British Coffee (Was: What are breakfasts like in Great Britain?)
jon...@ur.msstate.edu
is American tea." When we were in England a few years ago, I
found the coffee to be awful--very strong and bitter and stale.
So, I switched to their hot tea. It was wonderful, the best I've
ever had. I can't seem to duplicate it back home.
Kay Jones
Dave
>Some time ago, my wife and I vacationed in London. The coffee served at
>breakfast had a distinct peppery taste. Anyone know why? I liked it,
>my wife didn't.
Drinking coffee in public - big mistake. In public order tea. The reason I
feel for this is that everyone (in England) can make a decent cup of tea.
Yet very few people can make coffee - I've seen people put milk into the
cup before adding instant coffee followed by hot water. So while at home I
drink instant coffee but if I'm eating out, round a friends house and I'm
offered a hot drink I go for tea.
--
Dave cmh...@cck.cov.ac.uk
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am a one in ten, Even though I don't exist, Nobody knows me, But I'm always
there, A statistical reminder to a world that doesn't care. (UB40).
wil...@vax.oxford.ac.uk
> Drinking coffee in public - big mistake. In public order tea. The reason I
> feel for this is that everyone (in England) can make a decent cup of tea.
> Yet very few people can make coffee - I've seen people put milk into the
> cup before adding instant coffee followed by hot water.
But that's the *only* way of getting instant coffee drinkable. You see if you
pour boiling water straight onto the granules you kill any flavour left by the
freeze-drying process. If you add milk to the granules before the boiling water
that reduces the water's teperature and gives you the perfect mix. Now I know
that all the jars and packets say that you should make it with hot, not boiling
waterr, but does anyone ever heed that advice?
As for British tea, it is invariably undrinkable. The British seem to think
that tea is a dark brown liquid made from tea powder tea-bags and stewed for
ages to let all the tannin flood out. As we know, however, it is pale brown at
darkest, made with leaf tea and has virtually no tannin in it.
--
Stephen Wilcox | Bear with me, please. I can't think
wil...@vax.oxford.ac.uk | of anything witty at the moment.
Matthew Huntbach
>In article <1993Feb22.1...@linus.mitre.org> tro...@mitre.org (Tom Royer) writes:
>>Some time ago, my wife and I vacationed in London. The coffee served at
>>breakfast had a distinct peppery taste. Anyone know why? I liked it,
>>my wife didn't.
>
>Drinking coffee in public - big mistake. In public order tea. The reason I
>feel for this is that everyone (in England) can make a decent cup of tea.
Sadly, not so. Increasingly, if you ask for tea you get a
teabag in a cup of tepid water. "Everyone (in England)" may be
able to make a decent cup of tea, but the chances are, in
London at least, that you won't get served by an English person
(remember the thread on Yanks getting temporary jobs in the UK
- now multiply that by every other nationality).
Matthew Huntbach
Alison Hall
>like concentrated sewage sludge. You have to make a special effort to get a
>drinkable cup of Darjeeling or the like.
Is that why there is a Canadian ad for Red Rose Tea, showing a very upper
crust British family sipping tea out of elegant china cups, chatting
about how wonderful the tea is, only to find that Red Rose is only
available in Canada?
"Only in Canada you say? Pity!" (Punch line)
(Can't speak to the truth of this myself, as I've never had Red Rose Tea,
being a devotee of Earl Grey and Lapsang Souchong)
Chris Cooke
IMHO most tea in Britain (and I assume in England too...) tastes and looks
like concentrated sewage sludge. You have to make a special effort to get a
drinkable cup of Darjeeling or the like.
--
-- Chris.
ab...@vax.sonoma.edu
Ever wonder why (I can only speak for the western US) cheap tea bags
"brew" up almost instantly, and real tea (bulk leaves) takes awhile
to produce color? I read that it is because that "color" from cheap
tea bags is food coloring!
Dave
>In article <C329s...@cck.coventry.ac.uk>, cmh...@cck.coventry.ac.uk (Dave) writes:
>> Drinking coffee in public - big mistake. In public order tea. The reason I
>> feel for this is that everyone (in England) can make a decent cup of tea.
>> Yet very few people can make coffee - I've seen people put milk into the
>> cup before adding instant coffee followed by hot water.
>But that's the *only* way of getting instant coffee drinkable. You see if you
>pour boiling water straight onto the granules you kill any flavour left by the
>freeze-drying process. If you add milk to the granules before the boiling water
>that reduces the water's teperature and gives you the perfect mix. Now I know
>that all the jars and packets say that you should make it with hot, not boiling
>waterr, but does anyone ever heed that advice?
Yeah, but if you add coffee to milk then what? The coffee has been added to
cold liquid. Well I don't heed the advice as you want the coffee granules to
disolve. Perhaps I just like coffee with all the flavour removed. Then again
the water would have cooled slightley from kettle to cup.
Marcy Thompson
>
>Is that why there is a Canadian ad for Red Rose Tea, showing a very upper
>crust British family sipping tea out of elegant china cups, chatting
>about how wonderful the tea is, only to find that Red Rose is only
>available in Canada?
>"Only in Canada you say? Pity!" (Punch line)
>(Can't speak to the truth of this myself, as I've never had Red Rose Tea,
>being a devotee of Earl Grey and Lapsang Souchong)
This ad always amazes me, since the "only in Canada" is a downright lie.
Red Rose Tea is available in the US and has been for at least 30 years.
(It's the same stuff; not bad for a generic tea. For years, both the US
and Canadian varieties had little ceramic figurines in the boxes. The
Canadian ones no longer do, but last time I was in a US grocery store
-- which was December 1992 -- I noticed that the US boxes still have the
figurines in them.)
The ads would be the usual TV drivel (the tea is okay, but not *that* good;
I eschew it in favour of the Twinings bland called "Ceylon Breakfast" when I
want a fairly standard black tea mix -- a variety unavailable in Canada, as
far as I can tell, although they do have other Twinings varieties, thus
accounting for the December trip to a US grocery store, by the way) were it
not for the downright lie in them.
One thing I've always wondered about these "breakfast blend" teas (such as
English Breakfast, Irish Breakfast and Ceylon Breakfast) is why they have
this name. Do people in Britain drink different tea at breakfast than they
do later in the day?
Marcy
--
Marcy Thompson
SoftQuad (West)
ma...@sqwest.wimsey.bc.ca (preferred) or ma...@sq.com
Ines Heinz
wrote:
>
> To further dispel the myth that LIptons is the ONLY tea in the US, we can get
You can also buy Good Earth tea in CA. I really enjoy the original.... of
course, I'm a recovering coffee addict!
S.R. Atkins
>One thing I've always wondered about these "breakfast blend" teas (such as
>English Breakfast, Irish Breakfast and Ceylon Breakfast) is why they have
>this name. Do people in Britain drink different tea at breakfast than they
>do later in the day?
Traditionally, yes. A few teaophiles I know do drink different blends at
different times of day but it depends more on mood than on time.
Steve (90...@eng.cam.ac.uk)