Teach me about tea

[TheEvilCheese]

(British electric kettles are higher power than American ones, at least partly because they boil faster to make tea with. We have a power station that exists just to cover Britain making tea. This stuff is important.) Milk afterwards. The entire point is to scald the tea and you can't do that if it's swimming in cold milk.

And if anybody pokes their pinky out while drinking, break it.

I just wanted to jump on the power station thing because it's true and awesome.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinorwig_Power_Station

Today, Dinorwig is operated not to help meet peak loads but as a STOR (Short Term Operating Reserve), providing a fast response to short-term rapid changes in power demand or sudden loss of power stations. In a common scenario (known as TV pickup), the end of a popular national television programme or advertising breaks in commercial television programmes send millions of consumers to switch on electric kettles in the space of a few minutes, leading to overall demand increases of up to 2,800 MW. In anticipation of this surge, an appropriate number of units at Dinorwig (or other services competing for National Grid Reserve Service duty) may be brought on line as the closing credits start to roll. The monitoring of popular television channels is an important factor in electricity grid control centres.

(I've been to Dinorwig and would recommend the tour to anyone, very interesting day if you happen to be in Snowdonia)

---

OT: As everyone else has already said, there's not much to it. But depending on where you live, the less popular teas can get very expensive very fast. I am lucky living in London, there's pretty much every type of tea imaginable in a shop within 25 minutes of my front door.

Personally, I quite like a lot of different tea but nothing will ever beat a perfect English breakfast or Earl Grey. The advice I would give is generally get higher quality teabags to start off with- PG tips is generally accepted to be quite good as far as English breakfast goes, can you get that in the states?

Of course loose leaf will probably be higher quality most of the time. But you have to start somewhere.

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

Do you hear that?
Is it the sound of...
*drumroll*
DAYSTAR?!?

...

Now I have to hope Daystar comes in with some hilarious and long wordy/picy explanation of tea. Or I'll look like an idiot.

Happy now?

Daystar, this Council of the Empire are pleased with your performance. You continue to do a highly effective and efficient job of informing the masses of the true foods and delicacies of the Empire.

Remember, we will be watching.

 

[Calibanbutcher]

Happy now?

Sounds a tad pussy-fied to me.

The way MEN go about drinking tea is thus:
1.Get some fresh tea leaves, by raiding the ships of the british empire and plundering their cargo.
2. Make a fire hot enough to melt bones. MELT THEM. Not just burn them, no, they have to liquify.
3. Boil water in a kettle made from your enemies swords.
4. Place tea-leaves in your mouth
5. Pour the hot water on the tea leaves.
6. Pour some milk in afterwards.
7. Wait 7 minutes.
8. Swallow.
9. Repeat each step as often as necessary.
There.
That's how you drink tea.

 

[Teoes]

Sorry but I can tell. When milk's gone in the mug first, when the water wasn't at the right temperature to infuse the tea properly, when the teabag's not been left in long enough, I can tell. Most times I can tell just by looking. There's a lot of people in my office I won't take a cup of tea from, as I know it'll just be rotten. Saves them some effort, so everyone's happy.

Lucky for me the burden of proof lies on you. Until you've provided me with absolute proof that you can pick out which tea has been prepared in what way, then the only logical conclusion is that it is all in your imagination. Have you considered the possibility that when one of those people in your office make a "rotten" cup of tea then you automatically assumes it's bad and it becomes a self for filling prophecy?

Have you ever made two cups of tea, one with the milk in first and one with the milk in after, then have someone switch them around to see if you can tell which is which? Have you done the same with metal/china/glas? What about difference between just letting the bag sit or jerking it up and down?

Also, I never said temperature, amount of water or infusion time didn't matter, of course those things matter.

Lucky for me I don't have to prove or justify anything to you, even if proving something like this were possible. I don't care whether or not you believe me, I know what I know. I'll humour you though: it may possibly be coincidence that everyone I know who makes a crap cup of tea has been confirmed to be a milk-first tea maker and/or doesn't use properly-boiled water; when I have discussed this with people who a decent cup of tea, it emerges that we all follow proper procedure. In fact I can widen this experience from not just my current workplace to previous workplaces and a number of groups of friends and family. Crazy coincidence, huh?

 

[FamoFunk]

Tea bag (one cup will do) 2 sugars, lots of milk, hot water, stir, remove tea bag, stir and enjoy.

I'm like the scum of tea making by tea experts, but seriously, there's no other better way.

 

[Mr.Cynic88]

Happy now?

Sounds a tad pussy-fied to me.

The way MEN go about drinking tea is thus:
1.Get some fresh tea leaves, by raiding the ships of the british empire and plundering their cargo.
2. Make a fire hot enough to melt bones. MELT THEM. Not just burn them, no, they have to liquify.
3. Boil water in a kettle made from your enemies swords.
4. Place tea-leaves in your mouth
5. Pour the hot water on the tea leaves.
6. Pour some milk in afterwards.
7. Wait 7 minutes.
8. Swallow.
9. Repeat each step as often as necessary.
There.
That's how you drink tea.

Haha, maybe I should just man up and do it this way.

 

[ninjaRiv]

PG Tips, a kettle, some water and a mug. Pretty much all you need for a great cup of tea. Put the bag in, pour the water in, leave it for about five minutes, take out the bag then add milk. Sugar's up to you, naturally.

 

[GabeZhul]

I am a teabag person. I generally drink about a liter or so tea a day (I have a half liter/17 oz mug) and I don't have time for fancy tricks; just boil the water, pop in a bag of Earl Grey or Garzon, wait until my gut instinct tells me its good and then add lemon and lots of sugar. The latter is quite important since I pretty much use my tea as an energy drink, since it keeps me in shape for a longer time, has no backlash once it wears off and, unlike coffee, it doesn't pump my blood pressure up into the skies.

Also, I am arguably disabled when it comes to tea to begin with, since thanks to a childhood accident I lost my sense of smell, so I probably wouldn't be able to properly appreciate the fancier brews even if I tried...

Captcha: narrow-minded
Yes, I am not a tea-expert. So what? Sod off, captcha! -.-