Brit Required
-
A good tea should be a uniform golden shade. There is only one thing worse than the abomination that is iced tea, and that is tea with milk in. I would recommend a good Earl Grey or Darjeeling. If you can get some, I would also recommend Dimbulla (a Ceylon tea). It's my favourite early morning tea.
I was brought up to respect my elders. I don't respect many people nowadays.
CodeStash - Online Snippet Management | My blog | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier -
I need a tea expert. I enjoy iced tea, which I suspect is an abomination to most Brits, but I believe there are a few things things that should be true about all tea whether iced or served hot. The tea I buy from our local cafe is cloudy. It used to be very clear (like a jar full of honey) but now it looks as if it was made by placing tea leaves in a blender and atomizing them. I feel as if I should be able to see through a glass container of tea - the world on the other side clearly visible through an amber lense. I may have to go back to making my own tea, which isn't good, because I make it too strong and it stops up my plumbing. Am I wrong about this? Am I drinking mud?
Tea, whether served hot or cold should be made with great care and attention. Firstly, and this is critical, the water must be BOILING. Hot water is not enough, it needs to be furiously boiling as you are making an infusion. It is best made in a pot, so boil the water and pour this into the pot. Leave for a few minutes, then pour this hot water back into a kettle and reboil. This ensures the pot is warmed and will not cool the boiling water when it is repoured into it. Now it ought to be loose-leaf tea, this allows for free movement but a quality tea-bag is acceptable. Put two teaspoons (or 2x Teabags) into the pot and pour on the now boiling water. Stir several times and allow time for it to 'brew'. A couple of minutes at least. If drinking hot, then pour tea into cup then add milk. (Some will claim that putting milk into the cup first stops the tea from staining one's best china, but it is hard to judge how much milk in required prior to seeing the strength of the tea.) (Note: The Milk rule only applies to monkey tea, not the quality speciality teas that are only to be drunk black, or with lemon and/or a small dash of sugar). If drinking cold, then remove teabags and or strain leaves from the infusion. This will stop it from stewing. As a rider, water quality is very important. If you are in a hard water area then a water filter is required to remove the chalk from the water. This improves the tea by several orders of magnitude. Remember the golden rules... BOILING WATER DON'T LET IT STEW and GOOD QUALITY WATER This should ensure your drinking pleasure for years to come.
--------------------------------- I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC Link[^]
-
I pride myself on being a bit of a tea connoisseur, drinking gallons of the stuff daily, made from leaves, not bags, and I would heartilly agree that iced tea is an abomination. Some varieties of tea are clear when infused, but go cloudy on standing - it's known as "tea cream" - there have even been scientific papers written about it: Tea cream formation: The contribution of black tea phenolic pigments determined by HPLC[^] It is very common with one of my favourite varieties - Assam
It's well known that if all the cat videos and porn disappeared from the internet there would be only one site left and it would be called whereareallthecatvideosandporn.com
-
A good tea should be a uniform golden shade. There is only one thing worse than the abomination that is iced tea, and that is tea with milk in. I would recommend a good Earl Grey or Darjeeling. If you can get some, I would also recommend Dimbulla (a Ceylon tea). It's my favourite early morning tea.
I was brought up to respect my elders. I don't respect many people nowadays.
CodeStash - Online Snippet Management | My blog | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier -
Tea, whether served hot or cold should be made with great care and attention. Firstly, and this is critical, the water must be BOILING. Hot water is not enough, it needs to be furiously boiling as you are making an infusion. It is best made in a pot, so boil the water and pour this into the pot. Leave for a few minutes, then pour this hot water back into a kettle and reboil. This ensures the pot is warmed and will not cool the boiling water when it is repoured into it. Now it ought to be loose-leaf tea, this allows for free movement but a quality tea-bag is acceptable. Put two teaspoons (or 2x Teabags) into the pot and pour on the now boiling water. Stir several times and allow time for it to 'brew'. A couple of minutes at least. If drinking hot, then pour tea into cup then add milk. (Some will claim that putting milk into the cup first stops the tea from staining one's best china, but it is hard to judge how much milk in required prior to seeing the strength of the tea.) (Note: The Milk rule only applies to monkey tea, not the quality speciality teas that are only to be drunk black, or with lemon and/or a small dash of sugar). If drinking cold, then remove teabags and or strain leaves from the infusion. This will stop it from stewing. As a rider, water quality is very important. If you are in a hard water area then a water filter is required to remove the chalk from the water. This improves the tea by several orders of magnitude. Remember the golden rules... BOILING WATER DON'T LET IT STEW and GOOD QUALITY WATER This should ensure your drinking pleasure for years to come.
--------------------------------- I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC Link[^]
-
You managed to type 500 words on teh topic without answering the question. I assume you're a consultant of some sort.
I am an accountant. Here is my bill. I would suggest then that the cafe in question needs to employ a British Tea Consultant for training and educational purposes.
--------------------------------- I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC Link[^]
-
I don't do sugar. That is nas-tastic. I will put in the equivalent of an entire lemon into a 24oz glass of tea though, much to the frustration of wait stafff that are forever running back to the kitchen to get extra lemon. The smart ones bring out a small plate of lemon slices.
-
I need a tea expert. I enjoy iced tea, which I suspect is an abomination to most Brits, but I believe there are a few things things that should be true about all tea whether iced or served hot. The tea I buy from our local cafe is cloudy. It used to be very clear (like a jar full of honey) but now it looks as if it was made by placing tea leaves in a blender and atomizing them. I feel as if I should be able to see through a glass container of tea - the world on the other side clearly visible through an amber lense. I may have to go back to making my own tea, which isn't good, because I make it too strong and it stops up my plumbing. Am I wrong about this? Am I drinking mud?
Iced tea needs to be "cold" brewed. 'nuff said.
Nihil obstat
-
I don't do sugar. That is nas-tastic. I will put in the equivalent of an entire lemon into a 24oz glass of tea though, much to the frustration of wait stafff that are forever running back to the kitchen to get extra lemon. The smart ones bring out a small plate of lemon slices.
Sugar in tea is what gave us The Empire! We invaded India to steal the tea and shipped slaves to the colonies to cut our sugar. The milk, we had already.
--------------------------------- I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC Link[^]
-
Iced tea needs to be "cold" brewed. 'nuff said.
Nihil obstat
-
I'm not sure that the Brits here would consider tea a laughing matter. I'll leave you to your fate.
The History Of The East India Company[^] (HHGTTG Reference thrown in for free).
--------------------------------- I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC Link[^]
-
Perhaps if I whisper no one else will notice. The perfect cup of tea requires a few things, first a white porcelain tea cup of reasonable depth, secondly a proper stainless steel tea spoon. One of Griff's coffee spoons won't do the trick, they're too small. Then a really good tea, bags or leaves doesn't matter, the fresher the better, must be Indian. Steep the tea in the cup by pouring boiling water over it as you do and then the crucial tricky part. When is the tea perfectly brewed? The answer is surprisingly simple and surprisingly complicated. The tea is perfectly brewed when the bottom of the cup is no longer visible ( hence the need for a proper white porcelain tea cup ) and when at the exact depth of a tea spoon the tea is red in colour. Test this by dipping in a spoon and taking out a level teaspoon full, to be examined from above in daylight. ( hence the need for a proper sized spoon and no mat alluminium rubbish ). The tea should be red, niether yellow (under done ) nor brown (over done). At the exact moment this is so, and it is but a moment, the leaves placed by whatever means, should be removed and voila as M'Fermat would have said you have the perfect cup of tea. Why does this work? Only a deity of tea would know for sure but I can tell you that it accounts for all the important factors including the time of day which determines the angle of the daylight for the red test. This is why sublime tea is only achievable at tea time and tea is second best in the early morning. The light being too low or too high will distort the test. As one gets older one eyes become less sensative to blue light and everything appears relatively redened which accounts perfectly for the liking of older people for weaker tea. Builders who work outdoors in bluer light will get the stronger tea they prefer and us sedentry types a happy medium. The perfect cup of tea is the universes way of telling us that at some level it all does fit together and make sense and of course that there's no better way to enjoy it than being British. :-D
"The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage." Thucydides (B.C. 460-400)
-
I'm not really to the point where I have different types of tea for different times of the day. On a personal note, I'm just not that sophisticated - I still struggle with the concept of not picking my nose in public.
MadGerbil wrote:
I still struggle with the concept of not picking my nose in public.
When did this happen? :sigh:
The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative. -Winston Churchill America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. -Oscar Wilde Wow, even the French showed a little more spine than that before they got their sh*t pushed in.[^] -Colin Mullikin
-
I need a tea expert. I enjoy iced tea, which I suspect is an abomination to most Brits, but I believe there are a few things things that should be true about all tea whether iced or served hot. The tea I buy from our local cafe is cloudy. It used to be very clear (like a jar full of honey) but now it looks as if it was made by placing tea leaves in a blender and atomizing them. I feel as if I should be able to see through a glass container of tea - the world on the other side clearly visible through an amber lense. I may have to go back to making my own tea, which isn't good, because I make it too strong and it stops up my plumbing. Am I wrong about this? Am I drinking mud?
As another tea geek, I have to out myself: Iced tea isn't an abomination by itself - but selling overly sweetened "fruit" juice with traces of ingredients almost, but not entirely unlike tea as, well, iced tea is. Plain tea - a strong-ish Celyon or a not to stong Assam, not or slightly sweetened and well iced is a treat on a hot summer day (something those brits don't know about, obviously). As for cloudy, nope, shouldn't happen, unless it's a specialty tea I never heard of.
-
Actually it depends on the type of honey. If you do not buy your honey at a mega store you find there are various grades of honey. From almost clear to almost black. I remeber that the dark stuff around here is from buckwheat. Clover is very light.
-
As another tea geek, I have to out myself: Iced tea isn't an abomination by itself - but selling overly sweetened "fruit" juice with traces of ingredients almost, but not entirely unlike tea as, well, iced tea is. Plain tea - a strong-ish Celyon or a not to stong Assam, not or slightly sweetened and well iced is a treat on a hot summer day (something those brits don't know about, obviously). As for cloudy, nope, shouldn't happen, unless it's a specialty tea I never heard of.
-
Iced tea needs to be "cold" brewed. 'nuff said.
Nihil obstat
What about "sun tea"?
-
As another tea geek, I have to out myself: Iced tea isn't an abomination by itself - but selling overly sweetened "fruit" juice with traces of ingredients almost, but not entirely unlike tea as, well, iced tea is. Plain tea - a strong-ish Celyon or a not to stong Assam, not or slightly sweetened and well iced is a treat on a hot summer day (something those brits don't know about, obviously). As for cloudy, nope, shouldn't happen, unless it's a specialty tea I never heard of.
I regularly drink Iced Tea; Long Island Iced Tea. :-D
Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done. Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett
-
I need a tea expert. I enjoy iced tea, which I suspect is an abomination to most Brits, but I believe there are a few things things that should be true about all tea whether iced or served hot. The tea I buy from our local cafe is cloudy. It used to be very clear (like a jar full of honey) but now it looks as if it was made by placing tea leaves in a blender and atomizing them. I feel as if I should be able to see through a glass container of tea - the world on the other side clearly visible through an amber lense. I may have to go back to making my own tea, which isn't good, because I make it too strong and it stops up my plumbing. Am I wrong about this? Am I drinking mud?
Darjeeling for a lighter tea or Lapsang Souchong for a stronger one, or at work, green tea as I don't trust the milk.