Okay I can't deny that this completely works
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Aqua, have you tried maté?
The short brew time you described reminds me of it. Pour the water over the tea the first time, sip and spit to get the powdery bitter stuff out; pour the water again, drink, repeat.
Drink it with hot water, it´s maté. Drink it with ice water, it´s tereré (unique to Paraguay, and amazingly refreshing). Throw in some mint leaves and it´s amazing.
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@Optimistic said in Okay I can't deny that this completely works:
Aqua, have you tried maté?
The short brew time you described reminds me of it. Pour the water over the tea the first time, sip and spit to get the powdery bitter stuff out; pour the water again, drink, repeat.
Drink it with hot water, it´s maté. Drink it with ice water, it´s tereré (unique to Paraguay, and amazingly refreshing). Throw in some mint leaves and it´s amazing.
You know it. I don't have a gourd or a... spoon... straw... thingy, though.
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@Aqua-Letifer That is similar to the way we make back home. We pour the water into the pot with tea. Put the lid on, and then pour the hot water on the outside of the pot. When it all evaporates (which is quite quickly), the first batch of tea is poured out into your cup. This "batch" is just used to warm the cup, and then it is poured out.
Repeat. Add water to the pot. Put the lid on. Pour the hot water on the outside of the pot and when it evaporates, pour into your cup to drink.
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@taiwan_girl Going to show my ignorance here: The pouring of the water onto the pot and waiting for it to evaporate: is that with a particular kind of clay pot? That's what my boss did in Oz, which I thought was always a little weird, but the pot material was also different. And is it purely done as a timing thing, and to pre-heat the utensils?
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DON’T let them eat cake.
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@jon-nyc said in Okay I can't deny that this completely works:
My son has a mate gourd. He bought it in Buenos Aires in December.
...Does he use it for bong hits?
Seriously though ( @Optimistic too): is there any difference in the outcome of the maté with a gourd vs. without? I would guess no but I've never tried.
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@Aqua-Letifer said in Okay I can't deny that this completely works:
@taiwan_girl Going to show my ignorance here: The pouring of the water onto the pot and waiting for it to evaporate: is that with a particular kind of clay pot? That's what my boss did in Oz, which I thought was always a little weird, but the pot material was also different. And is it purely done as a timing thing, and to pre-heat the utensils?
ummmm, I am going to show my ignorance too.
I am not sure. We always let my father do it, and that was the way he did it. We always use clay pots - not sure if it was a special clay or not. LOLBut yes, it was a timing to tell when the tea was brewed. As you mention in your first posting, it is quite quick, only a few seconds.
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You guys keep saying how easy it all is. Sounds pretty complicated to me.
So, if you are going out to dinner somewhere, where would you go to get "authentic" tea like you are talking about? I never go to Starbucks, but is that a place that makes this easy/complicated tea?
Asking for a friend, of course.
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@Rainman said in Okay I can't deny that this completely works:
You guys keep saying how easy it all is. Sounds pretty complicated to me.
So, if you are going out to dinner somewhere, where would you go to get "authentic" tea like you are talking about? I never go to Starbucks, but is that a place that makes this easy/complicated tea?
Asking for a friend, of course.
It really isn't complicated; it's just fundamentally different from the tea bag method, both in terms of process and the social component: it really makes the most sense to do this method when drinking several cups, especially with somebody, or you're gonna be wasting your money on tea you barely used. You don't just pour hot water into a cup and go, you drink several in one sitting, preferably with other people, so the tea doesn't go to waste. And, each brew's better than the one before, so making just the first cup makes no sense. But it is faster than a tea bag on a per-cup basis, and and far less messy.
As for restaurants, I dunno, I guess it really depends. If they use tea bags, fuggedaboutit. If they do the thing where they keep the tea leaves in the water, unless they're using a very specific kind, they're faking fancy and ruining the tea anyway.
Starbucks tea is crap. They don't get especially good tea—how could they? Every Starbucks sells the same products, and they're everywhere. So to move that kind of volume they go with the mass-produced stuff with slightly fancy marketing. It's slightly chunkier tea dust, not whole leaf. They also buy tea that comes in the pyramid bags, but they suck. They're still a bag, so the brewing process is ass, and a lot of those bags are made out of plastic. So your tea tastes like plastic. Third, they use boiling water or very near boiling water, so the tea is scorched.
Making it the way I described above is easier, less messy, much better-tasting, and much cheaper than Starbucks (yarly). You don't need fancy ass tea to do this, good whole leaf stuff is actually pretty cheap. I get a month's worth for about 10, 15 bucks. That's like 3 to 7 Starbucks runs.
Just to piss D'Oh off I'll record the process I did today and show you.
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Get some loose leaf Yorkshire Tea, or teabags are fine. Not pyramid teabags, we're not bloody Egyptian FFS.
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Boil the water. I can't stress this enough, Americans. It needs to be boiling. Bubbles. Not just 'hot'. Freaking boiling. If you feel the need to use a thermometer, this is 100 Celsius, but it should be obvious to even the dimmest bulb.
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Pour the BOILING water on the tea.
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Leave it for 4 minutes. No, not 10 seconds, what are you, retarded?
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Take out the tea leaves/bags.
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Put some milk in. Not too much.
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If you're nine years old, add sugar.
Drink the stuff. You don't need to brew it multiples times, or spit out the dust, or throw away the first four shitty attempts. Just freaking drink it.
At this point there is no need to stand around talking pretentiously about how this is just like so much better than Starbucks, but you can if you wish. Why you would is beyond me, they don't serve tea at Starbucks.
Proud supporter of Plan 2525. Everything you think, do and say will be in the pill you took today.
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I don't use tea bags. I used to drink green tea by the gallon but at home, I find myself drinking less of it. I don't use boiling water but a slightly lower temperature and brew approximately 2 minutes. I use a fair amount of tea for that 12 oz of tea. They have a scoop that is larger than a teaspoon and I use 3 heaping scoops of tea. I tried the Aqua method - and felt the tea lacked flavor. It may be that you've found a useful brewing method for your particular tea. Once one finds a favorite tea, it is challenging to move away from it.
Actually, one of my favorite teas comes from a local Chinese restaurant. I've wanted to talk to them about how they make tea as it tastes divine. They use a proprietary mixture of teas.
Phibes, milk in tea? Gahh! What a horrendous concept. And yes, they do serve tea at Starbucks - but they have no idea WTF they're doing.
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@Doctor-Phibes said in Okay I can't deny that this completely works:
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Get some loose leaf Yorkshire Tea, or teabags are fine. Not pyramid teabags, we're not bloody Egyptian FFS.
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Boil the water. I can't stress this enough, Americans. It needs to be boiling. Bubbles. Not just 'hot'. Freaking boiling. If you feel the need to use a thermometer, this is 100 Celsius, but it should be obvious to even the dimmest bulb.
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Pour the BOILING water on the tea.
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Leave it for 4 minutes. No, not 10 seconds, what are you, retarded?
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Take out the tea leaves/bags.
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Put some milk in. Not too much.
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If you're nine years old, add sugar.
Drink the stuff. You don't need to brew it multiples times, or spit out the dust, or throw away the first four shitty attempts. Just freaking drink it.
At this point there is no need to stand around talking pretentiously about how this is just like so much better than Starbucks, but you can if you wish. Why you would is beyond me, they don't serve tea at Starbucks.
Get out your phone. I demand a tea-off.
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@kluurs said in Okay I can't deny that this completely works:
It may be that you've found a useful brewing method for your particular tea.
Internet research indicates that this is correct. And we're going to rely on the internet here because I don't know what I'm doing.
I also don't know a damn thing about tea-tasting. But the above method led to a ton more flavor, not less, and it didn't taste like bitter yard clippings. I'm gonna try black tea next and see if I can find the optimal brewing time.
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You’re all wrong. The right way to drink tea is with bubble.
If you want to be a bit unorthodox you can substitute with grass jelly, but that’s about it.
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I will concede that you shouldn't boil the water for green tea. Where I come from if you drink green tea, well...let's just say it's not considered socially acceptable. Much like reading poetry in the park.
I normally don't like it, but I have to admit I was given some by a Japanese customer that was absolutely fantastic. I got the distinct impression that the stuff we get over here is crap, and they knew as much. Much like all the widely available black tea, almost all of which is absolutely shocking. Due to Covid shortages, I was recently supplied with a box of Red Rose tea as a replacement for what I asked for. Ghastly stuff.
Proud supporter of Plan 2525. Everything you think, do and say will be in the pill you took today.
