On the subject of tea balls.

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

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 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

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

All I dare was bare feet on a bear skin.

Jim

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

/Lew

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

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

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.