Tea and Dining out

Welcome

Actually both DD and Starbucks have been very nice about serving me hot water. And when they put it in my travel mug (rather than their cups) they have very rarely charged for it.

--Tom

-oo- ""\o~

------------------------------------ "Homo sum, humani nil a me alienum puto." Terrance

On 18 Jan 2004 01:07:45 -0800, snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (seby1689) tripped the light fantastic, then quipped:

Welcome to the group, Seby. I carry in my bag a couple of different types of tea in small tins with tightly-fitting lids. I also put paper filter bags, like T-Sacs or Minit Filters (both available at many online purveyors of tea) in the tins. In my experience, most restaurants don't mind at all bringing me a cup of hot water, and sometimes a [poorly insulated] small metal teapot containing enough water for a "coupla cuppas". If I'm lucky, the water is actually hot enough to brew a decent cup of tea (I prefer black teas that necessitate hotter water than, say, green teas). It certainly beats the weak, generic tea bags usually available at the restaurants I visit. I don't drink coffee, either, so this solution, though not quite as convenient as ordering a cup of java, works well for me. After all, nothing beats a wonderful cup of tea after a satisfying meal. Once again, welcome to rec.food.drink.tea. Sooner or later, you'll see here the answer to any question you've ever had concerning tea.

Tee

"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in one pretty and well preserved package, but to skid across the line broadside, thoroughly used up, worn out, leaking oil, and shouting, *GERONIMO!*"

Dear Tee,

You have a very interesting web site and quite a philosophy of life:

Go for it!!

--Marshall

On 18 Jan 2004 17:23:25 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@alpha1.csd.uwm.edu (Marshall Dermer) tripped the light fantastic, then quipped:

Thank you very much, Marshall. The "Geronimo" quote isn't mine, and I don't know who the author is, but I intend to make it my way of life. :)

Tee

"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in one pretty and well preserved package, but to skid across the line broadside, thoroughly used up, worn out, leaking oil, and shouting, *GERONIMO!*"

OK but I just want to note that sometimes the best course is to "roll with the punches." --Marshall

Hi Seby,

here in Germany it's pretty much the same. You order a tea, and they bring you a glass (!) with a "cheapest-tea-availible-on-the-market-but-at-least-with-a-'brand-name'-on-it-tea-bag" (and German tea bags are the worst in the world!), ducked into a kind of warm water (of course, it is not hot). I never saw someone ordering a coffee and getting a spoon with instant coffee and nearly cold water; no, they always serve just a decent cup of coffee, and the coffee is always hot, made freshly from grind coffe in a coffee- or espresso-machine. BTW a glass of cheap tea bag tea costs the same as a cup of coffee! So, they give a crap, when you ask just for hot water (even if it isn't hot). And even at the university caffeteriea you have to pay the full price only for hot water, whether you take one of their non-brand-chepest-crap-of-tea tea bags with it or not (there is a special big sign which tells all customers (mostly students) this fact!)! And the coffeteria is just paid by the students with an extra fee they have to pay for it every semester.

Well, let's go back to tea and dining out. Mostly, you can get a decent Jasmine-Tea at Chinese restaurants (served traditionally in a chinese tea pot of 0,5 litres and refilled with really warm water every time you ask for without extra costs). Some also offer a quite nice Keemun (which I prefer after dinner, instead of an espresso). There are also turkish or arabic restaurants where a very very sweet but decent Ceylon tea is served in small, tiny glasses (personally, I don't like it very much). Intersesting enough, it is obvious, that you can't get a decent cuppa in Indian restaurants...

From the US I heard by some friends, that the Barnes & Nobles coffee shops offer a small variety of decent teas.

But over all, we are forced to drink water or somethong else than tea when dining out :-(.

Dieter

I have to agree with Dieter, German restaurant tea is an offence and a rip-off. The best tea I had was at a Lufthansa lounge where they have very good teabags and boiling hot water. The other good tea I had was at a motorway stop in Bavaria (but only one such place up to now). My solution to the dilemma is not to drink tea in Restaurants anymore.

JB

Hello, Seby, and welcome.

Outside of a genuine tea-house it is still true that the best tea in a restaurant is the tea you bring yourself.

I live in New York City, and here many places, even delis, have a variety of bagged tea (black, green, flavored). At least it is not all just black tea anymore. However, it is still no better than poor-to-average.

I have had good success being served hot water when I bring my own tea. The trick is remembering to bring along the tea when I go out.

Joe

"seby1689" wrote

Just another voice saying, "Yes you can."

The worst that will happen is that you'll end up paying for the hot water and if you have to do that, remember that most of the cost of a cup of tea at an eatery of any kind is labor and overhead. The tea bag, even if it's a rather good tea bag, only amounts to a modest portion of the total cost.

I've carried tea balls or loose bags on Amtrak trains, into various restaurants, and into my agency's commissary.

Although I've never done it in a really classy restaurant, which I don't frequent in any case, I've never had a problem.

And except for a nice little place in Amherst, MA I've almost never been to a restaurant (other than an actual tea house) which served tea as loose tea.

Warren

Warren C. LieboldqZkPb.17227$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net1/20/04

Try this: Notice what tea they *don't* have. Ask for it. When they say they're out of it or don't stock it, say: "Oh, my doctor says I need to drink that one for medicinal purposes. Do you think I can just have some hot water instead? This oughta work!

I would never do such a thing myself, but you might try.

Starbucks, be damned.

Michael

Hi Guys, As an Englishman who has just found this group I am horrified to hear of the practice of using "Hot Water" to make tea. Average tea bags covered with boiling water straight from the kettle is a better drink than the best leaf tea covered by water that is off the boil. Still it is nice to see how many are drinking tea & realise that civilisation has finaly reached the new world. 8^) Regards,

-- Dave Croft Warrington England

Hello, and welcome to the group, Dave. Your views from across the pond will be appreciated.

But I wish to point out that "hot water" is usually better for green tea, if that's what you're making, than boiling water, especially if a good whole-leaf green. Much of the teabagged green we get over here is awful with hot water and awful & bitter with boiling water.

Joe

Joseph snipped-for-privacy@mb-m29.aol.com1/21/04

Hi Joe and Dave,

Not to introduce a layer of topic that has hitherto caused so much grief and suffering, but alas I must ask you to provide us your definition of "hot," and could we (please) descend into the world of precision using themometric instruments?

BTW, welcome aboard, Dave.

Michael

Right, if it's anywhere near boiling. But often it isn't, and there are some places where you can guarantee that "hot" will be OK for greens. I recently brewed some very nice tea on a plane from some white tea I smuggled onto the aircraft and what they called hot water.

/Lew

"Warren C. Liebold" wrote in news:qZkPb.17227$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net:

Which restaurant was this? I know (and love) Amherst, and the next time I visit it would be nice to keep in mind a place where I could order good tea to drink (I'm assuming that it was good, as well as loose?)

Cheers, Holly

Thanks for the welcome, I have been drinking Tea for 63 years. When I was young all tea was loose tea but these days 95% of English tea blends come in Teabags. Lately the old square bags have been replaced by circular bags. We can buy a fair range of speciality blends these days at expensive prices but the majority of the population drink their favourite blend from the supermarket at reasonable prices. When the majority of their customers buy more tea than coffee it is in the shopkeepers interest to keep their blends good. I am afraid that I, like the majority of the population add milk after making the tea. (Never before). I also add sweetner (It would be sugar but I am diabetic). The only Teas that I drink without milk are fruit teas & the excellent Chinese teas served with Chinese food. These days we have more Chinese cafes than English. Just for comparison I buy a box of 150 good Teabags in the supermarket for the equivelent of about $3.50. I hope this is of interest. PS After all this talk I will buy a quality loose tea when I am next in the shop.

-- Dave Croft Warrington England

themometric

The anthrompomorphic principle says, in one version, that the perfect fit of all physical constants to permit life in the universe (which would be impossible were any of them much different) proves that the universe exists just for us. Similar onto-logic may be used to establsih the geographic origins of things. Caucasians, for example, evolved in sun-starved latitudes; people who are lactose-tolerant as adults evolved in cool places where milk doesn't spoil rapidly. Etc.

I've often found it interesting that coffee and green tea are much better when prepared with water at ca. 80~85 C. Perhaps the beverage gods intended them to be drunk in alpine zones where water boils at lower temperatures? Since black tea is barely OK with boiling water, and better with superheated steam (as in an espresso machine), I conclude that "English" style tea must have been divinely intended for consumption at sub-zero elevations. That pretty much narrows it down to the Dead Sea or Atlantis.

Other highly rational scientific theories?

"Holly E. Ordway" asked:

Now, was it "Judy's"? Or was Judy the name of the owner and it has another name?

Right on the main "downtown" commercial street (not Route 9).

Warren