On a recent trip out west, I took a tin of tea, a measuring
spoon, the egg timer I mentioned in another post, and a couple of
tea balls along. I wanted to take my electric kettle, too, but
my husband convinced me to leave it home.

I was hoping at least one of the restaurants we stopped in would
work with me to see that I got a decent cup of tea with my meals.
(I get so damned aggravated with those thin metal "teapots"
brought to the table with the bag on the side. Not to mention
that it's a bag in the first place, or that the water usually
isn't even hot enough to brew coffee.) At only one restaurant
did the waitress agree to take my tea ball to the kitchen and
pour the heated water onto it. Within 45 seconds she placed a
heavy guage metal teapot on the table, my tea ball sitting at the
bottom, fully immersed in recently-boiled water. (I used my
egg-timer for marking time.) That potful was the best tea during
the entire 4-day trip.

I use an oversized tea ball for steeping tea so that the leaves
have plenty of room to expand and bloom. At home, though, I use
either an infusing basket or two vessels--one for brewing, the
other to decant into. I have a Bodum pot but don't like the
press infuser. The Bodum (or an old glass coffee carafe) is my
steeping pot when I use the two-vessel method.

Tea ball are convenient when traveling or when dining out. If
they're big enough and packed correctly, I think they make good
tea. (The problem isn't with the tea ball, I've found, but in
getting restaurant staff to accommodate your tea-making
requirements.)

Even so, tea balls are not my preferred method for steeping tea.

Martha

"McLemore" wrote in message
...
On a recent trip out west

I recently (this week ) stayed at the Shoshone Lodge outside East
Yellowstone. I arrived mid afternoon and had the run of the place to myself
because everybody else was in the park. It was a brisk day and after a long
drive I needed a cuppa. I wandered into the canteen and had the lone
trailhand heat some water and brewed a teabag in a cowboy coffee cup (ale
size tin). I walked into the lodge with a huge roaring fireplace and drank
several cups in the next couple of hours while toasting my bare feet and
backside. It was a great couple of hours and the ordinary tea was perfect.

Jim

Once upon a time, "Space Cowboy" wrote:
"McLemore" wrote in message
.. .
On a recent trip out west

I recently (this week ) stayed at the Shoshone Lodge outside East
Yellowstone. I arrived mid afternoon and had the run of the place to myself
because everybody else was in the park. It was a brisk day and after a long
drive I needed a cuppa. I wandered into the canteen and had the lone
trailhand heat some water and brewed a teabag in a cowboy coffee cup (ale
size tin). I walked into the lodge with a huge roaring fireplace and drank
several cups in the next couple of hours while toasting my bare feet and
backside. It was a great couple of hours and the ordinary tea was perfect.


Sounds like a wonderful trip, Jim, one that would make any tea
more memorable...or just plain ol' water, for that matter.

Before I go any further with this, let me explain that I ~do~
drink bagged tea. My favorites (only ones I buy from groceries)
are Red Rose for hot and Luzianne for iced. I would buy them in
loose form if the stores carried them that way. I've been known
to take RR bags with me into restaurants and diners, in hopes of
convincing the kitchens to boil a little water for me. It rarely
happens unless I insist strenously. Sometimes I do; usually I
don't because it is only tea, after all, not something
life-dependant.

We were lodged in Las Vegas as guests of my husband's company.
The tea offered in the restaurants located in the casino-complex
was either the least-expensive hotel service, buy-'em-in-bulk
bags or Lipton. The water brought to the table was about 170F,
maybe cooler; not hot enough to make the bagged tea worth
steeping. I did ask if they'd take the tea to the kitchen; none
would. I didn't push it.

I had taken this particular tea along because it is my current
fancy. (I'll get tired of it after awhile and not drink it for a
few weeks, then come back to it, as I usually do with current
fancies.) I was about to give up on having a good cuppa until we
had breakfast in an Irish (-style) pub. I almost didn't ask the
waitress about taking the tea to the kitchen, and was overwhelmed
with surprise when she did. I would have settled for whatever
tea they had, or for decaf coffee, if need be, but I had a great
pot of tea, a fantastic (purported) Irish breakfast outside on
the patio and wonderful fun watching the other tourists walking
by.

The day before, we took a bus tour out to the Grand Canyon, where
I could have had a pot full of tepid branch water and been just
as happy as a pig in sh...uh, manure because of where we were. I
doubt I would have noticed what I was drinking, so awestruck was
I by the Canyon.

I'm glad you had a good experience during your trip, too, Jim. I
lift my cup of Harney's Attampettia Ceylon to you and anyone else
who has enjoyed her/his cuppas this week.

(Another good tea I've had recently is Miranda's 1947 Assam.
Their Harmutty Assam is a close second favorite to the Ceylon I
took to Vegas.)

PS: it isn't clear from your post whether your backside was also
bare.

Martha

On 17 Oct 2003, McLemore posted the following to rec.food.drink.tea:

I use an oversized tea ball for steeping tea so that the leaves
have plenty of room to expand and bloom.

I think this is the "key" point in the discussion of infusion.

An oversized ball or infuser that lets water get in and around the
leaves keeps the "tea goodness" (a technical term) from being trapped
by the leaves themselves. But the danged tiny little tea balls serve
to trap the "liquor" inside the ball when the leaves expand -
simillar to the way leaves can plug a downspout on a house.

On the other hand, when I travel, I usually prepare a supply of
disposable tea bags with my favorite loose leaf teas. That way I can
just steep, resteep and toss.

Derek

--

Does it seem strange to anyone else that grass roots promotion of
"Take Back Your Time Day" encourages people to give up more of that
precious 'time' to which the day supposedly is dedicated?

I prefer to use a tea spoon infuser especially for single cups when on the
road or no infuser. I can swish the spoon easier than a tea ball on a
chain. For the big pots like a Brown Betty I use a tea ball with chain
which rests under the lid nicely. I like the tea balls that spring with the
rounded mesh end over the screw cap type but they're a precise match to the
tea pot with no chain and it doesn't take too much to crinkle the mesh. I
personally use this method with green tea over an open infuser if I expect
more than one infusion.

Jim

"Derek" wrote in message
...
On 17 Oct 2003, McLemore posted the following to rec.food.drink.tea:

I use an oversized tea ball for steeping tea so that the leaves
have plenty of room to expand and bloom.

I think this is the "key" point in the discussion of infusion.

An oversized ball or infuser that lets water get in and around the
leaves keeps the "tea goodness" (a technical term) from being trapped
by the leaves themselves. But the danged tiny little tea balls serve
to trap the "liquor" inside the ball when the leaves expand -
simillar to the way leaves can plug a downspout on a house.

On the other hand, when I travel, I usually prepare a supply of
disposable tea bags with my favorite loose leaf teas. That way I can
just steep, resteep and toss.

Derek

All I dare was bare feet on a bear skin.

Jim

"McLemore" wrote in message
...
Once upon a time, "Space Cowboy" wrote:
"McLemore" wrote in message
PS: it isn't clear from your post whether your backside was also
bare.

Martha

McLemore writes:

On a recent trip out west, I took a tin of tea, a measuring
spoon, the egg timer I mentioned in another post, and a couple of
tea balls along. I wanted to take my electric kettle, too, but
my husband convinced me to leave it home.

I was hoping at least one of the restaurants we stopped in would
work with me to see that I got a decent cup of tea with my meals.
(I get so damned aggravated with those thin metal "teapots"
brought to the table with the bag on the side. Not to mention
that it's a bag in the first place, or that the water usually
isn't even hot enough to brew coffee.) At only one restaurant
did the waitress agree to take my tea ball to the kitchen and
pour the heated water onto it. Within 45 seconds she placed a
heavy guage metal teapot on the table, my tea ball sitting at the
bottom, fully immersed in recently-boiled water. (I used my
egg-timer for marking time.) That potful was the best tea during
the entire 4-day trip.

Have you considered taking an oolong with you on trips when you don't
expect water anywhere near boiling?

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html

Once upon a time, Lewis Perin wrote:

McLemore writes:
....Not to mention...that the water usually
isn't even hot enough to brew coffee.)

Have you considered taking an oolong with you on trips when you don't
expect water anywhere near boiling?

I hadn't, but that's a good idea.

Generally speaking, though, I drink only black teas with meals.
Just habit, I suppose. I usually drink oolongs and greens by
themselves, to savor their qualities without the
addition/distraction of food flavors.

However, I especially like green teas with salmon or other oily
foods, smokey teas with dark chocolate desserts (dark chocolate
raspberry truffles with Lapsang souchong...m-mm m-mm good) or
cheeses and sausages, and iced minted green tea with anything,
like fresh peach cobbler or my sister's spicy green gumbo. I am
reluctant to admit to dunking a danish in my cup of Iron Goddess;
only once, but it wasn't bad.

Oh, who the heck am I kidding?! I drink all kinds of teas with
all kinds of foods...and with no foods at all.

Next time I'm traveling or going out for dinner, I'll take along
something besides black tea. Thanks for the nudge, Lew.

It's about a quarter to midnight as I write this. I can smell
smoke in the neighborhood from the first fireplace burnings of
the season. The thermometer outside the back door reads 58F.
I'm going to brew some extra fancy Formosa oolong, slip on a
sweater and go sit on the back steps, to be serenaded by the last
few crickets of the year. There might even be an oatmeal cookie
in that mix somewhere.

See ya!
Martha

I recently discovered that the cardboard boxes that Upton ships tea in
are just about the right size to fit a cheap heating coil, a tin of
tea (or several small ones), a mug in which to heat water, a guywan,
and a candy thermometer, possibly squeezing in a fragment of a beeng
cha. That's become my usual travel kit, and it can be used to prepare
tea wherever there's a wall socket. Packed with a dish cloth and paper
towels it's quite durable, and I only ever have to worry about the
heat of the car ruining the tea. I never trust the tea in non-Asian
restaurants, personally.

ZBL

Lewis Perin wrote in message ...
McLemore writes:

On a recent trip out west, I took a tin of tea, a measuring
spoon, the egg timer I mentioned in another post, and a couple of
tea balls along. I wanted to take my electric kettle, too, but
my husband convinced me to leave it home.

I was hoping at least one of the restaurants we stopped in would
work with me to see that I got a decent cup of tea with my meals.
(I get so damned aggravated with those thin metal "teapots"
brought to the table with the bag on the side. Not to mention
that it's a bag in the first place, or that the water usually
isn't even hot enough to brew coffee.) At only one restaurant
did the waitress agree to take my tea ball to the kitchen and
pour the heated water onto it. Within 45 seconds she placed a
heavy guage metal teapot on the table, my tea ball sitting at the
bottom, fully immersed in recently-boiled water. (I used my
egg-timer for marking time.) That potful was the best tea during
the entire 4-day trip.

Have you considered taking an oolong with you on trips when you don't
expect water anywhere near boiling?

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html

On Fri, 17 Oct 2003 23:04:46 -0400, McLemore
wrote:



Tea ball are convenient when traveling or when dining out. If
they're big enough and packed correctly, I think they make good
tea. (The problem isn't with the tea ball, I've found, but in
getting restaurant staff to accommodate your tea-making
requirements.)


Have you tried simply asking for a teapot full of freshly
heated water and then adding your teaball to that when it arrives at
the table.

Taffy Stoker wrote:
On Fri, 17 Oct 2003 23:04:46 -0400, McLemore
wrote:




Tea ball are convenient when traveling or when dining out. If
they're big enough and packed correctly, I think they make good
tea. (The problem isn't with the tea ball, I've found, but in
getting restaurant staff to accommodate your tea-making
requirements.)



Have you tried simply asking for a teapot full of freshly
heated water and then adding your teaball to that when it arrives at
the table.

In most restaurants of my experience, doing that will get you a teapot
full of water hot enough for green tea, but not hot enough for a decent
cup of black.

dmh

On Sat, 20 Dec 2003 10:38:32 -0600, "David M. Harris"
wrote:


In most restaurants of my experience, doing that will get you a teapot
full of water hot enough for green tea, but not hot enough for a decent
cup of black.

The only restaurant I recall having a decent cup of tea was
in Boston Pizza. They brought the tea in an actual glazed white
teapot instead of those horrid metal ones that drip everywhere
when you go to pour the tea into the cup.

I was impressed.

Actually now that I think about it I did have some wonderful Jasmine
tea in a Vietnamese restaurant in downtown Hamilton (Ontario) once.
The teapot and cups came to the table as soon as you sat down and was
free of charge.

I am tempted to go back there just for the tea. I wasn't crazy about
the food.