. Tout ou rien.