Let's boil leaves: Tea and things that aren't technically Tea

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons with Spoons > Let's boil leaves: Tea and things that aren't technically Tea

coyo7e: Aug 23, 2007; by zen death robot

Eating tea can give you the shits.

Also I hope she's not eating the staples and bag itself. I'm assuming she's older than 3 or 4 year old?

# ¿ Sep 29, 2011 15:37

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# ¿ May 6, 2024 20:12

coyo7e: Aug 23, 2007; by zen death robot

So I had a breakthrough recently and realized that I can just set my ceramic, restaurant-surplus teapot onto my range with the element on low and it keeps the tea just about optimal temperature, all day long. So now I am in the market for a hot plate that'd be about 6"-8" across, and which is either approximately the proper temperature for tea, or is adjustable. Anybody have one of these?

# ¿ Feb 26, 2013 17:43

coyo7e: Aug 23, 2007; by zen death robot

Recently I broke down and bought myself an electric boiler/steeper set (what the hell do you call them anyway?) and have been super pleased with the purchase. Now instead of making 20 oz cups of tea and having them go cold halfway through, I can use a more civilized size of drinking ware, and have my tea nice and hot on demand. I do feel bad for my water boiler now, though. :smith:

Now on to my next (non-consumable) tea-related purchase, I want to find a nice vacuum bottle or thermos for day hiking and camping, etc. The main thing here is that it can keep liquids hot for 4-6 hours of a hike (or the time it'd take to get to the campsite, get half-unpacked, and desire a nice cuppa,) and that it hold an enormous :btroll:

amount of liquid. Also, no leaks!

I checked out around and found that 2 liters (68 oz) seems to be about the biggest size possible and I have no problem carrying 5 lbs around in a backpack for a couple hours, for the chance to enjoy a nice hot cup of tea and lunch on a mountaintop or at the foot of a waterfall with some company. Does anyone have experience with anything of this size? Zojirushi's (apparently) only offering has some iffy-sounding reviews about its durability, so I was thinking it may be wiser to go with a Thermos brand one, and frankly I don't have a clue of what other brands to look for, or if any are worthwhile.

coyo7e fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Jan 28, 2014

# ¿ Jan 28, 2014 22:57

coyo7e: Aug 23, 2007; by zen death robot

XBenedict posted:

http://www.zojirushi.com/products/sfcc

Zojirushi can be lost in the frozen tundra for 3 days and still be piping hot.

Yes, as I mentioned, that 68 ounce Zojirushi is their only offering and I saw some reviews which sounded like it might not last after being dropped out of the back of a car a couple times, I was hoping someone might have some experience with one beyond what their marketing materials claim - I don't plan on doing any day hikes in the arctic.

# ¿ Jan 29, 2014 20:38

coyo7e: Aug 23, 2007; by zen death robot

Niemat posted:

This post makes a lot of sense, and this did not occur to me (I think it's been a long week). I was imagining just leaving the tea leaves in for the duration of me drinking the pot when I posted last.

I do this in my electric steeper however, I use a smaller amount of tea than I would otherwise, and when I drink the carafe down halfway I pour in more hot water. It usually sits on overnight, and tastes great first thing in the morning after my shower.

Niemat posted:

The worst part is sampling. I hated sampling. I felt like the people that are always trying to get you to buy ~special, ancient secret lotion with dead sea salt~ in the mall, and I also got a little sick of drinking the actual samples with people like my store required.

Didn't you just use a spoon and slurp each one, rather than drinking a whole cup? That was how we were supposed to do tastings of tea when I was working for Starbucks.

coyo7e fucked around with this message at 22:16 on Feb 28, 2014

# ¿ Feb 28, 2014 22:08

coyo7e: Aug 23, 2007; by zen death robot

Niemat posted:

Thanks, guys! I was thinking about boiling some vinegar, but I was pretty sure the smell would be horrendous... glad to know that is indeed the case!

Ironically and way late however, vinegar is one of the most effective odor-cutters in the world. If you say, leave a Nalgene bottle in a car for a while and it gets all rank-smelling inside, just toss in like 1 part vinegar to 3 or 5 parts water, shake it up a few times and leave it soaking overnight.. Voila, no more stank on the portions that were in contact with the vinegar! I left a bunch of tea leaves in my trinitea until it got moldy and stank when I went camping once, vinegar and water, no probs.

If you air out the area after boiling water+vinegar for an hour, you won't be able to smell it at all. Boiling vinegar and water will also neutralize/remove other household odors. Not-boiling vinegar and water solution is highly effective for cleaning windows - my parents use it on their beach house' windows every month or so and it's remarkably effective, not to mention easier to use a squeegee with some water+vinegar than window cleaner and towels+squeegees.

As for needing multiple boils of clean water etc to remove the vinegar odor - not at all. Just give it a good rinse with clean water a couple times and leave it to air out for a few minutes.

coyo7e fucked around with this message at 21:17 on Oct 10, 2014

# ¿ Oct 10, 2014 21:11

coyo7e: Aug 23, 2007; by zen death robot

After several years of furious and often continuous use, my Russell Hobbs water boiler+kettle combo's kettle side heating element seems to have eaten poo poo. It still is too hot to touch, but cannot keep water over maybe 105-120 temps - perfect for leaving it going for a day and a night with some sugary herbal tea concotion, and find something alien has begun life inside of it. (stay away from cold pomegrenate tea that's been sitting out more than a few hours imho!)

Looking around it seems like these kettle+boiler combo sets are kinda hard to find. Does anyone have a like, just plain old hotplate recommendation for a hot plate that would fit a coffee carafe and keep my tea out of the

??? I'm not really interested in getting another hotplate and boiler set for 70+ bucks right now, since I've got at least 3 other free-standing water boiler and tea contraptions, not to mention lord knows how many teapots..

I really like having a carafe to keep my tea warm for long periods, and am not interested in a boiler that I can throw teabags into and keep to temp, because I don't want to wash out my boiler and have it short out like this one's hot plate element seems to have done..

coyo7e fucked around with this message at 01:27 on Jan 14, 2016

# ¿ Jan 14, 2016 01:24

coyo7e: Aug 23, 2007; by zen death robot

agadhahab posted:

This is how you cool the water if you make a lot of sencha. I usually just use a second cheapo pot, decant the near boiling water into that, wait a second, then pour that into my main pot.

(Pic not mine)

Long pour is a super useful trick to learn with tea, imho. I have a few insulated cups that can't handle boiling water but if I pour into a 20z coffee cup then do the "bubble tea cha-cha" pour 2 or 3 times, it's cool enough to drink almost instantly and won't warp the plastic of my insulated travel cup.

I also splurged recently and bought a really nice great big 24 hr+ thermos, and have begun making a pot of tea at night then filling my thermos so I can have a few sips as soon as I wake up, and then keep piping hot tea all throughout the day. It seems to keep it nicely warm for almost 36 hours so it's pretty great, and has made my fishing days so much more pleasant

# ¿ Jun 25, 2016 06:23

coyo7e: Aug 23, 2007; by zen death robot

I heard about this thing today: using tea to smoke meats, rather than just smoking tea for its own flavor. Does anybody itt have experience with something like that?

# ¿ Dec 14, 2016 00:35

coyo7e: Aug 23, 2007; by zen death robot

Ineffiable posted:

Only solution is buy a kettle at home and bring hot water in a big thermos.

Or just get one of those teapot-style electric water kettles which can't be opened up. A cheap water boiler kettle is like 10-12 bucks and it won't take up much space or be as dangerous as the space heaters everybody else snuck into their office last winter. Of course if you work in a cubicle farm or soemthing, a thermos does work great but remember - the larger the thermos and the fuller you keep it, the hotter/cooler the liquid stays for longer.

# ¿ May 8, 2017 23:40

coyo7e: Aug 23, 2007; by zen death robot

Jinh posted:

This is almost definitely a dumb question but I live in Florida so i drink a lot of unsweet iced tea. i wanna try infusing some herbal and green teas and having them cold instead just for some different flavors.

does anyone else ice theirs, and if you do, do you have experiences with it making some types of tea better or gross or anything?

An iced minty green tea sounds really really good, for example.

Yeah it works fine. Makes good sun tea as well.

# ¿ May 13, 2017 06:01

coyo7e: Aug 23, 2007; by zen death robot

I drink scads of green tea and used to fill a water bottle with ice cubes,a tea bag, and water. It always steeped nicely, although if the teabags are those cheap paper ones they might break open if shaken a lot in a knapsack or something.

# ¿ May 16, 2017 00:38

coyo7e: Aug 23, 2007; by zen death robot

Here's a question that's been bouncing around my head since it started to be summer: what is the best way to make the best summertime tea?

I mean first up, I am like, sun brewed vs fridge brewed vs "toss a billion teabags in 8 cups of water and boil like poo poo for 20 minutes", etc..

Then next up, comes the question of "how much sweetener is desirable based on your local taste and the steep and type of tea you use?"

Then, garnish?

Personally I can't stand what passed for "sun tea" where I come from, which seems to involve oversteeping a thousand bags of lipton and then just pouring sugar in like it's kool-aid, until some old lady doesn't make a bitter face at it.. I like to take a 2-3 gallon plastic reusable water jug (I don't care about bpa/etc arguments here) like you can buy in the grocery store, then use 3-4 bags of green tea and leave it in heavy, direct sunlight for at least 4-8 hours - on top of foil if I have the time and inclination because I've been taking a lot of physics as well as learning to calculate passive solar gains and poo poo, lately. I try to wait until it's a deep deep brown if possible, and then pour it onto like 1:3 ice to tea at least, and skip sweetening. If I make it a bit too strong or am feeling fancy, I like to take a 1-1.5l water bottle, fill it full of the tea and like 2 tablespoons of honey, shake it up good, and leave it in the fridge until I need a bit of pick me up when I'm craving a soda.

Anybody else have preferences, or big explanations about health and safety or tannins per liter or too much or too little caffeine etc, I'd love to hear them.. I've been reading a lot of blog posts and those people have different tastes than mine, because "take 8-12 teabags and boil them in 8 cups of water and then add that to lukewarm or cold water in a larger jug" always ends up with some Paula Deen level sweet tea bullshit for the most part, and I'm also very interested in "passive steeping" as I call it, which is pretty much leaving it on the counter or in the sun or even in a fridge where it won't draw too much energy load, for hours or even days..

edit: I also have some wondering around what sunlight does to the tea that may or may not change the taste or what it releases? Specifically I'm curious about keeping the steep at a similar temp to what the sun might do, or how much the UV radiation etc might effect the body and what ends up in the tea, overall? I think that kenji guy with 4 or 5 names at seriouseats or someone else did a big breakdown on a lot of the radiation vs tannins and the like iirc, but I read so many blogs about it that were just some random idjit, that it all ran together and most of them make stuff that is not what I want after I try their recommends.

coyo7e fucked around with this message at 03:15 on Jun 8, 2017

# ¿ Jun 8, 2017 03:09

coyo7e: Aug 23, 2007; by zen death robot

Love Stole the Day posted:

Warning, stupid questions incoming: So let me get this straight: if I leave the tea bag in there for more than 3~5 minutes then I'm loving it up? If I take the tea bag out, do I just toss it in the bin or something? Is there a special tea bag holder appliance that I don't know about?

What kinda tea are you making, and what kind of container and temperature are you steeping it in?

You can dispose of used tea as you like - it's basically just warmed-over grass clippings

# ¿ Jul 4, 2017 03:37

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# ¿ May 6, 2024 20:12

coyo7e: Aug 23, 2007; by zen death robot

neogeo0823 posted:

Actually, this is a good opportunity to ask if there's any faster way to cold brew. I love the results, but it literally takes me 2 days to prep a gallon of the stuff between work. I kinda wonder if I could, say, use very warm tap water or something to start the steep and possibly pull out more of the flavor more quickly. If I could get the whole thing done in a day, that'd be much better.

I often start my sun tea with hot tap water, doesn't hurt anything. Just be sure to refrigerate after it cools.

I can't imagine trying to cold steep herbal teas though.

# ¿ Jul 24, 2017 08:59

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons with Spoons > Let's boil leaves: Tea and things that aren't technically Tea