Tea drinking

[french frank]

Pukka original black tea chai. No milk (I don't drink milk at all), no sugar. Pukka is our local tea blender of organic teas, especially herbal and fruit teas. I keep several blends for when I don't want coffee. But mainly I drink coffee, black no sugar.

When I first left home, aged 17, I lodged with a family where the father had been a London tea and coffee merchant: milk and sugar were never offered. I've never lost that habit.

[kernelbogey]

Now Beefy, you've got me started.

Grew up with Ty-Phoo, brewed ('mashed' - Dad) strong, with a gloop of Cornish gold top milk (yes, blimey!) and some sugar.

So I am obsessive about leaf tea. Requiring the deployment of a tea strainer ('the sieve' in my childhood). I tolerate tea-bags when necessary, or polite, but I am convinced they alter the taste of the tea. I've been given some Cornish Tea bags for Christmas, which are testing my prejudice (jury out for now).

For many years, when I was working in central London, I favoured a blend of Ceylon from the Algerian Coffee Stores in Old Compton St (a must, BTW, for any tea or coffee aficionado visiting London IMV).

Now it's Waitrose Gold Blend. Hand-thrown teapot. Cozy knitted by my Sister in Law, bless her.

About a litre of this with milk (two half-litre mugs) as hot as possible, before doing anything else (except feeding my importunate cat).

Bliss... ...........................

[Dave2002]

Love it! (and I'm not talking about the tea).

An unpleasant recollection from 'the office' is of two types of horrendous tea which I avoided like the plague - the stewed stuff that the 'tea ladies' used to trundle round the office in big metal drums on trolleys (with Kit-Kats etc on the shelf underneath) mid-morning and mid-afternoon, when I started work in the 80s; and latterly 'tea' available from a drinks machine made from some sort of brown 'dust of death' powder (lemon being available in the form of an additional pale dust sprayed in, milk ditto).

Anyway this thread has made me start the day with a cuppa for the first time for years.

You've reminded me of some of those horrendous vending machines which dispensed soup, coffee, tea etc. Sometimes the flavours were absolutely extraordinary, and usually unpleasant., perhaps depending on what went before.

Other features of vending machines - 1. Cup not descending- liquid disappears and flows elsewhere before your very eyes and 2. One cup doesn't clear so there's a battle of cups and a horrendous mess to boot as the liquid goes wherever it can.

[teamsaint]

When I was in a student house in Southampton, we had a Sikh ( not sure which nationality) landlord who was doing some work on the house.
When ready for a cuppa, he just threw leaves, milk , water and sugar in a saucepan and boiled the lot up,which I gather is quite popular.

I suppose out of curiosity I ought to try it sometime.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Strong builders tea , not much milk is my favourite but am also partial to a cup of Yunnan china tea and a china darjeeling mix on occasion but always very little milk . I find milky tea revolting .

Ah - I can only enjoy tea with lots of milk (about a quarter of the mix). The only tea I can drink without milk is a Chinese blend sent to me from my niece in Beijing - I have no idea what the blend is, as all the packaging is in ?Cantonese? The loose tea is wrapped in individual foil covers - pop one into a pot and pour boiling water over it and it expands to fill the pot. And you can keep topping up the water most of the morning/afternoon - a completely different tea experience, and one that I ration myself, as the boxes contain only a dozen sachets.

kb is right, I think: teabags alter the flavour of the tea - but I don't prefer one to the other, and the convenience of the bags makes the difference for me. (Adds extra to the composting, too!)

[vinteuil]

When I was in a student house in Southampton, we had a Sikh ( not sure which nationality) landlord who was doing some work on the house.
When ready for a cuppa, he just threw leaves, milk , water and sugar in a saucepan and boiled the lot up,which I gather is quite popular.

I suppose out of curiosity I ought to try it sometime.

... wiki provides some help here :

"The simplest traditional method of preparing masala chai is through decoction, by actively simmering or boiling a mixture of milk and water with loose leaf tea, sweeteners, and whole spices. Indian markets all over the world sell various brands of "chai masala", (Hindi चाय मसाला [chāy masālā], "tea spice") for this purpose, though many households or tea vendors, known in India as "chai wallahs",[9] blend their own. The solid tea and spice residues are strained off from masala chai before serving.

The method may vary according to taste or local custom: for example, some households may combine all of the ingredients together at the start, bring the mixture to a boil, then immediately strain and serve; others may leave the mixture simmering for a longer amount of time, or begin by bringing the tea leaves to a boil and only add the spices toward the end (or vice versa).

A common Maharashtrian practice for preparation of one cup of chai is to first combine one half cup of water with one half cup of milk in a pot over heat. Sugar may be added at this point or after. Ginger is then grated into the mixture followed by adding a "tea masala". Although the ingredients may vary from region to region, "tea masala" typically consists of cardamom powder, cinnamon powder, ground cloves, ginger powder, and pepper powder. The mixture is brought to a boil and 1 teaspoon of loose black tea is added. The chai is immediately taken off the heat, covered, and allowed to sit for approximately 10 minutes to allow the black tea to infuse into the chai. The chai is then strained and served."

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

You've reminded me of some of those horrendous vending machines which dispensed soup, coffee, tea etc. Sometimes the flavours were absolutely extraordinary, and usually unpleasant., perhaps depending on what went before.

I'm reminded of Douglas Adams' description; "something that tasted almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea".

[kernelbogey]

You've reminded me of some of those horrendous vending machines which dispensed soup, coffee, tea etc. Sometimes the flavours were absolutely extraordinary, and usually unpleasant., perhaps depending on what went before.

'Young Ceylon leaves on the palate, with an overtone of Costa Rica Hills coffee, and a strong finish of mushroom soup.'

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

A common Maharashtrian practice for preparation of one cup of chai is to first combine one half cup of water with one half cup of milk in a pot over heat. Sugar may be added at this point or after. Ginger is then grated into the mixture followed by adding a "tea masala". Although the ingredients may vary from region to region, "tea masala" typically consists of cardamom powder, cinnamon powder, ground cloves, ginger powder, and pepper powder. The mixture is brought to a boil and 1 teaspoon of loose black tea is added. The chai is immediately taken off the heat, covered, and allowed to sit for approximately 10 minutes to allow the black tea to infuse into the chai. The chai is then strained and served."

- this is the Bundobust method, which I've had on several occasions on my trips to Leeds. I'm never quite sure if I like it or not, but enjoy the process of finding out.

[ahinton]

'Young Ceylon leaves on the palate, with an overtone of Costa Rica Hills coffee, and a strong finish of mushroom soup.'

How well do you know Jilly Goolden?

[kernelbogey]

How well do you know Jilly Goolden?

:slurp emoticon:

[eighthobstruction]

....Ah 5 o'clock morning puja in the Bhuddhist monastery followed by chai and gruel (and avoiding getting ticked off by the Master because of scraping spoons on china)....

....Twinings Assam when flush (never these days)....Tetleys 7-8 times a day....

[Cockney Sparrow]

I reserve coffee for once or twice a day. I probably get a lot of caffeine from the amount of tea I drink.

After midday its Waitrose Earl Grey teabags which I settled on some years ago as the best of the mainstream supermarket offerings. (In the morning its half that and half Waitrose Gold teabags). And their leaf tea is pretty good too.

But a gift of afternoon tea at Claridges set me off again with the search for the appropriate teas - Earl Grey, and other superior leaves - appropriate for an occasional (2pots, right temperature, etc - as demonstrated) "afternoon tea". Yet to settle on an eventual preference** but, at a price Williamson tea (bags) from Waitrose are very flavourful (and unequivocally state bergamot oil on the packet, not "bergamot flavour". (I also have some Jacksons given as a Christmas present to try now)
(**keeping some of these various teas / bags back for a comparative tasting).

I agree that made to Claridges standards, tea doesn't need milk, but under home conditions its not so fine - chalky water, etc. Perhaps I'll include no milk options in my tasting exercise.

[oddoneout]

Just a minute after posting here on tea, a Whittard advert has appeared on the side of my Outlook page. Coincidence or are we being watched that much?

No, not coincidence. There are ways of removing/reducing such links, but I don't have the details - one for the techies? The nuisance factor for me rather depends on where the ad is on the page and if it is noisy. It's an issue that causes digital news media some headaches I believe in trying to get the balance between the essential advertiser revenue and the subscribers irritation levels.

[french frank]

What is an Outlook page?