Tea!

[streakster]

Tea! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eELH0ivexKA)

So, who else here in the Playground takes tea?

[Danzaver]

Ahahahaha that's great, that is.

I take tea. I was only introduced to tea about 3 years ago, but now I have a cupboard with nearly every kind of tea known to man in it.

Despite this, I normally drink regular black tea, but I like Ch'ai sometimes. In the summer, I have this liquorice and mint stuff that really cools me down (it can get up to 40 degrees celcius here in the summer - I think that's about 110 fahrenheit)

[Copacetic]

My whole family can't get enough of it. Except me. Personally, I can't stand it.

[streakster]

Ahahahaha that's great, that is.

I take tea. I was only introduced to tea about 3 years ago, but now I have a cupboard with nearly every kind of tea known to man in it.

Despite this, I normally drink regular black tea, but I like Ch'ai sometimes. In the summer, I have this liquorice and mint stuff that really cools me down (it can get up to 40 degrees celcius here in the summer - I think that's about 110 fahrenheit)

I'll have to try licorice mint - I quite like mint, so licorice mint sounds good. My personal favorite is vanilla rooibos tea.

[Haruki-kun]

I like Chai Tea, very much. Iced! Weeee! :smallbiggrin:

[Terraoblivion]

Tea is one of God's gifts to the human race. Real tea, not the various kinds of hippie teas that don't even contain a single, honest tea life. I personally prefer various black teas, especially Russian blends which are basically Earl Grey with stuff added to it. My personal favorite is the St. Petersburg tea from Kusmi Teas, just so delicious with the citrus, berries and caramel.

[RTGoodman]

What's wrong with you people - don't you know that the only real tea is sweet tea (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_tea)?

[/Good Ol' Southern Boy]

:smalltongue:

[Rogue 7]

I've grown to enjoy Tea as my caffeine of choice. I tend to prefer black (no real preference as to the type) or green tea. Green is very good. Though I've heard Brits put milk in theirs- I don't understand that one myself.

[Terraoblivion]

Tea has to be warm. No point in tea if it is cold, sugar is a good thing in tea, however. Likewise adding milk is all wrong and a particular British brand of atrocity towards good tea, which has the side effect of them letting it brew until it gets bitter. In short despite how obsessed the British are with tea they actually don't know how to brew it properly. A tea has to draw until it is flavorful, but not bitter and then a bit of sugar is added to draw the flavor out and it is drunk as warm as you can without scalding your mouth.

[Rogue 7]

Amen to that, though I don't mind it without sugar. Saying that, sweetened iced tea is quite good.

[Kneenibble]

In India, at every corner, they had tea shops. The most common, at 3 rupees a cup, was called "chai", which is basically a word in various morphologies across all far Asian languages that just means tea. They have a kettle full of milk kept just below the boil and a kettle with hot water in it, in which a cotton sock is placed full of dust-grade black tea and not removed. With dust tea, however, at 30 seconds in the water you're at a strength considered oversteeped and bitter with any other grade of tea. They put in a little glass some of the hot milk and lift the sock out of the kettle and fill the glass the rest of the way with the thus insanely strong black tea, and then put a spoonful of sugar in an empty cup: and to mix it, they pour the liquid between the two cups at a very rapid pace and as much as several feet high without spilling a drop. The more expensive (4 - 5 rupees) masala chai has a blend of spices, generally cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, pepper, and cloves, in the water as well. A Canadian dollar is 35 rupees. You can usually also get chaat with the tea, things like samosas, battered plantain slices, pakodas, fried bread, all hot and fresh and handmade, all equally dirt-cheap. It's incredible, and also because of the high heat, safe to eat without a cast-iron stomach. You'll be standing in the street with taxi drivers and labourers and other blue-collar types of men who, if you are white, will friendly-small-talk your face off.

I have accumulated a few favourite varieties of tea over the years...
A darjeeling black, "Mim Estate".
A Japanese green, "Sencha Makoto".
a Chinese white, "Silver Needle," which when authentic will run you over $100/lb. But it's so good.
Another Chinese white, "Jasmine Dragon Tears," which are hand-rolled into balls with jasmine flowers.

Tea snobbery is the coolest snobbery to cultivate.

There's a lot of grades of tea that aren't worth drinking plain, Terraoblivion. Anything black that is orange pekoe or below is just not meant for plain drinking. But on the other hand, their bold and aggressive flavour is just what it takes to stand together with milk and honey or sugar. Don't put a nice, quality Ceylon or Darjeeling in with milk, for sure, but the cheap stuff? How can you drink it otherwise? It's made for milk and honey.

[Terraoblivion]

What i wonder about is how you can drink it with milk, even the cheap stuff that taste of cardboard and soaked paper gets worse with milk in my opinion. Of course i generally has a strong dislike of milk and of anything that taste or feel too fat, but still. Honey can be very good, but milk is just not for me.

[Rogue 7]

Heh. I love milk-I drink 2% just for the health bit (I'd take whole otherwise), just not in my tea. Maybe that's because I actually haven't tried milk in my tea, but since I like it without the milk, why bother?

[thubby]

green tea, as close to freezing without actually doing it as possible, thats about it.

[Kneenibble]

Terraoblivion, if you come to my house now, I will serve you a black Darjeeling that will make your mouth as red as the pomegranate flowers that blossom in the gardens of Tyre, and are redder than roses; redder than the feet of him who comes from the forest where he hath slain a lion, and seen gilded tigers; as red as the bow of the king of the Persians, that is painted with vermilion, and tipped with coral - nothing in the world will be so red as your mouth.

...Without milk.

[Dallas-Dakota]

milk!


Without tea!:smalltongue:
(I personally don't like tea, or coffee, or cola...)

[Quincunx]

I can't get tea to work with milk since it isn't a flavoring. Coffee can be a flavoring: add it to milk, add it to ice cream, add it to chocolate.

[ForzaFiori]

What's wrong with you people - don't you know that the only real tea is sweet tea (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_tea)?

[/Good Ol' Southern Boy]

:smalltongue:

seconded. sweet iced tea beats all.

[InaVegt]

Tea is nice, but not the stuff you can get in the standard stores over here, I've got no clue as to how anyone could stand that rubbish.

Proper tea is gotten from a specialist who makes hir own tea, straight from the leaf.

Of course, I can't afford that kind of tea, so, I'm tealess.

[Shas aia Toriia]

Tea? I love tea! I'm sure I've never had any high quality tea, but it still tastes good to me.
Ignorance is bliss.

[Adlan]

As an Englishman, I feel it is my Duty to stand up for Tea with a spot of milk in! It is every mans right to choose how he should enjoy his tea, with milk or without, made in a pot, or a mug, refined, or builders strength. Freedom for Tea! Fight the Prejudice!

I like my Tea so strong you could Leave the spoon standing, with a Splash of Milk and a lot of sugar. Builders Tea is the Backbone of Britain!

[Terraoblivion]

That sounds like some quite great tea, Kneenibble. There are some truly great kinds out there and some truly great qualities of tea. The variety here is still fairly limited, unfortunately, but it is getting better all the time.

And Quincux the way milk and tea is supposed to work is by not adding a whole lot of milk to the tea. At least that is the way it is usually done here, though milk in tea is not common at all here.

[Flickerdart]

I prefer the ice or bubble varieties of tea, mainly because I can't stand hot beverages.

[Phoe]

I prefer tea over coffee, that's for sure. But I like more fruit teas. My favourit is Rooibush Vanilla... and somehow peppermint/cassis :smallredface:

[skywalker]

Terraoblivion, if you come to my house now, I will serve you a black Darjeeling that will make your mouth as red as the pomegranate flowers that blossom in the gardens of Tyre, and are redder than roses; redder than the feet of him who comes from the forest where he hath slain a lion, and seen gilded tigers; as red as the bow of the king of the Persians, that is painted with vermilion, and tipped with coral - nothing in the world will be so red as your mouth.

...Without milk.

I would sig this if it weren't too long.

I drink all sorts of tea, Rooibos, green, my whole family thinks I'm crazy cuz I'll drink it hot or without sugar(I'm a southern boy, too). My personal favorite is also chai, my former girlfriend's dad made outstanding chai, which, as a bonus, did not involve a sock. I'd also like to throw in that I love those hippy teas without a single tea leaf. They help me sleep.

[Semidi]

I love tea: black English tea, Indian tea, fruity-girly teas, green teas, and red teas. I don't like adding sugar or milk to my tea. I get my tea from the Republic of Tea. Super market tea is terrible.

[Lady Tialait]

I really never enjoyed tea till this last month...my freind made some tea with his coffee pot, just some lipton ice tea stuff or whatever. Used about 20 bags for the 10 cup pot and added enough sugar to choke a donkey (and that is about as much sugar that I add to my single cup of coffee) and then added Coffee creamer. That stuff was good...bitter...sweet...and heaven. Gimme more of that and i'll convert to tea. But other then that Tea turns my stomach. Dirty water is all I taste.

[Darius Midnite]

That bit there just made my day. But guilty as charged, I'm a huge fan of tea (it's a tie between tea and coffee). I mostly drink green tea, having heard that it's good for your health and such. But after that I nearly drink all sorts of tea.

[streakster]

I prefer tea over coffee, that's for sure. But I like more fruit teas. My favourit is Rooibush Vanilla... and somehow peppermint/cassis :smallredface:

Hooray! A fellow vanilla rooibos fan! Peppermint/cassis, huh? That's going on the list to try...

[onasuma]

I take builders tea, 4 sugars +. Otherwise relitivly strong. Mum prefers hot water with leaves in it.

[Wizard Guy]

Yay tea. I take my tea with tea in it, nothing else, steeped for four minutes and one second. I drink Earl Grey mostly although I am partial to a bit of oolong once in a while, not so much of a fan of red tea though.

As for the quality of my tea I flat out refuse to drink cheap tea so it's good that there is a great tea shop not to far from my house.

Ha, when my mother was smelling the different red teas to decide which one to try she exclaimed "that smells like what I gave to my horse as a kid." and promptly bought that tea. Upon walking out she said to me "She [the shop keeper] seemed to think it was a bad thing that it smelled of what I gave to my horse."

[Kneenibble]

By red tea, Mr. Wizard, do you mean red tea in the Chinese sense - as in what is more commonly called black tea? Or rooibus?

[Lyesmith]

What of tea for use in hair?
I heard reccommendations of Sage, but have never been able to aqquire sage tea.

[Kaelaroth]

Apart from jasmine tea, I don't get near the stuff.

[Winter_Wolf]

I like black and green tea. I prefer straight up Tie Guanyin Chinese black tea or Longjing green tea. I once had the privilege of drinking the first rate stuff when I and some friends went to the tea museum just outside of Longjing, China. It's near Hangzhou, if you're ever heading that way. The grade three stuff was really really good, but then we had the grade one stuff. Wow. There's a reason they charge an insanely high price for the grade one stuff. If you're curious, at the time they were after something along the lines of 3000 Chinese yuan for I think it was one small (250ml sized) container of the stuff. At the time it would have been the rough equivalent of 375 US dollars, and if any of us had had the money, we'd have considered it well spent. And the person at the museum was unusually kind and she really packed as much tea into those containers as she reasonably could.

There was also a "fairly" expensive tea that my wife somehow located, which hasn't got a real strong flavor while you're drinking it, but leaves a sweet aftertaste and is supposed to aid in something that I can't recall, I think purifying some kind of something in the blood or maybe it was weight loss. Probably it was something else altogether, since basically I'm pretty sure Chinese have some kind of tea or tea-like concoction for just about every purpose. I myself have had at least a dozen different kinds of tea while in China, then I just gave up trying to count anything beyond that.

[Kneenibble]

Are you thinking of Pu-erh tea, Winter Wolf? AKA Bo-lei?

...Can I visit you? Please?


What of tea for use in hair?
I heard reccommendations of Sage, but have never been able to aqquire sage tea.

It can't be that hard to find! It's just dried sage.
It darkens light hair, and gives highlights to dark hair.
Chamomile tea gives nice highlights in light hair.

[Wizard Guy]

By red tea, Mr. Wizard, do you mean red tea in the Chinese sense - as in what is more commonly called black tea? Or rooibus?

Rooibus is the tea I meant. Sorry for being unclear.

[Lyesmith]

Are you thinking of Pu-erh tea, Winter Wolf? AKA Bo-lei?

...Can I visit you? Please?



It can't be that hard to find! It's just dried sage.
It darkens light hair, and gives highlights to dark hair.
Chamomile tea gives nice highlights in light hair.

So i should just rinse my hair in it after i wash it, then?
We've got some Sage in the garden, if i dried that and then stuck it in boiling water for a bit, would it do?

[Mad Scientist]

I am a tea fan. I admit that my favorite is black tea with a bit a milk and sugar. I've tried lots of kinds, but I have to go with the classic comfort of black with milk and sugar.
My sister likes to think she is a tea snob - she always has 10+ varieties on hand and just sighs when she comes to visit me and all I usually have is black, rooibos, and mint. But she buys her "really nice" tea from the regular grocery store so it's honestly not that good. It always tastes stale to me. I once bought her a tin of moderately nice black tea from a specialty shop and she thought it must have been really expensive because it tasted all complex and floral. I told her it was essentially the same type of tea you would get from the grocery only not expired! I don't think she believed me.
I'll also drink lemon tea with honey and whiskey when I'm feeling sick. Sort of a grown up version of the hot lemon juice and honey my mom would try to force on me when I had a sore throat. Scalding hot, sickly sweet lemon juice is about the worst sore throat remedy I can imagine. But switch the juice for tea and throw in some whisky and it's great!

[Alana]

Oh my, I'm addicted to tea, really. I need it in the morning like nothing else. :) To make life easy, I prefer the readily available types of tea, and always with milk and sugar.

Best tea I ever had was in Ireland on my honeymoon. That was some seriously tasty tea.

[FoE]

My mom used to serve tea every night after supper when I was growing up. I take it with cream and a couple heaping spoonfuls of sugar. I forget which brand was her favourite. (Not Tetley ... Red Rose?)

I don't care for green tea, though I do like regular tea sweetened with honey.

[Jayngfet]

To quote hitchikers guide to the galaxy

boiled leaves?

with milk.

squirted out of a cow?

tea is indeed a miricle, thank optimus prime for whoever decided to boil leaves.

[Quincunx]

Face of Evil: No, no, no, nooooooooooo, not the Red Rose, that is the most bitter substance I've ever found in the guise of tea! This may be related to the fact that it was the Italian side of the family were the ones who kept it in the house, if Italian coffee is any indication, aie!

Alana: Assuming you were staying in a B&B and that it was a commercial brand, the red packaging or the green packaging?

I've heard rumors about dipping cooki--*deep breath* biscuits into tea. Which? Why?

[Winter_Wolf]

@ Kneenibble: Yes, pu'er cha, thank you. One would think that for the number of times I'd heard it, it would have stuck in memory better. You're more than welcome to visit, but as I'm currently not in China, you won't be finding anything other than bags of Lipton sitting in my cupboards at the moment.

Also, I find that steeping sliced ginger in hot water with a some honey is good. Don't know if it counts as tea, but don't really know what else I'd call it.

[Dullyanna]

As much as I love having milk in my tea, I have to admit that a recent study revealed that milk blocks some of the health benefits of tea. Apparently, soy milk and its ilk don't do this (Although I've never had soy milk in my tea).

[Project_Mayhem]

For He is an Englishman - he remai-ai-ai-ai-ai-ai-ai-ai-ai-ai-ains and Eng-leeesh man.

Yeah, I likes me tea. 5 or 6 cups a day.

[Mando Knight]

I usually have black tea, and I prefer any iced tea unsweetened...

Winter_Wolf: interestingly enough, writer Karen Traviss (http://karentraviss.com/), while developing the Mandalorian language (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Mando%27a), came up with a generic term for a hot beverage consisting of herbs steeped in water: chig... just so you know...

[Risky]

I'm a big fan of sweetened Jasmine green tea, but the only place I can find it is at a Japanese buffet near work. =( I need to start actively hunting for it, I'm sure it's everywhere.

[Telonius]

I don't take tea, I drink it. :smallbiggrin: No caffeine allowed, says the doctor, so my options for hot beverages are somewhat limited. I like herbal teas of all varieties, especially mint tea.

[poleboy]

I drink it in periods mostly. I've strayed a bit from tea since I started drinking coffee again, and I don't really feel the need to drink both. Especially not during the summer.
But when I do drink it, it's usually green tea all the way. I'm also quite fond of the white teas I've had (some expensive imported stuff) although I'm not quite sure what constitues a white tea exactly. It tastes to me like a very mild green tea.

Chai can be good, but the English sure managed to kill the fun in that :smallbiggrin:

[Mauve Shirt]

I like chai and black tea. Sweetened.

You know what's really silly? The phrase "chai tea."

[Player_Zero]

I have drunk hundreds of different kinds of tea in various different ways, an' such, and the only tea I didn't like was a horrible raspberry concoction which I believe may have eaten a hole into my soul, into which the despairs of those around me are dragged, forever living in a twilight existance between nothingness and oblivion...

...Yeah, so tea is nice, huh?

[Zarrexaij]

I happen to be one of the rare people that love tea as much as I love coffee. I happen to like real tea and herbal "tea," but my favorite types of true tea are mostly black. Green tea is definitely the type best with honey, and white tea, from my experience, can get too sweet very fast with sugar. I can't afford to be a tea snob, so I'm content to get my tea in a box from the grocery store.

My favorite varities of black tea would be spiced chai and this Irish breakfast tea I found. It's excellent with milk, sugar, and butter cookies. Neither are teas served good cold, either. I like sweet tea just as much as piping hot tea however.

I just like tea, tehe. :smallbiggrin::smalltongue:

[BillsBioBlog]

Lipton Green all the way :D