FortKnox's Journal: Tea: Found that sweet spot

For the record, I'm not a tea drinker. Coffee (Dunkin Donuts, preferably) is my poison. But I wanted to know that flavor when a brit takes a sip and says 'oh my god, yes.'

It took a while with some experimentation using the suggestions given. But I found it. And may I say, damn that's nice. I still will have my cup of joe in the morning, but that evening cup of tea really hits the spot (both decaf, of course).

Here's about what I do:
Boiling water, use some to heat the coffee (set pot back on the still on stove to keep the boil), then pour it into the cup with the teabag (earl grey). Let steep ~4 minutes. Add in a bit of half-and-half, till almost white. Add in a half a spoon of sugar. Enjoy.

I got hooked on Chai...

[(H)elix1]

When I spent a couple months in India last year. Good stuff when you take the time to do it right. Most of the 'office' tea I saw in the UK was this rosebud stuff - which I would lump in as the cheap coffee version of tea.

Got to get back there again. Nothing like getting your tea from a street vendor. (grin)

Re:I got hooked on Chai...

[artifex2004]

Nothing like getting your tea from a street vendor. (grin)

Oh, geez. I want to say that that's dangerous, because historically there have been scandals over used tea, dyed tea, tea cut with all kinds of chemicals, the sort of thing drug addicts worry about these days.

And then I remember that Tazo [tazo.com], here in the US, was started by a guy with a pushcart in Portland, Oregon. So says one of their various conflicting accounts of themselves, anyway. :)

Re:I got hooked on Chai...

[grub]

Tazo's Earl Grey is fantastic! I just picked up more for work. :)

Sugar? You heathen!

[tomhudson]

Just joking (I'm already "extra-sweet" so I forgo the sugar, and artificial sweeteners leave an aweful aftertaste)

But you might want to try a bit of honey for a different taste.

As you point out, one of the REAL secrets is pre-warming. This also applies, to a lesser extent, with coffee. Pour coffee into a cold mug and you've ruined it. I put my coffee mug on the toaster upside-down, and it captures enough heat to prewarm it quite nicely for coffee. For tea, pouring boiling water into the mug and letting

Re:Sugar? You heathen!

[kesuki]

you might wanna try stevia an all natural no calorie sweetner, it's exceptionally useful with tea. sadly poor stevia (which doesn't taste quite like sugar, anyways) is only sold as a 'dietary supplement' because those are mostly unregulated. but brazil and portugual have used the stuff for centuries, and the japanese have been using it for several decades. myself, I have 5 2oz bottles of it, and use it as a replacement for, or as an 'ennhancer' to sugar.

normally i drink my tea green, or black i only swee

Re:Sugar? You heathen!

[tomhudson]

Once you learn to drink (and enjoy) stuff without artificial sweeteners (or any sweeteners), why would you want to go back?

Don't forget, the big problem we have is we're adicted to refined sugars. Literally addicted. When I was a kid, one native from up north had never had raw sugar, and the first time he encountered it, he loaded up on it - "loaded up" in his case being 4 tablespoons. He ended up passing out, it was that much of a shock to his system.

Ever eat too many donuts and you can just FEEL the s

Re:Sugar? You heathen!

[kesuki]

Well, I've never really been able to kick the sweeteend drink routine. green teas i enjoy without sugar(especially ones with peach or cherry blossoms), black teas i need a sweetner in to fully enjoy.

And i understand what you mean about 'raw' sugar. I once kept a container of brown sugar around as a susbstitute for having a candy dish... it didn't take long to eat a whole pound of brown sugar... and that's not even 'raw' that's refined sugar, with the low grade mollases added back in..

i've never ever gotte