flinn@seismo.UUCP (E. A. Flinn) (04/14/84)
Comments on the article by Betsy Cvetic: |> Another important reason to preheat your porcelain or china tea |> pot is so that it won't develop cracks. Absolutely right - I forgot about this. |> Some people like to whisk the tea in the tea pot lightly with a |> bamboo whisk right before serving. The reason is to mix up the tea, which will be weak on top and strong at the bottom. Good teapots have the spout attached at the bottom (for this very reason), but stirring helps. |> Don't forget to use a strainer when pouring the tea! (This is mainly |> for people who use loose tea leaves in the pot, which I prefer. English teapots have a built-in strainer that takes care of the coarse Indian or Ceylon tea. |> Don't put cream in your tea. It kills the taste. If you must have a |> dairy product, use milk. Right. I wonder why this should be? Particularly vile are the 'non-dairy creamer' things, which form clots in tea, but apparently not in coffee. On a somewhat different subject: does anyone know how to make Chinese tea properly? In China you just shake out a little tea into the covered mug and pour hot water on it from the thermos, but the water is never really hot and there are all kinds of twigs and things floating on the top when you take the cover off after five minutes. I usually keep the PanAm drink-stirrer to scoop them off, but the Chinese just strain them out with their teeth or something, and don't seem to pay any attention to the floating foliage.
peters@cubsvax.UUCP (04/15/84)
Why should pre-heating the teapot prevent cracks in porcelain?
It seems to me that if boiling water is going to crack a cold pot, it
will do so *either* if there are tea leaves in it (no preheating)
or if there are not (preheating).
Anyway, I don't think any porcelain or china will be cracked by boiling
water (at least for vessels the size and thickness of teapots and teacups).
{philabs,cmcl2!rocky2}!cubsvax!peters Peter S. Shenkin
Dept of Biol. Sci.; Columbia Univ.; New York, N. Y. 10027; 212-280-5517
"In accordance with the recent proclivity for clever mottos, this is mine."/hh1/pst2/bin/user@pyuxhh.UUCP (/hh1/pst2/bin/user) (04/16/84)
Whilst working in Iran in '76 I had occasion to work some week-ends (Thursday & Friday over there) and one week-end the men that were doing the office cleaning noticed that I hadn't taken a break in the morning or at lunch-time.They invited me to join them for some tea. With trepidation (and probably quite a bit of latent prejudice) I followed them down to their storage room ,where in addition to their cleaning implements they had a small burner where they were boiling some water. Squatting down to join them ,the "chy"(phoenetic) was handed to me It was served in a smallish cup without a handle(slightly larger than those used in Chinese retuarants).The tea appeared to be of an amber colour(br) with twigs floating in it.I was then offered a bowl of lump sugar and was shown how to drink the tea.Placing a lump of sugar (BTW not very sweet) between the bottom lip and the lower set of front teeth the tea is drunk and passes over sugar sweetening the tea as it passes over the tongue and down the throat for one very very refreshing cup of tea. I was situated in Abadan which is in Arabistan province ,which is heavily influenced by the arabic population ,so I'm not sure if the method of drinking is mostly Iranian or Arabic .Either way I'd like to hear from anyone who knows what type of teas are used in this area (I was only in Iran for 6 months) and if they are available (probably NYC) at reasonable prices. Dave Peak(pyuxhh!dxp)
wmartin@brl-vgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (04/16/84)
Speaking of Chinese tea, has anyone been able to duplicate the taste of the tea you get at ordinary Chinese restaurants? It must be nothing special or expensive, but maybe the key is that they make it in 55-gallon drums or garbage cans or something, since they must go through enormous quantities each day. I've tried various loose teas and bags, and nothing I make at home tastes quite like the restaurant tea. Most Chinese restaurant tea tasts about the same, so there must be something marketed by the distributors in the field that they all buy -- maybe this is the famous "floor-sweepings" tea? Anyway, I seem to be able to drink more tea at a restaurant than I can at home, and I'd like to be able to duplicate the taste. Will
eac@drux3.UUCP (04/17/84)
By the way, I preheat my tea pot by putting, very warm, but not scalding
hot, water in it, and letting it stand for a few minutes. This
has the effect of gradually raising the temperature of the pot without
shocking it.
Betsy Cvetic
ihnp4!drux3!eacrandy@utcsrgv.UUCP (Randall S. Becker) (04/21/84)
One Chinese restaurant in Montreal, Canada, uses a blend of Jasmine and Lansang Souchong (sp?). The latter is a smoke black tea, I think. I have tried a 1 to 1 blend with reasonable success. Randall Becker
abe@inmet.UUCP (04/26/84)
#R:drux3:-113000:inmet:3500039:000:204 inmet!abe Apr 25 13:51:00 1984 I was told by a women in Joyce Chen's that most Chinese restaurants use Formosa Oolong tea. I buy that and it seems to be the same to me, although it varies slightly from brand to brand. Anna P.