What's your cup of tea?

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  • CommanderRossCommanderRoss The bottom of a pitch lake in Eastern Trinidad, place called La Brea
    Posts: 8,688
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    Question for the room. The only tea I really enjoy -- albeit with loads of sweetener in it -- is anything with ginger. Ginger tea, with a little lemon and some black pepper, gets me kicking early in the morning. How is ginger tea regarded by you lot? Am I now one of you... or is ginger tea basically the Freeway Cola to your Coca Cola? ;-)
    In your brew the tea is nothing more than the carrier. Which is a pity. I personally don't like ginger much, but my wife loves it. Still, if you want a proper cup, I'd recommend going to a specialised shop, and literally snif around. Find a smell that you love, use a sachet or tea pot or any other contraption that can hold the loose tea and make sure you let the boiling water hit the leaves. Preferably let them cook a bit. You'll find the tea not to be bitter at all and full of taste. You can do the same with fresh ginger, and that's probably nicer than what you're making now.
  • Posts: 15,619
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    Question for the room. The only tea I really enjoy -- albeit with loads of sweetener in it -- is anything with ginger. Ginger tea, with a little lemon and some black pepper, gets me kicking early in the morning. How is ginger tea regarded by you lot? Am I now one of you... or is ginger tea basically the Freeway Cola to your Coca Cola? ;-)

    I don't really drink ginger tea. If you like spiced tea there's some really nice (imo) pumpkin spice teas that probably have ginger in them.
  • Posts: 15,619
    Is this thread about rooibos too? I know it's not technically tea, but I love it.
  • AnotherZorinStoogeAnotherZorinStooge Bramhall (Irish)
    Posts: 291
    Tea with Sugar.

    Teabag in.
    (Hot) Water in.
    Wait.
    Wait a bit later. Until the water is dark.
    Remove teabag without scrunching it.
    Sugar in. Stirred, not shaken.
    Milk (optional).

    Enjoy.
  • Posts: 15,619
    I never, ever add milk to tea. Or sugar.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited April 19 Posts: 18,678
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Is this thread about rooibos too? I know it's not technically tea, but I love it.

    Yes, rooibos is fine. I used to drink it a lot around 2012 or so. I've since gone off the taste of it. As far as I know it is still a tea, albeit one that is naturally without caffeine.
    Ludovico wrote: »
    I never, ever add milk to tea. Or sugar.

    Tea without milk is an anathema to me. I personally don't know how anyone can drink tea without milk. I haven't taken sugar in my tea since I was a child though.
    Tea with Sugar.

    Teabag in.
    (Hot) Water in.
    Wait.
    Wait a bit later. Until the water is dark.
    Remove teabag without scrunching it.
    Sugar in. Stirred, not shaken.
    Milk (optional).

    Enjoy.

    Pretty much how I do it although I do scrunch the teabag on the spoon to get the full flavour out and into the cup or mug. I also don't add sugar and milk is mandatory as opposed to being optional. I think we Irish probably drink more tea than even the English do as I believe a recent survey discovered.
  • Posts: 15,619
    It's milk in tea which I find barbaric. If you eat something sweet you don't need any milk or sugar. The Chinese, the Japanese, they don't add milk to tea.

    Alex in A Clockwork Orange drinks milk. I rest my case.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited April 19 Posts: 18,678
    Ludovico wrote: »
    It's milk in tea which I find barbaric. If you eat something sweet you don't need any milk or sugar. The Chinese, the Japanese, they don't add milk to tea.

    Alex in A Clockwork Orange drinks milk. I rest my case.

    Well, yes, it's what you're brought up with I suppose and what the particular culture is around about you. Wasn't that Milk Plus that Alex drank in A Clockwork Orange though and not straight up cow's milk? It was milk laced with drugs as I recall. Good for engaging in the old ultraviolence.
  • SeveSeve The island of Lemoy
    edited April 20 Posts: 520
    I enjoyed PG Tips when I lived over in Blighty, but now I drink Dilmah

    157526095521083.jpg
  • SeveSeve The island of Lemoy
    Posts: 520
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    I hate tea. I need buckets of sugar to swallow even one cup down. It's bitter and flat. If I want caffeine, I'll drink a Red Bull. ;-)

    Even James Bond agrees with me. Fleming's Bond drinks coffee, never tea.

    It's true...

    The internet says

    In Goldfinger, working the night shift in the office between assignments, Bond tells a girl from the canteen:“I don’t drink tea. I hate it. It’s mud. Moreover it’s one of the main reasons for the downfall of the British Empire.”

    In "Thunderball," Fleming writes, “Bond loathed and despised tea, that flat, soft, time-wasting opium of the masses, but on his empty stomach, and in his febrile state, the sugary brew acted almost as an intoxicant.”

    Bond is forced to drink it at a health clinic, but as his appearances in other books and movies have shown, he much prefers coffee to tea.


    Japan has a tea culture not unlike that of Britain, and Huffington Post notes that it's the only other place besides that health clinic where Bond drinks tea. 

    Fleming had a house named Goldeneye on the island of Jamaica, which may be why he has Bond drink Blue Mountain coffee which at one point accompanies Bond’s breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon and assorted tropical fruits. In fact he goes as far as assuring us Blue Mountain is “the most delicious in the world”.

    Or perhaps it is more to do with Bond’s parentage. His Scottish roots are well known, but his mother was Swiss. Did James Bond inherit his mother’s dislike of tea?

    However, in all the pictures I've seen of Fleming, he is always imbibing something a little stronger...

    Fleming-pulled-right.jpg

  • Posts: 15,619
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    It's milk in tea which I find barbaric. If you eat something sweet you don't need any milk or sugar. The Chinese, the Japanese, they don't add milk to tea.

    Alex in A Clockwork Orange drinks milk. I rest my case.

    Well, yes, it's what you're brought up with I suppose and what the particular culture is around about you. Wasn't that Milk Plus that Alex drank in A Clockwork Orange though and not straight up cow's milk? It was milk laced with drugs as I recall. Good for engaging in the old ultraviolence.

    Yes, he drank moloko plus, but also plain milk in the morning, and added milk to tea. Milk was used as a leitmotiv to illustrate his youth, innocence, but also savagery.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited April 20 Posts: 18,678
    Seve wrote: »
    I enjoyed PG Tips when I lived over in Blighty, but now I drink Dilmah

    157526095521083.jpg

    My favourite regular tea was PG Tips too but they've changed the blend and it's not as nice now. It's a real shame as it tasted great as it was. It didn't need to be changed. They also changed the shape of the teabags from triangular ones to square ones. If it ain't broke don't fix it.
  • edited April 20 Posts: 15,619
    I must say I love PG Tips adverts, but never liked their tea.

    I'm back from Yorkshire, where ironically I barely drank Yorkshire tea. At Bettys, I had their own blend which was very nice. I regret not trying again their Blue Saphire tea, which was completely out there and one of the best teas I had in my lifetime.
  • SeveSeve The island of Lemoy
    Posts: 520
    Ludovico wrote: »
    I must say I love PG Tips adverts, but never liked their tea.

    sddefault.jpg

  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,678
    Seve wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    I must say I love PG Tips adverts, but never liked their tea.

    sddefault.jpg

    PG Tips shouldn't have monkeyed around with the flavour of their tea. 🐒
  • CommanderRossCommanderRoss The bottom of a pitch lake in Eastern Trinidad, place called La Brea
    Posts: 8,688
    Seve wrote: »
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    I hate tea. I need buckets of sugar to swallow even one cup down. It's bitter and flat. If I want caffeine, I'll drink a Red Bull. ;-)

    Even James Bond agrees with me. Fleming's Bond drinks coffee, never tea.

    It's true...

    The internet says

    In Goldfinger, working the night shift in the office between assignments, Bond tells a girl from the canteen:“I don’t drink tea. I hate it. It’s mud. Moreover it’s one of the main reasons for the downfall of the British Empire.”

    In "Thunderball," Fleming writes, “Bond loathed and despised tea, that flat, soft, time-wasting opium of the masses, but on his empty stomach, and in his febrile state, the sugary brew acted almost as an intoxicant.”

    Bond is forced to drink it at a health clinic, but as his appearances in other books and movies have shown, he much prefers coffee to tea.


    Japan has a tea culture not unlike that of Britain, and Huffington Post notes that it's the only other place besides that health clinic where Bond drinks tea. 

    Fleming had a house named Goldeneye on the island of Jamaica, which may be why he has Bond drink Blue Mountain coffee which at one point accompanies Bond’s breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon and assorted tropical fruits. In fact he goes as far as assuring us Blue Mountain is “the most delicious in the world”.

    Or perhaps it is more to do with Bond’s parentage. His Scottish roots are well known, but his mother was Swiss. Did James Bond inherit his mother’s dislike of tea?

    However, in all the pictures I've seen of Fleming, he is always imbibing something a little stronger...

    Fleming-pulled-right.jpg

    Considering the amount of cigarettes Bond smoked, I am not surprised he only drank coffee, it was probably the only thing he could still vaguely taste. That, and the fact that he used other drugs, alcohol, benzadrine.... Sounds like the perfect mixture to keep 'the empire' alive.

    The history of tea is quite interesting, and the different ways it is drunk as well. From very sweet and minty in Marocco, to full of cardamon, milk and sugar in India, to a clear green tea in Japan. I wouldn't say any way is heresy, just different. Personally I like mine made out of loose leaves (they give more taste), not too dark, and properly boiled so there's no bitterness to it. If you leave the leaves in cooling down water, it does get bitter.
  • SeveSeve The island of Lemoy
    edited 5:59am Posts: 520

    The history of tea is quite interesting, and the different ways it is drunk as well. From very sweet and minty in Marocco, to full of cardamon, milk and sugar in India, to a clear green tea in Japan. I wouldn't say any way is heresy, just different. Personally I like mine made out of loose leaves (they give more taste), not too dark, and properly boiled so there's no bitterness to it. If you leave the leaves in cooling down water, it does get bitter.

    When I visited Japan the girl I was staying with took me to a place that served this, but without having to participate in the ceremony

    Matcha is a finely ground powder of green tea specially processed from shade-grown tea leaves. Shade growing gives matcha its characteristic bright green color and strong umami flavor.

    Matcha originated in China, but the production of the raw material for matcha was banned in China in the 14th century

    The traditional Japanese tea ceremony, typically known as chanoyu (茶の湯) or sadō/chadō (茶道), centers on the preparation, serving and drinking of matcha as hot tea, and embodies a meditative and spiritual practice.

    The characteristics of matcha are as follows.

    Color: bright green, might be dark green depending on which leaves are used
    Flavor: strong umami flavor
    Aroma: unique ooikou (覆い香), like green laver.


    matcha-green-tea-1296x728-feature.jpg?w=1155&h=1528
  • Posts: 15,619
    When my brother got married to a Chinese woman (they're now divorced), we had a traditional tea ceremony, when the bride and groom serve tea to their elders. Pretty cool stuff. Loved it.
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