Tea drinking

[Beef Oven!]

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... ...........................

I think Ty-Phoo was what we had when I was a kid, mainly for my dad (with a tea-strainer), I never had a cup of tea until I was 9 - provided at the end of a club football match on the Hackney Marshes circa 1969. I liked it and decided it tasted like rice pudding! My mum being Italian, I only ever had coffee until that day, and latte at that. I got quite a surprise when I accepted the offer of a cup of coffee ‘round an English friend’s house while I was waiting for him to get his kit ready to go swimming at Hackney baths. That night I asked my mum and she explained that that is how English people have their coffee (instant with water), adding that it was as bad as that Camp liquid she suffered on arrival here (she still gurns at even the mention of Camp!). It was years before I accepted a coffee in an English home again!!

I remember when tea-bags were invented. We adopted them immediately and the tea-strainer was history.

This morning, on reading some of the comments about milk in tea, I’m experimenting using half my normal amount. Usually I leave the tea bag for 5 minutes so it’s very strong, then pour in loads of milk with one sugar. So far I have no problem with drastically reduced milk and will experiment with a ‘splash’ at some point. I’d love to drop the sugar, but I find it hard - nearly all my friends have, including one who in the 1970s used to have 5 sugars in his tea (perversely he has the most excellent teeth to this day!).

I’ve just remembered an Indian doctor I used to work with. He would put tea, milk and sugar into a pan and boil it up for about 20 minutes. I was very surprised to hear from him that that’s how they do it in India. He said his favourite tea was to be had at an Indian Railway station - I don’t remember the one he identified.

[oddoneout]

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.

My ex is Dutch and his family in this country had adopted the English way with PG Tips and milk - but no sugar. He had his black usually strong but with sugar. Visiting family in Holland involved packing lots of aforementioned brand( or Typhoo as second preference) as they had kept the milk free habit but found the Dutch blends too weak. I liked the dutch blend(Pickwick!) and would bring it back with me to be drunk either black or white.
I mostly use teabags, but always brewed in a small Brown Betty - not least because it stops the mugs getting stained - but also have a selection of black, white and green loose teas from an excellent local outlet, as the whim dictates. Warm weather and assorted illness tends to bring out the alternatives, mostly drunk without milk, and I have a collection of different china teapots to use for them - the tannin buildup on the BB is not wanted for the milder versions....

[Bryn]

... its Waitrose Earl Grey teabags which I settled on some years ago as the best of the mainstream supermarket offerings ...

Indeed, and far preferable to the big brand Earl Greys too. The right variety of tea (a black China) and not too heavy on the bergamot oil. My standard tea, though other Waitrose blends do get an occasional look in. Leaf tea brewed for around 1 to 2 minutes in a cafetiere is my preferred method these days, my treasured Wenford Bridge teapot now resides on a cupboard top in a decorative role.

[kernelbogey]

My mum being Italian

A way of making weak tea (to drink without milk) I occasionally employ is to pour boiling water onto the leaves in the pot and then immediately pour into the cup or mug. It allows the fresh taste of the tea to emerge without the bitterness of the tannin.

[Beef Oven!]

A way of making weak tea (to drink without milk) I occasionally employ is to pour boiling water onto the leaves in the pot and then immediately pour into the cup or mug. It allows the fresh taste of the tea to emerge without the bitterness of the tannin.

But apparently, to get the benefit of the antioxidant free radical-fighting properties of tea, one must allow at least 3 minutes of fermentation.

[Petrushka]

What is an Outlook page?

It's my e-mail page.

[oddoneout]

(Adds extra to the composting, too!)

So long as they're paper not plastic....It's quite tiresome to find little gauzy bags triumphantly intact amid the otherwise brown garden goodness. At work there are now caddies for green waste in the staff rooms to go on the compost heaps in the grounds, and quite a few of the favoured brews seem to be in non-rot bags. Last year, spreading the compost exposed them, but a combination of no paid garden staff and too few volunteers means that they just have to stay. Not ideal on a site open to paying visitors but needs must, and in any case as the culprits dry out and shrivel and get covered by growing plants they don't show up during the season.
At home fortunately the teabags I use seem to be paper based, so no editing needed.

[oddoneout]

But apparently, to get the benefit of the antioxidant free radical-fighting properties of tea, one must allow at least 3 minutes of fermentation.

I think kombucha takes more than 3 minutes fermentation.....?
But otherwise it depends somewhat on the reason for drinking tea - health or pleasure. Many of the loose teas I have are brewed for seconds rather than minutes and use water below boiling point, and in fact I think the reason many people don't like green tea when they try it is because it can get very bitter when brewed like 'normal' tea.
Does milk have an effect on the antioxidant thing?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

So long as they're paper not plastic.

[Beef Oven!]

And what of ritual?

I always pour boiling water into the cup first to heat it up (same with pot, if using one).
I always give the tea bag a little shake in case of dust/debris.
If using loose tea in a pot, NEVER stir, just leave it be.
Always squeeze the tea bag to get the last strong stuff into the cup/pot.
A saucer is compulsory (I’m pleased that some years ago I broke the habit of pouring tea into my saucer if it was too hot and slurping it from there)
If I have biscuits, they MUST be dunked.
Milk in after water.
Sugar last.
Never have just one cup of tea, minimum two per episode.
No more than 10 cups in a day.
Always have a few cups before going to Harrods food hall - otherwise you’ll end up spending £20 on tea you don’t really need.
Save Earl Grey for the dog or your less manly visitors.

If you follow the above, you’ll not go far wrong.

[teamsaint]

And what of ritual?

I always pour boiling water into the cup first to heat it up (same with pot, if using one).
I always give the tea bag a little shake in case of dust/debris.
If using loose tea in a pot, NEVER stir, just leave it be.
Always squeeze the tea bag to get the last strong stuff into the cup/pot.
A saucer is compulsory (I’m pleased that some years ago I broke the habit of pouring tea into my saucer if it was too hot and slurping it from there)
If I have biscuits, they MUST be dunked.
Milk in after water.
Sugar last.
Never have just one cup of tea, minimum two per episode.
No more than 10 cups in a day.
Always have a few cups before going to Harrods food hall - otherwise you’ll end up spending £20 on tea you don’t really need.
Save Earl Grey for the dog or your less manly visitors.

If you follow the above, you’ll not go far wrong.

I have it on good authority that Queen Mary drank her tea from a saucer.

Otherwise, pretty sound advice.

Presumably it has to be tea with Pie and mash?

[Beef Oven!]

Presumably it has to be tea with Pie and mash?

Oh, yes how did I forget that? Well spotted, ts.

[AmpH]

And what of ritual?

I always pour boiling water into the cup first to heat it up (same with pot, if using one).
I always give the tea bag a little shake in case of dust/debris.
If using loose tea in a pot, NEVER stir, just leave it be.
Always squeeze the tea bag to get the last strong stuff into the cup/pot.
A saucer is compulsory (I’m pleased that some years ago I broke the habit of pouring tea into my saucer if it was too hot and slurping it from there)
If I have biscuits, they MUST be dunked.
Milk in after water.
Sugar last.
Never have just one cup of tea, minimum two per episode.
No more than 10 cups in a day.
Always have a few cups before going to Harrods food hall - otherwise you’ll end up spending £20 on tea you don’t really need.
Save Earl Grey for the dog or your less manly visitors.

If you follow the above, you’ll not go far wrong.

With the exception of items 5 and 8 ( please no sugar ! ) some sound advice.

[Bryn]

And what of ritual?

... Milk in after water ...

A sure way to ruin the flavour if added too soon. The high temperature and much larger volume of the water messes up the colloidal associations in the milk, thus adversely altering the taste. A bit like using sterilised milk.

[ostuni]

I was a regular drinker of standard tea-bag teas for years, but discovered the pleasures of Darjeeling teas while on holiday (in Austria, actually). I then started exploring various other types, mostly through the excellent Canton Tea Company, and discovered that I really like most Oolongs, and First Flush Darjeelings. A (glass, single-serving) pot of Oolong, made mid-morning, gets repeated infusions during the day (each one intriguingly, if slightly, different in taste); during the afternoon I change to a darjeeling (which, again, is good for more than one infusion - not as many as the typical oolong, though).

Some of these teas look quite pricey, but they still (with those multiple infusions) work out plenty cheaper per serving than the wine I have in the evening, or the malt whisky if I settle down for some late-evening listening...