the art of tea making

nialldeman

please i need advice my tea making skills have not improved under constant practice should i give up or just try harder

Insect Overlord

Yes. WITHOUT sugar.

nialldeman wrote: »

please i need advice my tea making skills have not improved under constant practice should i give up or just try harder

Keep trying harder!
The art of tea-making is a delicate one, but it's a skill well worth mastering.
What is your technique at the moment?

Ginja Ninja

Yes. WITHOUT sugar.

it's all about determination:

Konata

It all makes so much sense now! I believe your poor tea making skills may be directly linked to your inability to get a girlfriend. These kinda problems just go hand in hand.

nialldeman

Hotaru wrote: »

It all makes so much sense now! I believe your poor tea making skills may be directly linked to your inability to get a girlfriend. These kinda problems just go hand in hand.

your right i need to make cup of tea fit for a nice persobn before i can get a girlfriend

hitlersson666

This is soo funny... /tea making is a art only few can master

seriousfizz

Yes. WITHOUT sugar.

And indeed, it is said that the only true way to a girl's heart is... by making her a lovey... cup of tea...

*reflects*

nialldeman

its true but how can a boy become so pure of mind to make this humble cup of tea i need answers

MetzgerMeister

Teabag in cup....boiling water....squeeze the bag against the side of the cup.....an inch of milk and 2 sugars....Lovely!!

soccymonster

No. Tea is disgusting.

Well my perfect tea is you put the teabag in the cup. Pour about 4 fifths of the way with boiling water. Leave the teabag for 20 secs or so. And you take it out and adda drop of milk. Just enough to change the colour though!!! Stir

nialldeman

i do that but its always cold

hitlersson666

Here is what the bbc claim on making perfact tea! Learn this and girls will come (no pun intended) :pac:

How to make a perfect cuppa
How to make the perfect cup of tea, according to scientists

In pictures

Many people ask no more than that their tea be "wet and warm", but in the hunt for perfection in a tea cup, a scientist has created a formula for optimal temperature, infusion and imbibation. Oh, and when to put the milk in.

There are 11 rules for perfect tea making, rules from which nobody should dare depart, said George Orwell.

The great critic of Hitler and Stalin, was not above a bit of teatime Totalitarianism himself, it seems. Orwell said that tea - one of the "mainstays of civilization" - is ruined by sweetening and that anyone flouting his diktat on shunning the sugar bowl could not be called "a true tealover".

GEORGE ORWELL'S TEA RULES
1. Use tea from India or Ceylon (Sri Lanka), not China
2. Use a teapot, preferably ceramic
3. Warm the pot over direct heat
4. Tea should be strong - six spoons of leaves per 1 litre
5. Let the leaves move around the pot - no bags or strainers
6. Take the pot to the boiling kettle
7. Stir or shake the pot
8. Drink out of a tall, mug-shaped tea cup
9. Don't add creamy milk
10. Add milk to the tea, not vice versa
11. No sugar!

Aside from sweet-toothed tea drinkers, the author also displayed a distaste for scientists. So to mark the 100th anniversary of Orwell's birth, the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) has decided to look at his 11-point formula - and rubbish a good many of his supposedly "golden" rules.

Dr Andrew Stapley, a chemical engineer at Loughborough University, has brought the weight of his scientific knowledge (and shameless personal preferences) to bear on the question of the perfect cuppa, and found that Orwell was wrong on a number of points.

Orwell's six-spoons of tea per pot - mightily extravagant when the author set down this rule during post-war rationing - is still far too strong today. The RSC endorses no more than a single spoon of leaves.

As for adding milk to the tea after it is poured, the RSC issues a stern scientific warning against the practice. It seems that dribbling a stream of milk into hot water makes "denaturation of milk proteins" more likely. And who would want that?

Hillary Clinton
Don't spoil the milk
"At high temperatures, milk proteins - which are normally all curled up foetus-like - begin to unfold and link together in clumps. This is what happens in UHT [ultra heat-treated] milk, and is why it doesn't taste as good a fresh milk," says Dr Stapley.

It is better to have the chilled milk massed at the bottom of the cup, awaiting the stream of hot tea. This allows the milk to cool the tea, rather than the tea ruinously raise the temperature of the milk.

Also, unlike in Orwell's rules, science seems to bear no grudge against those who would take sugar with their tea - provided it's white sugar.

Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea
Henry Fielding

Indeed, the addition of sugar is praised since it "acts to moderate the natural astringency of tea" - which translated into unscientific terms means that it makes tea, wait for it, less bitter.

This is heresy to Orwell. "Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter," he said. What would he have made of the alcopop suggested by the RSC?

PM Tony Blair
Avoid slurping, warn scientists
He would recognise and appreciate some elements of Dr Stapley's perfect cuppa. The RSC brew uses Indian Assam tea leaves, which falls within Orwell's tight stipulations. He said no other nation's tea made him feel "wiser, braver or more optimistic".

There is no real scientific reason for Assam winning out over other leaf varieties, it just happens to be a strong tea to Dr Stapley's own taste.

"While some things are backed by science, others - like the choice of Assam - are based on my own preferences. I'm sure there are going to be plenty of people coming up with better methods to make tea and it's good that we have that debate," says Dr Stapley.

I'd rather have a cup of tea than go to bed with someone - any day
Boy George

Finally, the RSC recommends that the perfect cup of tea made by following its formula should be drunk while reading George Orwell's account of 1930s drudgery and vagrancy Down and Out in Paris and London.

Well, no disrespect to the late Mr Orwell, but BBC News Online begs to differ. Having brewed the perfect cup of tea, we recommend that you sip it while stewing over our tea break quiz.

soccymonster

No. Tea is disgusting.

nialldeman wrote: »

i do that but its always cold

boil the water?

nialldeman

soccymonster wrote: »

boil the water?

dont be smart man i do its still cold and hey tea without sugar preety ordinary to be honest

LavaLamp

oh nothing worse than a sh*te cup of tea. Here is my tried and very well tested method:

First of make sure you have good tea bags, and that they aren't just left out in the open - keep them in a tin or jar or something so the air doesn't get to them.

Just before the kettle boils, pour some water into the cup, swill it round to warm the cup and tip out. Then put the teabag in, pour fresh boiled water on and stir well. Leave for about 1-2 minutes, stir again then add milk (as much as you like). Then squeeze teabag against the side of the cup and hey presto - the perfect cup of tea

(I also use a water filter jug, and I think that also helps - it certainly helps strain the scum out of the water!!)

soccymonster

No. Tea is disgusting.

nialldeman wrote: »

dont be smart man i do its still cold and hey tea without sugar preety ordinary to be honest

says the guy who made a thread on a cup of tea :rolleyes:

hitlersson666

Hey lets not argue here remember this guy gave us the best 55 mins on boards :cool:

nialldeman

soccymonster wrote: »

says the guy who made a thread on a cup of tea :rolleyes:

its a very important skill may aswell perfect it

seriousfizz

Yes. WITHOUT sugar.

Sickened at Orwell's instructions for a sugarless tea. And there I was looking forward to reading 1984.


Eat my shorts Orwell! :pac:

mardybumbum

I know you asked for tea, but you can follow the rules of Swiss Toni.

syncosised

Yes. WITHOUT sugar.

It's all a matter of following the ISO 3103 standard, Tea -- Preparation of liquor for use in sensory tests. That'll help you on your way!

Pigwidgeon

Yes. WITHOUT sugar.

No, no, no. If you're having sugar in tea, you put it in before the water, because then, the sugar dissolves more and you don't end up with a load at the bottom of the cup.

D4RK ONION

Is there anything those people have not standardised?!

nialldeman

thats no problem for me stirring is the best part of my tea making game

Insect Overlord

Yes. WITHOUT sugar.

nialldeman wrote: »

thats no problem for me stirring is the best part of my tea making game

Stirring is a very important part of the process, no doubt about it!

Ginja Ninja

Yes. WITHOUT sugar.

D4RK ONION wrote: »

Is there anything those people have not standardised?!

your face?


seriously though,you put the sugar in before the milk but after the tea,that way the tea gets a bit longer to rest in the mug.

and if you're a real man you leave the teabag in the cup until you've drank it all,that's how you make REAL tea,not this coloured water ye call tea these days

Pigwidgeon

Yes. WITHOUT sugar.

Ginja Ninja wrote: »

seriously though,you put the sugar in before the milk but after the tea,that way the tea gets a bit longer to rest in the mug.

If you put in the sugar first though, you're guaranteed for equal coverage.

According to my brother, the perfect stewing time is 3 minutes, which generally times per cup of tea..

nialldeman

thanks guys ill try to remember your tips when im making tea

Jamie Starr

If you do discover the mystical art of tea-making, be warned it is a dangerous and often self-destructive skill. My advice be this: keep it to yourself and make crummy tea for any family or friends who ask for a cuppa. Otherwise you will be tea-bagged like a common whore at every possible instance, making tea for everyone until finally you lose your sanity and start pouring boiling water into envelopes and adressing them to the fluffy carpet in your bathroom.

A Neurotic

No. Tea is disgusting.

Sugar in tea is THE DEVIL!

Also, a nifty technique I'm fairly proud of is simultaneously adding the milk and stirring the tea. It saves time, and looks impressive, but master your basics first before worrying about showboating.

Aoibheann

Yes. WITHOUT sugar.

Sugar in tea = lovely, how dare you?! 1 - 1.5 teaspoons of sugar, not too much milk, not too strong and not too weak. Biscuits/brownies/cake and good company, and you're sorted.

Actually, seriousfizz was right, making a good cup of tea is definitely the way to a girl's heart. :pac: