User Comments - sebire
sebire
Posted on: Tea Tasting
May 29, 2009 at 12:30 PMRJ, you're easily convinced :D
Mickeytoon, re tea scum, a google search revealed a Guardian article:
"Up to the mid-1990s scientists believed the scum on a cup of tea came from a thin layer of a waxy substance that coated the leaves and helped to waterproof them. When the leaves were put in hot water, the film melted to form a thin oily layer that floated on the surface of the tea. However, in 1994, chemists from Imperial College did some very careful research. They sampled the scum from cups of tea made in different ways and with different types of water, and did detailed chemical analyses to find that a key component of the scum layer is calcium. The scum, or at least 15% of it, is calcium carbonate - the rest being a lot of complex organic chemicals. In other words, it is not oil.
The major finding from this ongoing research is that for the scum to form, the water needs to contain a lot of calcium ions (more prevalent in hard water areas), while the tea leaves supply the organic chemicals."
Posted on: Tea Tasting
May 28, 2009 at 5:17 PMBodawei, I was talking about black tea. Would people put milk in green tea? That sounds odd.
Your best bet is probably not to make tea with the teabag in the mug, and use a teapot instead. I find the teabag in mug method seems to leave some dubious-looking film on the top of the tea, which I have yet to identify.
Posted on: Tea Tasting
May 28, 2009 at 12:51 PMPinkjeans - you clearly haven't tried Tetleys. To be fair, I've not tried Yorkshire Tea in loose form, so maybe that'll taste better than loose PG tips. Cameronian Boh tea is nice.
RJ - don't be silly, of course some tea can take milk.
Pete - you can't put the milk in until you take the teabag out - it'll cool the water below optimum tea-making temperature!
Posted on: Tea Tasting
May 27, 2009 at 9:13 PMAhahaha. PG Tips 比 Yorkshire Tea 好! I've got to find these mystery tea plantations in Yorkshire...
Posted on: Tea Tasting
May 27, 2009 at 8:44 PMWow, the UK has a Tea Council: www.tea.co.uk
Posted on: Tea Tasting
May 27, 2009 at 6:06 PMCalkins! :O
chiongzibide, zhenlijiang, I'm talking about those little flasks which have an inbuilt tea-strainer. Some of them are insulated, the really cheap ones aren't. Everyone on the trains seemed to have one. One lady I met was thrilled because hers had a thermometer in the top!
So you can go on tea-tasting courses in Japan? I went to a wine-tasting bar type place in London once, but I can't imagine a tea-tasting bar being quite so popular.
Posted on: Tea Tasting
May 27, 2009 at 11:59 AMRJ, can you tell the different grades of 龙井 apart? I didn't know how you could tell the difference, so I just bought the lowest grade. Tasted good to me!
And the tea strainer flasks! They need to be imported over here, they're a great idea. Does anyone know what they're called in Chinese?
I wonder if tea-tasting would ever take off, like wine-tasting. I'm vaguely tea obsessed - I once came back from a night out going "I really could do with a cup of tea" and my belgian friend said "I can't believe that you would come back from a night out craving tea - most people want more beer. You English people are crazy!"
Posted on: Tea Tasting
May 27, 2009 at 6:50 AMHehe Pete, actually, I would say "insect" or "fly" or something. I use "bug" more for computer glitches!
I'm so pleased there is a tea lesson, I love tea!
Posted on: Funny Rice
May 25, 2009 at 3:17 PMShouldn't it be "eats, shoots and leaves"?
Posted on: Podcast Language 2
May 31, 2009 at 9:35 AMbobt_2062, I just look up words that Jenny used to say quite often in a dictionary. I still don't understand every word, but if I hear these key words, I can get the gist. I certainly think it's a worthwhile exercise - some of the earlier lessons have transcripts in the comments.
It's taken around 8 months of listening to intermediates to get to a level where I am comfortably lower intermediate (I'm sure this is rather more slowly than many other poddies, but I am quite lazy). As a fellow mathsy person, I sympathise that with the view of building up the language from "first principles", if that were indeed possible. My only advice is to try to pick intermediate lessons that have a topic in common, or at least have vocabulary that you will be familiar with from lower levels, and spend some time with dictionary in hand (though it's been made easier with the QWs now), because I found it was time well spent. You'll get there in the end, I am certain :)