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The Tea Thread

Min Bannister said:
Maybe it's the bergamot?
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Welcome to Bergamot!​

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Min Bannister said:
Maybe it's the bergamot?
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hunck said:
Pick the bits out, taste them & report back. We need to know.
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It's bergamot.
That was this morning so the teabag in question was in the bin. In the interests of Fortean studies, I sacrificed a perfectly good teabag just to taste the little white bits.

It was only a few months ago that I learned bergamot was a citrus fruit that grows around the Med and looks like a lime. It was on the Hairy Bikers and I had forgotten this until I looked it up earlier today. Prior to this I had assumed it was some kind of herb. I thought it was added to Earl Grey as an oil somehow but I guess they must have found a way of crystallise it.
 
David Plankton said:
I've just accidentally ripped a Twining's Earl Grey teabag and noticed these small white flecks inside.
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Is this their London Strand blend of Earl Grey? I picked up some tins of it in leaf form a month or so back. The bergamot in Earl Grey is usually invisible, being an oil. The London Strand variant - a recent product, I think - adds "a sunny twist of citrus and lemon peel." It looks just like yours, albeit with larger leaves. :)

It is a bit brash, I think.
 
David Plankton said:
It's bergamot.
That was this morning so the teabag in question was in the bin. In the interests of Fortean studies, I sacrificed a perfectly good teabag just to taste the little white bits.

It was only a few months ago that I learned bergamot was a citrus fruit that grows around the Med and looks like a lime. It was on the Hairy Bikers and I had forgotten this until I looked it up earlier today. Prior to this I had assumed it was some kind of herb. I thought it was added to Earl Grey as an oil somehow but I guess they must have found a way of crystallise it.
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You've performed a public service. Cocaine would've been more interesting though. I reckon a mild cocaine hot drink would be a winner. Twinings should get on the case.
 
Being semi serious, are coca leaves illegal? I'm thinking of a 'teabag' but containing minced dried coca leaves. Some S. Americans still chew coca leaves as a mild stimulant to keep them going at altitude, but maybe you have to chew a lot of it to get any effect. What sort of effect you could get out of a bag I don't know. I suppose you could drink 20 cups a day. But would it be illegal?
 
hunck said:
Being semi serious, are coca leaves illegal? I'm thinking of a 'teabag' but containing minced dried coca leaves. Some S. Americans still chew coca leaves as a mild stimulant to keep them going at altitude, but maybe you have to chew a lot of it to get any effect. What sort of effect you could get out of a bag I don't know. I suppose you could drink 20 cups a day. But would it be illegal?
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I suspect yes, illegal.
 
Gizmos Mama said:
Actually, it might fly in the US.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca
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Interesting - according to the wiki page it's available but only in some S.American countries. Seems it may also have heath-giving value:

Raw coca leaves, chewed or consumed as tea or mate de coca, are rich in nutritional properties. Specifically, the coca plant contains essential minerals (calcium, potassium, phosphorus), vitamins (B1, B2, C, and E) and nutrients such as protein and fiber. When the raw leaf is consumed in tea, between 59 and 90% of the coca alkaloid is absorbed.

Although coca leaf chewing is common only among the indigenous populations, the consumption of coca tea (Mate de coca) is common among all sectors of society in the Andean countries, especially due to their high elevations from sea level, and is widely held to be beneficial to health, mood, and energy. Coca leaf is sold packaged into teabags in most grocery stores in the region, and establishments that cater to tourists generally feature coca tea.

Coca tea is produced industrially from coca leaves in South America by a number of companies, including Enaco S.A. (National Company of the Coca) a government enterprise in Peru.
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Legality

Outside of South America, most countries' laws make no distinction between the coca leaf and any other substance containing cocaine, so the possession of coca leaf is prohibited. In South America coca leaf is illegal in both Paraguay and Brazil.
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If it was ever to be overturned, there's a fortune to be made. Coca tea cafes on every high st, different varieties, Peruvian, Bolivian, £2.50 a cup.
 
What is the best hot beverage? I love the taste of tea - "proper" black tea with milk but seldom drink it, partially trying to cut down on caffeine and partially because the tannins often dry my mouth out. I love ground coffee, can't start the day without one, sometimes two but rarely have more than that, which is just as well as I make it very strong. I enjoy the occasional hot chocolate but don't hold with the cream and marshmallows and all that nonsense, will sometimes have a chai latte, have yet to try a tumeric one which is trendy now. I mainly drink rooibos tea at home to avoid caffeine, have never really been a fan of herbal or fruit teas but they are growing on me.

What say you?
 
Coffee. I enjoy a proper cup thereof (spookily, I have just put a pot of half-caf on to brew). I'm not an addict, but part of my "treat on a day out" routine is a Costa medium cappuccino with an extra shot of espresso. Yum!

Tea? Maybe twice a year I'll fancy a pot of Earl Grey (on the weak side, drop of milk). Apart from that, a very occasional cup of specialist tea in a wee cafe the memsahib & I go to for a jolly. They sell a variety of exotic teas, and serve them at just the right temperature, and with an individual sand glass on each tray to time the brew perfectly.

maximus otter
 
Hot coffee? Philistine. Yes, 2-3 tablespoons of condensed milk per glass is correct, not teaspoons. OT - can anyone recommend a dentist?
 
My recipe for a 'proper' Indian spiced tea aka Chai, Chiya, Char in various areas of the subcontinent:
[I've never come across ginger, turmeric or other spices being used in it on my travels there but feel free to add a bit]

Full cream milk, add 2 cloves, 1 green cardamom pod, a 1-inch bit of cassia or cinnamon stick per person (1/3 pint). Add a heaped teaspoon of black loose tea or contents of 1 teabag per portion. Bung it in a saucepan and heat until just boiling, stirring it. Allow to cool for 1-2 minutes afterwards and strain into cups. Add sugar or sweetener.

It must be then drunk with a big slurp and exhale to enjoy the proper chai-ness of it.
 
A no-nonsense Assam for me please. I advise that you do not have these cookies with your tea unless you're partial to a hint of corpse

Durian.JPG.
 
AnonyJoolz said:
My recipe for a 'proper' Indian spiced tea aka Chai, Chiya, Char in various areas of the subcontinent:
[I've never come across ginger, turmeric or other spices being used in it on my travels there but feel free to add a bit]

Full cream milk, add 2 cloves, 1 green cardamom pod, a 1-inch bit of cassia or cinnamon stick per person (1/3 pint). Add a heaped teaspoon of black loose tea or contents of 1 teabag per portion. Bung it.
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Sounds good but I'm far too lazy. I'll stick with Twinings Spicy Chai (cinnamon, ginger and clove) in one handy little bag. Oh, and definitely no sugar.
 
Found this today.


The bit about caffeine and anti-oxidant levels is interesting.

Mind you, if you're going to brew tea in a polystyrene cup for 30 seconds... well, hangings too good for you!
 
pandacracker said:
Found this today.


The bit about caffeine and anti-oxidant levels is interesting.

Mind you, if you're going to brew tea in a polystyrene cup for 30 seconds... well, hangings too good for you!
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Influence of colour is interesting, but the rest was somebody who didn't actually know how to make tea being told how to make tea in a fairly standard fashion. Brewing for less that five minutes is absurd--and the only time I've drunk tea from a polystyrene cup is when I've arrived bleary-eyed in a market at 7.a.m and somebody has thrust one into my hand unbidden.

That said, the expert thinks that prior to five minutes of cooling (while brewing) the tea would be undrinkable owing to the heat; clearly he has not met a family such as mine with heat-proof mouths and throats.
 
You might see my comment about that on the YouTube page. Far from making tea wrong my entire life, I've been doing it correctly, according to that video.

Except that I rarely make tea with a single teabag in a cup these days. Only when buying it from certain chains.

The other thing that bothers me about that video, is that she is told to make a cup of tea using a polystyrene cup, only to be told she should have used a ceramic mug instead. No-one would make tea in a polystyrene cup by preference, if ceramic mugs were available. I half expected him to also scold her for using a bag, and not loose leaf in a teapot.
 
This time last year I was making my way through some loose leaf tea, which I very seldom drink, I have an infuser which is quite small and no matter how long I left it to brew it wasn't strong enough; so I used one of those "small cups" that sit in the cup that are designed for coffee. I accidentally used about five times the amount I needed, the tea was overpowering but good. An hour later the side effects came on, rather than getting jittery as one would expect with caffeine, I got nausea, followed by about three hours of feeling spaced out.

Just Say No, kids.
 
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