What is in your cup?

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by bjones6416

I'm just gonna call it "CS" now. Sounds classier.

Hey, I think I'll go fix myself another cup of CS Thai Chai!

Now THAT is something I'd think about drinking!

But for the moment, I'm going to stick with East India Company's Assam tea. I prefer the tin that it comes in to the cardboard box of 'CS.'


Stitchawl

[beppe]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

I like the empty tea bag idea, though, I'll keep my eye out for them.

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

Be careful with the empty tea bags. They seem to be available in different qualities. Some that I bought felt like coffee filter paper and others felt like soft silk. For me, the coffee filter paper type give a paper taste to the tea, sort of like Lipton's Tea. The soft ones don't seem to do that, and are the same price as the others. If you have an Asian market in your area, you should find them there, as well as ordering on line.

Stitchawl

I use them in the office for roibos. I got mine in Zurich, but recently I found them around here also. Mine are light and fluffy, I imagine to let the water pass through larger pores, of Japanese make. I get so impatient filling them up. It seems that the soothing/self-focusing effects of ritual drinking of beverages gets somewhat lost in the intricacy of the ritual itself. Zen? A key passage to be mastered? Or just use an hand cream regularly.

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

Can we compromise with these Green Flower Tea balls?





Good luck Is your part of the world in a favorable 'available work' situation?



Wow! I love Chili, and of course I love Chocolate, but in tea?


Stitchawl

We have those flower tea balls here, and they always look so intriguing and pretty. I haven't had the courage to try one yet, though.

Ummm... chili...chocolate....in TEA?

Originally Posted by bjones6416

I'm back from the doctor, who said the magic words, "no change!" No change is good -- that means my hearing is as good today as it was after my ear healed up from the surgery, and that is a LOT better than it was pre-surgery. Thanks to all of you for the good wishes!!

Drinking some evil Celestial Seasonings Coconut Thai Chai.

Betty, that's great news, I am so happy for you!!

Am I going to get kicked out of this thread if I admit that on the very rare occasions I drink hot tea it's been flavored in tea bags, like your Celestial Seasonings?

[desertblues]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

Good luck! I hope your surgery was successful. I wear two large behind-the-ear hearing aids (my hearing is too poor now for those little discrete in-the-ear units that I used to use) and I still can't hear my wife when she tells me to take out the trash!

Hearing is something we all take for granted. Don't. These days I have to crank up the volume controls just to hear myself play guitar. I know that my electric kettle plays "Fur Elise" when it boils but I can only hear two of the note frequencies. At least the tea that we make with it still tastes good; right now, a big mug of Yorkshire Tea to start the morning!

Stitchawl

I sympathize with you and Betty. My husbands hearing has become bad, after some awfull dizziness spells, where he even couldn't move his eyes without feeling all topsy turvy. I see that it isolates him a bit.
Stichawl; you're too right in your advice to not take your hearing for granted.

In my cup: cold coffee.
It's 8.00 in the morning. Gathering courage to bike through the snow, to go to several lectures about the 'Treaty of Nijmegen '. That was in my town; an important event for European peace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaties_of_Nijmegen

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

We have those flower tea balls here, and they always look so intriguing and pretty. I haven't had the courage to try one yet, though.

They are pretty. Personally, I find the taste only to be good when eating Chinese food, but that's me. Other folks love it as an afternoon tea!

Ummm... chili...chocolate....in TEA?

I'm with you on this one. The only thing to go into tea should be one's reflection!

Am I going to get kicked out of this thread if I admit that on the very rare occasions I drink hot tea it's been flavored in tea bags, like your Celestial Seasonings?

Nope. We welcome all drinkers, from plain water to 15 year old Scotch. Of course, we view commercial tea bag drinkers as pilgrims who have not yet seen the light. There is hope for you yet. Why, there are actually people here who like (shudder) Lipton's.


Stitchawl

[beppe]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

I'm with you on this one. The only thing to go into tea should be one's reflection!

My grandmother (father's side of Austro-Slovenian descent) put in her afternoon tea fa dash of rhum (a high potency stuff that you can stiil buy in Austria, something in the order of 80% alcool ). That is apparently a diffused habit in south eastern Europe. Indeed my student mother (of Romenian descent) has similar practices.

[astra]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

“The Book of Tea” by Kakuzo Okakura

On my TBR list and Sony Reader for 2 years.
I will read it one day!

Second cup of tea today.
Assam!
Very strong!

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by astra

On my TBR list and Sony Reader for 2 years.
I will read it one day!

It's a short read, but wonderful! It really isn't a general book of tea; more of the Japanese study of tea and the tea ceremony. It goes into the room used for the ceremony, the flower arrangement for it, the master's school of tea, etc., etc. I read it more to understand Japan than to understand tea.

Second cup of tea today.
Assam!
Very strong!

I've been drinking more and more Assam lately myself. The East India Company Assam that I bought a few weeks ago is growing on me. I'm drinking my third cup of it right now!

Stitchawl

[astra]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

I've been drinking more and more Assam lately myself. The East India Company Assam that I bought a few weeks ago is growing on me. I'm drinking my third cup of it right now!

You convinced me. I am going to make another cup of Assam

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by astra

You convinced me. I am going to make another cup of Assam

Didn't your mother warn you about people like me?


Stitchawl

[astra]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

Didn't your mother warn you about people like me?

Probably she did, but I never listened
However, there is a Russian proverb: Sloth has been born before myself.
What does it mean?
Well, I am too lazy and never got around to make another cup of Assam

Brunch accompanied with rooibos raspberry&vanilla.

[bjones6416]

Good morning, fellow club members! Drinking black coffee.

(And let me just say right here, Shel, that no ma'am you won't get kicked out for drinking bagged flavored anything-you-want. I'm a charter member in this club, you know, and I won't even let them give you a hard time. As long as I say the words "Celestial Seasonings" every now and then it keeps the negative attention on me. So come on in! )

I've decided a need a Bodum cup to drink my morning coffee from. I have one I've been drinking tea in (with its own infuser, no less), and I love that I can hold the cup in my hand even with hot tea inside and it doesn't burn my hand, plus the tea looks beautiful inside. I think I'll tell Santa.

[astra]

A cup of roasted mate.

My favourite cup now is La Cafetiere Oscar Cup
I thought about its alternative Bodum Pavina Double Walled Thermo Glass but decided that French version is more stable , although 1oz smaller.

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by astra

A cup of roasted mate.

My favourite cup now is La Cafetiere Oscar Cup
I thought about its alternative Bodum Pavina Double Walled Thermo Glass but decided that French version is more stable , although 1oz smaller.

Oh, that is beautiful! It's double-walled like a Bodum, right? Does it stay coolish to the touch on the outside?

[astra]

Originally Posted by bjones6416

Oh, that is beautiful! It's double-walled like a Bodum, right? Does it stay coolish to the touch on the outside?

Yep. It does, and it is virtually weightless. It took me a few weeks to get used to a false sensation. You look at the glass filled with a tea.
You prepare your arm to take it and feel a certain weight. Then you grab the glass and your hand shoots up a bit higher than you expected because it is so light.
Probably this special tempered glass is made of a very light stuff.