Cup of Tea

[Tom]

Is it me, or does the taste of a cup of tea vary with some unknown variable?

I have been drinking the stuff all day, and its tasting bloomin fantastic. Why is it, that on another day, using exactly the same ingrediants, and exactly the same technique, it will taste 'not as good'?

Is it something to do with what you eat? If it is, please tell!

 

[gunner440]

i think it's not to do with the tea but more about what else goes in your mouth

i.e. after tastes from lunch/dinner etc which gets mixed with the tea?

 

[Mazling]

As a disciple of Douglas adams, I have full acqautained myself with many forms of tea making throughout the known, unknown, and strongly suggested yet not-entirely-certain-about parts of the universe.
Unless you are going to sit with a timer, spend a good minute pouring out water slowly over the bag, and measuring the amount of milk, you aren't going to get the same cup of tea every time.
Oh, and new PG Tips bags (the EZ-BREW(tm) ones) don't brew aswell if you pour the milk in first (as you should) before the boiling water.
Do a google or "tea faq" btw

 

[Bullitt]

Hmmm i'm one for always putting water on, letting it 'mash' then pouring in the milk. Am i a freak?

 

[GekuL]

That's how I do it too. I don't use bags often though.

 

[djpringle]

I've stopped having milk in my tea, far more refreshing. Though that probably makes me the freak now.

 

[Munkey]

Bag, then hot water. Dip bag up and down until water is extremley brown, add milk. Drink.

Very nice

 

[TdC]

I've stopped having milk in my tea, far more refreshing. Though that probably makes me the freak now.

people who put milk in their tea should be forced to become IKEA bookcases

 

[Cyfr]

People who drink tea without milk should be shot repeatedly

Tastes yuckeh!

 

[Wij]

Tea is foul. I like coffee on a morning. Sometimes lager. In fact today is a lager morning

Mmmmmmmmmmm....

Aaaaaaaaaaah...

 

[Lazarus]

I was about 13 when I last had a cup of tea - which was about.......erm...... 4 years ago (give or take a few months)




















well, more like 240 months ago

 

[xane]

I refer the honourable gentleman to the works of George Orwell, he of "1984" and "Animal Farm", who penned the mighty essay A Nice Cup Of Tea.

Originally Posted by George Orwell in 1946
If you look up 'tea' in the first cookery book that comes to hand you
will probably find that it is unmentioned; or at most you will find a few
lines of sketchy instructions which give no ruling on several of the most
important points.

This is curious, not only because tea is one of the main stays
of civilization in this country, as well as in Eire, Australia and New
Zealand, but because the best manner of making it is the subject
of violent disputes.

When I look through my own recipe for the perfect cup of tea, I find no
fewer than eleven outstanding points. On perhaps two of them there would
be pretty general agreement, but at least four others are acutely
controversial. Here are my own eleven rules, every one of which I regard
as golden:

First of all, one should use Indian or Ceylonese tea. China tea has
virtues which are not to be despised nowadays--it is economical, and one
can drink it without milk--but there is not much stimulation in it. One
does not feel wiser, braver or more optimistic after drinking it. Anyone
who has used that comforting phrase 'a nice cup oftea' invariably means
Indian tea. Secondly, tea should be made in small quantities--that is,
in a teapot. Tea out of an urn is always tasteless, while army tea, made
ina cauldron, tastes of grease and whitewash. The teapot should be madeof
china or earthenware. Silver or Britanniaware teapots produceinferior tea
and enamel pots are worse; though curiously enough apewter teapot (a
rarity nowadays) is not so bad. Thirdly, the pot should be warmed
beforehand. This is better done by placing it on the hob than by the
usual method of swilling it outwith hot water. Fourthly, the tea should
be strong. For a pot holding a quart, ifyou are going to fill it nearly
to the brim, six heaped teaspoonswould be about right. In a time of
rationing, this is not an idea thatcan be realized on every day of the
week, but I maintain that onestrong cup of tea is better than twenty weak
ones. All true tea loversnot only like their tea strong, but like it a
little stronger witheach year that passes--a fact which is recognized in
the extra rationissued to old-age pensioners. Fifthly, the tea should be
put straight into the pot. No strainers, muslin bags or other devices to
imprison the tea. In some countries teapots are fitted with little
dangling baskets under the spout to catch the stray leaves, which are
supposed to be harmful. Actually one can swallow tea-leaves in
considerable quantities without ill effect, and if the tea is not loose
in the potit never infuses properly. Sixthly, one should take the teapot
to the kettle and not the other way about. The water should be actually
boiling at the moment of impact, which means that one should keep it on
the flame while one pours. Some people add that one should only use water
that has been freshly brought to the boil, but I have never noticed that
it makes any difference. Seventhly, after making the tea, one should stir
it, or better, give the pot a good shake, afterwards allowing the leaves
to settle. Eighthly, one should drink out of a good breakfast cup--that
is, the cylindrical type of cup, not the flat, shallow type. The
breakfastcup holds more, and with the other kind one's tea is always half
cold--before one has well started on it. Ninthly, one should pour the
cream off the milk before using itfor tea. Milk that is too creamy always
gives tea a sickly taste. Tenthly, one should pour tea into the cup first.
This is one ofthe most controversial points of all; indeed in every family
in Britain there are probably two schools of thought on the subject. The
milk-first school can bring forward some fairly strong arguments, but I
maintain that my own argument is unanswerable. This is that, by putting
the tea in first and stirring as one pours, one can exactlyregulate the
amount of milk whereas one is liable to put in too muchmilk if one does
it the other way round.

Lastly, tea--unless one is drinking it in the Russian style--should be
drunk WITHOUT SUGAR. I know very well that I am in aminority here.
But still, how can you call yourself a true tea-lover ifyou destroy
the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally
reasonable to put in pepper or salt. Tea is meant to bebitter,
just as beer is meant to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you areno longer
tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you couldmake a very
similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water.

Some people would answer that they don't like tea in itself, that they
only drink it in order to be warmed and stimulated, and they need sugar
to take the taste away. To those misguided people I would say: Try
drinking tea without sugar for, say, a fortnight and it is very unlikely
that you will ever want to ruin your tea by sweetening it again.

These are not the only controversial points to arise in connexion with
tea drinking, but they are sufficient to show how subtilized the whole
business has become. There is also the mysterious social etiquette
surrounding the teapot (why is it considered vulgar to drink out of your
saucer, for instance?) and much might be written about the subsidiary
uses of tealeaves, such as telling fortunes, predicting the arrival of
visitors, feeding rabbits, healing burns and sweeping thecarpet. It is
worth paying attention to such details as warming the pot and using water
that is really boiling, so as to make quite sureof wringing out of one's
ration the twenty good, strong cups of thattwo ounces, properly handled,
ought to represent.

 

[old.Tohtori]

Tea...with milk...nah.

Only silvertea, and that's not tea per say. Hot water, sweetener and milk and you got a cup of silvertea.

Normal tea? With cold water if i need it a bit chilled, otherwise, straight out hot water and a bag of tea.

 

[Damini]

I make an appalling cup of tea if I make it in the cup. Always. Tastes like compost. So every time I want to make a cup of tea for myself, I make it in the tea pot, and have to use three bags because thats how I've worked out the ratio of tea to water nicely.

I'm exceptionally wasteful, but I don't drink tea all that often so I figure it's ok.

I'm also a two sugar girl, semi skimmed milk, don't bother filtering the water, and it tastes nicest from a thin china mug.

 

[Cyradix]

Hot water, tea and 1 sugar. NO MILK!!!

 

[Stimpy]

NO MILK??? Are you insane?

Teabag in mug, add hot water, stab teabag with spoon and stir until water becomes dark, remove teabag, add milk, add sugar and stir you now have a perfect cup of tea.

 

[Deadmanwalking]

Sugar for christs sake. Why bother wasting the teabags. Just put the sugar in with the water.

 

[Wij]

Which bit of 'lager is better' was hard for u nobs to understand

 

['Shy]

Bag, then hot water. Dip bag up and down until water is extremley brown, add milk. Drink.

Very nice

Eugh, you drink it with the teabag still in the cup?

Personally I think it's nasty to add milk without taking the teabag out first. And even worse, if someone puts sugar in aswell! I used to work with a girl that would put teabag, water, milk, sugar all in together, mash up, leave for 5 minutes, mash again, then take teabag out. Eugh eugh eugh!

I agree with Damini - teapot is the way to go!

 

[Wij]

Try this experiment.

In your left hand take a freshly brewed teapot full of freshly brewed tea. in your right hand take a bottle of cold, cold Asahi. Feel the difference in weight. Lift them both up and down. Put both your arms behind your back. Now raise them against your face. NOW SMASH THEM INTO YOUR STUPID FACE UNTIL YOU DIE YOU TEA-LOVING FREAKS !!!!!!!!

*breathe erratically*

 

[TdC]

*push wij over the edge*



Asahi == goat pee!!

 

[xane]

Which bit of 'lager is better' was hard for u nobs to understand

Most people _do_ prefer milk in their tea.

 

[Wij]

ARGH, YOU phr34kz !!!!!!!!!!two







*die*

 

[TdC]

*fiddle with Wij's corpse*

 

[Wij]

I think I'd make a better chello tbh :/

 

[TdC]

*chello with Wij's corpse*

 

[Wij]

Hey ! You've lost my packet !

(dutchies might get it.)

 

[TdC]

*not get it*

made a pet yet? I'm up for a wee scrap!

 

[jaba]

[QUOTE='Shy]I agree with Damini - teapot is the way to go![/QUOTE]
wrong wrong wrong wrong! using a teapot makes it taste like stew...nasty! freshly brewed in a cup is best with milk..proper milk mind you, none of that soya crap!

But wij is again correct, lager is better!

 

[GDW]

A quarter ounce, sprinkle and disolve in some hot milk, then loads of sugar....Delicious