The Church of Tea

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Cucumber sandwiches. My God, that is so incredibly posh. Good job!
(mmm, cake)

 

I thought you had cucumber sandwiches and then cake. Well scones really. Crumpets if you're a little less posh.
And Deathmage, it's "Jolly good show!" if you're trying to go for posh English

 

To all: I play a British water mephit with a moustache in a certain RP game; and yesterday I gated in a water mephit buddy, who gated in more, who gated in more ad infinitum...and thus we defeated a powerful elven wizard inbetween cheers of "Jolly good!" and "Good show, old chap!", etc.

 

ROFL, nice one, DM

 

I assume the mephits finished off with a cry of 'that showed him what-for!' and a rousing rendition of 'God Save the Queen'?

 

Herbal Teas - reccomendations for trying?

 

Anyone have recommendations of supercrazy tea that enhances focus and fights drowsiness?
As an aside: Chinese tea is great. Try some today! I recommend tiaguanyin (iron kanon, or wahtever). But only the real stuff...

 

No such thing as tea that fights drowsiness. Claims that tea contains caffeine - lies, all lies! Even after drinking the blackest tea I can find I still find myself slowly going to sleep.
Chinese tea is indeed great. Had the real stuff a few times - got offered some tea leaves by my Chinese neighbour.

 

Add lemon. including zest preferably.

 

Ziad:Tea leaves contain caffeine (2-4%, for green tea) trust me . There is actually more caffeine in tea leaves than in coffee seeds (2% max). The process of preparing both regular coffee and tea as beverages is more or less the same, so I'm guessing that caffeine gets extracted from both in a comparable amount, although the process is probably more effective in coffee (due to the seeds being grinded to a fine powder, thus being more accessible to extraction than leaves). AFAIK, there are no chemical hindrances to the process (in both herbal materials, the caffeine is found either bound to tannins or free). (Caffeine is to an extent soluble in water, too. )
Err... I'm rambling. Sorry.

 

If I remember correctly, tea does indeed contain caffeine- (very) approximately half as much as coffee. So, while not a massive boost, not an insignificant amount either.

 

1 Pear
1 stick of cinnamon
1 um... stick? of lemongrass

1) Peel the pear, cut the flesh into strips (not chunks!) and put in a saucepan as much as you can possibly salvage.

2) Take off the outer layer of the lemongrass, score along the centre so you can pull it open and break it into a couple of pieces, then put it in the pan as well

3) Put a couple of cups of water in the pan. Put it on the heat until it is simmering (not boiling! Important for various reasons) and pop the stick of cinnamon in while you're at it.

4) Should take 10-15 minutes, doesn't matter if you leave it longer really though, nothing will happen except it will be hot for longer. You will notice the cinnamon will have expanded and cracked a bit and the pear will be pretty much flavourless if you try and eat a bit.

Pour a cup/mug of it. Drink. It tastes a bit like Christmas. It has a warm flavour and is naturally sweet and aromatic without having an overpowering flavour.

Will make around 4 mugs, drink within three days, in the fridge if leaving it more than overnight.

It's a comforting drink rather than energising and good for cool evenings in front of the TV or if unable to sleep

 

Lore, so if I understand things I should dissolve my tea leaves to get the effect from the caffeine? Hm, I'll need to try that...
Cinnamon! No let me rephrase that... CINNAMON!!!!
I love cinnamon. It's great with black tea. I'll need to try adding a pear...

 

Wouldn't really have a strong enough taste to survive being mixed with black tea really

 

Just an echo.... Cinnamon! ^_^

Ziad: Heh... the spirit of tea might not survive such treatment... although it would make an interesting distraction... not to mention a suitable challlenge for the proverbial bottle "solvent mixture - reduced pressure evaporation residue"

 

Lore, I think I'll keep my tea away from my solvent bottles, just in case
ION I had strawberry (!) flavoured tea yesterday (the only teabag I could get my hand on) and... well, it wasn't good, to put it mildly. Not that I expected it to be.

 

I agree BTA, but sometimes you've got to do with what you have. Which, in most cases, ends up being teabags. Finding real tea in Edinburgh is harder than it should be.

 

I'm going to try making a ginger and orange tea later this week. Will also think of a few more combinations to try and report back on

 

3 or 4 small, sweet oranges or tangerines (Whatever has a stronger flavour really...)
2 medium ginger roots

This one BURNS. Seriously. We made the mistake of underestimating the ginger and put three roots in as at first we couldn't taste it. This isn't a tea you can knock back the last few mouthfuls unless you have a DEATH WISH. Also the orange was a bit bland, we used two large, sweet oranges and only after stewing overnight can we really taste it more in comparison to the OMFG MY MOUTH IS ON FIRE ginger.

1) Cut an orange into slices or whatever shape you'd like it to be, keep as much of the juice in as possible and throw it in a saucepan

2) The ginger. Peel it all. Cut it into slices, if you dice it flavour will be more... vigorous, if you like your tongue and are on good terms with it, I suggest slice it into thin rings and throw in alongside the orange. If you're a bit masochistic, dicing appears to release the juice faster and more brutally. Dice a quarter if you're feeling a bit frisky.

3) I used about six cups of water. Put it in the pan and bring it to a simmer, not boiling it - same as before basically.

3.5) I added some sugar and a touch of syrup as this was quite a harsh drink when tasting it, the sweetness of the orange wasn't really enough to contend with the ginger tyrant.

4) This took about 10-20 minutes. Took longer for us as we were messing around adding more ginger until our hair caught fire.

Serves around five mugs this time, with some left over for a quick pick me up as you don't have much choice but to be a bit more energetic after this. We left it in the open overnight, the oilyness of the orange seperated slightly forming a slight skin but it all tasted absolutely fine. Generally keep in the fridge if leaving overnight though in the fridge, consume within three days.

If anyone experiments give me a few hints

Am currently trying an Apple and Cinnamon tea, may add nutmeg for the lols.