Home » Discussion Forums » Blog Post Discussion » More tea. More lack of sympathy. More frelling bells.
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| Re: More tea. More lack of sympathy. More frelling bells. [message #49508 is a reply to message #49504 ] |
Wed, 02 May 2012 22:43   |
 sixpence
Messages: 49
Registered: August 2009 |
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Good source of mail order tea in the Us: Upton Tea Company - have paper and web catalogue. Their tea is good, fresh, and many varieties are very affordable. If you want to dangerously tempt your palate they also have inexpensive sample packets so the tea that costs a good chunk of ones mortgage can be tried affordably. They are also a nice size to tuck in with a card to suitable friends who have good taste.
They also have those mug sized tea strainers that Robin mentioned, and the Chatsworth teapots that come with those strainers.
The catalogue is good reading. Check it out.
sixpence
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| Re: More tea. More lack of sympathy. More frelling bells. [message #49511 is a reply to message #49510 ] |
Thu, 03 May 2012 00:56 |
EMoon
Messages: 664
Registered: March 2009 |
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Back in the early 1930s, my mother was studying architectural engineering (sold to her father as "studying art" because that was ladylike) and one project was designing public loos. Her design won some kind of award, IIRC. Then the '33 hurricane that blew the Coast Guard station and its windspeed records off Padre Island destroyed stores and her entire college wardrobe (in an almost-new brick house 50 miles inland--roof leaked into the closet) and she had to leave college.
But she kept insisting that if women were the urban planners, there'd be plenty of public loos open 24/7/365. (And if women were architects, homes would have plenty of storage...)
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| Re: More tea. More lack of sympathy. More frelling bells. [message #49512 is a reply to message #49504 ] |
Thu, 03 May 2012 01:04 |
EMoon
Messages: 664
Registered: March 2009 |
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OK...so I'm going to have to learn to make tea *again*. The directions I got the last time I was in England did involve throwing out the water used to warm the teapot (my hostess dumped it down the drain...having grown up in the '50s drought, this was a shocker.) Putting it back in the kettle makes some sense. (Hint to self--make sure there's no scorpion in the teapot if you're going to reuse the water...)
My mother had (and somewhere I still have) a sort of roofed-perforated spoon shaped thing with "scissor" handles (that opened the roof of the spoon) that she used for holding the loose tea--but she made it by pouring boiling water in her cup and then putting the perforated spoon in it. She liked tea a lot and I bought her tins of tea once I had an income. But having grown up with iced tea made with Lipton's tea bags, that made me feel sick, I didn't even try hot tea until, on my second trip to the UK, I was a guest and handed a cup of tea and thought "I will be polite if it kills me" and instead it was good. Really, really good. Following that experience, I drank tea the rest of that trip, and on the next two trips, kicking myself for a lifetime of no tea (and no coffee--another thing that smells wonderful but makes my stomach knot up. Now someone will tell me I've been drinking the wrong kind of coffee...) I hope my face didn't express the amazement I felt.
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| Re: More tea. More lack of sympathy. More frelling bells. [message #49518 is a reply to message #49504 ] |
Thu, 03 May 2012 09:05 |
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Mirkat
Messages: 99
Registered: May 2010
Location: Wherever the Navy takes u... |
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"Have I shared this before? http://www.adagio.com/teaware/ingenuiTEA_teapot.html"
Hmm. Do you use this? Do you like it? I’m having a little plaintive ‘why?’ moment. I like my teapot. And it works just fine. But if this one makes you happy then that’s good.
Yes! I love it. Like you my only previous experience involved the too small balls-on-chains or teaspoon closing things (and crappy loose leaf tea). The ingenuiTEA allows the tea to expand to take up the whole cup, if necessary. And you stop the steeping whenever your preference dictates (because it filters when you empty it into your cup).
It occurs to me that I only drink one cup at a time -- I suppose it wouldn't be practical if you wanted more than one cup in a sitting. So, I fill my mug with water, microwave it for 2 mins (less if a green tea), and pour it over the leaves in the ingenuiTea. Thus I have a pre-warmed cup, a perfectly (to me) steeped tea, and no odd leaf bits. [I do have a japanese style tea pot which only filters the largest bits when you pour, but I only use it for green tea -- in which case it is acceptable and even desired to have bits of leaves in your cup.]
For those who want an electric kettle, Adagio (linked above) has come out with one that has different settings for different teas. I would get it, but as I said I only make 1 cup at a time  I also recommend Adagio for loose teas. Shipping is fast and the packaging is nice recloseable vacuumed sealed bags. I like to get sampler packs for a variety of things to try. So far my favorites are Chestnut (from a Christmas sampler), White Peach (from a white tea sampler), Pi Lo Chun (from a green tea sampler), Forest Berries (berry sampler), and we just got a chai sampler. I also like their Irish Breakfast. Plus they do cute things like a trial same day helicopter service (April Fool's joke, but you got free tea for signing up anyway). I like a company that has fun.
The sad thing is we are so spoiled now. My husband's office has a fancy Keurig machine and we got some tea cups for it. Unfortunately, it's poor tea AND it gets overcooked. Husband said he can't even drink it.
I agree hot tea can go with anything - I had some Ceylon Sonata last night with Black Raspberry Chocolate chunk ice cream But I like a good iced tea too - unfortunately that's even harder to come by than good hot tea.
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| Re: More tea. More lack of sympathy. More frelling bells. [message #49526 is a reply to message #49504 ] |
Thu, 03 May 2012 13:12 |
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Mrs Redboots
Messages: 943
Registered: October 2008
Location: London, UK |
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I've never met an electric kettle in the USA, and have been given to understand that this is because their electricity isn't strong enough to make them efficient. One can, however, whether in the USA or here, buy non-electric kettles that sit on your hob, especially if you have an Aga, and can be boiled on top of the stove.
If the Abbey is where I think it is, there were really nice public loos in the car-park there - sorry to hear they are closed at 6:00 pm! I believe it was C S Lewis who said that in a strange town, the word "Gentlemen" on top of a doorway was sometimes worthy of celebrating in verse! I knew what he meant the other weekend when I was in Paris and my morning coffee had worked through the system....
Hotels are usually very nice about gate-crashing. I remember once, many years ago now in Ireland, we couldn't find a public facility for love nor money and it was too urban to go behind a hedge, so I firmly went into a hotel. "You can't do that!" said my appalled husband, to which I replied, "Watch me!" and did. We were staying with his father at the time, and when I recounted our misadventure, his father said, "So what did you do, go to a hotel?" which of course made me laugh and he couldn't quite see why....
Mrs Redboots
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
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| Re: More tea. More lack of sympathy. More frelling bells. [message #49527 is a reply to message #49504 ] |
Thu, 03 May 2012 13:24 |
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glanalaw
Messages: 88
Registered: August 2010
Location: Tennessee |
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Oh, now wait a golly gosh darn minute. I don’t for a minute believe there aren’t a million posh tea web sites in America.
Well, there are. But that's the thing... they're posh, and therefore both expensive (see note about poor-starving-grad-student) and usually too fancy for my tastes. I have never been able to get into flavoured teas, which are apparently all the rage here right now. I will have to check out the site that sixpence has recommended, however.
I also throw the tea leaves loose into the pot and let them steep in freedom (I have never liked any kind of infuser)... and then I keep adding in more hot water (and possibly, more tea leaves) until the brew gets too pathetic. Then I start over. I have a 6-cup teapot and I think I usually drink close to two full pots a day. I pour through a strainer/sieve which was *not* originally intended for such a purpose, but which does the trick!
Buy two dogs
It's not so much the socialization as the letting them outside every few hours. On a typical day I'm out of the house for 10-12 hours, sometimes more, and I've never met a dog with a bladder equal to that  Conrad, my cat, is strictly-indoors and has never broken litter-box training so I don't have to worry about him! Although if I'm out for more than 12 hours he gets seriously worried that I'm not going to come back again, and is extra-clingy for the rest of the evening. The time I was gone for a week and my landlady looked after him he was a nervous wreck by the time I got home.
I would like a dog, though, eventually. It just doesn't fit in with the current living arrangements.
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| Re: More tea. More lack of sympathy. More frelling bells. [message #49528 is a reply to message #49526 ] |
Thu, 03 May 2012 13:29 |
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Maren
Messages: 1332
Registered: October 2008
Location: Louisiana |
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| Mrs Redboots wrote on Thu, 03 May 2012 13:12 |
I've never met an electric kettle in the USA, and have been given to understand that this is because their electricity isn't strong enough to make them efficient. One can, however, whether in the USA or here, buy non-electric kettles that sit on your hob, especially if you have an Aga, and can be boiled on top of the stove.
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I think it's actually because our electricity and gas is so (relatively) cheap that many people don't even think twice about using the stove for it. The electric kettles do exist here, but I personally have only used one when I was a student in France, where my host family also had to do things like avoid running the clothes dryer in the middle of the day because electricity was more expensive then. I know this is common in Europe, but not so much here (although some U.S. energy companies do now give discounts to customers who volunteer to reduce their usage in times of high demand).
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| Re: More tea. More lack of sympathy. More frelling bells. [message #49530 is a reply to message #49528 ] |
Thu, 03 May 2012 14:16 |
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glanalaw
Messages: 88
Registered: August 2010
Location: Tennessee |
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| Mrs Redboots wrote on Thu, 03 May 2012 13:12 |
I've never met an electric kettle in the USA, and have been given to understand that this is because their electricity isn't strong enough to make them efficient. One can, however, whether in the USA or here, buy non-electric kettles that sit on your hob, especially if you have an Aga, and can be boiled on top of the stove.
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We always had an electric kettle when I was growing up, but most of our friends don't even know what they are. I don't have one now, as my stove-top kettle was less of an investment, but I definitely want to get one when I can afford it. They are available in the States but not in just any store; I think my mum had to order our latest one online.
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| Re: More tea. More lack of sympathy. More frelling bells. [message #49544 is a reply to message #49518 ] |
Thu, 03 May 2012 20:33 |
b_twin_1
Messages: 2596
Registered: September 2008
Location: Victoria, Australia |
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| Mirkat wrote on Thu, 03 May 2012 09:05 |
"Have I shared this before? http://www.adagio.com/teaware/ingenuiTEA_teapot.html"
Hmm. Do you use this? Do you like it? I’m having a little plaintive ‘why?’ moment. I like my teapot. And it works just fine. But if this one makes you happy then that’s good.
It occurs to me that I only drink one cup at a time -- I suppose it wouldn't be practical if you wanted more than one cup in a sitting. So, I fill my mug with water, microwave it for 2 mins (less if a green tea), and pour it over the leaves in the ingenuiTea. Thus I have a pre-warmed cup, a perfectly (to me) steeped tea, and no odd leaf bits. [I do have a japanese style tea pot which only filters the largest bits when you pour, but I only use it for green tea -- in which case it is acceptable and even desired to have bits of leaves in your cup.]
For those who want an electric kettle, Adagio (linked above) has come out with one that has different settings for different teas. I would get it, but as I said I only make 1 cup at a time
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Haha If I microwaved a cup of water for 2 minutes I'd end up with superheated water at best, a complete disaster at worst...!
I'm fascinated that there is such a discussion over electric kettles. Absolutely the norm here. In fact it is unusual to find the "old style boil on the hob" type kettles.
I love our (now not available) kettle where you can dial up precise temps. My Canadian friends visited and went home with a desperate desire to have one... They found it tough going to find I think.
And I absolutely use a kettle for 1 cup. After all, I don't have to heat an entire kettle-full, I just put in the minimum water level (usually 2 cups worth). Very handy when I am cooking too to have the extra hot water ready.
I've got a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel ~ Blackadder
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| Re: More tea. More lack of sympathy. More frelling bells. [message #49550 is a reply to message #49549 ] |
Thu, 03 May 2012 21:47 |
b_twin_1
Messages: 2596
Registered: September 2008
Location: Victoria, Australia |
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Okay... now I'm really fascinated. How much do these sell for? Most here are less than $100. (And I thought we were expensive here...) Good cheapies are less than $50. Really good ones $50+.
If it helps - I've never heard anyone here talking about the plastic on kettles "leaching".
I've got a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel ~ Blackadder
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| Re: More tea. More lack of sympathy. More frelling bells. [message #49552 is a reply to message #49550 ] |
Thu, 03 May 2012 21:56 |
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blondviolinist
Messages: 1069
Registered: October 2008
Location: Midwestern United States |
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| b_twin_1 wrote on Thu, 03 May 2012 21:47 |
Okay... now I'm really fascinated. How much do these sell for? Most here are less than $100. (And I thought we were expensive here...) Good cheapies are less than $50. Really good ones $50+.
If it helps - I've never heard anyone here talking about the plastic on kettles "leaching".
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I could get a decent kettle for around $50, or even a bit less. However, fiber & spindles have taken first priority lately. After all, I *do* have a perfectly functional stove top kettle.
I wouldn't be worried about plastic leaching (i.e. putting nasty chemicals in my tea) in my electric kettle if it weren't *such* a cheap version.
[Updated on: Thu, 03 May 2012 21:59]
"Purity of heart is to will one thing." Kirkegaard
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| Re: More tea. More lack of sympathy. More frelling bells. [message #49560 is a reply to message #49504 ] |
Fri, 04 May 2012 01:50 |
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danceswithpahis
Messages: 380
Registered: October 2008 |
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A couple of things in response to all of the comments....
First of all, as far as ordering tea, my favorite tea shop is this one: http://www.summitspiceandtea.com/servlet/StoreFront
I have a friend who used to work there and took me into the store when I was up visiting her. Their stuff is great and they are friendly and helpful. They are located in Anchorage, AK but they ship their stuff and I've always had good luck with them.
As far as cats vs. dogs, I'm much more of a cat person. I dislike dogs licking my face or jumping up on me (I know that they don't do that if they're well-trained, but I've had it happen enough that it turned me off of dogs for a long time). I'd much rather have cat claws scratching me than large dog claws taking huge swathes of flesh out. And I like having animals that are a bit more independent. My cats love me a lot; they both wait for me by the door when I come home in the evenings, and purr and rub my legs and let me know they're happy to see me. They do not then spend the rest of the evening glued to my side like dogs can. On a normal evening I try to spend at least an hour hanging out with them (or they decide that it's bonding time and flop on top of me; tonight I had two cats both sharing my lap and purring madly), but if I can't be available then they just sit on each other while I'm gone. If I need to go away for a day or two I can leave out food and they'll be fine (although I'd better plan to spend some time when I get home with purring cats on my lap). The cats on counters thing doesn't bother me so much; I've got them (more or less) trained to stay off the table (every now and then they try to push their boundaries to make sure they're still there, but that's increasingly rare), but many of my counters I don't even use for food production, and I try to clean them often. I do try to be conscientious about my cats; they are indoors only, so they don't harass neighbors, and the only songbirds they eat are in their dreams (any small rodents that might make it into our apartment are on their own). It's been on my mind to get leashes and try to take them outside every now and then, but I haven't had the mental energy to try that yet.
Here's one more public restroom story. In France, unlike England, public restrooms pretty much don't exist unless you go into a restaurant and actually have a meal there (the option that my dad taught me, that you can go to a gas station or fast food place and use their restrooms as long as you buy something from them as well, doesn't seem to exist). I was visiting my host family in France a couple of years ago, and had had tea with breakfast. I'd tried to take care of business before we left, but without success. The early part of our journey around the countryside was great, but then the tea began to make its presence known. NO bathrooms ANYWHERE. We wandered through these amazing medieval churches and villages, and all I could think of was where they might have a bathr
"Oh good! My dog found the chainsaw!"
-- Lilo ("Lilo and Stitch")
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| Re: More tea. More lack of sympathy. More frelling bells. [message #49575 is a reply to message #49504 ] |
Fri, 04 May 2012 13:12 |
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shalea
Messages: 781
Registered: October 2008
Location: Raleigh, North Carolina, ... |
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And how do you ENFORCE this? Dogs and children are (relatively) straightforward to train. Cats, not so much. I know they can be trained, and that what I react to as head games is the cat idea of social interaction, but how do you keep them off your countertops? Barring poisoned spikes, that is, which would be kind of in the way at suppertime.
Just as with the dogs I've had (and not particularly more so in certain individual cases), the key with training cats is to answer the questions why (should they do this) or why not (do this thing that they want to do that you might not want them to do). The big difference is that some cats find an interesting human reaction to be a reason to do something, and that must be kept firmly in mind.
So that said, cats are trained to keep off countertops in much the same way that a dog is trained to keep off of or out of things one doesn't want them in/on -- reminders and management.
If I'm home, I keep an eye out and correct/remind of rules in a calm way that doesn't provide any amusement factor to the cat.
If I'm not home (and during initial training), I lay out sheets of aluminum foil on the flat surfaces. Cats hate the feel, but I can still work. And just as with a tall counter-surfing-capable dog, I don't leave interesting things out on the counter as a temptation. So the "why not" becomes 1) the foil feels nasty, and 2) there's no reason to be up there.
And I must admit that I'm just as unhappy about free-range cats having fights in the yard and using my gardens as their personal toilet facilities as anyone on this board, but the difference is here that 1) cats are theoretically covered by leash laws, and 2) sadly, most cats that range too far afield don't live very long (cars, predators, or diseases).
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| Re: More tea. More lack of sympathy. More frelling bells. [message #49576 is a reply to message #49527 ] |
Fri, 04 May 2012 13:17 |
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shalea
Messages: 781
Registered: October 2008
Location: Raleigh, North Carolina, ... |
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| glanalaw wrote on Thu, 03 May 2012 13:24 |
Oh, now wait a golly gosh darn minute. I don’t for a minute believe there aren’t a million posh tea web sites in America.
Well, there are. But that's the thing... they're posh, and therefore both expensive (see note about poor-starving-grad-student) and usually too fancy for my tastes. I have never been able to get into flavoured teas, which are apparently all the rage here right now. I will have to check out the site that sixpence has recommended, however.
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Check out this one as well: Holy Mountain Trading Company. They're located in California, I think. I've been ordering from them for years and they specialize in good quality tea varietals rather than flavors.
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| Re: More tea. More lack of sympathy. More frelling bells. [message #49577 is a reply to message #49504 ] |
Fri, 04 May 2012 13:33 |
yasmara
Messages: 5
Registered: October 2008
Location: Minneapolis, MN USA |
Junior Member |
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My local tea shop is http://www.teasource.com/ and they ship anywhere! Fabulous tea and if you're local to the Minneapolis-St Paul area, they even do tea tasting parties (like Tupperware, but with tea). A friend had a tea party baby shower 4 years ago and I was hooked. Never went back to tea bags. I even bought a travel tea kit (like those insulated coffee mugs, but with a tea strainer) and bring my tea on the road whenever I travel. the only challenging part is getting water that's hot enough in a hotel.
In the summer, I still do a cup of hot tea in the morning (well, more like a giant mug) and I use the individual metal mesh strainers for my mug. However, in the late afternoon I switch over to iced green tea (unsweetened). I'm completely hooked on the Tea Source Green Tea with Mango, which is available in pre-measured teabags meant to be steeped in a gallon of water. I use the cold-brew method and it's perfect every time, even if I forget to take out the bag on time. I've gotten my extended family hooked on it as well and a favorite gift is a gallon pitcher + a package of tea.
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| Re: More tea. More lack of sympathy. More frelling bells. [message #49584 is a reply to message #49577 ] |
Fri, 04 May 2012 21:01 |
Jacky
Messages: 34
Registered: October 2011 |
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http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=aladdin+tea+mu g&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=12972327115&a mp;hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11582176182 06933673&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&ref=pd_sl_5 j2pmzvywu_b
as far as infusers go, I like my teapot, and I have taken the oriental view that tea SHOULD have the occaisional leaf left in it. The above travel mug, though, is really great for the green tea re-use the leaves on the go type person (no this would NOT be Robin) but I really like it. especially as I like a good cup of tea and that can be hard to find in the wilds of Chicago.
But for those looking for a good online teashop, try todd & holland in Forest Park IL. They are great. and they know they tea, from all corners of the globe. If you are in our neck of the woods, it's worth finding out if the the tea buyer is in town. they always have 3-4 different teas brewed up in thermoses, but if you catch him in the shop, you could find yourself with an impromptu world tea tour. With really funny stories.
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| Re: More tea. More lack of sympathy. More frelling bells. [message #49654 is a reply to message #49575 ] |
Mon, 07 May 2012 14:43 |
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Lianne
Messages: 144
Registered: October 2008
Location: San Diego, California USA |
Senior Member |
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And how do you ENFORCE this? Dogs and children are (relatively) straightforward to train. Cats, not so much. I know they can be trained, and that what I react to as head games is the cat idea of social interaction, but how do you keep them off your countertops? Barring poisoned spikes, that is, which would be kind of in the way at suppertime.
Like Shalea, I've trained my cats not to go on the counters. And so long as I don't do something stupid like leave an open can of cat food up there... they're pretty darn good about it. (Heck, once I did leave an open can of cat food up there and they still didn't go get it.)
My training method involved making a ton of noise: stomping feet, low-pitched and loud admonitory voice, clapping, and all this approaching them. That combined with the fact that there was nothing interesting up there did the trick. There are probably better ways. But it worked for me and I still think the main trick is not to leave anything interesting up there. My cats will eat bread through the wrappers, so I tuck the bread in a box or the fridge.
Mind you, every time I've moved, the cats have to test if THESE counters fall under the same rule, but the whole house is a new interesting playground and it's understandable. We swiftly establish that, yes, these counters still apply, and all is well. They also have other vertical areas where they are welcome and encouraged to go. I build box forts, have cat trees, they are allowed up on the furniture and (most of the) bookcases. But the counters are an absolute no-go.
I've always resented the idea that one must be either a cat person or a dog person. Sure, if I absolutely HAD to pick a side, I'd fall on the cat side. It's the animal I feel that I must have around me; a home is just a house to me without a cat. But I still like dogs! I grew up with tons of dogs! We always had both cats and dogs. I know they can mix. I always thought I'd get a dog, I was just waiting for the right home environment (I feel that dogs need to have a large enclosed back yard where they can run off-leash and I wasn't going to do a dog the injustice of not providing that) and having enough spare time. Neither of those surfaced, and then I finally decided my lifestyle wasn't suited to a dog.
But while I may be a cat lady (more so every day since I started volunteering for a cat rescue), I am not ONLY a cat lady. I'm an animal person.
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| Re: More tea. More lack of sympathy. More frelling bells. [message #49701 is a reply to message #49697 ] |
Thu, 10 May 2012 21:48 |
claning
Messages: 266
Registered: February 2010
Location: California |
Senior Member |
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Oh, poor dear. Maine Coons were never intended by Nature to be skinny. (Mine sends her sympathies.)
May she have peace and lots of purrs.
[Updated on: Thu, 10 May 2012 21:49]
O Chris Laning <claning@igc.org> - Davis, California
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