The Tea Thread

[Erinaceus]

My strainer hasn t got a lid (if that's what it is) but is otherwise identical. I mostly use it in a mug but it works with my teapot as well.

 

[Min Bannister]

Does anyone use these types of strainers?
They're very good actually.

I've got a similar one. Broke the lid ages ago unfortunately( it was a china lid that fitted my mug). It's great.

 

[Floyd]

My strainer hasn t got a lid (if that's what it is) but is otherwise identical. I mostly use it in a mug but it works with my teapot as well.

I've got a similar one. Broke the lid ages ago unfortunately( it was a china lid that fitted my mug). It's great.

I don't use the lid (metal).
Now we buy better quality tea, I can get two, or sometimes three cups out of the same batch of tea. Just needs leaving in a bit longer.

 

[kesavaross]

I don't use the lid (metal).
Now we buy better quality tea, I can get two, or sometimes three cups out of the same batch of tea. Just needs leaving in a bit longer.

That brings up a good question to which I think there's no set answer.

What's the optimum time to leave a tea bag in the cup?

 

[Sharon Hill]

That brings up a good question to which I think there's no set answer.

What's the optimum time to leave a tea bag in the cup?

It depends on how hot the water is and the type of tea. If I have a standard black tea bag with boiling water, 3 minutes is perfect, anything beyond 4 min gets bitter. But if I get restaurant water, which is not hot enough, I don’t ever have to remove the bag.

 

[AnonyJ]

Does anyone use these types of strainers?
They're very good actually.

Oh yes! I highly recommend them, you can get a decent cup of ground coffee out of them too.

For those of us in the specialised centre of the Venn diagram below

View attachment 68326

I can recommend stainless steel fine mesh cup filters to replace tea bags. I was totally fed up of picking out bits of wispy paper-plastic
remnants of tea bags from my garden soil so got some of these which works very well with any kind of loose tea:

 

[brownmane]

It depends on how hot the water is and the type of tea. If I have a standard black tea bag with boiling water, 3 minutes is perfect, anything beyond 4 min gets bitter. But if I get restaurant water, which is not hot enough, I don’t ever have to remove the bag.

Also, it's according to taste. If I have a cup of green tea, I might leave it steeping for less time. I don't like the tannin in teas.

White tea, if I treated myself, I would leave in longer because it doesn't get bitter as quickly.

Rooibos tea I can leave the leaves in and it never gets bitter. It, of course is not true tea, but is nice.

 

[kesavaross]

Also, it's according to taste. If I have a cup of green tea, I might leave it steeping for less time. I don't like the tannin in teas.

White tea, if I treated myself, I would leave in longer because it doesn't get bitter as quickly.

Rooibos tea I can leave the leaves in and it never gets bitter. It, of course is not true tea, but is nice.

When I worked on the railways I alway drank Rooibos tea for the very reason. I could put a teabag in the flask, fill it with hot water and off I'd go.

 

[Stormkhan]

I recently treated myself to a Japanese iron teapot, trivet and two cups. It's got a small sieve-style insert. Great for loose tea and keeps the brew hot for longer!

 

[brownmane]

I recently treated myself to a Japanese iron teapot, trivet and two cups. It's got a small sieve-style insert. Great for loose tea and keeps the brew hot for longer!

I also have a small iron teapot and I love it.

 

[Kondoru]

I have a tetsubin too.

 

[brownmane]

I have a tetsubin too.

Thanks for that word. I'll have to see if mine really is one or the enameled one that you cannot boil water in. It is probably enameled because it has the strainer.

If it is only cast iron, I had never thought of boiling the water in it because anything we call a teapot cannot be used to boil water.

I found a link that explains the difference between a cast iron only and an enameled type of Japanese tea pots.

https://japanobjects.com/features/tetsubin

 

[Stormkhan]

My cups are enameled and the pot has a strainer.
I'll check on the interior; the accompanying literature insists that you never let the 'interior' surfaces stay wet. Clean out with hot water and dry immediately.

 

[brownmane]

My cups are enameled and the pot has a strainer.
I'll check on the interior; the accompanying literature insists that you never let the 'interior' surfaces stay wet. Clean out with hot water and dry immediately.

That's why I originally thought mine was entirely cast iron, because it would rust if left wet.

 

[Stormkhan]

I know for a fact mine is cast iron because I purchased it specifically to be 'traditional'.
I also got a brilliant indoor electric teriyaki grill.
You can tell, I've got really into Japanese cooking.

 

[ramonmercado]

The Torrid Tale of Tea: how it fueled the expansion of an Empire.

The seed from which this story begins is that of the tea bush (Camellia sinensis), which produces most of the world’s tea.

The oldest tea leaves go back 2,150 years and were found in the tomb of China’s Jia Ding Emperor. Beginning as an elite practice, tea drinking advanced quickly through China and became widespread by the early middle ages.

Chinese tea is said to have been introduced to England by the wife of King Charles II, Catherine of Braganza. The bride’s native country, Portugal, was the first European nation to enter the Indian Ocean; its network of bases and colonies included Macao, in southern China, which was leased to the Portuguese in 1557 by the ruling Ming dynasty. By 1662, when Catherine of Braganza’s marriage was celebrated, the Ming were in the last stages of their overthrow by the Qing dynasty, but the status of Macao remained unchanged.

This meant that at the time of the wedding, Portugal had been consuming Chinese products for over a century, so the practice of tea drinking was already well- established among the country’s upper classes. In her dowry, Catherine brought with her two things that would prove to be of world-historical importance: a casket of tea and a set of six small islands that would later become Bombay (now Mumbai).

Tea drinking caught on quickly in England, and by the early eighteenth century, even before Britain established its empire in India, Chinese tea was already an important article of trade for the British economy. In the decades that followed, the value of Chinese tea for the British increased even faster.

Throughout the eighteenth century, even as the British were conquering immense swaths of territory in North America and the Indian subcontinent, Chinese tea remained the British East India Company’s prime source of revenue, much of which was used to finance British colonial expansion: “During the eighteenth century,” writes the historian Erika Rappaport, “tea paid for war, but war also paid for tea.” By the late eighteenth century, tea “had become so much the national drink that the Company was required by Act of Parliament to keep a year’s supply always in stock.” ...

https://lithub.com/steeped-in-war-a...how-tea-funded-the-british-empires-expansion/

 

[escargot]

By the late eighteenth century, tea “had become so much the national drink that the Company was required by Act of Parliament to keep a year’s supply always in stock.” ...

So now we're being told its about to run out?
Treason, that is.

 

[ramonmercado]

The dangers of imbibing tea.

Marsh's Library
@MarshsLibrary

The tools of tea making in 1665. Danish physician Simon Paulli warned that abuse of tea led to blindness, stupidity and impotence! #InternationalTeaDay

https://x.com/MarshsLibrary/status/1792856723629191339

 

[charliebrown]

Tom Parker-Bowles has been in the U.S. advertising his new cook book.

He tells the news media that their family tradition was always tea at 5 P.M.

He said there had to be cakes, scones, sandwiches, eggs, and shrimp.

This makes we wonder if his family and Queen Camilla ate again in the later night ?

 

[escargot]

Tom Parker-Bowles has been in the U.S. advertising his new cook book.

He tells the news media that their family tradition was always tea at 5 P.M.

He said there had to be cakes, scones, sandwiches, eggs, and shrimp.

This makes we wonder if his family and Queen Camilla ate again in the later night ?

They do what they like, they're rich.

 

[Frideswide]

This makes we wonder if his family and Queen Camilla ate again in the later night ?

For the english section of my family

There was nursery tea which was like High Tea only about 15.00 and only for children.

There was afternoon tea which was for adults, light and had sandwiches and cake, any time from 15.00 to 18.00, depending.

One of the dependings was if there were guests for dinner, or a dance or something. In which case dinner was after 21.00 with many courses, wine and the dancing / billiards / cards / talk would continue until the small hours. Often it was after 22.00.

There was also supper which was a little something before bedtime.

 

[Kondoru]

Im drinking coconut tea.

Odd, but not unpleasant, indeed strangely nice.

 

[Frideswide]

Im drinking coconut tea.

Odd, but not unpleasant, indeed strangely nice.

Interesting. Is it tea made from coconuts, or ordinary tea with coconut milk?

 

[pandacracker]

For the english section of my family

There was nursery tea which was like High Tea only about 15.00 and only for children.

There was afternoon tea which was for adults, light and had sandwiches and cake, any time from 15.00 to 18.00, depending.

One of the dependings was if there were guests for dinner, or a dance or something. In which case dinner was after 21.00 with many courses, wine and the dancing / billiards / cards / talk would continue until the small hours. Often it was after 22.00.

There was also supper which was a little something before bedtime.

Oh, so they're a bit posh then?

 

[Frideswide]

Oh, so they're a bit posh then?

*raises eyebrow* whatever gives you that idea? Not me though, I take after the other half

To the above I should add

Dinner - at least three courses with suitable wines, 19.00 to 20.00 start.

 

[Floyd]

Tom Parker-Bowles has been in the U.S. advertising his new cook book.

He tells the news media that their family tradition was always tea at 5 P.M.

He said there had to be cakes, scones, sandwiches, eggs, and shrimp.

This makes we wonder if his family and Queen Camilla ate again in the later night ?

I would think so.
Probably at 8-10pm after pre-diner drinks around 7ish.

And cravat on at all times please.

 

[Floyd]

Actually, when you consider the access that the royals have to the finest food and drink and whenever they want it, most of them don't come across as gluttons.

(I think Margaret was a bit more lazy lavish, as an exception, but old Chas and William are very thin, as was Phillip).

If I were in their position, I'd be like Henry VIII.

 

[Floyd]

'It’s an old person's drink.' Is Britain's love for tea cooling off?​

It’s that quintessential British tradition that we have been enjoying for hundreds of years.

The answer to every crisis, a bonding ritual when you welcome someone into your home and the first drink many people wake up to.
“Fancy a cuppa?” or even simply “Tea?” is music to your ears, right?

Well, maybe not for everyone.

"I suppose there's kind of an association with tea as an old person's drink," says Gillie Owen, aged 20.
The student from London says he and his friends prefer water or diet soda drinks.

Gillie thinks of tea as "an old person's drink"

Layba, meanwhile, doesn't drink tea at all.

"I have never liked tea," the 20-year-old says. "I just think it tastes really off, like, really weird.”
It's a stark contrast to her parents who, she says, “really love" tea.

So is it a generational thing? As a nation, are we falling out of love with tea?

Last week, one of Britain’s oldest tea firms, Typhoo Tea, collapsed after a drop in sales.


Shayma, 18, says she also prefers herbal tea, while most of her friends drink coffee. She says there are "so many drinks now” and she hasn’t even heard of Typhoo.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gpll9l535o​

 

[Min Bannister]

*finishes last mouthful of old persons drink*

What's that you say dearie?

I suppose the problem really is that there is such a huge amount of choice nowadays. You can try 20 different options and settle for the one you like best. And then once parents stop drinking tea, they stop giving it to their children and so they never develop a teast* for it. When I was young, coffee was a drink for adults.

Edit, typo but it is kind of appropriate so I am leaving it in.

 

[Druk]

Love a cup of tea,but now and again you have to treat yourself.