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/ck/ - Food & Cooking

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5345254 No.5345254[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

Why tea guys? why not just eat raw leaves?

because it's more practical to sell dried leaves than fresh leaves?

>> No.5345256

ebic

simbly ebix :^)

>> No.5345259

>>5345256
im really clueless, pls help

>> No.5345263

>>5345254
You already chewed on some grass, as you seems high as a mountain.

>> No.5345265

because caffeine and the other things in tea are water soluble, you can detect them much more readily when they're taken out of the leaf and put into solution

>> No.5345267

>>5345263
I know there are some plants which are only usefull if you make tea out of them (or cook,, w/e), but generally isn't raw better for you than tea? If you google a random wild edible plant the result will most likely be how healthy its tea is.

pls give me a serious response

>> No.5345273

>>5345265
alright, thanks b.

>> No.5345279

>>5345267
>If you google a random wild edible plant the result will most likely be how healthy its tea is.

that doesn't make any sense, tea is only one plant.

>> No.5345281

>>5345273
btw, im not talking about the tea bush

>> No.5345387

Tea leaves are generally roasted to differing degrees to alter the flavour.

>> No.5345421

>>5345279
No it's not, you can make spruce tea, nettle tea, pretty much anything, it's just the flavour of the plant in hot water.

>> No.5345428

>>5345421
Those are called teas because the process is the same.

Tea plants are an actual thing, though, and they're what you get if you just have normal tea.

>> No.5345431

My local tea shop is the only place I can find nice loose leaf but its stupid expensive, anyone know any good online sellers?

>> No.5345442

>>5345431
I go through http://www.tealiciousllc.com/
They have free shipping in Utah. One time, the owner even delivered it herself to my door

>> No.5345572

OP here

not satisfied with the answers yet

>> No.5345578

You don't eat coffee beans or tobacco leaves either.

Tea allows for controlled extraction of flavor and beneficial substances rather than just irritable undigestible plant matter.

>> No.5345582

>>5345578
yea, but what about dandelion (and the like) tho?

>> No.5345601

>>5345254
Certain plants will be bitter if you just brew the fresh leaves. Like tea.
Also, the drying and ageing gives the leaves some properties, such as a distinct earthiness in a fermented tea.

Over-brewing the dried leaves will also make the tea bitter, but it's less profound than with fresh leaves and requires you to make a mistake.

>> No.5345607

>>5345254
>>5345601

Also, from a practicality point of view, a lot of the reason that tea was dried was for transport. Bear in mind that these leaves were taken from India to Britain during the period of time which really popularized it in the West, and it was a journey which took several weeks. Fresh leaves would have been spoiled by it, and so everything we learned about, and adapted for, tea is based on the dried leaves.

I expect that if we had a few hundred year's worth of experience with fresh leaves, we'd know how to make them taste good too.

>> No.5345706

>>5345431
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0ApCZ-sUhC2egdGtTVFNjMzFfZzdDUnVVTVgxQ2RxNVE&hl=en&authkey=CJLgu5IL

>> No.5345715

>>5345607

nah, you're confusing cause and effect bro.

Tea was a viable transport because it was light and dry and kept a long time, not the other way around.

The reason tea leaves are dry is because of thermodynamics... or physics? chemistry? Biology! BOTANY?

i dont know what science it is, but basically - it has to do with the "osmosis and diffusion" effect of making tea brew. Dry leaves cause the tenons(spelling?) in the tea to instantly diffuse into the water, because its SO dry, and the water is SO wet.

if you had wet leaves... that process would take a week or so. That could be done... but you would also get a bunch of nasty plant material like chlorophil, cellulose, etc.

Drying the leaves out essentially kills most of the organic matter and leaves just the chemical flavors, the tenons and the caffeine (which is the most important.)

>> No.5345726
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5345726

>>5345254
because saliva transmutes properties

>> No.5345785

>>5345254
Because it's not that good in food form. Also, regularly eating tea leaves would lead to fluorosis pretty quickly.

>> No.5345793

>>5345715
the chemicals involved in tea flavor are aromatic oils, terpines, and tannins, iirc. They become more concentrated in dry plant matter

>> No.5345836

Teah leaves are eaten in burma, where they are sort of pickled and fermented. It's called lahpet.

But I imagine older tea leaves are tough. I suppose you could eat young tea leaves though. Maybe some cultures do

>> No.5345837

>>5345726
living peacefully can be dangerous then. at least be a little anxious

>> No.5345849

>>5345726
>tfw depressed because of the foreseeable future

>> No.5346235

>>5345582
What about it?
Who enjoys eating dandelions?

>> No.5346244

What is the best place to buy teapots?

I have an Ingenutea but it's getting so overused it is turning brown. Time to move up to some real tea equipment.

>> No.5346247

>>5345254
Because raw tea leaves are disgusting and very likely indigestible (been to Ceylon/Sri Lanka in 2005) putting them in hot water makes them so. Why don't you just eat raw rhubarb OP?

>> No.5346257

>>5346244
What an utterly useless contraption, you don't need a knock off of Aeropress to steep tea properly. There's nothing like cream or oils you want to create.
Want a real tea pot? Buy one you reckon is really damn pretty to you with some loose leaf infuser built in if you must (just get one on a chain even) There's no other criteria.

>> No.5346265
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5346265

But I do eat raw leaves, pic related

The tea is probably for the pleasure of drinking something hot that isn't just heated up water

>> No.5346466

Why would your prefer to eat leaves over a hot drink?

>> No.5346529

Can you smoke tea?

>> No.5346547

>>5346529
You can smoke anything you want you fucking druggie.

>> No.5346563

>>5346547
But I mean, is it a good substitute for tobacco?

Not a pothead. That shit makes me paranoid.

>> No.5346643

>>5346563
It isn't tobacco in any sense. Besides, you don't even smoke tobacco for the tobacco, you smoke it for all the chemicals that are in it.

>> No.5347064

>>5345428
>>5345421
yeah the word you muhfuggas are looking for is tisanes. not trying to be pretentious, either.

that being said, OP--tea leaves on their own contain a LOT of tannins which suck ass. that's why you don't oversteep tea. It's also why in the world of tea shaded green leaves ground into matcha are the norm, while just eating them isn't. in China they do sparingly eat them but they also eat worms so fuck it.

>> No.5347081

>>5345428
>because the process is the same.

but the process is decoction.
tea and tisane are both decoctions, but tea is specifically a decoction of the camelia sinensis leaf.

>> No.5347259

>>5345428
>night
>thristy for warm drink
>walk into stroe
>go to tea section
>find box
>"normal tea"
>buy it


this never happened

>> No.5347263

>>5345431
znaturalfoods.com or mountainroseherbs.com are both really great.

>> No.5347266

>>5346643
I haven't participated in this thread at all, but I wanted to point out how retarded this comment is.

It's like saying, "you don't even eat eggs for the eggs, you eat them for all the chemicals that are in it."

No shit. That's what tobacco is. You smoke it because it's tobacco. Because tobacco is made of that stuff.

>> No.5347269

>>5345715
>chlorophyll
>nasty

i love chlorophyll

>> No.5347440

OP here,

I wasn't asking about the tea bush

>> No.5347496

>>5347440
>why not eat tea leaves
Tea leaves are from a tea bush.

>> No.5347779

>>5346244
Try a gaiwan. They're cheap, readily available, and you can brew almost any tea in them.

>> No.5347938

>>5347496
>why not eat tea leaves
never said that b