coffee talk!!

[Mike Cato]

Perfect gentleman's drink, my --- Yuck!!!

You crossed the line, dude. And I ain't talking equator.

IT'S ON!!!

When's your next trip to TAG?

[Squirrel Girl]

Green, Earl Grey is all fine to me.

Pthtttttt! To quote Joe Graedon from The People's Pharmacy, "Green tea tastes like dirty dishwater." Earl Grey is about the same to me.......

I don't drink coffee. I like the smell of ground coffee but wouldn't touch anything flavored with it.

I learned something fairly recently, though. I'm not supposed to have caffeine (gives me the shakes). "Factory" decaffinated black tea tends to taste blechy, so I now decaffinate it myself, one cup at a time, and it's OK. You just brew a mini cup for 30-60 seconds, decant the liquid, and make the "real" cup with the slighly used tea leaves. It means you have to use more tea to begin with, but it's worth it to me.

I always drank tea for the taste, not the buzz, so now it's just part of my ritual. When I travel I skip the decaffinating because it's not worth the hassle, but for day to day at home/office beverage consumption, I do decaffinate.

[Nico]

I dont drink coffee, except for like 2 months of my life when I was doing collections for American Express that was boring and I had to have a few cups to avoid falling asleep.
On a caving trip last memorial day I met a girl from India and she made me a cup of real tea with a mix of spices including pepper and I dont know what else was there.

I only like drinking sage or cinammon tea on really cold days, other than that either cold water, gatorade or soda will do.

[Squirrel Girl]

On a caving trip last memorial day I met a girl from India and she made me a cup of real tea with a mix of spices including pepper and I dont know what else was there.

Chai???

I first had that in India, myself. I was buying some textiles from some Kashmiris selling goods on the far side of India... though they were Muslim they were selling to the Christians in Meghalaya in December for Christmas presents!

Anyway, they fetched me nice, hot cups of Chai from a local vendor while they plied their wares to me. Now I drink it reasonably often, but usually during cold weather. I drink it the way they do, sweet, with milk.

[wendy]

yummmmm sweet iced tea, but i like mine with lime, no lemons for me

there was a place in the mall in Orlando that has the best sweet iced tea, they had strawberries and oranges sitting in it. it was the best.

Has anyone had Mate, its a drink from Argentina, you have this long strainer spoon/straw thing, in the bottom of a gourd cup, you pack the gourd with the mate leaves (kinda looks like loose tea) and then you pour hot water over it and then drink it thru the sppon/straw, just keep pouring the hot water in

[NZcaver]

You crossed the line, dude. And I ain't talking equator.

IT'S ON!!!

When's your next trip to TAG?

Yeah, IT'S ON!!! You nasty cold tea drinker, you.

Can't see getting back to TAG any time soon. Other than a brief trip to the northeast, my next move will be to NZ for a while. There's some caves there too, you know. But no cold tea, thank goodness...

[mgmills]

NZ- I'd be careful because southerners are rather sweet on the ice tea and I wouldn't touch that topic with a ten foot pole. Besides they own TAG!

As a southern girl (born and lived in Alabama all my life until 2004 when I moved north to Tennessee) guess I'm the exception. I can't stand the syrupy sweet tea that is served in most restaurants. If I'm going to drink iced tea I want it without sugar.

Now for my hot tea . . . (that I drink in the winter) I like to sweeten it with honey or a spoonful of sugar.

[Evan G]

Martha wrote:

As a southern girl (born and lived in Alabama all my life until 2004 when I moved north to Tennessee) guess I'm the exception. I can't stand the syrupy sweet tea that is served in most restaurants. If I'm going to drink iced tea I want it without sugar.

I understand, personally I'm OK with a little sugar in my Ice Tea, but too much is too much. I just ...let's say finished dating a southern girl from Tenn. She was all over sweet tea and would complain about the tea we have out here, Oh man!!! She complains until I broke down and called some relatives in Alabama and got a recipe, but then that made her homesick. That was the start of the end; I finally moved her back to Tenn last January. She was all about traditional southern ways, so I never understood why she came to Wyoming of all places.

[wendy]

the worst thing is a palce that only serves unsweetened tea and they tell you that there is sugar on the table. You can NOT put sugar in tea that is already cold, it doesn't dissolve well, just sits in the bottom.

[Squirrel Girl]

the worst thing is a palce that only serves unsweetened tea and they tell you that there is sugar on the table. You can NOT put sugar in tea that is already cold, it doesn't dissolve well, just sits in the bottom.

Absolutely. But then who wants real sugar in their tea anyway? That chemically taste of Nutrasweet is soooo much better!

[Andy Shoun]

My 2 cents. No caffeen for me. I hated the headaches on weekends or needing to have a cup. I drink iced (decaf) tea every day. Here is my recipe:
boil ~1 qt water
remove water from heat and add 2 LARGE tea bags and 2 dried cloves
let tea cool to room temp (DO NOT COOL TEA IN FRIG!)
remove tea bags and add water to make 2 qts.
add 1/2 cup sugar
refrigerate or pour over lots of ice
It takes about 4 hours so I normally have one batch for drinking and one batch making. The cloves make for an interesting flavor. The sugar level is about 1/2 the normal resturant level (South Carolina).

[mgmills]

My 2 cents. No caffeen for me. I hated the headaches on weekends or needing to have a cup.

About 15 years ago I decided to decafinate myself . . . I developed asthma. Doctor advised to start back on caffine and symptoms disappeared. Caffine is chemically similar to a drug called theophylline which is used to treat certain types of asthma. . . so now I happily drink my morning coffee.

[graveleye]

I'm home with my wife today after her surgury (she's in a lot of pain, but doing much better) and having my second cup, black. MMMmmmm yes! I think I am one of the only people that makes it exactly like I like it.

NZ, do they eat vegamite over where you're from? ... or is that strickty an aussie thing? ewwww...

Listen, where I'm from, it can easily be too hot for hot tea from April to October. Our summers are long and steamy. Iced tea is a really nice drink to have when its hot. I like mine with sugar in it already. I dont do artificial sweeteners.

Also, its noteworthy that any sodas here in Georgia are referred to as "co-cola". it doesnt really matter what is in the can. If you are at a southerners home and as for a coke, you need to be specific or you are likely to get an orange, or grape. Its all co-cola.

I should also add that Coke is best served in a 7 oz bottle, chilled to the point it has a little ice around to top and must come from the old fashioned freezer in a small country store.

Amen.

[Nico]

Chai???

I really cant remember the name, but I do remember she mentioned it was a herb called tea when I asked, this is real tea not a herbal infusion that you americans like to call tea, is what she said.

I guess she has the right to criticize our culture as we criticize hers, she wasnt very happy when I told her that at least we use PU to insulate our homes instead of cow doo.

[David_Weaver]

I never drank coffee in college. I only started a couple of years out of college with a well made cappuccino. The buzz from that first hit, errrrrr, first cup, was delightful.

At the time I was living in San Francisco. There were a couple Starbucks around, but they were outnumbered by the independent coffee shops. Starbucks made a decent coffee back then. (After going public, the quality of their beans went WAY down hill and the lattes are much more watery and less flavorful now. They have wisely moved into the sweetened drink market. Drown out the coffee flavor with lots of sugar.) By 1989, my favorite coffee was Peets. These guys have grown much more slowly than Starbucks. But they have managed to maintain the quality as they have grown. The day Peets opened a store in my town, we found out who the real coffee junkies were.

I like my coffee strong and black. If I could afford it, I would drink a 16oz espresso every morning.

Who here is part of a coffee club at work? You know, the people so snobby about the cheap company provided coffee that you take up a collection and maintain your own group coffee pot and beans?