DEBORAH CROMBIE: It was so heartening to see how many people responded to Hank’s check-in post a few weeks ago saying that JRW was the first thing they read while having their morning coffee or tea. But that sent me off (not unusually!) on a tangent, wondering how and why people choose what they drink.
I grew up in a perked coffee household. My mom made it every morning in the white Corningware percolator with the little blue flowers, and both parents would refill cups of black coffee throughout the day. The coffee smelled good when it was brewing, but imagine my horror the first time I tasted the bitter black liquid! I couldn’t imagine how anyone could drink such a thing, and my opinion remained firmly fixed until I lived in Mexico City the summer I was eighteen. There, coffee was the social thing, and many hours were spent in coffee shops drinking cappuccinos, although I still had to add sugar to make it palatable. It was only on trips to London in the last decade or so that I discovered the latte—along with the fact that if you drank coffee instead of tea, you spent much less time desperately searching for public restrooms, which are in short supply everywhere in the UK.
But although I drink coffee (unsweetened now) when I’m out and occasionally at home, tea is still my first, passionate love. A perfect cuppa satisfies in a way coffee does not, and most mornings I cannot wait to make that first cup.
Dearest REDS, are you coffee, tea, neither, or both? And how did you come to love your beverage of choice?
JENN McKINLAY: Coffee! So much coffee! Imagine my delight when Hooligan 2 became a barista. My morning cup is essential and I steam and froth the milk just to be fancy. Afternoons are for tea. It helps me make it through the day.
RHYS BOWEN: Need you ask, since my Facebook group is called Tea with Rhys! Tea drinker from birth. I have to start my day with a cuppa ( made from John’s special blend of teas) Then is coffee mid morning. Tea at teatime. And at night alternating flavors of herb teas. Well Rested. Maringa ginger turmeric depending on mood. When I am in the road I carry my own British tea bags but it’s no good unless I can get boiling water
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: There are days when the ONLY thing that lures me from my comfy bed is the knowledge that I get to have coffee.
I often steam the milk, too, and it is transporting. I love it beyond all love. And in the summer, I love to get iced lattes. I mean–heavenly. During the day, I am Diet Pepsi, because I am out of coffee mode. Then after dinner, I always have camomile tea and half a cookie, and I am so cozy.
How? I remember, very clearly, I did not drink coffee until 1971. It just wasn’t a thing at our house. Although my father had it every morning, percolated? I wasn’t involved.
But then, a boyfriend in Washington DC offered me coffee with cream and sugar, and because I was trying to be cool, I pretended that’s what I always drank. I was instantly–instantly!--hooked. Deliciousness! Caffeine! Sugar! Oh, I still remember that first cup. Now I don’t use sweetener, and only skim milk, but I am just as happy.
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Passionate tea drinker here, which has been an uphill battle in the coffee-obsessed US. If I had a dollar for every time I ordered tea at a restaurant or diner and got a baggie alongside a tiny carafe of hot (never boiling) water…
My mom, on the other hand, was a coffee fanatic. You could track where she had been in the house throughout the day by the half-empty cups of cold coffee she’d forget as she moved on to her next project. Ross was also a tea drinker, so we had no way to make coffee at our house, a point that was driven home when Mom stopped in at a CVS on the way to Spencer’s baptism (!!!) to buy us a Mr. Coffee machine.
HALLIE EPHRON: I like coffee and I like tea, but neither one passionately. I’m sure it’s partly because I’ve never been properly educated. Tea, for example, I don’t know how to BUY it, keep it, or brew it. I use a cone and a filter to make my morning coffee and it’s very hit or miss.
I should love coffee – my mother always saved the last of her dinner cup of coffee, mixed in some extra sugar and cream, and gave it to me. Maybe that’s why I’m so partial to coffee ice cream.
DEBS: Hallie, glad to give you a crash tea-drinking course, anytime! I am a certified Tea Master from a course I took in London.
And did you all see that researchers are now saying that brewing tea can help remove heavy metals, including lead, from water? How cool is that!
How about it, Reddies, what do you drink, and how did you come to love it?
Although I do drink . . . and enjoy . . . tea, my vote is for coffee. My mom made it in the percolator on the stove [and I have a percolator just in case we ever lose power] and. because my mom drank hot coffee, I drank hot coffee. These days I have a coffee maker that I set to come on shortly before we get up so the coffee is ready the instant my feet touch the floor!
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother also enjoyed coffee, but she had a well-deserved reputation for making iced coffee. It is really dessert in a glass, but it is so good . . . no one ever turned down iced coffee when she offered it. [And, yes, I certainly do know how to make it: coffee, honey, milk, and ice cream and I'm right back in my grandmother's kitchen . . . .]
Ice cream! I never thought of putting ice cream in ice coffee but that sound so delicious, Joan! Now I'm obsessed with wanting to try it!
DeleteA certified Tea Master sounds wonderful, Debs. As a child, I loved hot chocolate with whipped cream.
ReplyDeleteNow I’m partial to tea AND coffee. In high school my best friend didn’t like coffee. We went to a cafe in Berkeley and they had the most yummy cappuccinos. She liked it! These days I’m very picky about the coffee. Most seem to have no taste.
When I lived in England, I always had a cup of tea with biscuits. And we were in Yorkshire at a restaurant where they had finger bowls. I never saw finger bowls in American restaurants! I always ask my friends traveling to England to bring me tea.
A relative was teaching music in England and brought back tea for me. Buckingham palace shop sells tea and you can order it online 💕
I think I've had the Buckingham Palace tea, Diana. It's very nice. The tea I always buy in London (and bring back) is Whittard's of Chelsea.
DeleteDebs, my parents had that same Corning coffee pot when I was a kid!
ReplyDeleteI'm a coffee drinker, but I always say I NEED the coffee, but I love the stuff I put IN the coffee, which is sweet & creamy almond milk creamer. Gives me the caffeine I require to function AND satisfies my sweet tooth. I've tried black coffee and nope, can't do it.
I was a tea drinker of sorts. According to my buddy, Liz Milliron, Lipton teabags are a hard NO, but that's what I grew up on. I fell in love with chai...the real stuff that has a zing of black pepper in it...thanks to a friend who traveled to India and brought back the recipe. But after a road trip with another friend, who introduced me to white chocolate mochas at Starbucks, I was hooked. But I do still like an occasional chai and a cup of chamomile at bedtime.
I bought a chai kit at the farmer's market back before Christmas, and I still haven't tried it. You've inspired me, Annette!
DeleteNeither. The only thing I like about coffee is the aroma and tea doesn’t really even have that going for it. Somehow all 3 kids are coffee drinkers without having grown up with it in the house. The oldest is a real connoisseur. We lovingly refer to him as the coffee snob.
ReplyDeleteI’m like you in that I don’t really care for either. Sometimes I will have a cup of chamomile if I need to wind down in the evening (but then the all-night bathroom runs - ugh). I do not like feeling caffeinated (i Oder feeling calm), and don’t care for the flavor of coffee. I DO, however, love hot chocolate and am so thankful to be an adult so I can choose to drink one every day if I want to! I don’t hate the scent of brewing coffee but there are some days I don’t care for it. Perhaps it’s the brand/flavor if my husband is experimenting with a new one? Both of my parents (and maternal grandmother) were coffee addicts. There, I said it. Some people do become addicted to it. And no judgement here. My daily vice is dark chocolate. Cannot live without it! I even add a square of it to my hot chocolate. I guess I will end this confessional with, my name is Stacia and I am a dark chocolate addict!
DeleteMy parents drank instant coffee - gah - so I didn't learn it at home. But like Debs, I had a formative year among people who drank fabulous coffee, in my case Brazil at 17. I was hooked. Cafe com leite (cafe au lait, or latte) or little espresso cups with lots of sugar, and the quality of the coffee was to die for. Later, in Japan of all places, I had an iced coffee - creamy and sweet and cold - and loved it that way, too.
ReplyDeleteI start my day with two cups of dark roast with whole milk, and even at my desk it's in a Contigo travel cup so it stays nice and warm. But that's it for the day. I rarely drink tea, although I have a shelf of various herbals and black tea for guests. I stick to water until I shift over to wine.
I brew the coffee just for me in a small electric drip machine, always with just-ground beans. Hugh likes a light roast, which he drinks black (ack on both counts), and he gets up way before me, poor thing, so he makes his and then sets up mine. All I have to do is press the On button!
DeleteEdith, you get up very early, so that means Hugh must get up before it can even be called morning! And I love that you "move on to wine." :-)
DeleteOK. I will admit my sin. I drink... instant coffee. Yes, I know, I know! But I grew up in a household where my parents drank percolated black coffee so strong that a spoon quivered in the cup. I too recall having my first taste and recoiling. I taught myself to drink coffee in my year of working part-time in restaurants in my teens. I made it bearable by adding LOTS of milk. Then I realized I could have coffee at home half as strong as "normal" by using instant. It became a habit as I backpacked around the country with a group in college. Then I met and married a devoted tea drinker, who recoils even from the smell of coffee. So for decades we have had an electric kettle, and he prepares his tea, and I make my instant coffee. If we travel, I cut restaurant coffee with hot water and milk to weaken it. (In the airport in Geneva last fall I accidentally drank a cup of café au lait, figuring milk is mostly water. Wow. I was ready to zoom off without a plane!) We have a coffee machine that I bring out for visitors but for myself I do not bother.
ReplyDeleteI will add: I discovered in 2022 when my appendix burst and I spent a week in the hospital, several of them unable to eat, that going without an acquired taste for a length of time seems to return your taste buds to factory settings. When I was finally brought a cup of coffee I had the same recoil from the taste that I'd had fifty years earlier. I remember pausing and thinking, "Maybe this is an opportunity. Should I give up coffee?" But the answer came swiftly: "Nah." (Selden)
Selden, maybe the hospital just had really awful coffee:-)
DeleteCoffee, A Life Story
ReplyDeleteI love coffee. We always had breakfast together on Sunday mornings. My dad would cook eggs. Starting when I was really little, my dad would fix a cup of sweetened coffee for me with milk and sugar. We had a metal stove top percolator and, of course, there was a fancy electric one for when we had guests. At age 5, one of our baby sitters let me taste her sweetened black coffee and I was still in! Yep, coffee baby!
I stopped adding sugar in my teens but kept the milk. Then in my mid-twenties, I lived in Tel Aviv for 1-1/2 years. I was in heaven the first time I tasted "botz" which means mud. It's very finely ground coffee boiled in a special pot, a "finjon," with sugar and poured into a tiny cup. Still in, just don't drink down to the bottom! There, in Tel Aviv, I had the best conversation with the man making my "café afuch" (upside-down coffee) in a small café. I told him that I didn't like French coffee. He scoffed, "Oh, ze French, zhey burn their beans!"
Now we mostly drink perked coffee, it's hotter, with milk but sometimes black. Don't burn the beans!
I also drink tea and love a strong cup of black tea with a little sugar. (I am allergic to honey.) I drink some herbal teas and peppery chais, and I love tea with mint. I have tasted some really fabulous teas, but we do use tea bags so I cannot claim any real knowledge like our Tea Master friend.
Not criticizing, Judy! I've drunk many a teabag cup of tea. I am fascinated by your Tel Aviv "botz."
DeleteI do not like coffee and I only drink tea when I am sick. My preferred hot beverage is hot chocolate without whipped cream.
ReplyDeleteYou can't go wrong with hot chocolate, Dru!
DeleteInquiring minds need to ask: where, Deborah, do those “removed” heavy metals go when the tea is brewed? Do they just disappear? Concentrate in the tea bag? Perhaps, I’ll figure this out after my next coffee. Happy Monday, All! Elisabeth
ReplyDeleteThey heavy metals attach to the tea leaves, which are then thrown out.
DeleteI don't drink coffee or tea. Just don't like hot drinks of any kind.
ReplyDeleteI don't like hot drinks either Jay! But, I love coffee so I will order an iced latte. Yum!
DeleteJay, my sister was probably 50 before she figured out that she didn’t like hot drinks, either. She loved coffee candy, coffee ice cream, but not hot coffee. Then she discovered iced coffee! (She still dislikes tea, hot or cold.) — Pat S
DeleteThe temperature likes and dislikes are interesting, aren't they? I much prefer hot drinks and hardly ever drink anything with ice, except the occasional iced coffee in summer.
DeleteTea first and throughout the day, but also and always a morning cup of coffee. These days, it's instant with an oatmilk creamer. #gettingolderchangesthings (it used to be brewed, rich, with cream)
ReplyDeleteI drink coffee every morning. I either make it at home with an espresso stove top pot or go to a coffee shop order a latte and sit and read for a bit. I prefer espresso to regular grind coffee.
ReplyDeleteI love the tea I've gotten in England. It is absolutely always perfect. I don't know why it tastes so much better in England - I've bought great tea from England and brought it home and it never tastes the same. Maybe it's the water in England or something.
I think the water, at least in London, has a lot of minerals in it. But water can make a huge difference in the taste of coffee and especially tea. I filter mine, which helps.
DeleteDark roast coffee, black, is what I drink. My dad drank coffee, my mom drank tea.
ReplyDeleteSadly, I cannot drink black tea for over 30 years. I get nauseous & vomit. My doctor says I am reacting to the tannins. Same problrm with most red wines.
I have the same issue with black tea, Grace, unless it has a lot of milk in it.
DeleteGrace - your comment about getting nauseous from the tannins in tea and red wine. My husband has an interesting reaction when he drinks wine too. He goes into a sneezing fit. We wonder if it might be something in the wine.
DeleteThat's a shame about the tea, Grace. I do put milk in mine, most of the time, to buffer the tannins. And I really can't drink red wine, as much as I am sometimes tempted.
DeleteDebs, great topic!
ReplyDeleteHank, seriously? HALF a cookie? Honestly, I would rather have no cookie at all than to only allow myself a half. But I do admire your fortitude! And your slim figure!
I used to drink coffee, black coffee. I am not saying that I loved it actually, more that it was a habit. I would brew a pot in the morning and then sip it all morning long. It would keep me awake at night if I drank it any later than noon time. But then something in me changed and I blamed the change on coffee so I switched to tea. Then at my next dental cleaning I was talking to the hygienist about the stains on my teeth. It turns out that the older we get, teeny tiny cracks develop on our teeth and that is where the coffee and tea, and probably other things, are lurking and showing up as stains. Well, I did not like that at all. To avoid the stains, she told me, just make the tea weaker. Weaker? If I made it any weaker I might as well be drinking just hot water!
So that is now my beverage of choice. Hot water, as hot as I can stand it. Believe it or not, it is very comforting. Everyone once in a while I'll decide to have a cup of coffee but all I have in the house is instant and that really doesn't work for me. Or I'll see some tea in the grocery store and decide to try it because it sounds so good. But it never is. People have suggested I might like a bit of lemon in my hot water and maybe I would but since it seems like a lot of bother, I just don't.
Ha! We can talk about the half a cookie thing some day! :-)
DeleteJudi, when I don't want more caffeine, or just need to keep my hands warm, I drink hot water with a squeeze of lemon and a slice of fresh ginger. And you are so right about the coffee and tea staining your teeth, alas, but I still won't give up my tea.
DeleteJudi, I also love natural hot water and that’s my first couple of drinks in the morning. That’s also what I drink when I have an upset stomach
DeleteI’m not a great fan of coffee and I drink tea at lunch and at supper.
I grew up with both coffee and tea in the house. I remember the smell of the percolator and the terrible taste of coffee. My parents had tea with dinner and served it in response to any crisis, in typical British fashion. In the college dining hall the coffee and hot chocolate were next to each other, so I started my coffee drinking with very low quality mochas. Very soon I left the sweet part behind and loved lattes or coffee with cream. When the gut started complaining about the acid, I switched to tea and have been a happy tea drinker for a long time.
ReplyDeleteOur Saturday exercise group gathered a couple of days ago at a friend's place in St. Helens for a walk and breakfast. Since today is my twin and my birthday, our host had googled "best British tea" in order to get us a present. Dr. Google recommended Yorkshire Gold by Taylors of Harrogate, which just happens to be the kind of tea we both love best. A happy moment for sure. I have a beautiful new tea tin and some more of my favorite blend.
Happy birthday, Gillian! And what a thoughtful gift. And I like Yorkshire Gold, too.
DeleteFor me, now it is coffee in the morning. I didn’t use to have anything except juice, but 20 years ago when I was diagnosed with diabetes, I discovered that a cup of Jack’s leftover coffee (coffee machine not the puck one) warmed up with a bit of Splenda and a dollop of whipping cream – did you know that whipping cream has no carbs, but all the rest of the milks/creams do – would hold off my starving hunger until lunch. Now it is fresh coffee – he still has to make it - for breakfast.
ReplyDeleteBest tea is Book Club tea – probably builder tea, well maybe not. Put a glob of teabags in the bottom of a coffee carafe – brand doesn’t matter it could be Twinnings, Tetley, Red Rose or King Cole, and let water drip over bags. Let it stew for about an hour while discussion goes on, and then sup. Mmmm, Mmmm, good! It may be just because we are all parched…
My mother told us when we joined them for tea mid-afternoon – Earl Grey – that we could not have milk or sugar in the tea. It annoys the hostess (her) to have to bring milk and sugar, so none of us have ever had that kind of additive. Whiskey – well maybe. Anyway, all new ‘relatives’ have learned to drink their tea black. Quite possibly you had to promise to give up milk or sugar in your tea to be allowed to get married.
Saturday was a dessert tea in town. Tea is brought around in huge pitchers and served by the men. Tea only comes this way and you are expected to drink it white. You can ask for a ‘special’ cup of black. White tea apparently is normal in Cape Breton. It took me a while to learn this.
Now for a sort-of apropos question as it has to do with what we drink in the morning, “is there a lot less grapefruit crop in the US in the last few years?” It is so hard to get grapefruit juice or grapefruits – I paid $1.79 each for some for marmalade! Oranges and lemons seem to still be plentiful, and the price you expect to pay. Crop failure? No one likes them? Too hard to sell?
Oy yes – back to the tea – it needs to be made in a proper pot. No tea bag with a string and a spoon in a mug. Can you imagine the Queen accepting that? Hallie, my father drank instant coffee with every meal. We often had vanilla ice cream for dessert. He would spoon hot coffee over my ice cream – deliciousness!
Now you have me wondering about the grapefruit, Margo. We grow grapefruit down in south Texas, but I don't remember seeing Texas grapefruit in the stores this winter. We've had some very cold spells the last few winters, so maybe the trees have been damaged. I know the peach orchards here in north Texas have suffered a LOT of damage.
DeleteI am similar to Jenn in that my mornings are all about coffee but it's strictly tea in the afternoon or evening.
ReplyDeleteMy parents, like many others mentioned, drank strong, black coffee from a percolator. I don't remember even trying it while I was growing up. But my first year in college, living in a dorm, my roommate and I established a pattern of going to the dining hall when it opened and eating right away, then lingering over our coffee to socialize until the dinner window ended. We enjoyed the socializing, but the coffee was awful. So that Christmas I asked for (and received) a Mr. Coffee, and from then on the second half of our dinner routine was in our room with invite friends. That's when I fell in love with coffee. Morning addiction developed quite a bit later.
Now my husband and I use a Cuisinart grinder-drip coffemaker combo and our current passion is Sumatra beans. We drink only the one pot in the morning, but boy do we enjoy it! My tea taste runs to mainly Chai or one of several herbal varieties, mostly in the evening, though once in a great while I enjoy a good afternoon pick-me-up of strong Earl Grey.
Ooh, Susan, your coffeemaker sounds very cool. My daughter now has something similar, but it also steams milk. We have a Nespresso Vertuo and a separate milk steamer. When I drink coffee I use a mild espresso pod and add steamed milk. It is lovely, I have to admit, and for a couple of years I mostly made coffee in the mornings, but somehow now I am craving tea. Interesting how our tastes change, isn't it?
DeleteTea is the magic potion that gets me started in the morning. Strong black English breakfast of varying brands, small pottery teapot, boiled water straight from the whistling kettle.I add skim milk ( honestly, I like it) and sugar. Ahhh. Very hard to get that in US- a tea bag and warmish water does not do it!- and I do enjoy it everywhere in UK-influenced countries. My mom was a coffee drinker, my dad didn't have a morning beverage but liked a cup of tea with lemon at other times. So I guess I merged their influences. OR, I imitated Canadian relatives who liked tea English style. (My husband has a giant, scary coffeemaker and makes the max - ten cups!- at a time. Into a pitcher, into the fridge and he drinks iced coffee all day)
ReplyDeleteTriss, you are so right about Americans not knowing how to make tea. Nothing worse than being served a cheap teabag with a half a cup of lukewarm water! Unless it's trying to make a cup of tea in a hotel coffeemaker that's been used for coffee. You end up with coffee-flavored brown water.
DeleteDebs! Do a tea master blog! I would love to know things… Teach us! That would be so lovely!
ReplyDeleteYes it would be super to have Debs, Jenn, and Rhys do a primer on tea.
DeleteOh yes, a tea master blog! What a great idea, Hank!
DeleteYes, yes, love the idea of a tea master blog!
DeleteThat would be fun! Thanks, Hank, for the idea. I'll have to see what I can remember!
DeleteHot tea, black, all winter. Iced tea all summer. Taylor's Assam is my go-to, but Luzianne (you Southerners will know the brand) is a close second. Deb: nice to see Cailcoware cup and saucer. I'm a lifelong fan.
ReplyDeleteJudith, I adore my Burleigh Blue Calico. They were the first dishes I owned, and I just read that the pattern was first produced in 1968, so I was an early adopter in the early seventies. I also have some pieces in Burleigh Blue Arden, which is a lovely coordinating pattern. The teapot in the photo is Emma Bridgewater's Toast and Marmalade pattern, and Emma Bridgewater is, like Burleigh, still made in the famous Potteries of Stoke-on-Trent.
DeleteDebs, my Mom had the same Corningware percolator. On weekends she would set it up on a bedside table and on Saturday and Sunday mornings when she first work up she would plug it in, go bake to sleep and wake when it finished percolating for her first of many cops, black. I learned to drink coffee in 9th grade at coffee hour after church (Episcopalians love their coffee hours) Then it was with cream, sugar and a splash of coffee. By college I drank it black, and still do. I only have 2 mugs in the morning now. And never instant! If I feel I need a little more caffeine then a mug of Lapsang Souchong. In the afternoon it’s herbal teas. And yes, where do the heavy metals go when tea is brewed!
ReplyDeleteThe heavy metals attach to the tea leaves, which are thown away. It sounds like cream and sugar were the coffee gateway from most of us!
DeleteTea, always tea. Never coffee. Coffee always smells heavenly and tastes burnt. I have had many people tell me this is because I haven't had good coffee. Much like how my distaste for beer is because I haven't had "good" beer. At the age of 51, I think those ships have sailed.
ReplyDeleteBut tea, oh my. I started in college with Red Rose baggies and lots of sugar. Over the years, I upgraded to better bags and now I'm whole-leaf. I boil the water (filtered) have the Brown Betty teapot (except mine is blue), fill an infuser, steep for 4-5 minutes, depending on variety. I adore the fact there is a tea shop in town with an entire wall of tea varieties - black, green, flavored, herbal, etc. I travel with my own tea bags, which are from Harney & Sons. Whole leaf in a silk triangle sachet. Although yes, not quite the same when you get a carafe of hot water - although better places to give me a ceramic pot and I assume the water was boiling when it came out of the kitchen, so close enough.
I do have to be careful with green teas, rooibos, and mint. Too much and the skin near my eyes gets dry and papery.
I'm a whole leaf girl, too, Liz. And I do have a Brown Betty teapot, but usually use the Emma Bridgewater pot in the photo because it lives on my kitchen counter.
DeleteVery nice. My Blue Betty is right by the cooktop. I have dreams of buying a nicer teakettle, but the stainless steel one from Target just won't die! And yes, I know about electric kettles, but I don't want another appliance on my counter - plus I only have one outlet available.
DeleteFor many years I kept a kettle on the stovetop (and wore out many) but eventually succumbed to the electric kettle. Mine is clear and I love watching the water boil.
DeleteSuch an interesting question about tea and heavy metals. So I googled it and this is what one site said:
ReplyDelete"It was ultimately found that on average, the brewing of a "typical" cup of tea – consisting of a mug of water and a bag of tea steeped for three to five minutes – removed approximately 15% of heavy metal concentrations from the water. This was even the case for very toxic lead concentrations as high as 10 parts per million. What's more, longer brewing times removed even more of the metals, although most people aren't likely to brew their tea for much more than several minutes."
But where do the heavy metals go after the tea is brewed?
"The main factor at work in the process is the high active surface area of the dried, wrinkled, porous tea leaves, which the waterborne metal ions stick to. Those adsorbed ions remain trapped in the leaves, and end up being thrown out along with them. And because there's no actual chemical reaction taking place, the performance proved to be similar for all of the different types of tea.
The cotton and nylon tea bags had little effect one way or the other, but such was definitely not the case with the natural-source biodegradable cellulose bags. As is the case with the tea leaves themselves, the cellulose fibers boast a large active surface area, allowing the bags to adsorb a significant quantity of heavy metal ions."
Wow I had no idea.
Yes, this is what I read. So interesting, and thanks for the synopsis! I use paper biodegradble T-sacs and have been trying to steep my tea a bit longer.
DeleteDEBS
DeleteI was searching for tea bag information and the ones you mentioned above make it much easier! Thanks! Off to order some.
The T-sacs are a great way to brew loose tea. It's basically make your own teabag. I use the #3 size (for pots) even for making a mug, as I tend to burn my fingers with the smaller ones.
DeleteI discovered coffee my freshman year of college. I grind breakfast blend beans and brew it in a French press every morning. I'm also a hot chocolate junkie (the V&A in London has the best hot chocolate) and enjoy a mug in the dreary late afternoon hours. We really need a Reddies coffee bean blend.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun idea, Margaret! And I will try the V&A hot chocolate the next time I'm in London! Anything at the V&A cafe is a treat.
DeleteI grew up in a household of coffee drinkers--percolator on the stove or an electric one later--all of the aunts and uncles coffee drinkers too. Love the smell--hate the taste. No amount of sugar or creamer helps. I'm not much of a hot tea drinker, except when I'm sick, then a cup of black with a bit of honey or sugar and milk. Iced tea--love it--but it makes me crazy after a while--even decaf. I was getting my caffeine fix with a Pepsi (real sugar, not the high fructose stuff, and never diet anything--the least sip of a diet drink makes me gag). But I've given up Pepsi because the corporation caved on an issue important to me. An occasional hot chocolate will have to suffice this winter.
ReplyDeleteBoo, Flora, that's too bad, but it's a chilly, dreary day here today and your hot chocolate sounds enticing.
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ReplyDeleteI used to be a coffee drinker. Love coffee, but it doesn't love me. It started giving me the jitters until I finally had to quit altogether. And that's where tea stepped in. Now, I can't imagine mornings without my tea. And I get so annoyed when i go to a conference or hotel where they obviously put the hot water into a container that has previously held tea, so that the tea you make with that soggy tea bag tastes like coffee-tainted tea! I carry my own teabags when I travel because often the only tea they have is Earl Grey or some herbal tea. I don't mind either, but give me my Assam first thing in the morning!
ReplyDeleteYes, Assam it is! And I despise coffee-tainted tea!
DeleteCoffee--Coffee--Coffee! I'm addicted . . . seriously. The plumber came early this morning to replace our iron filter, so the water was off, and all I could do is look at my husband incredulously when he said that the coffee hadn't been made before the turn off. So I scrounged around for bottled water so I didn't have to wait. (In all fairness, I really needed the caffeine boost as I'm battling a cold caught recently on a plagueship flight back from Spain.) Although--tea will be my go-to drink this afternoon, just like Flora mentions above with a bit of honey and milk. (And I would totally by a Reddies coffee blend!)
ReplyDeleteYou were resourceful, Valerie! And I hope you get over your cold soon!
DeleteOh, and I forgot to mention, it's brewed tea, in a pot at home.
ReplyDeleteCoffee in the morning, tea in the afternoon and evening. My pleasure in coffee drinking increased dramatically when I bought s darling little capsule coffee machine with a built- in steamer. Now I drink less coffee than when I was in my first professional life, but it's so much better, and I can offer cappuccinos and lattes to visitors!
ReplyDeleteYes, we are spoiled with our pod machine and milk steamer, especially as Rick likes black coffee and I am espresso with steamed milk, so we can each have our choice. And in summer I buy the pods meant for iced coffee, which I make with milk and a dash of cream.
DeleteI grew up in a coffee drinking house and started with that. In my late teens I also started smoking and would have coffee and a cigarette. When I stopped smoking in my mid-twenties I gave up coffee and changed to tea. I love starting the day with a big cup of tea. I will have a cappuccino once in a while.
ReplyDeleteTeam coffee and tea. Coffee from the time I was a small child. It was really warm milk with a bit of coffee, but I thought it was all very grown-up. When I reported it as part of my breakfast in the first grade, the principal called my mother in. Mom must have convinced her it was harmless because the tradition continued. I discovered tea in second grade. We had a lot of British war brides teaching in my school. I had a bad enough lisp that the school sent me to the elocution teacher. She was a Brit, and we shared tea every time we met. I still have one of the tea strainers and the brown betty pot she gave me. These days it's coffee as soon as my feet hit the floor. Sometimes a second cup and tea after that.
ReplyDeleteKait, I gave my kids "milky tea" that was the same thing. Nice and warm on a cold Maine morning and yes, they felt very adult drinking it. Virginia still finds milk a necessity in her tea, although she's more of a coffee drinker these days.
DeleteI gave my daughter "milky tea" from the time she could hold a cup. Same with granddaughter, and they seem to be all right so far:-)
DeleteThere was always coffee perking in my childhood home, but it never appealed to me. I became a devout coffee-ist while living in Paris, and to this day I start off with a triple espresso (and a dollop of floating steamed milk), and then a double espresso late afternoon. I also discovered that if I'm up at 3am and wondering if I'll ever sleep again, a single espresso or cup of English Breakfast tea (both fully caffeinated) will help me sleep. Go figure! When friends visit, or someone arrives to repair something, the first question I ask is, "Would you like an espresso?" I get such pleasure grinding the newly roasted beans, steaming a bit of milk, and watching their pleasure as they take the first sip. During Covid, while texting with Instacart shoppers/deliverers about my grocery order, I always asked if they'd like an espresso awaiting them when they arrived. Most did!
ReplyDeleteAm I the only one who read Hallie's first words and immediately heard the old song in their head?
ReplyDelete"I like coffee, I like tea; I like the boys and the boys like me" :-)
I forgot to add, there is one coffee-type thing I love: coffee ice cream. It was my PawPaw's favorite, and I remember the thrill of going out to the chest freezer in the breezeway with him and fishing for that tasty frozen treat.