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Well, to each his own, but I like ginger biscuits, ginger snaps, ginger ale and ginger beer, so why not?
I've always thought ginger icecream might be pretty good too
I might put it in the classical thread too.
Doris Day singing it:
Who said tea was stuffy?
I find ginger to be quite..... dangerous at times
Now that kind of ginger I do like of course.
Oh and anyone has a favourite tea mug or teacup? I do.
This is my biology, quite different from my wife's and my parents', who eat chicory for fun. I can handle very salty, very spicy, umami, and so on, but bitter has been my enemy since the day I was born, causing many fights during my upbringing, and many uncomfortable situations later in life as well. When I discovered that bitter is, indeed, nature's signal that food is spoiled or poisonous, it all made sense to me.
Tea, coffee, and even hot chocolate drinks have always put me off, which is why I am a soft drinks and water guy instead. Unless ginger tea is on the table. Then I can drink tea. 😉
Lol, while on the other hand, Brussel Sprouts are at the very top of my absolutely won't eat list, alongside Cauliflower
That was until I visited Germany once, and the mother of the person I was visiting served them up for dinner... Oh dear I thought, what a dilema, but offending my host's mother was not an option, so I had to resign myself and dig in
Fortunately it was accompanied by a very piqent cheese sauce, which completely overwhelmed the taste of the dreaded Rosenkohl
I understand the dilemma all too well, @Seve.
Tbh either I just don't taste it anymore in tea, or tea is not made properly, but to my mind tea isn't bitter at all. Make sure you either put boiling (so no 80 degrees c) water over the leaves or preferably cook them for 2-4 minutes and take them out, and I find there's no bitterness at all. It may occur when the tea cools too long or the water isn't hot enough when made, but that's just like cooking a pie at a too low temperature. It'll never get the taste it's supposed to get.
I think I plugged New English Teas before, but they have the coolest tea tins: https://newenglishteas.com/collections/classic-tins
My personal favourite: https://newenglishteas.com/products/flying-scotsman-tea-tin-with-40-english-breakfast-teabags
I must confess, I disagree with this. Like, a lot.
'One should pour tea into the cup first. This is one of the most controversial points of all; indeed in every family in Britain there are probably two schools of thought on the subject. […] I maintain that my own argument is unanswerable. This is that, by putting the tea in first and stirring as one pours, one can exactly regulate the amount of milk whereas one is liable to put in too much milk if one does it the other way round.'
And with Anthony Burgess about this
Playing the diplomat, Burgess refuses to take sides on the question of adding milk to the cup either before or after the tea. ‘I do not think it greatly matters,’ he says. The important thing is that there should only be a very small amount of milk, ‘to soften the impact of the tannin content.’
As for pot to the kettle or kettle to the pot, pre heating the bottom of empty pot, or the shape of the cup, that all seems to be a bit OTT, but I can't say I've ever tried out the various permutations to find out.
Can anyone else share personal experience of these practises?
It seems to me that across different cultures there are a wide range of possibly contradictory methods of correctly brewing up?
I think your also wasting tea by putting suger in first (or ever)
On a side note, all these mentions of chemicals in teabags are really putting me off. So I might buy myself some loose leaf tea soon. As I'm starting a new job tomorrow and it's a ghastly early start, I'll need galons of tea on a daily basis.
Not that I think you need sugar in tea to begin with.
That would make sense. But not for the flavour.
Yes, one should add sugar to tea in emergencies only.
I mostly have their pumpkin brew in autumn, which is really nice.
Oh and what about Teapigs? They used to be in every posh café.
You drink it hot and strong, with no nonsense about tea-bags and lemon-slices. Into the warmed taypot you put two spoonfuls of tea (always Ceylon, not Chinese) for each person, and another two for the pot. You use boiling water, and you let the tea stand for five minutes. You drink it with milk and sugar.
Of course, only from your 'own' colonies! That's why I prefer Java tea no doubt, it's my genetics....
I think it's odd to discard the rest of the world in such a way. I wouldn't ever drink green tea with sugar or milk. I do drink a cup of tea with lemon and honey in the morning, something that i learned in Italy 30 years ago when I was there staying with a family through a school programme. In the evening, especially when it's cold, I can have some strong, smokey tea. During the day it's fruity tea or just plain Javanese.
But I do like a cup of green tea now and then as well. In Marocco I had mint-tea often, and still sometimes drink that (allthough the mint doesn't do my stomach any favours).
All in all, during the day, I drink tea in 3, maybe even 4 different ways.
I prefer loose tea mainly because it holds more flavour.
Another interesting variation is Russian tea culture, which I know nothing about, other than that they have traditionaly preferred tea to coffee and use a samovar
Tea is an important part of Russian culture. Due in part to Russia's cold northern climate, it is today considered the de facto national beverage. It is traditionally taken at afternoon tea, but has since spread as an all day drink, especially at the end of meals, served with dessert. A notable aspect of Russian tea culture is the samovar, which was widely used to boil water for brewing until the middle of the 20th century.
Tea culture accelerated in 1638 when a Mongolian ruler donated four poods (65–70 kg) of tea to Tsar Michael.
Traditional tea in Russia includes the type known as Russian Caravan, as it was originally imported from China via camel caravan. As the trip was very long, usually taking as long as sixteen to eighteen months, the tea acquired its distinctive smoky flavor from the caravan's campfires. Today, this tea is often given its smoky flavor after oxidation or is a keemun or a "black or oolong from southern China or Formosa (Taiwan) with a hint of smoky Lapsang Souchong or Tarry Souchong."[16]
It is common, particularly in the countryside, to add herbs and berries to the leaves, such as mint, melissa, blackcurrant leaves, St. John's wort, raspberries, or sweet briar hips.
A notable feature of Russian tea culture is the two-step brewing process. First, tea concentrate called zavarka is prepared: a quantity of dry tea sufficient for several persons is brewed in a small teapot. Then, each person pours some quantity of this concentrate into the cup and mixes it with hot and cold water; thus, one can make one's tea as strong and as hot as one wants, according to one's taste. Sugar, lemon, honey, jam or milk can then be added freely. Sugar and other sweeteners are served in bowls; using the personal teaspoon to add them to the tea rather than the one in the bowl is considered impolite.
Zavarka can be brewed from the same leaves up to three times, but this is generally recognized to dilute and thus spoil the taste, unless it is green tea being brewed.
A samovar was widely used to boil water for brewing until mid-20th century,
Yes, Tetley is bad. It seems quite weak and watery and doesn't have a great taste. I'm not sure why it's so popular.
It's cheap? I prefer it to PG Tips, but boy do I see now that I have tea preferences! It's way rough in the morning.
Anyway, if anyone of you go to York, go to Bettys: https://www.bettys.co.uk/cafe-tea-rooms/our-locations/bettys-york?utm_source=google&utm_campaign=local&utm_medium=organic#menus
And try their tea. Bettys Tea Room Blend is good, but Ceylon Blue Sapphire is absolutely out of this world.
A company that was making the yummiest vegan roast did the same thing: changed ("improved") the recipes and change the company name. It destroyed our Sunday dinner (my wife is vegetarian). But I digress.
I suggest two things: 1)try loose leaf tea, because overall the taste is better, even if it's more trouble and 2)try various and smaller companies.
"Vegan" tea, what's that about?
Isn't tea considered to be a plant already?