Tea drinking

[Beef Oven!]

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.

Back in antiquity (1960s) people ‘round my way loved sterraz in their tea! I’ve never had it, but I liked drinking sterilised milk. Can you still get it, I wonder?

[kernelbogey]

And what of ritual?

Aaah, what indeed...?

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)

Hence the expression, still in use in the '50s in Cornwall, 'a dish of tea'.

....Milk in after water.

To be approved on culinary grounds, but emphatically not on the odiously classist expression 'MIF'.

[Beef Oven!]

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...

I’m too much of a glugger - sophisticated/quality teas are wasted on me. Same with wine & whisky (when I finish my single malts and JW Blue, Green & Gold, it’ll be back to Teacher’s for me! Although I’ll have another go at that Bell’s that Scotty Celt insists on).

Funny enough, when I’m listening to music of an evening, a few cups of tea goes really well. Just as good as a single malt or a Chablis (my wine weakness) and you get to keep yer whits about ya!

[kernelbogey]

Back in antiquity (1960s) people ‘round my way loved sterraz in their tea! I’ve never had it, but I liked drinking sterilised milk. Can you still get it, I wonder?

Known as 'clover milk' in Lincolnshire in the 1950s, and sold in tall crown-capped bottles.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

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

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

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

That's why she had her head cut off.

[Beef Oven!]

Known as 'clover milk' in Lincolnshire in the 1950s, and sold in tall crown-capped bottles.

Yes, metal crimped cap. Can you still get it? If so, I’m going to see how it goes with me.

[teamsaint]

That's why she had her head cut off.

I think you may be confusing tea and communion wine?

[vinteuil]

To be approved on culinary grounds, but emphatically not on the odiously classist expression 'MIF'.

... real toffs put milk in last. Other real toffs put milk in first. Real toffs couldn't care less what the plebs might do or might think.

[Beef Oven!]

... real toffs put milk in last. Other real toffs put milk in first. Real toffs couldn't care less what the plebs might do or might think.

Phew, that’s a relief. I shall continue as the whim takes me, untroubled.

[vinteuil]

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

That's why she had her head cut off.

... come now, Mary I died of influenza or ovarian cancer, Mary II died of smallpox (you may recall P'cells musicke thereanent). No real Queen Mary had her head cut orf...



.

[kernelbogey]

... real toffs put milk in last. Other real toffs put milk in first. Real toffs couldn't care less what the plebs might do or might think.

But of course it's the middle classes who invent such 'rules' and expressions - to sustain the illusion of their differences from the 'lower orders', and their aspiration to join those 'above'.

[Beresford]

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..

We called it Shipyard Tea when I worked (briefly) in a shipyard ; the office workers had pots (before tea machines).

[Beresford]

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).

A friend introduced me to Jade Oolong teas 2 years ago. Brewed for 4 minutes with water slightly below boiling point, it makes a lovely first cup or two of the day (as does Darjeeling or Orange Pekoe). Oolong doesn't have the grassy taste of most green teas. Yorkshire Tea is OK in small doses in the afternoons, (like Lesley Garrett?) but often needs sugar to make it palatable. Red Bush is OK in the evenings, to limit caffeine - just don't expect it to taste like proper tea.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I think you may be confusing tea and communion wine?

??? She drank her communion wine from a saucer???!!!