How to make a decent cup of tea

Now that "the holidays"—at their new-style Ramadan length, with the addition of Hanukkah plus the spur and lash of commerce—are safely over, I can bear to confront the moment at their very beginning when my heart took its first dip. It was Dec. 8, and Yoko Ono had written a tribute to mark the 30th anniversary of the murder of her husband. In her New York Times op-ed, she recalled how the two of them would sometimes make tea together. He used to correct her method of doing so, saying, "Yoko, Yoko, you're supposed to first put the tea bags in, and then the hot water." (This she represented as his Englishness speaking, in two senses, though I am sure he would actually have varied the word order and said "put the tea bags in first.") This was fine, indeed excellent, and I was nodding appreciatively, but then the blow fell. One evening, he told her that an aunt had corrected him. The water should indeed precede the bags. "So all this time, we were doing it wrong?" she inquired. "Yeah," replied our hero, becoming in that moment a turncoat to more than a century of sturdy Liverpool tradition.

http://www.slate.com/id/2279601/

get the water hot first, then drop in the lobster head first.

That was way better than heating the water AFTER I had put the lobster in.

What a difference!

By the way, I cannot afford lobster any more....but I do love oyster stew :)

I'm glad you don't either.

There's lots more to eat. I enjoy searching it out.

but I did see that climate change has done damage to tea strength worldwide.

http://breakingnewsonline.net/features/6055-climate-change-affects-production-and-taste-of-tea.html

by George Orwell
Evening Standard, 12 January 1946

IF YOU look up ‘tea’ in the first cookery book that comes to hand you will probably find that it is unmentioned; or at most you will find a few lines of sketchy instructions which give no ruling on several of the most important points.

This is curious, not only because tea is one of the main stays of civilization in this country, as well as in Eire, Australia and New Zealand, but because the best manner of making it is the subject of violent disputes.

When I look through my own recipe for the perfect cup of tea, I find no fewer than 11 outstanding points. On perhaps two of them there would be pretty general agreement, but at least four others are acutely controversial. Here are my own 11 rules, every one of which I regard as golden:

http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/essays/nicecupoftea.htm

I disagree with George in regard to sugar. Although I'm quite happy to consume tea without sweetener, I think a bit of sugar is a good thing. In fact, much of tea's appeal for me is the simple warmth it provides on a cold day.

But a total peasant about tea, I'm afraid.
:hi:

pour some sugar in some hot water. Though I would give preference to honey (and maybe a bit of lemon) as a cold day warmer.

The Indians - of whose tea he speaks so highly - regularly ruin their teas with abominable amounts of milk and sugar, rendering the beverage to be in essence highly sugared milk with a slight brownish cast.

I, though not a tea lover, agree with Orwell that teas should be bracing and bitter rather than simply warm.

and there is more selection.

tea in pot/cup then boiling water. let steep. however green tea needs slightly hot water. if the water is too hot the tea will be bitter.

raw sugar is good.

and even when they don't, the teabags are often chemically bleached. Bleh. So unnecessary.

Milk blocks absorption of the antioxidants, sugar unnecessary with the best teas and honey is for the times you have a sore throat or cold. Just the little lessons I've learned over the years. Your mileage may vary. ;)