More tea vicar?
Published 1 year, 8 months ago in Eat & Drink.Are we becoming obsessed with coffee? Now, I’m the first to admit I enjoy my daily cafe latte but I alway prefer tea in the afternoon. However I despair of good tea at work, all those dusty teabags sitting in a box. Much like instant coffee. Too strong and bitter. And I feel distinctly ripped off paying for a cup of tea when all they’ve done is thrown a tea bag into some hot water. My mother always said you need to make a cup tea with “expression”. I grew to understand what she meant. So I think I will always take tea at home on the lawn whilst ringing the bell for the cucumber sandwiches but go out to some funky, edgy cafe for my fix of espresso.
19 Responses to “More tea vicar?”
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I am totally with you. I am happy to pay for a well made coffee, but tea… it just never satisfies. At home I make my tea in a pot, top the pot up with extra hot water, sip it out of a pretty cup, and use nice fresh skim milk (my preference). It’s delightful! I’ve really never had a nice cup of tea out of the house, and these days I never order one.
Some of the bad teas I’ve had :
- one used hot, frothed milk
- long life milk - yuck!
- a cup of hottish water, and a tea bag on the side
Better ones I’ve had :
- used a tea infuser in a cup, or in a pot
- served a pot of hot water beside it
- served the fresh milk in a little jug
It’s a lot more effort for a cafe to make, but it is somewhat balanced out by the fact that the materials to make a cup of tea cost about 5c!
Although … I went to the Flower and Garden show last year, and met the Twinings tea demonstrators. They were making tea fresh for small tastings, and it actually tasted great! So it can be done, even if you are in the middle of an exhibition centre. I even bought some teabags from them!
I have a great respect for real chinese tea. My wife and I went to Dali and Lijung and sampled some of the local brew a couple of years back. Never before have I tasted such great tea! Sorry but Aussie supermarket tea is very basic. Not even Twinings comes close. Needless to say we returned with a decent supply.
I think we are. Years ago you got a cup of cofee now it is called flat white. There are so many different names for a cup of coffee that if you don’t get out much you could get very embarrased when the person serving you starts reeling off all of the different types of coffee and you don’t know what they mean.I personally drink nescafe all day until about 3pm ( I know that’s bad) but I love it.
I have to have a cup of tea first off to start the day and one in the evening to end it, but it’s usually coffee in between. Never though would I pay for it, like you I’d feel ripped off. My work place is a tea lovers paradise, assorted types, flavours, brands and it doesn’t have the opportunity to get dusty in a box, everyone seems tea mad there. The ultimate though has to be the Devonshire, a wintery Sunday afternoon, a crackling fire, china pot and cups, warm scones, homemade jam & cream….luverly.
Don’t ya just love that term - `a cup of tea made with expression’. Beaudiful.
It reminds me of me old Nan who loved her cuppa cha as she used to call it. She always bought Bushells but I’ll never forget one time when we went shopping she was swayed by the price of a packet of tea called Gossip. Anyway we got home and brewed a pot of Gossip - the aroma was a bit odd and the colour a bit pale and fair dinkum it tasted like horse manure. We both spat it out and Nan threw out the packet - but i figured out why it was called Gossip because that’s all my dear old Nan did for the next six months - gossip to anyone she saw about how `bloody awful’ that tea was.
I have my morning cappuccino, (well, two small, rather than one large) and then drink tea all day. I need the L-theanine desperately to combat the hit of caffeine. I have about 6 mugs a day, especially when the stress from work starts to mount. Always Dilmah. Tea bag, milk, no sugar, and I leave the tea bag in. If your regular tea is lacking, try Dilmah, you wont go back.
Oh the joy of tea!
That got us all talking.
Yes, it seems many of us just couldn’t live without it. It’s great stuff.
I’m jumping on this bandwagon which crys out that ‘good tea is only really made at home.’
It’s true, ain’t it? You can’t get away with dumping a teabag in a polystyrene cup with a dash of milk and passing that on for two dollars. Not for me, thank you.
The coffee bean is a great thing also, of course. I’m a little strange perhaps, but I don’t appreciate the temperature of purchased coffees’ because I like to gulp it straight away. I always say politely, “Could I please have it not too hot please?” and hope that I’m not being a nuisance! I really dislike burning my tongue though.
At home I like Moccona’s Espresso, and others. . .
Tea is for nannies and nancies and other people lacking the constitution to pump copious amounts of caffeine in their systems. Tea drinkers rate up there with those who like two sugars in their coffee and who never drink a cup after 3pm - and who think macrame is a form of vigorous exercise.
I love them both. I love the aroma and fast caffeine hit of coffee, and the comforting nature of tea.
At the moment my favourite is the Sri Lanka Glen Alpine from Tea Two. It sounds like a menthol cigarette but tastes considerably better.
I mentioned in the yum cha thread that I sip litres of oolong tea during a session.
I had to give up macrame as the difference in techniques required was affecting my crocheting.
*goes and drinks tea whilst hanging manly head in shame*
I have been lured in to this discussion by a recent “tea'’ incident at a nearby cafe. Consider this - four adults order a drink: a chai tea, a strong latte, a hot chocolate and an English breakfast tea (yes a bit you-know-what)for me. Anyway, 15 minutes later when the waitress returns with the drinks, she serves the chai, the latte and then the hot chocolate. Then she goes back to the counter and returns a few moments later with my tea. “Sorry for the delay,'’ she says, “but yours was the hardest to make.'’
In my quieter moments I forgive her. Perhaps she was indeed searching to make that tea with “expression'’. But I doubt it. How hard can it be? It’s a tea bag for crying out loud!
That’s it for me - if I’m out, it’s coffee. Clearly no one drinks tea any more - they are all drinking double decaf soy frappacino with a mint leaf on the side.
I just tried to clean out my very own tea-cup (mug) at work as it had gone from white on the inside to a fairly dark brown from all the tannin. I scrubbed it for 2-3 minutes, gave up, put it in the dishwasher for a full cycle, and it still came out stained. Don’t try to tell me tea is not a Man’s drink !
Magpie, I would love to have met your mother - perhaps she’s still around. Making tea with “expression”; how perfect. I’ve never been able to articulate the quality that sets one cup of tea apart from another. But your mum has shown me. Thank you Maggie.
Dear Squint
Perhaps the tea-maker in question was
(a) joking;
(b) on drugs; or
(c) was ensuring the pot was turned three and a half times anti-clockwise, which is how my Auntie Josie instructed me on the art of tea-making.
segue, scrub it with salt, dampened a little works a treat.
A nice cup of tea
I like a nice cup of tea in the morning
just to start the day, you see.
Then round about eleven, well my idea of heaven
is a nice cup of tea.
I like a nice cup of tea with my dinner and a nice cup of tea with my tea
and about this time of night, what goes down a treat, that’s right.
It’s a nice cup of tea.
Hi Wonderwoman, my mother is still with us and has the kettle on.
I also spent the day with my 18-month-old nephew on Sunday -we had pretend cups of tea and this morning I discover he’s put one of the toy cups in my handbag.
Thanks to everyone who replied. It seems tea is still on the menu - unless though you go to the cafe Squint freqeunts - then maybe just order a cup of hot water instead.
Perhaps some time wwe should debate the merits of coffee and those sham concoctions emanating from Starbucks, Gloria Jeans and others of that ilk.
I’m with you there Bromo. Can’t stand those places. They are the like the maccas equivalent of coffee.