How Does One Properly Make Tea?

[Manga Shoggoth]

The War is about When you put the milk in the teacup.

Running away is the only sane option.

I did once try circumventing this dilemma by making tea by heating the milk and adding the tea.

It wasn't a sane option either.

[Recherché]

Milk and sugar are normally only added to black teas. Green and white teas don't need them and they usually don't go well with milk and sugar anyways. Black tea contains lots of a bitter chemical called tannins that many people don't like. The milk and sugar are to neutralize it. Green and white tea shouldn't have tannins in them provided they aren't oversteeped or the water wasn't too hot.

[Vizzerdrix]

OK. I retract anything I may have said to the effect that there is no wrong way to drink tea.

*incurs 2d10 SAN loss after a successful SAN check and goes to look for the brain bleach.*

My tea is most best tea. All other ways are wrong!

[brinybill]

I make my tea with the same bag that I have used the last 2 days and boiling it for half an hour, I then add milk and maple syrup.
in all fairness my tea is half chaga mushrooms and half erva mate, so that is a perfectly acceptable preparation

[Vizzerdrix]

I make my tea with the same bag that I have used the last 2 days and boiling it for half an hour, I then add milk and maple syrup.
in all fairness my tea is half chaga mushrooms and half erva mate, so that is a perfectly acceptable preparation

That reminds me. I gotta go out this spring and get some chaga for my dad.

[Aedilred]

Milk and sugar are normally only added to black teas. Green and white teas don't need them and they usually don't go well with milk and sugar anyways. Black tea contains lots of a bitter chemical called tannins that many people don't like. The milk and sugar are to neutralize it. Green and white tea shouldn't have tannins in them provided they aren't oversteeped or the water wasn't too hot.

Mint tea takes sugar well (not milk, though).

Having said that there is a valid argument to be had over whether mint tea is a tea at all or properly a tisane.

[veti]

Mint tea takes sugar well (not milk, though).

Having said that there is a valid argument to be had over whether mint tea is a tea at all or properly a tisane.

The "mint teas" I've had contain both mint and tea, so they would qualify as teas. If you make it with just mint, that's another story.

[Heliomance]

Mint tea takes sugar well (not milk, though).

Having said that there is a valid argument to be had over whether mint tea is a tea at all or properly a tisane.

There isn't really - if it doesn't contain leaves from the tea plant, it's not tea. If it does, it is.

(Having said that, prescriptivist etymology isn't a great thing, and popular usage makes "herbal tea" or "mint tea" a well-recognised term.)

[veti]

(Having said that, prescriptivist etymology isn't a great thing, and popular usage makes "herbal tea" or "mint tea" a well-recognised term.)

And "mint tea", specifically, differs from most "herbal teas" in that it commonly does contain actual tea leaves as well as mint. Usually green tea, but I've also had it with black.

[Karen Lynn]

The proper way to make tea in my experience is simple:

You and several friends sneak onto a boat late at night, grab crates of tea, and pitch it into a harbor. Then you run before the British catch you.

Joking aside, get a pot of water to boil, add a bunch of teabags, let steep, pull the bags, add sugar and stir to dissolve, then add lemonade while still warm and bring it to half sweet tea, half lemonade. That's how ya make tea the Oklahoma way.

[Vizzerdrix]

The proper way to make tea in my experience is simple:

You and several friends sneak onto a boat late at night, grab crates of tea, and pitch it into a harbor. Then you run before the British catch you.

.........

This is the only way, other than my own that is correct. All other ways are wrongbad teaing.

[FaerieGodfather]

I use a cheap coffeemaker, four bags to one 12 ounce pot-- or per two 12 ounce pots for iced tea. If someone puts coffee in my teapot, I gift it to them and go buy another.

[Themrys]

If you start with a teabag, you are already doing it wrong.


I drink improperly made tea most of the time, and I don't mind, but the first step to tea propriety is to let the leaves float freely in the water. None of the traditional and time honoured ways to make tea include teabags. (Probably because teabags are a new invention, but also people claim the flavour isn't as good and you get bad tea in teabags because you can't see the quality)

[blunk]

Here's a groovy take on the question.



Now, this is serious.

[Lemmy]

All this controversy is why I stick with chocolate milk... (Well... That and the sweet tooth that'll probably reduce my life expectancy by about 10 years).

[Velaryon]

I like to add honey to my green tea so that it doesn't taste as much like I'm drinking someone's front lawn. However, I'm also pretty lazy about stirring it in, so the honey mostly accumulates at the bottom... which is a pretty nice way to end a cup of tea, I have to say.

The proper way to make tea in my experience is simple:

You and several friends sneak onto a boat late at night, grab crates of tea, and pitch it into a harbor. Then you run before the British catch you.

So, are you an immortal or did you come to the 21st century from 1773 by time warp? If the latter, is it two-way or are you stuck here in the future?

All this controversy is why I stick with chocolate milk... (Well... That and the sweet tooth that'll probably reduce my life expectancy by about 10 years).

This is what I do every morning, especially when it's too warm for hot tea.

[Caerulea]

So, are you an immortal or did you come to the 21st century from 1773 by time warp? If the latter, is it two-way or are you stuck here in the future?

If the former, how do I get that?

—Caerulea

[Velaryon]

If the former, how do I get that?

—Caerulea

Ooh, good addendum. I want in on that too!

[Khedrac]

All this controversy is why I stick with chocolate milk... (Well... That and the sweet tooth that'll probably reduce my life expectancy by about 10 years).

I must remember this excuse!

[Lemmy]

I must remember this excuse!

You don't need an excuse to drink chocolate milk... It's chocolate milk! It's freakin' delicious!

[5crownik007]

Milk binds to the tannin in your tea.
Supposedly, tannin is good for you, and the milk binding to it makes it less effective.

I challenge you to drink it with milk and then not put in milk when you are sick.

Note, the above-mentioned is gathered from several barely read google searches.

[Recherché]

Tannins are antioxidants and they can help with high blood pressure and heart disease. However tannins also interfere with iron absorption and people with anemia are advised to avoid them.

[Vizzerdrix]

If you start with a teabag, you are already doing it wrong.

Agreed! Powder is the one true tea. Anything else is wrong.

[Wizard_Lizard]

How I make tea depends on the person that I am making tea for, but for me, I first place the teabag in the mug. Then I fill the mug with boiling water, leaving about 1 cm of space left for milk. I fill that space with milk. Then I wait about a minute. Then I remove the teabag.

[ForzaFiori]

Just because no one else has said this yet (and to make all the British people mad ), the only true way to make tea is a couple gallons of black tea at a time, then load it full of sugar and chill it. Sweet iced tea is the only kind I drink lol.

[Wizard_Lizard]

We are discussing tea.....
gods I love this forum!

[DavidSh]

One way I like is to put some loose-leaf oolong into a bowl, add boiling water, let it sit 2.75 minutes, and then pour it through a strainer into another bowl. After letting it cool further to a safe temperature, I then pour it into a cup. No sugar, no milk, and probably using more tea leaves per cup than is common.
The result would probably be the same with a teapot and tea basket, but I don't have those.