Tea!

[Zaii]

I love tea, of almost all kinds. It's a staple, and while the health benefits are still debated to a degree, I personally feel better if I have at least a cup a week.

My favorite is probably any of the steamed (as opposed to pan fired) green teas, and I'm also partial to a wide variety of white tea and herbals.

So, discuss. What's your flavor? What do you add, if anything? How many cups a day? Cold or hot? Etc etc.

[Naomi]

I asked Iktomi once,

"Hey Iktomi what is your favorite kind of tea?"

he answered

"Coffee."

But as for me, I prefer Twining's Lady Grey, Early Grey, Irish Breakfast and Darjeeling, all with vanilla cream and sugar...

Occasionally Celestial Seasonings Green tea, if, for example, I am eating Miso Soup or another delicately flavored Japanese dish. It's too light for Pan-Asian or Italian cuisine, which I usually cook...

I usually drink 4-5 cups a day but sometimes I just stick with a dark roast coffee, decaf, if I plan on drinking gallons of it...

My kids like white tea but generally I thought it was for people who just wanted the benefits of a green tea without any flavor...I seriously can't taste it at all...

I think my taste buds are just getting too much crazy thai food to recover...

[Oblio]

Whenever I have green leaf tea before training I feel better circulation and energy levels. I also find it improves clarity if I'm a bit hazy from lack of sleep or w/e.

I also like earl grey and chai :)


Just a word of caution though, tannin inhibits the absorption of iron (as does zinc, manganese, and phytic acid in whole cereal grains..). I'm not sure of the timeframes (i.e., how long after having iron you should avoid such things), but it could be something to think about. My partner, who mostly eats whole grains, drinks alot of tea and takes supplements recently found out her iron stores are depleted, and it can take 6 - 12 months to replenish...

[imagenerator]

Tea !!! There's therapy in tea. And t-e-a in therapy, he he he. But really, my room mate, who's studying herbalism, says that in herbal remedies "tea does nothing", meaning that a lot of herbal remedies require 4 hours of steeping in hot water to remove the medicine.

But on the social level, face to face conversations with people I don't know very well can be intimidating to me, but I find, when there's tea, there's always a sip to break the silence or awkwardness. I don't know, maybe something about the sharing of liquids in general that connects the sacral chakras....

One of my favorite teas is Yerba Mate. I like the whole social ritual and different method of drinking in the gourd with the special straw. As well, I like all kinds of different herbal teas. Oh, and chai, sometimes there's just nothing like chai tea, mmmmm. And none of this tea bag stuff with chai, I mean with whole spices and milk, or for me soy milk.

But I think I need some camomile or maybe even some valerian, because I need to sleep and I'm way too overstimulated. There's a tea to balance every way.

[Dragon]

Green tea is right up there...served hot with cold fish.
Hot chamomile with a touch of honey in the evening.
I also like Black Dragon Oolong with orange peel, full of body and a real face
slapper in the morning. Good on Saturdays - Also hot.
Sometimes the ol' Earl Gray - Hot
And of course the classic Jasmine, good hot or cold.

Although I would say that the best tea I ever had was a Silver Needle white tea...sublime flavor, delightful body; one of those fine experiences that borders on the mystical. It is good hot, but makes a wonderful sun tea that can be served over ice with a touch of mint.

There is a variety of blends I work with, and that friends make for me on occasion, with stuff like lavender, hysop, frangipani, rose, lemon peel, etc.

for good reinforcements I like Ginger with honey and lemon. Talking Fox used to feed me this one killer tea with garlic, ginger, lemon, honey , and a shot of whisky, Kills anything within 10 meters. :eek:

As far as barks go, Willow or White Oak, to name a couple, are good for some healing depending on the ache.

There's a few of my teas..

next? :)


~D~

[Talkingfox]

Put me down for real simmered chai with enough pepper to leave an afterburn made with Assam black.
Nettle tea is right up there too.

[Talkingfox]

Tea !!! There's therapy in tea. And t-e-a in But really, my room mate, who's studying herbalism, says that in herbal remedies "tea does nothing", meaning that a lot of herbal remedies require 4 hours of steeping in hot water to remove the medicine.



That seriously depends on the nature of the material being worked with and what part of the plant one wishes to extract. The volatiles in garlic and mints, for instance extract much faster than the stuff in say barks.

But yeah I do agree with the fact that the medicinal dosages are usually far stronger than what most people think of as 'tea'.


Speaking of which... Dragon, what the hells in 'dis tea anyways???:p I'm surprised you remember the whiskey /garlic thing. At least I didn't make you snort it. :eek:

[Dragon]

Ha! you forget! you did! o wait..that was just the garlic.

Concocting and decocting teas is an ancient study, and still in chinese lore they will assemble teas to compliment a whole treatment.

It doesn't require an exstensive knowledge of witchcraft or alchemy to be able to blend your own teas, a little bit of study goes a long way.

[feranaja]

The thing is, with some herbs it's actually preferable to administer frequent, lower dose infusions as opposed to a heavy duty blast of decoction. Depends on the condition you're treating, and the herb or herbs involved. I drink raspberry leaf, red clover and dandelion all day as a tonic for the uterus, blood cleanser and liver detox/mild diuretic. If I want serious medicine, I use tinture or extract.

As for tea, I like it but it doesn't like me, I react to many types. Green tea makes me nauseated but I've resolved that by adding ginger slices. My personal favourite is Scottish Breakfast tea, Taylors and Harrowgate; a good loose leaf Earl Grey or Russian Caravan would be runners up. Mostly though, I prefer coffee.

:)
feranaja

[fr.novumorganum]

My favorite store bought teas are Twinnings...love green tea, english breakfast....


and to always give a good writer credit, biroco wrote some excellent tea entries on his blog:

joel (http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=tea&sp-a=sp1002e1a5&sp-f=ISO-8859-1&sp-p=all&sp-w=exact&sp-x=body&sp-c=10)

[Kuroyagi]

Im not that much of a tea drinker but sometimes like it. I e.g. like "normal" Japanese greentea (sencha), or drink large amounts of cold mugicha (maybe: wheat-tea) or Oolongcha in summer. In the morning Yunan since its quite invigorating. Also black tea from Darjeeling etc is fine.

I never put anything in my tea, neither lemon nor sugar (rarely some milk into black tea or huge shots of spiced rum or cognac in the past (but only when I was at an elderly aunts place and a bit bored.)

Tea from various herbs like camomille or mint I only drink for medical reasons respectively apply them to different parts of my body....I drink lots of coffee (either with lemon or with milk) and water...

[Oblio]

Have you tried black coffee (cooked Turkish style) with chunks of ginger in the pot? Quite an interesting mix :)

[Kuroyagi]

no, good suggestion!

I often use ginger for cooking (esp. Asian food, with meat/vegetables)...its a very good "disinfectant" too, like garlic...(wouldnt want to put garlic in my coffee though.)

[Oblio]

No, probably not :D but a chunk of garlic dipped in honey is quite a tasty (healthy) treat.

Cardamon is also great in coffee (it's part of the ginger family too!)..


--I came across a research paper showing that fresh ginger, garlic, and lemon decreased the activity of a particular gastro bug found in seafood.

[Kuroyagi]

I dunno Im putting cardamon in my curry (stew) but will give it a try...maybe im prejudiced to put much in my coffee cause one of my first magical operations a la "change one tiny thing in your life permanently and a new world will open up to you"...was not to put sugar in my coffee anymore. and thereby I really enhanced my taste. I tasted the various brands of coffee and could differentiate them much better...it was quite amazing..

anyway this here ought to be about tea.:p

[Oblio]

I admit it, I've got a problem sticking to thread topics :laugh:

That's an interesting point about change K - it's easy to get used to a particular way of doing things (like putting sugar in coffee, which masks it's individual flavour) and then stop experiencing the uniqueness in every moment.. changing the way you do things is a great way to realign your perceptions.

[Kuroyagi]

yeah and its a small training for ones will too (and a motivation, as cheesy as it sounds: one sees that one actually CAN change the world haha)...I myself suck at sticking to topic, so I rather was reminding myself, actually.

well, theres not too much to say anymore on tea. when I was in Japan I- for a time was living at a tea ceremony teachers household, a very nice woman who as soon as I arrived "let me" join her course. It was a funny situation: I was completely jet lagged and tired and then had to kneel there for 3 hours while a couple of girls always giggled at me. :laugh:

I learnt that stuff too, later...it is very very relaxing if the "ritual" is known by the participants. One knows what comes and doesnt have to think doesnt have to feel obliged by social pressure yet still can enjoy others refined company. Very meditative and aesthetically pleasing. ahh writing this I feel more relaxed even now.

Funnily tea ceremony was developed out of the Japanese early nobilities predilection for sublime Chinese pottery: It was a fitting occasion to show off ones possessions. Then it got also enriched by zen (ch'an) and other philosophies by people like master Sen no Rikkyuu...