/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.5606110]

How do you take your tea, /ck/?

Earl Grey with one sugar.

[Anonymous No.5606121]

Computer, Tea, Earl Grey, Hot.

[Anonymous No.5606127]

>>5606110
>tea in a bag
Im not british or a weeb but come on dude

[Anonymous No.5606130]

>>5606121
>having to specify temperature

It's shit.

[Anonymous No.5606137]

>>5606121
This.

[Anonymous No.5606145]

>>5606127
>he thinks British people don't use bagged tea

Top kek, mate.

[Anonymous No.5606151]

>>5606110
How do you have one sugar? Like one granulate? How the hell can you even taste it?

[Anonymous No.5606154]

>>5606151
I think he means a spoon of sugar. That, or one cube.

[Anonymous No.5606217]

Step 1 heat water
Step 2 two nice fat pinches of jasmine tea inside teacup
Step 3 pour water in cup
Step 5 wait a couple of minutes
Step 6 enjoy, fuck straining, chew that shit and spit it out

[Anonymous No.5606225]

>>5606151
I think most sugar packets or cubes are like 1 tsp of sugar.

[Anonymous No.5606329]

Tea is for plebs. Pure water master race.

[Anonymous No.5606342]

>>5606127
I visited a Britbong's house and they immediately offered me bagged tea

I visited the house of a little old Nepalese woman, and not only did she offer me bagged tea, the tea was Lipton, and she prepared it by putting the tea in a cup of water and then microwaving the cup.

[Anonymous No.5606346]

>>5606342
>she prepared it by putting the tea in a cup of water and then microwaving the cup

[Anonymous No.5606364]

>>5606342
>she prepared it by putting the tea in a cup of water and then microwaving the cup

[Anonymous No.5606408]

>>5606110
>Earl Grey

Wow.
Such hip.
Very trend.
So brand.

[Anonymous No.5606421]

>>5606342
The kind of person you are, yourself, plays a big role in the kind of people you end up being with during your lifetime. You might have been a few houses down from either of those situations and had a better experience with more credible characters, within the same geographical location. But nope, not you. And it doesn't matter where you go on this earth. Not you.

[Anonymous No.5606435]

>>5606364
It is surprising at how one can be factually correct and still misunderstand what's going on so completely.

Nucleation sites are simple to create. Place a plastic utensil or woden skewer in the cup of water. That creates the nucleation sites necessary for boiling, and prevents the risks of superheating.

To get the temperature correct does not take expertise in anything. It takes 5 minutes and an instant read IR thermometer. Mine was $17 at amazon.com. One cup of water heated for 60 seconds in my microwave reaches 180 degrees. 95 seconds produces boiling water, with no superheating, no excess removal of dissolved gasses, and much less energy, time and money.

I suppose it remains possible that someone might be able to taste the difference, but I'd need a double blind statistical experiment to convince me of it. I cannot tell the difference, and will continue to use my microwave.

[Anonymous No.5606446]

>>5606408
Earl Grey isn't a brand, mate, it's a blend

[Anonymous No.5606453]

When I look through my own recipe for the perfect cup of tea, I find no fewer than eleven outstanding points. On perhaps two of them there would be pretty general agreement, but at least four others are acutely controversial. Here are my own eleven rules, every one of which I regard as golden:

First of all, one should use Indian or Ceylonese tea. China tea has virtues which are not to be despised nowadays — it is economical, and one can drink it without milk — but there is not much stimulation in it. One does not feel wiser, braver or more optimistic after drinking it. Anyone who has used that comforting phrase 'a nice cup of tea' invariably means Indian tea.

Secondly, tea should be made in small quantities — that is, in a teapot. Tea out of an urn is always tasteless, while army tea, made in a cauldron, tastes of grease and whitewash. The teapot should be made of china or earthenware. Silver or Britanniaware teapots produce inferior tea and enamel pots are worse; though curiously enough a pewter teapot (a rarity nowadays) is not so bad.

Thirdly, the pot should be warmed beforehand. This is better done by placing it on the hob than by the usual method of swilling it out with hot water.

Fourthly, the tea should be strong. For a pot holding a quart, if you are going to fill it nearly to the brim, six heaped teaspoons would be about right. In a time of rationing, this is not an idea that can be realized on every day of the week, but I maintain that one strong cup of tea is better than twenty weak ones. All true tea lovers not only like their tea strong, but like it a little stronger with each year that passes — a fact which is recognized in the extra ration issued to old-age pensioners.

[Anonymous No.5606454]

>>5606453
Douglas Adams, you're dead, why are you on /ck/?

[Anonymous No.5606457]

>>5606453
George Orwell, you're dead, why are you on /ck/?

[Anonymous No.5606458]

>>5606453

Fifthly, the tea should be put straight into the pot. No strainers, muslin bags or other devices to imprison the tea. In some countries teapots are fitted with little dangling baskets under the spout to catch the stray leaves, which are supposed to be harmful. Actually one can swallow tea-leaves in considerable quantities without ill effect, and if the tea is not loose in the pot it never infuses properly.

Sixthly, one should take the teapot to the kettle and not the other way about. The water should be actually boiling at the moment of impact, which means that one should keep it on the flame while one pours. Some people add that one should only use water that has been freshly brought to the boil, but I have never noticed that it makes any difference.

Seventhly, after making the tea, one should stir it, or better, give the pot a good shake, afterwards allowing the leaves to settle.

Eighthly, one should drink out of a good breakfast cup — that is, the cylindrical type of cup, not the flat, shallow type. The breakfast cup holds more, and with the other kind one's tea is always half cold before one has well started on it.

Ninthly, one should pour the cream off the milk before using it for tea. Milk that is too creamy always gives tea a sickly taste.

Tenthly, one should pour tea into the cup first. This is one of the most controversial points of all; indeed in every family in Britain there are probably two schools of thought on the subject. The milk-first school can bring forward some fairly strong arguments, but I maintain that my own argument is unanswerable. This is that, by putting the tea in first and stirring as one pours, one can exactly regulate the amount of milk whereas one is liable to put in too much milk if one does it the other way round.

[Anonymous No.5606459]

>>5606458
Lastly, tea — unless one is drinking it in the Russian style — should be drunk without sugar. I know very well that I am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true tealover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you could make a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water.

Some people would answer that they don't like tea in itself, that they only drink it in order to be warmed and stimulated, and they need sugar to take the taste away. To those misguided people I would say: Try drinking tea without sugar for, say, a fortnight and it is very unlikely that you will ever want to ruin your tea by sweetening it again.

>>5606457

shaddap you face!

[Anonymous No.5606467]

>>5606459
>Lastly, tea — unless one is drinking it in the Russian style — should be drunk without sugar.

Don't Ruskies take black tea with sugar and lemon?

[Anonymous No.5606468]

>>5606110
Green straight up and warm. Steeped for a long time.

[Anonymous No.5606470]

>>5606458
> The water should be actually boiling at the moment of impact
orwell confirmed for not knowing shit about tea. temp of water depends on the tea

[Anonymous No.5606472]

>>5606459
>beer is meant to be bitter
didnt know orwell was a hop loving hipster

[Anonymous No.5606484]

>>5606446
Then I can only hope it wasn't named after some jackass named Earl Grey.

Because that's what it seems like is going on here.

[Anonymous No.5606492]

>>5606484
The title Earl, the surname Grey. It can be passed on. Up until 2013, Richard Grey was the Earl Grey.

The blend was popularized by the second Earl Grey, for whom it was named

[Anonymous No.5606825]

100 bags boxes for maximum cheapness.

[Anonymous No.5606830]

>>5606217
pig disgusting, don't you even know what tannins are?

[Anonymous No.5606832]

>>5606825
I would rather use mulch and dead skin.

[Anonymous No.5606833]

>>5606832
It's perfectly drinkable if you add enough sugar and milk.

[Anonymous No.5606835]

>>5606833
I would rather drink decent or good tea less often.

[Anonymous No.5606837]

>>5606833
If you don't like tea, then why bother?

[Anonymous No.5606838]

>>5606837
Because it has caffeine?

[Anonymous No.5606839]

>>5606838
>doing things you don't enjoy for a drug
fucking junkie.

[Anonymous No.5606840]

>>5606838
OK, I rescind my previous statements regarding quality and taste.

[Anonymous No.5606841]

>>5606837
Your fedora is showing.

I also drink Earl Grey from Dammann like everybody else here, but much less often than bagged trash tea.

[Anonymous No.5606859]

English Breakfast, well done with a serving of catsup

[Anonymous No.5606877]

>>5606837
If you dont like food, why not just get your nutrients via IV?

[Anonymous No.5606944]

>Cubensis mushrooms, fresh and chopped to mush
>Licorice root for flavour
>A half teaspoon of sugar, because thats how i like it
>A dash of milk
>Drink in 3-4 large swigs

Tastes fantastic, and works a charm.

[Anonymous No.5607120]

>>5606944
>mushroom tea
absolutely disgusting, why would you drink that

[Anonymous No.5607147]

>>5607120
To trip balls

[Anonymous No.5607152]

STRONK black + 3 sugar

[Anonymous No.5607347]

Put some milk in it op you cunt or drink Yorkshire tea, why the fuck would you leave the teabag in it all that time take it out you mother fucker don't you know how to make tea.

[Anonymous No.5607370]

>>5606110
>leaving your teabag in the cup
>leaving your spoon in the cup

enjoy your bitter, oversteeped, lukewarm tea

[Anonymous No.5607373]

>>5606110
>sugar
disgusting

[Anonymous No.5607607]

>>5607347
>Put some milk in it
Milked up Earl Grey is disgusting, yo.

[Anonymous No.5607672]

Black tea, 3(or, on a good day, 2 and a half) spoonful of sugar.

Preferably, 6-8 cups a day.

[Anonymous No.5607742]

Earl Grey, loose leaf, no sugar/milk

I'm looking to get into Mate currently as well. Anybody have any brand recommendations or know good places to get gourds? I've got a friend in Brazil offering to buy and ship me one but I know that's going to cost.

[Anonymous No.5607751]

>>5607742
>brazilian friends
not even once

[Anonymous No.5607757]

>>5607751
They're pretty cool as long as they're rich brazillian friends

You don't want poor brazilian friends, though.

[Anonymous No.5607814]

>>5606408

>has never heard of earl grey tea

[Anonymous No.5607817]

>>5606877
>if you dont like food

[Anonymous No.5607894]

Oolong, no milk no sugar

[Anonymous No.5607895]

>>5606421
Do you seriously judge the character of a person on how they prepare their tea?

[Anonymous No.5607912]

>>5607895
Do not underestimate the level of weapons grade autism on /ck/.

[Anonymous No.5607964]

Years of trial and error and careful scientific observation have led me to the following conclusions:

1. Every single prepackaged tea will tell you to use one bag or one teaspoon of loose tea, eight ounces of BOILING water, and to let steep for up to five minutes.
2. This is fucking bullshit and will result in disgusting tea that is simultaneously lacking in flavor yet also overpowering in crappy, bitter, astringent burntness.
3. The proper method is as follows: bring water to a boil and then REMOVE FROM HEAT for, like, two minutes maybe. Pour over half a tablespoon (that's 1.5 teaspoons) of loose leaf tea (bags are shite). Let steep for about two minutes. Two minutes thirty is really pushing it. Three and you might as well just fucking dump it down the sink, unless you're planning on drowning it in milk and sugar. Which reminds me:
4. Fuck milk and sugar. Milk and sugar are for indulging your sweet tooth once in a while, not for serious tea-drinking.

For best results, measure all amounts, times and temperatures obsessively, as if your life depended on it, always. Also I don't actually know where to find good tea.

[Anonymous No.5608009]

>>5607964
>using the same method for every tea

Have you ever had green tea? Green tea usually steeps best around 175C for about 45 seconds. Though it varies from brand to brand.

ex: I steep my sencha green tea at about 170c for 45 seconds, and my mao feng green tea at about 185c for about 1min 15 seconds.

[Anonymous No.5608013]

Depends on the kind of tea: I make about 16 ounces at a time.

For green tea: I bring the tea kettle to the pot, pour and steep it about 30 to 40 seconds on the first infusion then pour it into the cup.

For black teas I bring the kettle to the pot and first infusion is about 3 minutes long.

Constant Comet is trickier. First you have to prepare a mason jar with a handle (pictured). When the water is warm but not boiling, pour some of it into the jar to make sure its not too cold and going to shatter. Then dump out that water and add a tablespoon of honey to the jar and one bag of the dustiest tea you can find in the box. Wait for the water to boil and pour it directly into the jar until its about half full. Sit directly over it and smell it for 3 to 15 minutes, maybe stir it absentmindly to dissolve the honey. Do not drink. When you come out of a sickness induced stupor and your nose has cleared a bit, juice half of a lemon and fill the rest of the glass with whatever cheap lite whiskey you have at the ready, cap it and shake. Uncap and drink as much of it as you can in one go.

[Anonymous No.5608018]

>>5608013
*Black tea should be pot to the kettle. It needs to be really hot water.

[Anonymous No.5608057]

>>5608009
>70 to 85 degrees Celsius ABOVE boiling
Are you a wizard?

I drank a lot of green tea for a while and was always super careful about the temperature. I'm starting to think I need to invest in an electric kettle so I have complete control. Or at the very least, one of those cool infrared thermometers like a previous poster mentioned. Overdone green tea might actually be more revolting than overdone black tea, and that's saying something.

>>5608013
You are a true connoisseur.

[Anonymous No.5608060]

>>5608057
lol, I meant farenheit.

not sure what I was thinking putting celsius there, but I'm sure you got that already.

[Anonymous No.5608074]

>>5606110
Mint tea or earl grey tea with two teaspoons of honey.

[Anonymous No.5608091]

Green tea on the rocks

[Anonymous No.5608100]

>>5606446
brute mate isn't a brand either!
don't you guys know anything?

[Anonymous No.5608253]

>>5606492
And why does he deserve his name to represent the blend forever? What did he do, exactly.

[Anonymous No.5608268]

>>5608253
Enjoyed the fuck out of that tea, obviously.

[Anonymous No.5609351]

Anyone ever put two bags in their cup?

[Anonymous No.5609358]

>>5606110
different Chinese black teas steeped under a minute, nothing in it.

[Anonymous No.5609363]

>>5609351
You should put 2 teabags in a teapot.

[Anonymous No.5609368]

>>5609351
why it's a waste of tea? 1 teaspoon (yes that's actually where the name comes from) per 8oz of water is the ideal concentration. (i think the old English tea cups were 6oz)

[Anonymous No.5609382]

>>5609368
I don't taste anything unless the water turns pretty damn brown. It's green tea btw. I might be using shitty tea or I don't appreciate the taste.

[Anonymous No.5609391]

>>5609382
what temp water do you use?
some times ya gotta turn down the volume. All you're getting with that is caffine in an astringent overly tannic soup. Even a shitty green tea can taste fine as long as you don't steep it over 30 seconds in boiling water.

[Anonymous No.5609400]

>>5609391
>what temp water do you use?

I microwave it till it starts steaming. Fuck, I have a lot to learn about preparing tea. The stupid bags even tell me to steep in 3 minutes and everyone here is saying some shorter duration.

[Anonymous No.5609407]

>>5606110
>earl grey
>sugar

Contemplate suicide.

[Anonymous No.5609944]

>>5609400
Bagged tea is pretty bad when it comes to brewing instructions (and quality).

I once had a jasmine green tea from taylors of harrogate, and I tried using their instructions, but it would always turn out so damn bitter. I even tried brewing it using my normal method of 175f for 45 seconds, and it was still bitter as hell. no matter how cool or short I brewed it, the bitterness would not leave. I ended up throwing away the box.

[Anonymous No.5610071]

>>5607964
twinings isn't very good but this and lady grey are fucking legit

[Anonymous No.5610086]

>>5606110
>earl grey with sugar
bin it now

My favourite teas are probably darjeeling second flush and ceylon. Chinese tea is nice if the quality is good enough so stuff like silver needles. Cheap shitty tier green tea should be banned

[Anonymous No.5610172]

wait aren't electric kettles a rarity in America? what do you guys use to prepare tea?

[Anonymous No.5610175]

>>5610172
A pot, some water, a stove, and tea bags.

[Anonymous No.5610180]

>>5609400
If you have a 1100 watt microwave trying microwaving for 1:30 and steep for 2 minutes. The microwave can heat water over boiling temperatures without any steaming or smoking. Try 1:30 and see how hot it is without it steaming.

[Anonymous No.5610184]

>>5610172
I either put a tea pot on the stove or heat up a cup of water with a keurig.

[Anonymous No.5610200]

>>5610175
>>5610184

we have a nonelectric kettle that we only bring out when the electricity supply is cut off. As archaic as it gets. I'm even thinking of investing in a variable temperature filtered kettle.

[Anonymous No.5610232]

you plebs don't make it into a latte?

[Anonymous No.5610233]

>>5610232
Why drink tea if you are going to do that you might as well drink coffee.

[Anonymous No.5610238]

>>5610233
cuz coffee a shit

[Anonymous No.5610242]

>>5610233
DIFFERENT FLAVORS BRAH

[Anonymous No.5610301]

>>5606130
The replicator's default temperature for hot drinks is just warm enough for most humans to pick it right up and drink. Picard is used to freshly-brewed tea, which is hot enough to burn the mouths of people who don't drink hot tea/coffee all the time, so he had to specify "hot" after his first cup didn't satisfy him.

Replicators remember people's preferences, so he could just ask for Earl Grey and it'd be at the right temperature. Actually, he could probably just say tea and it'd default to Earl Grey for him. He says the full thing either out of habit or so that he doesn't get lukewarm sencha on someone else's ship.

[Anonymous No.5610308]

>>5606435
Even when using a kettle, I would never put the tea into the kettle and then start boiling the water. That'll give you a horrible overbrew. Doing it in a microwave is even less efficient.

[Anonymous No.5610320]

>>5606470
He only drank whole-leaf black Indian tea, probably from a single brand, so he didn't need rules for making any other kind.

[Anonymous No.5610322]

>>5606838
Why not coffee then? Even if you drink half brewed coffee and half milk, it'll have more caffeine than a cup of pure tea of the same size.

[Anonymous No.5610355]

>>5610200
>As archaic as it gets.
Maybe it's because I live in the woods or my family is just really old-fashioned but it just seems like the US isn't really into using electric items for cooking food either.

My sister gave my family a keurig for free, I bought a ton of k-cups on clearance for it along with the reusable cups for loose tea/coffee and my parents still use our other coffee maker even after they said coffee tastes better when it's made through the keurig. They always heat cans of soup or hotdogs on the stove and leave bread out to defrost it.

I found out recently you can heat a hotdog and frozen bun perfectly in a microwave if you put them in for 20 seconds. It also takes about 10-15 seconds to defrost slices of bread. What the hell have I been doing all my life before discovering this, I'll never get that time back.

[Anonymous No.5610373]

>>5610355
Not to offend, but why would the bread be frozen? Is this an American way of buying bread?

[Anonymous No.5610397]

I drink my tea completely pure - no sugar, no milk.

[Anonymous No.5610401]

>>5610071
Twinings is God-tier tea IMO, so much variety in the teas they make, especially their green tea infusions.

[Anonymous No.5610410]

>>5610373
No, you'll never see frozen bread for sale in the US.

However, crazy people will freeze bread to 'keep it fresh' and I quietly make it a point to distance myself from people who do this.

[Anonymous No.5610411]

>>5610373
There aren't a lot of particularly quintessentially American ways of doing -anything-, but some people store extra bread in the freezer, which doubt does anything but whatever.

[Anonymous No.5610423]

>>5610373
Nah, if they buy a lot of bread they put the extra in the freezer. To be fair it gets very humid in the summer up here so if we keep anything in the bread drawer during summer it can go bad quickly.

>>5610410
They might be crazy, they put some ground coffee I bought in the fridge before because "it keeps it fresh"

[Anonymous No.5610498]

>>5608253
>Oy mate, wot kinda tealy-wheeli is we's gonna be downing at the pub today, wot?
>Me gob laddy, ain't you 'eard o' the new toype o' tea dat de Earl Grey's been gobdrobbling?
>De Oil Grey? Wot's 'e gon' an' done 'ad?
>Ain't yew 'eard dat da posh types is drinkin' da Earl Grey blend, innit?
>Innit?
>Innit!
>Well blimey me knickers, Oi'll 'ave me an Earl Grey as well!

[Anonymous No.5610907]

>>5606110
Black no sugar
I have earl grey with lemon juice no sugar
Chai masala with muscavado sugar and pepper

[Anonymous No.5611258]

>>5610172
I have an electric water boiler that can lower temps to 208 F, 195 F, and 140 F.

[Anonymous No.5611880]

>>5608253
Do you have the same loathing for Arnold Palmers and Shirley Temples?

[Anonymous No.5611928]

>>5610423

Putting coffee in the freezer actually does keep it fresher for longer. Long story short; coffee has a lot of compounds that oxidize fairly rapidly at room temperature. Colder temperatures slow the reaction so your coffee will indeed taste better if you keep it in the freezer.

[Anonymous No.5611934]

>>5610410

Incorrect. You will find gluten free bread in the freezer section of your grocery store if it happens to sell that kind of thing.

...Whether or not you can really call that bread is debatable, but ostensibly you can buy frozen bread.