On Sep 21, 2005, at 7:21, Sylvie Nguyen wrote:
It wound be interesting to know what varieties of coffee and tea people prefer on our list.
While I love to *smell* coffe, I only drink it at the tail end of a boozy dinner party, to wake up. And then I like it "black as the devil and sweet as a woman" (don't bother with the "hot as hell" part, for me, but add a twist of lemon peel, please); I'm a tea-drinker, through-an'-through... I think that, perhaps, my Stepson#1 came up with "T" as my name *both* because it was impossible for him to pronounce "Tamara" correctly, and because I drink at least a gallon of (hot) tea daily :)
I gave up trying to brew tea in teapots long time ago - I was spending too much time doing that, even though the Polish version is easier than the UK one (you brew very strong "essence", then pour about 1-2cm of it into the glass, then top it up with boiling water. The "essence" in the pot can sit all day long... But it never lasted that long for me, alas, so I had to brew at tleast twice daily <g>).
I also dislike - intensly - the "floor sweepings" enclosed in the paper bags ("tea on the leash"; too strong on the one hand, too tastless on the other). So I compromise and use tea leaves in one of those metal "strainers on a stick", which look like a double-sided teaspoon with holes in it, hinged between its two halves. It's not as good as "real tea", but that's my "compromise limit" :) I now travel with one of those and a container of loose tea, if I know I'm likely to be away from home for more than 48 hrs.
As for tea itself, I'm as opinionated as on any-every other subject :) My 1-10 preference is Yunan - a Chinese tea, but almost as dark as Indian teas, and with very subtle, yet intense flavour. Most of the time, I drink it with both sugar and lemon ("Russian tea" someone in London explained to me in the summer of '68. "So called because, as soon as you drink it, you have to rush to the toilet"). If I have the time and nothing to do, I drink it without the lemon, and with just a *touch* of sugar, sniffing the aroma.
If I can't have Yunan, any "breakfast tea" will do, as long as I can have a double dose of lemon. Any "straight" (like Oolong) tea will do in the long run, excepting that the Earl Grey needs to be "cut" with something else, to reduce the "perfume factor". Needless to say, I can't *stand* the "tisane teas" - the ones flavoured with herbs and who knows what - unless I'm sick, and then I prefer to brew the ingredients myself (mint for stomach upsets, raspberry for fever, etc). I can tolerate herbal teas as iced-tea, but only in so far as I can tolerate iced-tea *at all* <g> Generally, if I can't have "straight" hot tea with double lemon, I drink water with my food, then try to find a source of lemons, buy a few, and suck one per day <g> In Poland, they have vials of vitamine C; you dissolve one tablet in half-a-glass of water, and get a fizzy drink, tasting of lemon or orange, with enough vitamin C to last you a day. I usually try to buy a largish supply of those every time I go, to protect me from travelling within US where "sorry, ma'am, we don't have lemon" seems to be a common response when one requests hot tea (even though iced-tea and - quite often - iced-water, have a slice)
As for iced-tea vs Coke choice, I base it on the basis of "fat factor" :) There's a "Carolina BBQ" rib "place" on the outskirts of Richmond, which we (DH and I) accidentally discovered when looking for a loo while on our way to Norfolk. Best ribs *ever* but fat... The first couple of times, I got iced tea (not fizzy), and the meal "sat" on my stomach for the next 78 hrs... So then I tried Coke instead, and the meal was "burped out", violently, within 6 hrs <g> I don't like Coke, but it's still a better "digestive solution" :) So, these days, if I have to eat out in a fast-food joint, I ask for Coke. If they happen to have lemon slices on hand to squeeze into the glass, it even makes it palatable, as well as "digestively efficient" <g>
-- Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/ Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland) To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
