The perfect cup of tea

[mikeymike]

Anyone have a strategy for making the perfect cup of tea?

The way I do it generally makes a damn good cup of tea:

1) Put teabag and sugar in cup
2) Switch kettle on
3) After kettle has boiled, leave it for a minute
4) Pour water in, try to cover the whole teabag while pouring, so an air bubble forms in the top, making it float to the surface
5) Give it a gentle stir, when the water has turned as dark as it will go, discard teabag and give it a good stir.
6) Stick a bit of milk in and stir a bit more
7) Leave for about five minutes

Just wondered if anyone has a better way.  I like Earl Grey tea, though I had to switch to decaf due to dietary issues.  Decaf isn't bad, though it doesn't quite have the 'zing' taste of tea.

[bloodline]

ok, this is what we used to do at uni:

1. place Tea bag, as manny as possible, in to a large beaker.
2. Cover with boiling water.
3. Stir... Stir... keep stirring.
4. decant "tea" into a separating funnel.
5. Add 200ml of Chloroform.
6. shake.
7. remove aqueous layer, and then wash that layer again.
8, put the organic layer into an evapourating bulb.

(collect the organic layers of several washings into a single bulb).

attach bulb to the Rotary Evap, and remove Chloroform.

Scrape out the white crystaline residue, crush up with a pestle and mortar... using a rolled up peice of paper, inhale white powered through nose.

Shreek in pain... experience the Caffine rush... feel very sick and go for a lie down.

[whabang]

1) Heat the water until it about to boil.
2) Pour the water into the cup.
3) Pour some milk into the water.
4) Add the tea bag. Let it sink down to the bottom.
5) Stir every 30 seconds for three minutes.
6) Take up the tea bag, squeeze out any remaining water, and then throw the tea bag away.
7) Stir the tea for a couple of seconds.
Enjoy!

[mikeymike]

Very odd how 'chloroform' was the first word I read of your post :-)

You've been thinking too much about the various Monkey Island drink spiking references :-)

[bloodline]

mikeymike wrote:
Very odd how 'chloroform' was the first word I read of your post :-)

You've been thinking too much about the various Monkey Island drink spiking references :-)

Hheheehe, Well I think you can use any organic (non polar) solvent to extract the caffine, but Chloroform was the one we used.

It worked rather well, there are a couple of hundread mg of caffine in a single tea bag (only a tiny proportion of this actually comes out in the "brew" though :-( ).

And it's always more fun to make your own druqs, especially when they are perfectly legal.

Disclaimers, I to not recomend that any of you use my Caffine extraction method... or you may have similar symptoms to Guybrush on Blood island... only more permanent! :-o

[Cyberus]

whabang wrote:
1) Heat the water until it about to boil.
2) Pour the water into the cup.
3) Pour some milk into the water.
4) Add the tea bag. Let it sink down to the bottom.
5) Stir every 30 seconds for three minutes.
6) Take up the tea bag, squeeze out any remaining water, and then throw the tea bag away.
7) Stir the tea for a couple of seconds.
Enjoy!

I disagree about adding the milk before the tea has brewed, as this tends to stop the tea brewing as much - when I drink black tea I tend to drink it strong, and so only add the milk after the tea has brewed.

Of course, the best cuppa is made by using leaves in a teapot, and it goes further too...
The other advantage of using a teapot is that is someone turns up / wakes up just after you've made a brew, you'll often have a cup to offer them straight away...

[Vincent]

Ah, a good cup of tea?  Asda's or Lidl's Earl Grey are the best imo.

1) boil kettle
2) put tea bag + 1 sugar into cup
3) once kettle has boiled, pour water directly onto teabag (like mikey does) almost immediately
4) stir for approx 2 mins giving the teabag the occasionnal squeeze against the side of the cup
5) dispose of the teabag
6)add a spot of milk
7) leave for 1 minute then drink

Before anyone asks, yes I like my cuppas piping hot :-)

[JaXanim]

I read somewhere that snorting caffine extracted from tea bags may cause holes to appear in the brain. Hmmm...

JaX

PS: Omit the preliminary aqueous extraction (known as 'the brew'). Caffine is not very water soluble, so you'll get more out by running a Soxholet extraction with chloroform (or whatever) directly on the tea bags.

[bloodline]

JaXanim wrote:
I read somewhere that snorting caffine extracted from tea bags may cause holes to appear in the brain. Hmmm...

JaX

PS: Omit the preliminary aqueous extraction (known as 'the brew'). Caffine is not very water soluble, so you'll get more out by running a Soxholet extraction with chloroform (or whatever) directly on the tea bags.

Holes in the brain ;-)


Well, there was no other way of getting the caffine out og the tea leaves, other than brewing it first.

Washing the tea leaves with chloroform (even when heated) is ineffective.

[mikeymike]

I disagree about adding the milk before the tea has brewed, as this tends to stop the tea brewing as much - when I drink black tea I tend to drink it strong, and so only add the milk after the tea has brewed.

Also you can't see how much it has brewed either.

[Speelgoedmannetje]

ADDING MILK TO TEA??
Yeurck, that is sick!

[odin]

speelgoedmannetje is so right :-).

Anyhoo, my usual procedure for making tea:
1) Fill kettle, place on stove and light gas
2) Go back upstairs, forget you put the kettle on
3) Wait till roommate screams that the kettle is whistling (can't hear it upstairs when the wireless is on)
4) Run downstairs fill tealeaf-container-holder-thingy with tealeaves, insert conttraption into teapot
5) Pour hot water in the teapot
6) Go back upstairs, forget about the teapot
7) Go downstairs to take a leak/dump
Take leak/dump
9) Go to kitchen to wash hands
10) Wash hands and notice teakettle standing on the table
11) Notice that the tea is way too strong
12) Take teakettle and a cup upstairs (mug will also suffice)
13) Empty teakettle into stomach with usage of the cup
14) Take another leak

[JaXanim]

@bloodline

Ah, so the caffine is probably released from a more complex molecule by hydrolysis during the brew stage. This suggests you may prefer to let the brew become a 'stew'. In our neck of the woods, 'stewed' tea is revoltingly over-brewed tea and is more or less black when observed in the cup.

The taste of stewed tea is also revolting and may be related to a very high caffine content. Good for use in the next stage before the final snort process.

JaX

[bloodline]

JaXanim wrote:
@bloodline

Ah, so the caffine is probably released from a more complex molecule by hydrolysis during the brew stage. This suggests you may prefer to let the brew become a 'stew'. In our neck of the woods, 'stewed' tea is revoltingly over-brewed tea and is more or less black when observed in the cup.

The taste of stewed tea is also revolting and may be related to a very high caffine content. Good for use in the next stage before the final snort process.

JaX

That's what I though. When I said brew, I meant stew... you just leave it until you're pretty sure nothing more can come out.

The taste of caffine is very distinctive. it's extremely bitter... that probably contributes to the "revolting" taste :-)

[Cyberus]

Speelgoedmannetje wrote:
ADDING MILK TO TEA??
Yeurck, that is sick!

Well it depends on the type of tea.

I usually don't have milk in my tea, because I drink green tea

1. Pour warm water into and over the outside of my lovely purple clay chinese teapot
2. Put a teaspoon of Lo Chu Cha (gunpowder tea) into the pot
3. Put on kettle, with fresh water
4. Stop kettle just when it starts to bubble, a good few seconds before it would click (for green tea one should use 'fish eye water', rather than 'old man water' - this is when the kettle clicks)
5. Pour water into pot, leave for no more than about four minutes
6. Pour tea into one (or two if I have company)of my lovely chinese tea bowls, making sure that no water is left in the pot to stew.
7. Enjoy!