Could well be off topic: better tea
 

Urban myth

Depends who you listen to! I think there is a very good case for the
argument that tea bags were a good way of utilising much of the fine tea
"dust" that was otherwise wasted. Nothing wrong with it; I'm just saying I
think there may well be something in it. Avoiding waste is a good thing.

SteveT

Could well be off topic: better tea
 

"Steve Terry" wrote in message
...

"The Old Man" wrote in message
...

"Bill Wright" wrote in message
...
If you have to make two cups or mugs of tea, get one 'one cup' teabag
and hold it in a spoon. Make a small hole in the middle of the top
surface of the bag. Pour the boiling water slowly onto the teabag (which
is still on the spoon) putting about half a cupful into each cup, then
do it again so you have gone cup 1, cup 2, cup 1, cup 2. You have to
pour slowly so the water goes into the bag and doesn't just flow over
its surface. The hole helps air escape from the bag. The results are
wonderful. The tea tastes much fresher than normal, without being weak,
and there is a doubling of economy.

Bill


I use a tea pot with one bag and get at least 4 cups out of it...

Treat yourself, steal some teabags from a neighbour and live a little,
have one per cup!

Steve Terry


too strong for me, I prefer weak(er) tea.

Could well be off topic: better tea
 

In article , Steve
Thackery
wrote:
Urban myth

Depends who you listen to! I think there is a very good case for the
argument that tea bags were a good way of utilising much of the fine tea
"dust" that was otherwise wasted. Nothing wrong with it; I'm just
saying I think there may well be something in it. Avoiding waste is a
good thing.

That depends on if 'waste' is actually worth using rather than discarding.

You could also argue that it is a 'waste' not to grind up all the branches
of the tea bush and put that in the tea. Perhaps then going on to the
roots. Any insects on the bush could also be added to boost the food
content. :-)

However I think the idea is that the best *taste* comes from just a few
leaves per plant at any picking. And if you aren't drinking tea for the
taste, then using any tea at all and heating water is a 'waste'. Just drink
water.

I'm no expert on this. But I've tended to find that teabags do contain
'dust'. i.e. many tiny particles of tea. This may be one of the reasons the
tea made with the bags tastes 'dusty'. The smaller particles may end up in
the cup of tea, and get into your mouth. I've always found teatbag tea
leaves a nasty taste and feeling in my mouth as if it is coated with some
deposit. How much of this is paper fiber, or tea dust, I can't say.

A problem with tea dust is that the central parts of each grain are very
close to all the surface area. This may affect what components the tea
retains. Some may be lost more easily than in large leaf teas.

I've tended to notice that good quality leaf teas have a distinct aroma,
and that this also appears in the flavour. Whereas tea dust lacks this, or
just smells of 'dust'. Perhaps because dust allows the relevant componts to
be lost or degraded more easily.

Slainte,

Jim

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Could well be off topic: better tea
 

On Aug 2, 10:55*am, Java Jive wrote:
Yes, get a 'proper' teapot and 'proper' tea, and a strainer.

Having said that, it's very difficult to find a decent teapot these
days. *To do it's job properly, a teapot must:
1) * * *Pour properly without dripping
2) * * *Have a combination of a baffle and a spout so designed that the
contents don't come charging out of the spout every time you pick up
the pot when it is full.
3) * * *A lid that doesn't fall into the cup as your pour out the last of
the contents.
4) * * *Less importantly, it can be convenient if it allows a hand in to
clean the inside, but these days you probably won't be able to find a
teapot spout brush either!

If you find a model that has all these good qualities, either buy five
of them, or treasure the one that you do buy, because when you break
it, you won't find another!

Decent strainers are getting hard to find as well.

Put the tea-leaves on the compost heap.

On Sun, 02 Aug 2009 09:21:07 +0100, Nick wrote:

Use loose tea Bill. Seriously, I used teabags for years then tried PG
Tips loose tea - it's so much better.

======================================

Please always reply to news group as the email address in
this post's header does not exist. *Alternatively, use one of the
contact addresses at:
* * * *http://www.macfh.co.uk/JavaJive/JavaJive.html
* * * *http://www.macfh.co.uk/Macfarlane/Macfarlane.html

My wife is a keen tea drinker, and also keen smasher of tea pots.
Despite the latter characteristic, I bought her
http://www.teapigs.co.uk/gadgets/tea...solo-teamaker/ as a
wedding anniversary present (over 1 year ago!). It might offend
traditionalists in terms of its visuals, but I can happily report a)
that it doesn't spill a drop when pouring b) neoprene jacket keeps the
tea hot and b) keeps the tea leaves safely away from the cup, whether
you put the leaves in the bowl or in the built in strainer.

I can't sing its praises highly enough.

Bet she's broken it today though.......

Matt

Could well be off topic: better tea
 

However I think the idea is that the best *taste* comes from just a few
leaves per plant at any picking. And if you aren't drinking tea for the
taste, then using any tea at all and heating water is a 'waste'. Just
drink
water.

I don't disagree with any of this. I think "proper" tea seems better in the
mouth than teabag tea.

I'm just saying that the inventors of the tea bag may well have seen it as a
way of utilising the fine "dust" that can't go into proper tea. And
provided you've still got the choice, that's fine by me.

SteveT

Could well be off topic: better tea
 

On Tue, 04 Aug 2009 08:51:27 +0100, Jim Lesurf
wrote:

However I think the idea is that the best *taste* comes from just a few
leaves per plant at any picking. And if you aren't drinking tea for the
taste, then using any tea at all and heating water is a 'waste'. Just drink
water.

AIUI, taste originally had nothing to do with it. Originally tea was
a medicine - it has anti-septic properties. Prof Alan Macfarlane
has done research and written books on the history of tea.

http://cd1.edb.hkedcity.net/cd/itil/lxp/tea1e.htm

"When the microscope developed in the late nineteenth century and
bacteria were discovered, it became possible to test the effects of
tea. Experiments showed that typhoid, dysentery and cholera bacilli
were all destroyed when put into a solution of cold tea. It was not
the boiling that killed them, but something in the tea. So when people
drink tea they do not just drink sterilized water, but a substance
what cleans out the mouth and the stomach. Early experiments in
England in the early C18 had shown how frogs legs immersed in cold tea
remained normal, while those put in cold water quickly developed
gangrene and putrefied."

I'm no expert on this. But I've tended to find that teabags do contain
'dust'. i.e. many tiny particles of tea. This may be one of the reasons the
tea made with the bags tastes 'dusty'. The smaller particles may end up in
the cup of tea, and get into your mouth. I've always found teatbag tea
leaves a nasty taste and feeling in my mouth as if it is coated with some
deposit. How much of this is paper fiber, or tea dust, I can't say.

A problem with tea dust is that the central parts of each grain are very
close to all the surface area. This may affect what components the tea
retains. Some may be lost more easily than in large leaf teas.

I've tended to notice that good quality leaf teas have a distinct aroma,
and that this also appears in the flavour. Whereas tea dust lacks this, or
just smells of 'dust'. Perhaps because dust allows the relevant componts to
be lost or degraded more easily.

Tea bags tend to produce the least drinkable tea, I have no doubt
about that. Their only advantage is convenience. It's a similar
question between real and instant coffee, only there the difference is
more pronounced, and the price differential is the other way.

Another factor that hasn't been mentioned is the temperature of the
water. I haven't tried to, but apparently you can't make good tea
high up on Everest, because the water boils at too low a temperature.

======================================

Please always reply to news group as the email address in
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http://www.macfh.co.uk/Macfarlane/Macfarlane.html

Could well be off topic: better tea
 

And perhaps English 'folk remedies' mirror this as well. This is
hardly first hand scientific data, and, obviously, it's a long time
since I read any of them, but doesn't one of the Arthur Ransome books
("Swallowdale"?) have some charcoal burners bind Roger's strained
ankle in a poultice dipped in tea?

On Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:42:55 +0100, Java Jive
wrote:

AIUI, taste originally had nothing to do with it. Originally tea was
a medicine - it has anti-septic properties.

======================================

Please always reply to news group as the email address in
this post's header does not exist. Alternatively, use one of the
contact addresses at:
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http://www.macfh.co.uk/Macfarlane/Macfarlane.html

Could well be off topic: better tea
 

In article , Java Jive
wrote:
On Tue, 04 Aug 2009 08:51:27 +0100, Jim Lesurf
wrote:

However I think the idea is that the best *taste* comes from just a
few leaves per plant at any picking. And if you aren't drinking tea
for the taste, then using any tea at all and heating water is a
'waste'. Just drink water.

AIUI, taste originally had nothing to do with it. Originally tea was a
medicine - it has anti-septic properties. Prof Alan Macfarlane has
done research and written books on the history of tea.

http://cd1.edb.hkedcity.net/cd/itil/lxp/tea1e.htm

That's quite an interesting point. However I do drink tea for the flavour,
not as medicine. :-)


Another factor that hasn't been mentioned is the temperature of the
water. I haven't tried to, but apparently you can't make good tea high
up on Everest, because the water boils at too low a temperature.

FWIW I have made and drunk tea at the top of Mauna Kea (Hawai'i) and I'd
agree that it didn't taste very good. But then it was an experiment with
American-purchased tea bags. So hard to tell how much of the problem was
due to the poor tea. IIRC low air pressume and low O2 also can affect the
sense of taste.This is one context where instant coffee made more sense, I
guess.

Although I found instant coffee also has its snags at 14,000ft asl. If you
try to open a 'vacuum packed' jar, when you pierce the paper cover you get
a fountain of coffee granules. :-) What counts for such packs as 'vacuum'
at sea level seems more like a distinct overpressure at the top of a
volcano.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

Could well be off topic: better tea
 

On Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:10:31 +0100, Jim Lesurf wrote:

Although I found instant coffee also has its snags at 14,000ft asl. If
you try to open a 'vacuum packed' jar, when you pierce the paper cover
you get a fountain of coffee granules. :-) What counts for such packs
as 'vacuum' at sea level seems more like a distinct overpressure at the
top of a volcano.

Jars are generally not vacum packed just sealed. The seal does tend
to bulge out up here compared to normally being inward at lower
altitudes. Crisp and other similar packets can also be much more
ballon like than one expects. If I take an empty water bottle to work
if I've put the lid on tight it will be a partly squished bottle at
sea level, conversly coming up there will be a little hiss when
opened.

We are only at 1400' as well about 50mB lower pressure than sea
level. At 14,000' you have about half normal atmospheric pressure.

--
Cheers
Dave.

Could well be off topic: better tea
 

The message
from Jim Lesurf contains these words:

====snip====

Although I found instant coffee also has its snags at 14,000ft asl. If you
try to open a 'vacuum packed' jar, when you pierce the paper cover you get
a fountain of coffee granules. :-) What counts for such packs as 'vacuum'
at sea level seems more like a distinct overpressure at the top of a
volcano.

That might be the phenomena known as 'outgassing' (they don't have all
day to wait for all of the moisture and air to outgas from the product
in the vacuum packaging dept, donchaknow ;-)

--
Regards, John.

Please remove the "ohggcyht" before replying.
The address has been munged to reject Spam-bots.