Hot Tea

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
If you don't have a tea brewer, just put some loose tea in a mug and pour hot water over it. The leaves will eventually settle to the bottom so they are easy to avoid.

That's over-brewing, though, which I'm sure would cause all kinds of hand wringing on the tea equivalent of BITOG.

SR5: The Chinese grocer here sells tea seats for next to nothing. You can get a pot, cups, serving tray, and the works for like $35. I couldn't believe it.

For me, it's pretty much Stash Earl Grey or their Double Bergamot Earl Grey, and has been for many, many years, with some English Breakfast or Darjeeling or something else tossed in each order, too.

 

[Virtus_Probi]

Originally Posted By: Shannow
...
2014 when we went to the US to get married, I took a bunch of 10 packs over for gifts and personal consumption.

Tombstone Arizona, we went into the paintball shooting range (Ruger blackhawks IIRC with primers and paintball cartridges) - note, I had a neck wallet with our passports and cash, not enlarged liver.
...


Wow, Shannow, you are facially a dead ringer for my brother in law in that photo, although you appear to be a much bigger guy than him.

I bought a neck wallet for a trip to Italy after a coworker told me about seeing tourists with their sliced pockets hanging down after being accosted by packs of street urchins in Roma. The merchants would always chuckle when I dragged the thing out, but I didn't care much.
The only trouble I had with street urchins on that trip was when they "washed" my windshield at a light against my will in Verona and appeared to be threatening to scratch my rental if I didn't give them something in return, I handed some coins over and they backed off even though they weren't happy that they were American.

 

[Virtus_Probi]

Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
I'm 1/2 Scot and have been enjoying tea for over a 1/2 century.

Get a tea strainer /infuser, add 1 rounded tsp of LOOSE whole leaf ASSAM BLACK" and pour boiling water over the tea and then put a lid on it for 10 mins. I like mine with a 1/4 tsp of Manuka honey sourced NZ/ Oceana. Most local honeys will kill the tea flavor.

We get our Black in bulk from Frontier Foods CO-OP online.

Teavana at the Mall ? - Mehh and pricey.

Later if you bore of the assam, add a pinch or more of a nice china green tips to add some bite.


My daughter bought a bunch of Teavana stuff at a mall while hanging out with her boyfriend and never even opened it...I don't think she realized until after the purchase that making tea is actually work. I should probably put that stuff out at work so somebody can enjoy it.

 

[Bud]

Twinings English Breakfast Black Tea. Like it hot or cold.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Virtus_Probi
I don't think she realized until after the purchase that making tea is actually work.

It's no worse than coffee, and often much less work.

A tea ball and a brown betty, can't get any easier than that.

 

[SZR48207]

This stuff is awesome if you want something sweet and spicy. I just put a few bags in the coffee carafe and drip in the hot water and wait. The longer it sits, the sweeter it gets and more refreshing the taste.

 

[bigj_16]

Try Bigelow's Constant Comment. Available bagged or loose. Bigelow owns the USA's only tea plantation.
http://www.bigelowtea.com/Shop-Teas/By-Type/Constant-Comment/Constant-Comment-Loose-Tea#.WiggqDdlDIU

 

[bigj_16]

Originally Posted By: Shannow

This is a good one...very dry and tanniny, great for those who like sugar in their tea.

Named after brewing tea in a "Billy".

You gotta do it right...



For some reason, I have this uncontrollable urge to break out with a little "Waltzing Matilda".

 

[SatinSilver]

Originally Posted By: Alfred_B
Drop by a Teavana store at your local mall and try what they have on offer. I prefer loose black tea and buy Lipton (no sugar, no milk).


Excellent teas there esp the lightly sweetened ones with rock sugar. Delicious. I fill those little one ounce sample cups to the brim. When they do it for you they fill it an eighth of the way up.

 

[BalticBob]

Hot tea is so very good for your health, I wonder why we in the states do not drink more hot tea.
Iced tea is huge here in the south, but so is lite beer!

 

[andyd]

My wife and I were raised in tea drinking households. Mine was strictly bagged, hers was GI loose tea in 1 lb boxes from the commissary. The trouble with tea leaves is keeping them out of the drain. Bags go in the garbage destined for compost. Marina starts off on coffee in the morning and often moves on to tea. I had French Canadian tea once. Loose tea boiled. Interesting factoid. Bigelow grows tea in SC. I drink mostly ice tea, but hot tea lemon and sugar is a great warmer upper. Chinese tea is purported to be loaded with heavy metals.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: andyd
My wife and I were raised in tea drinking households. Mine was strictly bagged, hers was GI loose tea in 1 lb boxes from the commissary. The trouble with tea leaves is keeping them out of the drain.

Reminds me of an argument I had with my dad when I was a teen, about the loose tea. He complained about throwing it in the garbage, saying it would make a wet mess in the bottom of the bag and receptacle. Okay. I started to rinse it down the sink. He was concerned about it clogging. Okay. I started to flush it down the toilet. He was concerned about clogs there, too. So, I asked, if I can't flush it down the toilet, put it down the sink, or put it in the garbage, what exactly would you like me to do with it, douse it with gasoline and light it up in the yard?

 

[bigj_16]

Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: andyd
My wife and I were raised in tea drinking households. Mine was strictly bagged, hers was GI loose tea in 1 lb boxes from the commissary. The trouble with tea leaves is keeping them out of the drain.

Reminds me of an argument I had with my dad when I was a teen, about the loose tea. He complained about throwing it in the garbage, saying it would make a wet mess in the bottom of the bag and receptacle. Okay. I started to rinse it down the sink. He was concerned about it clogging. Okay. I started to flush it down the toilet. He was concerned about clogs there, too. So, I asked, if I can't flush it down the toilet, put it down the sink, or put it in the garbage, what exactly would you like me to do with it, douse it with gasoline and light it up in the yard?

My answer would have been "Yes"

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
If you don't have a tea brewer, just put some loose tea in a mug and pour hot water over it. The leaves will eventually settle to the bottom so they are easy to avoid.

That's over-brewing, though, which I'm sure would cause all kinds of hand wringing on the tea equivalent of BITOG.

LOL!

I'm sure.

I'm actually currently looking for a tea maker for when I have a larger number of tea drinkers over. I can't seem to find a reasonably priced maker that holds more than 2 quarts of liquid though.

I like this one ( http://a.co/6PD3VBd ) but capacity is only 1.2 liters.

 

[HangFire]

Originally Posted By: Bud
Twinings English Breakfast Black Tea. Like it hot or cold.

Another vote here.

 

[HangFire]

Originally Posted By: Garak
Reminds me of an argument I had with my dad when I was a teen, about the loose tea. He complained about throwing it in the garbage, saying it would make a wet mess in the bottom of the bag and receptacle. Okay. I started to rinse it down the sink. He was concerned about it clogging. Okay. I started to flush it down the toilet. He was concerned about clogs there, too. So, I asked, if I can't flush it down the toilet, put it down the sink, or put it in the garbage, what exactly would you like me to do with it, douse it with gasoline and light it up in the yard?

Easy answer there... put it in a Tea Bag.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: HangFire
Originally Posted By: Bud
Twinings English Breakfast Black Tea. Like it hot or cold.

Another vote here.


ALDI's English breakfast is as good/better.

I'm sucking on one right now with breakfast.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
I can't seem to find a reasonably priced maker that holds more than 2 quarts of liquid though.

Yes, I know how that goes. I think the Espro I have is somewhere around there, too, that 1.2 quart level or less. Bodum has a press that's something like 1.5 litres, but it's like double the price of the 1 litre version, $80 Canadian instead of $40 for the smaller. The best bet when I need more than that roughly 1.2 quart amount is just use the old brown betty with a tea ball. I think that brings me closer to two quarts. Trying to find size at a decent price seems to be a fool's errand.

HangFire: Tea bags are about as popular among tea nuts as Jiffy Lube is here.

My dad was no fan of tea bags in the garbage, either, same concern, much less the toilet or sink.

 

[andyd]

Aldis Down Under? One just opened up near me. That is a pretty wide distribution. Their front end concept is very efficient. So is the shopping cart management scheme. Garak, buy a new 1 gallon paint can aka billy and copy the Aussies. Not impressed with coffee presses, tea squeezers look to be worse to clean. I have a Cheap steel stockpot I keep for vegetable waste,coffee grounds. No bag. I empty it myself onto the compost heap/ mulch pile that makes black compost after a while. I add it to the beds and the worms take it the rest of the way into soil. Way better than clogging up the drain.

 

[Garak]

One gallon would be enough.

As for the tea presses, they're generally rather easy to clean. The Espro is exceedingly easy to clean, even easier than the Bodum that I had. The Bodum, you'd have to run your nails over the holes, or a brush, to get pieces that stuck in the holes. The holes in the Espro are much smaller, kind of the Fram Ultra of presses, I suppose. I wish the thing had been around years ago. It's worth every penny. I got the coffee attachments for it, too, but never used them yet.

As for composting and so forth, that stuff all went to the garden at the farm, of course. But, that was years ago.