Best Tea

[c hristian]

It just occurred to me the other day that I what I want to know I should ask right here! Music bedamned!

What is/are the tea(s) that you English men and women commonly drink? (as a generalization or as a market statistic)

and then finally,


What is the tea that you prefer? What are the best teas out there , that you've tried?


THANKS! !


(I am starting to enjoy green, but nothing beats black for me! So as we say amongst our private musical selves, KEEP IT BLACK!!) (That was a joke. we don't say that.)

[Rob Hall]

Are we talking with or without milk here, c hristian?

[NormanD]

Read George Orwell, his short essay on The Perfect Cup Of Tea. Best advice in the world on tea making.

My poison is Assam for a strong morning pick me up brew, and aromatic Earl Grey for later in the day. Go for loose tea, try to avoid the bags, they get filled with the dust, in my opinion.

Russian Caravan is a good, strong one, too. Darjeeling, without milk, is a great refresher, with a kick.

As far as national popularity goes, it's probably PG Tips in bags. Loads of brands around, including supermarket own blends. Shop with care.

Anyone else ever have Gunpowder - that's worth looking around for, if you like a smoked flavour.

[c hristian]

Are we talking with or without milk here, c hristian?

you tell me!!

I grew up on tea and 1/2 and 1/2, then I parlayed that into Tea with milk, with a brief stop into tea with milk AND Lemon, that's right , AND LEMON, when everyone looked at me with discust and repugnance from afar. Then it was back to regular 1/2 and 1/2. Then I met my girlfriend, soon to be wife, and picked up her habit of rotating between 1/2 1/2 and evaporated milk, seeing as that's what she grew up on in Liberia, but lately, I been confining it to just evap milk cans which we buy by the cart when i realized that the way we drink tea, we simply can't have that much cream to ingest. But lately my 8 yo son who had been following all our habits and changes to the "T" (pun intended) has been opting for "regular milk" (organic whole milk) since that's how they drink their tea in all his harry potter books. Yesterday I had ginger green chinese tea with evap milk and white refined sugar. Disgusting, but drinkable, so I drank it.

[Adam Blake]

Read George Orwell, his short essay on The Perfect Cup Of Tea. Best advice in the world on tea making.

What he say...

[Con Murphy]

Read George Orwell, his short essay on The Perfect Cup Of Tea. Best advice in the world on tea making.

What he say...

http://www.booksatoz.com/witsend/tea/orwell.htm

In summary:-

1. Use tea from India or Ceylon (Sri Lanka), not China
2. Use a teapot, preferably ceramic
3. Warm the pot over direct heat
4. Tea should be strong - six spoons of leaves per 1 litre
5. Let the leaves move around the pot - no bags or strainers
6. Take the pot to the boiling kettle
7. Stir or shake the pot
8. Drink out of a tall, mug-shaped tea cup
9. Don't add creamy milk
10. Add milk to the tea, not vice versa
11. No sugar!

[howard male]

Marcia has convinced me that the most important aspect of a good cup of tea is the quality of the water. We've just been going through every 'taste the difference' or 'quality blend' available to try to recreate the cuppas she had when working up in Yorkshire recently, but nothing measured up. Yet the tea she drank there was probably just PG Tips or something.

I think Orwell's nailed it apart from the milk aspect. Milk should be put in the cup first and then tea - there's a good scientific reason but I can't recall what it is.

[Ted]

3. Warm the pot over direct heat

This is just plain WRONG. Half fill the pot with boiling water to warm. Leave for about a minute. Oh and the pot HAS to be a Brown Betty.

I'm surprised at you Con. People have stamped of from the forum never to return over less important things than this.

TW

PS
Why do Anarchists drink Earl Grey? Because proper tea is theft.

[CantSleepClownsWillGetMe]

A friend introduced me to his recipe, which makes for the nicest tea I've ever tasted:-

Teapot (any colour) +
1/2 Earl Grey
1/2 black tea of your preference
1 cardomom pod
+ boiling water
Allow to infuse

Re the difference in the water: here, where I live in Scotland the water tends to be softer. But I remember when I lived in London years ago, being horrified the first time I looked inside a London kettle. I was convinced I'd need an asbestos suit and a pneumatic drill to remove the scaling in there! The higher mineral content, therefore, in the water in the south of the UK has to make a difference to the taste. Not necessarily for the worse, but certainly different.

Does that still happen - the scaling? Or have the Tefal boffins sorted the problem out.

June

[Con Murphy]

3. Warm the pot over direct heat

This is just plain WRONG. Half fill the pot with boiling water to warm. Leave for about a minute. Oh and the pot HAS to be a Brown Betty.

I'm surprised at you Con. People have stamped of from the forum never to return over less important things than this.

TW

Maybe I should have made it more clear that these are Orwell's instructions. I've never followed number 3 myself - I usually just rinse the pot out with hot water (now you really are going to storm off aren't you, Ted?).

The whole "milk first or last" thing must be worthy of prolonged debate on a wet weekend - I was brought up to put the milk in first, only to be told much later that this was "posh" because the only reason for doing so was to stop your delicate bone china tea-cups cracking from the heat of the tea (which confused me because we only ever drank out of mugs in our house).

However, I believe the actual reason for milk first is that when you pour leaf-tea (the Orwellian ideal), tea-leaves are less likely to float to the top. There's some guff about scalding the milk if it goes in last as well, but I'm not convinced about that one.

[Adam Blake]

Always put the milk in last, main reason being that if you put the milk in first you can't always tell what the colour's going to be like whereas if you put the milk in last you can put in just enough to make it the right colour - another important factor.

I must say, I admire Ted and Howard for daring to gainsay George on such an important subject.

[NormanD]

I've heard the milk first/last debated as a class issue (half seriously), mainly along the lines of Con's "posh" considerations.

A Cup and saucer (though obviously not bone china, unless it was a Sunday or relatives were visiting) was always more working class when I was young. Mugs were never used, or even known about. Jam jars maybe, but then you'd really be on the skids.

My mother used to make a brew by putting loose tea in a strainer and pouring the water through it, using it endless times. Then the residue would be slung in a pot (they were only ever brown), water added, and kept on the gas stove on the edge of a low light. On all day. Bleedin' horrible, and stewed to buggery. I had to have at least three sugars to make it drinkable.

June's got a good point about the hardness of water, which varies according to were you are in London, I think. It is still hard, where I am, and the tea always has a brown film to it. Is Yorkshire water softer or harder, does anyone know?

An aside:
A particularly barmy aunt of mine was known to make the tea in the sink, ladling it out. My dad ventured into her kitchen, came out shocked, and alerted everyone. But she's another story. If you're diligent in following MySpace links you'll find how she's still cracked at the age of 85, making the front page of the local paper in the process.

[Dayna]

You don't use any sugar at all?

My Mom got me started drinking tea when I was a kid & she made it with milk & sugar, which is pretty much the way I like it now. I tastes bitter too me, without it.

[Adam Blake]

Try it without sugar for a week. You'll never go back.

[Dominic]

Six sugars, please. But don't stir it as I don't like it too sweet.