another guy who likes tea and tolerates coffee here, given the choice, i’d take tea, but sometimes i need the extra kick that coffee has
of course, being a Vermonter, the coffee HAS to be Green Mountain, any variety, as long as it’s G.M.
as for tea, i prefer green tea, straight, no sugar, honey, lemon, or milk (especially with sushi), but there have been a couple of interesting blends i’ve tried from Stash, of course, the standard Chai, but they also make a Green Chai (green tea and chai) which is quite good.
i also use Traditional Medicinals line of Echinecia teas at the first sign of illness, it’s probably psychosomatic, but i could swear that the echinecia helps hammer the cold into submission better than if i didn’t drink the tea, echinecia will decrease the cold’s duration by at least 3-4 days, i’m a skeptic and believe it’s a marketing ploy, but the tea isn’t unpleasant tasting and can’t make the cold worse anyway
i actually went out and picked up a tea ball a few months ago, only to find the local shops don’t sell loose tea, oh well…
Sweet tea is the default once you get a certain distance south, just like hot tea is the default once you get a certain distance north. It’s just the cultural norm in those areas. In the transition zone, you can generally order your iced tea sweet or unsweet. And no, you can NOT just add sugar to cool or cold tea and have sweet tea. It doesn’t dissolve very well, and the result is simply vile. It’s almost worse than unsweet tea. You have to add the sugar while the tea is brewing, or at the very least dissolve it in hot water and then add it in.
Agrippina, you need to use at least four or five regular teabags per 2-quart pitcher of tea, and 1-2 cups of sugar, depending on taste. The easiest way to do it is to just put the teabags in the drip basket of your coffee pot and your sugar in the carafe. Brew it, stir the sugar in, then pour over a quarter-pitcher of ice (use plastic, or you’ll break your pitcher.) The way old granny-type ladies tend to do it is to put the teabags in a saucepan of water and boil the crap out of them for fifteen-twenty minutes, then add your sugar, then pour your super-concentrated sweet tea into cold water. I put the sugar and teabags into a plastic pitcher, add a teakettle full of boiling water and let it steep till it’s nearly black. Stir well, then add ice to make a full pitcher.
Oh, and if you have Cracker Barrel in your area, they tend to make a decent glass of sweet tea.
I’m from Canada, where hot tea, made like the English drink it, is the norm. But it seems that in most restaurants, they use the worst, cheapest possible brand of tea. I’ve had some truly vile cups of tea in the restaurants of Toronto. One of them was so bad that it inspired me to write this bit of prose on July 1st, 1985. I had to look through a number of boxes to find it, but I knew I’d saved it somewhere.
And it was on a Monday
Too early in the morning
Wasting money and time
No work to speak of
In the company of dayhawks at the diner
Then it came in a silver container
Almost purple, steep beyond recognition
Putrid, bitter, liquid death
I hate it but I ate it
And when many moons have passed
I will remember the day
When the tea sucked the bag.
Pft. They would have to be biblical animals. That’s considerably less fun for a tea brewin’ witch like me.
What’s the idea, you collect the whole set and then flood them with Red Rose?
I will say it again for emphasis: sugar in iced tea is EVIL! If you have fallen under its spell get yourself to a priest or take a bath in holy water now.
No cites and I’m not saying its true. A friend of mine (not a FOAF I do know the guy) was told by his doctor that his kidney stones were cause by drinking too much iced tea. Like I said I don’t know if this is true but I do know his doctor did tell him that. Of course this was the vile powdered kind. I don’t think he said there was anything wrong with real iced tea so you should be OK.
Honest Tea also makes really good bottled iced tea. Many of them are unsweetened, and those that are sweetened just have a smidge of sugar, so you can actually taste the tea. My favorite is the Peach Oo-La-Long.
I’m a big tea drinker. Green tea, herbal tea, chai tea latte (sooo good when it’s cold outside), iced tea, anything. My husband learned early in our relationship that tea is my cure-all and though he won’t drink it himself, he knows how to make a great cup for me. I’m not feeling well? He’ll make some tea. I’m upset, stressed, and crying? Tea.
I have a great big mug on my desk at work that I use to make green tea. It’s Celestial Seasonings’ Green Tea with antioxidants. It’s good with no milk or sugar, though I’ll occasionally throw in a packet of Splenda. I usually have a couple tea bags in my purse, just in case.
I almost never drink coffee anymore, but sometimes I like a cup of hot chocolate. My MIL gave me a tin of Godiva cocoa mix and I dip into that from time to time.
fishbicycle, sounds like you got stuck with Red Rose, which truly does suck the bag.
And for the rest of you-- iced tea should be sweet! It’s a powdered mix that comes from a can marked Nestea! And really, let’s be honest here, you’re outnumbered and flanked by Canucks and those from the South, so just shut up and drink it down!
I repeat: unsweetened iced tea is an abomination. It makes the baby Jeebus cry. Every time you drink unsweetened iced tea, God kills a kitten. It’s just plain wrong, like hotpants and tube tops for 300-lb women.
My first trip out of Spain introduced me to Real Tea (as opposed to the yucky thing that passed for tea in Spain back then). Tea and herbal infussions used to be impossible to get, here.
One of my aunts used to travel with her tea bags and whenever she asked a bartender for an infussion and he said he couldn’t make her one, she’d get behind the bar and show him how. You have to realize this is a lady who is 4’8", now on her 90s, she became widowed with two tiny kids in '40, has traveled to over 50 countries and can bossmother anybody.
My favourite cup holds two cups. Which means I can use it to make tea with two bags of different varieties. I’m trying to go through Twinning’s catalogue, but they seem to be adding more stuff to it - I’m sure they do it just to spite me!
Favourite blend: Earl Grey plus English Breakfast. If I’m feeling downish, I add honey (I never ever use sugar, on anything): the end result is up there with cola drinks on the “energy” content, minus the gas, plus a bunch of interesting nutrients from the honey. For a Mountain Dew effect, make it a double Breakfast, with honey.
Nah, it was worse than that! I can identify the awful taste of Red Rose. There are any number of industrial food supply companies, who carry brands of certain items that are only found in restaurants. I’ve tasted enough tea to recognize that there is a kind that I swear is made from the floor sweepings in the place where the world’s most horrible tea is processed. It must cost them a quarter for a million tea bags, then the restaurant charges you a dollar for each cup, and later they can retire to a nice sunny island on the profits. Ugh!
Actually, Whittards make some divine instant teas.
I’m one of those people who loves both coffee and tea. Although I tend to drink coffee more because I normally can’t be bothered making chai, which is the tea I grew up on.
Angua: I had proper chai once, made by some Indian guys who were camping next to us. This was in 1989, and I still remember the flavour, their names, and the goofy jokes they told. The tea was just THAT GOOD. They made it with tea seeped in milk and sugar, over a fire. It was the best thing I have ever had in my life. Can you give me some idea as how to make this on my own?
Second get yourself some run of the mill black tea. PG Tips loose leaf is best, but PG Tips teabags work equally well.
Third, measure out your milk and water. You need about 1 part milk to two to three parts water, depending on how milky you want it.
Pour milk and water into saucepan, and add one teabag per cup, and add some extra water on top to evaporate. Into the saucepan add a couple of cardamom pods and a small cinnamon stick, if you want, and sugar to taste.
Bring to the boil, and allow to simmer for 3-4 minutes depending on how strong you want the chai. Strain and serve.
I drink coffee a coupla days a week and tea the rest of the time. NO sugar/cream/milk under any but the most extreme circumstances. If the coffee is old and bitter I will add a touch of cream. And of course Thai Iced Tea.
Favorite teas (all loose) include Pai Mu Tan (AKA White Peony…my favorite), Chunmee, Gunpowder Osprey, and Jasmine with flowers. I brew a pot at a time and share with my coworkers. I tried Rooibos but hated the stuff.
If you are in Pittsburgh (Oakland) check out the Spice Island Tea House. Great tea menu and excellent food.
Ginger, Stash Tea makes a good Chai in tea bags. Safeway and Shoppers Food Warehouse (formerly Metro) both carry it. It comes in a dark red box with black trim. I let it steep for about 8 minutes (it needs to be strong, IMO), add one scant spoonful of real sugar (the artificial stuff just ain’t right for Chai), some half and half, and it’s wonderful. I think it’s $2-something for 20 bags. I’ve become addicted and need a fix every afternoon.
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