The perfect cuppa

Chaps

Reading the appalling advice being dished out on how to make tea within this thread, has prompted me to break my spell of lurking. Never have I read such ill advised twaddle.

About 10 years or so ago, I had dinner at a function, with the then present proprietor of Polly's Tea Rooms of Marlborough. These tea rooms regularly win prizes and accolades for the quality of their tea and cakes and his advice may be considered the best.

The three crucial points are to use loose leaf tea and a tea pot and never use a teapot cosy.

The MO is as follows.

1. Pour hot water into the teapot in order to warm it up. Leave it for about a minute or so and then pour away. The warm tea pot helps to keep the tea hot for longer.

2. Tip one heaped spoonful of tea into the pot for each person plus one spoonful "for the pot".

3. Pour freshly boiled water over the leaves and stir for15 seconds. Put lid on and leave.

4. Leave to brew for 4 minutes.

5. Pour the tea into the cup and then add milk or lemon etc. Do not put milk in first, that is very infra-dig.

6. Drink the stuff knowing that your tea is of the highest standard.

This is how we drink tea and precipitated Mrs Micks hobby of collecting teapots.

She has 47 of them, ranging from black ones to be used at funeral parties to rather suacey ones which would be appropriate at those functions where car keys are tossed around with reckless abandon.

Please make your tea this way and enjoy it.

Regards

Mick

[This message was edited by Mick Parry on Tue 27 July 2004 at 18:05.]

Welcome back!! Old Fiend!

Erratum

For Fiend substitute Friend

"She has 47 of them, ranging from black ones to be used at funeral parties..."

Let's hope the black one lies dormant for a year or two yet, eh Mick?

"to rather suacey ones which would be appropriate at those functions where car keys are tossed around with reckless abandon."

Yeek! The doyen of all things proper has pots for every occasion.

Mr Tibbs

Mick, nice to see you back can't fault you but I must disagree on Point 5 :

quote:

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5. Pour the tea into the cup and then add milk or lemon etc. Do not put milk in first, that is very infra-dig.

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British Standards 6008 clearly states that the milk goes in first, this is to reduce the risk of scalding the milk.

Mrs Andy also informs me that when using fine china the milk is always put in first; prevents the heat of the tea cracking the cup apparently.

BTW Mick did you ever get that Sunbeam Motorcycle? There was one for sale that was ex Mr. R. Coltrane a few weeks ago. Now Hagrid's bike, there's a thought for you....

Cheers

Andy

I cannot argue for or against BS 6008 but I am only repeating what a top notch professional does.

You also said..."Mrs Andy also informs me that when using fine china the milk is always put in first; prevents the heat of the tea cracking the cup apparently."

Yes this is how "milk in first" originated and is looked down upon by the upper classes. Plebs could not afford to buy the high quality china which can take hot tea. Therefore they put the milk in first to prevent their cheap china from cracking.

I purchased the Sunbeam about 6 months ago and ride it quite often. I am noe retired so I can pick the quiet times and there are lots of pleasant roads in the cotswolds to amble along in.

Regards

Mick

I don't always agree with Mick, but the advice here is spot on.

How anyone can talk about a perfect cuppa, in the same breath as teabags astounds me!

I am though open on the issue of no.5 and when to put the milk in, I do it both ways, I just don't care

Andy.

I don't always agree with Mick either, but I appreciate the input!

I'm actually quite a fan of "working class" tea made in a pot with 4-5 PG Tips bags (all other bags are wimpy garbage) and drunk with a little milk (should turn it sort of orangy-caramel) and no sugar. Tremendous restorative for late afternoon with couple of McV's Digestive, smeared with Vegemite and a slice of strong Cheddar.

Totally agree about the pot, though. How anyone can drink that cup-brewed nonsense is beyond me.

Milk first or last is a taste issue - the milk first has a slower rate of cooking the protein in the milk, milk last cooks the protein very quickly

Thanks to a beverage called "Airline tea" I prefer my tea black with no sugar and preferably BOH tea from Malaysia that I get imported specially

You can still see the bits of wood in it, they pick it by shearing the bushes like trimming a privett hedge rather picking the tips that they do in Sri Lanka.

However it is a YMMMV issue

Derek

<< >>

On the tea-bag issue, I'd be interested to know whether the antis believe that it's a question of the quality of the tea contained in the bag or whether it's the fact of putting the tea into a bag that causes the deterioration of quality.

Also, kettle mains leads - any input?

Steve Margolis
defy convention - make music

Bags are inferior because they contain broken fragments and tea leaf dust which gets out into the tea.

My name is Brian. And I use teabags.

I also make it direct in a cup.

<pauses to see if computer explodes>

In the past I followed the golden rules above, but as I preferred really strong tea I used very little milk - it barely covered the bottom of the *mug.

When my wife saw this she said why bother with the milk ? I tried it without, and drink it that way ever since. The problem is that it cannot be made to the same strength, hence three quick dips of a tea-bag directly into a cup. Result - very weak, but nice tea. Try it yourselves.

I also have a strong preference for Earl Grey, which I don't believe is suitable for milk ?

Regards,

Brian


Sorry I meant bone china cup of course.

BTW what are the health advantages and disadvantages of tannin rich tea ? Good or bad ?

Brian, you are not alone!

My name is throbnorth, and I also use teabags, and confess their use when making tea for more than two people.

As a dog drinks from the toilet, I drink from mugs rather than cups.

Furthermore I prefer instant coffee to real.

All this I confess, in the hope that we may help others to confront their weakness.

However, there is a way to move from darkness into the light, and it involves twelve steps. Here are the first three:

1] We admitted we were powerless over convenient drinks, that our lives had become unmanageable.
2]Came to believe that Forum Members greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3] Made a decision to turn our beverage making activities and other details of our lives [including choice of pants] over to the care of Forum Members as we understand them.

The remaining nine can be obtained via a PT, together with details of meetings in your area, which also provide enjoyable Dancercise-style pinky workouts, eventually enabling same to be raised appropriately, without any conscious effort in the most challenging social settings.

In exceptional circumstances, therapy may even be available to help with sterilised milk cravings, although due to the social stigma engendered by such extreme tastes, I understand that this is not available in all areas.

...and on the subject of milk, what do the assembled experts think? Should I buy a new cow?

Steve Margolis
defy convention - make music

This reminds me of a good tea-related story from my youth.

As an apprentice telephone engineer, part of the training involved making tea for the lads. One afternoon after having been subjected to a couple of hours of nasty work up on the cable racks, I was summoned down to make tea for the lazy b's. - I didn't even drink the stuff in those days.

Anyway, I got hold of the huge pot and was about to toss in a few bags when something caught my eye, lurking in the bottom of the sink. A whole week's worth of discarded tea bags no less!

Yes you've guessed it, instead of using the nice new bags, I opted to make a pot of the finest 'mature bag' tea. The boys loved it, so much so, a second pot was requested. I thought, 'who am I to refuse'...

Mr Tibbs

quote:

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Originally posted by Mick Parry:
The three crucial points are to use loose leaf tea and a tea pot and never use a teapot cosy.

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You may have been lurking, but you are not paying attention. There has been general agreement on loose leaf tea (although some of us have confessed to using bags for convenience). There has also been general agreement on using a pot. Who has seriously advocated using a tea cosy?

And your method from the award-winning Polly's hardly differs from what's been said before.

I note that you don't enlighten us as to which tea is mandated by you and the "present proprietor of Polly's."

Nonetheless, welcome back.

Davie

Davie

I'm coming over in a few weeks. Do you need any tea supplies bringing?

Max

quote:

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Originally posted by throbnorth

Furthermore I prefer instant coffee to real.

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O.K., here we get to the confession that gets me in trouble here (Seattle, capitol of coffee snobs)...I drink instant coffee at home! Have done since last time in England; the hotel I infested whilst in Londinium had one of those electric dunking thingys that boil the water in the provided cup in about 30 seconds (must be that 220 current!)...also provided was teabags, sugar, faux cream and packets of instant coffee...of which the latter I loved! I can't remember the brand unfortunately; can anybody suggest a good brand of instant I could have my minions import from UK to satisfy my lowbrow cravings?

currently spinning: Led Zeppelin II

[This message was edited by bhazen on Thu 29 July 2004 at 9:38.]

Steve,

I think there's a bit of both to the teabag issue. In many cases the contents are crap, but I personally feel the bag has an effect simply because none of the one's I've tried were that great.

I also feel that ones tires of the same tea, so a change is often a good thing, bags or not.

Andy