Be Excellent To Each Other

Maybe for you, but I've tried, and my addiction to the white stuff is clearly a lot stronger than yours was.

I'm on to you!

In all truth, I just don't get it - if you want a hot sweet milky drink, have hot chocolate!
Sugar does not work with the flavour of tea or coffee, it masks it. I guess that is why some people have it, but I don't understand why they have it in the first place...

Only exception - that Indian tea that is full of cinammon and other spices. A little brown sugar is nice in that.

a lot. I used to have 1-2 sugars in tea, and an enormous 3 in coffee. A sudden burst of sensibility got me off sugar entirely and now it's just as nice without.

What's this tea thats full of cinnamon? I love cinnamon.

I take one spoon in a normal mug and two quite big spoons in my mahoosive slightly-over-a-pint teacup. I disagree on it masking the flavour though, but I do drink my tea strong (Yorkshire Tea, brewed for a full 3 min).

I think there's a Twinings one called "Indian Spiced Chai" or something similar. I've bought it from Sainsbury's before, so it shouldn't be too hard to find. It's the only tea I have milk or sugar in.

It's probably partly that I like my poncey teas, as well. I'll have tea for flavour, which for me is better if it's not too strong, and coffee for strength and caffeine boost. Also black, no sugar, though.

This I can understand. I pretty much only drink standard blends like Yorkshire Tea or PG Tips, and since I started this new job, Twinings Everyday which is what is in the office here. I do love it though.

Twinings Everyday is ok. Actually, I think a lot of the standard blends are more bitter than the fancy ones, although I quite like that.

Still wouldn't put milk in it though

I've just got into this. Took a while to get used to it, but now it's the after-lunch tipple of choice.

Just for you, I am making RIGHT NOW a cup of Twinings Everyday with no milk or sugar. Update soon.

HOT HOT HOT

Nervouspete wouldn't be spewing this from his mouth

No no no, you can have milk in tea. Strong with milk or weak without, those are the options (if we're talking plain black tea style).

Strong without milk is edible, but only suitable in emergencies, and with certain very strong foods that take the bitterness off. Weak with milk is an abomination and an offence.

Sugar in tea is permissible only in times of great hunger, fatigue and/or illness (esp. vomit).

THESE ARE THE TRUTHS.

Fun fact! We drink tea with milk over here most likely because that's how it was done in India when we found the stuff, so our sailors copied them and brought the practice home.

Further excellent facts - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tea-Addiction-Exploitation-Roy-Moxham/dp/1841195693/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212755412&sr=8-2

Ignore the reviews, as usual. Why? Well, for one thing, the first one says "It's mostly a recitation of fact, with some analysis" as a criticism. Were they hoping for a love interest subplot, or something? Cretins.

Well, that was interesting. It was more bitter than I was expecting -- I brewed it for the length of time I would normally brew tea with milk and sugar, and I think now (as sinister agent has said) that was a mistake. I've never found bitter things particularly palatable -- I don't think either lager or beer on these grounds -- so that wasn't great for me. I'll try one brewed a bit weaker, perhaps.

I don't think I noticed the lack of sugar so much as the lack of milk though. The texture was noticeably different because of the lack of saturated fats floating in it.

Overall I'm afraid I wasn't a fan.

So is 363K hot enough, or not?

I would have liked some subterfuge, at least.

Twinings Everyday is beauty in a mug. Love it. Strongly brewed, but weakened with excess milk.

Failing that I drink PG tips, bought in vast quantities because of the inclusion of monkey related free gifts. Most recent was a DVD and teatowel.

Yorkshire Tea. Puts 'airs on yer chest, that stuff. I like NAAFI tea as well.

However, Mrs Plissken doesn't like any of that stuff, so Tetley or PG it is.

I tear open 5 tea bags, tip them in my mouth then pour boiling hot water on top. I let it brew in my cheeks for 3 hours then swallow it down whilst simutanously snorting a packet of ground up pink wafers.

Clearly Zardoz is some sort of SAS-style Tea Wars hardman. We need to send him to parachute behind the Coffee Army's lines and assassinate their leader, the evil Major Mocha.

"Tea-minator"

No teabagging under geneva conventions.

Yorkshire tea is rather nice. Some friends of mine and an ex used to drink it. I prefer clipper tea, though. Their fair trade one is cheap and cheerful, and quite full-on. It's a bit sharper and less creamy than yorkshire, though not in a nasty way. Obviously this depends on the milk, but shut up.

My favourite after the fair trade stuff is Sainsbury's Red Label. It is gorgeous, reasonably priced, and can be bought in enormous sacks the size of a small microwave. These sometimes last me up to three weeks!

Wrong thread.

[/pun police]

See, no milk. This man knows what he's doing.

Tea has milk, and sugar optional. Anything else needs a new name, probably French. In fact, there you go - call it thé.

Something foreign, such as, er "Earl Grey", yes that'll do.

And may the deity of your choice help you if you put milk in Earl Grey, as you have lost all hope of earthly salvation...

Earl Grey is rubbish anyway. It smells utterly wonderful, but tastes distinctly wonky.

It's great. Just don't brew it too strong.

I tried lapchang souchong. That was disgusting beyond the power of mere italics to convey.

"Sinister Agent, you have the Bridge." *slurp - adjusts uniform*

Hmm, that's probably my favourite tea. I like some of the more unusual ones, really. I'd get bored with the same one every time.

Is it too late to post this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eELH0ivexKA ?

No. That's greatness.

Working tastebuds FTFY.

I am surrounded by philistines!! Curse you!

Next they'll be saying they don't like grind. Tch.

Like whatnow?

Myoptika is being a clique.

Or something beginning with that letter anyway.

myoptika is being a credit? As in 'credit to the board'?

It's, er, possible, that's what he mean. Although, that would mean assuming Dudley has said something nice about someone...

I imagine that it's not credit, but is similarly something which you might find yourself in.

I'm definitely not a car. Silly Dudley.

When I talk about tea needing boiling water, I mean proper tea. For example, I just bought some Yorkshire Tea. Yum! All other tea is wrong. Someone at work made me an Earl Grey once without telling me, and I was nearly sick on the table.

This is double-true for those teas that don't actually have tea in them, fruity ones and that. How do they get away calling themselves tea?

When I was in Germany, I had to use two Lipton English Breakfast bags and leave to stew for ages - at the time I didn't know about continental faulty-elemented kettles and so blamed it on the bags. Now I'm not so sure.

Your tastebuds need fixing.


My opinion is fact, I am drunk enough to claim this. I shall think up another excuse should I sober up.

I do not like Earl grey, either, it tastes to sweet and flowery. It tastes like someone has put a dash of your Nan's 'Old Lady Lavender' perfumes in with the tea, or melted a load of parma violets in with the brew.

TODAY IS A FINE DAY FOR SCIENCE

Tefal Quickcup

Starting conditions: Full reservoir at 17.2 degrees Centigrade.

Final temperature: 86.1 degrees Centigrade (measured at approx 1cm below the surface in the mug - white enamel, standard size - using a type K thermocouple connected to an RS digital thermometer)

Time with element on: 36 seconds. (The element was on all the time that the water was pouring, producing 300ml)

Average power consumption: 2790W measured on a Kill-a-Watt style plug-in Wattmeter.

Energy consumed: 28 Watt-Hours


Tefal 'Justine' 1.2L plastic jug kettle

Starting conditions: 300ml poured into kettle, from 17.2 degrees Centigrade reservoir.

Final temperature: 96.0 degrees Centigrade (measured as before)

Time with element on: 170 seconds*.

Average power consumption: 2170W measured as before.

Energy consumed: 102 Watt-Hours


* An additional 20 seconds was required after the kettle switched off to pour the water.

Findings

The QuickCup required a surprisingly low 27% of the energy to produce a single cup of water versus the kettle. Further investigation is required to find whether in heavy use producing multiple cups, if the kettle would become more efficient. However, given the typical usage patterns of a kettle outside of lab conditions, it is expected that the kettle would result in additional waste due to boiling and then not using water, overfilling, etc.

The time saved in producing a single cup is also excellent, although the packaging of the Quickcup clearly states "hot water in 3 seconds" which is misleading as our results show.

The temperature is adequate for making a hot cup of tea utilising the tea-bag-in-mug technique, although again slightly lower than the packaging suggests, this is mitigated by the fact that the temperature of the stream does reach 100 degrees every few seconds during pouring.

This post contains too much excellence to be conveyed in words. EXCELLENT SIR.

Eh, Kalmar's was way better, I thought.