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I usually drink Twinings Orange Pekoe tea. I brew it loose - the flavor is much stonger then. Actually I make quite strong tea and I drink it with half and half and sugar. :eek:
Are the tea police going to come and take me away?
 
To each their own.

Does drinking coffee from Starbucks make you less sophisticated than someone who owns a french press? Who cares?

I am a "sun tea from an old milk jug" kinda guy. I ain't got time to be sophisticated.
 
I don't think that any of this is about being "sophisticated". If you're happy with the flavor of something that is cheaper and easier to find, then by all means, be happy with it! To me, they just don't taste good.

- Matt
 
French Press is almost as bad as instant coffee. blech.

Whatever works is what works. Besides, if we were all opinionated about everything, we would be awful to be around.

and sun tea rocks.
 
Sophisticated = more complex.

Buying teabags at the store. Easy.

Constructing my own teabags from rare blends of various types of tea. Complex.

I didn't mean "sophisticated = snobby." I save that mentality for Heather's food threads. :)
 
MoreWater said:
French Press is almost as bad as instant coffee. blech.
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What do I know? All coffee is blech to me. Except one. Churchill's Banana Fosters brew with lots of sugar. Banana flavoring and coffee works.
 
Dim Sum.....
I always get iron quawn yin or iron buddha for tea. I dont know how to translate... quawn yin is the mercy buddha/goddess or whatever (I've become so white)
 
Yeah, the lack of caffeine probably wouldn't work for me. I should have started a thread called "Let's talk inexpensive and readily available fruit-flavored liquid caffeine delivery systems."

:)

I had no idea there were so many types of tea.
 
PHRAG said:
Yeah, the lack of caffeine probably wouldn't work for me. I should have started a thread called "Let's talk inexpensive and readily available fruit-flavored liquid caffeine delivery systems."
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I rely on coca cola for my caffeine.

:)

I had no idea there were so many types of tea.
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There are a lot of types of everything that someone will spend money on.
 
Iron goddess of mercy.

Those types of teas are easier than tea bags. No packets to unwrap. Toss some tea in the pot/
mug, add hot water, drink. The little nuggets of tea unfurl into whole leaves so cleanup is a cinch.

But we are severely off topic....
 
gore42 said:
Ki, I haven't been able to find Jackson's Earl Grey for the past couple of months either, I'll let you know if I run across some.
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If you do and can pick up an extra, I'd be very grateful.

Oh, and agreed on the white tea products...
 
John,

There is really only one type of tea plant (two, depending on whether you consider them separate species) Camellia sinensis. Then there are three main ways of processing it: if you don't roll and oxidize the leaves, it becomes green tea. If you oxidize them slightly, its Oolong tea. If they are fully oxidized, its a black tea.

All tea has caffeine, even green tea. Even de-caf. If an infusion doesn't have caffeine, it's not tea (Sorry Lance, you should call it an herbal infusion or Tisane :) ).

The rest of the types of tea depend on how it is processed, where it was grown, and where the tea plants originated. There are two origins, China and Assam, India. Elevation and moisture have a huge impact on the flavor of the tea.

Incidentally, Orange Pekoe is not a flavor of tea, it's a grade of tea. The orange pekeo leaves are the first 3 leaves on the new growth... they're basically the new growth on the bush. If older leaves are used, the flavor is not as good, and it gets more of a vegetable flavor. There doesn't seem to be a very good grading standard with tea, but its something like this:

OP = Orange Pekoe
BOP = Broken Orange Pekoe
FOP = Flowery (or sometimes Fancy) Orange Pekoe
GTOP = Golden Tippy Orange Pekoe
FGTOP, etc.

Generally, the more letters they stack in front of the region name, the better the grade is supposed to be.

- Matt
 
gore42 said:
If an infusion doesn't have caffeine, it's not tea (Sorry Lance, you should call it an herbal infusion or Tisane :) ).
- Matt
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We do market them as herbal tea infusions.
The Clouded Forest blend actually contains Peruvian black tea.

As far as the use of the word "tea" the FDA specifically has regulations allowing the use on any herbal blends for labeling. There is no requirement that to be labeled as tea it must contain caffeine. (In case you did not know it the FDA is the supreme body of all knowing all ruling and all controlling in the entire universe.) :rollhappy:

The use of the word "tea" can be argued by tea purists but I'm afraid it is a loosing battle as rural people all over the world will tell you they make "tea" from plants they collect. They would not know what you were talking about if you told them to make a Tisane. Actually an infusion is not intended to be consumed for pleasure and it is, correctly, a very strong concentration of herbs prepared by boiling as a remedy.
 
lol :)

Thanks, I've think I learned something new, if you're saying that one of your teas contains tea but no caffeine. I didn't know that it was technologically possible yet to decaffeinate tea completely (and still retain any of the flavor). The Celestial Seasonings factory is not too far from here, and on the tour they describe the process and how much caffeine remains (since they actually sell decaf)... but I can't remember the exact numbers. Are you using a new process?

Anyway, my British family owned a tea estate in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) from the late 19th century until the mid 20th, and in the family tradition I've learned a bit about the tea industry and the science behind tea. I think that calling just ANY herbal infusion "tea" is simply a botanical mistake. Of course you're right, most people call water with stuff (usually herbs, but not always) in it "tea", and since word definitions are subject to the tyrrany of the majority, there's no doubt that this confusion in our lexicon will be legitimized by Webster or the OED at some point, if it hasn't already happened. But just because it happens doesn't mean that I have to accept it :)

- Matt
 
PHRAG said:
Sophisticated = more complex.

I didn't mean "sophisticated = snobby." I save that mentality for Heather's food threads. :)
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Hey! I resent that!

Just because I appreciate good food doesn't make me a snob!
Just like the fact that you put saltines in your chili and top it with velveeta doesn't make you white trash. :p

gore42 said:
I think that calling just ANY herbal infusion "tea" is simply a botanical mistake. But just because it happens doesn't mean that I have to accept it :)

- Matt
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Damn taxonomy! :poke:
 
MoreWater said:
...so anyone into yerba mate? I tried it recently and found that I can't take the kick the stuff has. (And this from a die-hard espressoist....)...
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i grow it, tried it once. too bitter for me, i think. being a one cup of coffee a day type of guy starting to drink a second cup (okay, so it's two to four shots of espresso in a cup of coffee....), if yerba's got super caffeine, i may have to learn to sweeten....
did you drink it with the straw with the little holes at the bottom?

PHRAG said:
...All coffee is blech to me....
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blasphemy!!!!

did y'all check out the very bottom of Pine Ridge Orchids' page? lots of tea stuff, i haven't read it so i don't know how it is... WARNING: this page is very picture intensive!!! (so many photos broadband takes a while to load it...)
 
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